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.

December Customer Appreciation

There are a lot of things going on for us all this month. For me, December includes my own birthday as well as more than a handful of family members’ birthdays. It is also an unofficial anniversary as it marks the month where this dyeing thing really became my own. Of course, there are the obvious international holidays that get observed in so many different ways by nearly everyone I know.

So yes, there’s a lot going on. I’m all about taking a little of the pressure off my lovely customers in their holiday endeavors by helping them get their packages a little easier. Take the shipping off the bottom line, and just have a little fun.

For all of December, Black Trillium Fibre Studio is offering free shipping to domestic and international customers. I have many reasons, but I don’t really need one. You’re good people, and that’s good enough for me.

Photo Credit

Officially At The Loopy Ewe

It's finally up! My yarns are officially a part of The Loopy Ewe's shop repertoire. Sweet.

Vampire Holiday

This yarn seems be doing well for itself. I'm waiting for an order of the base yarn I use for Merilon Sock to show up, so if you'd like to reserve yourself a skein of this yarn, please see here for a pre-ordering opportunity. Email me if you have questions.

Enjoy!

Blackest Friday

I may be the only person in the entire continental US that doesn’t go shopping on the day after Thanksgiving, but should it mean that I don’t do something fun in my Etsy shop? No.

For Black Friday (November 27th for the rest of the sane world) I’m going to do 25% off all yarn, roving and project bags. The normal routine: check out, do the Paypal end of things, and I’ll refund 25% not including shipping at the end of the day. This will not include special orders or sock blockers, of course.

Enjoy, and spread the word!

Where's The Yarn - An Update

Things have been relatively quiet in my Etsy shop of late due to a rather large wholesale order that needed to go out on a deadline. As the order will be arriving at its destination tomorrow, I feel like I can let you all know...

My yarn is going to be carried at The Loopy Ewe!

This is a rather big event in the life of this small yarn dyer. I've been a customer there for several years because I really enjoy trying new things from dyers far and wide, and since Sheri has impeccable taste I feel like I can always trust what I'm getting from her. Having my own yarns reach her immense audience is, well, beyond exciting.

The yarn will take a bit to get photographed and edited, and with the impending holiday closing down pretty much everything, I don't expect things will get posted until at least the first of December. I'll post a link in my Ravelry group as well as on my sidebar when I have it.

The other fun wholesale order that I'm currently working to fulfill is as the January artist of the Month for Yarn4Socks. This order won't dominate my dyeing time quite the way The Loopy Ewe did for about two months, so I'm hoping to have new things to post on a regular basis.

For those of you who might have wondered, there won't be a November exclusive color. I was rather keen on the idea I had lined up, but time just didn't allow. However, December is all taken care of (and though it's a rather obvious color combo & name) I'm happy with the way it turned out:



"Merry" will find its way to posting between Thanksgiving and Christmas, as I'm firmly in the camp that Christmas decorations & music are thoroughly inappropriate until after Turkey & Family day. Pre-orders are welcome, though, so email me at blacktrillium (at) popculturezoo (dot) com and I'll get started right away.

In other more personal news, it has been mentioned in my Twitter posts and my Etsy front page that I'm rather pregnantly ill. To call it "morning sickness" is doing a serious disservice to the tenacity of my body's version of the first trimester, but there isn't another way to slice the terminology. There will be another little tuplet in our future around the 1st of June, and now that the fist twelve weeks are behind us, I'm feeling much better. I won't begin to speculate on how things will go when I'm too large around the middle to reach the dyepots, but for right now I feel lots more human and plan to work my bum off until I can't work anymore.

Now to start coming up with good baby boy names (we have a girl one already).... y'know, just in cases.

The Winner of #500

It all happened much faster than I expected, but we have a winner of the 500th sale!



A skein of "Retro" in BFL Sock went out to Cindy right here in Oregon! Congrats and thanks to everyone for helping me reach this goal.

We should do this again at the 1000th sale, don't you think?

October Color Exclusive: Roswell

Here's what's cookin' for October:





Radioactive little green men seemed Hallowe'en appropriate.

FO: Crayon Box Socks

Hey all, I wanted to share with a finished pair socks by Monique:



Those lovely beauties were knit in plain stockinette out of my BFL Sock. Monique blogged about the socks here.

If you would like to send me photos or links for a pair of socks you've made from one of my yarns, please email me at blacktrillium (at) popculturezoo (dot) com. Ravelry is great, but I'm discovering that less than 1/10th of the knitters in North America use it. So let's keep each other up-to-date on how things are knitting up!

Take care, and happy knitting!

