Merry Christmas!

Just a quick note to remind you that it's not too late for gift certificates! You can get them until noon tomorrow, December 23rd! Once you purchase it, I'll email you (within 6 hours) a personalized, printable gift certificate (it's no extra cost if you'd like me to mail it, but obviously it won't get to the recipient before Christmas!)

(an example of a gift certificate)

Even though I'll be away from a lot of usual internet-y places (like the blog and flickr), the Boutique will continue as usual. In fact, I'll be adding a bunch of new yarns, including a new color of Bananiere on Friday!

Introducing: LocalSpun Fiber and Yarn Club

You know that I love local fiber, right? And that I love sharing it with you?
Inspired by the awesome response to the LocalSpun line (I didn't get to announce the yarn, it sold before I got the chance to tell you about it!), I've decided to make it a monthly event.

The LocalSpun Club is all about sharing my local fiber with you, in both fiber and yarn form. You can subscribe to either the Yarn Club or the Fiber Club.
Here's how it'll work:

• Each month I'll visit a local farm, get a fleece (always a different breed!), take lots of pictures and get some info from the farmer.
• Each month you'll receive 4 oz of fiber or yarn by the 20th. 1, 2 or 3 month subscriptions are available and you can tailor your subscription by telling me your favorite color and by choosing between batts or locks (for the fiber club).

Along with your subscription, you'll also receive information about the sheep that produced the fiber, the farm where it was raised and access to pictures and videos of the farm visit!

Know a spinner or knitter who might love this as a gift? It's not too late for the holidays!
Within 12 hours of your purchase, I'll email you a personalized, pretty, printable gift certificate for you to give to the recipient! They'll receive their package with everyone else, by the 20th of the month! That's right - you can buy a subscription to the LocalSpun club right at the last minute, until midnight on December 23rd!


Yesterday, I announced this to my newsletter (if you're not on the list, your missing out on finding stuff out first! Sign up here!) and they've pounced on it! There is only 1 spot still open for the Yarn Club and 2 for the Fiber Club.
This is my first time offering a subscription service and I'd like to know what you think! What would you like to see in a club? If you subscribed, what would you like to recieve?

Attention Seattle Knitters: Urban Craft Uprising

Are you a crafty soul in Seattle? If so, you simply must come to Urban Craft Uprising this weekend! I'm at booth 56 with loads of BCB yarn and Cloudlover's roving!

Here's some more info:

Over 100 vendors under one roof for one stop holiday shopping that will make you feel good about the holidays.

Date: Saturday, December 6th and Sunday, December 7th
Time: 11 a.m.- 5 p.m.
Where: Seattle Center Exhibition Hall
Admission: Free!

What is Urban Craft Uprising?
- A craft sale by indie designers and crafters throughout the day beginning at 11 a.m.
- Swag bags will be handed out to the first 100 visitors each day with samplings from vendors and sponsors - so be sure to arrive early! Last year a line started before our vendors arrived!
- DIY wrapping station- recycled materials to make your wrapping unique and green
- Free giveaways every hour

For a preview of who else is vending, along with the EXCELLENT author singings (I most excited about meeting Alicia) visit www.urbancraftuprising.com.

After the show, I'll be in Seattle until the 11th. After that, I'll return to the blog with the rest of the Eco-Friendly Yarn series and lots of Seattle pictures! While I'm gone, the Boutique will run as normal, but with all orders placed after December 1st, shipping on December 12th. I'll still be checking my email, so don't hesitate to contact me!

Now, I ask you: what should I see in Seattle? Where's the best coffee? chocolate? yarn?

