3.12.2010

Selfish Knitting

So I was just driving home from my first OB visit, and passed an LYS. I've seen it a few times (but had a car full of children with me). This time it was just me and the boy - age 2. Not a great age for LYS shopping, but I had to take the opportunity to pop in and check it out. After living in rurual New Mexico, I now shop for yarn almost exclusively online. There was no LYS within a 3 hour drive! (That's actually what drove me to start dying and spinning my own yarns.)



Anyway, I'm out of the habit of using my LYS, and today reminded my why they're so great. You never know how they'll be - snooty or nice - especially when you have a sticky-fingered munchkin in tow. (Literally sticky-fingered - not like he's a notorious yarn thief.)



I immediately relaxed when I spotted the table filled with kids toys at the door. Or I should say, when my son spotted them! One Stitch More in Cincinnati has an awesome selection of Rowan yarns, which is pretty rare, sweater's worths in stock so I had no excuse to order it online instead.



I love Rowan patterns, especially Rowan Classic (they seem to be more... well... classic than the other Rowan patterns which can be a bit edgy for my taste). So I decided to treat myself. I thummed through a few books, found one with patterns I loved, bought the yarn and now I just need to go and cast on already!



Here's my new project!
Pattern:

Woodland by Martin Storey from the Rowan book: "nature"

Yarn:
Rowan Bamboo Soft in silvery grey (so soft!)

3.10.2010

Just Because

So we're finally moved in and I am officially expecting baby #3 this fall! I promised myself I'd become a regular blogger once the move was finished so I'll definitely be posting more, but I am going to be tired a lot, so it may be simple things that make me smile. Like this...




Seriously - what's better than a knitting clown?

2.16.2010

Spinning Wheel Winner!




Congrats to mamakass - you're the Spinning the Seasons member who won the Ashford Kiwi! I'll be contacting you to get all the information I need to have one shipped off to you ASAP.
Thanks to everyone else for participating! Watch for more awesome giveaways in the future - they're just so fun to do!


12.05.2009

Sock Yarn Cinema and Spinner's Cinema

Alrighty, I know you're busy decorating and shopping and baking and furiously creating last minute gifts (hey, anytime in the month of December is last minute when you're hand-making it!) but I wanted to update you on our plans for next year.

To start with, we're going to be pulling back a bit on dyeing yarns and fibers to focus on our monthly clubs. The Sock Club comes out in January, and it features Sock Yarn Cinema, so there'a good chance that demand is going to go up a bit (well at least we hope so), plus I'm starting to miss out on some of the joys of mothering, so I'm going to really streamline things for a few years. We'll still be dyeing up yarns and fibers and creating gorgeous spinning batts, but updates and crazy sales will be a bit further apart than they have been in the past.

Next, we're going to change the system for Sock Yarn Cinema. Although we've enjoyed the freedom of billing things out monthly, and the way it makes cash flow easier to control, we're going to change back to a prepaid only system, selling several months at a time. There are many reasons for this change, a big one is that it will allow us to put in our order at the mill way in advance so we can be a bit more regular in our shipping. The other is it allows us to offer our members discounts for buying multiple months at once. The third and biggest for us is that we're planning on trying for another little fiber lover this year, and my pregnancies are a bit unpredictable. Some days I feel great, but sometimes I can't get out of bed for a week. To plan around this I will probably be dyeing up 2-3 months at a time just in case I'm not feeling well each month.

Now here are the really exciting parts of the plan for all of you:

1. Because they're prepaid, they make great Christmas gifts - start begging your families and significant others now and you could end up with a year of yarn!

2. You can choose any length of subscription and pick and choose what movies you want with your membership. So if you love 6 of the movies we have planned, choose a 6 month subscription and let us know which ones you want - it doesn't have to be consecutive months. The way they are priced, you'll end up with a discount too!

3. There will be a limited number of packages available for each month, but we'll let you know in the etsy listings if any month is getting close to being sold out. We'll take reservations as lons as they're available, so if you want to wait till March to join, no biggie, you can totally do that.

4. We're doing a crazy giveaway to promote our Spinner's Cinema club - a brand new Ashford Kiwi spinning wheel. It's great for beginners and can grow with you as you get more comfortable. Each month purchased = 1 entry into the drawing. So if you're just starting to spin and you want to upgrade from your drop spindle to a real wheel - here's your chance! Or if you want to give a 3 month subscription to your fiber buddy as a gift and have a chance to win yourself a wheel - there you go! We just want to spread around the spinning love!

(It's a big thing to ship - so this giveaway has to be limited to US participants - but if an international buyer wins the drawing, we'll do our best to find a distributor in your country, if we can't find one that is reasonably priced, we'll give you a $350 gift certificate to the shop instead - you can get a whole lotta fiber for that!)

My little family would just like to send out a big thanks to all of you for supporting us in our fiber endeavors! It has been amazing to watch our little independant business grow and we look forward as we continue to Knit it Up!

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Kate