If the start of the year is supposed to be a clean slate, a chance to start fresh, you don’t want to start it with that sudden sinking feeling of knowing that you totally goofed… but I did! The kind of big goof that had me staring at my screen in disbelief, then slapping myself on the forehead, and then scrambling to fix everything. This is not how the year is supposed to start…
The SpaceMonsters Club, as you know, opened in December and there was a wonderful flurry of activity as members renewed their subscriptions. Tons of them! And it warmed my heart because it told me that they’ve really enjoyed being part of the club — enjoyed it enough to come back for more!
But as I watched all those renewers sign up, I didn’t notice that hardly any new people were joining. A few here and there but… hardly any. Chalk it up to the holidays, to the rush of last-minute orders and then the busy-ness of seeing family and friends… but I just didn’t notice that hardly anyone new was joining the SpaceMonsters club…
Until an email came in a few days ago from Kate, asking if there were any spaces left… and that’s when I looked and saw this weird imbalance of hardly any new joiners and…
…SPOTTED THAT THE JOINING BUTTONS WERE BROKEN!
Broken. Not there. Lots of info on the page but… no way to join. What?!? The buttons had been fine! I’d checked them. What happened?!? I started digging, scrambling around in the back of my website like a crazed squirrel digging for nuts, when it suddenly dawned on me: the platform that my website is built with had done a big update a couple of weeks ago, a kind of end-of-the-year upgrade, that I hadn’t taken much notice of but which I now realised had left everything else on my website running except… it had completely removed the SpaceMonster joining buttons!
Oh, I was so embarrassed. People must have been coming to the site to join and… gahhhh, it was like my site wasn’t fully dressed!
After a little bit of scrambling (…and then some swearing …and then a cookie), I figured it out and got the codeworking again. And now the buttons are in place and everything in order.
So, if you’ve been wanting to join our awesome SpaceMonsters Club, to hop on board with all those happy renewing members, you can now do that that! And I’ll be keeping the club open an extra week (until Jan 14) to make sure you can. Click here to get in on the fun!
And if there’s a silver lining to every storm, what would this one be….? I’m telling myself starting 2019 with a big, embarrassing goof-up is a good omen, like rain on your wedding day. Start the year low and it’s bound to go up!
…right?
This story is absolutely lovely… When Clare’s husband died, her psychologist suggested knitting as therapy. When Ian’s wife died, he was left with her huge stash of yarn. And when that brought the two of them together… they found love after grief. Awwww!
If you’re a continental knitting, have you tried Norwegian Purling? It’s where you keep the yarn in back whilst purling. Intriguing, right? I haven’t tried it yet but a couple of days ago, the SpaceCadet crew were all watching this video and deciding they had to try it.
Have you heard about the Lots of Socks Initiative? The idea is to show support for the Downs Syndrome community by wearing two different colorful socks to highlight the uniqueness of those individuals affected by the condition. And because she designs lots of socks, Lisa Ross (creater of the Flickering Light shawl) reached out to a bunch of her fellow designers and makers to create a unique KAL (starting on Feb 1) to support this great cause! Click here to learn more and get involved
If you follow me on Instagram, you know I love my journals and fountain pens. If you’re like me, you might enjoy this article about the growing fountain pen community.
Speaking of journals, did you see the awesome handmade journal covers that our SpaceMonster Club members received in December? They were custom made for us by StarKnits and I love that mine works perfectly with the A5 bullet journal I use for all my knitting and design notes. I love so much in fact that I recorded a little video to show the members how I use it. Want to see too? Click here!
The SpaceMonster Club is Open (and the buttons WORK!)
See that yarn below? There’s a story behind it — it’s about a squirrel that sits on my back porch and watches for me through the window, and another in the tree that chatters and chides him. I wrote the whole story out and shared it with our SpaceMonster Club members last month, as I do the stories behind all their yarns.
And that’s because there’s something really, really special about dyeing for the folks who join our clubs. They’ve on a colour adventure with us and I want to share with them all the love and excitement we put into each colourway. To me, that’s an amazing honour!
Would you like to join me on this colour adventure? The SpaceMonster Club is our worsted and bulky weight club, because big squishy yarns are smooshy and soft and so much fun to work with (they’re so quick!). I mean, they’re what got me started knitting in the first place (you too?). If you feel the same way I do, and you love colour like I do, click here to join us in all this lovely squishy yarny fun!
Upcoming Shows
Feb 23 — Indie Knit & Spin at the Ace Hotel in Pittsburgh PA
March 15-17 — The Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Greentree PA
Sole e Stelle Wrap by Clara Keegan
I was so excited when I saw that Clara, long-time club member and friend-of-SpaceCadet, had debuted her first design that I just had to share it. And what a debut it is! Designed in SpaceCadet Luna, our gorgeous silk-merino cobweb lace yarn, its amazingly ethereal stitchwork is instantly worthy of heirloom status. Congratulations Clara — it’s beautiful!
I Love A Theme Hat, Cowl, and Mitts by Corrine Walcher
When Corrine Walcher created the beautiful Dot Matrix sweater with one of our Linking gradient Sweater Sets, she had enough yarn left over that she used it to design this matching hat, cowl, and mitts! Perfectly named, the gradient effect looks amazing and the result is gorgeous! And as she says in her Instagram posts #nosuchthingasleftoveryarn
McCaslin Tunisian Hat by Robyn Chachula
I’ve always found Tunisian crochet fascinating… in theory… and the delightfully textured stitch pattern in Robyn Chachula’s latest hat design might just get me to try it! I absolutely love the way the stitches move the colour around and the worsted yarn will be lovely and warm. Now, I know I have a Tunisian hook around here somewhere…
Images © the respective designers, used with permission
Ok, today I am heading down to the studio to play with a new colourway that we planned out the other day. It’s always exciting to see if the dye will do what we expect it to (because sometimes it does and sometimes… heh!… it really doesn’t!). I hope you’ve got something fun planned for today and don’t forget to join the SpaceMonsters! Until next time, all my best…