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Posts from the ‘depravedDyer’ Category

Happy Holiday!!

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Look my Christmas cactus actually bloomed in December!!

 

 

 

 

Winter Solstice was what yesterday and already Winter is making its presence felt here in the Pacific Northwest. It looks like me might have a white Christmas this year. When I went to put the chickens to bed there was a very big wind blowing in some very cold air! We are supposed to get snow starting sometime on Friday. Which means I have a day to prep for maybe being snowed in for a bit. I was going to spend the holiday with my son and daughter-in-law but we’ll see.

Anyway …there are worse things than a quiet white Christmas during another pandemic surge. I hope everyone is staying safe during this time.

I had an unexpected surprise last week. My youngest ( the one in medical school) came to visit along with her fiance Nicole. I have not them in 3 years because of the whole medical school thing and the pandemic. I was such a joy! My heart is so very happy. They leave for DC at the crack of dawn tomorrow. Of course it’s just never long enough but  am so very grateful that I got to replenish my system with all that is my youngest!

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Luckily there were two kittens! Sophie took a shine to Fiona and Nicole to Felix.

So lots of kitten snuggles were had! Fiona is the by far the cuddliest cat I have ever had.

 

So it’s back to all the things I need to get done in the next few weeks. Because of this visit and a few other glitches there will be a bit of a delay in the last shipment of RSC. I am in the middle of dyeing it and was expecting more yarn which was delayed and will not be here until next week. Also the stitch markers were delayed so… . If I have learned anything the past two years it’s that you can certainly make a plan but right now there is a good chance you will have to adjust. Honestly I was surprised about the yarn since I have not had huge delays in the last few months. I will say that I am also a little concerned about the weather here next week. We’ll keep out fingers crossed that the power stays on.I am going to go ahead and send the dyer’s notes Friday so you will have those.

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I am going to go ahead and put the 2022 up for sale since I am getting a fair amount of requests which honestly is quite lovely. Thank you for believing in me!!

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I am also sending out the last of the Silk School notes and the Spinning Club along with the Targhee Info I promised for all of you that supported out Targhee Love program! I have dyed so very many skeins of Targhee Worsted. it’s a good thing I love this yarn. Haha

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This week we lost a stunning human being. Bell Hooks left this earthly realm. It is a great loss!! I learned so much of what I know about community and love from Bell Hooks. She was that rare combination of a brilliant mind, enlightened soul and a grand open heart which she shared with all of us. She will be missed greatly. I am so very grateful.  Thank you Bell! Rest in peace and love!

 

A few of my favorite Bell Hook quotes:

“The moment we choose love, we begin to move towards freedom,to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others.”

“But many of us seek community solely to escape the fear of being alone. Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.”

“But love is really more of an interactive process. It’s about what we do not just what we feel. It’s a verb not a noun.”

“Beloved community is formed not by the eradication of difference but by its affirmation, by each of us claiming the identities and cultural legacies that she who we are and how we live in the world.”

Okay I could truly go on forever so will stop here.

I hope all of you have a peaceful loving holiday weekend. I know it can be a hard time. If you are feeling alone please do reach out. We truly are all in this together !!

Much love from me and my furry and feathered friends!!

Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse

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We had a Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse in Taurus this week. I did not get to see it here because of CLOUDS!! I could feel it for sure just not see it. I have seen quite a few so I do know how beautiful even a partial one can be as this one was. Although I do believe it was almost a full percentage-wise.

I have not done all of the moons this year for many reasons but I was seriously inspired by this one so thought I would give it a go and I am really glad I did. The pictures do not so it justice. The dark red end has all kinds of color in it. I throw some grey over it and then a little of the golden hue too. It’s so pretty but nothing you can catch with a picture. I loved it so much that I am doing a whole skein that way. I get to rinse it tomorrow to see how it turned out.

I really do love creating full moon colorways every month but …it’s  a lot. I was thinking of maybe in 2020 all the new ones would be good for the next lunar cycle only. What do you think? Rhonda and I were thinking with the ones we already have it would be fun to do some sort of moon blanket. I know I would love one. I think we played with this idea early in 2020 and then “you know what” happened.

Before I forget and I will. I have full moon brain this week. There is an instagram little game up right how that goes until Monday evening. You could win one of these skeins and all you have to do it tag a friend and send a love note! It’s quite lovely actually. I’ve been trying to do a bunch of writing today and have been in and out of insta reading everyone love notes. It’s made my day ~ all that love!

The barn is full to brimming with drying Targhee Worsted! Smells very sheepy. Most are shaded solids and I have to say it’s quite stunning. Some of my favorite so far are Big Brain Blue ( stunning on the Targhee) , Spruced, Greige, any of the Ravens, Lean Mean Aubergine, Maroon 5, Pining 4 Ewe and my absolute favorite Moontide. And there is that moon again. Hehe

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Greige and Big Brain Blue!!

