An Update to Knitting Saves the Day! (And SpaceMonsters Closes This Weekend)

20JunApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

SQUEEEEEEE!!!!! In only a few hours from now, we’ll be leaving for TNNA, The National Needlearts Association’s summer tradeshow in Columbus Ohio, for some of the very best fun a fiber addict can possibly have!

There will be new yarns to sample, suppliers to talk to, designers to collaborate with. And the Very Best Knit Night Ever, as all the brightest stars of the knitting world meet up on Saturday night for drinks and knitting in the hotel bar. I cannot tell you how mind-blowing it is to sit in that room, knitting away happily, and to see every single industry icon you can think of knitting alongside you! Keep your eyes on my Twitter feed for live updates over the weekend.

But before I get back to my packing (what to wear?!? what to wear?!?), I wanted to give you a quick update on the Birdhouse that was Saved by Knitting. Do you remember that we had a lovely pair of birds who nested in a decorative birdhouse that really wasn’t up to the job? The body of the birdhouse started to come away from the roof, and I had horrible visions of it falling, nest and eggs and all, and smashing into the ground.

So I whipped out some size 19s and nylon cord and knit a quick safety net to hold the whole thing together. And I am thrilled to report that knitting really has saved the day: my spur-of-the-minute fix has held through thunderstorms and gusty winds, and I can hear (but haven’t yet seen) that there is a nestful of happy (and hungry!) babies inside that little birdhouse.

Want to hear them? I recorded this little snippet for you. First, you’ll hear my backdoor squeaking, then the babies calling, and then the very irritated mother chastising me for being too close to her nest.

(Can’t play it? Click here )

And for those of you who are good at identifying birds, I’d love to know what these guys are. Here’s a photo I was able to snap of the mother leaving the nest. Any ideas?

The SpaceMonster Club Closes This Weekend

And wow, time flies! The SpaceMonster Mega Yarn Club will be closing to new subscribers this weekend, so if you love bulkier yarns and fabulous SpaceCadet colours, make sure you sign up!

Want to know more? Click here for all the club details. Just make sure you do it quickly because, once subscriptions close, this club won’t re-open again for another six months — and it’s too good to miss!

Ready to join?

Click on one of the buttons below to grab your spot in the SpaceMonsters Mega Yarn Club

Very Important: if you are giving this as a gift, please remember to include the recipient’s postal and email addresses in the notes when you check out. We gotta have that to send the recipient their parcels!

Six month subscriptions include 3 parcels; twelve month subscriptions include 6 parcels. Parcels will be sent out on or near the first of February, April, June, August, October, and December. Shipping within the United States is included in the price; extra charges apply for shipping outside the US..
Normal subscription openings/renewals will be available in June and December of each year.
Any other questions? Ask us! info (at) spacecadetcreations (dot) com

Things My Non-Knitting Sister Says: She Said Yes

07OctApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

Do you remember my sister? I’ve mentioned her on the blog before. She’s incredibly supportive of SpaceCadet Creations but she’s never been a knitter, never been the least bit interested, and so when she helped me out at several yarn shows this past year, she was pretty much completely unprepared for the experience. Like when she saw the line that stretched all the way down the sidewalk as knitters and crocheters waited for the doors to open at the Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival (“People are here already?!? They’re waiting?!?”). And her shock that vendors were going shopping and buying yarn from other vendors (“Why would they do that? Don’t they have their own yarn?”). And then the beautifully entertaining look on her face when she finally encountered her first fiber-crazed knitter (“These people are crazy!” ). Ah yes, watching my sister’s initiation into the world of yarn has been very amusing indeed!

I have tried, on and off for twenty years, to get her to try knitting and she’s never been interested. I’ve explained how relaxing it is, how grounding. I described it in terms of yoga and meditation. I’ve held mouth-watering yarns in front of her. But nope, knitting was my thing, and definitely not for her. And helping out at yarn festivals didn’t seem to make any difference at all. So I felt really confident when I chose the title for this series of blog posts: “Things My Non-Knitting Sister Says”. Because my sister does not knit.

And then, a small miracle has occurred. Somewhere in the world, the earth has moved, a sea has parted, perhaps the planet ceased spinning on its axis for one brief moment… Because earlier this summer, my sister learned to knit.

