Fall Crush

We’re not talking about falling in love or the smashing of grapes here (although we would gladly accept a glass of anything that’s been properly aged). At Blue Moon, Autumn means a crush of of fiber festivals, a bumper crop of hands itching to make woolly things, and a bounty of well-prepared knitters readying themselves for the impending holidays. Needless to say, there’s a whole lot of dyeing going on in the barn. (Which we don’t mind, ‘cause we have a crush on making pretty colors!)

Because knitters can’t live on dye and yarn alone, we’ve harvested two new beautiful accessory patterns from Sivia Harding and Kyle Kunnecke to keep you warm as the weather gets chillier.

Sivia’s Drifting Leaves is an elegantly-beaded cowl and gauntlet set that combines twisted ribbing and eyelets for a heavenly treat in Marine Silk - Sport.

Inspired by hand-woven textiles seen in Southeast Asia, Kyle’s Angkor Hat is colorful & creative cap made from two skeins of Socks that Rock Heavyweight. If you’re new to colorwork and working with two yarns at once, Kyle has made a Fair Isle Knitting tutorial video that’s posted on his blog.

Lastly, just a few minutes ago as I’m typing this, the doors to the Stitches East Marketplace flew open in Hartford, CT. Debbi, aka Cockeyed, is staffing the Blue Moon Fibers Arts section of the WEBS booth. She has a truckload of gorgeous garment yarns, in addition to the Socks That Rock. Be sure to visit her if you’ve got a cozy sweater or luxurious accessory project in mind. May I suggest one of the two patterns above?

Look at that, we’re at the tail end of October already. How’d that happen so quickly? Tell us your Fall Crush in the comments below before we’re well into Winter.

Bits and pieces.

We have finally caught our collective breaths from this past weekend’s Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. I do believe a great time was had by all. I certainly had a blast. I love this show. It has some of my favourite elements of a woolly good time: fiber critters, fiber folk, and anything your woolly heart might want or need.  Also there is really great pie. Oh and Irish Wolfhounds and music and ... .


We sold bunches of yarn and saw all kinds of friends, got lots of hugs and I even got a kiss on the cheek from a very beautiful sheep wench. It really was great to see everyone and have a moment or two to visit.
I even got to shop, which was boatloads of fun. And… I kept my promise to myself and left without one single fleece which I do believe is an OFFF first for me. However, I made up for it in spades at the Greensleeves booth, I had a smallish incident involving some spindles. The number is not important.(Remember Barbara you’re sworn to secrecy.) My name is Tina and yes, I have a spindle problem.  It’s ok I used to have a spinning wheel problem, a way bigger problem to have, but I got that under control, at least I’m making progress. Besides they are tools of my trade right?  A yarn-girl needs tools with which to ply her trade.
Buckets of fun!!  Thanks to all of you who came out to play, it was good to see you all!

Maxine of Island Wools isn’t her chicken tea or head cozy lovely?  It’s mine now along with coloured cotton and some wicked cashmere. I know.

This week is jam packed and as I type this and remember today is Thursday the week is also almost over.  Where does the time go?
We are shipping sock club and filling web orders and prepping for our next shows SOAR, Rhinebeck and Stitches. That’s where the time goes.

We were scheduled to put the price change for the 3 weights of sock yarn up yesterday but we are having a few Zen Cart issues. So you have a few days to squeak in your order if you have not already.  I doubt we get it up before Monday. So…

For those of you waiting for next years sock club pricing we should have that for you at the end of next week.

Today’s word of the day at Dictionary.com is woolgathering. They define woolgathering as: Indulgence in idle daydreaming. This struck me as funny this morning and then I got to thinking about it. I never really gave this word much thought other than being kind of charmed by it.  As an expert woolgatherer I would not describe any part of what I do as idle or daydreaming; thinking, planning, designing, and scheming maybe but not daydreaming.  I wonder is this a touch of sexism or just shows how we’ve valued this part of life in the past.  Even though the woolly arts started out as male dominated, knitting the families clothes or even knitting to pay the bills (working with wool) was traditionally women’s work. We all know us women as a group are just idle daydreamers, the whole sorry lot of us. 
hmmm… food for thought.
Thank you dictionary.com.
ps. I do not have anything against day dreamers or day dreaming. Ask Sister Margaret Claire she gave me an A+ in it.  Gotta love a sarcastic nun.

Anyway thats the news from Blue Moon where the women are strong and are woolgathers and would love a moment to indulge in idle daydreaming.

Knot Hysteria November Colour Retreat

All about Colour!

