I listed some new laceweights in the store this morning. Lovely new sage-y greens.

Aside from that, things have been a little slow on the yarn end of life. I’m still hoping for time to start in on new inventory for the soon-to-be Wildwood Fibers, but I’m pretty much hogtied with another project at the moment. I’m working on another one of those handicraft DVDs – knitting, this time – and the due date is looming up rapidly.

After a lovely time together, my “Rondel” base laceweights are retiring. These are the lovely alpaca/silk blends with a unique construction, lots of drape, and a little touch of fuzzy halo. It’s been lovely having them, but it is their time to go.

All that being said, the skeins of Rondel left in my laceweight store are now on sale. So drop on by if you’d like to adopt one before they go away. I’m sure they’d appreciate it.

~ Rebekah

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.

On the flip side, I have been working on some of those batts I mentioned in the last post. I’ve got one almost completely spun, and it’s looking quite snazzy. Now before you go pointing out any little neps and slubs in the yarn let me say that I did intend for those to be there. It is all part of a grand, super-secret experiment. (Cue the dramatic music.)

In the midst off all this, I’m beginning to hear the call of the crochet hook again. I haven’t used them for an actual project for some time (and during that time I managed to accidently stab a tiny one into my heel) and I’m beginning to miss it. Miss crocheting, not stabbing my heel. That hurt.

I’ve got this crazy idea involving crochet hooks and un-spun silk. I have a silk hanky laying around. I just have to decide if that’s what I want to use it for. I think it would make a lovely, airy shawl or wrap. Probably rectangular, as silk makes hair static, and I wouldn’t want it right up by my neck.

This time I’m sending in way more then twenty samples, I’m including fiber, and I’m sending in some from Filigree Willow as well.
I would have liked to have some way to track how much business I get from these (other than asking during the checkout process how they found my store) but I ran out of time and motivation to figure out the ramifications of coupons and such.

The last several days I have been measuring, cutting, twisting, and tagging to beat the band. I think it came out to a total of sixty something samples, all needing little hand-written tags.

I finished them up yesterday afternoon and got them shipped off. Yay! And I’m very excited because, if I send in more than fifty units, I’ll receive a Phat Fiber box for the month! Wha-hoo!

Speaking of, I’ve been very busy dyeing things since I got back from Colorado earlier this month. I haven’t done this large of a dye batch in a long time.
It stretched over two or three days. The first day was all sorts of fun, ha ha ha. I dyed four batches of various things, and of the four, none of them came out the color I was aiming for. God was so gracious in that they were still usable. They just weren’t coming out as intended. Rather frustrating at the time. I actually found myself not wanting to dye again. Ever. (Scary thought, no?)

But I took a day off from dyeing and tackled the rest with renewed vim, vigor, and some free choice in regards to colorways. In short: I got to play! Well, play with most of it.

I’m contributing to the September Phat Fiber samples, so some of the fibers needed to be inspired by “Farmers Market.” I actually wound up doing four or five different things I could send in samples from, but one of them is this Blackberry Jam superwash fingering weight.

Gorgeous! I dyed two skeins worth. One for the shop and the other to chop up into little 15-20 yard samples.

A couple of other highlights from the dye run, all alpaca laceweights—

And some more big news, I won a batt! It’s pretty and pink, and I have no clue what I’m going to do with it. I have been stalking Ravelry hat and cowl patterns, though. (I figure they’re something I can knit with stashed stuff, wear often as the weather gets cooler, and they won’t take long to knit!) Perhaps I can spin this up and turn it into a nice tam.

I finished the silk laceweight for my sister.

And, while I was at it, I almost finished up the Willow fingering weight. (That’s due to be finished as soon as possible so I can dive into some lovely merino.)

And I’ve been simultaneously (well, not quite simultaneously) spinning this gorgeous thick and thin yarn. Again, it was on that super secret device, which was perfect for this kind of yarn. The thick bits wouldn’t fit through any of my wheel orifices, and the Walking Wheel keeps me at arms length from controlling the thick and thin variations.

And big news! The Phat Fiber “sneak peek” videos are now up, and you can see my samples in the first video. Hooray! I’m about the fourth one in on the first video. If you’d care to see it, you can find the Phat Fiber videos here.