Announcing… Full Skeins and Sweater Kits of Mini-Skein Colourways!

The Mini-Skein Club is always wonderful fun for us at SpaceCadet — we love coming up with exciting colours for the Multicolour Mix, and developing the next step in the Never Ending colour story of the Gradient Mix.  I know how much you guys enjoy it, because you share your wonderful projects with us on Ravelry, but I have to tell you, it’s just as fun for us creating the yarns for those projects.

The SpaceCadet's Mini-Skein Club colourways for Feb2015

But what we hear the most from Club members and other customers is how much they’d like to be able to buy larger skeins of some of the Mini-Skein colourways.  And I agree — there are some fabulous colourways in those little bundles of yarny goodness!  It wasn’t something we could accomplish last year (some day I will tell you the saga of moving into our new studio…  and it is a saga) but, now that we are moved into our new space at last, we have a lot more freedom to bring you all those amazing colours.  And so I am delighted to announce …

Full Skeins and Sweater Kits of SpaceCadet® Mini-Skein Colourways!

Each month, we will pick our favourite colourways from both the Multicolour and Gradient Mixes, and offer them to you as full skeins and sweater kits on a selection of SpaceCadet bases.  Some will be exclusive to the Club members and some available to everyone, so you can order one skein or a sweater’s quantity — it’s up to you — to make a gorgeous, full-sized project with those fantastic Mini-Skein colourways!

The SpaceCadet's Mini-Skein Club, now available as Sweater Kits!

 

Here’s how it works:

If you are a member of the Club that month, you have access to all the colourways we are dying that month, including exclusive access to

The Full Gradient Mix as a Sweater Kit! 
Each month, our gorgeous Gradient Mix will be available as a full sweater kit exclusively to the Club members who received a bundle that month.  If you’re in love with the Gradient Mix’s wonderful colour shift and are dying to use it in a larger project, you can order it as a breathtaking five-skein sweater kit.

One Multicolour Mix Colourway as a Club Member Exclusive
You know the Multicolour Mix is an explosion of colour!  Each month, we’ll pick our very favourite Multicolour Mix colourway (or perhaps two?) and make it available exclusively to our Club members who received a bundle that month.  The Multis are always so much fun — which one will we choose for you this month?

If you’re not a member of the Club that month, we still have something wonderful for you!  How about this?

One Gradient Mix Colour in Full Skeins There’s always one colour out of the Gradient Mix that we pull out of the dyepots, gasp, and think, “I want a whole sweater in this colour!”  And if you do too, then great news: we’re going to pick our favourite and offer it in full skeins!  It might be exclusive to the Club members or it might be available to everyone — we’ll refine this as the months go by — but it’s always going to be mouth-watering

One Multicolour Mix Colourway as Full Skeins Each month, the Multicolour Mix is an adventure in colour and we never know how many of its colourways we’re going fall head over heels for.  We’ll pick one (or occasionally two) that we really enjoyed dyeing and offer to dye you some more!

But you’ve gotta be fast! They’re available for two weeks only!

Because we’re always getting ready for the next month’s dyeing, these full skeins will be available for a very limited time — two weeks only — to allow us to get them dyed, prepped, and out to you as quickly as possible. So make sure you’re watching the blog or — even better — get on our mailing list so you never miss the announcement!

Ready to see this month’s full skein picks?  Here they are!

Parallax Aphelion — Gradient Colourway #3

Parallax Aphelion -- The SpaceCadet's Mini-Skein Club, now available in Full Skeins! 580

A parallax is a displacement in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight.

The Aphelion Sweater Kit shifts from a deep-space purple through to a rich sun-gold, and where the two come together, it forms this amazing colourway.  We let the hues run over and into each other where-ever they like, which creates pockets of unexpected — and unpredictable* — colour that will turn your knitting or crochet into a multi-chromatic adventure!

*Please note: this is one of those very unpredictable colourways — we had many skeins come out like this one, and several come out with a beautiful rose tinge to them.  We’ll do our best to reproduce the colour you see here but, if you buy this colourway, be prepared to go into it with a sense of adventure — which is truly the essence of hand-dyed yarn!

Click to Order Parallax Aphelion


Cetus — Members’ Only Multicolour

Cetus -- The SpaceCadet's Mini-Skein Club, now available in Full Skeins! 3  580

Cetus is a constellation named after a sea monster in Greek mythology.

Dyed in intense shades of deep blues and blacks, with undertones and wild pops in pinks and rusts, Cetus reflects something unexpected that may rise from up from deep waters — or out of the deepest night skies.

Where’s the order button? This colourway is exclusive to February Club members. If that’s you, look for an email arriving shortly with your members-only link!