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving I'm so very grateful to you and to the entire fiber community. Last November, I sold a skein of handspun for the first time in the Boutique. That sale and the more than 200 that follow, pursuade me daily to pull out the dye pots or sit down at the wheel.
This blog, the Boutique, but most of all, YOU have stretched me. I've been challenged, inspired and encouraged. You, darling reader, have pushed me to try things I never imagined or to step into a role I hadn't dreamed of. Because of you, I've started making small videos, to visit fiber farms and to try carding my own fiber.
For that, I am eternally grateful. A simple Thank You doesn't seem like quite enough, so I hope you'll enjoy the Thanksgiving Day Sale - 10% everything in the Boutique (even Gift Certificates!) from today through December 1st.
Have a lovely Thanksgiving and a yarn-filled weekend!

Introducing: Local Spun Batts

Created from one local fleece, the LocalSpun line celebrates the unique properties of a breed while honoring the sheep that produced it. I've visited the farm, washed the fleece and laid it out in the sun to dry. The line includes dyed locks, handcarded batts and handspun yarns. Every item is one of a kind and once sold, can never be recreated.

Today the batts are in the Boutique, with locks to follow this weekend and handspun yarns on Monday (along with a video showing how I spin these batts here on the blog).

The names for these batts are inspired by John Keats's poem "To Autumn". It's much too long to include in it's entirety in the shop descriptions, so I'd like to share it here, along with the batts inspired by it. Serendipitously, today is Keats's birthday!

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,--
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Next week there will be yarns from the same fleece, with names from this same poem (unless someone suggests another Autumnal poem!).
Happy Autumn!

Autumnal Inspiration

Happy Autumn!

To celebrate the first day of this lovely season, I threw open the window to my office and opened up the Fall Color Report by Pantone. This report is designed for fashion and home designers, but everyone in any industry that sells color uses it (or other trend-forcasting tools), so you'll see these colors in clothes, furniture, even new yarn lines!
You don't have to be a designer to enjoy perusing it. I find it fascinating to read the profiles of designers in the report. It's also interesting to be aware of the "in" colors, because once concious, it seems I see them everywhere! The new knitting magazine, Knotions, has an article about applying the Color Report to your choice of yarns and knitting projects.
In the past, I've given it a quick once over and moved on, but this season I've decided to challenge myself (ya'll know I love a challenge). This fall I'd like to create a line of yarns, inspired by the colors of the season. This is a little different than I normally work, dying fiber as inspired and naming it after the inspiration, so I'm going to need some help putting the colors together and then naming the yarns.

*CONTEST INFO*

After looking through the color report, what's the first color combo you think I should try? What should I title it? Include BOTH color combo AND title in the comments below and you could win a little contest!
Every commenter whose suggestion turns into a finished yarn (in the next 3 months) will get 10% off their next purchase of any eco-friendly yarn in the shop!

How to cheer up a Wednesday

Revel in the new yarns, just posted to the Boutique. These are my two favorites

Thriller, handspun from Cloudlover's awesome roving.

Kim, solar dyed (more on that later this week, I hope)

I'm still working on taking pictures of all the new yarns I had spun for last weekend's market. I was making headway yesterday, until I deleted ALL of the pictures on my camera (including all the pictures from the festival!)
I expect to list more yarns on Friday, maybe Saturday (depending on if the sunshine cooperates with my photography plans!), so keep your eye on the shop.

Meet me at the Crafting Patch!

I am so excited to do my first craft show this weekend! I'll be selling yarn and fiber at the Crafting Patch Market at Independence Park in Charlotte, VA on Saturday, September 6. Visit the Crafting Patch website for more information (here's a map). If you're in the area, I'd love to meet you, so come by my booth or shoot me an email and we'll plan to meet up while I'm in town!

