It is officially one of the most exciting days of the year! So exciting that I left my knit group early — bolted right outta there — to get the website updated for the stroke of midnight. So, what is it that’s got me so excited?
I love everything about today. Everything! I love the weeks leading up to it when I can feel the buzz in the air, and everyone is asking what day subscriptions will go live. I get so excited as the new memberships come rolling in, and even more excited to see the current members renew. The tweets and the emails and the chatter on facebook… Ohhhh, it’s all so much fun!!!
And you know why I love it so much? Because I get to dream up the most fabulous (and exclusive!) colourways for you guys, and share my inspirations in the dyer’s notes. Oh, and I love putting together cool extra gifts for you! Most of all, I love getting to know all the members, and seeing all the different projects you guys create with your yarn. The InterStellar Yarn Alliance has got to be one of the best parts of my job!
And when I hear that the members love it too, it puts me over the moon…
All The Details
Members of the InterStellar Yarn Alliance receive fabulous parcels delivered to their door every other month, containing:
SpaceCadet ® Creations yarn (light to medium weight) in an exclusive Yarn Alliance colourway (guaranteed not to be offered on the SpaceCadet website for at least 6 months)
A great Yarn Alliance gift tucked into every parcel!
The SpaceCadet’s Log exploring the inspiration for each colourway.
The InterStellar Yarn Alliance newsletter with periodic special offers exclusively for members.
A 15% off coupon every six months
Subscriptions are for either 6 months (3 parcels) for $125, or for 12 months (6 parcels) for $235.
Want to join the fun?
C’mon! We’d love to have you! Click here to learn more.
I have been working like a mad woman — there have been trunk shows, and more coming up (see below for details), I’ve been dyeing for the next Yarn Alliance parcel and for some great new shops, and getting ready for Rhinebeck… Oh, and building a new online shop. Let it never be underestimated how much work goes into a new shop!
Y’know, I could say that again. Neverrrrrr underestimate. Never never never never…
But there’s good stuff in all that work too. One of the most fun: I’ve gotten to explore some fun new photography techniques to take some luscious new colourway pictures. What do you think to these?!?
A-a-a-and, if you know my colourways, and you’ve looked closely at that photo, you’ll have spotted that there’s a new one in there. It’s called Five Rings, and I created it for the latest bundle of yarns for the SpaceCadet’s Mini-Skein Club. The seed of inspiration was planted when Mindy at Clotheshorse magazine sent me one of their mood boards and asked me to dye a colour to go with it. And I just couldn’t stop! From that colour, I just kept mixing dyes until I’d created a whole new collection of gorgeous sun-baked spice colours, tempered with the cool of a silver-grey. And Five Rings is the one that ties all the colourways together.
This is one of the mini-skein bundles that went out to the Club members (clockwise from top left, they are: Five Rings, Burnt Clay, Mars, Drizzle, and Sun-Baked). Would you be understanding if I told you that I very very nearly didn’t send out the parcels this month? That I very nearly kept all the skeins for meeeeeeee?
Well, after all the bundles went out, I went into the studio and quickly dyed a whole bunch more, in at least five different yarn types. Look for them as soon as they are dry!
Mark Your Calendars!
If you live in the Baltimore/DC area, you do not want to miss the PLY party (Peace, Love, and Yarn) at Lovelyarns on Sept 9. It’s a hand-dyed extravaganza with fresh yarns from a ton of indie dyers. Make sure you’re there!
Just one week later, on Sept 15, we’ll be doing a trunk show at the fabulous KNOTS (Knitting On The Square) in Chardon Ohio. I was up there earlier in the summer for a fabulous class with Brenda Dayne, and I can’t wait to go back! Will you be coming?
And… Oh oh oh! Mark your calendars and set an alarm, because the InterStellar Yarn Alliance will open for subscriptions from Sept 1 to Sept 16! The Yarn Alliance is the SpaceCadet’s fabulous yarn club, full of gorgeous yarn, exclusive colourways, and fantastic goodies. Spaces are limited, so click here to check it out!
If you were listening closely in the middle of June, I am quite certain that you heard a loud noise in the distance. And you might have thought it was just a child yelling three streets over, or a dog who suddenly spotted a stray cat, or a distant explosion of some sort. But no, it was me, letting out a scream on the day I met a dress.
