New base yarn: Stella Sock

Yesterday, I posted a new base yarn on the BBF website. I've named it Stella Sock, and it's a luscious blend of 63% merino, 20% silk, 15% nylon and 2% silver. Yep - silver, so it's got a nice sparkle, just like Edward the vampire.


My first thought in dyeing it was that it would look spectacular with deep, saturated colors -- and it does --


but I also tried some more muted, subtle shades, and it looks great with those, too, but in a different way:



So check it out -- just scroll down to the bottom of the home page to see the entry. One of my sock clubs (Club A) received Stella as a special preview for their last shipment, so they can chime in since they've actually seen it and felt it.

Inspiration

Selections from Sock Club C. . .

Contests!

Enter one

If you would like to enter a raffle, then you need to go here to Hyphenated Carol's blog. She is helping to raise money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a worthy cause indeed. There are fiber-y prizes, including a skein of BBF sock yarn. So help the gal out, willya?

Judge one

And if you would like to judge a contest, then feast your eyes on the following. Here are the entries for the Midway Contest of the BBF Sock and Fiber Clubs. You get to pick one winner for the Sock Division and one winner for the Fiber Division. The only guideline given to entrants was that the product had to be knit or spun in one of the BBF club monthly shipments -- and everything else was up to the knitter or spinner. Seeing other people's beautiful handiwork is a great thrill for me. I present them to you alphabetically by first name. Polls are over at the right in my sidebar. Voting ends around 6 p.m. April 15th.

Sock Entries

Carol presents the Slalom pattern, designed by Polly Outhwaite,

and which pattern is available through Ravelry; it is knit in BBF Bamboo Lite which was the first offering of the sock club.



Diane knit her sock in a colorway she renamed "Orchids" because that's what the colors reminded her of:



The pattern is WendyKnits' Eyelet pattern, available for free here:



Jodi's socks showcase Kate Gilbert's Marina Piccola sock pattern, available here.



Samantha's socks are lovely and maybe she will chime in, telling us the pattern (she said wistfully):


UPDATE: Samantha informs us that these are the Chevrolace Socks from Knitty's Winter 07 issues, available here. Thanks, Samantha!!

Fibrous Entries

SockPr0n (whose real first name starts with "A") spun her Delaine Merino/Kid Mohair blend into a fiberlicious super-energized twisty thingy-ma-diddle kind of yarn, inspired by Lexi Boerger's new book.






She is also going to spin (or has already spun?) the other half into a more traditional 2-ply and will knit the two together, perhaps in a scarf.

Lorena sent pictures of Month 1 AND Month 2. Month 1 is the Delaine Merino/Kid Mohair blend, in a colorway called Emerald City:


Month 2 was the Superwash Blue-Faced Leicester in a colorway called Velvet Rope:


Mindy has spun "Crystal Pool," a batch of the first month's Delaine Merino/Kid Mohair blend.



She thinks we don't know that she hasn't finished the whole batch, but, ha ha Mindy, we do.... (it doesn't matter anyway, though, since the "rules" allow partly-finished projects). She's got that fiber nice and skinny, no?

Okay, go over to the two polls at the right, in the side bar, and vote. The winners get some most excellent sock-ish and fiber-y prizes (including BBF stuff) respectively...

Making progress

Here is a photo of the new BBF skein label:

Looks great, eh? Thanks, M. Habit.

And then I filled these



with these



so the first shipment of the Sock Club could get on its way.

Belated Blogiversary

Can you believe I forgot my own Blogiversary? November 6th was the second anniversary of Go Knit In Your Hat. Once again, thanks to all my loyal readers. You mean more to me than you realize. (insert fahrklemt noises)

Home Despot

We are making the transition to Big Kid Beds and Big Kid Rooms. You see, the twins had to leave their cribs a few years ago due to a certain Little Miss climbing out and hanging precipitously on the rails. We tried low "toddler beds," which were a great transition, but the twins are growing so much that they no longer are comfortable. Thus we needed to get them real Big Kid beds.

On Saturday, furniture for the Big Kid Rooms was deposited in our house. This means that Tom and I had to clear a path for the actual moving of the furniture (way more difficult than it sounds in our house). With the Germ-a-pa-looza we've been having (did I mention that Elvis' strep CAME BACK?!), of course the rooms themselves are a mess and not painted.

This weekend, I continued the wallpaper stripping in N's room (didn't I blog about starting that like, five months ago?! so sad I'm still doing it) and Tom did patching and sanding in G's room. I was told by my husband that I could not help paint because I am "not careful enough." I will let you be the judge; here are two unretouched photographs of the wallpaper stripping. Guess which part of the wall I worked on, and which one Tom worked on (hint: mine is the one with the paint swatches on it; his is the one with the huge gouges out of the drywall):






Not careful indeed.

