spinning fiber

A Little Lift for your Wednesday

By Stephanie

Wednesdays are hard, I know.  You’re still two long days away from the weekend, and too far from last weekend to go back.  You’re stuck right there in the middle of the work week.  There’s no where to go.

This week, I’ve been attempting to create some new graphics — an ad for Ravelry, and a new banner for the blog and my shop.  It’s all part and parcel of running a small fiber arts business and, while it’s something I’m having to figure out entirely from scratch, I have to say I am really enjoying the learning.  It feels good to stretch  …most of the time.  Sometimes it seems to morph from a learning experience to an exercise in pure frustration, and I am reminded that I am a dyer, a spinner, a knitter — not a graphic artist.

And so it was this week.  I took the pictures, loaded them onto the computer, opened up the software and…  nothing.  Nothing worked the way I wanted it to, nothing would cooperate.  I couldn’t get the graphics to come out the way I’d envisioned them for love nor money   …and so I stopped, and set it all to one side and decided to tackle afresh on another day.

So today is Wednesday, and Wednesdays are hard.  And at some point today, you will come across something that isn’t working for you either, and is just driving you crazy no matter which way you go at it.  When that happens, stop.  Set it aside.  You can tackle it tomorrow, when you are feeling a little fresher.   …When it’s Thursday and you’re that bit closer to the weekend.

And in the meantime, treat yourself to a momentary mid-week pick-me-up, and have a little peek at the one thing that did go right in my little foray into self-taught graphic design: the pictures — just a wee bit fiber eye-candy, to lift your Wednesday.

Last Chance to Enter the Giveaway!

By Stephanie

It’s the last few days to enter the giveaway to win a skein of SpaceCadet Creation’s hand-dyed Sock Yarn or two 2oz braids of hand-dyed fiber!  The giveaway will come to a close at the end of Monday (11.59pm on May 31st to be exact) so, if you’re not entered, make sure you get entered before the end of the holiday weekend!

All you have to do is put your email address in the subscription box over there on the right, just above the SpaceCadet’s head.  And, once you’ve done that, there are six ways to earn extra entries — for all the details, click here.

But remember, those extra entries will count only if you’ve subscribed to the blog using the subscription box right over there at the top of the right-hand column.  While I am sincerely grateful for all my followers, I can’t see the people who subscribe through other feed aggrigators (such as Google Reader, Bloglines, etc) and so I’m afraid those subscriptions can’t count as entries.  If you prefer to follow me through another feed aggrigator, please go ahead and do that, but also subscribe through the blog just for a few days, so your entry can be counted for the giveaway.

Thank you to everyone who has subscribed and entered so far.  It’s been so exciting to “meet” all of you!  Now go out there and tweet, post, follow, and friend your way to extra entries.  And GOOD LUCK!

Silk is for Spectacular

By Stephanie

You know, I forgot how exciting pure silk is. I used to spin it a lot …but then I moved onto other fibers and I haven’t spun it in a while.  And I’d just forgotten. But I bought some pure silk at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival — on a bit of a whim, just to play with — and when I dyed it… Oh! OH! Yes, now I remember what I love about silk.

There is no fiber that can rival pure silk.  It takes ordinary colours and gives them an intensity and luster that is just amazing to see (and which, unfortunately, pictures cannot capture!).  And then you reach out and touch those colours and…  oh, there’s just nothing like silk.  After I dyed these braids, I showed them to a friend and she actually grabbed them out of my hands and began to squeal and dance across the room.  Really, they are that exciting!  And I was that excited as I pulled them out of the dyepot, so I understood her reaction.  If you love fiber, if you’re a spinner, this is what pure silk does to you.  And if you’ve never spun it before, you gotta try it!

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Hand-dyed Combed Top, Tussah Silk, in SouthWest

Shimmering in the light, here is the burnt orange of desert rock, of terracotta walls, of the parched earth. And here beside it is the startling blue of turquoise, the desert’s own true jewel. Two bold colours that reach out and vie for attention. But there, nestled between them,is the softest of dusty roses, quiet and gentle and tempering them both, so that all three can sit together in harmony, and evoke the essence of the SouthWest.

This is over 2oz of the most incredibly soft Tussah Silk, which spins up beautifully into a lustrous and luxurious yarn.

Fiber Content: 100% Tussah Silk
Weight: Approximately 2.20oz / 60g
Colourway: SouthWest 100505-001
Care Instructions for the final item: Hand wash, Lay flat to dry.