Won't be in Charlotte this weekend?
In preparation for the craft fair, I am emptying the Boutique and bringing every last skein of yarn with me. It will look a little bare from September 5-7, but don't worry! On September 8th I'll be restocked with new yarns and old favorites (a big shipment of Banana fiber & yarn has just come in!) I'm offering a 10% discount to my newsletters subscribers, so sign up for my newsletter and receive the discount! Because it wouldn't be fair to ONLY offer a discount to the locals without extending it to all my lovely readers, ANYONE who makes a purchase from the Boutique from today until September 13th AND mentions the newsletter (put it in the "message to seller" or shoot me an email after you make the purchase but before you pay) will get 10% off the entire order! This isn't just for you readers, feel free to pass the newsletter on to your friends, or blog about it or post it in forums or, well, you get the idea! Tell anyone that might like some yarn that they can get 10% off just by signing up for my yarny little newsletter.
(not sure you want a newsletter? Well, check out the last (and first) newsletter to assure yourself that it's not annoying or spammy or unwanted. I'm on a roll if I get out once a month, and I will ONLY send discounts, free patterns and notices of upcoming events.)

The Life of Yarn - on the tree

Hanging freshly dyed wool out to dry, I was struck by the ridiculousness of the sight: huge swaths of brightly colored fiber, adorning a unassuming tree.

From the parking lot, my tree seems harmless, the dogwood of any normal resident:On closer inspection, it becomes obvious these residents are a bit more colorful.

And by the time you get to my door, it becomes clear that this is a house of those possessed;

possessed by a need to drape everything in color, to soak up the bright summer, to imbue the yarn-world with sunny goodness.

This weekend I dyed pounds of wool, all in bright, happy colors, mostly in semi-solids, as seen above. While I stood outside, hanging dripping wool, I thought about the path these fibers take on their way to becoming yarn. I have, through this blog, tried to delineate this path. I shared the path from inspiration to finished yarn, and I've shared moments from visits to the original source - sheep and alpacas. But I still find that an incomplete picture of the real process.
Most knitters and crocheters know that yarn starts on an animal's back and through some magic alchemy becomes the yarn they hold in their hands. This path can take so many forms that it in sharing one path, I am necessarily omitting the other possible paths. Obviously commercial yarn - sold from farmer to wool pool, processed (usually with chemicals), cleaned, combed, dyed and spun by huge machines - has path so different from handspun yarn that they are barely the same product.
Even the yarns I create take different paths - some from mill-ends, some from local farms, some recycled from Nepalese women's co-ops! I either handdye it in many shades, making the color decisions at the dye pot, or I kettle dye it in bright solids and decide on the color combinations at the wheel. The fiber above will be the latter - many times throughout the next few weeks I'll grab a handful of various colors and combine them in new and inspiring ways.
The time in the sun is just a moment in the fibers life, next stop: the wheel!

Gimme some love!

I really love reading what my customers think of my yarn. Whether it's Etsy feedback, in the Ravelry group or in blog posts - it's really nice to know how people are using the yarn. I've longed used GoogleAlerts to alert me of anything written about me or my yarn, but it must not be working right, because anytime I google "blonde chicken yarn", I come up with a new batch of links to the shop. The most exciting are write-ups by shopping blogs or "knitting stars" - and lately I've been blessed with a few mentions:

• Indie Fixx's column Indie is the new Green featured my yarn (and used photos of both my Banana and handspun yarn!) in an article on 'green' yarn.
• Vickie Howell (host of the TV show Knitty Gritty!) used my handdyed recylced silk in a featured crochet pattern (it's on the front page of her website and I am definitely making these!)
• Just this morning, Indie Quater featured my yarn!
  

Have you read anything about BCB? If you find a link or write a review relating to any of products (past or present) please post it in the comments below!
(If it's new to me, I'll contact you to send you a thank you gift, so be sure you leave a way to find you!)

I'm on the front page!

Edited to add: and again this morning (7.17.08), I'm on the front page!
It's this Treasury, featuring the Independence yarn.



So, the front page of Etsy is kind of a big deal. The admin at Etsy select Treasuries to feature on the front page and Treasuries are made by Etsy users. Only the prettiest pictures get in Treasuries (in theory) and only the prettiest Treasuries make the front page.
And my Sunshine yarn did it!
Yay!

Yarny News

• My yarn is being sold at the new Portuguese, online yarn store Knit! Although I can't read much of the website, I'm excited!

