A Yarn Club, a Yarn Club, and… Another Yarn Club!

15JulApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

Now that everyone in the InterStellar Yarn Alliance should have received their latest parcels, I really want to show you what they got!

And as the weather turned hotter and hotter, I found myself inspired to dye a skein rich in the full-on colour of summer. The yarn is Stella, a really wonderful 80/20 merino/nylon mix and the colourway is Starved for Colour.

And then for fun, I created mini-skeins of Lucina, a lovely yarn in merino and nylon with a little added sparkle, and dyed them in coordinating colours — some Alliance members got purple, some blue, some green. I kind of fell in love with the idea of using it to knit socks with sparkly toes and heels (I mean, seriously, how cool is sparkly toes and heels?!?), but it’d also look great as a border on a shawl, or collar and cuffs on a child’s cardigan.

Now, onto the really cool stuff… the goodies. I was so in love with the custom SpaceCadet Tool Tins that Sarah Wilson, The Sexy Knitter, created for the last parcel, that I asked her if she could create a custom version of her adorable origami stitchmarkers… And she did! They were so cool that I squealed as soon as I saw them! They came packaged in their own little glass vial. Don’t you love them?!?

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Guest-Dyer for the Cultured Purl

“Guest-Dyer” has a pretty nice ring to it, don’t you think? I was thrilled when Shirani at The Cultured Purl asked me if I’d be a Guest-Dyer for their Spectacular Summer of Socks Club. She asked me to create a summery colourway, so I took inspiration from lazy summer lunches eaten under a bright blue sky… And dyed Picnic, a custom colourway designed to create fun bursts of colour throughout the knitted fabric.

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And… Another Yarn Club!

And, as if that wasn’t enough, I’ve been asked to dye for yet another club (squeee!). I don’t know yet if I’m allowed to tell you who I’m dyeing for or what colours I’m making, but I can tell you that I just sent a skein of the yarn to the (very fabulous) designer and I can’t wait to see what she creates with it. As soon as I know I have the go ahead… I’ll tell you all about it!

InterStellar Yarn Alliance Sneak Peek!

01JulApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

The InterStellar Yarn Alliance parcels are on their way, and I don’t mind admitting I am crazy-excited about this shipment! I had so much fun dyeing it, and I just can’t wait for you guys to receive it.

Right, here are the spoilers!

First comes the inspiration…

Then there is the yarn. There’s a bit of this…

And maybe a little something else too…

And there’s always fun goodies…

I can’t wait to find out what you all think of it!!! Make sure you go to the InterStellar Yarn Alliance group on Ravelry to discuss how you like it and what you’re going to make with it.

(And if you really, really can’t stand it, and you really, really want to know what’s coming… if you click on one of the pictures above, you’ll get a full-colour sneak peek)

Are You Ready?

29AprApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

I’m a little bit excited… I’m a lot excited actually. But I can’t tell you about it because what I’m excited about is the yarn club parcels, which are all finished and ready to be posted out. We’ve spent the whole evening gathering the bits and pieces for them, putting it all together…

And I want to tell you all about it! …And I can’t!!!

But… I can tease you! I can, for instance, show you this…

(I have to admit, I’m really really excited about that one!)

And I can tell you that this goes along with it too…

There’s some of this sort of stuff…

And some nifty stuff to read…

And something else… Something else….

Hmmm… Now, what was it?

Oh yeah! This!

(Wait, you didn’t think I was going to show you the colour, did you?!?)

So… are you ready? Are you ready?!? ‘Cause I totally am!!!.

(And… should I ring your postman and just warn him that you’re gonna be stalking him for the next few days?)

Welcome to Monday! No, Tuesday. No… Wait…

23MarApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

Is it Wednesday already? Wednesday?!? Ach! I meant to blog yesterday! Errr… I mean Monday. And do a shop update. Have I done the shop update?!?

It’s been crazy here the past week. There are only a few days left before Homespun Yarn Party and we are working like mad to finish the dyeing and get the last of the loose strings tied up (ha ha — no pun intended!). And, as well, I’ve been putting together the Welcome Packs for the the new members of InterStellar Yarn Alliance. It’s been so much fun seeing people sign up, that I can’t wait to get started on the first parcels in April! Busy busy days… but exciting too.

yarn, knitting, handdyed, hand-dyed, spacecadet, space cadet, sock yarn — Shop Update, clockwise from top left: Celeste yarn in Sincerity, Stella yarn in Heartthrob, Estelle yarn in Avarice, and Lucina yarn in Swollen

HomeSpun Yarn Party

So, if you live in the DC-Baltimore area and you’re looking for something fun to do this weekend, please come see us at the HomeSpun Yarn Party. It is a fantastic event, a showcase of over 30 indie dyers and spinners, so you know you’ll have a fab time. And we’d love to meet you!

