I think most of us started out knitting and crocheting because we wanted to make things.  But pretty quickly, we all discover that there is much more to our crafts than that.  The movement of our hands, the yarn through our fingers, the creation of stitch on stitch on stitch…  together it all forms a kind of meditation that becomes part of our days.  When we are frazzled, it calms us.  When we are stressed, it grounds us.  And when we are afraid, its familiar rhythm tells us everything is going to be ok.

This week I need a little more of that meditation than usual, and a little more of that supportive community we create while we craft.  So please, pour yourself a hot drink, pick up your needles or hook, and sit with me a while.  I’ve got lots to share, and I’ve so glad to have the chance to share it with you.  Ok, so are you ready?  Here we go…

Right now

• TODAY at noon — Shop Update:  The very best handmade yarns really amp up the luxury, and our Aurora is exactly that. It contains *twice* the cashmere of most MCNs and you can tell the difference as soon as you pick it up!  We’ve dyed lots of skeins in our most gorgeous colourways that will go in the shop today at noon (eastern).  Set a timer on your phone and then click here to get this most wonderful yarn for holiday gifts or… for yourself!

• Now through Oct 15 — It’s the LAST WEEK to enter One-of-a-Kind Fade Sweater Sets Giveaway!  Each day, I’ve been sharing on Instagram & Facebook our One-of-a-Kind Fade sets that are going in our October 20th update. And the reason I’m sharing them is that if you are are the winner of our giveaway, you get the Sweater Set of YOUR CHOICE our of all the sets we’ll be putting in the shop! How awesome is that?!?  Click here to enter.

Upcoming

• Friday Oct 20 — One-of-a-Kind Fade Sweater Sets Shop Update — watch my Instagram & Facebook feeds for sneak peeks of each set
• Saturday Nov 11 — Indie Knit & Spin in Regent Square, Pittsburgh.  One of our favourite shows!  Click here for details.

 

The SpaceCadet crew all fell in love with this amazing knitted lace garden fence.  It was made with fishing net twine and curtain rods …and I think there are now at least two more knitted lace fences being planned here in Pittsburgh! Ha!

This is exciting: Kristen Jancuk at MediaPeruana Designs new e-course, Become a Swatch Master, starts in November and, because it’s the first edition of this course, she’s offering a very special price.  If you’re not the skilled swatcher you know you want to be (because FOs that actually fit are such a good thing, right?), click here and get on it!

Knitwear always features heavily in dystopian films because knitting are awesome survival skills.  This article is a few years old but it still made me feel like I could totally kick butt come the armageddon: Great Moments in Dystopian Knitwear.  Just the title is entertainment enough!

Say the words “handmade sweater” and someone somewhere is going to assume that’s code for “bad taste”.  Now, there are enough horrible acrylic Christmas sweaters in the world to justify that interpretation but, for all the beautiful handmade sweaters that redress the balance, good taste is a concept that can be kind of hard to pin down. So I was intrigued by this article that asks, can good taste be taught?  Interesting reading!

Vote for your favourite Gradient Explorers Fade!

The September Gradient Explorers parcels went out a couple of weeks ago — so exciting to send our members the second step in the colour journey we are on! — and while each month’s colourways are designed to flow into each other and create a beautiful Never Ending Gradient but we also design them to blend with our standard colourways. So I went stash-diving in our stock and came up with a bunch of colour combos that made me swoon… and I’d love to know which one made you swoon too!

Below are the four “serving suggestions” I put together — all of them include our two Gradient Explorers colourways plus three from our standard colours, layed out in a gradient fade.  Take a look at each and then please click here and cast your vote for which one you like most.  I can’t wait to see what you say!

Septembers Mini-Skein Bundles

I just have to share the latest Mini-Skein Club bundles we sent out because I love both of them so much.  The Ombre & Gradient Mix (top) is all in shades of moody purples overcast with deep grey-black, like dark, angry storm clouds.  The Multicolour Mix (bottom) manages to be both muted and bright at the same time — I love that gorgeous rust and that pop of bright teal.  Honestly, I don’t know which bundle I like more!

