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!