And Show Season Begins!

15MarApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

Today is an exciting day, because today starts a series of yarn shows that I’ve been looking forward to for months! This weekend is the Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival (15-17 March in Mars PA), followed next weekend by HomeSpun Yarn Party (24 March in Savage MD), then a quick break for Easter before Knitters Fantasy (6 April in Youngstown OH). It’s going to crazy, busy, fun, exciting, and… whoooo-boy, pretty exhausting too!

But this year, there is more reason to be excited than usual, because we have some GREAT stuff to share with you this year. Here let me tell you all about it…

Colourways like you’ve never seen before!

Our show stock this year is focused on one-of-a-kind and unsual colourways. Yes, there are a few of the standard colourways, but those are always available to you in the shop. For the shows this year, we’ve really cranked up the dyepots and created some gorgeous, vibrant, eye-catching mixes that you may never see again. I can’t wait to see what you think of them!

Sparkly Heels & Toes Kits

It started with the idea of knitting socks out of a lovely skein of Stella in one colourway with fabulously sparkly heels and toes with a coordinating baby skein of our wonderful Lucina. Who wouldn’t want funky socks with sparkly heels and toes?!?

But then, I thought, why would you stop at just socks? What about a delicate shawl with a sparkly lace edging? How about lovely mitts with a sparkly lace cuff?

Or wait… what about sparkly stripes?!? How cool would that be?!? I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with!

Laura Nelkin’s Juego Mystery KAL Kits

Yep, you read that right! And yep, when Laura announced the Juego KAL on her blog, six weeks of kits sold out in 36 hours! We’ve been dyeing like crazy ever since to meet the demand but, at Laura’s request, I’ve dyed a few extras for the shows. They won’t last long — get in and grab yours quick!

Dublin Tee Kits

I adore Melissa Jean’s amazing Dublin Tee! Can’t you see yourself wearing it to… well, pretty much everywhere? So I know you’re going to love our Dublin Tee kits, created in Lyra, Ester, and Celeste — the very yarns that the pattern was designed for — and all packaged up in a sweet little bag for you carry them home and cast on straight away. And to thank you for buying the kit, we’re treating you to the $7 pattern for free!

The Secret Show-Exclusive Colourway!

Now, this is something really special — a custom colourway that I’ve designed exclusively for these Spring shows. It’s rich and deep, multi-tonal with pops of colour and hidden surprises… Intrigued? I’m absolutely in love with it, but you can’t get it unless you come to the shows. In fact, you can’t even see what it looks like unless you come and visit us!

Welllll… I will tell you, it’s in Celeste, which is the lovely 3-ply fingering weight in 100% Superwash Merino that Laura Nelkin chose for her Juego. And wellll… I’m not completely heartless — here’s a little sneak peak…

Ok, but seriously — come and see us at the show! We’d love to see you!

Don’t Forget…

Oh, and one last thing — but this is only for the brave… If love our little SpaceCadet as much as we do, go ahead and ask me for a tattoo! We had so much fun at HomeSpun last year with all the bold, brave women who wore their SpaceCadet tats with pride, and I would love to do it again. Arms, faces, shoulders… cleavage! They’re all fair game, and the SpaceCadet’s cheeky grin looks cute on all of them. So don’t be afraid — let’s tat you up!

And if you can’t make the shows?

Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten you! All the great kits you’ve see here will be making it into the shop once show season is over. So keep your eyes peeled and your needles at the ready. But if you can get to the shows, do it. They’re so much fun, and you know you want to!

The InterStellar Yarn Alliance is open for Subscriptions

from March 8 to March 24 only!

The Yarn Alliance is Open for Subscriptions!

08MarSeptember 4, 2015 By Stephanie

Ok, you know what I’m about to say and I am just sooooo excited it’s here at last! So many of you have been emailing me and sending me messages about it, that I can’t wait to say…

The InterStellar Yarn Alliance is open for subscriptions!!!

