Skip to content

Archive for

Updates…

Hey all…

It has been a week for most of us and as a sexual abuse survivor and a retired therapist who worked with survivors I am still reeling with all of this. As a self care measure for all of us I am not going to go into that right now.

IMG_2768

Wednesday the 26th marked five years since I lost my best friend to breast cancer. We had been thick as thieves since we met when we were 14 years old and her family moved up the street from mine. She was such a light in my life and in the world at large. Beauty, strength and wisdom and such a huge giving heart! Our connection was deep and true and our lives intersected and paralleled from the moment we set eyes on each other. We both moved to Portland Oregon after growing up on the East Coast. We had our first born 6 months a part and…ironically I was diagnosed with my breast cancer 6 months after she passed. So most definitely connected on a pretty significant level.  It is a loss I feel every single day but especially so this week.

****************************

And.. because the powers that be have a wicked sense of humor, two of my dyers were out all week with some bug.  Leaving the dyeing to me and our brand new dyer, Lindsey!!  Before I go any further I want to thank Lindsey, Sarah and Kalia for seriously stepping up and helping do what needed to get done, above and beyond!

So I am just not feeling it right now and for that I am truly sorry. My uplift is seriously on the down low. So my dear fibery friends I am going to fill you in on where we are on orders and such.  Also, we’ll talk a little bit of some goodness coming up very soon!

Okay let’s start with orders and the Carol Feller KAL:

Unless something else goes down we should have all of the KAL yarn that has been ordered to date today shipped out by the end of next week. I cannot wait to see your sweaters!! So many lovey hues. As much as I am loving all the Green Wings I will say I am looking forward to seeing the ones in Motley Hue and Griege. Oh and Mermaid Tears!! My goodness.

Our CAKE DK and Silky Victoria is back in stock (yay!!!) and we have them dyed so they will be shipping out (if they have not already) early next week.

After this week we will be very close to current with online orders.

Because of the delays we’ve experienced we are just behind. We are working so very hard to get caught up and get things out at least close to what we promised. It is the end of September and we should be shipping out RSC and Out of the Hue.  They are both going to be a week late. Had this week gone as planned with a full team Blue Moon then things would be different but it did not.

I will be sending our group updates to the Sock Club , Out of the Hue Club and our Moon Shadow Anniversary Trio separately today or Monday. I teach all day tomorrow and am going to take this afternoon off for a little R&R with my son and his wife. ( Oh and there is still room in the class if you want to join us!)

Oh and before I forget. We are cancelling the Autumn Dye Day Event. Not enough people signed up to make it a feasible and affordable thing for us. Yes, a little disappointed!!

I want to thank every for your patience and grace!!

Seriously you are the very best!  I am not a fan of all of this! I like serving knitters to the best of our ability and this most certainly fits my vision of that!

Fun things coming our way!!

New colorways!! I am going to make this happen this week if I have to be the midnight dyer.

We have at least 2 KALs coming this Fall and Winter. One where we can knit our very own wings (dragon or bat)!!  And then a lovely lunar one with Larissa Brown.

I will be at Coastal Yarns the first weekend in November for Canon Beach’s Stormy Weather Art Festival. There will be a special colorway and knit to go with it!! We’ll have fun, games and door prizes! Also a trunk show and yarn tasting. All kinds of knit fun!

The Buffalo Wool Company will have our yarns at Rhinebeck so do look for them. And yes, of course there will be a special Blue Moon Rhinebeck colorway.

I am sure there is more that I am leaving out. I promised my son I would meet then at 3:00 so I need to get moving!

Happy knitting! Take care of your dear selves!

New Autumn Hues

Autumn is most definitely in the air now. It’s cooler most days and certainly so in the evening. The leaves are starting to turn and you can just smell that crisp note that says Autumn on the breezes. Also…there’s rain which I am thrilled to see and hear!

First I want to thank you for all of the great feedback on what I wrote about price increases and the changes in the wool industry. From all of the emails I received it seems like information that you would like more of so I will bee adding more of that kind of thing into my blog posts! I really appreciate you feedback and response. It’s hard to know who is interested and who is not. We are in a time where we are all super busy and distracted and we don’t read as much as we used to.

We spend a lot more time answering emails these days with questions or information that I have sent in a newsletter or put here on the blog and on facebook, instagram and RAV. I am not complaining about answering emails because I do love interacting with all of you. I love you guys! That said a few of the emails we get will start with something about how we did not put info out when we did.  If I had a wish it is that we read more so we were more informed!

Okay that is my Autumn wish. My blog post is short this week because I am trying to get order out as fast as we can and work on color club and sock club and clean the chicken coop and you get the gist!

I made new colorways!!!!

I am so in love with all of these new hues I would like to just sit and knit all weekend especially with Equinoxed!! Move over Pond Scum because there is a new colorway in town! Equinoxed just makes my muddy little heart sing!!

Clicking on these links will take you right to the colorways.

