Drawing Winners!

Sock Yarn Rainbow - Kathryn Poe
10 ounces of fiber - Kathy Foster
Custom Colorway in sock yarn or fiber - Tanie Schembri
$50 Gift Certificates - Lisa (rocket_kay) and Rachel Anderson
Skein of yarn or braid of fiber - teabird17, brunettemama, lindaran, littledit, and zoeyrat

Yay!

More chances to win goodies and discounts on the way when we unveil our new re-brand soon.

Anniversary Sale!

Time for our Anniversary Sale again! Can you believe we've been going strong on Etsy for 4 years now?

Here's the skinny:

25% everything in the shop - just use the coupon code: 4YEARS

Prizes of course - for every item purchased you get your name in the drawing. We stocked the shop with lots of goodies so there are plenty of beautiful ways to get your name in the pot!



You also get one "freebie" entry by leaving a comment here with your etsy username (so I can contact you!)

1st Prize: A sock yarn rainbow - 8 full skeins of sock yarn

2nd Prize: A 10 ounce fiber sampler with three different bases and colorways

3rd Prize: A custom colorway in any of our available sock yarn bases or spinning fibers

4th and 5th Prize: two $30 gift certificates to the shop

6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th prizes: You choose - a single skein of yarn or braid of spinning fiber.

That's 10 chances to win!

Thanks for all of your support and friendship over the past four years. We've had so much fun and are looking forward to many more!

Baby Pool + The Best Chocolate Cake Ever

It's getting close to baby time - my due date is October 7th - and I thought, why not a baby pool? Leave a comment with your best guess on the day the little guy will arrive and whoever's closest will win a skein of hand-dyed yarn! The window isn't too huge, so leave a date and an approximate time like AM or PM.

Here's a major hint:

I make giant babies so doc has promised to "help things along" if I haven't delivered by the 1st, so I'd probably guess closer to that date than the actual due date.

In Other News - here's my new most favorite recipe for fudgy, moist, delicious chocolate cake from King Arthur Flour. I always sub sour cream for the buttermilk/yogurt though. I apologize for the pic - it seems that after making cake my kitchen is a disaster area, but if I wait any longer to take the pic, the cake is half gone!

Hmmm... maybe the giant baby issue has something to do with my intense chocolate and sugar cravings that I get in the last month of pregnancy? This recipe sooooo hits the spot!

Giveaway Winner

Congrats to teabird - you're our winner! I'll be contacting you via Ravelry to get your mailing addy and color preference.

If you didn't win, don't worry, you'll have another chance to win when we host a giveaway on The Fiber Cooperative blog. We'll be giving away another bump of this gorgeous stuff there next week!

Tour de Fleece Giveaway

Since the tour doesn't end till the 25th, that leaves us with a couple of weeks to diminish our stash like crazy and spin!

And if you're like me that means you've pre-enhanced your stash to prepare for the stash-busting you'll be doing (and now haven't even spun a thing so my stash is bigger than when I started) or you'll be re-stocking your stash afterwards.

So I thought, what better time to give away some gorgeous spinning fiber? Just leave a comment here, any old comment, and I'll enter you in the drawing - just be sure to leave your ravelry or etsy username or some other way to contact you in the actual comment (it makes my life easier when it's time to contact you and since I'm giving stuff away I can be demanding like that.) You can even get extra entries for sharing about the giveaway on twitter or facebook, just paste the URL of your share into the comments here so I'll be sure to see it.

Here's exactly what we'll be giving away:



A 4oz bump of solid Superwash Merino fiber from the shop. I have it in stock now in black, firebrick, leaf, yellow and celadon. Winner gets to pick from whatever's in stock when I choose a winner on Friday the 16th.

All Knit it Up Clubs are ON SALE!

You may have noticed already, but thought I should just point it out - all Knit it Up clubs are on sale at the new shop.

As you may know, I'm expecting a baby this October, so we're closing the signups for all our clubs - Sock Yarn Cinema and Spinning the Seasons - on June 30th. That enables me to dye ahead and give myself permission to be very lazy for my last trimester and after the baby comes.

Yep I'm thinking ahead. Last time I was literally packing up orders when I went into labor, and putting off going to the hospital so I could swing by the Post Office on my way there.

Anyway - SYC is 25% off when you sign up for 6 months, 20% off when you sign up for 3, or 15% off when you purchase 1 month. Spinning the Seasons discounts are the same. The awesome part is the discount applies to everything in your cart, so you can stock up on other fibery goodness while you're there. (We're doing a shop update tonight or tomorrow - so there will be even more colorways, fibers, and cool new accessories to go around.) Even if you're set for clubs you can use the code KNIT to get 15% off everything else in the shop. Including our Alice in Wonderland Sock Yarn Collection. Let's just say I'm drooling over these colorways already!

Making Knitting Sassy

Saw these babies and just couldn't help but picture it... A little black dress, crazy variegated handknit socks and these amazing shoes from Betsy Johnson.

