After a long hiatus...

Which wasn't intentional, but deliberate, I'm back! I've been slowly and steadily working on bringing out a whole new line for this fall which will premier September 1st. It is going to be my fall line of colors and new blends/weights of yarn.

To give you a preview, there will be worsted superwashes, non superwashes is semi solid and varigated offerings. Bulky weight in semi solids. And Halo will premier as well, an absolutely beautiful laceweight yarn that is blended with Alpaca, Silk and of all things...Cashmere!

Some color names: EVOO (extra virgin olive oil!), Sandal Wood, Blood Maple are the three hottest new fall colors to enter the line up, which will all be blended into a variegated as well called "Friendsgiving" after a holiday that is celebrated around here with all of our closest friends and another reason to eat Thanksgiving.

I'm still working on developing new colors and there will be limited releases of tried and trued favorites.

Keep checking in to see more updates of new colors! :)

just some fun

Here's my list of me:

What is your first name? Denise
What is your favorite food? Taquitos
What high school did you go to? Sam Houston
What is your favorite color? Violet
Who is your celebrity crush? Mathieu Kassovitz
What is your favorite drink? coffee
Dream vacation? Playa del Carmen
Favorite dessert? creme brulee
What do you want to be when you grow up? happy
What do you love most in life? docks
One word to describe you? mess
Your flickr name? Dee

Photo credits:
1. The Great Wall, 2. Taquitos, 3. The Face, 4. S!lk, 5. Amelie from Montmartre, 6. coffee & the city, 7. Playa del Carmen Shoreline, 8. Crème Brulée, 9. Call of the Raven (formerly Nature's Special Effects), 10. Rory Meg (1 of 1), 11. Paint Face, 12. stalker

Lime n Violet Rock!

Wow! My first big non-prompted, non-paid promotion!! Why do I want to put on sunglasses and walk outside to say, "I have arrived." Course that would look funny as I am in normal work attire: uniboob sports bra, stained shirt, work out capri's. Unshaven legs and nappy head. That would look cute huh!

I listen somewhat regularly to their podcast, being admittedly a slacker when it comes to listening to these things especially with life being how it's been lately. But there show, along with Cast On, being the two that I always come back to. So publicly, thank you ladies for all your wonderful and kind words, as soon as I get an address, Orchid, Nagini, and maybe a few others will be heading your way!

Wholesale, The Eye of a Storm, and Thumbprints

Hopefully I can chalk this post up quickly, despite being my normal scatterbrained self. I'm now accepting wholesale orders! I've gotten one so far, which hopefully in two weeks the first offerings of Blue Hands Fibers will be up and running on WoolGirl. I'm really excited about this and hope to be able to have more offerings out there on the web and in brick and mortar stores as well!

The eye of the storm has been life lately, not that I'm complaining too much. The hubs took the day off today, as we had been out of town this whole weekend, and we've both been relaxing. I'm about to get him and child off the video game so we can maybe go out to lunch. I've had a horrible craving for Pot Belly's meatball sub and cup of broc and cheddar soup. (warned I was scatter brained!) But have been trying to do the little catch-ups here and there, have plans for laundry (ugh), and winding yarn (yay!) I also hope to get out the Suri bfl combo, which I have four skeins of and three will be for sale up on the store (sorry!), and I'm going to have some fun with the merino tencel blend as well. This next store update will surely have exotic offerings. But today is definitely the calm before the storm or the eye of it, either way I have that feeling something fierce is coming soon!

Now, onto Thumbprints. Our family lost someone very important this past week, and a community lost an important figure to their unique bicultural history: Wilbert North Helde Timmons , my husband's Grandfather. The service was this past Saturday, and while I'm not one for most funerals, one thing this preacher said was about our thumbprint that we leave on the earth, our impression. It really made all of us in the family think about what our thumbprint is going to look like and realize that we have one heck of a thumbprint to live up to but I felt more resound, after thinking about my own life, that I'm on the right path. My only regret, having been to the funeral, is not getting to know him better. The sweet man who took me by the arm over to his piano and played, "It had to be you" Who, when I saw him only a few months ago, had to play it again for me. I'm glad for the thumbprint he left on me.