 

 

My Gaea Fingering and SilkMo Lace project is moving along!!

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I am loving this!! I only have two issues. Knitting with kittens is pretty challenging. Knitting laceweight mohair with kittens…hahahahaha!!! I’m an idiot.

My other issue is that it’s been awhile since I knit with such a slippery yarn so it’s just going a little slower that usual. I am practicing being Zen about it. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes. So far so good!

Isn’t is pretty? I am so in love with My Euphoria colorway I just want to dye everything in it. I will wait until I get this done. Believe it or not I am a one project at a time kinda knitter. Surprised aren’t you. I have yarn test swatches always going  but I don’t think they count. I do not have a ton of knit time so it’s one at time for me. Otherwise I stress and i have plenty of that without adding knitting stress to the list.

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The full moon brought a cold spell with it which gave us our first frost of the year. It might have been freezing cold but it was also quite beautiful. The bunnies absolutely love the cold so they were super hoppy (get it?!)  I am from the East Coast so I do appreciate cold and clear when it happens here.

I am working on some new shaded solids. I want to round things out a bit so if there is something you would like to se that you feel is missing please do let me know! I do know that I am heavy on the greens!

Okay off to finish up Dyer’s notes and work on Blue Notes. So much writing!!! Who knew there would be so much writing with dyeing.

Have a good weekend

Take care, stay safe and love each other!!

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odds and ends…

I took time off to go sit in my favorite coffee place to write you without the most adorable distractions! If you follow Blue Moon on instagram you have seen that I adopted two adorable kittens about a month ago. I have been riding this fine line of inviting more furry folks into my life. I was waiting for the right moment which came one morning when I decided to break out my warmer clothing and discovered mouse nesting material and a ton of cat food. Which means my current feline friend was seriously not doing her job. To be fair she pretty old but still. The next day I went and adopted a sibling pair ~ Fiona and Felix.IMG_9715IMG_9268

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are seriously distracting!!! Especially Felix who really loves the keyboard.  I would say that you will be seeing so many pictures of them but it is seriously difficult to photograph black cats. It’s almost impossible to get a good picture of Fiona.

Okay so my shoulder is better and I have some help this week so we going be dyeing a massive amount of Targhee Worsted.  As I said earlier if you have an order and it is for holiday knitting or another deadline please do let me know.  A lot of you have done so and it is appreciated!

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I still have a few RSC to ship for their 4th shipments.I have them here ready to go as of last week but the shipping software had a glitch and the person at Endicia made it worse so after 6 hours on the phone with them it’s almost there but not quite yet. I will ship it just wont then put that info back into the Blue Moon database with the tracking info and we really need it to do that little piece so we can keep track of it all. I called this am but there was not an available techie. And yes I am frustrated!!!

Speaking of sock club I will be sending out dyer’s notes this week. I have decided to keep sock club going. I just can’t not do it. It will be different because well… things are different.  So very different.

I will be shipping the last two sock club offerings together in December and then we will be done with the 2020-2021 Pandemic Rockin’s Sock Club. I am so looking forward to that moment when I ship out that last package! It’s going to feel so satisfying.

I will; be putting 2022 up for presale soon because I am getting lots of emails requests about it.  You will also be seeing that mysterious new project I have been teasing you with. I am so very excited about this one and I really wanted the timing to be right so I could give it the time and attention it deserves. Also wanted to be able to finish some of our other clubs and specials before working towards this one.

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With a little help from my friends…I am also revamping the barn to open it up for some community centered projects here in my lovely community.  Change is good and opening space for growth and more making and then being able to share it all! If you are local and are interested please do contact me. tinanewton@gmail.com

Indigo Fields

We are finally going to get the dye garden going. The beds are being prepped this week for massive amounts of indigo along with  quite a few other types of dye plants that will grow in the very damp but fertile hills of Scappoose. I am going to emphasize dye plants that are native to my area. Like I won’t even have to plant any nettle since there is much growing wild where I am. I have considered calling my place Nettle Bog Farm ~ the farm with a sting!

Hehe…

 

I feel like there’s a lot more to tell you but I think this is probably  good for now. Thank you so very much for you patience with me and your support of Blue Moon. I am doing my very best to not let you all down!

Oh I did change up the colors on the website moving more towards winter and winter holidays. How are we here already?? I will have a few new colors soon. I have been making new colors but wanted to get more orders out before adding them. If there are colors you would like to see please do let me know!!

Okay back to the dye pots!!

Takc care dear ones and stay safe!

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Tuesday morning vibes

How is it already the end of October I do not know. Our wet season has started here which is a welcome relief  from the heat and no rain. I will admit that the grey is a little hard for some of us. I am one of those but I will happily deal with it in order to have the rain we need for all of our lush green goodness.

