Family members traveling, a family member dislocating a knee, yeah. It’s been pretty crazy.

So, I’ve decided to move the reopening of my yarn store back to June sometime. And (ready for this?) I’m keeping the name Maiden Yarn. It’s a good name, and it’s a name my customers know. At this point I’m thinking “Wildwood Fibers” will be a sub-brand for some extra special products I’ll be carrying. And don’t think this means the store won’t have some really neat additions and improvements! I’m still very excited.

In other news, I dyed forty-something skeins of yarn during the last two days for my friend at Annie and Co. That is a pile of yarn, y’all. I barely have room on my drying racks for all of it.

Yes, all the pictures for today are in black and white. My camera’s little electronic brain was so blown by the sheer gorgeousness of the tones, it flipped out and couldn’t portray them accurately. (And maybe I got a little filter-happy.)

So, the rest of May will be spent getting things ready for Maiden Yarn’s reopening in June, and having some friends come in from out of town for a mutual friend’s wedding. You can be expecting some pictures of the former (not the latter) in the weeks to come.

In an effort to get the ball rolling, and new supplies laid in, all current inventory is 30% off, so have fun.

~ Velvet Slippers Sock Yarn

~ Not a Daisy Roving

~ Spring Roving

This one is a very smooshy single-ply of a wool and nylon blend. I think it would make gorgeous scarves, cowls, or even a shawl. I’ve already gotten to dye some up as a test, and this yarn is begging to be dyed in rich tones of a kettle-dyed nature.

As a side note – I will also be carrying a more familiar fingering base. The 70/30 merino/silk blend I’ve had in before. It’s a nice four-ply, non-superwash yarn with a little bit of shine to it. Lovely lovely.

In case you’re wondering, I’m moving Maiden Yarn to mainly fingering weight (my favorite to knit with) and spinning fiber at the beginning of October. It’ll simplify things for me, and allow me to offer a wider range of colors in the same weight (if not same fiber blend) of yarn. Plus, who doesn’t like fingering and sock weight?

I’m really rather excited, but I shall try to remain rational.

One moment while I get a grip on myself –

- ahem -

The second new base is this two-ply superwash merino. I’d call it more of a lightweight fingering, but we’ll see what it does after being dyed. I haven’t worked with this particular yarn before, and I’m really eager to see what it does. If I’m reading it right, it will probably have a lovely shine, and look great in variegated tones.

I bet it would do great fingerless gloves. Or maybe a hat. (Ooh, a tam or beret! I must try this now.) The two-ply construction seems fairly durable, while still being plush enough for comfort. (Yes, definitely a beret.)

Alright. Back to the subject at hand.

I have grand plans to have skeins in each of the two new bases dyed and in the stores during the first week of October. We’ll see how it goes! I can hardly wait to get that superwash one in the dye pot.

~Rebekah

I’ve come to the conclusion that fall could use a little shoving along. It’s been in the eighties around here (lovely!) and getting chilly at night. Let’s hear it for the caramel apples, candy corn and peanuts, and cold apple cider.

Wow. Do I sense a food theme here?

But, I got to spend a good four or five hours dyeing yesterday. Unfortunately, that means most everything is too wet to photograph, but I snagged a few pictures.

Believe me, four hours is a looooong time to be in the kitchen. Thankfully I had my lovely flowers to keep me company, and some friends dropped by for a visit. Anne is one of those wonderful people who can visit while you’re in the middle of working and make you feel like you’re on vacation, even though you’re running around the kitchen like the proverbial headless chicken. It was very enjoyable.

And, to make things even more fun, she and I worked on some super secret stuff for her latest project “Knitting With Jane.” If you like Jane Austen and are on Ravelry, you’ll find the juicy details here.

All this work dyeing is making me realize how much I miss spinning roving. I will admit to having jumped whole-hog on the “batt” bandwagon, but I’m beginning to feel pangs of homesickness. Especially when my arms are tired from long-draw spinning. Then the pangs are a little more tangible. =P

Granted, batts definitely have their place (besides being amazingly gorgeous), and I still like working with them, but I think it’s time to dig through my personal fiber stash and come up with something lovely. I can only hope that somehow, someway, I won’t have any roving and I’ll have to (gasp!) order some. Fat chance, but one can dream.

I realize that Spring begins in March. But personally, I don’t really count it as Spring until it feels Spring-ish. And yesterday I went on a picnic lunch in a lovely park, and now realize that Spring is fully Spring-ish. So, happy Spring!

I guess the biggest news I have to share is that I’m expanding into the wholesale realm. A local yarn store is going to be carrying six special colorways of my merino/silk laceweight. (Including Dawn Treader!) If you’re in the Athens, GA area, stop by and visit Main Street Yarns to take a peek. It’s a lovely store with all sorts of goodies. (I have to be very strict with my wallet when I’m there.) I just sent off a lovely lineup of twelve skeins, but completely forgot to take a picture of them before they left! Gack!
There’s a chance that I’ll be visiting the yarn store next week, so I’ll have to take my camera and attempt to get a shot of the yarns hanging up on the wall.