#500

I sat on the idea overnight and also got some great feedback from regulars. We all seem to agree that the 500th item should be free. So here's how this will work:

• The 500th item purchased from my Etsy site will be free.
• Beware: purchasing 2 quantity of the same item generally counts as "1" on Etsy. Don't ask my why, I didn't code it.
  
• Sadly, the sock blockers will not able to count as the 500th item as they aren't in my inventory but rather custom made-to-order by Squire Country Crafts, but they will help us get closer to the magic number.
  
• The item will need to be purchased, but a full refund for the item and its relevant shipping charge will be made through Paypal.
• Don't worry, I'll tell you when it happens - especially if you're the purchaser.
  

I don't have any idea how long this will take - could be a week, could be a month - but I would count on something closer to three weeks to a month if I were betting. So, good luck and enjoy!

Nearly 500 & a Wee Contest In the Making

Let's start with a little timeline:

• May 2008: Reserved blacktrillium.etsy.com for my own use knowing I wanted to start a yarn-dyeing business.
• July/August 2008: start dyeing with some friends from my local yarn shop.
• September 2008: first yarn item sold on Black Trillium's Etsy site.
• October 2008: separated from dyeing partners, became my own man.
• November 2008: really started dyeing for myself as Black Trillium Fibre Studio.

I'm reflecting on this right now because I'm trying to take in the fact that in less than a year, Black Trillium Fibre Studio has sold nearly 500 items via Etsy while at the same time acquiring and keeping up with the needs of four wholesale customers. I think this is pretty spectacular and that I probably have the coolest group of customers on the planet.

Something must be done to make that 500th sale special, and I'm open to ideas. I'm leaning in a few directions*:

• 500th sold is free
  

or

• one my own skeins of Wollmeise could be liberated

or

• free shipping on order that includes 500th item

Nothing is decided at this moment, but I will post my decision tomorrow. Please let me know which way you think I should go!

* My lovely sock blockers will sadly have be outside the contest as they aren't under my roof.

Just Some Pleasant Photos

I am reminded by a more-tolerant friend that my expectations of other people's behavior choices are often way higher than is fair. Everyone makes mistakes, and I am certainly no stranger to having to apologize for yet another idiot-brain takeover on my part. Instead of blogging, this is going to be a visual post because otherwise it would be a venting rant. I'll get over it anyway and regret kvetching in public, so better to get ahead of myself and act like a grown-up before I feel like one.









Although I am still very joyful while elbow-deep in my dye pots, I think sewing is feeling a little more magnetic at the mo'. Hopefully practicing this new skill will help me through the coming school year and this next growing phase for my business. The project bags are getting slicker by the seam, and now I'm experimenting with what sort of pocket might work on the inside of my current design. Lots of fabric is on the way too, which means happy fun experimentation and lots of scrappy quilt squares are in my future.

September Color Exclusive: Retro

Retro, my September space-dyed colorway, has gone up. And on time? I know, I better not raise hopes too high.



Its up in Merilon and Roman Blue Sock, and the BFL sock will go up in as much time as it takes me to wind the skeins and take pictures.

Now to start thinking about October & November. Retro & Big Tree were two color combinations existing in the creative chaos of my head that were really begging to get out. That means my creative inner space is empty and just waiting for new inspiration. (Okay, yeah, that sounds a little woo-woo-ey, but its still accurate.) October begs to Day-of-the-Dead/Hallowe'en'ed, but how does one do that tastefully? Would November be too late to do a fall leaves/last blaze of glory thing? December is obvious - one year as a dyer on my own, my own birthday - a celebratory theme will ensue. Just talking through things here.

If my next idea is anything like Big Tree, I'll see something in a Pottery Barn or Williams-Sonoma (my old workplace) catalog that will really jam. By the way, has anyone seen that new 90th anniversary edition Kitchenaid Artisan mixer? Its metallic cherry red with a glass mixing bowl and it screams for a custom flame paint job. My wants.

New For Black Trillium Fibre Studio

Not that dyeing yarn isn't enough, but I thought it might be fun to add some variety to my Etsy shop. I've done stitch markers before, and of course I chose itty bitty crystals and the smallest gauge wire known to man. The entire project was ridiculously time consuming, and my photography sucked as per usual. Project bags, though, that's more my style: useful, fun to make, and cheerful (when using my preferred nutty bright colors). I could even hand-dye the cotton, although that's another can of worms for a different day.



Red Coral project bag with Dinnerplate Dahlia in Merilon Sock. That skein of yarn, incidentally, is named for the amazing Dahlias coming out of my friend Shelby's garden - some of them were bigger than my head and just amazing colors the way that only Dahlias can be.