I am busily dyeing away on your orders and the clubs and making plans for this upcoming season and next year. If you have an order in that you need for HOLIDAY knitting please do let me know!!

I so appreciate those of you that are leaving notes on your orders as to whether it’s needed right away or is stash enhancement and Blue Moon support. You all are the best!

I think I mentioned a few times recently that I might have to raise prices soon since all the mills raised there and shipping costs are also up. I have been holding off ( I hate raising prices) however, I just got news that the propane prices are jumping pretty high and well, that’s the proverbial last straw. I do not have a choice I will have to up prices a bit. I am sorry I have been trying to keep prices as they are but this last puts it over the top. It will be across the board on all yarns and fibers. I will do my best to keep it reasonable for all of us!

Prices will stay as they are for the next two weeks and then the new ones will go live.

Also…the discounts that are out there are all coming to an end in the next month or so. So if you have not used them now is you chance.   thankyou21 for 15% is over on November 1st   ~  the sock club and spinning club ones also are good until the end of November and I will send a reminder this weekend on those. I strained my left shoulder this week so am doing a bunch of writing today to give it a break from the heavy lifting.  Those Targhee Worsted skeins and then the spinning club roving are super heavy and someone might have thought she was super woman and over staked the trays.

Speaking of Targhee Worsted look at this pile of Big Brain Blue that is shipping out on Monday. Big Brain Blue is one of my favorite blues and on Targhee oh my!!!

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It’s so pretty and this picture seriously does not do it justice. I almost never dye anything blue for myself but I might need some Big Brian Blue Targhee in my wardrobe. ok don’t laugh but…I have thinking of knitting myself a poncho. I get hot easily so a poncho is often better for me than a sweater. Wouldn’t that blue look great with all of the black and grey I wear. I think it would. Hmmm….. of course not until the shoulder heals al the way back.

Do any of you have a basic diagonal poncho pattern you like. I think if I am remembering correctly there is a really nice Churchmouse one. oh and since we are on color and Targhee. I made a special color for a friend. we were looking for a dirty pink color and while this might be darker than anticipated I absolutely love it.  I would wear this pink!! Here’s a picture of it with a skein of Pond Scum (the pond scum color is a little blown out.

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Isn’t it pretty? I was considering pairing it with the Pond Scum but I think Spawn of Scum would be better. Anyway because of ALL of the Targhee orders I am working on there’s so much lovely color in the barn. I will try to take more pics and post them on instagram. The light in the barn is a little weird but I can make it work.

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Hmmm….did I post here about the Gaea Fingering  and Silkmo Lace Project I am working on for me. At least right now it’s for me we’ll see. I have a friend who would love it to pieces and she always knits for me so we’ll see. Anyway I dyed the SilkMo first because I just know it would look really wonderful in the “My Euphoria” colorway and it really really does as you can see. It took me forever to photograph this. I just felt the photos never did justice to haw stunning it is.

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When I get more of the scarf knit I will post of picture. It’s really pretty. I am big on simple knits that let the yarn and color do the work. Simple and quite beautiful.

I am very happy with it.

I need to do more to promote our Gaea yarns especially the fingering-weight. It’s so lovely and quite the deal with each skein having over 1,000 yards in it. Hard to top that!!!

 

Okay well I actually started these on Sunday morning but got interrupted by friends coming to help with some reorganizing. So I should end here and get out to start my dye and ship day. I am working on sock yarn orders for the next few days since my shoulder is bothering me from all of the very heavy Targhee Worsted skeins. I might have over loaded the trays a bit to be more efficient forgetting that I do not have a 20 something year old body. lol

Hope you all are well and taking care!

oh and THANK YOU for all of your notes and sharing on grief and loss. I feel like maybe we need to be talking and sharing more about our losses and loves. So much loss in the past few years.

Big loving hugs to you all!!!

Oh…how could I forget!! Meet Fiona and Felix my two new buddies.

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A little fun!

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If you head over to the Blue Moon instagram account you will find a very fun Give Away!!!

Earlier in the week I was moved to share the color story of Fire on the Mountain and Muddy Autumn Rainbow. It was great fun to revisit that experience so I decided a Give Away with them as the hot color duo they so obviously are. Great fun!

What you have to do is comment on the post on Instagram and tag a fiber friend with which one of you is more of a Fire on the Mountain and which of you is more of a Muddy Autumn Rainbow.

Example Hey @redkaci I’m a Muddy Autumn Rainbow to your Fire on the Mountain! And they will respond with what they think and that is where the fun comes into paly!

You have to follow us on instagram to be eligible to be picked as a winner. I will pick 2 friend duos and each of you will get the a skein of Socks that Rock in the one you most vibe with.

