Shop Update-o-Rama-Rama!

Peeps. There's yarn here. Lots of yarn.

The full complement of yarns going up in the Shop can be seen in my flickr stream here.

Today's Shop Update is all about Lollipop BFL Sock. This shiny, sturdy, silky sock yarn is 100% superwash blue faced leicester wool. Each skein is 3.5 oz/100g and 420 yards/384m. Each skein is $23.

Here's a selection of what you can find in the shop:

Wagashi

Pamplemousse

Sugared Violet

Moss Rock

I'll be putting in Meringue Merino sock, Marzipan Merino Sock, and some new colors of Souffle as well! If you see something on flickr that you like that isn't in the shop yet, let me know and I can reserve a skein for you. I have multiple skeins of just about every colorway. I'll get these in the shop as quick as I can over the next couple of days.

Oh, and dudes. I totally forgot to tell you in my Sock Summit post yesterday that Clara Parkes (of Knitter's Review) and Melissa Morgan-Oakes came into my booth on Thursday night. I think I played it cool -- I tried very very hard not to flip the $(@*# out. We chatted, and they were both SOOOOOOOO nice, and very complimentary. And they both bought yarn from me. From ME. Tried (again) not to flip the *#(*@ out. Playing it cool. I hope Clara doesn't mind me mentioning that she recommended my Lollipop BFL yarn to her students. A few of her students came through my booth and told me that. And I tried very very hard not to flip the $(*$&(@*&! out. Playing it cool, folks. Cool.

The whole weekend was like that -- I'd be walking through the convention center, and BAM, there's Stephanie Pearl-McPhee on a walkie-talkie. Or I'd come around the corner of the Marketplace and BAM -- there' ANNA FREAKING ZILBOORG STANDING RIGHT THERE. I said "Hi" to her. That's all I could manage. I so wanted to go up to Stephanie and Tina the whole weekend to thank them for Sock Summit. That's all I wanted to say, and I just kept freezing every time I'd see one of them anywhere nearby. So, I'll just say it now, in my lame little way, in my little blog. Thanks, Stephanie. Thanks, Tina. Thanks ST-2. You guys rock. Sock Summit was the best.

Home from Sock Summit!

Well, Sock Summit is over. Nina and I drove back from Portland on Monday, and I still feel like I'm recovering. Tired as I still am, I think I'm also suffering from a bit of Sock Summit withdrawal. For 4 days, I was a part of this huge, amazing THING, where thousands of knitters gathered in one place for a single purpose: to knit. We knit socks, we talked about knitting socks, we fondled sock yarn, we broke a world record, we bonded over the funny looks we got when we told people we were going to Portland to talk about knitting socks.

It was amazing. AMAZING, I tell you. As a woman from a small town in the midwest who doesn't have a lot of knitting friends said to me, "I feel like I'm with my people."



It was seriously the most exhausting, fun experience ever. Even when I thought I was going to fall down, I was so tired, I was still having a blast. Since neither Nina nor Marilee are as much of a knitter as me, and neither has knit socks, I'm not sure if they'd agree, but they were such troopers. I couldn't have done it without them!.



I didn't take as many pictures as I thought hoped I would, but I got a few! Nina got some great shots of our Voodoo Doughnuts, so I'll post those when she's done processing them (someday...).

Mare couldn't make the road trip with us -- she flew up on Wednesday night-- (which, though we missed her terribly, was kind of a blessing because it meant that the Pile fit in the car. It otherwise would not have), but Nina and I drove out of Santa Clara at 7:30 am last Wednesday. I-5 is the most boring road ever, so no pictures really. Though I did get a good shot of Gorilla Monster* and my sock-in-progress.



When we got near Mount Shasta, the air was all weird and hazy and smoky because of a forest fire someplace, and Shasta looked like it was floating in the air. You could barely see it, off in the distance.



We set up the booth on Thursday morning. Jocelyn, who I know from Nine Rubies in San Mateo, and her awesome daughter Amanda helped us, and boy did we need them! My mom built these really nice wooden displays, but they were a little too lightweight to carry all the weight of over 100  skeins of yarn each, so Jocelyn had the brilliant idea of weighing them down with rice or beans. So after a quick trip to Safeway for Nina and Marilee (while I struggled to move tables and boxes and set up lamps), we were in business!



I love how the booth turned out -- it was exactly I pictured it in my head! It was a tiny booth -- 5x10 -- so I wanted it to be as spacious and welcoming and open as possible.



I think we got it right! We had nice, incandescent lamps to combat the horrible green flourscence of the convention center, and dishes of candy for people to keep their shopping strength up. I had a cushy wool rug down on the concrete to help sooth the tired tootsies. Oh, and YARN. Lots of yarn, and lots of fiber.



It was a great show-- I sold bunches of yarn, but better than that, I met so many really sweet, wonderful, friendly knitters! I loved talking to everyone who came through the booth. I made a few contacts with shops, both online and local, which I really hope will turn into some wider exposure for my yarns (I'll keep you posted! Fingers crossed!).

