Spinning Up Clouds of Baby Alpaca

03DecApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

So while I was waxing lyrical about the new cashmere in the shop, I never said a word — not a word — about the little something I had up my sleeve for the spinners. Why? Because the holidays are all about surprises!

And this was a surprise worth keeping: the most amazingly soft combed top made from 50% Baby Alpaca and 50% Superfine Merino wool. It’s incredibly light, incredibly soft… It feels like clouds in your hands. And it dyes up beautifully.

50/50 Baby Alpaca/Merino blend in Evening Fog (left) and Tarnished (right)

For those of you who’ve never tried alpaca, I turned to my friend Natalie — a more experienced and excellent spinner — for some advice. She said, “Alpaca is warmer and lighter than wool. For knitting, a worsted weight yarn would make an awfully warm sweater – possibly too warm for daily wear. On the other hand, if you want outer gear like hats and gloves, a thick, woolen spun alpaca would be like carrying around your own little furnace!

“Alpaca is a little more difficult to control than straight wool because it has a shorter staple length and feels sort of slippery. I hold my hands closer together when I’m drafting to adjust for the shorter staple length. I also try to get twist into the fiber more quickly than I would usually do with wool.

“Also, remember that alpaca has practically no memory. So, for knitting, it often works better blended with other fibers that will give it a little bit of elasticity and memory.”

50/50 Baby Alpaca/Merino blend in Rhubarb and Custard (left) and SeaFoam (right)

The blend of superfine merino and baby alpaca together will give your yarn the elasticity and memory that you need for knitting. And the extra lightness and warmth that the alpaca gives you yarn will be perfect for warm winter mittens and hats.

And as I was in a mood for dyeing fiber, I went ahead and did a batch of Blue-Faced Leicester as well. Enjoy!

Clockwise from top left: BFL Combed top in Spice Trade, Sweetpeas, SeaFoam, and Sweetpeas.

The Season for Luxury

29NovApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

The holiday season is upon us and suddenly, I’m in the mood for something a bit luxurious. I don’t know if it’s the chill in the air, or the lovely smells of wintery comfort-food, or thoughts of all the gift-giving to come… but I have been wanting to snuggle down and knit with something really luxurious.

Cashmere, I thought. Cashmere is luxury. And I knew it would be soft, and I knew it would feel heavenly, but I wasn’t really prepared for just how luscious it is…

Estelle Fingering Yarn in Nutmeg Spice Trade (left) and Burnished (right)

Let me introduce you to Estelle, a stunningly soft 4-ply fingering yarn, in 80% Superwash Merino, 10% Nylon, and 10% of that most wonderful Cashmere. The superwash will prevent it from felting, and the nylon adds the strength needed for socks and mittens, but it’s the cashmere — oh, that cashmere — that makes all the difference! And this is not me talking this yarn up — I was quite genuinely surprised by how soft this yarn is, how squishable, how… well, just how luxurious it is. I have not been able to stop petting it all week!

I also haven’t been able to stop dyeing it. I may never go back to ordinary yarn again… Care to join me?

Estelle Fingering Yarn in Steel Leaf (left) and Evening Fog (right)

Cooking Up Something Special

23NovApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

In every home across the country this week, the scene will be exactly the same… There will be mixing bowls filled with the most amazing treasures, and pots gently bubbling on the stove. There will be the old favourites and new recipes, last minute changes and quick saves when things go wrong. A pinch of this and a dash of that…

And it’s been no different here. Well… ok, then, maybe a wee bit different here in the SpaceCadet house. Here’s what I’ve been busily cooking up this week…

…Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Pattern Roll-Call: Perfect, Absolutely Perfect!

19NovApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

I know two little girls who are mad-crazy-keen about ballet. They begin dancing the moment they wake up, and they dance all through their day, and they don’t stop dancing until they go to bed. Actually, they probably don’t stop dancing until they fall asleep — I am quite certain they lie in the dark and practice their tondues under the bedsheets until sleep finally steals them away.

And they would wear their ballet shoes every single day if they could. But they’re not allowed, because the ballet shoes get lost — absent-mindedly set down on the wrong shelf or accidentally kicked under the sofa or sinking slowly to the bottom of the toybox — and are nowhere to be found on ballet day. And so those most-beloved shoes get secreted safely away after each class and the disappointed girls must instead practice their dancing in their socks. It’s not at all ballerina-like!

I’m always on the lookout to bring you great patterns that would make the most of single skeins of SpaceCadet yarn, and when I came across the Open House Socks by Kate Atherley, technical editor of Knitty and knitting editor of A Needle Pulling Thread, I fell in love them! They’re sweet, romantic, and cheeky all at once — and, as a bonus, each pair takes only about half a skein of yarn. They’d make a great quick-knit holiday gift — perfect for padding around the house on cold winter days. I looked at them and thought, they make me want to… dance!