Texture changes, colour changes, bobbles, and three cheeky pom-poms…   Oh, this lovely shawl just jumped out at me because it’s fun!  Knit in fingering yarn, this pattern is a perfect match for those gorgeous Multicolour Minis in your stash.  The pattern calls for 70g, 60g, and 95g of the three colours it uses — I’d suggest choosing three colour families (for instance, neutrals, blue-purples, and rusts) and then choosing 4, 3, and 5 of our 20g mini-skeins respectively in colours that blend together within each family.

Seitenstreifen Socks by Sybil R

Socks are aways a great choice for holiday knitting and when the pattern is both interesting to the maker and fun for the wearer, that’s the best kind of gift!  I love these intarsia socks that give you the chance pair colours in a really cool way.  The pattern calls for 60g of the main colour and 20g for the contrasting colour, so that’s easy to translate into our Mini-Skeins:  three of one colour family and one of another.  Oh, and the bonus?  The pattern is free!

I’m seeing circular-yoke sweaters everywhere right now but the almost pop-art graphics of this beautiful design jumped right out at me.  I love the way it brings the tradition of stranded colourwork right into the 21st century and the mirrored details on the cuffs and hem finish it off perfectly.  Worked in two colours as it is here, or with gradient mini-skeins in the colourwork for an eye-catching fade, it will be just stunning!

all images © the respective designers and used with permission

On a Personal Note…

I don’t often mention my family but I got some sudden and frightening news yesterday: someone I love dearly needs a very serious operation very quickly.  It is happening tomorrow and I’d be grateful for your prayers, thoughts, meditations…  whatever it is that you do, if you could do it tomorrow, I’d really appreciate it.

And in the meantime, I have a lot of (distracting!) things to get done, so I guess I’d better get to them!   I’m starting today by donning my oh-so-attractive particle mask to mix up dye solutions, and then we’ve got a busy day dyeing a bunch of custom orders — can’t wait to see how they turn out. Oh, and don’t forget to set your reminder for today at noon and then click here for our Aurora shop update.

Ok, time to get today started.  I hope your day is bright and colourful and, until next time, all the best!

You know that lovely feeling you get when you start talking to someone new and discover they’re a knitter or crocheter too?  Every time it happens, I find that, no matter what I know or don’t know about this person I’ve just met, I already like them based solely on this craft (or is it a calling?) that we share.  I had that happy experience just this week and realised that I’m so glad the world is full of knitters and crocheters.  We need more of us — let’s do all we can to encourage more folks to learn this wonderful thing.

Spoiler warning!  I can’t help but share with you a few images of the latest Yarn Alliance parcel because I am just so excited about it.  But if you’re in the club and haven’t received your parcel yet, close your eyes as you scroll down, ok?  (and if you’re not, click here!)

Ok, I’ve got my cup of tea (have you?) and bunch a great fiber stuff to share with you this morning, so let’s do this, ok?  Here we go…

Right now

• Closes on Friday — The InterStellar Yarn Alliance is open for New Members… it’s an AWESOME club so click here to learn more!
• Now through Oct 15 — One-of-a-Kind Fade Sweater Sets Giveaway — click here to enter

Upcoming

• Wednesday Oct 12 — Shop Update:  this month the yarn is Aurora, our incredibly soft and luxurious 20% cashmere yarn, perfect for warm and cozy autumn projects.
• Friday Oct 20 — One-of-a-Kind Fade Sweater Sets Shop Update — watch my Instagram & Facebook feeds for sneak peeks of each set

If leaves are falling where you are (they aren’t here, which kind of amazes me but I suspect they will eventually), you might be starting to think about leaf inspired patterns.  I love this fabulous round-up of knitted leaf motifs, Seven Ways to Knit a Leaf, which shows each motif one-by-one and complete with charts.  Scrolling through has got me feeling all autumnal!