Along the same line of “business,” I’m looking into giving my laceweight yarn bases some names. So, instead of calling it “70/30 merino silk” I would call it “Hawthorn Lace” or something like that. I’ve seen this done in various stores and supposedly it helps people remember the yarns. I’m all for it, except that I have to come up with the names. No pressure, right? It just reflects on me and my business if I choose poorly. Yeeks. Some top ideas now are naming them after various vines, or floral/botanical type things.

I have been dyeing tons lately for my April/May inventory. At least three large dye runs in one week. Here are a couple goodies from that for you to see. I decided to attempt dyeing an entire pound of fiber in the same colorway, so I chose Dawn Treader. (Of course, I mean, it’s gorgeous!) I’m very grateful that the story ended happily ever after, and I ended up with a full pound of Bluefaced Leicester in Dawn Treader. In fact, one of the 4 oz. braids sold within a day or two of my listing them on Etsy. Yay!

And below is seven and a half ounces of Corriedale in a one-of-a-kind colorway. (I doubt I could repeat it if I tried.) I’ve decided (with some naming help) to call it “Mountain Orchard.” It makes me think of sunshine on apples and leaves and mountain streams.

And I’ve been spinning up a storm, too! Take a look at these gorgeous little beauties. They’re the yarn for my aunt’s shawl, all spun up and ready to go. (Except for a quick twist-setting dunk.) Eight skeins, and I still need to calculate the yardage. As far as I know, we won’t run short. But I don’t know very far, and knitting patterns can be tricky.

This yarn is some of the most delicious stuff I have ever had my hands on. It’s light and springy like the Bluefaced Leicester in it, but it has a touch of baby alpaca for added softness and smoosh, and a bit of mohair halo. It looks like I won’t be dyeing it after all, and that it will remain happy in its natural color when my knitting sister takes it into her skillful hands.

Or, if you want to get really out there, it’s like saying, “You stand up, why would you ever want to sit down again?”

There’s so much to be said for dyeing your own stuff, but every so often you want a break. And, as it happened this time, I found this gorgeous braid for sale. It’s a merino/mohair mix (a blend I’ve never bought before) and the colors jumped right off the screen and grabbed me. (Yes, it was scary, but a good scary.)

Isn’t it pretty? I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. The thought of a hat or smooshy cowl crossed my mind, or perhaps a little shawlette. I could go for socks, as it’s a four ounce braid, but I don’t particularly feel like spinning sock yarn right now. Ha, well, true, I probably won’t get around to spinning this until later this year. Oh, I bought it at FiberFancy, if you’d care to take a peek at some of the other lovely stuff there.

And, along a different train of thought, I paid for not blogging recently. I skeined up this gorgeous single ply laceweight (the one I was spinning on my English wheel) and it turned out to be about thirty-five grams/440 yards. In short, a nice size. It washed up beautifully and bloomed into this amazingly soft fluffy single ply. I was so proud of it. Then I listed it on Etsy and it sold before I could tell you I had even finished it! So, here’s the picture of the now long-gone yarn.

On the home knitting front: Raveling is in the offing. Remember that purple sweater I made? The cowl neck? Well, it was far too big in the body, so about a week or so ago I raveled it clear back to the armpits and commenced re-knitting it in a smaller size. I’m now about six to eight inches from the bottom, and hoping it will somehow finish knitting itself so I can take it along to Colorado in the beginning of August. Things are looking pretty close, but I might just finish in time.

Come on over and take a peek. I’m so, so excited!

And, on that note, I am so, so loving custom orders. You probably remember my first custom yarn (Raven’s Wing) and the gorgeous yarn that came out of that. Well, prepare for custom order number two.

Absolutely gorgeous emerald yarn. This green took forever to achieve (no less than three times in the dye pot) but it was so worth it. The yarn practically glows from within. And it’s superwash, which means it is very soft.

I can’t wait for the next custom challenge, whatever it may be.

Angora cobweb fluffy laceweight. Ahhhhhhhh. You cannot believe how soft this yarn is when it’s plied. It’s like the tactile rendition of feeling warm and fuzzy inside!

I’m actually spinning this on a nifty contraption that a friend of mine plans to make available on Etsy. I’m not at liberty to divulge many of the juicy details, but I will say that I could not spin this delicate of a yarn on any of the other tools I have in the house.

The grand Etsy store updates continue! I just listed a couple more yarns, and soon a nice big order of fiber will come in, and I can start all over again. Hooray!

Oh! You heard it here first – I will be participating in Etsy’s Christmas in July sale (July 15th through 25th). I’m running a special on shipping for those of you who want to stock up on Christmas gifts. Pay shipping on only one item in your order. All the other items in the order ship free!

And, while this is not lace, I’ve started knitting a scarf from this lovely, hand dyed pink yarn a good friend gave to me. I’m knitting it on the bias, and then throwing in dropped stitch stripes every so often.