Flare Star — A February Multi

Flare Star -- The SpaceCadet's Mini-Skein Club, now available in Full Skeins! 580

A flare star can undergo unpredictable dramatic increases in brightness for a few minutes.

A wonderful combination of soft gray contrasted against vivid magenta, Flare Star will create stitches that play with colour right in your hands, as they bounce back and forth between the sublime and bright.  The result is a project that is not only tons of fun to work on, but a eye-catching to wear as well.

Click to Order Flare Star


Aphelion Gradient Sweater Kit

 Aphelion -- The SpaceCadet's Mini-Skein Club, now available as Sweater Kits! 4 580

Aphelion is the point in an object’s orbit when it is furthest from the Sun.

The first is our Gradient Mix Sweater Kit.  Shifting from a deep-space purple through to a rich sun-gold, it morphs into some amazing hues along its journey.  Breathtaking in a full sweater, it would be equally stunning paired with black or a contrasting colour for gradient stripes.

Where’s the order button? This kit is exclusive to February Club members. If that’s you, look for an email arriving shortly with your members-only link!


What to get access to all the colourways next month? Join the Club!

Working with mini-skeins is like drawing with yarn, and each little bundle of colour becomes a new and exciting addition to your palette!  The SpaceCadet’s Mini-Skein Club is a wonderful way to discover all the amazing, creative things you can make with these gorgeous little skeins — delivered straight to your door! Click here to learn all about it.

Click to learn about the SpaceCadet's Mini-Skein Club!

 

Mark Your Calendar! Our Club Openings and Yarn Shows

Despite another 2″-4″ of snow predicted for us this week(!), the start of March means our Spring Events are right around the corner (as hard as that is to believe).  Here’s a quick heads up so you can mark your calendar so you don’t miss out on any of the yarny goodness…

The Yarn Alliance Reopens for Subscriptions

The SpaceCadet's InterStellar Yarn Alliance opens for subscriptions on March 13

The InterStellar Yarn Alliance is the SpaceCadet’s premiere yarn club, known for its amazing colourways and fantastic gifts.  It’s open for subscriptions twice a year for two weeks only — from March 13 to 29 — and spaces always go fast.  We give early-bird priority to the people on the club mailing list, so click here and get your name on that list!

 

Homespun Yarn Party

HomeSpun Yarn Party is March 22 in Savage MD

Possibly our favourite-est yarn show of the year, this super-fast, super-furious event is always pure crazy and intense fun for anyone who craves hand-dyed and hand-made yarny goodness.  A one day show that features only small and indie makers, it’s so worth the trip to the beautiful Savage Mill — if you live in the DC-Baltimore area, please come and see us!

HomeSpun Yarn Party

Sunday, March 22 from 12-5pm
Historic Savage Mill 8600 Foundry Street, Savage, MD 20763 Just off I-95, plenty of parking!
Admission is FREE!

 

Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival

The Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival is March 27-29

Our hometown festival just gets better and better each year!  Having rapidly outgrown all its previous venues, we are super excited that this year’s festival will be at the Westin Convention Center hotel in downtown Pittsburgh.  Three glorious days of yarn and fiber fun, plus we are thrilled to be hosting festival headliner Alasdair Post-Quinn (author of “Extreme Double Knitting” from Coop Press) for book-signings in our booth.  If you’re in the western PA area, we’d love to see you!

The Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival

Fri-Sun, March 27-29
Westin Convention Center hotel, next to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh

 

What’s your Favourite Yarn Show or Festival?

I’ll be honest, it can be hard to tell what shows are the best to do without bringing our work dyeing to a halt and going to each one.  So I rely on recommendations from friends and customers to decide what to put on our schedule. If there’s a festival that you just love — one that’s fun, lively, and full of that great buzz that being around lots of gorgeous yarn creates, I’d love to know about it!  Leave a comment here or please email us: info(at)spacecadetcreations(dot)com.  Honestly, your input is invaluable!

Three Pattern Picks to Bring Out the Best in Variegated Yarn

I get excited about variegated yarn (which is great, right? I mean, considering what I do for a living and all…) but variegated yarn can be tricky.  Pick the wrong pattern and it might pool or flash.  Pick the wrong yarn and it might turn into a multicolour mess.

But… but… when you combine the right variegated yarn with a pattern that compliments its colour changes, the result can be magical.  The latest SpaceMonster colourway, “As Winter Goes”, is dyed on SpaceCadet’s smooshy bulky-weight Elara in a wonderful mix of custard yellow, rich rust, and a washed out violet — that is just beautiful in the skein and will look amazing in a stitch pattern that moves the colours around in interesting ways.