You know how sometimes you see images of people who are supposed to be knitting but clearly have no idea how?  This quiz asks how many knitting skills you’ve mastered and then designates your level (I got “Stitch Superstar — what do you get?).  But if you tell it you’ve done every single thing on the list, the image that pops up is anything but a “Master Maker”.  Made me laugh!

A few weeks ago, I recommended a class I’d taken on short-rows and, if that was interesting to you, check out this article on double short-rows.  What’s that, you say?  It’s where two short rows are worked into the same stitch and it creates a nested effect that’s really striking when you use two or more colours.  I’m not brave enough to try it yet, but I am soooo tempted.

You remember last week I referenced Inigo Montoya?  What are the chances that this week I would happen across an article about Rats of Unusual Size?  But I did…  an article on an actual new species of rats that truly are of unusual size, from National Geographic and everything.  You couldn’t make this stuff up!

Yarn Alliance Closes on Friday

Our premiere yarn club, the InterStellar Yarn Alliance, is open for new subscriptions, but closes in just a few days.  Being part of the Yarn Alliance club is all about gorgeous yarns dyed in exclusive colourways, shared with a wonderful community of fellow club members who are all part of the adventure too.  Plus we create beautiful coordinating skeins to double the fun, and each parcel contains a wonderful club gifts created exclusively for the club by our community of amazing handmakers.  Oh, and a 15% coupon!

We just sent out the last parcel of the current season to our members.  Want to see?  It’s on Aurora, our deliciously soft 20% cashmere fingering and I’m just crazy about how the colours flow into one another along the skein.  Can’t wait to see it knitted up.

We’re welcoming our new members and getting ready to dye their first parcel soon.  If you’d like to join us, click here now and get a spot before subscriptions close!

Shop Update: More Aurora on Oct 11

Aurora is a yarn you have to touch to understand — it’s just amazingly soft — and every time I put a skein in someone’s hands, I can see them melt a little.  Why? Because it’s got twice the cashmere of most MCNs — and what a difference that makes!

But our stock in the shop is getting low, so we’ve been dyeing a bunch of colours to fill it back up again.  So if you’ve never experienced Aurora, mark your calendar for Oct 11.  It’s well worth it.

Oh, what time?  Well, I need your help with that.  Scroll down to our pop quiz and please give me a hand!

A few weeks ago, I introduced you to Michelle, who makes lovely swirly shawl pins and designs patterns that make them look amazing.  And I was delighted when she recently told me she’s created one of those designs in SpaceCadet Lyra!  This is Lavant, a lovely scarf inspired by the diamond-paned windows in the part of England that its named for and perfect for the chilly days on the way.

Lavant is 50% off through October 6th on both Ravelry and Michelle’s new website (and, if you visit her website, check out the ‘Pinspirations’ section for a lot of pics and videos showing all the ways to wear shawl pins!).

 

The best designs are ones you know you’ll wear again and again — and this pattern is definitely one I can see myself practically living in.  Designed in sport weight, it would work beautifully in SpaceCadet Lyra, but I really want to see those thicker stripes worked in SpaceCadet Minis held double so the colours marl and soften.  With a semi-solid for the thinner stripes and a gentle gradient fade from top to bottom, the effect would be just gorgeous!

all images © the respective designers and used with permission

Every time I do a shop update or a special event, I have a dilemma about what time to make it go live.  We have customers all over the country and the world and…  well, timezones can be pesky things!  If I schedule an event for 7am here on the east coast, our west coast customers sleep through all the fun.  If I make it for noon here, it can be hard for my local customers who are at work, my west coast customers who are mid-commute, and our friends in Australia who have gone to bed.  And after work here?  Well, that works for some folks and not for others.  I try to spread the love around by changing the times for each event but it’s always such a dilemma!

And then I thought… hey, why don’t I just ask you?!?  So today’s pop quiz is exactly that:

What time best suits you for shop updates and special events?