The Yarn Alliance is the SpaceCadet’s fantastic yarn club, and Spring subscriptions are available from March 8 to March 24 only.

And why am I so excited? Because, probably more than anything else I do in this job, I love creating the yarn and coming up with the gifts for this club. This is my chance to really connect with you guys, to get to know you in the forum and through your projects. And when I dye the exclusive club colourways and come up with those fabulous SpaceCadet gifts, I’m doing it all with real people — with you guys! — in my mind.

Members of the InterStellar Yarn Alliance receive fabulous parcels delivered to their door every other month, containing:

SpaceCadet^® Creations yarn (fingering 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

A 6 month subscription (3 parcels) is $135
and a 12 month subscription (6 parcels) is $249.

Ready to join the fun? Spring subscriptions close in two weeks and spaces are limited so grab yours quick!

Six month subscriptions include 3 parcels; twelve month subscriptions include 6 parcels. Parcels will be sent out in early January, March, May, July, September, and November. Subscription openings will be available in March and September. Shipping within the United States is included in the price; extra charges apply for shipping outside the US..
Normal subscription openings for the InterStellar Yarn Alliance are two weeks only in March and September of each year.
Got questions? We’re happy to help! info(at)spacecadetcreations(dot)com

The InterStellar Yarn Alliance will Open on…

05MarSeptember 4, 2015 By Stephanie

In all the rush of last week, I totally forgot to make an announcement that a lot of you have told me you’re waiting for…

So I’m just slipping in this quick mid-week reminder for you. This is one seriously fun club — gorgeous yarns and fabulous gifts — and spaces go fast. All the details are here, and subscriptions are open from March 8 only until March 24.

So quick! Go mark it on your calendar so you can grab your space on Friday!

Laura Nelkin’s Juego Mystery KAL

01MarApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve been hinting for a little while about something special that I’ve been cooking up with Laura Nelkin. She’s a Craftsy instructor and the designer behind some of the most beautiful beaded lacework patterns out there (as well as the lovely Mythos). And a few months ago, she rang me up with an idea for a little collaboration…

I was over the moon when she asked me to dye the yarn for Juego, her newest Mystery KAL. What fun! Lacework, beads, and beautiful kits of SpaceCadet Celeste yarn in three coordinating colour combinations — Translucence & Plume, Diaphanous & Honey, and Five Rings & Feather — all hand-selected by Laura for a design that only she had seen… I could not wait for this to go live!

Laura and I discussed how many kits we thought would sell, and agreed to have about half already dyed, with the other half prepped and ready to go as soon as they were needed. She went live with the KAL yesterday, and I planned to let you all know about it in my blog post today.

And then… then… it just went NUTS! Within a couple of hours, she had pages of sign-ups on her Ravelry thread. Juego was flying up the ‘Hot Right Now’ pattern list. And the orders started coming in…

Every. single. one. of the dyed kits sold out by mid-day. I couldn’t believe it! I released kits for pre-order… They sold out within hours. As I was having dinner, people were emailing to ask if there were more, actually jostling for reserve kits. I released still more pre-orders… and they flew! By the end of the first day, we’d sold more kits than we had expected to sell for the entire run up to the KAL. Laura and I were both stunned!

So, I had planned on announcing this to all of you this morning, and hoped a few of you would go grab a kit and join in the KAL fun. And I still hope you will but, crickey, it’s going to be a lot harder to nab one of those kits than I’d thought! There are a few kits left at the moment, if you run over there quick.

And then I’m going to get to dyeing, and Laura and I are going to regroup, and we’ll release more pre-orders as we assess how much can be dyed and delivered before the KAL starts.

But there is one thing that this has shown me beyond any shadow of a doubt: that knitters and crocheters are an amazing force when they they know what they want, and that is an awesome thing to witness. Yesterday was just so wild… so exciting… absolutely mind-blowing!

