Socks Are For Suckers - A Twisted Exclusive!

The amazing gals at Twisted are at it again! This time, they've put together an exclusive Left Coast group of designers and dyers (your truly included! squee!) for a year of awesome patterns and fantastic yarn.

Check it out and spread the word!

Week of 10/18 Shop Updates

Merilon Sock and Pebble Sock each have some additions this week.

Sadly, this will be it for Merilon Sock for at least a month - my wholesale supplier is out. That means what's there is there until after Black Friday. I'm hoping to have more dyed up before Christmas, though.

Get Twisted

There’s gold mine of color ideas in people. Over the last couple years, some of my favorites have come from awesome folks doing custom orders - Glacier and Kelsey are two of my absolute favorite colors (and people). Midnight Emerald was the result of the first custom order we ever did, and it was terrifying at the time but turned out great!

Its time to turn that custom color theory around and create some interesting new shades based on the lovely ladies of Twisted. These women have been amazing to work with and fabulous friends, and a little honorific never hurt.

I’m just getting started, so I’m not inclined to announce a schedule just yet. Stay tuned and I will definitely keep posting about this little project.

1K Contest - Winners

First - you guys are the best customers ever! Thank you so much for helping me work up to 1000 sales. Now without further ado, the Random Number Generator:

1st Prize:



This is for the Wollmeise Yarn/Black Trillium project bag and goodies and goes to....

woolsocksandbirks












2nd Prize:



This one is for a $30 Black Trillium gift certificate and goes to....

pvachon













3rd Prize:



This one is also for a $30 Black Trillium gift certificate and goes to....

kadyellebee

Winners have been notified via Etsy Convo. Thanks for everything!

1K Contest - 1st Prize Photos

Here's a few shots of the grand prize goodie bag:








- Wollmeise Socken Wolle 100% Merino in Krauterbeet
- A Black Trillium Fibre Studio project bag
- 5 small Button Adoration buttons
- 1 package Lantern Moon floral stitch markers
- A Perfect Notions Case (its sparkly!)

For more contest details, see this post.

1K Contest

This is a just a preliminary reminder, since we've reached that point...

Black Trillium Fibre Studio has nearly reached 1000 sales, so we're having a little contest in celebration. Sales #950 to 1000 will be entered to win one of the following:

2nd and 3rd prize - a gift certificate of $30.

1st prize - a skein of Wollmeise 100% Merino in Krauterbeet, a Black Trillium project bag, and several other knitting goodies.

Photos of the 1st prize goodie bag will be posted soon!

After we've reached the 1000th sale, I'll use a random number generator to pick the winners and notify them via email.

Good luck!

Moving!

Changes are afoot at Black Trillium Fibre Studio. We're relocating to Seattle at the end of the month, so help us lighten the load. All yarns and project bags are marked down anywhere from 15 to 50%. Sale will run from August 16th to August 22nd, after which time the shop will be closed until we settle in our new digs. Enjoy!

August Ravelry Ads

Keep your eyes peeled for my new Ravelry Notebook ads, starting August 1st.

Color Delta Colorcard

I need that little Greek symbol and a few more thumbnails of new colors, but I'm pretty happy to have put this together:

Where's My Yarn?

If you've placed an order recently, you might have noticed it takes me an extra day or two more than it used to when getting orders in the mail. You may (or may not, if you have your own munchkins) be wondering what on earth is taking so long. Ask this guy:



That bit of pink? My shirt. There he lies, the G-man, snoozing away as long as I'm holding him. Cute as buttons, he is, and definitely another Mama's boy. Sizzing happily on my shoulder, dappled by sunlight, growing even in his sleep. Loves me some chubby baby. Mmmm hmmm.

Watch your email inbox this evening, or holler at me (blacktrillium [at] popculturezoo [dot] com) if you need to be added to the mailing list.


Left to right: Dragon, Tomato, Warm Glow.

Siesta Baby Blanket

Siesta is finally available!
buy now

Fireworks, Celebration and Free Shipping!

We celebrate the 4th of July more quietly than most at our house, in large part because in years past my husband worked as part of a crew that set up and then set off big display fireworks shows. This holiday has moved a long way from the idea of celebrating our independence from Britain, hasn't it?

As my part of the household bargain, its time to get the shop up and cruising again, and in celebration of getting my body back (independence comes in many forms, my friends) I'm offering free domestic shipping on all orders placed from July 2nd to July 5th. I will keep posting new colors all weekend as well.

If you're here in The States, enjoy your holiday and I hope the weather holds out so you, too, can light off small explosives and celebrate with friends. Don't forget to order yourself a little yarn, and happy knitting to you!

Where We Are

Gavin arrived last week & and everyone is doing great!

On Hiatus.