Click here and let me know.  (Fine print and caveats: All times are US eastern timezone, and this is a totally non-binding survey.  If it turns out that the best time for updates and events is 4am eastern, wellllll…  that might not be all that practical — you want me awake enough to update the stock numbers! But your answer here is a huge help and I’m so grateful)

Ok, it’s looking like a beautiful day here in Pittsburgh and we have a bunch of boxes to pack and some amazing colourways to dye, so I’d better get to work.  I hope this has got your day off to a great start and, until next time, all my best!

 

As the weather cools down, sometimes it feels like life speeds up, and it’s tempting to skim through our days without really looking at the details.  That’s especially true in the morning — rush rush rush to get out of the house! — and that’s why I really enjoy taking a little time each week to share all this fiber news with you.  It’s such a good opportunity to slow down and breathe.  And to think about yarn and knitting and crochet.  Everything is better when you get to stop and think about fiber-y things like that, right?

(I’ve got lots of stuff to share with you, but the most important, a case of yarn chicken that went wrong, is right at the bottom so please make sure you scroll all the way down.  There’s an almost-but-not-quite-finished sweater handing in the balance!)

Alright, got your cuppa tea?  Let’s jump in!

(this image was shot in my horribly messy garage — between a stack of dirty garden equipment and an
unnecessary collection of old paint cans — but look how awesome it makes that gradient Mini-Skein shawl look!)

One of the best parts of knitting and crochet isn’t the making… it’s the capturing a killer image of your finished object once it’s all done. I’ve always felt that the right background is a huge part of a great photo, so I really enjoyed this article full of tips for making the most of your background. It’s written by a bird photographer (for bird photographers?) but, with a little imagination, you can easily adapt it to FO photography.

Knitters and crocheters are great for coming up with hacks and tricks to make things work in new ways. I loved this awesome infographic of 27 Uses for Wool Wash (besides washing wool). Want to know my wool wash hack? Turns out my stash of (indie-made, all natural) wool wash is a wonderfully gentle alternative to shampoo for cleansing curly hair without drying it out or causing frizz (which is pretty logical, once you think about it).

If the words “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya…” mean something to you, then (1) we can be friends and (2) this should put a grin on your face.

The way you hold your knitting needles or crochet hook can have a big impact on whether you end up with pain in your hands and wrists. And sometimes, the solution can be as simple as changing your grip. This article from Wendy at YarnSub goes through the different ways to hold your needles and the impact that had on both her pain levels… and her knitting speed!

Did you know I started a Pinterest board to act as a stitch dictionary for when I want to find just the perfect texture for a project idea?  I did!  And you can follow it (by clicking here) and use it as a resource for your project ideas too!

Right now

• Now through Oct 6 — The InterStellar Yarn Alliance is open for New Members… it’s an AWESOME club so click here to learn more!
• Now through Oct 15 — One-of-a-Kind Fade Sweater Sets Giveaway — click here to enter
• This Friday Sept 29 — Spaces open in the Gradient Explorers (currently, we have 8 spots available)

Upcoming

• Friday Oct 6 — Shop Update:  this month the yarn is Aurora, our incredibly soft and luxurious 20% cashmere yarn, perfect for warm and cozy autumn projects.
• Friday Oct 20 — One-of-a-Kind Fade Sweater Sets Shop Update — watch my Instagram & Facebook feeds for sneak peeks of each set

 

(all things to keep your neck and shoulders warm…  it’s that time of year!)

Ok, and with that, it’s probably time for me to head to the studio.  Today I’m working on some developmentals that didn’t go as planned last week.  Sigh.  But I know what I did wrong and I’m excited to see how they come out today.  Keep your fingers crossed for me, keep an eye on my Instagram feed for more of those gorgeous One-of-a-Kind fades, and I hope you have a wonderful, creative day!  Until next time, all my best.

 

This may be one of the last mornings I get to drink my coffee on the front porch.  I know that it will soon be too chilly to sit out in the early morning cool, so I will savour it as long as I can.  This morning I’ve got a lot of lovely fiber news to share with you, so why don’t you grab a cuppa and curl up in your favourite spot for five minutes before the day really begins.

