This Weekend: HomeSpun Opens And Yarn Alliance Closes

22MarApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

Before I say anything else, I just want to remind you that subscriptions to the InterStellar Yarn Alliance close in just TWO DAYS, and there are only a handful of spaces left. If you’ve been thinking of joining but haven’t grabbed your place yet, do it now before subscriptions close on Sunday night!

How to be a Super-Awesome Fangirl!

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Stacey Trock of Fresh Stitches asked me to write a guest blog post about how to be a great customer (and fan!) at yarn shows. So often, a show is such a conflicted situation: on the one hand, we’re dying to chat to customers that we’ve only been able to “meet” online but then, the booth is often just so crazy-busy that we hardly have the chance to really talk to anybody! What’s a dyer to do?!?

Well, like so many things in life, the best thing to do is start with a plan. And my guest post for Stacey goes through the basics of how to plan out a yarn show trip so that you get to spend some quality time with the vendors you’re dying to meet up with.

HomeSpun Yarn Party This Weekend!

And the timing couldn’t be more perfect, because this weekend we’re heading to Savage MD for HomeSpun Yarn Party, one of my most favouritest yarn shows of the whole year. The place is packed with indie makers selling all hand-made, home-made, and just gorgeous stuff!

We’ll be taking…

More of those coveted kits for Laura Nelkin’s Juego Mystery KAL. These are the yarn and beads that completely sold out in an absolutely frenzied 24 hours earlier this month, but we’ve held a few back for our spring shows. If you want one, get in there and grab it quick!

The Show Exclusive Colourway — a gorgeous yarn in deep, rich colours that I’ve designed that will be available only at the shows we’re doing this spring. You gotta be there to get it and, until the shows are over, I can’t even show you what it looks like! The skeins we took to Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet absolutely flew off the shelves, but — lucky you! — I kept a second a batch safely back in the studio to take to HomeSpun Yarn Party.

More kits for Melissa Jean’s Dublin Tee, and in some exciting brand-new colourways, including one called “Fizz” (any guesses what colour that might be?), one called “Fire”, and one — just one kit — that I may never be able to repeat again and looks like this…

Plus Sparkly Heels & Toes kits, Mini-Skein kits, and hundreds and hundreds of skeins of amazing, hand-dyed SpaceCadet yarn. …Oh! And SpaceCadet tatoos — make sure you ask for one!

HomeSpun Yarn Party

Sunday, March 24, 2013 from 12-5pm
Historic Savage Mill, 8600 Foundry Street, Savage, MD 20763
Want a map? I gotcha covered

So if you live anywhere in the DC-Baltimore area, you absolutely want to make sure you’re there! We can’t wait to see you guys!

And Show Season Begins!

15MarApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

Today is an exciting day, because today starts a series of yarn shows that I’ve been looking forward to for months! This weekend is the Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival (15-17 March in Mars PA), followed next weekend by HomeSpun Yarn Party (24 March in Savage MD), then a quick break for Easter before Knitters Fantasy (6 April in Youngstown OH). It’s going to crazy, busy, fun, exciting, and… whoooo-boy, pretty exhausting too!

But this year, there is more reason to be excited than usual, because we have some GREAT stuff to share with you this year. Here let me tell you all about it…

Colourways like you’ve never seen before!

Our show stock this year is focused on one-of-a-kind and unsual colourways. Yes, there are a few of the standard colourways, but those are always available to you in the shop. For the shows this year, we’ve really cranked up the dyepots and created some gorgeous, vibrant, eye-catching mixes that you may never see again. I can’t wait to see what you think of them!

Sparkly Heels & Toes Kits

It started with the idea of knitting socks out of a lovely skein of Stella in one colourway with fabulously sparkly heels and toes with a coordinating baby skein of our wonderful Lucina. Who wouldn’t want funky socks with sparkly heels and toes?!?