See?  FUN. You should go read some of the comments so far. I had to clean the dye barn yesterday, not my favorite job! So all of the colorful friend comments has kept me thoroughly entertained and uplifted. I hope the same is true for everyone else.

Here is the color story of Fire on the Mountain and it’s sister color Muddy Autumn Rainbow.

I am an aging hippie chick. I love music and have been a deadhead (Grateful Dead fan) forever!! So…of course I would be inspired to create colorways inspired by my fav songs. My first one was of course Fire on the Mountain!!  I was so pleased with how it came it out. I felt like I captured the feeling of the song and time actually. And it has been one of our most popular colorways so yay!!!

Since it was so popular that meant dyeing it quite a bit. It’s actually still to this day very popular. I had dyed so many skeins I thought I could do it in my sleep but evidently not!! One day I was working on a few store orders ( hundreds of skeins) And I was kinda tired and maybe a tiny bit cranky. About 40 or so skeins in I realized I had mixed up the color sequence. Oh I was so pissed-off at myself. (I might have a tiny bit of a temper.)

So I took a few deep calming breaths and well it did not help. So I slapped both hands down my on the skeins and just swooshed all the color back and forth. I’m not going to lie it was pretty flipping satisfying. I  put it to steam and did not think anything of it. I just went on to finish the order.

Well… the next day when Rosie was rinsing the yarn she’s like holy cow Tina what the heck is this?  So I went over to investigate and found my rage skeins and they were stunning! I knew what it was right away and had a good chuckle. I told her what I had done and she said I sure hope you can repeat this. We had a good laugh. And you know I did not think I could repeat it. I did remember the color sequence goof so that was fine it was the rage swooshing I did not think I could do again without the rage aspect. It turns out i could. haha

I have to say Muddy Autumn Rainbow is one of my favorite colorways of mine. It also is one of our more popular colorways. I think they are pretty equal even though Fire on the Mountain was around for longer than Muddy Autumn. All of this has made me consider what other of my colorways would look good with a little depraveDyer cranky swoosh. Haha!!

So…which one are you? Are you Fire on the Mountain or a Muddy Autumn Rainbow?

I think I fluctuate between the two but feel I am more of a Muddy Autumn Rainbow hippie chick!!

Okay I am off to dye for the day.

I sent out a newsletter with updates. There is a  link to it in my profile on instagram. If you are not on the newsletter list you can also sing up there.

I added some fun to the website so check it out!!!

Hope you all are well!

Take care of your dear selves and stay safe!!

Once in a Blue Moon

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Our full moon this weekend is a rare Blue Moon one.  A Blue Moon is commonly defined as the second full moon in a month. Our last Blue Moon was in October 2020. A lesser known definition dating back to 1528 applies to the 3rd full moon of a season where there are 4 full moons. Generally, each season has three full moons. But this summer, which began June 20 and ends Sept. 22, has four full moons (June 24, July 23, Aug. 22 and Sept. 20). Seasonal Blue Moons are uncommon, occurring about once every two to three years. The last one rose on May 18, 2019, and the next one won’t shine until Aug. 19, 2024.

Truly a “Once in a Blue Moon” bit of lunar magic!

Quite awhile ago I did a special order for a colorway for a store and they ended up not making it (sad) so I have been sitting on these skeins until there seemed to be a place for them. I over-dyed them to create this truly ~ Once in a Blue Moon ~ colorway to celebrate Blue Sturgeon Moon.

So this is a truly limited Once in a Blue Moon offering. There are only 30 of these skeins in Socks that Rock Lightweight and once they are gone that is is for this special colorway!

Since they are limited I am not going to add them to the website as their own colorway. If you  would like to order one of these beauties. Order Socks that rock Lightweight in SNOWFLAKE and in the comments section let me know you would like Blue Strugeon Moon and I will get it out to you. These are all dyed and ready to roll!  I really love this colorway. The color concept is based on the silver pink of the Sturgeon ( This is the Sturgeon Moon) and dark blue for the night sky and also waters the Sturgeon resides in.

Our heat wave finally broke and I am hoping that is the last one for this summer.  So very hot and dry. So unlike our lush green Pacific Northwest.  There has been so much wildlife of all kinds at the water stations I have put out. Even the bugs were parched. My neighbors and I were wondering why the flies and such were so bad this year and I finally realized they weren’t it’s just we were seeing more of them because they were looking for water. Anyway I am grateful to be through that. Dyeing in that kind of heat is not fun. I changed my hours so I was dyeing before the crack of dawn or late at night. Was cracking myself up singing singing the Midnight Rambler song and changing it to the midnight dyer. hahaha….