The ugly side of business

I've been having to make changes, in response to the economy, namely that nasty little liquid that my car has to munch on. Four freaking dollars! And Texas is normally pretty cheap on gas too. As soon as I get enough money to, I'm buying a vespa. The hubs has called me many various names but I know I'll be getting a kiss on the cheek after the first month I've gotten it for how much money it will save us. 70 miles per gallon!!! Hopefully I will be able to make enough by the end of the year and it will be my present to myself. Of course it will be blue and I might get this girl who's done some decals for me in the past to make a custom decal that way it can be the blue yarn mobile. (yep, I'm that kind of dork)

Okay, back to the ugly side of business. I'm having to alter my shipping. I'm going to go to first class where I can charge roughly the same amount for domestic shipping and not have it eat into my profits. I will still offer the option for priority where in the notes you can ask for it and I will send an adjusted invoice through paypal. Long story short, it takes roughly four dollars for me to the yarn in the store and get it out the door. Half of that is what I've been splitting in the difference for priority shipping. With the cost of everything going up, I can't do this anymore :( I will still be more than willing to ship priority, however, it will be for the full price. I will have to charge an additional amount per skein as first class is measured by ounce. But I will offer shipping savings on orders over $60. They will get free first class shipping. I will also be reducing the amount of times I go to the post office to Tuesdays and Fridays. Now, of course, if I happen to know that I'm driving by and I have yarn that needs to go out, of course it will be! :)

I'll keep trying to find ways to pass on shipping savings to all my customers and where there is a will, there is a way.....right?

So much to post, so little time!

I am, and have been sooo busy! Store is empty, but stuff's in the pots! I recently spent a week in colorado, while my mom was having surgery. Wasn't too bad of a trip, but I had that scary feeling of being away, that I had constantly forgot something! :(

Let's see, updates: I am now venturing into taking on a few wholesale orders, very excited about that. The next months sock club delivery, Mama Rav is in the pots as we speak. And I am busily working on stocking up the store since it's been empty for so long!

Pretty soon, we'll have a new winder video out there. For all my dye friends, it's a reskeiner! And it's quick! :)

Sorry so short and sweet, but too much to do! More to come later!

And the Winner is........

Kristen otherwise known as angel101580 on Ravelry. Here is her winning essay on how she was inspired by Ravelry. The decision was hard to make and I wanted to say a thank you to everyone out there for entering and opening up on how much Ravelry has inspired you. Thank you. :)

The stroke of genius we call Ravelry has been an enormous inspiration to me, the self-taught knitter. When you have a grandma, aunt, or random friend who teaches you to knit, you have a built-in support system to help interpret patterns, teach you tricks and untangle the horrific mess you’ve made out of a previously functional skein of yarn. When you plop down on your couch with a skein of Wool Ease and a book entitled Knitting for Dummies, your support system probably consists of the cat you keep glancing at for reassurance--and she, sadly, has no intention of disrupting her beauty sleep to be encouraging. So for self-taught knitters like me, Ravelry has been a life saver—not just the site itself, but the Ravelers who make it what it is. The knitting knowledge that Ravelry boasts is immense; the knowledge I’ve gained in a year probably took past knitters a lifetime to accumulate. It seems there is no problem that cannot be solved by consulting a Ravelry forum. For example:

“I don’t know what kind of yarn this is.”
“Light it on fire!”

“I always have trouble joining new balls of yarn.”
“Spit on the ends!”

“I have no money for yarn.”
“Have you tried spinning your cat’s fur?”

Having a Ravelry support system to rely on has made me braver, more willing to go out on a limb and try an intimidating technique or make a yarn substitution, because I know someone—even if it is a stranger on the Internet with the slightly suspicious screenname “domiknitrix”—will catch me if I fall. And remind me, the overzealous perfectionist, that it is, after all, only knitting (knitters, I’m happy to report, are very well-adjusted, with no delusions of grandeur).

But, no, the goodness of Ravelry doesn’t stop there! The forums, that depth of knitting knowledge, are actually just the icing on the cake; there are plenty of other treats inside too: patterns (so many patterns!), yarn indexes, project management tools, store directories, the list goes on! In compiling all of these resources in one place, Ravelry, quite simply, makes my life easier. No need to go trekking to yarn store (which absolutely will be closed—I’ve yet to figure out yarn store hours, I think they change them when I’m not looking) to arduously research yarn substitutions, scribble random knitting notes on scraps of paper I will then promptly lose and/or accidentally throw away, or call every library and bookstore in the state of Maryland threatening bodily harm if I can’t get my hands on a copy of the IK holiday special issue. All of that information and more is buttoned up in one happy little website, which means I can concentrate on my actual knitting, rather than scouring the house trying to figure out if I have size 10 DPNs.

