Introducing: the Esmerelda Scarf Kit

Mini-skeins are so hypnotic: it's fun to make them and it's fun to play with them, mixing and matching colors and experimenting to see what happens when you put different combinations together. Inspired by the fun of mini-skeins, I created the Esmerelda Scarf Kit:


Each kit contains four miniskeins of fingering weight yarn (today's upload contained all batches of Superwash Merino Classic yarn).




One skein is about twice the size of the others, and is used for the beginning and end; there are three other miniskeins that go in the middle. I've been having so much fun creating combinations, from very closely related ones, like this purple and gray set:



or this really unique one featuring espresso brown, cobalt and tomato:



to brighter choices with more contrast:





All the kits come with four miniskeins (a total of 500 yds.) and the Esmerelda Pattern. The pattern contains directions for two versions: in the vertical stripe version, show in the brown/yellow/orange colorway, you cast on stitches the long way, creating long stretches of color:

in the colorblock version, you cast on the short edge and make blocks of color.

Either way, there's enough yarn for a very long scarf that you can wrap and wrap and wrap and wrap....



I'm working on more color combinations in 100% blue-faced leicester next.... look for them soon. Pattern is also up on Ravelry and any moment now, Patternfish....

Update: more sparkly stuff

I spent last week with a slightly-sick kid (again) and recovering from all the hullaboo surrounding Easter. Yesterday Little Miss lost a tooth, blaming it on Elvis (she said he knocked it out by hitting her with a pillow) and then she tried to convince us that since other kids in her class get $20 from the Tooth Fairy (allegedly) she should, too. Nice try, Little Miss. Even though I think she looks adorable without the top tooth, she refused to smile except with her lips tightly clamped shut. (But she still looks cute...)


I also did a bunch of dyeing last week, including some Twist O'Silk sock yarn (superwash wool/bamboo/silk)

Thistle

Grassland

and some Stella, the sparkly fingering weight yarn (mix of wool, silk, nylon and silver):

Space Oddity

Krypton Sun

So if you're in the mood to treat yourself, go have a look!

Coming tomorrow, another book review...

Gitte's Socks

Allow me to introduce another pattern in the BBF line: Gitte's Socks.



They are knit in fingering weight yarn and feature a nice eyelet check pattern-- pretty but not excessively complicated. The sample socks are knit in BBF Bamboo Lite Sock (a base on backorder right now) but any fingering weight yarn in a solid or semi-solid would work, including Superwash Merino Classic, CashSock or Tight Twist Sock (which will be my next update).



One amusing anecdote: I did a photo shoot with Bridget as my foot model in Rittenhouse Square. (The photos I took weren't usable but this was entirely due to my skills as a photographer, rather than the beauty of Bridget's feet. The lovely photos you see here were taken by the uber-talented Laura Grutzeck.) We were snapping photos and Bridget was striking poses, and a woman walked by with her boyfriend and Bridget heard her ask, "Are they anybody?" We of course cackled at that. But we didn't pay her too much mind, because us Somebodies try to ignore the Little People as much as possible.



You can find Gitte's Socks on Ravelry here or Patternfish here. I'll be adding some hard copies to the BBF store soon, too.

Presenting Heavenly Laceweight

Just uploaded the BBF website with a gorgeous new laceweight called "Heavenly."


It's a blend of 70% baby alpaca/20% silk/10% cashmere and it is soft, beautiful and has just enough sheen to make the colors pop.



The skeins are 1300 yds/100g, good for most shawl patterns.

I've got some rich, saturated colors like the vivid green, above, but also some lighter and brighter shades, including a unique pale peach shade that is tough to photograph but looks most divine.


(Don't forget the free shipping code "STAPLE" which I've extended through the month of January.)

A few quick notes

I'll consult with the husband and figure out an Open House date; probably in November, so we squeeze it in after Rhinebeck and before the holidays (that way you can justify it as necessary materials for holiday knitting). In the meantime:

• Looking for Wollmeise? Raffle for 2 skeins to help a knitter (Miss Violet of Lime & Violet fame) in need here.
• Brooklyn Tweed is coming to Loop next week: classes and a Stitch party. Details here.
• A little bird told me that a good friend of GKIYH just inked her first book deal. Yes, I am a big tease. As soon as I can tell you more, I will....
• Check out the Vogue Knitting Holiday issue preview; there's a great fair isle by Laura Grutzeck (under Color Vibes; lower left) and the issue also includes my breathless fangrll profile of Veronik Avery.
  
• Update tomorrow on the BBF website, including sock flats, and 20+ skeins of a new base yarn, CashSock...