I'm also very pleased to get to share Squire Country Crafts' sock blockers with my customers. I discovered these lovely creations at Twisted a while back, and watching the way people lit up over them at Sock Summit really made me sit up and take notice. To make them a Black Trillium exclusive, the trillium part of my logo has been stamped onto the top of each one.



My next project today will be to finish writing up the September newsletter for my shop, including a sneak preview of this coming month's color exclusive. Tomorrow, I will get to post the exclusive in Merilon, BFL Sock and Roman Blue Sock. No stragglers, this time.

Cheers!

An August Yarn Sale

Hi all, I'm at it again. It seems like when there's just a little too much yarn hanging around, I feel compelled to put some of it on sale. So, two of my base yarns are 25% off until Sunday.


Merino Sport
Meriamboo II

....

Black Trillium just got mentioned in another podcast! It's a short mention, along the lines of "I saw Coraline", but as a long-term lurker on Jessica's blog, its very fun to hear my yarns mentioned outside of my teeny-weeny Portland knitting community. Thanks, Jessica & Erin!

A friend came by with some lovely flowers from her garden. This little guy broke, but he looks pretty fun floating in one of my random teacups. Among the flowers now gracing my table are some amazing (and huge) dahlias, and their colors are driving me to try and get a similar effect in the dyepot. I suspect a merino/cashmere/nylon base would get me one step closer, and, tra la la, I have a new wholesaler who sells just the thing.
Now that the Lizard Ridge is done (well, still missing the crocheted border, but who's counting?), I'm taking a break from longer-term projects. Things that take more than a year to complete. Hah, you believed me there for sec, didn't you. I might have even believed myself for about six minutes after posting photos my King-sized blankie.

I pulled out all of my Dream In Color Smooshy stash, and found that the color combo worked. All six skeins. I did some yardage calculations against my first square knit up on US 4's. If I want a blanket that is about 50"x50", I need 3100 yards, or seven skeins. And my local yarn store was happy to oblige. An additional skein in Plum Paisley has thus joined the team. In the log cabin spirit, and with a twist of Moderne Log Cabin from the first Mason-Dixon Knitting book, I cast on and am knitting away at large swaths of color. I'm already 5% of the way done! (feel free to snort, snicker, or otherwise doubt my sanity - I do)

A sneak peek of September's exclusive. The first test went so-so, tweaking will ensue. If you'd like to hear the full details when they're ready, give me a holler at blacktrillium@popculturezoo.com and I'll add you to the mailing list.

Round and Round

Here we go, I'm going to be skeining and skeining, followed by a flurry of labeling, and then it will be time to set up for Sock Summit. Cutting this a little close? I never miss a deadline, but that doesn't mean I get a full night's sleep beforehand.

Things I've learned thus far:

1. Portland is *not* near the ocean. If it were, we wouldn't get heatwaves reaching nearly 110 degrees. Okay, maybe it got hot in Seattle and at the coast as well this last week. I am tempted to insert a few key swear words right here. +100 degrees outside (and inside, no A/C) isn't conducive to dyeing loads of yarn.

2. I'm ready for the next step. Meaning, I've sort out a lot of what it means to sell my yarn wholesale as well as retail. I'm very happy to keep selling my yarn on Etsy, although I can't see myself starting up a proper website with a shopping cart and all the coding headaches involved therein. I'm also quite happy to have several well-placed and very fun-to-work-with wholesale customers. I wouldn't be able to be at Sock Summit without them.

To add to that, I've had several inquiries lately regarding expanding to more stores, and these conversations have sparked some very interesting thought processes for me. For instance, am I comfortable working with a store where I really have to become somebody other than myself in order to live up to the retailer's perceptions of a wholesale relationship? I think not. My wholesale policies are getting a lot more detailed and much clearer as I work through some of these quandaries.

3. I may not be as ready as I thought to have another baby. I'm spending all kinds of time building up this business, and really having fun doing it. I'm nervous about starting from square one with a new youngling. I'm also nervous I'd get all this biz stuff started and then have to watch while I lost traffic, customers, and wholesale accounts because I couldn't keep up with my mom jobs as well as my business. Lucky for me I have time to think about this some more. Sometimes the getting the second one started isn't as "whoops" as the first, if you get my drift.

4. I'm a sucker. As long as I don't really think about it, I can feel okay about having just set us up to pay our cellular carrier *even more* moolah because I fell for the Crackberry Storm a little too hard. Alright, the truth is that anybody who knows me very well knows for a fact that I'm a sucker. It's why I'm normally such a tightwad control freak. One look at the closet in my son's room and you'll see that I can't say no to a sweet face and a few batty eyelashes.