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I want to Thank all of you that are supporting the Targhee Worsted LOVE campaign!! I also would like to remind you that these were not to be dyed or shipped until the middle to end of August. I have started on these. They are big bulky skeins so I do them early in the am before the sock yarns and such. It’s been so interesting to see what colors everyone chose. So much blue!!! Oh my goodness.  A lot of you put when you needed this by in the comments section of you notes so I am going by those . If you need it sooner than late please do let me know. I know also a fair amount of you used this as a stash build along with supporting out wonderful Targhee.

Sock Club is shipping now!! I will be sending a sock email out in a few days. I will be including all of the patterns and dyer’s notes again for those who can’t find those emails.

Last part of Silk Club has shipped with notes to follow this week once Karen looks them over. I was going to ship the last shipment of the spinning club but…and this is sad. I wanted to support a local while also giving you all a different experience. Unfortunately after dyeing and drying the fiber I noticed as I tried to bundle it that it was breaking. I know…I almost cried. Anyway long story short I am in the process of dyeing it all over again in another fiber. Live and learn I should have tested a bunch first. You often do not see these kinds of things until it’s processed.

The exciting new project I mentioned in May took a bit of a delay because the person I am working with had a family health issue. I will be announcing this in the next two weeks hopefully and I am so very excited. I have been wanting to work on this level for so long.

Before I head out to the barn I want to mention supply chain.  The pandemic has effected us all in so many different ways. Supply chain for our industry is one of them with delays in shipments and also a few quality issues. I am doing my very best to navigate these as we all are. Right now I am waiting on ink cartridges for my printer that prints the labels. I usually have it here in 3 days. I will not have it for 2 more weeks and I ordered it 4 weeks ago. So I am creatively labeling the colors on the yarn labels. You will see!!  It truly is a different world we find ourselves in.  We are all doing the best we can with what we are being dealt. I am doing my very best to meet each challenge I am presenting with optimism, grace and my wicked problem solving skills. I most definitely am an out-of-the-box thinker!! lol

Oh and all of you lovely  people who are including what you are making when you order—- THANK YOU!!! It’s a joy to know who and what I am dyeing for. As a lone worker still, it warms my heart. Like this blue ( Sapphire) went to a woman knitting a baby blanket for her first born. So lovely!!!

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I do love most parts of my job. Honestly though you guys are the best part. Otherwise it’s just creating into a void which does not appeal to me at all. I’m a people person!! I and good alone but I sharing with others ups the joy of and experience to a whole other level for me. I can hear all of my introvert friends groaning. lol

Oh one more thing before I head out. I just got new price list from all of my suppliers so…there’s a good chance I will have to increase pricing a bit in the next few weeks.

Okay I could keep going but the dye pots are calling.

Have a great day.

Choose love!!

PS: I found a case of Cat Bordhi’s New Pathways for  Sock Knitters ( Book One) If you want one. I have a bout 20 of them.

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Blues…

Bubbles from adding in lime

I am stopping here for a brief update. I will also be sending out the second edition of Blue Notes this week with a whole lot of yarn is both the internet and shipping system cooperate. It is seriously ridiculous at this point. One of the locals saw my post this Friday on instagram about no internet again and recommended Star Link so I am looking this as an option. Fingers crossed!!

My lovely daughter Rabia was here visiting!!!!!!! It’s the first time I have seen her in 2 years. We are a pretty tight family so this whole not seeing each other was a pretty big deal especially for her and I. I took some much needed time off to spend with here since in a few weeks she will be headed to Kyrgyzstan to teach at an International School there. Yeah!  She’s a child of the world I have known this since she was little so… . I am just happy I got to spend time with her before she heads out on this next adventure of hers. I am very excited for her. Luckily this gig pays to send her back once a year so yay!!!

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Because of her visit and the crazy heat wave I am not quite where I hoped to be but close. I am shipping all kinds of clubs and orders this week. It’s supposed to be hot but tolerable. So dyeing in the am and shipping and reeling in the afternoon. Where there’s a will there is a way eh. Oh… and before I forget we are pretty far from any fire as of this moment!!! Most of them are pretty far south of us. Thanks to all of you that have been checking in. We are good as of yet. It is super dry. Our thoughts and prayers to those that are affected by the fires in both the PNW, California and BC.

 

 

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I have left the Support Targhee Worsted Special up so if you have yet to order and thought it was no longer applicable it is. You can check the blog post before this for all of the details on what that is about. So much gratitude to all of you supporting this effort of ours to keep one of our beloved garment yarns!!! GO Targhee Worsted!! It’s 30% off and the code is TGWLOVE

I will put up a blog post later in the weeks with some of the other pattern suggestions for knitting with our Targhee Worsted!  It’s that time of year for sweater planning and honestly there is not better yarn for  sweaters that this!!!