Riddle me this

I am thinking about having a Black Bunny Fibers Open House some time this fall. I'd open up my house and put out all sorts of BBF yarn and fiber -- including some oddballs and experimental hanks, and some deeply-discounted items, too -- for purchase in cash on the spot. It would probably be a Sunday afternoon, say from 1 to 4, and anyone who wanted to hang out on the patio could hang for a while and mix-n-mingle. I could clear out some stuff that's been here a while and you could get some fabulous buys on gorgeous handdyed yarns and fibers.

If you'd be interested in stopping by for an Open House, would you please leave a comment or shoot me an email at blackbunnyfibers AAT att DOTT net? I will probably use Evite to let people know once I pick a date. Well, if anybody seems interested...

Thanks!

Carpal winding syndrome?

I just finished reskeining the last of 219 skeins of blue-faced leicester superwash sock yarn for The Loopy Ewe. That's the biggest order I've done so far, and I have some kind of repetitive stress injury to my neck/shoulder -- from operating the skeinwinder -- to prove it. I conveniently had a conversation with Needlegrrl a few weeks ago about the need to put ice (not heat) on inflamed muscles and I have to say, Needlegrrl was completely right. Icing it and taking Advil (thanks to Mindy, who reminded me of its anti-inflammatory properties) have been helping, but I'm glad this order is done so it'll have time to rest. I usually don't work on such a large scale, so it's never been a problem before.

Here are some of the skeins I'll be shipping off:



The top one is Sweetheart Roses (I think it's a bit pinker in real life) and the bottom is Camouflage. There are 15 colorways in all.

In the meantime, I had the pleasure of taking a class with Stefanie Japel, delightful author of Glam Knits: 25 Designs For Luxe Yarns and Fitted Knits: 25 Projects for the Fashionable Knitter (both of which are great books, by the way). Stefanie was friendly, very knowledgeable and super-fun to take a class with, so if you get a chance, I'd recommend her workshops. Plus, look how adorable she is:


That's about all for now, although I've got some exciting news about a pal of mine in the knitting world, so look here for a scoop in coming days. . .

Yarn Pr0n

Today's Etsy update will go live around 2 p.m. Since I obviously bored most of you on Monday with my book report, then grossed out the few remaining readers yesterday, I'm going to play it safe today and stick to photos of the pretty yarn. This is some of the superwash merino sock yarn being listed today:

These are some of the worsted-weight selections, including kid mohair/merino and merino/tussah silk (good for quick-knit holiday hats and mittens and scarves):



This is a heavy-worsted weight 100% blue-faced leicester yarn that I just tried out. I think I'm going to put this on the regular roster. It's soft, took the dye nicely and has a bit of a sheen, and it also has a pretty firm twist, which most of my customers seem to like. Plus, you know what a sucker I am for single-breed yarns. There's only two batches today, but as soon as I can get more, I will.



And this is a blue-faced leicester roving:


(No, Mindy, you have to slug it out with the rest of them at 2 p.m. Someone has to save you from yourself.)

And what is in this somewhat non-descript box, you ask?

A limited-edition blend (qiviut) that contains three tremendous fibers (qiviut) that include alpaca, merino and..... yes, qiviut. It's going in the dye pot over the next few days -- I'll let you know how it looks. Thanks to Barb, I can tell you that one skein will make a neck scarf (about four inches wide by four feet long)...

P.S. If you're looking for some bags to hold your knitting, or maybe some preppy-chic items for your hipster daughter, some of the moms at Elvis' school started this new website, Daisy Dot. Check it out.

The lure of the sock club?

A couple of people have suggested to me that I start a Black Bunny Fibers Sock Club. I have seen sock clubs all over the place, more of them lately than in the past. When I first started knitting socks, there were fewer choices for sock clubs and they mostly featured commercially-dyed yarns rather than hand-dyes. I belonged to one for a while, but I pretty soon figured out that it wasn't a good fit for me. Every month I was sent a skein of yarn and a pattern. Sometimes I really liked the yarn or the pattern, but rarely did I really like both and some months I knew I'd never make anything with either. I figured I'd be better off just picking out the yarn and patterns myself.

Now I see that sock clubs by hand-dyers are hot. There are different variations on it, but most seem to be a set number of kits, say, every other month, that include a skein of sock yarn, a pattern, and "swag." Many of these clubs seem kind of expensive to me: for example, one costs $222 for six kits, which is $37 (!) for each pair of socks. Apparently you get "exclusive" colorways and patterns that aren't being sold to non-club members for a year, and some "swag," but wow, that's a lot of cash.

