Sock News: SOCK CAMP and a CONTEST!

What’s happening at Blue Moon-land in February?  So much, that we’re literally spinning with it all. Lucky for us we’re kind of all about the yarn with an extra twist.

First of all, it’s getting to be that Sock Camp time of the year, the time of year when Notorious Sock Knitters pack up their sock knitting tools, sense of adventure, camaraderie and head off to the wilds of the Resort at Port Ludlow for a rollicking knitting time. We’re so excited about this year because we’re going to be sock knitting pirates at Camp Cast Away. Along with our usual cast of characters, Stephanie Pear-McPhee, Debbi Stone and myself, we are lucky to have Lucy Neatby and Carson Demers joining us this year. We are pretty thrilled to have them both.

If you are a sock club member you’ll be able to register on February 15th ( 2012 Rockin’ Sock Club still has spots left.). If there is still room, we’ll open it for sock knitters at large, on February 18th.
We’ll be putting registration details up on the site on the 15th of February.

Along with Camp this year we are having a CONTEST.
I know… we all love a good contest and this is a good one, at least we think it is.
Every year that there’s been camp, there’s been a camp tee-shirt.  We like to think of them as collectible. (We can tell you that they make up the backbone of our wardrobes.)
There’s been graphics, pictures, every year is different, but this year we wanted to be really, really different.  This year, we want one of you to design it, so we’re having a contest.

There are a very few rules.
1. It has to do with the theme.  The theme is pirates. It’s called Camp Cast Away.
2. It has to say “ BMFA Sock Camp 2012” somewhere on it.
3. The design can go on the front or back.
4. Anyone can enter, even if they’re not a camper.

Besides those 4 rules, the shirt design can be anything you like. Just words, words and a picture, words and a drawing, just a drawing, whatever pleases you. Go nuts.
The winner gets glory (their design on all the camp shirts) a camp shirt (whether or not the winner is a camper) and a $100.00 gift certificate for Blue Moon Fiber Arts.
Please email us your entry at as a jpeg (You can send a low resolution version, we’ll ask finalists for the high resolution ones so we can see if they’re okay for printing) before March 10th. We’ll choose some finalists, put them up on The Blue Moon Blog (here), everyone will vote before March 12th, and then the winner will be announced on March 14th.

We can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with, because we know just how talented knitters are!

In the meantime… or life before Camp Cast Away, we have two of our favourite shows coming up.

Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat, Thursday February 16th through Sunday February 19th.
Please do come by and say hello, Deb Accuardi, Sam Roshak and Jen Clodious and myself, we’d love to see you. Bring your socks to show off. We love to see any of your hand-knit-wear, but the socks, they especially float our boats.
The following week is Stitches West, Thursday February 23rd through Sunday February 26th. The lovely Debbi Stone aka “Cockeyed the sockateer” and “Stitches of Your Life” designer will be there with some of our favourite knitters: Leianne Stinton, Carrie Sullivan and Leslie Wong. They would also love to see your hand-knit-wear, including socks in progress or socks on feet.

See… a whole lot of goings on here where the moon is blue.

Those of you who’ve been asking about when the new colours going up, I promise we will be doing that around the 24th. Back to back show prep like this is a megaton of dyework and bundling and… .  We want to make sure we have all that out the door before we put up the new colours, so we can focus all our attention on new and returning colourways!

I think that about covers it for now. Back to the dye pots!

All about aubergine.

Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions for my new dark and dreamy purple colourway’s name. I love playing this naming game so much. I think we need to do this more often. Somebody should get on this. (I know… that would be me.)
I don’t know about you, but I especially like seeing how a hue speaks to each of us individually. There are times when that personal translation is of such a varying spectrum that I wonder if we’re all seeing the same colourway and other times when there’s almost complete agreement, its like we’re one mind. At this point, I could go into how we actually aren’t seeing the same colours and the many reasons why, from computer monitors and lighting to how our brains work, but I have a huge to-do list today, and I am a woman on a mission. We should have this chat some other time though; it’s fascinating.
My youngest daughter and I interpret colour so differently that I sometimes wonder if she is indeed mine.  If I am feeling particularly evil—her teenage angst sometimes gets the better of me—I’ll pick a chromatic argument with her. 
Me: “Wow honey, that’s a beautiful sea green top your wearing. It brings out the green in your eyes."
Sophie: “ Ummm...duh mom, it’s blue.”
Me: “No… it’s more green than blue. Look at it in the light. Green-blue, not blue.”
I then start in on saturation levels and she tells me I’m colour blind, which I respond to with a laugh and snappy retort about what I do for a living. At this point I usually get an eye roll and a sigh. Great fun—well, for me, at least. Keep in mind that this is the same kid who calls me “colour obsessive,” so I think she’s messing with me as much as I with her. So...indeed her mother’s daughter, for sure.

Anyway. Must keep on topic. Remember the to-do list.

We seem to have an inspirational (sort of) consensus on this hue that falls into about three popular categories. We have the berry, (specifically blackberry) one, its dreamy, mysterious, sexy counterpart, and the kind of dark, goth camp.
I’m having one of my Gemini moments where I can see all sides of every little thing. Where I flip flop back and forth, all the while wishing that someone else would come make this decision for me while knowing perfectly well that I am way too much of a control freak to let that happen. (Yeah. It’s great to be me.)
I can see how each and everyone one of these names would be perfect for this colourway.  So, I’ve sat here with my skeiny friend in hand, and we’ve tried them all on. And they all fit like a glove (or a mitten or a scarf...).  A very blackberry hue, but also inky like a tattoo; it’s Deep Purple and a bit Cured, most certainly “Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’” and who would not want to be named Pleione? Such a lovely sounding word. See my dilemma?
All last week, as I drove Sophie to school, we were blessed with a few exquisite sunrises. We drive into Portland from Scappoose, which is into the rising sun over the mountains and down the Williamette.  A magical stunning view that makes our drive not only doable, but an uplifting experience some mornings. Last week, every environmental nuance came into play giving us, deep smokey purple mountains, the exact same hue as our dreamy blackberry bruise. As the sunrise illuminates the morning twilight shadows, there was the briefest of moments where that purple mountain majesty rolled off the mountains, down the river, and onto the valley floor. A little fog or mist presence (We live in Oregon there is always water in the air.) and… when it hits the river then what we have is some serious smoke on the water. A heart melting, soul warming, tingling from head to toe moment in living colour.

So maybe…
Smoke on the Water (Courtesy of Purple Mountains’ Majesty).

Not colour obsessed at all. No way. Not me.

Shipping Module Issue

Every year when USPS changes ups the rates our antiquated Shipping module has a bit of a spasm.
We then have to make it tea, hold it’s hand and help it through this change, which is what we are in the process of doing.
While we do this today,it is not going to let you choose your preferred option.
If you can hold of on your order until later today this will all we resolved. The website will be down for a few moments at some point today.
It will be a mere moment, hardly noticeable at all.

Thanks for your patience! 

In other news:  My wood stove is not working and way below freezing here this morning.

Brrr… .

And… I made a very sexy dark and dreamy purple yesterday. I have a great big crush on it and walked around the barn holding it up to all the other colours so they could meet and see if they wanted to play together. They do!
Rosie wants to paint her walls this hue, all of them.

It does not have a name yet if anyone has any ideas?