Posts from the ‘General News’ Category

Why lots are important.

Okay before we go into why lots are important. I have taken the colorways down I told you I would and put up some of our favorites. A few of these have not been up on the website for awhile. I’m pretty excited to see them.

So as I said in the last post we are having a contest of sorts. The first person that can list all of the colorways I just added wins a Rare Gem skein. You can email your guess to us at info@bluemoonfiberarts.com .

Please put “Colorway Contest” in the subject line of your email. Thanks!

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We all know about dye lots and how important it is to order or purchase enough yarn for your project in the same lot, especially if you are knitting a garment. Well my knitting friends the same is true for yarn lots and here is why.

One LOT of yarn is basically 1 MILL RUN of that yarn. ONE MILL RUN LOT would be made from all the same wool/top and then spun at the same time and plied then also to the specs of that yarn.  Most mills will keep the singles and then ply the yarn as needed. Each time that happens it should be marked as a different lot since the ply could be different. You would think that it would not be different enough to matter but in fact it is. ( Ask me how I know?)

I will never, ever forget when my second big order of Socks that Rock walked in the door. I opened the box, pulled out the skeins buried my face in them and then gave them a squeeze. And to my surprise they felt a little different. The yarn was a little softer than the last shipment we had. I was like okay let’s see what it dyes like. It pretty much dyed the same but it was most definitely the tiniest bit softer with a fraction ( and I mean a fraction) less boing to it. I might have freaked out a wee bit. I called my supplier and told them they had it all wrong and what did they do and so on and so forth.

It was then that I got schooled on different LOTS and how wool is a living growing thing. While we do as much as we can to recreate a yarn to the specs we have for that yarn there is going to be some variation. It might be a variation that most are not going to notice but sometimes it can be a bit more. Which is why each new lot is tested when it walks in our door so we know what we are working with.

As most of you know we recently ran a super Special on our BFL Sport since it was being discontinued. We put a special pricing on it and also decided to a do a KAL with one of our favorite patterns. Midway through dyeing massive amounts of BFL we discovered that we were sent 2 differing lots that were not marked as such. yeah…

Now, the difference between the two was not great. And…unfortunately it was not a difference we could see before it was dyed. If we had an order with 1 skein of each of three differing colors you would not notice either. We had a lots of those orders because that was what the KAL called for. It was when we had a garments worth of the same color that the difference was visible. Say there were 5 skeins all dyed in one color. You could see that 3 were from one lot and 2 were from the other. Now let’s take a moment and think about that and what it might mean production wise on a yarn that was already discounted and we had a ton of orders for. Yeah…I might have shed a tear or two.  So… we took a minute to regroup and problem solve.

The difference was one lot was tighter plied than the other. The end gauge was the same so that was not an issue. Phew!!! The issue was that the color looked just a bit different. Which for sweater knitting is a problem. So we could not ship those out to you.

(You see the difference both in the ply and the color yes?)

What we discovered was if we soaked the yarn, spun it out and then dried it we could see the difference between the lots before dyeing!!! Yay Kalia for coming up with that plan. While we were thrilled to have a plan it did add a whole other step to the process slowing everything down. Adding more labor also adds more cost. Adding another step that delays all orders not just the BFL also adds more customer service for us.

Why am I sharing this with you? I am not sharing to complain. Although, in all honest after the year we have had I did having my whining moment or two with a good friend and a bottle of wine. I have been in this industry for at least 20 years and know these things happen. I will say it does seem to be happening more and more lately. Also, if you run a small business you know that this kind of problem-solving rolling with the punches is just how things can go. Dyers are often the last process/person before it goes to your local yarn store and/or into your hands. Something that is interesting to consider in relationship to the end product and the controls we have.

I am sharing all this with you so we all have a better understanding of what goes into the making and dyeing of the yarn that we create with. There are many steps and people involved from shepherd to yarn store owner. I think it is important to know exactly what goes into what we are working with. When we pick up a skein of yarn off a shelf we are not really considering all that goes into bringing that skein to us.

Okay I have at least 5 more things to do today and it is already 2:00 so off I go.

Thanks for listening!

New Colors!!

Look!!! I made new colors! I know it’s been awhile since I have felt light enough to be color inspired. Getting caught up or close to it certainly helps. I am pretty excited about these.