• There's a new yarn store in town (sort of). A Likely Yarn opened in Abingdon, VA this Tuesday and I will be working there every other Sunday, starting June 15th. Come by if you're in the area! Jay and I are building the website, so I'll be posting about that once it exists!
• While I should have been working on other projects, I developed this flyer/price list for BCB...what do you think?
• I'm pretty excited about Squidoo, which I'm still figuring out. I started wtih this lens on local yarn, but it's still just a baby! Let me know how you think it could be improved and what you'd like to learn on the subject!
  

Maryland Sheep & Wool

I'll be here all weekend.
And on Saturday, at 11:30, I'll be at the Ravelry meet-up, hoping to (finally) meet Lolly!
Will YOU be there? If so, drop me a line so we can meet up!

PS. The shop will continue as usual, anything purchased Friday - Sunday will be shipped on Monday (which is the usual way it goes)

Fiber Friday #9- Behind the Fiber

I gush a lot about the fibers I love, my inspiration, etc, but I very rarely mention how much I absolutely LOVE the business side of BCB. I love it so much I write articles about it for Etsy, so much that I subscribe to business blogs, and so much that I'm applying for an MBA program this fall (I've been taking pre-MBA classes for a year, since my BA is in...French).

One of my new favorite blogs, asked the question "What is your business?" and I realized that while most everyone knows I sell yarn, maybe a little clarification would be good for the both of us!
So here it is, BCB: the Business!

What’s your game? What do you do?
I dye and handspin eco-friendly, squishy yarns in bright colors for fiber artists. My fibers are from locally farmers, recycled and/or organic and I handpaint each of them, in a very un-scientific, serendipitous process before they leave me!

Why do you do it? Do you love it, or do you just have one of those creepy knacks?
I love it! I've always had a visceral reaction to tactile experiences; since I was 4 or 5, I sewed with Grams, then moved to braiding friendship bracelets (which I, of course, tried to sell), then hemp necklaces with beads embedded (also tried to sell in junior high), then a small stint with scrapbooking until I taught myself to knit and ever since it's been a 24/7 fiber fest. And color, it's what I turn to for inspiration, courage, a sense of well-being. I truly just love all aspects of fiber and dyeing! Not sure if I have a knack, I just know I love it!

Who are your customers? What kind of people would need or want what you offer?
My customers are fiber artists, people who also feel passionately about just the right color on just the right fiber. They are concerned about their impact on the environment and about supporting the local community.

What’s your marketing USP(unique selling point)? Why should I buy from you instead of the other losers?
My yarns aren't just fun, they're good for you and the earth and my Appalachian community. I believe creating should be about having fun and doing the right thing. Knitters, crocheters, weavers, felters; they each spend a LOT of time with the yarn before it becomes the finished product and they should LOVE their materials. All of my yarn and fiber has integrity and spirit and will add another layer of meaning and artistry to their work

What’s next for you? What’s the big plan?
What's next is sourcing more of my materials from local sources; building more relationships with local farmers; finding a way to get local wool into local hands. Long term I want to work with other small creative businesses and farmers on creating a community for education and the exchange of goods; and educate these businesses and farms on using new technology for reaching their market.

Miscellany and Free Yarn

Miscellany

• A (brand new) local knitting group met last Saturday, in Jonesborough (that's us up there, I'm the one on the far right). I considered not posting the photo, but I figured I'm swallowing my self-consciousness and saying Hello! That's me!
  
• My Storque article is up: all about defining your Target Market.
• Come chat about the target marketing in this thread.
• Sara (of Etsy) has asked me to write an article about the weekly Fiber Friday threads, if you've taken part in the past, leave a comment about why you like it, what you've learned, etc.
  

Free Yarn
When I started to write this post, I had sold 95 items, now it's 97!
I am so very near 100 items, a number that I want to celebrate! So, to show my appreciation, the 100th item sold will be FREE, with NO shipping!
It doesn't matter how many you buy, if you purchase the 100th, I'll adjust your invoice and the 100th be free and the entire order will have no shipping!