Homespun Yarn Party

Sunday March 27, 12noon – 5pm

Historic Savage Mill 8600 Foundry Street, Savage, MD 20763

InterStellar Yarn Alliance

Don’t forget, there’s just over a week left to sign up for the SpaceCadet’s InterStellar Yarn Alliance! It’s been wonderful fun watching people join and introducing themselves in the Yarn Alliance group. It’s going to be a great yarn club, so if you like the idea of having a parcel full of yarny goodness arrive on your doorstep every other month, come and join us!

And finally, the shop update

yarn, knitting, sock yarn, spacecadet, space cadet, hand-dyed, handdyed — Shop Update, clockwise from top left: Celeste yarn in Cove, Stella yarn in SeaFoam, Estelle yarn in Translucence, and Estelle yarn in Petrolhead

With everything going on, I’ve managed to sneak in a quick update! Here’s a bit of colour to brighten up your Wednesday.

…Is it Wednesday already? Wait! How did that happen?!?

InterStellar Yarn Alliance Launch Winner!

18MarApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

The response to the SpaceCadet’s InterStellar Yarn Alliance Launch contest was FANTASTIC! I so enjoyed reading all your comments, and seeing all your posts on Ravelry. Thank you all so much for participating!

I have just run the numbers through Random.org‘s online random number generator and it has chosen a winner. BUT, before I tell you who it is (because suspense always makes these things so much more fun, don’t you think?)…

SpaceCadet Yarn Reviewed by KnitPurlGurl

So before I give you the winner’s name, I want to tell you all that I recently got the chance to meet the wonderful KnitPurlGurl at the Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival, and she’s absolutely lovely — I really wish we’d had time to grab a cup of coffee and sit and knit together for a while! I gave her a skein of SpaceCadet Estelle yarn and she’s posted a review of it on her website. If you’ve never used SpaceCadet yarn before, please pop over and see what KnitPurlGurl thinks about it.

The Winner

Ok… ok… I’ve made you wait and you’ve been patient, so here we go… The winner of a skein of SpaceCadet Creations yarn in the the InterStellar Yarn Alliance Launch giveaway is…

robkat317

Congratulations! Please send me an email with your name and postal address, and I’ll get yarn out to you asap.

Thank you to everyone for participating. And if you didn’t win and you’re feeling down about that, please do come join us in the Yarn Alliance, where you’ll get the excitement of a mystery parcel of yarn again and again!

Win A Skein of SpaceCadet Yarn!

15MarApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

I am so excited about the InterStellar Yarn Alliance, the SpaceCadet’s new yarn club which opened for subscriptions on Monday, that I can’t wait for the fun to start! The first parcels will go out in April, but I really want to do something to kick it off right now…

So I’m going to give away a free skein of lovely SpaceCadet Creations yarn to one of you this week, and all you have to do to enter is talk about the Yarn Alliance in a post on Ravelry! It can be anywhere on Ravelry except the SpaceCadet Creations and Interstellar Yarn Alliance groups. Once you’ve done that, leave a comment here with your Ravelry name, and you are entered to win a free skein of SpaceCadet yarn!

yarn, sock yarn, knitting, crochet, hand-dyed, hand dyed, handdyed — Shop Update (clockwise from top left: Celeste yarn in Carnival, Estelle yarn in Tree Snake, Estelle yarn in Sunshine, and Celeste Yarn in First Love

And if you’ve like to earn a second entry after that, just retweet a link to the Yarn Alliance webpage or link to this blog post in a post on Ravelry (and please be sure to mention your Twitter name here if it’s different from your Raverly name).

The giveaway opens now, and closes at the end of Thursday, so you have to be quick! I’ll announce the winner here on Friday.

yarn, sock yarn, knitting, crochet, hand-dyed, handdyed, hand-dyed, hand painted — Shop Update (clockwise from top left): Celeste yarn in Forgiven, Estelle yarn in Evening Fog, Celeste yarn in Spice Trade, Celsete yarn in Spare Change

Which means that by the end of the week, one of you will be the owner of a new skein of SpaceCadet yarn. Because you need more yarn in your stash, don’t you? Don’t you?!?

Of course you do!

spinning, fiber, fibre, merino, alpaca, hand-dyed, handdyed, hand dyed, hand painted — Shop Update (clockwise from top left): Alpaca & Merino fiber in Translucence, Alpaca & Merino fiber in SuperNova, BFL fiber in HandJive, Alpaca & Merino fiber in Beguile

The details (they’re not difficult, I promise!): Contest closes on March 17 2011 at 11.59pm EDT and all entries must be made before the close. All entrants will be verified and must complete the mandatory entry (that is, mentioning the SpaceCadet’s InterStellar Yarn Alliance in a post on Ravelry) before completing the ‘extra’ entry (tweeting a link to the Yarn Alliance). Completion of entries must be mentioned in a comment on this blog post to qualify, and comments must include the commenter’s Ravelry or Twitter name (as applicable). Invalid entries will be disqualified. Winner will be announced on this blog 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. See, that wasn’t too bad, was it?