I sold quite a bit, but I also came home with A LOT of yarn. I'm going to do shop updates over the next few days. Lots of colorways of Lollipop BFL Sock, Meringue Merino Sock and Marzipan. I also have several new colors of Souffle Lace that will go up as well. Keep your eyes peeled! I'll post here to let you know when the updates happen.

I really want to thank everyone for their well wishes and kind words both leading up to and following Sock Summit. It meant so much to me to receive comments and emails and messages on Ravelry. I so, so, SO appreciate all of your support -- Knitters are the BEST! Thank you!!!

*A few years ago, Nina and I took a road trip up to Ashland, OR. I got her this creepy-weird gorilla monster postcard as a present (because she's the monkeygirl) and we took him on our road trip with us. He was in almost ALL of our pictures. It seemed only fitting, since we were roadtripping up to Oregon again, that Gorilla Monster come with us again too!

Off We Go!

The car is packed, my suitcase is packed, and anything I've forgotten, I'll have to live without or pick up in Portland.

Sock Summit, HO!



See you in Portland!

T-1 Week

ZOMG!!!! This time next week, Nina, Marilee and I will be in Portland. This time next week, we'll be setting up the booth.

Holy crapmonkeys.

After months and months, I can't believe it's almost here. All of the dyeing is done (well, I technically have a few skeins of Fondant in Robin's Egg that need to be rinsed, but that's it!), the spinning is done, the yarn is packed (well, except for that Fondant). The to-do list is getting shorter and shorter (though it's one of those two steps forward, three steps back things. As soon as I cross something off the list, I add 2 more things). We might even actually be able to fit everything in my mom's Mountaineer, with room to spare for 3 people to sit in relative comfort (and by comfort, I mean that yarn makes a very nice, cushiony pillow).

Here's the Pile, which has taken over our kitchen:



I spent the early part of this week organizing the yarn into bags and tubs, trying to get it all consolidated into the smallest amount of space possible. First, I sorted all of the yarn by fiber and color, completely taking over most of the house in the process.



Turing helped me.



And by "helped," I mean crawling into my lap every time I sat on the floor and stopped moving. Oh, and looking ridiculously cute and innocent. Psh. Like I'm falling for that one again.

Each tub has exactly the number of skeins that will fit onto the displays, so when we get to set-up time, all we have to do is pull out the skeins and hang them up:



That's how it's supposed to work, in theory.

The extra skeins went into huge garbage bags. This was Marilee's idea, and I think it's brilliant. Trash bags compress a lot better than rigid tubs!



It's not the most dignified way for my yarn to make the trip to Portland, but this way it will actually have a fighting chance of fitting in the car. Hopefully, it will forgive me.

There's still some stuff that will have to go on top of the car and get strapped down -- my mom is building some big frame-like displays, and they won't fit inside with us. I'll show those to you when she's finished with them -- she's building 4 this week.

I also got this nifty rubber stamp with my shop logo on it from rubberstamps.net. It's 4" x 2" and cost about $20. I stamped 500 handle bags while I watched Leverage the other day. I love how they look. What do you think?



It's almost here! Just a few more things to cross off the list. And probably a few more things to add...

Dyeing for Glory

Yet another fantastic Sock Summit related event! Ravelry is running a Dye for Glory contest for vendors at Sock Summit. Check out the details here... or here, and here.

I've created two colorways that I'll have in my booth for sale at the Summit. I'm going to take pre-orders for pick up at my booth (Booth 1107!)-- I'll have 20 of each colorway. I will take pre-orders for 10. After Sock Summit, I will have some for sale in Etsy shop for shipping in August.

These are dyed on a new base-yarn that I'm debuting at Sock Summit. I'm calling it Meringue Merino. It's a springy 2-ply with a nice, tight, pearly-textured twist (think Koigu) that takes colors beautifully. It's so soft, and knits up with wonderful texture, while still allowing for great stitch definition. I'm knitting the Evening Stockings for a Young Lady out of it, and it's a winner!

Both colors were partially inspired by the Sock Summit logo (see it over there <----- in the top left corner of my blog sidebar?), but also by things around Portland. I've heard Portland is well known for its beer, produced by small breweries, so here's Microbrew:



Lager,



red ale,



and (my favorite) stout blend in a sampler platter of tasty brews.



I love this one!

This second colorway is inpired by some striking photographs I've seen of Portland's downtown area at night, and at dusk. I've entered this in the Watercolors category, because the dyeing method I used resulted in the fluid blending of all of the colors. I'm calling it Downtown Dusk:



The soft, deep red of the setting sun,



the shimmering lights of downtown



reflecting off of the dark, nighttime blue-green waters of the Wilamette River.



This color reminds me of San Francisco's downtown at dusk as well. :)

This contest has been so fun. I've loved seeing what other amazingly talented fellow dyers have come up with. These colorways also really pushed my usual sense of color. I tend to use many of the same colors in different ways, and this pushed me to try new and different combinations of hues and values. LOVE it!