One of the best things in life must surely be spending a breezy summer afternoon sitting on the back porch, with a nice glass of wine, listening to the birds and spinning wool into yarn. Absolutely magical!
.
Except today I am on the front porch instead of the back, and this is why…
.
Last week, while I was away for a couple of days, a couple of plucky robins decided to build a nest on top of our back porch light, right next to the back door. And every time we go in and out, or even just sit out there, they get so nervous that they leave the nest and fly to the apple tree, screaching for us to leave. And I really want them to feel secure and comfortable, because this is what’s inside that nest…
That’s right, folks! We’re having babies!!!
…And hanging out on the front porch for the time being.
I posted the prizes off to the winners of the Giveaway today and, before I slipped them into the envelopes, I just couldn’t resist taking a few pictures just so I could share them with you.
The two runners-up got 2oz each of this BFL fiber.
When I dyed this, I was going for a fiber version of Plumberry, the colourway of the newest yarn in the shop*. But, although I mixed the dyes up correctly, I did the dyeing in slightly the wrong order and the blue took on an amazing silver-grey tint. It doesn’t look like Plumberry to me but, let me tell you, it is really quite stunning! I might dye more like this, but I am undecided as to whether it deserves its own name, because dyeing is a dynamic process — even if I gave it a new name and tried to dye it this way again, it might come out of the dyepot with more blue and looking more like the original Plumberry… Hmmmm… Maybe the nature of Plumberry will be that it’s sometimes got this grey, sometimes got more blue. We’ll have to see.
Anyway, I do hope the runners up enjoy the lovely colours of their new fiber!
*You never saw the Plumberry yarn? That’s because both skeins sold in two hours! But I’ve dyed some more that will go in later this week.
————————————-
And for our winner, I’ve chosen a skein of Garden In Spring sock yarn. This is the first colourway I ever dyed for the shop and it is absolutely one of my favourites. It’s so bright and cheerful and just so darned happy, and I think that’s the very essence of how winning a giveaway ought to make a person feel!
Congratulations again to the winners, and I hope you enjoy using your yarn and fiber! And to everyone else, there will be more giveaways in the future, so keep your eyes open for those.
The runners-up, who each get 2oz of beautiful hand-dyed BFL fiber:
Victoria Fassano
GalesKnits
And the skein of my hand-dyed sock yarn goes to:
Cindy Petty
Congratulations! Please email your street address to spacecadetcreations (at) gmail (dot) com, using the email address you subscribed with, and I’ll get those sent off to you right away.
And thank you to everyone who participated and helped make this giveaway such a roaring success!
The May Giveaway has come to a close and I am just overjoyed at the response — so many people subscribing, tweeting, friending, and commenting about my yarn and fiber. It’s such a help to me to hear everyone’s thoughts and feedback. Thank you all so much! I now have to tie up all the extra entries with the subscriptions and I am presently fighting off a very nasty cold and fever, so it will take me a few days. You can expect the winners to be announced near the end of the week.
In the meantime, let me share with you what I pulled out of the dyepot yesterday. The colours are so rich and delicious that I just want to fall into it headfirst. I simply could not get the camera to really capture the tones of this yarn but, here, have a look…
When the grapes have been harvested and gathered into great piles at the end of each row, and the piles have been collected and taken to the winery, what is left in their place is a ruby-red mark where the sheer weight of the bounty crushed the succulent grapes and the dark juice escaped and ran down, leaving that beautiful, telltale stain — deep as burgundy in some places, soft as a rose in others — against the yellow-brown of the dry, sun-baked earth.
Each skein is over 100g of Superwash Merino in a wonderfully soft 3-ply, fingering weight yarn. Two skeins available, sold separately.
Fiber Content: 100% Superwash Merino
Weight: Approximately 3.7oz / 105g (approximately 490 yards per 100g)
Colourway: Vineyard Stain, 100530-001
Care Instructions for the final item: Hand or Machine wash, Lay flat to dry.
Each item is individually hand-dyed by the SpaceCadet, using professional grade acid dyes, using professional grade acid dyes which are mixed by hand from primaries. Please be sure to buy enough for your project as the colours may not be able to be reproduced exactly.
SpaceCadet Creations is a smoke-free, pet-free environment.
Please remember that the colours in pictures may vary depending on your computer monitor. The colours in the photos are as accurate as possible.
It’s the last few days to enter the giveaway to win a skein of SpaceCadet Creation’s hand-dyed Sock Yarn or two 2oz braids of hand-dyed fiber! The giveaway will come to a close at the end of Monday (11.59pm on May 31st to be exact) so, if you’re not entered, make sure you get entered before the end of the holiday weekend!
All you have to do is put your email address in the subscription box over there on the right, just above the SpaceCadet’s head. And, once you’ve done that, there are six ways to earn extra entries — for all the details, click here.
But remember, those extra entries will count only if you’ve subscribed to the blog using the subscription box right over there at the top of the right-hand column. While I am sincerely grateful for all my followers, I can’t see the people who subscribe through other feed aggrigators (such as Google Reader, Bloglines, etc) and so I’m afraid those subscriptions can’t count as entries. If you prefer to follow me through another feed aggrigator, please go ahead and do that, but also subscribe through the blog just for a few days, so your entry can be counted for the giveaway.
Thank you to everyone who has subscribed and entered so far. It’s been so exciting to “meet” all of you! Now go out there and tweet, post, follow, and friend your way to extra entries. And GOOD LUCK!
