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End of Summer is right around the corner

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You can smell the first hints of fall in the air, especially early in the morning when it is still a little dewy. You can see it in the garden as everything ripens and goes to seed and then there’s  my favorite, the turning of the leaves, which is just beginning. It certainly does not feel like Fall here. It is super duper hot.

 

Since Autumn is my very favorite season I start thinking and planning our new colorways pretty early. I have been at it for a few weeks and makings notes and testing for even longer. What this means is that it is time for a color change which is a little hard cause I feel like we just put some of these colorways up.

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That was hard. I tried to send Dearly Beloved to the Spa but I just can’t yet.  Sigh….

If there are any of our pre-existing Fall type colorways that you would like to see make a return please let us know in the comments section of this post. If you have some Autumn color wishes for new colorways you can also post here int he comments.

I was thinking that we should also do a few days of Holiday colorways.What do you think?

Okay so it has been a bit of a week here so this is going to be a short and sweet blog post. I also am super late getting it up today!

Lots and lots of Crackpaca is hanging from the rafters!! If you want in on this first mill run and intro special pricing you might want to order soon. I went out to the barn and pulled some aside for me. Don’t worry it was only a few.

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Peachy Keen in Crackpaca leaves me speechless!

We also had a whole bunch of Super Sparkle for the Super Speckley Sparkley KAL. It was quite a sparkley dye barn this week!

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If you have not seen the Special exclusive colorway we did for Loopy Ewe for August check it out. I am pretty thrilled with this one. Dizzy!!!

I’m so Dizzy ( with color) my head is spinning….

Dizzy Hat The Loopy Ewe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at that pom pom!!! That might just be the most perfect pom I have ever seen.

Pattern is Field of Wildflowers by Joji Locatelli

Color! Color! Color!

Have a lovely weekend!

Stay Cool!

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So many good things!!

Okay I have a whole bunch of goodness to share with you so I am just going to jump right in.

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The Fall Twist Collective went live this week!!  Have you seen it? If you have not had a chance do yourself a favor and grab a refreshing beverage and sit down for a long perusal. We are lucky enough to have this classy and colorful hat and cowl set (Echinacea) designed  by none other than the ever so clever and talented Kate Gilbert herself. I was pretty tickled when she told me she was designing with our Cloud 9.

Also make sure not to miss Carrick, a cabled wonder by designer Kristin Eksuzian. A stunning statement of a sweater. I have to admit to being a little obsessed with that big cable.

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Farmer’s Market MKAL last clue is out and and look aren’t they pretty??

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I am so looking forward to seeing all of the color combo’s we came up as shawls instead of skeins!

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I hope everyone posts their shawl pics to instagram.
So far my favorite is still the one with Apron Strings, Fruity Loopies and Spawn of Scum. which I am sure comes as no surprise to anyone. Thank you Shannon for such a fun MKAL!! You rock!

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Such a light and graceful yarn. A fine two ply spun with luxurious Baby Alpaca and Cultivated Silk. I am not much of a lace knitter but this yarn makes me wish I was. I can just imagine how wonderful Lima Laci would not only look in a intricate lace pattern but also feel. 900 yds /4.25oz @ 29.00 We have a very limited amount so get it while you can!

Okay now for the queen of the yarn ball!! Meet my new yarn crush!!!

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Crackpaca!!!

45% Baby Alpaca / 45% Super Duper Fine Merino / 10 % Cultivated Silk

Now, I am not the biggest alpaca fan on planet. Which up until now is why Blue Moon had only offered one Alpaca blend yarn, our Peru. I do love our Peru. I love it because it is a good blend which I firmly believe is the magic for a good alpaca yarn. Well, the same folks that created our Peru have come up with a yarn that I seriously wanted to just call Crack, it is that wonderful… so after much hemming and hawing and a little input on instagram I’ve settled on Crackpaca! Because this is most definitely crack for knitters luckily there are no harmful side effects and as far as I know it is legal!

It’s equal parts baby alpaca and a superfine merino and this is what I think makes it so wonderful. The superfine aspect of the merino enhances the baby alpaca by adding in elasticity and buoyancy without taking away that ultra softness that we love alpaca for.

If that were not enough, let’s just add in a little cultivated silk to the mix – just enough for a little sheen and strength. And…because we can, let’s ply it a little tighter than we normally do on this type of yarn and make it a 2 ply. Can you see in the picture how it looks like little alpaca pearls.

So soft and light and buoyant.