But after a very sweet email from a good customer urging me to start a sock club, I figured I'd get reader input on this. What is the lure of a sock club? And do you really think they are worth it? Would you be interested in signing up for one? Would anyone be interested in a scaled-down version: say, you get the yarn automatically sent to you but no pattern or other crap swag, and the price is not significantly more what you'd pay on my Etsy site? or is the pattern an integral part of the experience for you?

Thanks in advance for your input. Feel free to shoot me a private email through the sidebar link if you are shy about speaking in public.

Coming attractions

Thanks to the inimitable Franklin, I was able to begin running my first official Black Bunny ad on Ravelry this week:

When I win the Powerball (which I insist on calling Rollerball to my husband's never-ending annoyance), Franklin shall get the entire west wing of our mansion for his new home, or if he prefers more privacy (believe me, nothing puts a damper on the old sex life more than worrying about five-year-old twins walking in on you), he can have the carriage house. (It will be a very large carriage house.)

So as not to disappoint the hordes of rabid Ravelers who will be clicking on said ad, I will be updating tomorrow morning around 11 a.m. my time. I've got a nice armload of the superwash merino/tencel blend

which will make wonderful socks, as well as my last five skeins of the Rideau Arcott wool blend sock yarn,



and some other goodies.

For those of you keeping track of Disease-a-palooza 2007, the current breakdown is:




now that Tom has been officially diagnosed with pneumonia. (He's so unoriginal; he couldn't even get his own disease, but had to copy Nick's.)

Coming tomorrow: another No-Bull Book Review...

Catching up

This week will be a week for catching up, while trying very hard not to get further behind. N. did indeed have pneumonia (we had the pleasure of a chest X-ray early last week), in both lungs, and Tuesday night we came ominously close to a hospital admission. The docs gave him another night on the second oral antibiotic and thankfully he turned the corner that night. Now, less than a week later, his cough is nearly all gone and he's fine. The amazing resilience of kids.

I'm glad N. is better in time for Halloween. I've always loved Halloween -- even before those creepy big-box costume stores appeared, trying to turn every eight-year-old girl into corporate America's collective Lolita fantasy -- and I always enjoy making costumes for my kids. My piece de resistance thus far was 2005's Fish Costume





but I have high hopes for Elvis's choice this year: The Parrot. His sister G. wanted to be a ballerina (cool, I thought, I can buy a tutu!) except she insisted on being a BLUE ballerina. Do you know how hard it is to find a blue tutu? N. decided to be a wizard. Even though he doesn't really know anything about Harry Potter. Go figure. As long as there aren't pupiks hanging out or a real excess of bad taste (Tom wistfully mentioned a Lisa Nowak costume, complete with a jar of Tang, a roll of duct tape and a pair of Depends), I'm flexible.

This


is a skein of Black Bunny DK-weight merino, along with a card of glass buttons I got at Stitches East. It's for a baby shower gift, for someone who loves orange. I'm going to be dyeing up some more BBF DK-weight in the coming weeks, which is machine washable and perfect for little baby sweaters, so look for it.

But first, I'll be posting a Black Bunny Fibers roving update tomorrow morning. I've got 6 batches of roving, including a lovely border leicester/mohair blend.




Inspired by Rhinebeck, I blew the dust off my wheel and produced this:



(from a Blue-Faced Leicester roving from Black Bunny). I'm definitely getting more consistent; I just need to work on spinning a bit thinner. Everything I produce seems to be aran-weight or heavier.

Last, I would be remiss if I did not mention that today is my mom's birthday. I can't believe she's seventy-seven. She's in great shape and excellent health, but it still scares the bejeesus out of me that her age sounds so, well, old. She doesn't read my blog (she doesn't know what a blog is) -- which probably explains why her heart is still in such good shape -- but Happy Birthday, Mom. You're the best.*



*Also happy birthday to Owen....

Just stop it. I mean it.

Haven't we had enough of O.J.? I know I have.


I mean, if the poor man interrupted his ceaseless ten-year search for the real killers of his ex-wife and her friend in order to repossess some stolen items (no doubt so that he could sell them and give the proceeds to the Goldman and Brown families to satisfy their multimillion-dollar civil judgment against him, which he thus far has not given a cent toward despite his tireless attempts to find gainful employment so that he can pay them), then ought we not let the Nevada justice system handle the controversy? Without having his face plastered all over the media?



Would it kill the media (pun intended) to just ignore the guy?



Knitting progress



Geez, in just one day I got something like 15 messages on Ravelry! Cool.


There has been some knitting progress here. After seeing N. gleefully wearing an old pair of Opal Tiger socks I made for James

I cast on another pair for him in one of the Kaffe Fassett colors of Regia. This one is called Carribean (number 4261) and it's full of turquoise/cobalt blues, bright greens, with some rust and brown to provide contrast.