But then, I thought, why would you stop at just socks? What about a delicate shawl with a sparkly lace edging? How about lovely mitts with a sparkly lace cuff?

Or wait… what about sparkly stripes?!? How cool would that be?!? I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with!

Laura Nelkin’s Juego Mystery KAL Kits

Yep, you read that right! And yep, when Laura announced the Juego KAL on her blog, six weeks of kits sold out in 36 hours! We’ve been dyeing like crazy ever since to meet the demand but, at Laura’s request, I’ve dyed a few extras for the shows. They won’t last long — get in and grab yours quick!

Dublin Tee Kits

I adore Melissa Jean’s amazing Dublin Tee! Can’t you see yourself wearing it to… well, pretty much everywhere? So I know you’re going to love our Dublin Tee kits, created in Lyra, Ester, and Celeste — the very yarns that the pattern was designed for — and all packaged up in a sweet little bag for you carry them home and cast on straight away. And to thank you for buying the kit, we’re treating you to the $7 pattern for free!

The Secret Show-Exclusive Colourway!

Now, this is something really special — a custom colourway that I’ve designed exclusively for these Spring shows. It’s rich and deep, multi-tonal with pops of colour and hidden surprises… Intrigued? I’m absolutely in love with it, but you can’t get it unless you come to the shows. In fact, you can’t even see what it looks like unless you come and visit us!

Welllll… I will tell you, it’s in Celeste, which is the lovely 3-ply fingering weight in 100% Superwash Merino that Laura Nelkin chose for her Juego. And wellll… I’m not completely heartless — here’s a little sneak peak…

Ok, but seriously — come and see us at the show! We’d love to see you!

Don’t Forget…

Oh, and one last thing — but this is only for the brave… If love our little SpaceCadet as much as we do, go ahead and ask me for a tattoo! We had so much fun at HomeSpun last year with all the bold, brave women who wore their SpaceCadet tats with pride, and I would love to do it again. Arms, faces, shoulders… cleavage! They’re all fair game, and the SpaceCadet’s cheeky grin looks cute on all of them. So don’t be afraid — let’s tat you up!

And if you can’t make the shows?

Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten you! All the great kits you’ve see here will be making it into the shop once show season is over. So keep your eyes peeled and your needles at the ready. But if you can get to the shows, do it. They’re so much fun, and you know you want to!

The InterStellar Yarn Alliance is open for Subscriptions

from March 8 to March 24 only!

A Sneak Peek at the Dublin Tee!

05OctApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

If you ask me what day it is, I don’t know. If you ask me what time it is, I’ll be no help to you. And if you ask me which way is up, I might end up pointing in any direction. Rhinebeck is only two weeks away and, though life keeps trying to derail the whole thing, I am keeping my nose to the grindstone and powering through.

And you know I love it but… well, if you’re not made of either yarn or dye, I probably have no idea what to do with you right now!

But just before I run back into the studio (run, SpaceCadet, run!), I just want to quickly share with you a sneak peek at the Dublin Tee by Melissa Jean Designs. It’s debuting at Rhinebeck, but I got to see one of the sample being knitted up and snapped some pictures for you guys.

In a way, it’s a simple tee. But the beautiful cable work gives it stretch and shaping that takes that tee to whole ‘nother level. It is just stunning.

The yarn in these photos is SpaceCadet Lyra, an incredibly sproingy sport weight yarn in 100% superwash merino. What? You didn’t know “sproingy” was a word? There is no other way to describe it! When you squish it between your fingers, it just goes sproing right back into shape!

The Dublin Tee will be available at the Melissa Jean Designs booth at Rhinebeck, so please do stop by and see it… see us… see the sproing! And if you can’t make it to the festival, it will be available through the Melissa Jean website after its debut.

Don’t those pictures make you want to cast on right now?!? Yeah, me too. And you know what? As soon as I’ve got all this dyeing done and the festival is over, that is exactly what I’m going to do!