Ring of Fire  

Night Unicorn

Harvest Moon Dance

Grimm Reaper

Fall Back

Equinoxed

Easy Breezy Beautiful Colorway

****************************

There will be more new colorways in the weeks to come. I am still fine tuning the Coven which are tinted greys and should be up sometime next week probably towards the end of the week.

I an also playing with a series of Black that have other subtle color notes in them. I know!!!!

So a confession and a question. I have discovered fantasy football!! ( That is the confession!) My son and daughter-in-law are into it. I spend most Sundays with them hanging out watching football and cooking. So when my DIL asked me to join her league I was thrilled and did so. I had been wanting to join what looked like all kinds of fun and you know what? It really is. I am thinking we might need a knitters league or two. Can you imagine? Maybe there already is.

So I am working on football team colors. I know there are football watching knitters and crocheters.My question is: Are you interested in football team themed colorways? If so which is your team? What would you like to see??

Oh so I am going to be sending out  a newsletter and few themed bulk emails this weekend so look for them they might have info in them you are looking for!

I am going to leave you with this exciting news! Save the date!! I am so excited about how my dear friend Ben is expanding the wonderful Stitches events to include more of our crafting interests!!

SAVE the DATE!!

And if you anywhere near SoCal in November you do not want to miss the goodness that is going to be Stitches SoCal. I am so excited!  There will be a stunning display of The Cherrywood Challenge Prince themed Quilts: The Tribute Tour

IMG_2716

The cost of craft happiness

Screen Shot 2018-09-06 at 7.18.16 PM

If you have been reading my blog and newsletters recently or been at one of my lecture/storytelling events, then you’ve probably heard me talk about the changes in our little part of the textile industry. Growth and change are an inevitable and necessary part of life. Since I have been part of this industry of ours for almost 20 years, I have witnessed all kinds of changes. Hell – when I started we were seriously into fun fur, and there were basically a handful of hand dyers and no Ravelry!

Today we’re going to talk about the cost of wool and yarn. I remember way back when I bought my first pound (not ounces but a full-on pound) of fiber; and then not a year later, my very first kilo. I have to tell you I felt like such a grown-up crafty woman when I ordered that first kilo. I was pretty proud of myself.

Screen Shot 2018-09-06 at 7.24.15 PM

At that point in time there was a very, very large surplus of Merino top – mostly in Australia – and we worked from that supply for a good long time with very few (and very small) price increases. Those price increases were usually due to trends in the industry and/or changes in the exchange rate of the dollar. Other contributing factors were of course disease and weather: drought is the biggest factor that affects a sheep’s well being and therefore its wool production. Drought has most definitely played a heavy hand in our wool surplus and pricing and that is something we are experiencing right now.

I shared with you at the end of last summer how wool ( especially Merino) prices were going up 20% all in one go, which was something I have never experienced in my years of making and dyeing yarn. I raised prices a wee bit last Fall but mostly tried to eat those costs, as did my suppliers and brokers, in the hopes that things would change for the better. Well, my fiber-loving friends, they are changing, but unfortunately not really for the better. Australia is experiencing a drought which means a shortage of wool. The one bright light for us here in the US is that the dollar is doing well in that part of the world; otherwise our price increase for top would be over 20%.  One of my brokers said it would be 40% which is a staggering thought.  I KNOW!!

Domestic wool pricing is also rising for some of the same weather reasons (including fire) and also demand. The demand right now for domestic and local fiber is higher than it has ever been, which of course also contributes to price increases. Mills in this country are also working at better wages for mill workers (which have historically been awful) and upgrading their equipment. Which is a good thing and certainly something we want to support.

There is more of a demand for wool right now than there pretty much has ever been in the history of our industry. While a thriving and growing industry is a good thing there needs to be a balance between supply and demand and right now there is not. I could go into a lot more detail about the why and how of it all but this is getting to be quite the blog post already so maybe another time. I can talk about this more – if you are interested just let me know. What this all means is you are going to see some pretty dramatic price increases this year. We have not even looked at the whole tariff thing and how that is going to effect availability and pricing in the craft industry at large.

After spending a whole lot of time on the phone with our brokers, suppliers and mills we I have some to the conclusion that I need to raise our prices.  I like to keep things as affordable as possible for us all! However based on the price increases we are experiencing both in wool (Merino), silk, and yak it is just not sustainable to not have a substantial increase.

And while this price increase is probably one of the bigger jumps we have ever made, I have run it by quite few folks in the industry (including a bunch of our LYS’s) and they all agree that we were already on the low end of the pricing spectrum especially for our big ass skeins.The biggest increase are on our big skeins and even then if you look at the weight and yardage it is still a deal since most of our big skeins (weighing in at 8-9 oz) have close to 700 yds in them for around US$40.00, which for all of that is still a very good price. To give you a different perspective, if you broke that skein into 4 ounces and 300 to 400yds each, they would be US$20.00; most hand-dyed skeins of yarn on the market with that weight and yardage are at least US$26.00.