In fact, I even have my “friends” organized on Ravelry. Working full time and commuting three hours a day, I have very little time--or, frankly, patience--to go sifting through humanity searching for real life knitting buddies (How would that even work? Hang out in front of the LYS looking like some kind of yarn hooker?). But Ravelry has a built-in social network (which you can search by location, eliminating that whole pesky “hanging around the LYS looking desperate” problem): numerous knitters—and some rebel crocheters to spice things up—forming groups, sharing projects, and even swapping goodies with likeminded fiber addicts across the globe. You are not alone on Ravelry; no matter what outlandish, obscure thing you love—syndicated episodes of Boy Meets World? the inexplicably attractive Alan Rickman? 8-bit video games?—there is someone else who shares that love, they’ve started a group to pay homage to it, and they’ll invite you to participate in a swap inspired by it. Ravelry: bringing people together. (Note to self: do a search for a Sabrina the Teenage Witch fan group)

Perhaps most importantly, Ravelry has inspired me to “up my game.” Sitting at home with Knitting for Dummies, and eventually the ubiquitous Stitch N Bitch, I simply had no point of reference. I didn’t know what others were knitting. I didn’t know how much there was to knit. It probably would never have occurred to me that I could, in fact, knit a sweater. But Ravelry inspires a good kind of jealousy and awakens the competitive spirit—the kind that pushes you outside your comfort zone, drives you to challenge yourself. Before, you were happy knitting garter stitch scarf after garter stitch scarf (the recipients, probably less happy); now, post-Ravelry, you spy something on someone’s project list and say, “Hey, I bet I could do that!” So you queue it up, and give it your best shot (the only problem with this being that I now have a queue so long I am terrified I will die of old age before I knit half the things in it). Undertaking a new craft is always daunting. Without a “mentor,” it can be completely off-putting. But thanks to Ravelry, I didn’t have that problem. I can turn to Ravelry to solve problems, find inspiration, stay organized, and make friends. Could you ask for anything more in website? Certainly tens of thousands of people managed to master knitting without Ravelry throughout the history of mankind; but I’m happy I’m not one of them.

Old and New

El Paso, my husband's birth city and home to his grandparents, the last two remaining ones who are his father's parents. His sweet old grandmother's health is failing but she's had a good long life and still has the razor sharp whit my husband said that she had from his first memories of her. She reads crime and suspense novels, keeps up with the events going on in her quaint little desert town and loves to tell stories about the trips they took their three kids on back in the 50's and how my father in law would fall asleep driving. (I think he still does sometimes!)

Oh, and up until a few years ago, she use to knit. She would make stockings for christmas for the children, socks for gifts. Her favorite techniques were intarsia and fair isle. She comes from the old days of scratchy acrylics and even scratchier wool. I brought my Pomotomous socks in the Shi Bui sock yarn that I brought as my traveling project and she fell in love. I could see a bit of the old twitch to in her weathered fingers, begging to pass one stitch from needle to needle. If her mind was as good as her body, I bet I would have had to leave them there, giving the present that only one die hard knitter knows can be given to another: the passion for a craft that connects and binds more than just string.

She asked me who I was making them for. I thought for a moment if I should suggest that I was giving them as a present, even though my FO socks are small in numbers, I'm determined to have these on my feet soon. So I told the truth to which she laughed as hard as she could. She said "Good, you know, everybody always thought I should knit things for presents but what about me?" I showed her a few skeins of my own yarn that I had brought for pictures in white sands and you could feel the pang in her heart as she gingerly stroked the brightly colored skeins of the ultra soft merino. She was quite content to pet them in her lap like some beloved cat that belonged there.

I told her about all the explosions that have rippled across the world in the new found love of knitting. I told her about entralac, knitting toe up, two at once, felting, needle felting, the different mixtures of wool and bamboo, tencel and silk. She learned about the wonderful world of superwash in animal blends. She couldn't believe that what she thought would be a dying art, something that like her, had lost it's breath and was slowly finding it's way to the grave was reborn and living on healthy and robust as it ever had. The smile it had put on her face was rewarding and heart pulling all at the same time.