Oh, my soundtrack this morning is Ami Maamin by Avishai Cohen.  If you’re not a jazz person, it may not be your thing but to me, it so embodies all the peace and hope that a new sunrise brings that it’s just perfect.  (And if it is your thing, hit reply and let me know — it’s good to know a kindred spirit)

Ok, onwards to the fibery goodness!

• Thurs Sept 21 — The InterStellar Yarn Alliance Opens for New Members…  Click here tomorrow at noon!
• Now through Oct 15 — One-of-a-Kind Fade Sweater Sets Giveaway — click here to enter
  
• Friday Sept 29 — Spaces open in the Gradient Explorers (currently, we have 8 spots available)
• Friday Oct 6 — Shop Update:  this month the yarn is Aurora, our incredibly soft and luxurious 20% cashmere yarn, perfect for warm and cozy autumn projects.
• Friday Oct 20 — One-of-a-Kind Fade Sweater Sets Shop Update — watch my Instagram & Facebook feeds for sneak peeks of each set

mixing dyes in the studio

Y’know that feeling when someone spots you knitting or crocheting and oh-so-helpfully offers themselves as a worthy recipient of your handiwork?  Whether they are making the suggestion in a knit-worthy way or not, it can be a bit awkward, especially if you’re not the gift-making type.  Practitioners of selfish knitting and crochet will love even just the title of this useful article: How Not to Knit for Other People.

Attention designers and budding designers (and those of use who just never follow a pattern): when working out a new design, a croquis or fashion sketching template can be hugely helpful for visualising how the design will look.  The trouble is, the body shape of traditional fashion templates often don’t reflect our personal reality.  So I like the idea of MyBodyModel, a web app that will create custom templates based on the user’s own measurements.  They’ve achieved their KickStarter goal are now in the development stage, but this is one to watch when the app releases!

Mini-Skeins are useful in so many ways, and you can never have enough ways to incorporate them.  This article gives a quick list of ideas to try.

This has nothing to do with knitting or crochet but for those of us who live in Pittsburgh or love Pittsburgh, it’s sure to bring a wry smile to your face:  the Pittsburgh Potty has been covered by Apartment Therapy.  And what’s more, photographer Ted Zellers is documenting the phenomina for an upcoming…  wait for it… coffee table book.  Of pictures.  Of Pittsburgh Potties.  Right there on your coffee table.  Pittsburgh crocheters, I think the only decent thing to do is to contact him and represent with a few crocheted toilet paper covers.  I’m just sayin’.

The Yarn Alliance Opens for Subscriptions Tomorrow

Being part of the Yarn Alliance club is all about coming on a colour exploration — in gorgeous yarns dyed in exclusive colourways (that you can’t get enough of!), and shared with a wonderful community of fellow club members who are all part of the adventure too.  Plus we create beautiful coordinating skeins to double the fun.  And each parcel contains a wonderful club gifts created exclusively for the club by our community of amazing handmakers.  Oh, and a 15% coupon!

(above: some of the colourways and gifts from past seasons — sooooo pretty!)

The Yarn Alliance is available for subscriptions only twice a year, and for only two weeks at a time.  If you’re on the club mailing list, look for an email in your inbox today giving you early access and, if you’re not, click this link tomorrow at noon to grab your spot!

Sweater Set Giveaway — Choose Your Fade!