Thank you all for giving me this job — honestly, I can’t imagine any job I could love more.

SpaceCadet Yarn Now Dyed to Order!

22FebApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

We are in flat out dyeing mode right now to get ready for the upcoming shows and KALs in March. And I’ve got lots to tell you about them — new kits, new project ideas, and some really exciting exclusive colourways. But all that in good time. For now, I have some lovely images to share with you, and one small but very important announcement.

First, the images. Here’s a little glimpse of the studio this week…

You can see why I love dyeing, right? And now, the announcement…

SpaceCadet Yarns Now Dyed to Order

I made a small but very significant change to the shop this week. You didn’t notice? Yeah, that’s ok — it is very small. But it kind of changes everything.

As things have grown and gotten busier here at the SpaceCadet studio, one thing that just hasn’t happened is regular shop updates. I love dyeing the yarns, love coming up with new colourways, but when it comes to sitting down and photographing them, then uploading the photos to the shop, then typing in all the details… well, I always find myself drawn back to the dyepots and the shop update just doesn’t get done.

But that’s no good for you, is it?!? You can’t buy what’s not in the shop! So, I’ve decided to give you the best of both worlds. You can buy what’s in the shop — and shop updates will still happen — but when when a colourway or a yarn that you are just itching to work with is not in stock, you can now go ahead and order it to be custom dyed!

Every SpaceCadet colour, every SpaceCadet yarn, available to you any time. See, that really does change everything, doesn’t it?

When we receive your order, we’ll get to work dyeing your custom yarn. Now, because each yarn is created by hand, we do ask you to allow 4-6 week for your order to be completed but, in truth, we always aim to beat that and get your yarn out to you as quickly as possible. That timescale is really there to allow for busier times of year and the more complicated orders. The best thing about the whole dyeing process? Packing those lovely bundles of yarny goodness in their boxes and sending them off to become exciting new projects!

So there you go — one tiny little alteration that brings enormous change and wonderful news!

And here, before we go, one last image from the studio. I just love these greens against that rust, don’t you?

The Week of Fabulous!

08FebApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

This Sunday: Indie Knit & Spin Boutique

Whatcha up to this weekend? For me, the spring yarn show season will be starting whilst there’s still snow on the ground, with a lovely little show on Sunday called Indie Knit & Spin Boutique.

I’m so looking forward to it! It’s going to be a small, really intimate event — just five local fiber artists coming together to share with you the very best of their recent work. I’ll be bringing lots of yarns that have never been in the shop (and may never get in the shop either!). Tons of one-of-a-kind and fun experimental colourways.

Come out and see us!

Indie Knit & Spin Boutique
Sunday February 10th, 2012, 12:00-5:00
At the Cosymakes Studio, 1406 South Negley, Pittsburgh PA
(Click here for a map!)
Vendors: SpaceCadet Creations, Cosymakes Studio,
Gwen Erin Natural Fibers, Fibernymph Dye Works, and Burgh Baby Gear

KnitCircus Interviews the SpaceCadet

I was absolutely tickled pink several weeks ago when Jaala Spiro asked if she could interview for KnitCircus. I’ve known her for a few years now, and always enjoyed her work, so I said yes immediately — chatting with Jaala is always so much fun!

And I think you can tell we enjoyed doing the interview. I got to talk about how I started dyeing, my upcoming projects, and how much fun I have dyeing for our customers. If you didn’t get a chance to see it, click here to read the whole thing.

The Love Actually KAL Casts On this Thursday

Valentine’s Day is on its way and this year we’re bypassing the chocolates and mushy cards and going straight for what really matters: casting on a fabulous new project in gorgeous yarns. The Love Actually KAL starts on Feb 14 and I simply cannot believe the response — so many people have signed up!

If you’ve not joined yet, there’s still time. And just a few of those fabulous Love Actually KAL Kits left in the shop! Click here to read all the details about the KAL and click here to grab one of the last kits!