2012 Rockin’ Sock Club

Today, Wednesday ( It’s Wednesday right?) January 4th at 1:00 pm PST our beloved Rockin’ Sock Club starts it’s 7th year and the sign-ups for that go live.
Here’s the link with all the particulars and the magic Register Here button.
Please scroll down to find the button. Again we will not be turning it on until 1:00 pm PST today.

If someone you love gifted you with a Rockin’ Sock Club Gift Certificate (Not to be confused with a regular Blue Moon Gift Certificate they are different.) you’ll find it waititng for you in your Rockin’ Sock Account.

1. Follow the link in the email you were sent. If you’re a new user, click Create new account. Skip the next step.

2. For a returning Notorious Sock Knitter and Rockin’ Sock Club member only, enter your username and password. (If you don’t remember your password, the system can resend you one to your email address associated with your account. If you’d prefer, we can reset your password via email, or you can call Paula to reset it over the phone. Please be patient with us if you choose to call. We have one line and will do our very best to get back to you as soon as possible.)

3. After you login, you will be on a page that says My Account. Your gift certificate will be listed there.

4. Click on Purchase (in the center at the top of the page), add a 2012 US or Canada or International Rockin’ Sock Club Membership (not another Gift Certificate!) to your cart and proceed to checkout. It will ask for your billing address. If desired, check the box to make it the same as your delivery address. After reading them please check the “I agree with the Terms of Service” box. At the bottom of the form, you should see the payment option for Gift Certificate beneath PayPal and Credit Card options. Select that and click Review Order button. Verify all your information is correct and click Submit Order button.

5. If you were given a gift certificate and your giver wanted it to be a surprise, they set up the account in their name so that you, the recipient, would not recieve an confirmation email, thus ruining the surprise. In order to redeem it now, here it what needs to happen:

It’s sort of convoluted, the giver purchases a new gift certificate with the old gift certificate info/account and has it sent to you, the actual recipient, this time around. The giver has an account associated with the gift certificate that they purchased, so they’ll need to log into that account and purchase a new gift certificate, then have it sent to the you, as the recipient this, time around. No money actually changes hands - it’s essentially just transferring the gift certificate from one account to another.

You can email or call us and we can help with this if need be. It is faster at this point if the giver of your certificate does this.  We do hope that a drupal programmer will fix this aspect of this module before 2013. 

Let us know if you have any troubles or questions we’re here to help.

Happy knitting!

Help wanted!

If you’ve read my previous posts you know there have been some big changes in Blue Moon land this past month.  I’m starting to think of it as the Blue Moon Exodus of 2011. Stephen and Sam have left us for very good reasons that you can read in the previous posts below.  We are still recouping from those two losses, they are both great people and equally wonderful at their jobs.
Well… my knitterly friends, because the universe is a wild and wacky place and these things come in threes (We all know they do,I don’t know why I did not see this coming. I know better.) yesterday our shipping/customer service goddess Paula, gave her notice. Yup.

Paula and her husband Tom have had their house on the market for close to 2 years now and out of the blue, last week it sold. This means that now she and her lovely Tom can move back to the midwest where most of Paula’s family resides and where Paula’s heart is.
We are very happy for Paula. (Repeat as needed through the day.) Truly we really are happy for her.  We love Paula and when you love someone you have their best interest at heart.
(Again with the repeat as needed.)
So what does this all mean? Well, besides the obvious stress, adjustment and heartbreak for the chick that doesn’t like change or the people she loves leaving. Seriously, I feel like I have been so good about all of this. No big fits or huge crying episodes (at least not publicly).

It means that Blue Moon is hiring:
We are looking for a production dyer and general production worker both of which are full time positions.
Both of the production jobs are physically demanding. Hand painting yarn is not for whimps.  Wool is heavy when wet and with dyeing you have wet yarn. In other words the faint of heart need not apply. 
Rosie says, WORD! 
I don’t mean to be negative it’s just there’s a romantic ideal that some people have about yarn and dyeing related jobs.  We’re just trying to keep it real for all of our sakes. Don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble.

The production dyer job involves standing at a dye table painting yarn by following very specific recipes that I have created for each colourway.
There is a lot more to it than that but that is the bottom line. You have to be able to follow a recipe.

The production job entails lots and lots of yarn touching. You’ll be rinsing yarn, hanging it to dry, bundling, tagging, skeining, balling and packing yarn and fibers. It’s a whole lot of yarn touching. If you love yarn and don’t mind working hard then we are the place for you.  You can roll in it too if you want.

We’re located in Scappoose Oregon so you would need to be local to our area.  We are a happy, fairly well adjusted creative bunch, that love our jobs. It’s hard work but we have loads of fun doing it.
If you are interested and want to know more please email me, Tina ( depravedDyer) here:

Since a picture is worth a thousand words:

Under the weather.

Under the weather. As idioms go, I think this one aptly describes that beginning aspect of sickness that leaves you icky but still functional.  I seem to be fighting off some bug or another today or at least trying to. Kitty Valla and I have gone back to bed to work, sip on tea, eat soup, and hopefully kick this bugs arse.

As you can see from the photo Valla’s idea of working from bed and mine are very different.

Although… she’s a pretty smart cat, so probably hers is the better plan.

My favourite comfort food for under the weather is my Ginger Miso soup.( What’s yours?)
I have been making this for my family for years. All the kids love it and ask for it even now. Sophie and I just polished off a pot of it last week.
I keep getting requests for this recipe so here it is:

Under the weather Miso Ginger Soup

In a sauce pan:
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 heaping tablespoon of grated ginger
4 green onions chopped
I/2 cup grated beet ( red or gold )
1/2 cup grated zuke
Saute all of this in a small amount of sesame oil until garlic and ginger are toasted.
Then add 10 cups of water or veggie broth. Let the water heat to a boil .
Turn heat down to a simmer and add 2 tablespoon of red ginger paste and about an 1/8th of a cup of apple cider vinegar.
If I have it on hand and I almost always do I add in a smidge of umeboshi plum paste.
Let all of that simmer about until the veg starts to be one with the broth and then enjoy.

I usually have to make twice this amount. My youngest Sophie loves it and will easily consume that amount all by herself is a 6 hour period.
The beauty of this is you can add in whatever veg you have or like.  Just keep in mind it’s supposed to be a brothy soup.

Ok I’m off to snuggle a kitty, proof a few patterns, knit on the one Christmas present I’m knitting and probably make some soup.

PS. 1: We shipped out the last of this years sock club yesterday and the loveliest thing happened as it walked out the door. You can see here .

PS. 2: Marisol you are a sweetie! Those are wonderful cookies. Thank you! You made the barn girls day!!

PS.3: I was going to rotate Valla’s picture the way it should be but thought better of it. (under the weather better of it)