How do you keep your knitting fashion-forward? Or do you care? Most of my knitting is about comfort - cozy sweaters and scarves, socks that make your toes happy, things that I tend to wear too many times between washings and combined with sweat pants on wintery days. (Of course, I do work from home so many days I get by without seeing any actual adults other than the mailman.)

These shoes could be just the inspiration I need to kick it up a notch fashion wise. Plus they're on sale right now at ideeli for just $84.

Stringin' In the Rain

Drawing Winners

Here are the winners and their prize choices! Congrats to them!
(Prized all shipped out Monday May 10th so you should see them soon!)

1. Jessie from PhatFiber - a year of knitting
2. karino on etsy - a year of fiber
3. lelsesq on etsy - ball winder and swift
4. pookiepie13 on etsy - $50 gift certificate
5. mjlegg on etsy - knitter's starter library

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Sale and Drawing Extended

We've extended our sale and drawing until April 25th! We just had too many new items to add to get them all listed before the sale ended. So now you have an extra week to get brand new items at sale prices!

Happy Etsyversary - Prizes Totaling $900!

This Easter Sunday marked our 3rd blissful year on etsy. Which we celebrate each year with the opportunity to win some amazing prizes - and this is our biggest giveaway yet!

How it works:

1. You get one free entry into our drawing here, just by leaving a comment.

2. You get another entry for every item you purchase from April 9th until April 19th.

a. Yep if you buy 20 things, you get 20 entries into the drawing

b. Also, if you buy a club membership, you get as many entries as months in the membership (ie. a 6 month Sock Yarn Cinema purchase = 6 entries).

Oh yes, and we'll have discounts and other deals that change with my daily whims. But you can count on 10-30% off everything in the shop (except subscriptions).

Just a note - I know not everyone knits or spins but sometimes does the other exclusively, so the first name drawn will get to choose between the two first prizes, then the next name drawin will have the option of taking the one that's left or passing for the next prize, and so on and so forth. Choices - aren't they great?!

The Prizes:

A Year of Knitting (Value: $325)

12 Skeins of gorgeous hand-dyed yarn in a brand new Namaste Monroe Bag in Eggplant. (Skeins will be selected from available stock at the time of the drawing.)

A Year of Fiber (Value: $300)

12 braids and/or batts of gorgeous hand-dyed fiber in a brand new Namaste Monroe bag in Lime.

Ball Winder and Swift (Value: $120)

Every hand-dyed yarn lover's dream! No more hand winding those skeins.

Knitter's Library Starter (Value: $100)

5 of my all time favorite knitting books to start a library or add to your current one:

A Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara Walker

Luxury Yarn One-Skein-Wonders by Judith Durant

Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman

Weekend Knitting by Melanie Falick

Getting Started Knitting Socks by Anne Budd

$50 Gift Certificate to Knit it Up (Value: $50)

Use it immediately, save it for a rainy day, or gift it to a very lucky fiber friend!

So what are you waiting for?! Leave a comment with your email address or etsy username to get your first entry, then hop on over to the shop to find some great deals on stuff you actually want and get even more entries into the drawing!

(Sale starts April 9th, but all purchases between now and the 19th will qualify you for entries into the drawing.)

Winter Is Over

My husband thinks this photo looks like proof in an abuse case, but I think it looks like the end of winter! Scraped knees are a sure sign of warm weather and active children, so I'll take it.

Knitting Fashion

I think I know her problem - she's holding those needles all wrong!

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!)

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?

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!

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

Poppytalk

First, can I just say how much I love the name of poppytalk's blog? I think because it sounds like "poppycock" which seems like such a fun word to use in casual conversation. I'm definitely going to use it sometime this week.

I do spend most of my talk-time chatting with kids under the age of 5 so it shouldn't be too hard.

Anyway - just wanted to give a little plug for Poppytalk's Handmade Market. Here are just a few of my faves that I've found in their new holiday market:

kiki and polly

white owl jewelry

beehive kitchenware

Dye Pots are Bubbling

I love it when I get an unexpected opportunity to throw some yarn in pots and get them going!

Just getting a bit more stock ready for the Black Friday madness. (Seriously, doesn't shopping for yarn in your jammies sound better than getting up at 4AM to stand in the cold and buy stuff that isn't even fibery?)

Etsy Love - Kande

Oh etsy, how I love thee! Where else can I find such a conglomeration of handmade goodness? I got this bracelet from etsy seller Kande (aka Kristina Henning), and just adore it! It is very well-made and came in the most beautiful packaging. Any item from her shop would make a lovely Christmas surprise for someone on your list, and you won't even have any wrapping to do!

I have excessively simple tastes when it comes to jewelry, so I'm always looking for pieces that are special, without being too crazy. I guess it's because I'm kind of petite, so big chunky statement pieces never look right on me. I'm very excited about this etsy seller in particular, because her jewelry is just the right mix of sophistication and fun. Here are a few others I'm coveting, (just in case Santa is reading this post).