I was really inspired by this months Super Worm Moon and not in a way I would’ve predicted. I actually was quite stumped as to translate a worm moon into a colorway for yarn and then add the fact that is was a super worm moon. So much pressure!! I think I got it though. The light purple with the brown and gold and then that dark blue black giving it that bruiser of a look. I am pretty smitten with this one. Which I think kind spiraled and reawakened my color mojo. I even created tow new colors to go with out Super Worm Moon to make another Moon Trio.  I don’t think you can see it from this picture but the Grounded colorway has streaks of that purple all throughout those browns and golds and then on the lighter end a more light purple skein (Andalusite) with those golds and browns streaked through it.

As much as I love my full moon wormy earthy hues. I think my favorite of this bunch is Pickled Eggs! My grandmother Winnie always had a jar or two of eggs pickling. She kept them on the attic stairs. They were bright and happy and absolutely delicious. She used beet juice in her picking so they were super bright and a little spicy (cayenne). They looked a lot like these beauties.

I know my skeins are a little pinker then the eggs in this picture but my grans were super pink so I went with what I my visual memory has and my taste buds too. Winnie like her cayenne. My hens are laying like crazy so maybe I need to make up a batch of pickled eggs. Yum!!!

And since I had the hot bright pink out I decided to play with some black and aqua and bam we have Chasing Flamingos which one of our facebook followers named. Such a great name! So thanks for the great name Sophia.

Which brings us to the Delta Blues. And again Winnie plays a small part in this one. Been missing my grandmother so I guess I am channeling her through color which she would love! I am working a lot more on layering colors to creating more complex hues with depth and surprises that you might only see once you start knitting. Grounded most definitely has some crazy layering of color ~ browns, gold, orange and purple. I know! Do you know how much purple and brown love each other?  So… much.

Which bring us to our last new colorway of the weekend Empyreal which means: of or relating to the sky or heavens ~ celestial. Our Cara named it since it is a colorway I made just for her and this crazy cool and stunning design she has been working on. If you have not seen it you are going to love it and be seriously impressed. She uses Socks that Rock Lightweight in Enchanted Forest and Empyreal. When Cara asked me to create this color she told me she wanted Enchanted Forest for the  forest canopy and then she needed that sky that we see through it. I love Cara quite a bit so I thought long and hard about what it needed to be. I am glad I did not rush the process because we are bot so very happy with how it all turned out and I so love the name she chose since it embodies what we were trying to create and is the perfect match for Enchanted Forest!! The pattern is called Sussurate and at this point in it’s creative life it is with the tech editor and test knitters.

Are ya ready??? It’s amazing! I love it so very much and am so proud of my friend for designing her vision in stitches and in brioche no less!

Photo credit: January One (Cara Davis Conomos)

So much color!! It must be Spring!

Okay so a little news. We made serious headway this week and see light at the end of this tunnel so thank you so very very much for hanging in there with us.

We are almost done with all of the BFL Sport and and both sock club shipments. Dyeing all of that BFL was quite a job since they are 8 ounce skeins. Holy moly!! We are working on web orders and Our of the Hue color club along with our LYS orders.

If you have been waiting to purchase Seduction and Panda now is your time for on Monday we will be saying goodbye to both of these yarns. We are also just about out of BFL SPORT so that will also be coming down. Thank you all so very much for helping us give this yarn the send off it deserved. I can honestly say that other then when we were all knitting the Traveling Sweater with Woobu have we had such a successful garment yarn special. It has left me wondering if it was a combination of the pricing special and that the yarn was leaving or just that the yarn was leaving. I am on a mission to make sure we do not loose anymore of our beloved yarns so I am going to be more proactive in making sure we support them so the mill will keep making them for us. I will need you help so stay tuned my fiber loving friends.

Okay so I am posting this blog post and some of the new colorways are not quite up yet. That’s my next job.

Super Worm Moon over Mt Hood!

even if you are a small forest surviving off of moon alone.  your light is extraordinary.

~ reminder

nayyirah.waheed

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 your light is extraordinary!

PS: In honor of our last super moon of the year we are offering all three of our La Luna yarns at 20% off for the next 4 days!

Code: lalunalove