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.
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 PartySunday March 27, 12noon – 5pmHistoric 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
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?!?
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!
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
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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.
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
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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!
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?
Today, I am not feeling well. It is a day for tea, and warm socks, and curling up on the couch, being quiet, and breathing slowly. Today is this yarn…
Stella Yarn in Spare Change
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But outside, Spring is picking up pace. The last of the snow is clinging on, but it is a futile effort. It’s warm today, almost balmy. The robins are pecking determinedly amid the freshly revealed grass, and the squirrels have appeared to bounce joyfully again from tree to tree. And the flower beds are filled with proud green shoots as the crocuses awaken after their long sleep. Oh yes, spring is on it’s way, and I predict a riot! So really, this yarn is today…
Stella Yarn in Snorkel
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Different yarns for different moods, different colours for different days… No one colourway will ever suit every moment. Is it any wonder knitters end up with such wonderful stashes?!?
(l to r) Celeste Yarn in Cold Flame and Funky Ballet Shoes, Estelle Yarn in Cold Flame
You know what? We had so much fun, we’re doing it again!…
SpaceCadet Creations will be at the Homespun Yarn Party in Savage MD on March 27! This is a fantastic, juried show that features only indie fiber artists and hand-crafters. But this is no local craft show — the standard is very high and it is such an honour to have been chosen to participate!
If you’ve ever wanted to see SpaceCadet colours in person, or to snorgle the yarns and stroke the fibers, and you live anywhere in the WashingtonDC/Baltimore area or the surrounds, please do make the trip Savage. We’d LOVE to meet you! And you’ll have a great time!
Left to right: Silk/BFL Yarn in Straw Into Gold, Plumberry, and Heartthrob
And, in case you’re thinking that March 27th feels like a loooong time away, I’ve put some wonderful new yarns in the shop. This time, I’ve focused on luxury: wonderful, smooshy Luna Laceweight and some decadently shimmery Silk & BFL. Enjoy!
Clockwise from top left: Luna Silk/Merino Laceweight in Straw Into Gold, Translucence, Spice Trade, and Covetous
An Open Letter to Those who Don’t Get the Fiber Arts
I am not doing this to recreate the past. I don’t harbour any fantasies of wearing petticoats or a bonnet. And I don’t knit because I want to feel domestic.
I do this to free my soul. I do this to work in colours that make my heart sing. I dye because I see in my mind hues and shades that are bursting to be let out. And so I do let them out, laying them down in dye upon fiber – vibrant shades poured out over wool, over silk, over the ordinary of life.
And when, at last, I cast those colours onto my needles, I feel a calm wash over me as I work them up into a fabric of my own making — the needles clicking softly and the colours gently blending and contrasting.
I know you think this is old-fashioned, but it’s not. It is as modern as imagination, as current as discovery, as now as creativity. Would you ask a painter why he doesn’t just take a photograph?
And it’s ok if you don’t get it. I understand. But I just wanted to say – I just wanted to say out loud – that this is nothing about old fashioned. This is what I do, and I do it now. I am a fiber artist.
A few years ago, I took a class with Brandon Mably that completely changed the way I thought about colour. It was an intense 2-day course which challenged us to think about how we see and use colour from the minute we arrived in the morning, until we left at the end of the day. Brandon had us doing a lot of crazy things to shake up our brains, from throwing all our balls of yarn into the center of the floor and mixing them all up, to free-knitting swatches that contained 10… 15… 20 different colours. It was a great weekend (and if you ever get a chance to take Brandon’s Design in Colour class, I highly recommend it).
And there’s one technique that he taught that has translated particularly well from knitting to dyeing. He suggested that we use artwork that we love — paintings that really spoke to us — and use the colours as inspiration. If those colours work in the painting, then they would work in our knitting too. He walked around the room and let us choose from a stack of fine-art postcards and greeting cards, whichever painting called out to each of us the most.
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The thing about using this technique is that you suddenly realise how many colours you don’t see, even as they are right in front of your eyes. When you first look at a painting, you may see what you think of as a “yellow painting”…
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But when you take the time to really immerse yourself into the colour, you suddenly see so much more — little spots of red that jump out at you, the grays that fade into the background, subtle greens that you didn’t even notice. They all work together — these colours that you never would have thought of putting side-by-side — and they create a depth and complexity that pulls you back again and again.
Just realising that really began to set us free in that class, and we dove into the pile of yarn in the middle of the floor. Using our cards as a guide, everyone’s knitting exploded into wild colour — combinations of shades far more daring than we would have tried before.
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And then Brandon showed us a something else that I hadn’t noticed: different areas of the the same painting contain their own micro-colourways, and give off completely different moods from what you felt when you first saw the painting. So if you take a painting that you think of as mostly sunny and yellow, and cover part of it up, you might find an area that’s completely different… that’s moody and blue…
And when you switch your hands around again, the whole mood changes back to the sunny and yellow you saw before. Or maybe to a different section, and a different colourway and mood. Here are little colourways that you can pull out for inspiration in your knitting, and that I use in my dyeing — a whole world of colourways in one painting, just waiting to inspire you, if you stop and look closely enough! And once you start seeing them, you really can’t wait to start using them yourself… to start knitting as though you’re painting.
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(When I lived in the UK, fine art cards like this one from Woodmansterne were available in any card shop for just a couple of pounds. But here in the US, I don’t regularly see cards like this — the shelves seem to filled with the standard assortment of greetings cards with nice-but-not-overly-interesting artwork. I’d love to find a good supplier of art cards like this one to inspire me… Can anyone suggest where I might find something similar here in America?)
Homespun Yarn Party
Sunday March 27, 12noon – 5pm
Historic Savage Mill 8600 Foundry Street, Savage, MD 20763
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