Announcing our Exclusive SpaceCadet Project Bags by Knerd!

16AugAugust 16, 2015 By Stephanie

You know how it feels when you hit something right out of the park? A little over a year ago, we discovered Knerd and fell in love with the distressed, industrial style of Renee Magee’s super-cool project bags… and when she agreed to create a custom bag for our SpaceMonster Club, complete with the SpaceMonster himself in — wait for it — glow-in-the-dark ink, we were over the moon!

The bags were huge hit with our club members and when I started getting emails and tweets about how everyone loved them… well, that’s when I knew we’d hit it out of the park. And that’s also when I decided I wanted to work with Renee again some time in the future. So a couple of months ago, I asked Renee if she’d adapt the original design to do a SpaceCadet bag for us and, to my delight, she said yes immediately!

Announcing the Exclusive SpaceCadet Knerd Bag

The perfect way to show your SpaceCadet savvy, this bag is fantastic for knitting and crochet projects — large or small — but I think you’ll find a million other uses for it too. It makes a super-cool book bag, a pretty awesome gym bag, even a fabulously roomy handbag (in fact, I’ve been using mine as a handbag all summer long, along with my assistant Jade and even my mum — great minds think alike, eh?). And even though it’s hotter than blue blazes at the moment, dare I say it’d make a fabulous Christmas present?

Ok, here are all the details:

Offered in three colours: purple with dark purple ink, pink with black ink, and the original black with that awesome glow-in-the-dark ink.
Available for two weeks only, we’ll close orders on Aug 31 (at 12.01am EST if you’re into cutting things close). We will be putting these in the new swag shop when it eventually opens but, if you want to be sure to get one, it’s best to order now.
Each bag will be made to order and Renee will get to work on them as soon as the order period has closed, so please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery.

Click here to grab your Exclusive SpaceCadet Knerd Bag!

I can’t tell you how excited I am to offer you these fabulous SpaceCadet Knerd bags and I hope you’re squeeing along with me! And, hey, if you love these bags as much as we do, please tweet it out for us, share it on Facebook, or post it on Ravelry? I’d be so grateful!

A Colourway for Languid Days

22JulApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

According to last night’s 11pm news, the temperature here in western Pennsylvania is about to get miserable: 92 degrees F (33 C) with humidity that you can cut with a knife. I’m no fan of hot weather and I know it’s not due to last long but, while it’s here, I’ll be taking shelter in the coolest spots I can find.

So, it seemed a perfect time to share with you the latest Yarn Alliance parcel, because the inspiration for this colourway is all about finding refuge from the hottest summer temperatures.

Inspired by a languid summer’s afternoon spent in the shade of a lush tree, its branches draping lazily above and letting the sunlight through only in little pools here and there. No matter how harsh the sun’s ray or how wilting the day, the shelter of that cool, dappled shade is the most refreshing place to be.

Y’know, if I’m honest, this is not a colouway that I feels natural to me — I am not often a yellow kind of girl — but the truth is that I just love this colourway! There is something about that just feels so summery and hot… a little singed around the edges… and yet with that wonderfully cool streak of blues and greens. I just cannot wait to see how this knits up!

And every Yarn Alliance parcel comes with a gift and, this time, it was a perfect match for the colourway. When those long, languid days turn into perfect summer evenings, there is nothing nicer than sitting out in the cooling air with a beer (or, in this case, a cool English cider). Renee from Knerd made us these custom beer cosies with the idea of “cold beer, warm hands, dry knitting”.

And y’know, no matter how hot and miserable the day, I think that just has to be the perfect way to end it. Don’t you agree?

The InterStellar Yarn Alliance will open in September for new subscriptions. Want to be the first to hear when it does? Click here to get on the mailing list and get early-bird notification of the opening dates!

Seriously Cool Stuff from TNNA

03JunApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

This time last month, Jade and I were at TNNA, the knitting industry’s biggest tradeshow — an amazing opportunity to see the very latest in fiber arts trends, and a chance to chat with old friends from around the country and make new connections. It’s the kind of event where everything is all go from the moment you wake up until late late late into the night (ask me how late…. go on, ask me*). It’s energising, exciting, idea-generating, and then in the end… deeply deeply exhausting. But, just as we do every year, we came away from TNNA with pages and pages (and pages) of notes and new ideas, and some fun new things that I can’t wait to reveal to you later in the year.

But in the mean time, I want to share with you one seriously hot new product that we spotted — something that had us both squealing with delight! The TNNA show floor is split roughly in half, with most of the knitting-related stuff on one side and the needlepoint booths on the other, and most of our time is spent on the knitting side. But as we ventured over toward the needlepoint side, tucked into a corner we found… Knerd. And both Jade and I were immediately head-over-heels.

Do you know Knerd?

Renee Magee left her corporate job to join her husband’s screen printing shop, and eventually used it to branch out into her own crafty niche. She takes brilliant witty-knitty sayings like, “Does a Bear Knit in the Woods?” and “My Drinking Group has a Knitting Problem,” and prints them onto fab t-shirts (cut for women!), cute stickers, and rad rough-finished project totes. They are so. seriously. cool.

When we got home, I spotted Knerd’s bags featured in the latest issues of Interweave’s KnitScene and Yarn Market News (the industry trade magazine), so you know they’re hot. And if you want to grab one before anyone else in your knit group, get yourself over to Knerd and check them out.

**record scratch**

EXCEPT if you’re a member of the SpaceMonsters Mega Yarn Club!!!!

If you’re a SpaceMonster then you just sit tight, ok? *wink* All I’m gonna say is watch your postboxes because there’s fun stuff on its way to you …and beyond that, my lips are sealed!

Speaking of SpaceMonsters…

I’m super excited to announce that the SpaceMonster Mega-Yarn Club opens for new subscriptions on June 6th!

This club is all about bulkier yarns — so quick to work with and just such fun! There are lots of extra benefits — exclusive colourways, extra skeins, and always a seriously fab gift — so don’t forget to mark June 6 on your calendar. We’d love to have you join us!

BUT LISTEN… we always open the club up a day or two early for the folks on the SpaceMonsters mailing list! Want to grab your spot early? Click here and get your name on that list!

*So what time did we get in? 4am. That’s right… four in the morning. And there’s a story behind it — the kind of story that could only have happened at four am. I’ll tell you all about it in one of my upcoming blog posts…