As Winter Goes2

Wait, what do I mean by “interesting ways”?  My favourite stitches for colourways like this one use cables, slipped stitches, yarn overs, and the like to move the colours around — vertically as well as horizontally — within the fabric.  In fact, one of our SpaceMonster Club members did exactly that and her results are just gorgeous — click here to see!

But picking the right pattern to do that isn’t always easy, so want a little help choosing projects that will look amazing with this yarn?  We’ve got you covered!  Here are our Pattern Picks for the February SpaceMonster colourway, “As Winter Goes”…

Pattern Picks for “As Winter Goes”

Boot Candy Boot Cuffs/Boot Toppers Pattern by Sara Gresbach

Boot Candy Boot Cuffs

This past Christmas, I received a gorgeous pair of knee-high boots that I have worn pretty much every single day since the holidays.  And what does every great pair of boots deserve?  Some beautiful hand-knit boot toppers!

What I love about Sara Gresbach’s design is the way she uses cables (without purling) to subtly move the stitches around on a stockinette background.  The effect is lovely in a solid yarn as pictured here, but would work wonderfully to blend the colours in a variegated yarn like “As Winter Goes”.  Simple, quick, and just so cute — I might go cast on!

 

Cordiale by Heather Zoppetti

Cordiale

Here’s another amazing example of a using simple stitch technique to manipulate colour.  Look carefully at Heather Zoppetti’s stunning Cordiale and you can see the slip stitches working their magic against a stockinette background.  To me, it looks almost like the wings of birds flying across the fabric.

Worked in a variegated yarn like “As Winter Goes”, those slip stitches would lift the changing colour up out of the horizontal line of its original row to break up any pooling or flashing, and create a wonderful, randomised effect.  All while keeping you toasty warm — can’t beat that!

 

Mikkey by Lee Meredith

Mikkey

I love love love what Lee Meredith does with yarn — her approach to knitting is innovative and almost architectural.  And she never ever shies away from deliciously bold use of colour!

Lee designed Mikkey in three shades of SpaceCadet Elara —  Dark Skies (the gray), How Dare You! (the orange), and Tickled (the pink) — with a 2-color slip-stitch pattern which gives completely different looks on the two sides.  But I’d love to see it knit in the sublime colours of “As Winter Goes” paired with the soft gray of Dark Skies for a more natural effect.  Or  for something really eye-catching, contrast it against a beautiful purple like Plume.  Either way, it’s a stunning pattern that will bring out the best in any smooshy, variegated yarn.

 As Winter Goes

The SpaceMonster Mega Yarn Club will re-open for subscriptions in June.  If you want to be the first to know (and get early-bird registration), get on the SpaceMonster mailing list!

The Winner of the SpaceMonster Giveway is…

Wow. Wowwwwwwwww.  We have never (ever, ever) had such a wonderful response to a giveaway in the history of SpaceCadet giveaways!  It was mind-blowing!

By the time the entry period closed on Friday, almost one thousand of you had entered, and it was just so exciting to see that kind of enthusiasm.   And the best bit?  Reading all the fantastic, heartfelt messages you left for our generous SpaceCadet community member who made this giveaway happen.  We really do have a wonderful knitting and crochet community!

What Made You Enter?

So first, I’ve gotta ask you, what was it this giveaway that appealed to you so much? Was it the fantastic prize? (a year’s worth of smooshy SpaceMonster yarn is pretty hard to resist!)  Or was it the incredibly generosity of our SpaceCadet community member who sponsored it?  Or maybe both?

I would love to create more giveaways that speak to our community as much as this one did, so please, won’t you click here and take just a moment to let me know?  I’d be so grateful!

 

Win a Year's Membership to the SpaceMonster Mega Yarn Club from SpaceCadet

 

And the Winner Is…

Ok, let’s not wait any longer!  After putting all the entries into the Random Number Generator, the winner of the SpaceMonster Giveaway is…

#47: Debra Houser

Congratulations, Debra!

Please send an email to info(at)spacecadetcreations(dot)com with your postal address, and we’ll send your first SpaceMonster parcel right out to you!

Thank you so much to our lovely community member who sponsored this giveaway.  And thank you to everyone who participated — really, our sincere thanks because it was just so much fun — and keep your eyes on your inbox for more tips, updates, and exciting giveaways in the future!

My Three Top Tools for taking Better Project Photos (plus 50% off!)

Back before the holidays, you may remember that I wrote a series of blog posts sharing some ideas and tips to improve your project photography (if you haven’t read them yet, check them out here, here, and here).  Then the holidays hit and…  well, here we are in February and I’ve still got one last juicy post to share with you.  And this one is loads of fun because it’s all about shiny new tools that you can start using right now.