Over the weekend, I finished knitting the pieces of the little skirt for G., and I bought buttons so today I'm blocking it. I used a new yarn from Reynolds called Cottontail, and really liked it a lot. It's a blend of cotton and acrylic, but feels very cotton-y and knits easily. A little strand-y, like all cottons, no big deal though. And at five or six bucks a ball, it's nicely priced. I hope to have a photo of the finished skirt soon.

I also have been making slow but fairly steady progress on a cardigan for me. I'm using Frog Tree Pima Silk from my stash, and it's a beautifully soft, drapey yarn. I'm nearly halfway up the back. It's very plain, almost all stockinette, but that's okay. I'm in the mood for some low-key knitting after the summer full of excitement.


Black Bunny update

I'm planning a Black Bunny update on Friday. I've got this batch of wool/nylon (the one with the tighter twist):




as well as some superwash merino, a few batches of Finn wool from Canada, and some more of the alpaca blend sock yarn (also from Canada). Three batches of roving, too. In the meantime, I'm working on some more pure silk as well as some laceweight. I'm also playing with a new yarn, and I'll let you know if it works out.

Mixed Bag

This Kute Kid Story will give you a sense of where my head's at this week:

Child criticizes mother's grammar.
Exasperated Mother: I don't feel like being constantly corrected by a five-year-old!
Child: Five-and-a-half.

It's a crazy time chez Go Knit In Your Hat. The last book deadline is July 31st, and I've got a sweater -- at 7 sts to the inch -- to finish, and some text to write, and some patterns to draft. (Stop snickering.) The first photo shoot is August 1st through 3rd, which is extremely exciting.

Also exciting is the fact that Reynolds has commissioned me to do two sweater patterns and a sock pattern for their Spring '08 collection. So get yer asses to thy local knitting shop and buy some Reynolds yarn... Soft Sea Wool anyone? Whiskey? Revue? And I'm sure there are some new yarns coming soon for fall from our friends in Montreal, which I shall endeavour to tell you about if my sources come through with preview info. (V.? M.?)

In the meantime, the kids are all at day camp this week (N. and G. are at a morning art camp learning about... cubism. Do you believe it? I'm sure I was 35 before I understood cubism.) and I'm frantically preparing a Black Bunny Fibers update for this Friday. Sock yarn, one straggler of alpaca/silk laceweight, and some rovings. I'm still waiting for some more silk and some wool/silk blend (like Liz's Clapotis) to arrive.

And if you haven't heard about FibreFest North (is there a FibreFest South?) check it out. A weekend of fiber stuff -- knitting, spinning, maybe even some crochet? -- in lovely Ontario. I'm going, along with Mar and Fredda (we have a jacuzzi in our room -- rare and handy indeed) and I hope to see at least a few of you there.

Last but not least, it's Socksational July at Rosie's Yarn Cellar. Word on the street is that a fresh batch of Lorna's Laces has arrived (mmm!) and I'm sending Tom, a.k.a. Errand Boy in tomorrow with some BBF superwash merino and merino/silk. Courtney says there are also some great sales on top quality sock yarn to make room for fall (like Trekking, one of my faves), so stop by or call the shop. Maybe Courtney will entice Tom into bringing home some Lorna's Laces for me to knit -- I owe the poor man a pair of socks (or twelve).

My new time-sucking vampire

Have you discovered Ravelry yet? It's a website currently in beta testing designed for and by knitters. If you've ever thought "God, I really need to figure out what's in my stash" or tried to set up a database to list projects you want to try, Ravelry is amazing. You start a "notebook," with separate sections for keeping track of projects (you can designate them works in progress or finished, and post photographs of them), organizing stash (how many skeins, a photo, notes) and a "queue" for listing project ideas, whether patterns or yarns. You can also surf other people's notebooks to see what they are making and thinking about making. Right now, the website is by invitation only, so you have to email the makers and ask to be put on the list for an invite. This looks to be a very promising addition to the on-line knitting community if you are computer-savvy and/or like the inspiration of looking at other folks' work. My user name is "Black Bunny," in case you want to marvel at my stash. (Only a portion of which is on there.)

In the meantime, I have been flooded with entries for the How I Really Feel contest. So many good ones, in fact, that it's going to be hard to decide. I'm going to have to give a variety of awards to reflect the variety and quality of responses.

Next Etsy update is Monday, around 12:30 in the afternoon. Sock yarns, of course, and roving for the spinners, along with a new yarn that I'm trying out.



Only three batches until I see if it sells and what the reaction is.