Please know this is not something any of us take lightly – from rancher to LYS owner.  After all, this is our livelihood and something we are pretty passionate about. A skein of yarn supports so very many wonderful folks and animals in the circle of wool life! So with each project you cast on, think about all the great wool producers – from sheep to ranchers to mill workers to dyers to LYS owners – you are supporting with your dollars!

Our prices will be changing on September 14th so you have time to stock up at current prices if you like. (Time to get that Fall/Rhinebeck project going!)

Thank you for listening and for your support!

New Prices:

Screen Shot 2018-09-07 at 5.11.07 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shipping update:

Sock Club shipped last week as did The School of Yarn. We are  diligently working on the KAL orders and all of the August orders that came in with them. Yarn is showing up!!!!

For years now I have heard your stories of stalking the postal carriers for your Blue Moon packages. Luckily for me I have had the same UPS and USPS worker bees (Connie and Jeff) for years so they know me. The stalking here for our yarn and fiber is real!! Every time any delivery truck drives up I run out to greet them with fingers crossed. If all they have is office supplies it is very disappointing. Anyway I do see the light at the end of this one. And I cannot tell you how much we appreciate your patience and understanding. I know that a price increase is probably not the best reward but think of it as your part in sustaining our hand (knit, crochet, spinning, weaving, felting, dyeing…) community and industry. We all depend on each other. It’s one of the reasons I do not feel like I an independent artisan; I feel like I am a community one. It seriously takes a village to make yarn! I feel so very blessed and lucky to be part of such a community.

IMG_2460

Karen and I are working on our first shipment of our Out of the Hue color club and oh my goodness this is going to be all kinds of fun!! So much color joy! We are going to have all kinds of fun. Primary, secondary and tertiary fun. LOL!

Shadey and tonal fun too! Shadey fun is the best kind. Okay I’ll stop. It’s a little late and it has been on long day with lots of math and weights and measures.

Before I go though, Team Blue Moon and I have decided that our October Dye Day Extravaganza is going to be very Halloween themed. We are so dressing up and will have all kinds of tricks and treats! You do not want to miss this dye day!

 

Screen Shot 2018-09-06 at 8.07.31 PM

It’s September!!!

Autumn is in the air. You can smell it alongside the lingering smoke most days. It’s getting cooler and today it is even a little overcast. You can tell the true Pacific Northwesterners by their glee when the clouds roll in after such a long sunny, warm spell.

I am a fan of sun, but this summer has been a bit much even for me. So I am thrilled to see the clouds in the sky, feel the chill in the air (sweater time!!) and smell the turning of the leaves.

It is Labor Day weekend!! Which means it is Art in the Pearl here in Portland – one of my favorite art and craftsy things to do here in PDX. If you are in the area I highly recommend going. My bestie Karen is here and as soon as I post this we are headed out to spend the day there!!!!!!!!!!

Okay so we have finally shipped out Sock Club!! Man, that was painful. After we finally got all of the yarn and got it dyed our shipping software stopped working on our computer and we had to troubleshoot it and fix it. And of course this meant an computer upgrade. Yeah!  Seriously… some days.

Anyway it is out and I cannot thank you enough for your patience!! School of Yarn has also shipped and the PDFs have been emailed to you. We are finally making some headway on orders!! The yarn we have been waiting on is trickling in. Yay!!

As a HUGE thank you for your patience and understanding we have a 15% off discount code good until the end of the year. It is: THANKYOU18 and is all caps (case-sensitive). There are times when things are just out of our control and we try to do our very best to navigate those challenges as best we can. We so appreciate your patience!! It looks like things are slowly but surely getting resolved with our incoming shipments!

So we have put up Holiday colorways temporarily! They have been up for about a week; we will leave them up until Monday morning, so if you need to stock up now is your chance!! On Monday I will take them down and put up all the lovely Fall colors! If there are any of our Fall colorways you’d like to see return please let us know.

New Hues!!!

I have been working on these 4 colorways for what seems to me to be months. I have tweaked them this way and that to get the perfect shade, tone and saturation and…to be able to photograph them. I cannot tell you how many times I have tried to photograph that Blue is the New Black. Oh my – so very frustrating. All it ever did was grey out and you could not see the blue part. And then there is that neon yellow… now that was a challenge. It is so very very bright and so very very yellow.  Sun Beam is the colorway I have been talking about hanging from the rafters in the barn. It is stunning and happy, and I kind of want to paint my kitchen this colorway.

I am going to dye myself up Some Cloud 9 in Blue is the New Black  and  Once in a Blue Moon to knit this beauty! Ixchel by Catherine Clark

PP_FrontCover_24_AW.indd

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Credit: Pom Pom Quarterly

Don’t ya think? I am so tickled by this I can hardly stand it! My very own Once in a Blue Moon Sweater in a very lunar Anniversary year.

Perfection!

Okay now I need to run off so we can make it for the Belly Dancer Parade!

If you are anywhere near Toni and The Fold in Marengo Illinois, she is having a stellar Labor Day Sale and has a ton of Blue Moon Specials we have sent her so…check it out!!!

Have a lovely weekend and be safe!