DSC00851_-_Copy_medium2 — © Kate Atherley, Used with Permission

Wait… Make me want to dance?!? I thought immediately about those two little dancers… I could knit them ballet shoes! I could knit them lovely ballet shoes so they could dance all week whilst their real ballet shoes were safely tucked away. There could be no better Christmas present for them on Earth!

In the dyeing studio, I sat and thought for a while about the perfect colour. I could do them in the standard ballet-shoe pink-beige but… well, while these two are budding ballerinas, they are also little girls who love all the stuff that little girls everywhere love: sparkly and bright and fancy and pink. Plain ballet shoes would never do — if they were going to have custom knit ballet slippers, then they would have them in a pink to thrill their hearts. And I began mixing the dyes…

I emailed Kate and told her my plan, and she wrote straight back and very kindly offered to help me adjust the pattern to suit these much smaller feet. What a lovely thing to do!

So once I’ve done my gauge swatch and worked out some calculations, I will cast on with this wonderful, crazy pink. And then I can’t wait to share with you my new works in progress!

But shhhh… mind no-one tells the girls, ok?

Shop Update: A Gift for a Wee Miracle

16NovApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

A dear friend of mine is about to have her baby boy — a little miracle after a lot of broken hopes and heartache — and I am overjoyed for her. So I want to send something special to welcome him into the world. The first thing I thought about, of course, was the colour…

I didn’t want to go with the typical baby pastels or box him into blueblueblue. So I went down to the studio and mixed up a few colours that I thought would be just right — that would be interesting, exciting, but still perfect for a baby boy.

And when I pulled it out of the dyepot, it was exactly what I had in mind. I’m seeing a little cardigan and a pair of matching booties. And I can’t wait to cast on!

But first… I dyed a couple more skeins for you.

Stella Fingering Weight Yarn, Superwash Merino and Nylon, in SeaFoam

The sea rolls in, and softly out again… leisurely, relaxed, as if it has nothing better in the world to do. Softly in, softly out, and making that wonderful, rich sound — the gently fizz of blue-green SeaFoam melting into the sand.

Each skein is over 100g of Stella, a beautiful and distinctive 2-ply fingering weight yarn in 80% Superwash Merino and 20% Nylon. There are two skeins available, sold separately.

Fiber Content: 80% Superwash Merino, 20% Nylon
Weight: Approximately 3.7oz / 105g (approximately 400 yards per 100g)
Colourway: SeaFoam, 101113-003
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.

Shop Update: From Flat on My Back

11NovApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

You may have noticed that there was no shop update on Monday, as there usually is. Nor on Tuesday, which is when I usually do the update if Monday gets too busy. There were yarns ready — drying, or in the process of being reskeined, some weighed, some tagged… But I was not ready.

I was flat on my back in agony and holding as still as I possibly could. Over the weekend, my neck and shoulder had seized up completely and, man oh man it hurt! I mean, they’ve seized up before, a few times in my life, but never like this. Imagine, if you will, me lying on my back in bed, with no pillow, nothing to contort my spine away from the support of the mattress, and I moved my foot — just my foot! — and it sent a spasm of pain shooting up through my shoulder and my neck and wrapped right around over my skull all the way to my eyes. That kind of agony.

il_570xN.191692570 — Stella yarn in Faded Garland

The doctor is satisfied that it is muscular and not skeletal (I was worried), and I now have some painkillers the size of horse-pills that are working a small miracle. Bit by bit, I am gaining more mobility — and having to remind myself not to rush it, that everything can wait… even though I am desperate to get back work. There were so many exciting things happening this week, and so many wonderful yarns!

Triptich Cranberry — Celeste Yarn in Stewed Cranberry

And so keen was I to get them in the shop that I took advantage of those pills and pushed myself a bit too hard yesterday. The result is that there are now some lovely yarns in the shop …and, I am flat on my back again today. Not anything like before, but just a little reminder from my muscles they are not to be trifled with and I must respect them and take things slooooowly.

il_570xN.191862887 — Luna Laceweight Yarn in Rapeseed

But I did get some really exiting stuff into the shop… There’s enough Megan’s Frost to make a sweater — with two more skeins of Frost waiting to go into the shop as soon as I’m able. And there’s four skeins of Stewed Cranberry, with two more in the studio ready to be reskeined. A beautiful skein of Laceweight in the most amazing golden-yellow. And a skein of Stella in a lovely, quirky colourway called Faded Garland. Enjoy!

And please keep your fingers crossed for me, ok?