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I got to do something last weekend that I have been wanting to do for quite awhile. My friend Kaci and went to a local farm ( Vibrant Valley Farm and played with fresh indigo harvesting and dyeing. SO. MUCH. FUN. It’s so cool. I have been with indigo for years but have never had the chance to play with fresh plants. I want to grow them so I wanted to experiment with them first and yes going to prep a large part of the garden for these. Below are a few pics of our day and I am going to upload a few videos to instagram so check there also. It’s been so long since I have done anything like this usually I am the teacher or leader it was so nice to play and actually hang out with fellow color, plant and fiber lovers. I will say though it’s also a little surreal to be with a group of people again. Thank you to Kara and Brittney for a wealth of information and a wonderfully blue day!

I love hands on and anything with messy color is my happy place. We harvested leaves and then put them in a bin added pickling salt and ripped them up. The salt was to extract the plant juices basically then we added in silk that had been soaked and just mashed the hell out of it. So pretty and fun. Because it’s fresh plant it retains more of it’s green hue which I love. We got to take home stems to graft which I have already done and have my own plants growing on the back deck. Luckily rabbits are not an indigo fan!!! Yay!! Oh shoot I don’t think I have a picture of one of the dry scarves. I will take one tomorrow in the light of day and add it in.

Okay I am going to go end here for now because it’s getting late and I still I have mini-skeins to wrap. My goal is bed by midnight!!!

Hope all of you are well and taking care and still staying safe.

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Onyx and Luna say G’night!

Too Hot!!!

Do you know what it is too hot to do  today? Stand over steaming dye pots and soaking vats of hot water. It’s just too flippin’ hot. I stopped dyeing and such a couple of hours ago and probably won’t be ably to get back to it until Monday. I’ve moved the baby chicks into the house where it’s cooler (thank you air conditioner) and am going to spend the day catching up on all my writing jobs. I though this was a good place to start since it’s been awhile.

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I want to thank you all for your kinds words about the loss of my sister. Sibling loss is very hard. I think not matter what one’s relationship is as adults that formative bond growing up together and all of those shared familial experiences. It’s  a powerful things. It feels  like loosing a part of oneself, at least that’s my experience.  Anyway thank you for your compassion. It’s comforting and greatly appreciated.

I sent out a newsletter this week updating everyone of orders and such and also announcing some future projects and exciting plans. If you are not on the Blue Moon mailing list and would like to be please let me know. If you follow us on instagram there is a lace to sign up in the bio.

I am going to be sending out at least once a month a official formatted newsletter full of all kinds of info and fun! They even have an official name ~  Blue Notes  ~and honestly,  I’m pretty excited about it all. I hope you will join in the fun.

Before I go any further it was a full moon this week and I did do a colorway for  it since it was out last super full of the year. The next one is not until  June 2022.

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I kind of love this one. I wanted the red to be a strawberry red and then added some pops of hot pink for the super moon aspect and I love the colors it created

I then sprinkled golden dye powder in places for moonlight and well it’s full of hue nuance where colors meet and blend. I enjoy the saturated boldness of this one. These layered colorways are like magical color spells in the way you often do not see some of the colors until you knit them up.

It’s one of the things I love about painting/dyeing fiber in contrast to painting on a canvas. Because fibers/yarn are dynamic with mass, texture and dimensions that absorb and radiate color.  I think of it as hue- resonance or wavelengths of color. I also think about it a lot, maybe too much. Anyway I guess that’s my way of saying it’s pretty. hehehe

One of the things in the newsletter is a Support Targhee Worsted Special with  discount code good for 30% off for the next few weeks. CODE is: TGWLOVE. If you place an order for this please know it will not ship until late August.

I am being proactive about keeping yarns we love available for us. We do not want our beloved Targhee Worsted going the way of Woobu, Victoria, Single Single Targhee or BFL Sport. I go into detail about all of this in the newsletter. The gist of it is that unless you want a generic super-wash merino world then we all have to support the yarns we love. Mills make what sells!! It’s fact. They will make what bring sin revenue so you the knitter, crocheter, spinner and weaving control basically the market with your purchases. So together we are going to fight the good fight to keep a diverse yarn world for us all to enjoy for years and years!!

There will be KAL! It is not patterned based you can knit what you want. I think a bunch of us are going with sweaters but really whatever you want also works! We will offer lots of info to educate and support for each other in your knitting and progress!! Diversity at all levels fo life is crucial and wool is one of them.

When you make this  purchase you will also automatically be signed up in our new frequent buyer program! You will be emailed you details!!

I will also be sending out emails to both the spinning club and school of yarn this weekend. Last shipments forth coming in next few weeks. Yay!!!

ok I am going to stop here. I hate making these posts too long.

Take care of your dear selves!!

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Gifts

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Today is my birthday!! I am 64 years young to day and I am totally celebrating making it though this year.

