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Podcasts: Fibery Goodness Whispered in Your Ear

By Stephanie

When I finally bought an MP3 player last year, I thought I’d be using it to listen to music, but it turns out that what I really listen to are fiber podcasts.   I love ’em!  Ever since I discovered there were these people out there just talking away about knitting, spinning, weaving, and dyeing, I’ve been addicted.  Who wouldn’t be?  A nearly endless source of people who get it and are right there, on tap, ready at any time of day or night to whisper in my ear about all thing fibery — while I’m doing the dishes or sweeping the floor or stuck in traffic or inexplicably wide awake in the dead of night.  Who wouldn’t be hooked?!?

Well… ok, I know there are a lot of people who wouldn’t be, but that’s only because they’re not fiber freaks like you and I.  In fiberista terms,the people who matter are the people who understand the allure of fiber, and that’s me, and you …and the podcasters.  Here are some of my absolute favourites:

Cast-On from Brenda Dayne is the first fiber podcast I discovered and I think it is the absolute best — a benchmark for all other podcasters to work toward.  Thoughtful, whimsical, educational, and always so beautifully put together, Cast-On is always a treat.  Brenda is taking a sabbatical at the moment to recover from some health issues but, if you’ve never listened, it’s worth working your way through the archives while we wait for her return.

FiberBeat is what I imagine the B-52s would come up with if they decided to record a fiber podcast.  WonderMike has created a zany podcast that, while always full of interesting interviews, news, and information, is also chock full of crazy random audio madness that has me laughing out loud.  You’ll have to listen to see what I mean, but that’s no hardship.

Insubordiknit from spinning artist  Jacey Boggs is a rare treat — rare because she produces episodes randomly and seldom, but a treat because they are so completely worth the wait.  Jacey is famous in the fiber world for her art yarns — unique, creative, and stunning… but always stable and balanced.  Listening to her talk through their creation is wonderfully inspiring.

These great podcasters keep me wrapped in fibery goodness even when I can’t be spinning or knitting — a wonderful thing.    And you know what?  I’d like to find more fiber podcasts just like them!   What are your favourite podcasts?   Who should I be listening to?  I’d love to know.

What a Response!

By Stephanie

The response to the May Giveaway has been phenomenal, and it has been exciting and so much fun for me to see the response!  I love making these yarns and fiber, dreaming up the colours in my head and then mixing and coaxing them out of the dyepot — that’s why I started dyeing — but absolutely nothing beats the thrill of getting feedback, learning how to be a better dyer by getting other people’s opinions on my work.  And this week, people have been signing up to the blog, tweeting about SpaceCadet Creations and — most importantly to me — sharing about their favourite items, their projects,  and the yarns they love in the comments and on Ravelry.  As a dyer, usually working all on my own, it has been just wonderful. Thank you all so much!

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Now, I want to show you a new colourway I put in the shop yesterday.  It wasn’t what I intended at all, but I just love the result.  It started out as purples blending into pinks — and, when you look at the photos, you might think that’s what it is — but when I pulled it out of the dyepot, I just didn’t like it at all.  It was too  sugary-sweet, too bright and girly…  Not what I’d intended!  So I quickly mixed up a deep, rich orange and poured it over part of the yarn and — voila! — the yarn changed moods completely.  The colourway has real depth now.  I think it’d would be wonderful knitted up as a triangular shawlette, peeking out from the collar of dark coloured coat and casting its warm tones onto the face.

Fingering Weight Yarn in Superwash Merino, in Sunset over a Stormy Sea

A evening storm over the sea is a spectacular sight but, after the winds have died down and the palm trees have stopped swaying, as the sun begins to sink beneath the water on the horizon, its rays reach up and turn the sky into a blaze of wild pink and orange, streaked with the deep purple clouds, now spent and tamed.

Each skein is approximately 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 3.65oz / 100g (approximately 490 yards per 100g)
Colourway: Sunset over a Stormy Sea, 100425-002
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 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.

A Giveaway for May!

By Stephanie

It’s May!  It’s May!  And May brings so many glorious things — lovely warm days, evenings that seem to stay light so late, and the start of the fiber festival season! — that I thought I’d add a little gloriousness of my own.

Do you subscribe to this blog?  No?  You silly Earthling!  Being a subscriber means you’re always up-to-date on all things SpaceCadet — and it’s completely free!

Ok, here’s the deal:   If we can get my blog subscribers to reach 75 by the end of the month, I’m going to give away a skein of my sock yarn — that’s 100g of soft and smooshy 100% superwash merino hand-dyed goodness — to one randomly-picked winner, and two 2oz bumps of beautiful, hand-dyed, soft-as-clouds BFL fiber to two runners up.  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 if you subscribe already, don’t worry — that just means you prebooked your entry!

