NEW COLORWAYS!!

I had a great time playing in the dyes leading up to KDO and in the process, created 7 new colorways. They are all available in my Etsy shop now. I am working out the details of a sale in my Etsy shop...info will be coming soon so watch this space.

Meanwhile, about the new colorways...

Sophisticated Schoolgirl is still one of my favorite colorways (and always a best seller). I decided to break up the three colors (hot pink, lime green, and purple) and use pairs of those colors to see what happens. The results are two new colorways, Birthday Girl and Cyndi (Girls Just Wanna Have Fun).

Birthday Girl

Cyndi (Girls Just Wanna Have Fun)

Then, while I was still in a 2-color groove I decided to do a colorway I had been thinking about for a while called, Oh Baby! (baby pink and baby blue)

Oh Baby!

And for my green-lovin' friends I created Mandrake. I was originally toying with names like Green Dragon, Dragon's Wing, and even Welsh Dragon (I love the flag of Wales but later realized that while their colors are red, white, and green the dragon himself is red). Then thought about the dragon from Paulette Jaxton's story "The Emperess Sword" and realized that these were the same colors of green I had used to depict him in the LE Balticon Colorway I did that was inspired by that title. And so, this is Mandrake...

Mandrake

I had one more bi-colored bit of fun in the form of Yellow Jacket. This is a yarn designed to stripe (as is Cyndi). I wanted to do something for my non-pink, non-red friends and also something for my Pittsburgh Steeler friends. So, some glorious yellow and black.

Yellow Jacket

And finally, I wanted a couple of not-quite-so-bright colorways for the more traditional folks out there who might not want the crazy colors I usually end up creating. These are tri-color creations. Designed to not stripe (or at least, not as boldly). More tonal versions of my madness. 

First up is Lioness. She is tawny, golden, and glorious.

Lioness

And finally, some of the colors my mom adores (greys). The last one was designed to go with a navy, grey, or black suit. I was envisioning pinstripes when I created it. Meet Management Material.

 Management Material

You can see more pics of these colorways (including swatches of everyone except Cyndi at my shop)

Knitter's Day Out 2011

I finally attended a show as a VENDOR! Knitter's Day Out (KDO) is a small but well attended one day event (with some bonus time on Friday evening) held each September at the Central Pennsylvania College in Summerdale, PA. The vendors are primarily local (and a few from farther away) yarn shops. 

I took a few photos Friday afternoon as people were setting up... was too busy Saturday at our booth to wander around very much. Besides, I was having too much fun meeting and talking to great folks. 

All set up just waiting for Mom and her fiber to arrive

Mom all set up and getting ready to start spinning.

During the show I spun part of one of my braids of roving using my favorite Golding drop spindle while Mom spun up some Brains using her brand new Lendrum wheel. Spinning in public is a great conversation starter; even among fiber folks.

Before and After spun by me at the show on my drop spindle.

Before and After spun by Mom at home the week before the show.

Handspun Brains

Thank You

Balticon has come and gone. It was a glorious long weekend full of friends who are so amazingly talented and creative. The highlight of the weekend was the Needleworker's Tea. Or, as I preferred to call it, the Yarnaholic's Tea. It was arranged by three friends of mine in the style of a formal tea. It was so successful that there was hardly room to move. It will happen again next year (with a few tweaks...like a bigger room and more time).

There were people knitting, spinning, crocheting, and doing needlepoint and cross-stitch there.  The tables were laden with every imaginable type of biscuit, cookie, cake, and scone; and there were at least a dozen different varieties of tea in beautiful teapots. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and it was a joy to see so many people enjoying yarn, tea, and yummy goodness.

As for my sales, this year was even more successful than last year. Overall, my sales were up 50% and of the eight colorways I created, I sold out of four of them!!  The few remaining skeins will go into my Balticon Yarn Vault. I'm not sure what I'll do with them now, but they can go sit with the few skeins left from last year. Perhaps, one day I'll make a larger special project out of them...

Thank you to those who purchased these Limited Edition colorways that are so special to me and were such a joy to create. I'm already thinking about some of the books and/or podcasts that I might try using as inspiration for next year... I hope to see you there!