We talked some more about our working habits, that second sock syndrome has been around for a long time, we share the kindred spirit of having more than one project going at the same time. She felt warmed by how there is a growing love of vintage patterns, one's she probably worked on for the first time when issued by Vogue back in 1943.

Our visit had to be short, but I etched into my memory, happy to share a true link. She beamed at my husband as we were leaving, "You've got a good girl, Mike, she's a knitter." She wished me more luck with my business and before we left, she gave me a gift. Her long shoe box of knitting needles. What relics! So many straight and dpn's in all various sizes and each with their marking color and tops of their era. I will take a picture soon to share.

I will cherish that day and my newly acquired tools, all the road trips they worked on and quiet evenings listening to Granddad playing his jazzy tunes on the piano, being used as drums by my then toddler husband. Maybe one day my grand daughter will be able to pluck them up and tell me of the new explosion and I can tell her about the wonderful woman who had these, how granddad used them as drums and the road trips they took with me. Make the old new again.

Day to Dye

Pruney toes, numb fingers but sooo much accomplished today. I have officially dyed as much as I ever have in one day. 30 skeins of Mascot are hanging up in the back yard basking in the evening sun, wafting their vingerary synthrapol wooly fumes for all the neighbors to smell. I'm so exhausted but the feeling of having accomplished a great amount of work today has me feeling greatly sated. I've got about another 20-30 to go before I'm done with the first batch. It's going to be very sad to see them go, but I'm happy to know they'll all be greatly loved for their charitable nature, wooly goodness and soft embrace.

Is it showing I'm high as a kite on lamb hair, vinegar, dye and soap?

Un-Officially closed!

The sock club is unofficially closed, however, I am allowing a few special requests for people to come in and join. I realized, being the complete brainiac that I can be sometimes, that I did not do ANY advertising in the Ravelraising '08 forums or groups and I could have done a bit more in my groups ads as well. I've had three requests come through so far, and why do I have to end it on a specific number? Just another thing that I'm doing 'my way'. :)

How do I love the colors that I'm doing for the sock club? Let me count the ways! I've got a whole bunch of the mascots dyed now. Cuteness does not hold a candle to this colorway!!

I've got my last big order coming in, 27 cones. Oh. My. God. Did I tell anyone my real motive for doing this? So I can wallow in over 30 lbs of yarn? Oh darn, my secrets out.

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Lots of changes have been happening around casa de la azul. Without too much to be told, I now have a friend and her young son living with our family for the time being to help out. The way that I'm looking at it is, I have a new potential yarn convert. Before helping her get back up on her feet, I promise she will be walking out with needles and a nice skein of some scrumptious yarn for her.

Pretty soon the club and contest are going to be ending, in fact, only 6 more days! If you're on the fence, you better hurry! :)

Getting an F in Third Grade Math

Argh! I'm an idiot! I decided last night to print off a good chunk of my labels last night. Hubs and I were going to watch a movie and I decided that cutting and taping the labels would be a good thing to do during that because I just love cutting and taping labels...not! Since I print my own, I have to use one of those scrap booking cutters for each individual page and make six cuts per page to make 3 labels...not too much, but when you add up how many I'm doing for the sock club, it's a lot to make sure you don't accidentally cut off the name or the yardage. So I was going to print off 45 labels.

Silly me forgot to do the math of 45 labels divided by 3 to do 15 pages....for some reason I got it into my mind that I had to do 45 pages!! Argh! I print off 90 labels too many!! Most people would have figured this out after printing....did I? No. Those who didn't figure it out after printing would have surely figured it out during cutting...did I? Nooooo. I was happily watching the Bourne Supremacy, cutting all 135 labels, all 270 cuts. It only occurred to me during taping them together that I had printed off WAY too many. At least I didn't tape all 135. Luckily, it's not much of a loss, which I'm taking out of my half of the profits and won't affect the donation amount, but I know that somewhere my third grade teacher is tsking me and getting out her big red marker to put a big fat F on my forehead.

Feel free to laugh and oogle over these pictures....anyone want to buy 90 limited edition Blue Hands Fibers Sock Club labels.....who knows, as my mother in law says, they could become valuable like misprinted stamps. :) I know, I'm stretching :)

See the nice big fat stack of misprints? Yep yep, there's the proof I'm gud at maff.