When it waltzed in the door, I wanted to take all of the skeins and make a bed with them and then climb in. I still might.

I am super excited about a whole bunch of the yarns we have added to our line up in the past year and Crackpaca is definitely at the very top of that list.
We have it priced at $27.00 for the next little bit as an introductory, “Oh my goodness, you have to have this yarn” special.

When ordering please keep in mind that alpaca takes dye a little light than most fibers! That said, all three of the fibers in this blend take the dye differently giving us a bit of a subtle heather effect throughout. I didn’t really notice it until I started knitting with it.

Sigh! After I finish this post I have to go out in the over 90 degree heat and dye ( hehe) and all I want to do is sit someplace air conditioned and knit my lovely crackpaca!!

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One more thing I would like to touch on before I go is the Fall Sweater Challenge that the lovely folks at  The Buffalo Wool Co thought up. It’s basically a community knit-a-long involving designers, local yarns stores and yarn companies having some grand ol’ knit fun! There’s a few rules, points!!, prizes and discounts and all kinds of designs and in the end sweaters so really a big win!

We are one of the sponsors and quite honestly are still working out the details on our end. We are seeing which of our LYS’s wants to join in the fun and decided on designs and KALS and yarns and prizes.

So…stay tuned for sure. If you have any ideas of feedback for designs or yarns please let me know tina@bluemoonfiberarts.com. I will have more info next week so we can start our sweater adventure. You know what? It could be a Crackpaca sweater!!!!!!!!  Be still my heart.

Okay I am off to the barn to dye some speckley sparkley yarn!

Have a great weekend!

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End of Summer Sparkle and Delirium!

The yarn arrived! The sock club has shipped!! And…we are just about caught up on everything that this yarn shipping delay fiasco cost us and just in time fore heat wave. Holy moly it is not a good day to be a dyer today. So very hot!!!!

Just about the whole team arrived this am at 6:00. While for a few of us that is our regular start of the dye day,  to the rest of team blue moon it brought home the meaning of the crack of dawn. We compensated for this with cake for breakfast!!  On the upside it does mean we get to stop at 2:0o today and not steam set yarn when it is over 90 degree weather. Actually we could probably just lay it out in the sun and be good to go.

As you can see in the very bright header above, Shannon and I are hosting another KAL!! A super, sparkley, speckley, sock-anklet  knit-a-long no less. I know…we’ve been overcome by the speckle on the sparkle. I will stop, but please know, I could go on and on and on with the whole speckle~sparkle word play.

You can read all out the details in the post above. I can’t wait to see all kinds of sparkley speckled anklets walking around. I really want to knit a pair in Heckley Speckley because I have a bit of a colorway crush going for it but Shannon has beat me to the punch on that one. Instead I think I am going to try a getting a little Intro-Specktive.  ;0)

Or I will throw caution to the wind and Heckle Speckle to my heart content.

See?? It’s a skein of beauty!

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I have another color love affair going on right now too.

Meet Delirium!

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Delirium is a magical mercurial character and the youngest of the seven Endless from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman Series.  I love her!!  She was born Delight and later transformed into Delirium. How poetic is that?! She is a colorful changeling with a prophetic tendency that often comes too late. She’ s a little scattered often dropping and later picking up the threads of a conversation. Her observations on life are seriously entertaining, offbeat and often inconsequential. She is a force unto herself and most of the Endless are fond of her and she them. She has a bit of a thing for Destruction which makes sense in the grand scheme of things.

I was asked earlier this year to come up with a colorway inspired by a graphic novel. I was pretty thrilled with this color inspiration. Of course I chose Sandman!  I decided to do a colorway based on Delirium for them. I was so possessed by creating Delirium that keeping with her changeling essence I made a few incarnations. The one I sent to JBW, I called, A Little Delirium which is a paler version of our Delirium. I am also in the process fine tuning one that is Delight before she was became her more delirious self. And yes, I do believe I am on my way to creating all of the Endless ones.

Right now our lovely friend Shannon is knitting a Wonder Shawl out of it and Solstice.

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So pretty! Can’t wait until she gets to the lacy part. Hurry up Shannon!

Okay I have got to make a run to the PO with the afternoon mailing before it is too late.

Our Specials are on for one more week folks! I really mean it this time. So get them while you can!

Yarns:
LaGrande
Seduction
Super Woobu-LITE

Rovings:
Targhee
Super Foot
Panda
Polwarth
Merino/Yak

I hope everyone has the best of weekends. I am headed to Coastal Yarns tomorrow morning with a whole bunch of yarn. So if you at the coast be sure to drop by!