I love giving presents so all week I am running a give away on instgram so please go check it out. It’s great fun, today’s prompt is you tag a friend with a love note to them. I will pick a random winner at the end of the week and send both you and your friend a skein of The Rainbow Connection in Socks that Rock!

There will be one of these a day until next Saturday. So much fun. I’m pretty excited. Can’t wait to read all of the love notes!

I would also like to do something that I have not done in quite awhile. I am in a color creating mode these days and would like to create some of your color wishes or dreams.

How this works is you send me a color story and then I will pick 4 to create out of all the ones that are sent in. The theme of this is music. What I want is your description of how your favorite song or piece of music makes you feel. I also need to know what the music or song is.  You can email me this info to info@bluemoonfiberarts.com and put Color Story in the title. The more descriptive you are the better! I will pick the 4 stories at the end of the week and announce them here and then get going to color creating. Each winner gets a skein of their colorway as a gift!!!

Some of my favorite Blue Moon colorways are from these color story fin and games so I do hope you will join the fun.

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I am in this pile of furry goodness. Meet Sienna and Bessie my son and daught-in-laws pups. Look at all of that love. If I ever need a boost or to feel some pretty intense unconditional love this is where I go. They are the absolute best. Bessie ( the Aussie) loves very hard! Siena the golden is a more quiet constant warmth that feels my soul.As soon as I post this an pack I am headed their way for the first over night since all of this started and to play and enjoy the day.

 

I am a very lucky woman and have a whole lot to be grateful for. I have wonderful children that I love to pieces! I have rich in friends who support me and love me pretty much no matter what. I get to love in a bit of a wonderland in the woods. I get to do the work I love and have an enormous community of creative, kind and loving souls that seriously enrich my life.

I am very very grateful for all this and so much more. Thank you for being a part of my life and for hanging in there with me through all of the ups and downs that life throws out way.

You all are such bright loving lights!

LOVE!!!!

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Inspiration

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Hello dear ones,

Wow I feel like I have been trying to write this post for weeks now. Sadly writing seems to take a back seat to all the other jobs right now. I am on this mission to be caught up before my birthday which is the 29th of this month so I’ve chained myself to the dye table and pots. Honestly not a bad thing, kinky maybe though. lol  It just leaves little room for anything else besides shipping and such. I would say more about seeing light at the end of the tunnel but in all honesty I do not want to jinx it. I am not going to test the powers that be on this one.

To all of you that have asked, I doing well. I got my second vaccine a week ago so I have another week and then I get to hug my son and daughter-in-law (daughters are on the east coast right now) . I am so excited I can’t even. The lack of hugging for this hug loving person has been more than a little painful.

While this past year has been hard and painful of many different levels (and more so for some of us than others based on our level of privilege) there has also been some pretty illuminating and inspiring moments for me. It’s quite a bit and I do have a lot to say about it, most certainly more than one blog post worth. So consider this post a beginning. As with any process there’s layers and depths to plummet and shine a little light on. I have been pretty quiet about it all except to close friends and family so I could make the most of this opportunity ~ do the work it took ~  appreciate it all, and be in the moment presented to me.

As most of you know I have for the most part been alone for the better part of all of this. Well…actually, alone except for Valla the Maine Coon cat, a whole flock of chickens and my own little bunny warren plus whatever other wildlife shows up. Before the pandemic I was used to spending 5 days a week with at least 4 other people (Team Blue Moon) and sometimes more than that. A whole lot of differing energies and personalities. Since I am a people person it was not a huge challenge. Although I will say the whole ~ being an employer part ~ is quite a lot of work no matter who the employees are.

The pandemic hits and we shut down and I find myself  alone. I feel like I am good at being alone. I enjoy my own company. However this was different and it was quite a hard transition to make. I certainly had more bad days than good ones in the beginning. Especially with all of the stress that went with figuring out how to do run Blue Moon all alone. A lot of the jobs here I had not done for awhile so I had to retrain myself and find the most efficient way run systems as one.

At the very beginning all the ~ silence of space ~  felt empty and pretty lonely. So I attempted to fill that space. I started to listen to podcasts, audio-books and so very much music. Which kept me compnay of sorts and gave me the support I needed to be a little more comfortable to do the work and to move on to whatever was next. I have so much  much gratitude to;  Per Bristow, David Chang, Jonathan Van Ness, Layla F Saad, Brene’ Brown, BTS, SHINEE,  Nikita Gil,  Rumi, Lindy West, Sanjay Gupta MD, Samin Nosrat, Tommy Orange, Padma Laksshmi, Junauda Petrus, Michael Twitty, Alice Walker, Morat, Eckoes, Isaac Lee, Kim Hyung Jung, Common, and so very many more. Thank you all and to all of the brave souls who share yourselves, gifts and insights with us all. Thank you for the comfort and and for the illuminating inspiration and growth.