I was at TNNA and had run into Heather Dixon, the designer at Army of Knitters and the creative director at Clotheshorse magazine. And, after some lovely chit-chat about the Universal Importance of a good cup of tea, Heather suddenly said, “Oh, the dress!” and took this little number down from the rail…
Months and months previously, Heather and Mindy Brown, the editorial director at Clotheshorse (and the designer of the dress) had asked me to dye some Celeste in the colourway Stewed Cranberries for a segment they were doing on indie dyers. And so I dyed it up and sent it off and… went back to normal life. And I think maybe I knew it was for a dress, but I really didn’t have any vision of what it might eventually be like. I have no idea why, but my head had conjured up something like a heavy, elongated sweater with cables running down the front…
So when Heather pulled Bayeux, it was so completely NOT what I was expecting… And so incredibly gorgeous — with that fabulous combination of knitted top and crocheted skirt, lovely nipped-in waist, sweet capped sleeves, and asymmetrical crochet hemline — that I think I actually let out a little scream right there on the TNNA show floor.
And that is the noise that you heard. But then, if you’d suddenly realised that the yarn you’d dyed and sent away those many months ago had been turned into something so incredibly stunning as Bayeux, you’d have squealed too, right?
I’ve put a bunch of Celeste in the shop that will be perfect for this dress, in Stewed Cranberries, Honey, and a really gorgeous experimental green. And a bunch of other great yarns too… Click here to check it out!
(Also, everyone please cross fingers that the next shop update will be in the new shop! There’s a lot of work between here and there, but I am really looking forward to having that big button above take you to the brand new SpaceCadet shop! Wooot!)
Hey, I just have to tell you about this because I am so excited! Do you remember a few weeks ago I introduced you to the wonderful Melissa and her new podcast SingleHandedKnits, which she records beneath the palm trees and on the beaches of Hawaii? Well, Melissa is putting together a fantastic KAL in honour of the upcoming election. It’s called Sock the Vote, and Melissa has asked me to dye custom colourways for two the “parties”. It’s going to be a BLAST! But spaces are limited and going fast so — quick! — click here to take a mid-day trip to Hawaii and let Melissa explain all about it.
…You know what? Go ahead and click that link regardless. Because no matter where you are or what you’re doing right now, somehow everything just feels that much better when you see those palm tree swaying in the background. And, seriously, Melissa is just such a lovely, positive person, you can’t help but smile as soon as you see her. Go on, click!
Summer is a lazy time — long days, blue skies, and sunlight dappled through the trees. Maybe some cold drinks and, if you’re very lucky, a hammock. Boy oh boy, I need to grab me some of that!
But, I have felt anything but lazy! While summer is going great guns* outside, I am busy preparing for the cooler months that will follow. I have several hundred pounds of yarn to dye, some great LYSs to send orders to, and some fabulous yarn festivals to prep for (including…. Rhinebeck!!!! Squee with me!!!).
Yep, it’s a busy time here. But as well as all that, there are a few other exciting things that I’m working on, and I am dying to share them with you. So, before I go back into the studio, let me just give you a sneak peek…
A Brand New SpaceCadet Shop!
I have been dreaming about this for nearly two years now and I can’t believe it’s almost here! My Big Summer Project is to put together a brand new SpaceCadet shop — one that I can totally customise to make it super-easy for you to search for the yarn you know you want …or browse for the one that you never knew you needed so much! Easy and adventurous — isn’t that the way that yarn shopping should be?
As soon as the new shop is ready, I’ll make sure you know about it (believe me, I’ll be singing it on the rooftops!). In the meantime, it’s still very much a Work In Progress but here’s a quick look:
(Please, do a little happy dance with me, will you?)
Fabulous New Yarns!
Ok, this just has me giddy with excitement! As I started laying out the new shop, I realised what I really, really wanted to go along with it is a truly great fleet of yarns. So we’ve spent these last few months auditioning new yarns: dyeing them up, trying them out, (and, of course snorgling them!). And, after a really difficult elimination process, we’ve finally decided which we liked best.
The result is a fleet of yarns that is going to make your fingers itch to cast on! Folks, we’re going from seven yarns to 18. There will be some beautiful heavier yarns — sport, DK, worsted, and bulky — and a fantastic line up of lighter yarns, including four laceweights and no less than eight fingering yarns! Wanna see them? Welllll… they’re not dry enough to photograph yet, but the tags might give you a little clue. Here, have a quick look…
(Intrigued…? Stay tuned, they’ll be available very soon!)
The Yarn Harlot’s Omlet Could Be Yours!
Ok, this last one has nothing to do with my special summer projects, but I just have to share it with you! As you might know, the Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, picked up a skein of SpaceCadet laceweight yarn from one of my trunk shows in Cleveland and has been knitting it in a beautiful pattern called Omelet. She finished it this week and I have to admit, when she posted the photos on her blog, I was blown away. It’s a stunning shawl.