One of the SpaceCadet crew’s favourite things to do is to dump all of our One-of-a-Kind skeins out onto a big sheet, and then we sit together and start sorting them into coordinating sets. Last week, we did just that, this time with the intention of creating fades. And they are amazing. They’ll go up in the shop in October, but I am so excited about them that I decided to do a giveaway! ⠀

1. Entering is easy: click here and give us your name & email address (and Instagram name if you have one).⠀
2. Then to get additional entries, make sure you’re following me on Instagram and think of a friend (or two!) who’d love these fades and tag them here on this post. When they enter and name you as the person who referred them, you’ll get an extra entry — one for every friend who enters!
3. What do you win? This is the best part: You’ll get the Sweater Set YOUR CHOICE out of all the sets we’ll be putting in the October Shop Update! I’ll be posting them one at a time on Instagram and Facebook so keep your eyes open until you spot the one you just love. ⠀

The winner will be contacted by email within 48 of the giveaway close on Oct 15 and you’ll have claim your prize fast, so take note of the number of your favourite fade, cross your fingers, and you may just win it!⠀
(see official rules for complete details; some restrictions apply)

During the summer months, we do a lot of our work outdoors.  We hold our team meetings in the park, pack parcels under the shade of a tree, and plan our dyeing on the porch with a cup of mint tea.  And as the air takes on a chill, I am feeling so sad — I don’t wanna move back indoors — but I know there’s a really wonderful silver lining too: cooler weather means sweater knitting and I am so ready for that!

So it was easy to pull together a whole bunch of fiber-y inspiration to share this morning, and I can’t wait to get started.  Grab your coffee or your tea and let’s dive in!

Photo by Sam Carter

In all honesty, I cannot decide if these crocheted bird costumes are art, crazy, or kitsch…  or all three?  Oh, and they’re not costumes for people, they’re costumes of extinct bird species… for pigeons.  Yeah, it’s hard to explain.  You kinda just have to click the link.

I love to dye superwash because of the way it absorbs colour and how easy it is to take care of, but its very existence creates debate in the fiber community.  I fount fascinating this post by Pigeonroof Studios — cuts right the chase and asks, is it hypocritical to disapprove of superwash wool?

Did you see this awesome crochet idea that folks on the Yarnover Truck had for SpaceCadet Lyra?  I love it so much and it’s perfect for October crafting!

If the cooler weather has got people asking you to knit them socks (family… friends…  complete strangers…?) asking you for hand-knit socks, you’ll love that Kate Atherley has published her foot size tables.  Warm toes on the way!

Speaking of socks…  oh my stars, I was grinning so hard last week as I saw the comments appearing on this Instagram post by David Highfield, one of our local television reporters.  If that doesn’t convince him to try hand-knit socks (and covering our local indie yarn show), I don’t know what will!  You guys are awesome.

Upcoming SpaceCadet Events   Mark these on your calendar!

• Wed Sept 20 — The InterStellar Yarn Alliance Opens for New Members (click here to get on the club mailing list for early  registration!)
• Friday Sept 29 — Spaces open in the Gradient Explorers (currently, we have 8 spots available)
• Friday Oct 6 — Shop Update:  this month the yarn is Aurora, our incredibly soft and luxurious 20% cashmere yarn, perfect for warm and cozy autumn projects.

 

Our first Gradient Explorers Colourway!

Can I tell you how excited we were to send out the first Gradient Explorers parcels last week?  SO excited!  And I just have to share it with you.  This is “The Other Side of the Fence”, a colourway created from a base of the bright lime green of Fizz layered with greens and blues, to create glazed tones of both Stoppy and Feather.   I love how subtle the varying tones are!  And because the whole idea of the Gradient Explorers is to create beautiful colour flows, I couldn’t stop myself from grabbing a few of our standard colourways to see how they combined…

And then, because this is the very first parcel of the Gradient Explorers, I really wanted to make a little treat for for our charter members.  So I created this custom zipper pull (which turned out to be harder than I’d anticipated!) to make the whole parcel a little extra special.

Eight spots in the the Gradient Explorers will be opening on Sept 29.  Click here to get on the mailing list to get a reminder and a link to grab one of them before they go.

When designer Kristen Jancuk told me about her upcoming KAL and that it’s all about mini-skeins, I knew I had to share it with you.  And you know what?  She has a bunch of patterns you should check out!  With cooler weather on its way, here are my favourites:

SpaceCadet: When you look over all the patterns you’ve designed — and it covers everything from accessories to sweaters, colourwork to lace — which of those feel the most natural to you? The most “you”? And which were the biggest challenge?