The SpaceCadet's Three Top Tools for taking Better Project Photos

 

 

Tool #1: Take the Best Selfie Project Shots with CamMe

Just like the previous photography posts, let’s start with one of my pet peeves:  there you are in the photo you just posted on Ravelry to show off your fabulous new hand-knit sweater — it’s gorgeous, every stitch is perfect, you are so proud — and right there just behind your smiling face and fabulous sweater is…  your toilet.  Or your unmade bed.  Maybe even with a pair of dirty socks in the corner.  Ohhhh noooo…

Because, of course, to get a good shot of your sweater, you have to take the picture in a mirror, and most people’s mirrors are in either their bathrooms or bedrooms, so that background is pretty unavoidable.  I’ve seen countless images like this on Ravelry and, while I totally understand, it just never makes that finished object look as good as it should.

But there’s an app for that and it solves the problem so well (and is so much fun!) that you’re going to be stunned you haven’t been using it all along.  With CamMe, you set your iPhone at a distance and then hold up a hand to tell it that you want it to take a selfie.  When it sees your hand signal, it gives you a three second countdown and snaps a picture — setting you free to take finished object selfies anywhere!  Try it next to a sunny window in your house, or outside in the dappled shade of a tree.  Get adventurous and set it up on a shelf in the library while you leaf through a book, or prop it up in a shop window and snap yourself walking down the sidewalk in your lovely new sweater.

Sounds kind of amazing, right?  It is!  Here, check out their awesome little video showing exactly how it works:

CamMe video still
If you can’t see the embedded video, just click here

Best of all?  It’s FREE!

(Also, while I think this app is perfect for the knitting and crochet community — exactly what we need to show off our projects ourselves — I don’t think the folks at CamMe have realised that at all.  It’s is available only for iPhones, but if a bunch of us contacted the company to tell them we need it for other phones too, we might be able to wake them up to a whole community of customers they never even knew were there.  Click here to send them a quick message.)

 

Tool #2: Make your Images Gorgeous with Snapseed

When it comes to quick, on-the-go photo editing, I really don’t think you can beat Snapseed.  I know other apps have filters and editing options, but Snapseed’s controls go deeper than anything I’ve seen in its price range.   The cropping is more advanced, the colour correction is more precise and, together with all the other tools in its arsenal, I am able to take the most hastily-snapped phone images and turn them into something really spectacular.  I often even use it before I upload a photo to Instagram — it’s just too powerful to ignore.

Snapseed

 

Use Snapseed to crop your project photos right in to the most important details.  Adust the Saturation and Ambiance to get the colour just right (look under “Tune Image”) .  Or change the Structure and Sharpening options (under “Details”) to really bring out your stitchwork.   You’ll be blown away by how stunning your project photos become!

Oh, and what is its price range?  Well, that’d be…  free.  Plus, it’s available for both iPhone and Android.  Brilliant!

 

Tool #3: Learn from a Pro

Craftsy

I think the one thing I did that improved my photography the most was to take Caro Sheridan’s fantastic class on Craftsy, “Shoot It!“.  Caro is a professional photographer (you’ve seen her work allll over Ravelry, snapping for some of the biggest designers out there), knitter, sewist, and the co-author of Knitting It Old School, a collection of designs inspired by the 40s, 50s, 60, and 70s.

And why is Shoot It! fantastic?  Because it’s a photography class that is designed entirely around photographing knit and crocheted finished objects.  Seriously.  There’s no taking photos of food, or jewelry, or kids, or pets…  This class is all about the fiber arts and only about the fiber arts.  What could be more perfect?!?

Caro Sheridan

Caro walks you through everything you need to know to make your projects look stunning on Ravelry: how to frame your photos, how capture project details, how to work with a model.  She covers the best backgrounds, great tips for editing, how to put your model (and yourself) at ease during a shoot …and, if my memory serves, she even dips into choosing the right underwear (it’s important, people!).  Taking Shoot It! opened my eyes to a ton of easy fixes I could make to the way I took photos and I was amazed by how quickly my photography improved.

BONUS: Get Shoot It! for 50% Off!

Now, this is something just fantastic…  When I told Caro I was going to feature her Craftsy class on the blog, she graciously offered to give all of you 50% off the regular price of Shoot It!  Just click here to go to the class page, and you’ll see the discount is automatically applied.  Isn’t that just terrific of her?!?  So go on, take her up on the offer — your finished objects will thank you!

Caro Sheridan shooting

 

Giveaway — Win a Year’s Subscription to the SpaceMonster Mega Yarn Club!