Stay cool!

oh….I almost forgot!

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baby chicks!!!

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summer yarns, knits and color

I have spent a good part of the week really getting to know our new colorways.  I have been typing them up into the magic Blue Moon colorway recipe database. After they are all filed in their appropriate color category folders I print off a copy for each of the dyers and then, I teach them how to dye it. I also tag a sample of each one for our sample wall. I also photograph them for the website and anything else I feel is needed. It’s a lot so I know them real well when I am done. I have to tell you I am pretty thrilled with this last batch of hues. So much so that all I want to do is sit on the back deck with a refreshing beverage and knit each and everyone of them. I mean really I should cause then there would be a swatch sample! It’s my job! I have to knit them all.

Well… it is my plan to get some knitting time in this weekend so we will see how well that goes. Both of my girls head back to school this month. Sophie leaves on Tuesday which is way too soon and Rabia leaves at the end of August for grad school at Columbia. Exciting!!! Lots of change for the Newton clan.

I will be an empty nest mom for the first time ever. I firmly believe that this means I will get a ton more done. I am a little worried that this a delusion. I already have visitors lined up well into November. So…as I said we will see!

The opening ceremony for the Summer Olympics is today! Yay!! This also means the Ravellenics is under way also.  I hope all goes well for everyone participating and we all meet our goals.  I love the Opening Ceremonies!!

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As I said last week this summer has gotten away from me so all of this was here before I realized it. I still made a colorway cause I’ve had this one in my head fro awhile now. I am calling it Rings of Glory based on the Olympic Rings.  It has stripes of colors that mimic the rings and some speckles too, cause why not!

We have dyed some in the three yarns we have on sale right now so if you order those we can get them out to you asap!!

Yes we have not one or even two but three yarns on special right now!

We still are running the LaGrande short run special which is quite the deal. 15.00 for a  lovely 3-ply super soft 100% Merino (superwashed). I’m a little sad that this is a short run I like it so much. Which you have probably noticed since I keep saying this is the last week and then here we are.

We have marked down both Seduction and Super Woobu-LITE  both of which are excellent summery yarns. Light and lofty with nice drape! One of my favorite pairs of summertime socks is a pair of Pond Scum footies out of Seduction. They wear well, are super cozy and not too hot!

Oh and Speaking of light and airy yarns have you seen this lovely design from Nona Davenport. Nona and her mom Leslie own All Wound Up in Edmonds Washington.

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Photo Credits: Nona Davenport

Foxy Ladies Wrap in our Woobu in the colorway Aquarius. Nona designed this pattern for All Wound Up Yarn shop’s first anniversary. I like this wrap because it plays with the color and yarn well and it features an easy to memorize lace pattern which is knit on the bias, giving it a fun and interesting trapezoidal shape. And really who does not enjoy a knit trapezoid!

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So pretty!!!

As are these super fun socks!!!

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Lion Tamers by designed by Rebecca Williamson

Don’t these look like a fun knit?!! Okay so who can guess the colorways she used? I love this color combo quite a bit, they highlight each other well.

Rebecca has offered a copy of the pattern to the first person who guesses the thwo colorways she used. Thank you Rebecca!!

Dye Camp

I have added two more Dye Camp Sessions!!! So what was a summer Camp is now just a Camp. If there is anything dye/colorwise you would like to see me offer please do let me know.  I think the next one I add will be lichen dyeing and then maybe some fabric printing. Great fun!

So Shannon and I are missing each other which means we need another KAL!!

Well, we’re doing it again – the two of us are teaming up for a great late-summer knitstravaganza, and this one is perfect for those in-between-other-projects knitting moments we all have. OR for that oh-my-I-can’t-think-about-anything-except-this-project weeks. However you want to do it, please join us for the…

SPECKLY SPARKLY ANKLE-Y SOCK-Y KNITALONG!

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Blue Moon will be offering a 10% discount on Super Sparkle, starting on the 9th of August, in any colorway ~ we are partial to ALL OF THE SPECKLES right now, but any colorway works for this promotion ~ so you can make yourself a pair (or three!) of ankle socks for the fall!

Stay tuned for more details on how this is all going to work on Monday August 8th!! Check our Shannon’s Rav page for details on Monday!

okay that is a whole lot for one blog post!

I hope you all have a lovey weekend full of the things that make you happy!

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