And it could be yours! Yep, that’s right — the Yarn Harlot has knit the most intricate, ethereal, gorgeous piece of lacework that nobody should ever dream of giving away and… she’s auctioning it off to the highest bidder! It’s all to raise funds as she takes part in the 14th Annual Friends For Life Bike Rally in support of Toronto People With AIDS Foundation. Through the amazing generosity of knitters, she has already raised thousands of dollars — but she’s doing this one last push before the bike rally begins this weekend.
If you’d like a chance to win the Omelet shawl knit by the Yarn Harlot, click here to find out how to bid for it. As for me, I am so just thrilled that she’s chosen to make such a beautiful project out of a skein of SpaceCadet yarn (which I honestly thought she was buying just to be polite!). …And then is using it for such a good cause.
*Do people say “going great guns” over here? Is that a phrase you use in the States? If not, it means everything’s going along just fine.
Sometimes less is more, sometimes simple is best. And so often I forget about that and all caught up in fancy and complicated and intricate and time-consuming… And then someone pulls out their project and I go over to smoosh it and I realise it’s garter stitch. Garter stitch! So simple, so easy, and — I forget this every time — so lovely and smooshy.
I love the feel of garter stitch fabric between my fingers. It feels thick and firm and, when I squeeze it, it resists, pushes back, holds its ground. Soft, delicate, drapey fabrics are all well and good, but there’s something about garter stitch… It holds a special place in my heart.
And it’s easy! And versatile! And because it tends to hide every other row, it does really interesting things to hand-dyed and variegated yarns. And did I mention easy? At the end of long project slogging away at some complicated lacework, coming back to garter stitch feels like going home to an old friend.
We have three samples that we take to shows that never fail to get people’s pulses racing. “What is this pattern?”, they ask. “Where can I get it?” They’re all three are by Martina Behm, they’re all eye-catching, and every one of them is simple, straightforward, and garter-stitch. It’s no wonder everyone makes a beeline for them!
They are Lintalla, with its lovely frilled edge; Trillian, with an intriguing eyelet edging; and Hitchhiker which, if you finish it, will actually teach you the answer to the ultimate question of life (…the universe and everything). And even though they’re all garter stitch, the construction itself is intriguing: you cast on just a few stitches at one corner, and then grow the shawl by knitting longer and longer rows until it forms an asymmetrical triangle. How cool is that?!?
But as much as I love those three, Martina’s newest design has got me positively swooning. This one has all the hallmarks of her other shawls — a corner start, asymmetrical shaping, and lovely garter stitch — but Leftie is… wait for it… designed to feature mini-skeins! Mini-Skeins!!!
The mini-skeins are worked as stripes that travel diagonally across the shawl to create a lovely border of little leaves along one side. Use only a few colours for a subdued shawl or grab as many mini-skeins as you can to create a riot of colour. Leftie will look gorgeous either way.
And if you need a little colour inspiration, how about a supply of mini-skeins delivered right to your door? Join SpaceCadet’s Mini-Skein Club and every month you’ll receive a beautiful bundle (or two!) of five 20g skeins made from a mix of the SpaceCadet’s fingering yarns. Play with the colours, try out the yarns, and stay in only until you have enough mini-skeins for your project size. Click here to read more!
I want you to pity me, ok? I mean, if you’re a knitter or crocheter, you’ll get what I saying. Because last week, we sent the InterStellar Yarn Alliance parcels to the club members and, while I was so excited to send them out, you have to consider the situation I was in only the day before…
The day before the parcels went out, I was surrounded by an enormous pile of smooshy, wonderful yarns in a colourway that Iloved. …That I just loved. Oh, and right next to that pile? There was a stack of goodies that were making my whole house smell incredible and which made me just want to sit there and breathe… breathe… Mmmmmm…
So the pity… Well, that comes in because I knew that the very next day, I’d have to send all that loveliness away. And I wanted them all. I wanted them all for meeeee. My dear members of the InterStellar Yarn Alliance, you very nearly never got your parcels!
But you’re a yarn addict too, so I know you understand.
The colourway for this parcel is called Juicy, and it is inspired by all the colours of the fruits and flowers that the heat of summer produces. And the gift is hand-made candles from Debbie at Divine Scentsations, in one of three sets of delicious scents perfect for the season: Fruits, Florals, or Clean & Fresh.
See what I mean? Reallllly hard to send away.
The InterStellar Yarn Alliance will open for subscriptions for two weeks only in September. If you’d like to be one of the first to hear about it, make sure you’re signed up for the SpaceCadet Creations mailing list. Click here to join it.
