ebook Archives - SpaceCadet Hand-dyed Yarns

One of the things I love most about doing a yarn show or festival is getting to meet all of you. It’s so wonderful to get to put faces to email addresses, and talk to you about your yarn choices and your projects. I enjoy that so much!

But sometimes I see a customer pick up a yarn and, even though I can tell she clearly loves it, and even though she turns it over and over in her hands to admire all the different colours, I hear her say to her friend, as she reluctantly puts the skein back, “But how would I use it?”

I always want to reach out to her and offer the chair next to me, so we can sit down together for five minutes and talk through hand-dyed yarns… I want to show her how to understand all those colour changes so she choose a project that will use them to their very best advantage. But yarn festivals are crazy-busy places, and there’s never the opportunity…

The SpaceCadet’s Guide to Using Hand-Dyed

But now there is! Because today is the day I get to release Launching into Hand-Dyed: A basic guide to knitting and crocheting with hand-dyed yarns. It’s a new ebook from SpaceCadet Creations and, in it, I get to do what I never get to do at those yarn shows. I get to sit down with you and talk about how to choose a hand-dyed colourway that’s going to work with the pattern you have in mind …or how to choose a pattern that’s going to work with the yarn you just fell in love with.

And it’s not just me telling you this. Abigail Horsfall of TAAT Designs shows how she chose a pattern for her SpaceCadet yarn, and Sharon Silverman, of Sharon Silverman Crochet, walks you through how variegated yarns work with different crochet stitches. And then to round it out, textile conservator Christine Maurhoff discusses different ways to wash and care for your projects made with hand-dyed yarns.

Doesn’t it sound great?!? Doesn’t it sound like something that’d be really helpful for that customer who’s fallen in love with that beautiful yarn but doesn’t know what to make it with it? Does it sound like something that’d be helpful to you?

Well, let me tell you the best bit. It’s yours. No, really, it’s yours — for free. The thing is, I really hate to see people fall in love with a yarn but not be sure what to make it with it. Hand-dyed yarn is for more than petting (no, really, it is!). Hand-dyed yarn is for using …for knitting, for crocheting, for running through your fingers and turning the colour loose stitch upon stitch. I want you to have this book and so I’m making it available free for signing up to the SpaceCadet mailing list. Just click here and get yourself a copy!

Cue the Oscar Style Tears…

Now, I just have to tell you something else. You know when you read the first few pages of a book and the author is going on and on about how they owe everything to their editor for being such a support and sooo patient and blah blah blahhh? I always thought those dedications were overdone. I mean, really, this life-long devotion? Really?!?

Yeah, well… I was wrong. Turns out there’s a reason authors write with such love and dedication to their editors. I thought I had this book all ready to go when I turned it over to my editor, Carrie Keplinger (of Ebooks That Rock), but I had no idea how much more there was to do. And she was incredibly patient with me as we went through edit and re-edit… and re-edit. And I changed the pictures, and then changed them again, and then tweaked them for good measure. I never, ever, ever would have got this done without her — even though I had no idea how much I would need her. So, yeah, I learned why authors are so dedicated to their editors. And I want to tell you, Carrie is worth her weight in… well, yarn. Could I come up with any higher praise than that?

Tell Me What You Think!

I am just so excited about this, I can hardly tell you. This book has been months and months in the making, and I so genuinely hope you find it useful and inspiring. So go on and download your copy right now! And then, please please do come back and leave a comment below to tell me what you think of it. I can’t wait to hear!

And for everyone who is already a subscriber — don’t worry! You guys have been dedicated readers for a long time, so you’ll be getting a special email shortly with your download link. Keep an eye on your inbox for it!

There has been so much going on here — so much! — that I feel I am about to burst! And it’s all just about ready… a-a-almost there… So today’s shop update will be a mini-update so I can quickly get back and finish all this up and share it with you. More on that update at the bottom.

But right now, let me tell you what I’ve been working on…

The Website

First, a new website! I’m really excited about it because it’s beautiful, everything I’d hoped for. But the reason that’s really cool for you is that it’s going to allow me to a whole bunch of new things that I couldn’t do before (one of them is my new club, which I’m going to tell you about in a second).

But there’s a really important thing you need to know about this website change. If you subscribe to my website via my mailing list, you don’t need to do a thing. But if you subscribe via WordPress, you’ll need to change over to the mailing list — and that’s super easy to do. Just click here to join the mailing list. See? Easy and done! (If you want to ensure you don’t receive duplicate emails during the transition period, you might also change your WordPress settings, like this.)

Mini-Skein Club

Remember that Super Secret Thing I was telling you about? Oh, I am so excited about this…! And if you’re addicted to hexipuffs, dreaming about the BeeKeeper’s Quilt, falling head over heels for the Babette blanket, or any of the other wonderful mini-skein patterns that are cropping up everywhere these days, then you will be super excited too! The SpaceCadet Mini-Skein Club is coming and it will not only be a regular supply of those addictive little skeins, but also give you the perfect opportunity to try out all those wonderful SpaceCadet yarns and colourways that you’ve never used before. Think of it as a mouthwatering knitters’ and crocheters’ sample pack, delivering yarny goodness to your door every month…

I cannot wait to get the Mini-Skein Club started! If you can’t wait either, make sure you’re on the mailing list to be the first to hear when it goes live!

The Ebook

The ebook is with the editor and is so close to being finished, I can taste it! I know a lot of people aren’t sure how to approach knitting or crocheting with hand-dyed yarn, so I’m hoping this ebook will help ease any nervousness. It’s an introductory guide to hand-dyed yarn: how to use it, how to care for it, how to understand it so you can dive into hand-dyed without fear. If that sounds just right for you, then get on that mailing list to be sure you hear when it’s ready for download!

Oh, and this is really cool — the editor has been blogging the process of putting the ebook together. Check it out!

Shop Update

And finally, here’s the shop mini-update I promised you, two yarns that I am just crazy about…

First is a colourway that I’ve called Inlet, because I see all the colours of shimmering and shallow water — blues, greens, grays — with the glint of something precious resting at the bottom. I absolutely love this colourway! The yarn is 70% superwash merino, 20% bamboo, and 10% nylon, so it has that lovely glossy sheen.

And another yarn in that same lovely bamboo base… This colourway is Contrary and I just love the intensity of those cool, cool blues…

So, lots of stuff going on. It’s been crazy busy but soooo exciting! And if you’re excited too, keep checking back to see if the website has changed. Once it has, the ball starts rolling on everything else too…

ebook

The SpaceCadet’s Ebook: Launching into Hand-Dyed