Once you’re subscribed, you can earn up to six additional entries by doing the following:

Just leave a separate comment here for each that you do, and be sure to include your Twitter and/or Ravelry name so I can tie them together (and remember, you have to be signed up for a blog subscription for your additional entries to count).

So, that’s seven ways to enter!  And, best of all, free yarn and fiber to three lucky winners!  So get the word out — and when the subscriber numbers hit 75, everyone’s in with a chance.

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Contest ends 31 May 2010 at 11.59pm. Prizes will be awarded only if SpaceCadet’s email subscriptions reach 75.  Subscriptions must be via the email subscription form at the top of the right-hand column on this blog — subscriptions through other sources (such as online readers) are not visible to the SpaceCadet and so cannot be counted as entries.  All entrants will be verified and must complete the mandatory entry (that is, subscribing to the SpaceCadet Creations blog) before completing the ‘extra’ entries. Comments must include the commenter’s Twitter or Ravelry name (as applicable) in order for ‘extra’ entries to be included in the contest. Invalid entries will be disqualified.  Winner will be contacted by email for further details and must respond within 72 hours or we reserve the right to choose another winner. SpaceCadet Creations reserves the right to substitute prizes. Prizes cannot be redeemed for cash.

Iceberg — Fresh and Cold and Blue

By Stephanie

A friend of mine suggested I try a snow-and-ice colourway — and the easiest way, I suspect, might be to just leave the snowy-white wool undyed…!  But that would never do, so this is what I came up with instead.  Doesn’t it say icy-cold to you?.

Hand-dyed Combed Top, Superwash Merino, in Iceberg

Bright sunshine, falling from a dazzling and cloudless blue sky, carries with the promise of a warm midsummer’s day …but for the breeze, which belies the truth with its bracing chill, and the way light bounces back off the brilliant white snow that sits atop luminous blue mass of ice, melting at the edges, releasing gentle droplets which drip quietly down… down to the white-capped waves… down to the sea that hides the frozen mass of the Iceberg in its murky blue-black depths.

This is over 4oz of wonderfully soft Superwash Merino combed top. It spins up beautifully, and the final item can be machine washed.

Fiber Content: 100% Superwash Merino wool
Weight: Approximately 4.25oz / 120g
Colourway: Iceberg 100410-001
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 which are mixed by hand from primaries. Please be sure to buy enough for your project as dyelots can vary noticeably and 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.

Announcing: SpaceCadet Gift Certificates!

By Stephanie

I had a customer enquire last week about giving a SpaceCadet Creations gift certificate…  and I was quite shocked to realise I hadn’t even thought of them before!

Selling on Etsy, it’s a bit tricky to do gift certificates (Etsy doesn’t have the functionality for either gift certificates or for discount codes, unfortunately) and it took quite a bit of digging around, but I finally figured out how to do it.  And… TA DA!!!!… I am delighted to announce that Space Cadet Gift Certificates can be now be purchased through PayPal!  Just click on the link in the sidebar to the right (just under the SpaceCadet’s head) to be taken to a screen that will walk you through the process.

And Happy Gift-giving!

A Little Merino Top is Good for the Soul

By Stephanie

Not that I’m spin obsessed lately or anything (!), but something made me turn my dyeing attention from yarn to fiber.  I don’t know what that could be…  cough cough!

Anyway, my one-track mindedness is your gain.  Here’s a peek at the gorgeousness that came out of the dyepot.  I am sooooo tempted to pull it out of the shop and spin it up myself!

Hand-dyed Combed Top, Superwash Merino, in Pond Lilies

Nourished by the murky blue-green waters and coaxed by the warm summer sun, the Pond Lilies, with their heads turned skyward, open slowly to reveal a ring of white petals — as white as a dove’s wings — that surround a center so yellow it could almost be citrus, and they sway gently on the water’s surface as fish brush past their roots reaching down into the dark water beneath them.

This is over 4oz of wonderfully soft Superwash Merino combed top. It spins up beautifully, and the final item can be machine washed.

Fiber Content: 100% Superwash Merino wool
Weight: Approximately 4.05oz / 115g
Colourway: Pond Lilies 100412-001
Care Instructions for the final item: Hand or Machine wash, Lay flat to dry.

This item was individually hand-dyed by the SpaceCadet, using professional grade acid dyes which were mixed by hand from primaries. Please be sure to buy enough for your project as dyelots can vary noticeably and 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.