If you want to know if your item will be the 100th, just take a look at the shop, on the far right:

This prize is a big sloppy Thank You! kiss to my wonderfully supportive, slightly yarn-addicted customers! To ensure that you get the free yarn and shipping, leave me a note in the "Message to Seller" part of the transaction.

Have a great Wednesday!
(edited because I had a LOT of exclamation points)

Question:

I'm nearing my 100th item sold on Etsy and would like to celebrate in some way.
Which would you prefer:

1. A special prize pack to the person who buys the 100th item?
2. A smaller prize for the 99th, 100th and 101th item sold?
3. A contest, in which the person who guess the day my 100th item sells gets a prize (probably a percentage off next purchase)?

Answer in the comments!

St. Patrick's Day Scanvenger Hunt

I'm a member of the Etsy Streat Team Eco Etsy and starting tomorrow (Sunday, 5/16) morning, we will be holding a scavenger hunt. To take part look for the above logo in the listings of participating shops and send the item numbers to the team. For full instructions, read them here.
Good Hunting!

Merging

I started blogging in 2001, when it wasn't called a blog, but a "online journal". All throughout college, I updated it with musings, lists and ideas. After I started knitting, I started a knitting blog, which also included bits of my life: pictures of family, grocery lists, etc. I maintained it until last fall, when I felt that it was important to have a separate business blog, one that didn't include too much personal information; a place to fully discuss my materials and methods. I didn't link to my old blog, but I feel that without that great big archive a big part of what BCB is and who I am as a knitter and dyer is lost.
To remedy the situation, I'm now importing some of my old posts into this blog, mostly the posts about finished knitted things. At each year's end, I've done a recap of all my knitting through the year. However, those year-end posts are mainly lists of links to other posts, so I also have to import the post that originally discussed the piece.
While I move things here, some links in those old posts won't work . Please bear with me until I can fix it all. Oh, and I think that every time I add a post, it'll generate an update in my feed. If you keep track of me via a feed reader, just ignore all those "new post" notifications! If you don't subscribe via a feed reader or you don't know what I'm talking about, read Sharon's excellent post on the subject. It makes blog reading SO much easier!
What prompted this was a search for banana bread: I remembered that my old blog linked to my favorite recipe. All of a sudden, I wanted to start merging all of this together TODAY! As I look back over the old blog, I realized I started it the day I dyed my first skein of yarn. That day, I felt I finally had something to say. As I was typing this post, I thought I should go back and read my first knitting blog post and was shocked to discover that I started it exactly 3 years ago, on March 13!

So today is my (knitting) blog and dyeing anniversary!

The pictures in this post are the first I every blogged.

Fiber Friday #6- Raspberry Fool roving and recipe

Thanks for your fantastic suggestions on yarn names for my first roving!
The general consensus is that it is very Raspberry-ish. (is that really how you spell "raspberry"? I never noticed it had "rasp" in it...)


I decided on Raspberry Fool, because it's just so delicious- and silly-sounding at the same time. Commenter Mooncalf gets extra points for giving us this tasty (-seeming, I'll let you know when I try it) recipe from the BBC.

I've spent the week dyeing a range of greens, one of which has made it into the shop:

Spring Grass - Bananiere.

I'm aching for Spring! Finding ShiningEgg's Green Week has just brightened my mostly-rainy week!

I'm spending this weekend in Cookeville, TN at my Grams' rural house on a mountaintop with no internet access, so if you comment, email or call, I won't be getting it until Sunday night The Boutique will go on normally: all orders purchased from now until Sunday will ship on Monday, as usual.

Have a lovely weekend full of green things!

PS. Mooncalf, email me with your info and I'll send you a discount code for winning!

quick

These week has been crazy with work, baking 1000 vegan mini-bundts for an office birthday, the beginnings of the flu (gah, I hope not!) and falling asleep at 8pm every night. I promise I'll be back to normal blogging tomorrow, in time for Fiber Friday, with my array of new tools.