The glory of summer is fading away and being replaced with the splendor of autumn.  Steph and I have both noticed the first hints of gold and orange starting to sneak into the trees and garden, so it must be time for what we are happily coming to think of as our fall knitting retreat.  From November 4th to 8th we would love it if you could join us at Port Ludlow, for another wonderfully good time.  We’ve done our Silk retreat a few times, so we thought it might be time to mix it up with a whole new theme, and we let the season guide us.  This time, we’ll be knitting, spinning and dyeing with a focus on colour and all that it means to us as fibre artists, and we can’t imagine a better time for a colour retreat then the middle of autumn surrounded by all the fall colour at our lovely little knitter-friendly Resort at Port Ludlow in Washington.

Spinning:
It’s been such a pleasure to have master spinner, author and all-round-genius Judith MacKenzie with us for the retreats, that we’d be mad not to have her back for this one. Judith is brilliant with colour, and in the spinning room she’s got a lot planned.  Judith will show you how to spin a painted top, and how to combine a rainbow of gorgeous solids - at the carder, and at the wheel.  The only bad thing about this all day intensive is that it’s not nine days.

Knitting
In the knitting room with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee there’s an all day exploration of knitting with colour.  We’ll work on perfecting your stranded knitting, investigating fair-isle, working with slipped stitches to create fancy patterns that only use one colour per row, firmly grasp the principles of intarsia and talk about stripes.  We’ll even talk a little about how to choose colours that go together, and how you tell if they do.  If you’ve ever wondered how to better manage colour in knitting- this is your class.

Dyeing
In the dye room Tina Newton will take you on a guided journey into the emotional and psychological aspects of colour.  We’ll delve into our personal colour depths and comfort zones. We’ll take a mood, memory, moment… and express it in colour on yarn and roving. We explore compliments and contrasts on the colour wheel as it applies to dyeing for spinning and knitting. Bring an apron it’s sure to get messy!

The weekend begins when you check in on Friday night, and we all have an opportunity to talk, hang out (maybe have a drink) get to know each other, chat with the teachers, and you’re assigned to one of three small groups.

Saturday, Group one goes with Tina, to a big bright room with a floor covered in plastic and loaded with dye and fiber goodies.
Meanwhile, group two goes with Stephanie to knit.
Over in the pretty room overlooking the water, group three sets up their spinning wheels (or spindles) to spend a day with Judith. 

That evening, we gather to play with carders, learn how to make batts, and play with all sorts of colourful fibre.

Sunday, the groups rotate places for the day classes, and then after dinner we’ll have a discussion on inspiration and a show and tell.  The teachers will share what inspires them and a bit about their own creative process and show you some wonderful pieces, and if you’re so inclined, we’d love to see what you’ve done with colour also.  Please bring your best, and don’t feel limited to bring only knitting.

Monday we rotate for classes again, and Monday night we have a wonderful social gathering for Q&A and talking about all we’ve learned, bid you farewell, and the retreat ends that evening.

The price includes all three classes, evening fun, all materials (except wheels, spindles and needles), and breakfast, lunch and dinner Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The food is fabulous, and we promise that there will be very good vegetarian options. Our lovely Chef Dan is very excited about having colour as the retreat theme, and we’re expecting even more beautiful food from him than usual - and that’s saying something. 

Accommodations are separate and you will arrange those on your own. We have negotiated special prices with Port Ludlow, and there are some shared accommodations (condos and town-homes) if you’d like to come with your friends.

Simply call Port Ludlow and tell them that you’re with Knot Hysteria and the knitters, and they will help you get sorted with the special knitter price. They are lovely and helpful people.

Price for the three day/three class intensive with meals:
$735. (Credit card or paypal are fine) All Materials (except knitting needles and spinning wheels) included. 
Gift bags, presents and surprises forthcoming.

(If you’re a vendor and you’d like to talk to us about putting a little something in the gift bags, just drop us a line. We’d love it.)

If you’d like to come and are thinking about your skills, keep in mind that you don’t have to be an expert spinner, but you do need a basic working knowledge of a spinning wheel, spinning basics and should be able to spin a continuous thread. We’re not saying that you need to do this well. An advanced beginner would be very comfortable. As a knitter, you’ll need to be able to cast on and off, knit, purl, increase and decrease easily and be comfortable with most knitting instructions. You don’t need to be experienced with colourwork. The point is to learn.

To register, simply send an email to with “Colour Retreat” in the subject line, and include your name, address and phone numbers, and we’ll call you to arrange it. The first 45 knitters are in, and we can’t wait to see you.