*insert sound of a record scratching*

The SpaceCadet's sister's knitting, with SpaceCadet Creations yarn — My sister's very first knitting project: a garter stitch scarf

I’m trying to remember how it came about, exactly. Did my sister ask to be taught? Did my friend Natalie just decide it was time she learned? I’m not sure but, either way, I just remember the two of them sitting on the couch, Natalie patiently showing her how to hold the needles, and my sister quietly chanting, “in, around, out, and off… in, around, out, and…”. By the time my sister left for home, she had that rhythm downpat, Natalie had given her the needles, and she had a brand-new skein of SpaceCadet yarn cast on for a garter stitch scarf.
Weeks went by and I heard nothing. I was almost afraid to ask, imagining the needles untouched, the cast-on stitches left exactly as they had been when she left. And then, at last, a text message… it said, “I don’t know what you’ve done to me, but I CANNOT stop knitting. I’ve been doing it every day. This is amazing!”

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to the world a new knitter. And I ask you to welcome her into the fold, into our wonderful universe of fibery goodness. She is taking baby steps, to be sure — and please, do try not to spook her — but she is most definitely on her way. I’m so proud of her! And if you are too, please, leave a comment and let her know — new knitters need encouragement, don’t you think?

And here’s the best bit — the next time you see her at a yarn festival, sitting there taking payments and handling the money, and you’re holding a huge pile of yarn and gazing at it and petting it fondly, you can rest assured she probably doesn’t think you’re crazy any more… Little by little, row by row, she’s starting to get it!

An Open Letter

04FebApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

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.

Sunshine Today, More Forecast For Next Week

20AugApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

When I discover my yarns featured in an Etsy Treasury, I get such a rush of excitement, I can’t tell you. And so it was yesterday when I found Sunflowers had been picked for a treasury called “My Sunshine“, put together by ThePlumTree.

Sunflowers sold pretty quickly after that, and I am so excited to send it off to its new home. But if you loved all these golden colours, don’t worry — I’m going to be dyeing a lot more beautiful yellows over the weekend.

The forecast for next week? Bright Sunshine!

Maybe I’ll Become a Cook

09AugApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

Sometimes it’s good to push yourself outside your comfort zone. And if it works, it’s such a boost to the ego! And when it doesn’t… well…

Well, indeed. Last week I pushed myself right out of my comfort zone and straight into yellow. I don’t do yellow a great deal — it’s just never been a personal favourite of mine. But yellow is a great colour — sunny and bright, and filled with warmth. It was time to tackle yellow.

And, while I was pushing outside my comfort zone, I decided to shake things up even more by trying a new dyeing technique. It was something I’d never tried before — indeed, I’d never even seen it done before — and I got excited about it as soon as I thought of it. The technique would create very short bursts of colour — just one, two, maybe three knit stiches long — and unusual blends of shades. I couldn’t wait to try it.

And so I took a deep breath and mixed up my yellows… and in went the yarn.

And what came out did not thrill me. The yellows were beautiful, but The Technique had not worked the way I had expected at all. The short bursts of colour were there, but were much more ragged at the edges than I had hoped, and the shading was simply too haphazard for my tastes. I pursed my lips and shrugged… Chalk it up to a learning experience and be done with it, I thought.

“I like them! They’re interesting. They’re… earthy!” Turning these yarns over in her hands, my friend clearly saw something in them that I hadn’t spotted at first. And she was right. The shades are earthy, and the colour changes aren’t ragged as I first thought, they’re organic. And the yarns, I suddenly realised, are beautiful. Even if they weren’t what I was expecting and are completely outside my comfort zone.

So here they are!

The idea behind this one started as Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, but when it finally dried, I realised it makes me think so much more of Sunflowers, of their lovely golden yellow petals and dark seed-centers, of the earth they sprout from and the sun that nourishes them…

And this one… this one… I am trying to think of a good name for it, but time and again, all I see is Pasta in a Garlic Pesto. Even though the colours are exact, no matter which way I turn it, no matter how I look at it, that’s the only thing that comes to mind.

You know, if this dyeing gig doesn’t work out, maybe I could become a cook…

Crack… Crack…

30JunApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

And without warning, we went from three quiet blue eggs to three blind, naked, wonderful hatchlings…

The nest is in such a place that I can’t get my head up there to have a look — I have to hold the camera up over it and take pictures, and then have a look at them on the camera to see what’s in the nest. And, as I looked at the first few images, the babies looked so lifeless… I was suddenly heartbroken at the thought that they might all be dead.

And then one of them raised his head up and begged the camera for some food, and I realised with relief that they were fine!

Fine… and growing fast! This was them only 48 hours later. Look at all the feathers coming on their wings.

And this is them today, only 5 days after the first photos. Incredible how much they’ve grown! My first thought is how much work that must be for the parent robins, to get enough food to them to support such rapid growth…!

Aren’t they amazing? It’s been well worth not being able to use the back porch through all this lovely weather, just to give these beautiful babies a chance to hatch and grow.