Kristen: Colorwork and lace don’t come as naturally to me, so I look at those projects as more of a challenge–in fact, for the Foxkit mitts, I taught myself 2-color brioche, which I’d never tried before, solely because I wanted a reversible 2-color option for the cuffs! Cables and textured knits are more my thing, especially sweaters–I started designing mostly accessories, and now my head is just full of sweaters; I have to remind myself that not everyone is a sweater knitter!

Ok, we’ve got a fabulously fun day ahead of us, involving something we call our drinking game (though, given that we’re starting at 10am, it’s likely to be less scandalous than it sounds).  If you’re curious as to what we’re up to, keep an eye on my Instagram feed and Instagram stories…  and I might just give you a sneak peek!  I wish you a wonderful day as well — and, until next time, all my best.

I opened up my email the other day to a message from a customer that reminded why we take so much care when we pack our parcels.  When your box of SpaceCadet yarn leaves our hands, I want it to arrive safely and look wonderful as you open it.  Everything from wrapping it carefully in a protective bag, to the little treats we sometimes include, to the tissue paper lining the box, to using Priority Mail so your parcel can be tracked — it’s all done to make sure your yarn reaches you in perfect condition.

(that colourway is called Time Traveller, btw, and I love it so much)

So we start by putting your yarn in a plastic bag.  There’s a reason for that which you’ll see in a moment but a big part of it comes from when I was living in England and my postman would leave my parcels on the front doorstep.  There they’d sit all day, in the ever-present English drizzle and with no porch to cover them, until I got home from work.   It was so disheartening to come home to a soggy parcel but such a relief if the sender had been careful enough to wrap my item in a protective bag!  And so, when I started SpaceCadet, I decided to do the same — because I know how important your purchase is to you and I want it to be perfect.

We usually include a little treat in your bag as well — just because.  Sometimes it’s a button, sometimes a tattoo (as in this parcel), sometimes it’s wool wash. We wrap your yarn in tissue and place it carefully in the box along with a card that tells a little about us, as well as handy links and instructions on how to get in touch.

Then we seal it up and send it on its way — probably the best part of the whole process, because it means the yarn gets to become something!  And why do we go to so much trouble in our packaging?  Well every now and again, I get an email like this one from Holly in California.  The email subject line was, “The Yarn Survived….Some Sort of Adventure” and she wrote,

Hi team! Just wanted to say thank you for doing such a thorough job of packing your yarn. This is what the mini-skein box looked like when I received it. When I peeled the plastic off, the cardboard was soaking wet (it was 110 degrees here today…and I live nowhere near the gulf coast…. :)). The yarn survived and was in perfect condition!

And she included a few pictures…

Whoa!  What on earth happened to that parcel?!?  It’s so horribly mangled that it’s almost funny but, even though the parcel itself was a near-disaster, knowing that our careful packing meant the yarn arrived in perfect condition just made my day.  And we take just as much care with every parcel we send out — because no matter what the outside of the box looks like, I want the yarn inside to be beautiful.

The SpaceCadet’s Mini-Skein Club

And that yarn that Holly was so excited to receive?  It was her Mini-Skein Club parcel — and it’s no wonder she was looking forward to it!  Every month, we dye five brand-new colour-packed skeins for our Multicolour mix and five new fabulously blended colourways for our Ombre & Gradient mix.  Opening a new parcel is an mini adventure all on its own!

And you know what’s even cooler?  Each month’s colourways in the Ombre&Gradient Mix flow into the next month’s colourways… and into the next month’s… and into the next to form a Never-Ending Gradient that is endlessly inspiring!  What to see what I mean?  We laid out a year’s worth of SpaceCadet Minis and here’s what they looked like…

See what I mean?  So gorgeous!  So, do you wanna to get in on the fun?  Click here to find out more!