I'm doing my best to stay *up* on things, and I know I'm not really present where I could be more so right now. I think the Yarn Harlot just put it very well on Twitter tonight: do you want Sock Summit or do you want sleep? Some good things will come of all this sleeplessness, that's the feeling I get.

*Mwah*

Nighty-night. (see you on Twitter, my fellow insomniacs)

Dyed and Gone

I keep getting funny looks from non-knitters when I try to explain what it is that is keeping me so friggin' busy these days. I've been absolutely no help to pretty much anyone but myself. Here's part of it:



I have a new base yarn that is going to be great - my first real "hard twist" sock weight - and I've been dyeing it up like mad to deliver a wholesale order to Knitty Noddy before Joe, the kid and I go off for a week and I must refrain from dyeing because I'm in someone else's house. There's a single lonely skein of it listed on my site as well. I promise there's more to come, but a few hurdles must be gotten over first.



There's an event in the yarnie-verse coming up called "Dye For Glory", where those of us whose yarns will be sold at Sock Summit will get to enter a special new color we've just developed into a contest to be judged by the nearly 400K people on Ravelry. Let Coraline (the above) not be found wanting. I'm doing a presale for both the colors I've put together on my Etsy site, in their own little section.

There is also a wonderful new wholesale customer in Canada to fulfill an order for, and of course the massive order I promised to have for Twisted at their Summit booth.

I am learning very quickly just what it means to be busy with my yarn dyeing business. I know lots of folks in my life who've know me since before I was a knitter aren't really going to see the appeal of all this yarn, but that's okay. I am having fun, in spite of being a little chicken without a head. I guess that a forced vacay probably isn't a bad idea, either.

It Rains, But It Frakking Pours

Pop Culture Zoo colorway

Things are definitely building at Black Trillium, and a lot of it seems to be happening at the same time as Sock Summit. My dear husband, the Editor-In-Chief of Pop Culture Zoo (for which this colorway was named) is heading off to San Diego Comic-con 2009 starting with Preview Night on July 22nd, and isn't coming home until that following Sunday. I get to be in Seattle that whole time, which means no dyeing for five or six days(eek!), but I'll get to see my BF and her fam instead.

Then we come back from Seattle and the madness begins. I'm going to attempt to take part in Dye For Glory (what a great name) in two of the categories, and the judging should give me some idea if I need to dye mass quantities of my entries or just a few. I have colors picked out, but I can't reveal anything until I list them in my stash. I'll tweet the heck out of it, don't worry.

Then the Summit happens. I'm hoping to be part of the set-up crew, and I'm working Saturday, in the Twisted booth. You'll know me by the knee-high orange and red stockings I'll be wearing, probably with shorts because I don't think I'm going to have time to go skirt shopping between now and then. Maybe in Seattle on my forced mini-vacation from the dyepots.

Right around Summit, I'm delivering two more wholesale orders for entirely new wholesale customers. I'm as shocked as anyone, I didn't really know that anybody outside of local yarn stores had noticed my yarns. But apparently somebody in Canada thinks my work is worth looking at. There's a new feature on my sidebar to let everybody know where to get my yarns, and I'll post links there once I can share them.

So, if you're curious to hear updates in Ravelry, check out my new-ish group, or catch up with me on Twitter to see when I post new items.

Messires Merino Sport and Meriamboo

I have been deeply remiss in talking about my two new base yarns, meanwhile dyeing them both up and incredible speeds. The last couple weeks have been a very good start for both my Etsy site, and since I have only finished projects in one, the Merino Sport Sock, I will wait just a bit longer to truly "review" both yarns and post photos. While the wait continues, I will share this photo that has me dazzled from a color perspective:



I also want to share two things that are going on outside my yarn business interests. First, I am really enjoying writing about books at the mo', so my husband and I have started talking about a regular column involving books that have already been published but are very big in terms of public discussion and effect. Second, I have officially gotten word that one of my wholesale customers is committed to having my yarns in their Sock Summit booth. I'm excited for the prospects of these disparate projects and the work that lies ahead for this summer.

I have no news, yet, on the official arrival of more Roman Blue Sock. Since I find this a bit frustrating, I probably shouldn't comment further, but suffice to say I will have a pretty good stock in hand once Roman Blue becomes available once more. Once that has been addressed I plan to return some more attention to restocking the Merilon Sock and bringing back the HMS.

Take care and happy knitting!