Having a pile of undyed yarn and several unfinished patterns isn't my favorite state of being, but there really hasn't been any help for it. Today, my Etsy shop went into Vacation Mode - this is a first, I've never used it before - so that I don't have to worry having orders to ship out.

I have no intention of being gone for very long from dyeing, although I may have to start slow at first. Its been five years since my first boy wonder was born, so the details are as fuzzy as they should be about the first several weeks. Boy wonder #2 is arriving less than a week and I'm ready (more than ready) to move on to the next stage of our family's adventure.

Enjoy your knitting & spinning and see you in a few!

Great Strides - 2 Weeks To Go!

I know 119 people in Facebook and have over 500 followers in Twitter. If every one of those people contributed $5 (that's a scant bit more than a latte and less than a fast food lunch!)to Great Strides and Cystic Fibrosis research through my page, together we'd raise over $3000 to to find a cure. Please donate now and help show Ella that we're all ready to see her live a long and healthy life!

Of course its secure. Of course its tax deductible. Beyond all that, its absolutely the right thing to do.

Siesta Preview

Just thought I’d share the of the description from my next forthcoming pattern:

I’m the kind of knitter that prefers knitting socks, and nearly always cuff-down, thereby creating the accidental by-product of lots of itty bitty balls of sock wool. Having a practical and useful solution to my bin of tribble-like woolen orbs and cakes would pretty much make my day. Sometimes, a girl has to go and create a solution for herself.

Thus was born the Siesta Baby Blanket – Siesta for short because little ones always seem to be in need of a little shut-eye (well, mine do). The smallish size of this project is ideal for a traveling bit of warmth in strollers, car seats or infant bouncers and swings. The larger size is offered for those of you who really, really need to use up a few bits and bobs. It will make a fantastic crib blanket, and probably a beloved comfort blanket down the road. Both knit quite quickly, of course, and adapt well to any color choice. You can pour your creative heart into choosing colors and arranging them just right, and then have a give-able gift in no time.

Personally, I’m just glad to have an excuse to whittle away at the contents of that left-overs bin.

A New Beginning

Its rather notable how much I like to just play with color, taking notes occasionally but mostly just futzing with a little green here, a little blue there, maybe some teal or brown or Oh! how about my favorite stand-by, black! I’ve been at this nearly two years, and a way of dyeing hasn’t really called to me so much that I do it more than another. Then something settled inside my head - all the experience and the play really came together.

I've been dyeing in this fashion a bit here and there, but testing and retesting "Mean Reds" for Yarn4Socks' April Sock Club was the final confirmation. Colors like "Black Trillium", "Midnight Emerald", "Indigo", "Turquoise Gothic", and "Foxglove" fit right into the scenario of color change based on markedly different dyes being brought together in one pot with yarn that takes the hint and moves with alacrity to suck up the love. As the process crystallized I could see in front of me vast ranges of choice regarding when, which and how much of what crazy color I would add in this multi-stage technique. Why not start with bright green and see where it goes when you add orange? Or purple? There really isn't a limit to how fun this could be, in my view.

With all this excited talk it might be easy to assume I plan to stop dyeing any other way. However, variety is what got me to this place where I feel inspired and excited to keep dyeing. Colors like "Vampire Holiday" and "Pop Culture Zoo" aren't going to stop showing up on my Etsy site. The upside to all this, really, is that the new colors getting posted are going to be a lot more repeatable, making it easier for those of you who do multi-skein projects to get what you want.

So without further ado....

Introducing “Color Delta”: a dyeing process using layers of color in non-intuitive combination that result in striking and multi-dimensional results that are anything but boring.

Great Strides Progress Report

We're making some really great headway on reaching that goal of $300. Click to check it out!

You might also like to check this out if you're a Farscape or Doctor Who fan and like to win DVD's!

Thanks and keep up the great work!

Calling All Black Trillium Customers....

Its time again to think about how we give back to our community here at Black Trillium Fibre Studio. I'm co-leading our school's Great Strides team this year, so please read my page for more details. You all were so wonderful and giving last year, thank you!

Here's what I propose for this year's walk: if you're a US or Canadian customer, donate $3 or more, and if you're outside the US and Canada, donate $5 or more. Then, on your next Black Trillium order, I'll pay your shipping! How's that for easy?

Take a moment and get a little news from the source, and then I'd love to hear from you in the comments and on my Great Strides page:

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And the winner is...

...total lack of consensus.

For the March & April Black Trillium Knit-along, that is. Which is actually not a bad thing, because as usual my pal from Knit Night had a brilliant plan instead. Speed dating with yarn, she calls it.

So pick your pattern, join the thread and keep us all up-to-date on how your chosen pattern is coming along. After the craziness of the 2010 Ravelympics, it seems like a nice idea to choose a crowd-pleaser.

You know what? I get to knit these!