Once I acclimated myself to the new work schedule & all the space that was just mine I noticed something. I realized that even though it was a whole lot of work and it certainly has been, I felt more content and even happy than I had in years. I started to reconnect with parts of myself that I had not experienced in such a long time. I had been so busy making sure everything around me worked for everyone around me that I had neglected me. Something that a whole lot of women can relate to especially single mothers. I could actually hear myself and I was listening!

My creative life started ~ way back when ~ with music. I played clarinet, guitar and dulcimer and also sang. Music was my life’s blood. I was also a sound engineer, a job I truly loved. All wonderfully fulfilling until one day I had a very freak accident with hydraulic rollers that smashed my left hand ending my instrument playing for what I thought would be forever. I was devastated and I could not envision how to make it all work with a smashed hand. So I walked away. Yup, I shut down that part of myself and I packed my life up and moved out west to Olympia Washington with my girlfriend at the time and my sister and her girlfriend and started anew. Yeah probably not the best response.

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I love music, all kinds and I listen to music ALL the time. Until a few years ago I still sang quite a bit. All of my kids sing and a few play instruments. One of the gifts that this space of time has blessed me with is that heart and soul connection with music I had when I was younger. I finally grieved 40 years later and my heart broke right open into song. I picked up one of the guitars I have and started playing again just for me. It’s a challenge but that’s okay, it still feels so very good. I am also singing ALL the time which feels so good. Did you know that chickens love to be sung to? it’s pretty hysterical. They cock their little heads and some of them will bob them and hum. Yes chickens hum.

Okay so this is getting real long so I am going to make a bit of a leap here so I can bring in color and yarn. I promise to fill in the spaces and share more of this process with you soon. I am learning so very much everyday that I am excited about and want to share with you. Based on the y dye chemist I work with recommendation I decided to learn chemistry. Yup! I want a greater understanding so I can do more with color and I LOVE it! Color Chemist me!!!

Also…I have always wanted to learn another language but was told by a few teachers that I did not have an affinity for it so I gave up. Why do we do this to children trying to learn. I decided to try again and because of my love of kpop music I chose Korean and ya know what I am not to bad at it either.  Hoping to at some point to also try Japanese. Right now I think most of the music I am listening to is not in my own language. You get more of an appreciation for the voice as an instrument and language, especially lyrical and melodic ones, as an actual part of the score and not just words with a message (not to discount that aspect though) . There’s a French artist I am listening to right now that I am so moved by I often find myself tearing up into the yarn.  A little extra!!

As I rediscover and heal all of these parts of myself and find new ones I’m incorporating it into the work I do with color, yarn and design. Life is energy. Color and music share the vibrations of life. Some days I have a fair amount of clarity and a  clear vision and path of how this all feels and looks. And then there are days where I feel like a conduit and it’s my job just to get out of the way of all of this energy and let it flow through me. Honestly those are my best days! I feel like there just not enough hours in the day I feel so deeply inspired and moved.

I have stopped filling that silence of space. I now sit in that space and do my best to be present in each moment no matter what they hold. I get to experience so many things that would just pass me by. A privilege for sure and one I am grateful for.

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I promised new colorways a few weeks ago. I have been waiting on this until being more caught up. Below are some of the colorways that have come out of all of this exploration. ( And there are so many more to come). I am in the process of adding them to the website. It will take me all weekend, it’s a big job and I dye during the day so… . If you feel the need to order before I get them up you can do so by ordering whatever base you want in the Snowflake colorway and then in the notes section of your order put the colorway name you want. Please read the descriptions on each colorway so you can understand their source inspiration and I can credit what I was inspired by.

I hope you enjoy knitting with these as much as I did creating them. While I love them all my favorites are; LOKI, Atlantis , SHINee’s back (been a HUGE SHINee fan for years), and My Euphoria which is different than the RSC one I sent out!! I have contacted a few musicians that I am going to work with composing color and sound so look for that soon. I am pretty excited!!!!

Before I head out to the dye barn this morning I want to again thank you all for your continued patience and support over the last 22 years, especially for that past year. I grateful for each and everyone one of you! I hope you all are taking care, staying safe and getting vaccinated.

Oh also a word on USPS.  They are over worked and stressed! Ours PO is a small town one that is under staffed and are doing their very best. Amazon will do their own deliveries out here until they get complaints about deliveries that are missed are just wrong. The cell service out here is not the best so they can’t scan. Once Amazon gets enough complaints they stop delivering out here and then just dump it all on the PO with no warning. It’s a lot so if we can be patient and understanding.

Here is Connie our USPS worker who is a gem!!

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Okay off I go! Have a lovely weekend!