Handspun Alert

If you happen to be looking for some lovely roving to spin, you will find some at Mindy's Etsy site. She very kindly gave me some to play with when I saw her at Stitches. It's the border leiciester/mohair blend that I sometimes dye except Mindy does completely different fabulous things with it and blends it together in these hazy soft colors that are lovely. Here is what I am spinning:



It's called Genevieve's Mountain Haze, and it's got pretty pale purple running through it. The coolest part is that Mindy takes amazing care of her goats, and the "Genevieve" is the name of her goat that the fiber came from....

She also gave me some of her handspun yarn to play with and I am trying to get her to list more on Etsy because it's so lovely:


If she knows what's good for her, she'll list some on her Etsy site soon....

BBF Club Update

Thanks for your emails about the BBF Sock and Fiber Clubs! I had an excellent response for my trial run. I was able to accommodate everyone who wanted to be in the Fiber Club and had to draw names for the Sock Club. (I let G. draw the names; she felt quite honored.) As soon as I'm done posting this, I'm going to email everyone who submitted their name to tell them if their names were drawn or not.

Next Black Bunny Update

Look for an update Wednesday morning, mostly laceweights with a few odds and ends, and hopefully some roving.

Blogiversary Present

Showing up on Amazon.com!

Update: The Bunny has spoken

After reading all of your comments and emails (they were very helpful and insightful -- thank you!), and after intensive consultation with Charcoal, I've made up my mind. I am going to do a trial run of a BBF Sock Yarn Club and a BBF Fiber Club. Here's how they'll work:

I will limit it to ten members in each club for now, for a period of four consecutive months, beginning with January 2008. I don't want to overcommit myself and this should leave me with enough wiggle room to keep up with the Etsy shop and other things.



For the sock club, it will be yarn only (there will probably be extras of some sort, but I won't promise "swag"), enough in each skein to make a pair of socks. I'll vary fibers, and gauges will go from 6 to 8 sts per inch, depending on the yarn. For the fiber club, members will receive 8 ounces of fiber each month, same deal with the extras. At least one of those months, each club will get a new yarn or fiber that hasn't been up on the Etsy site yet or that I can only get in limited amounts.



I will have each member pay me a down payment of $50 to join. Essentially, that will be the first and last month's payment. For the second and third months, I'll send a Paypal invoice when the batch is ready, and as soon as I receive payment, will ship. That way I can tweak the payments to make sure that each one reflects the different cost of the yarn or fiber (which can vary depending on what it is), although nothing will be more than a few dollars more or less expensive than the others. I will charge the same prices I charge on Etsy (or would charge, if it's a limited edition yarn; in other words, no mark-up).



At the halfway point, and again, a few weeks after the last shipment, I will ask the members to send in JPEGs of their projects with the club yarn or fiber. I'll post a batch of finalists on my blog and let the readers vote for Best Selection of Pattern for the Yarn or Most Outstanding Spinning or something like that. Winners will receive a prize of some sort.



Members can specify some favorite colors which I will try to use, and one hated color which I will not use (or at least, won't use much). Otherwise, dyeing is within my discretion. I will try to mix up styles, maybe one month a yarn that is a wild multi, another month a nearly-solid, and so on.



If you're interested, and agree to these guidelines, then send an email to blackbunnyfibers*at*att*dot*net (remove the asterisks when you type that in; I get enough spam from my esteemed friends in Nigeria) AND make sure you put in the Re: line EITHER "Sock Yarn Club" or "Fiber Club." For now, since membership is limited, you have to pick one or other. If I get more interested people than there are openings, I'll randomly pick ten for each. Send your email by Monday, November 19th at 10 a.m.

P.S. If Rabbitch copies me, I'll kick her Canadian arse.

Other BBF News

My pal Joey started a Ravelry group for Black Bunny Fibers lovers, called Amish Machine Knitters With A Sex Addiction Black Bunny Fiber Lovers, which you can find here. Thanks, Joe!

I'm going to be making a concerted effort to try to keep the Etsy shop better stocked. I know it's frustrating when you want to try out a yarn, but can't seem to find it in stock. For me, keeping this a one-woman operation allows me to retain what I hope makes my yarns special, doing each skein or small batch individually by hand, and not doing cookie-cutter colorways. Unfortunately, that means that sometimes things sell out quickly simply because they take a bit more time to create. But I'm working on it...

If you are frustrated because you can't seem to get to the updates, you might want to join my Yahoo group. I send out an email 24 hours before an update, and another one as soon as I'm done updating the Etsy shop. If you switch your settings for this group to individual emails, rather than digest, you'll get them fairly quick, and I rarely send out emails other than the ones telling of updates, so you won't be inundated with yak.

I'm working on a website, too, and hope to have it up and running (at least in some form) by the end of the year. (Stop snickering, Liz and Mindy.)

Take a look

I had the pleasure of meeting fellow dyestress Mama E at Stitches East. She's started an on-line site called Mobtown Review, devoted to handpainted yarns and fibers. Each Wednesday, she'll feature handdyed artists and their wares (along with specials for the readers of the Mobtown Review) and if you leave a comment, you'll be entered into a drawing for prizes by the featured artists.

So....you might want to mosey over there and take a look. Maybe the Black Bunny will make an appearance one of these days....