A while ago, I was interviewed in a local paper for an article about a yarn show we were attending.  The reporter asked me what I enjoyed about doing the festival and my answer came easily: more than anything, I love getting to meet our customers in person.  We spend a lot of time squirreled away in the studio, working on our own, and even though we hear from our customers by email and on social media…  sometimes it can feel a bit distant.  Going to shows is when we get to put faces to names, projects to makers, and really be part of the amazing community of knitters and crocheters that makes everything we do at SpaceCadet feel worthwhile.

Dyeing yarn at SpaceCadet

And when I say community, I mean it.  Go to our Ravelry group and ask a question — for knitting help, for a pattern idea, for anything at all — and people will post right back with help and suggestions.  I just love that!  I honestly believe that knitting and crocheting bring out what’s best in people but, sometimes, I am still taken completely by surprise.

The Most Amazing Email

The SpaceMonster Mega Yarn Club opens for subscriptions for two weeks only twice a year and if you miss it, you miss it.  But this past December when we opened the club, we got an email that just blew me away.  One of SpaceCadet’s long-time customers wrote to say that they wanted to share a little fiber-love with the rest of our community, and had purchased a one year subscription to the SpaceMonsters for us to give away!

Can you believe that?!?  A one year membership in the club that is filled with big, smooshy, colourful yarns and those fabulous SpaceMonster gifts.  Twelve months of quick-knit yarns delivered right to your doorstep!  Along with the opportunity to get more for a larger project.  And a super-fun gift every six months.  All paid for — all completely taken care of — by an incredibly wonderful, generous, yarn-loving member of our community.

Seriously, knock me down with a feather!

Win a Year's Membership to the SpaceMonster Mega Yarn Club from SpaceCadet 3

Get Entered!

So, shall we get this giveaway on the road?!?  Entering is super easy: just click here and give your name and email address, and that’s it — you’re in!

Plus, when you enter, you’ll join our mailing list where we give first notice of new colourways, fantastic project ideas chosen especially for SpaceCadet yarn, heads-up notice when our clubs are opening, exclusive special offers, and all kinds of fibery goodness!  We pop into your inbox once or twice a week, and every email is filled with good stuff.  So hop on board, this giveaway is about to take off!

Click here to Enter to win a subscription to the SpaceMonster Mega Yarn Club

But hurry — we’ll be sending out the next SpaceMonster parcel very soon, so the giveaway will be open only until Friday, Feb 13.  Click here to get entered quick!  (see official rules below)

 

Say Thanks by Sharing it!

And then, please take the chance to thank our wonderful community member by sharing their generosity with your knitting and crocheting friends on Twitter, Facebook, and Ravelry. And just like the last giveaway, for every share you make, you just know the Universe will send you a cosmic wave of good luck. Because, with a prize like this, you want all the good luck you can get, right?!?

For Twitter: Whoa! SpaceCadet is giving away a year in the SpaceMonster Yarn Club! Click here to enter: http://wp.me/p1TnPQ-1Vs #SpaceMonsterGiveaway

For Facebook: Whoa! SpaceCadet is giving away a year in the SpaceMonster Mega Yarn Club! Click here to enter: http://wp.me/p1TnPQ-1Vs #SpaceMonsterGiveaway

For Ravelry: SpaceCadet is giving away a year in the SpaceMonster Mega Yarn Club! Click here to enter: http://wp.me/p1TnPQ-1Vs

Or, just leave a comment on the blog post to say thanks to our wonderful community member!

Win a Year's Membership to the SpaceMonster Mega Yarn Club from SpaceCadet 2

There’s always small print! Official rules: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to entrants worldwide, age 18 or older. Void where prohibited. Odds of winning depend on number of entries received. Sweepstakes ends 11:59 p.m. EST on February 13 2015. Official entry is made by entering name and email address here . By entering, contestants agree to join the SpaceCadet, Inc mailing list and be contacted via future emails. Limit one entry per person. One prize, consisting of one (1) year’s subscription to the SpaceMonster Mega Yarn Club (consisting of 6 parcels, one each in Feb, Aprl, June, Aug, Oct, and Dec 2015), valued at $194.00. Total prize value: $194.00. Winner will be selected by random drawing. Prize cannot be redeemed for cash. Prize cannot be substituted. Employees and family of employees of SpaceCadet Inc are ineligible. A list of winners will be available on the SpaceCadet blog on or after Feb 16 2015. Sponsored by SpaceCadet Inc, PO Box 113312, Pittsburgh PA 15241. For full official rules, go to https://spacecadetyarn.com/2015/02/06/giveaway-win-a-years-subscription-to-the-spacemonster-mega-yarn-club/