Black Trillium's March/April KAL

Its been fun to see folks get into talking about their Multnomah. I love the way mine has finished up:

Its really too bad there's only a few skeins left of this yarn, because it makes amazing lace. The color is Turquoise Gothic, which I will definitely be bringing back on a regular basis to my Etsy site.

Okay, so I'm beginning to see the fun in doing a Knit-along, which means its time to think about what to do for March/April. I'd like to try socks this time, and here's what I think looks interesting (but not insanely hard like the ones I'm casting on after the Ravelypics):

Skew by Lana Holden
- maybe this is a little too popular, but the original construction makes it a must-knit. If you're already working on them, great!

Pyroclastic by Marlowe Crawford
- another Knitty Winter '09 pattern, I really like the foot shaping and I'm always down with an Eye of Partridge heel with hand-dyed yarn.

Knee Socks! by Diana Parrington
- If we're giving ourselves two months to knit something, a pair of straight-forward knee-high socks would be a great challenge. I may be bad and use a couple of the fantastic Noro Kureyon colors in my stash rather than my own yarns.

Esther Socks by Stephanie van der Linden
- Sorry, I couldn't find a non-Ravelry link to this one. My friend Star knit a pair, which is how I found the pattern, and I love the look of them.

I'm not looking for a "so say we all" of 30 people, just a few folks that think "hey, that looks cool". The Black Trillium Ravelry group has a posting as well, if you want to chime in there, and I'll be sending out the final decision in my March/April (e)mailer.

By the way, if you have a write-in suggestion, leave it in the comments.

Concentric

I've finally got my first pattern up for sale! Its available through Etsy or Ravelry. Enjoy!

Team Bee

Here's the Team Bee Ravatar! Enjoy!

(To post to your Ravelry profile, right click on the image, select "Save Image As", save it to your computer, and then upload as normal in Ravelry.)

Pebble Sock Goes Out

Off goes another wholesale order! The 20 skeins above are off to one of my own favorite local yarn stores, Twisted, and just in time for their 10% off customer appreciation weekend! It is the first order of Pebble Sock to go out since I took up with this new base yarn, and I'm really excited to see the response. Included in this order are a couple of new favorites for me: Turquoise Gothic (bottom row, fourth from the left) and 10th Doctor after David Tennant's recently departed character on Doctor Who (2nd row, far left).

Several things are coming up for Black Trillium Fibre Studio that I'd like to get the word out about:

1. As some of you may remember from last year, as a family, we're pretty dedicated to finding a cure for Cystic Fibrosis. We'll be participating in the walk in May as usual, but this year we're kicking off our fund raising a bit early. What this means for you wonderful yarnies is that you'll have an opportunity for free shipping twice! During the months of February and April, any donation you make over $3 to our Great Strides team will entitle you to free shipping on a single order of any size, domestic or international. We haven't finalized the teams yet, but once we do I will post links and send out email reminders with more details.

2. Are you a Portland-area spinner? You're in luck, because The Knitting Bee will be carrying my hand-dyed roving by the end of next week. 4 ounces of gorgeous, soft Merino at those prices isn't likely to last long, so you might have to be quick.

3. I'm working with another retailer, Yarn 4 Socks, to participate in their Sock Club for the month of April. I get the incredible privilege of working with a local designer who has been published in Knitty and Vogue and we're taking our inspiration for a colorway and pattern from the timeless classic movie "Breakfast At Tiffany's". Look for a post and links when the April club becomes available for purchase.

That's all for now! Except one more piece of personal news: this week was the midway point in my pregnancy and we found out we're having another boy! I'm so happy to start calling the baby "he" instead of "it" or "him/her", but we're really clueless when it comes to names this second time around. I'm getting a little slower at dyeing, but I'm not ready to take a break just yet.

Happy knitting!

Shawls from Sock Yarn, and a KAL

I've been test knitting a few new yarn bases, including a gorgeous new 100% Superwash Merino fingering weight that is plump and well-plied. I've called it Pebble Sock, and you can find it on my Etsy site as well as Twisted here in Portland. Here's my first project:


Pattern: Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante.
Yarn: Pebble Sock, Black Trillium Fibre Studio, Color "Black Jewel", 1 skein.
Deets: knitted on US 6 needles, added several pattern repeats to use up more of the skein. Finished with mere yards to spare.

I'm not one to miss a good band-wagon, so I've been bookmarking shawls that call for a single skein of sock yarn all over Ravelry and anywhere else I can find them. My next project, probably from BFL Sock in have stashed in the Mariana Trench colorway, is going to be Multnomah by Kate Flagg. In fact, I'd like to do this as a Knit-along with some friends from my knit night and my Black Trillium Fibre Studio group on Ravelry. Check out the thread here. Please come join us and we'll see how many shawls we can make out of Black Trillium yarns!

I hope everyone is transitioning into the New Year happily and with much knitting.

Cheers!