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Hand-dyed Combed Top, Tussah Silk, in Oil on Water

Where steam rises from the puddles that form in the road after a sudden summer storm, and the standing water lifts the grease from the tarmac and carries it like little oil slicks across its surface… there, as the sun breaks through the clouds, the light dances across the oils and creates a delicate rainbow — its shimmering greens, pinks, blues at once both murky and crystal clear — that always takes you by surprise and draws your eye back again and again, just to check that it is still there.

This is over 2oz of the most incredibly soft Tussah Silk, which spins up beautifully into a lustrous and luxurious yarn.

Fiber Content: 100% Tussah Silk
Weight: Approximately 2.05oz / 55g
Colourway: Oil on Water, 100504-001
Care Instructions for the final item: Hand wash, Lay flat to dry.

Each item is individually hand-dyed by the SpaceCadet, using professional grade acid dyes. 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.

A Giveaway for May!

By Stephanie

It’s May!  It’s May!  And May brings so many glorious things — lovely warm days, evenings that seem to stay light so late, and the start of the fiber festival season! — that I thought I’d add a little gloriousness of my own.

Do you subscribe to this blog?  No?  You silly Earthling!  Being a subscriber means you’re always up-to-date on all things SpaceCadet — and it’s completely free!

Ok, here’s the deal:   If we can get my blog subscribers to reach 75 by the end of the month, I’m going to give away a skein of my sock yarn — that’s 100g of soft and smooshy 100% superwash merino hand-dyed goodness — to one randomly-picked winner, and two 2oz bumps of beautiful, hand-dyed, soft-as-clouds BFL fiber to two runners up.  All you have to do is put your email address in the subscription box over there on the right, just above the SpaceCadet’s head.  And if you subscribe already, don’t worry — that just means you prebooked your entry!

Once you’re subscribed, you can earn up to six additional entries by doing the following:

Just leave a separate comment here for each that you do, and be sure to include your Twitter and/or Ravelry name so I can tie them together (and remember, you have to be signed up for a blog subscription for your additional entries to count).

So, that’s seven ways to enter!  And, best of all, free yarn and fiber to three lucky winners!  So get the word out — and when the subscriber numbers hit 75, everyone’s in with a chance.

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Contest ends 31 May 2010 at 11.59pm. Prizes will be awarded only if SpaceCadet’s email subscriptions reach 75.  Subscriptions must be via the email subscription form at the top of the right-hand column on this blog — subscriptions through other sources (such as online readers) are not visible to the SpaceCadet and so cannot be counted as entries.  All entrants will be verified and must complete the mandatory entry (that is, subscribing to the SpaceCadet Creations blog) before completing the ‘extra’ entries. Comments must include the commenter’s Twitter or Ravelry name (as applicable) in order for ‘extra’ entries to be included in the contest. Invalid entries will be disqualified.  Winner will be contacted by email for further details 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.

Iceberg — Fresh and Cold and Blue

By Stephanie

A friend of mine suggested I try a snow-and-ice colourway — and the easiest way, I suspect, might be to just leave the snowy-white wool undyed…!  But that would never do, so this is what I came up with instead.  Doesn’t it say icy-cold to you?.

Hand-dyed Combed Top, Superwash Merino, in Iceberg

Bright sunshine, falling from a dazzling and cloudless blue sky, carries with the promise of a warm midsummer’s day …but for the breeze, which belies the truth with its bracing chill, and the way light bounces back off the brilliant white snow that sits atop luminous blue mass of ice, melting at the edges, releasing gentle droplets which drip quietly down… down to the white-capped waves… down to the sea that hides the frozen mass of the Iceberg in its murky blue-black depths.

This is over 4oz of wonderfully soft Superwash Merino combed top. It spins up beautifully, and the final item can be machine washed.

Fiber Content: 100% Superwash Merino wool
Weight: Approximately 4.25oz / 120g
Colourway: Iceberg 100410-001
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 dyelots can vary noticeably and 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.

Announcing: SpaceCadet Gift Certificates!

By Stephanie

I had a customer enquire last week about giving a SpaceCadet Creations gift certificate…  and I was quite shocked to realise I hadn’t even thought of them before!

Selling on Etsy, it’s a bit tricky to do gift certificates (Etsy doesn’t have the functionality for either gift certificates or for discount codes, unfortunately) and it took quite a bit of digging around, but I finally figured out how to do it.  And… TA DA!!!!… I am delighted to announce that Space Cadet Gift Certificates can be now be purchased through PayPal!  Just click on the link in the sidebar to the right (just under the SpaceCadet’s head) to be taken to a screen that will walk you through the process.

And Happy Gift-giving!