Comfort comes in 10 cones of yarn and Mom's rollercoaster

PICTURES!!!!

Yesterday was soooo much fun, winding away on my new 10-skein winder hubs built. Yes, comfort comes in 10 cones now. The fun part now is which one is Ravel Me, which get Code Monkey and which get Mascot! :)

Okay, not that I really like getting into drama or my personal life, but I thought I would share about this. My sweet, single mother has gone onto an online forum in hopes of meeting someone. She doesn't do the bar scene and is involved in things, but just hasn't met anyone. So? She's been getting contacted and low and behold, the first guy that contacts her, ultimately ends up being one of those Nigerian money scammers. Mom got a learning curve from hell! I know a lot of people do the online thing and just wanted to put out a warning. If anyone ever asks you for money, or asks you if they can send you a money order so that you can send them cash, DON'T FALL FOR IT. My mom's a tough cookie, but there's a bit of a ego hit when you admit you need a little help finding someone...this was below the belt. And if anyone has had this happen to them...my heart goes out to you! It's really a shame we live in a world where the one thing we all require, love, is being used to scam money. (whatever happen to good hard honest work?)

Is this legal?

My husband is going to kill me...but at least Blue Hands Fibers has a new employee!

What have I gotten myself into?

I am so happy to report that contest entries are starting to trickle in! If the essays that have been enter so far are a portion of what's to come... this is going to be hard to choose. I don't even think hard is the right word for it, herculean is probably more like it. I have to say though, that I feel so honored and humbled with what people have shared with me so far. The love that people have for Ravelry is immense. Community doesn't even begin to describe what this place is. Great, now I'm watering my cheeks again!

Some news I did want to post about to, which I'm whole heartedly ashamed about, is that I finally completed my first pair of socks. Yes, I have been a sock yarn dyer longer than I have been a sock knitter. Yes, I'm hanging my head in shame. Now to my defense (and demise), my knitting has always taken on a personality. If it upsets me, I put it in time out. I have, on record, about 6 different socks that have been put in time out because either a needle broke, I goofed up really bad on the pattern and I can't bring myself to frog it or my little monster child has gotten ahold of it and ripped out a weeks worth of precious work. I get so discouraged so it sits. But now, I have a new found determination. I put the socks on my feet last night and I don't want to take them off!! They're still on my feet! Yes, I know it's gross but the comfy warm feeling without sweating is absolutely devine. Now I get the desire and want to knit socks. You just can't buy stuff like this. So today, I'm casting on another pair, probably baudelaire in my recent stash edition, Bling from Zen Yarn Garden Yarns. She doesn't have any in stock right now, but wow is it beautiful. As soon as we get some sun, I'm going to take photo's of my new socks though.

Break, Almost Half Time, Contest Blues

Breaks are something that usually don't fit into a sentence when I talk about my work. Since its inception, my only break has been a anniversary vacation back in October which if you heard about that one, wasn't much of a break, and my birthday weekend, which I did work on anyway. So yesterday, I took the Goose and went to see Spiderwick Chronicles and do some much needed non-work, non-yarn shopping. We had a lot of fun trouncing around the mall, playing on the putting green at the sporting goods store and eating a very unhealthy meal in the mall food court. It was a lot of fun and every time my mind wandered to, "I need to get in contact with my dealer about my upcoming order." or "I need to check on the shipment of mailers", I made myself stop. Despite my knitting, I'm very much a type a personality. I have to get it done now, or it haunts me. The fact that I still have a month before I need to start dyeing for the club and a month after that before the first packages go out feels as I've got merely days. Now, I've come back from my day of excess with much needed focus.

Speaking of the club, things are going AMAZINGLY well. It has been received so well! I can't wait for everybody to see the colors that were inspired by Ravelry. When I came up with the concept, I don't think that I even realized the circle that it creates with Ravelry, its founders, and the members. I feel very honored to be a part of that circle and help perpetuate it. I also can't wait to see the FO's with the yarn and the sentiments that will come with it. So with that, I've almost reached the 'half time' point with the club. I'm about 10 shy of going on the downhill slope towards being sold out. I can't believe I'm this close already!!! (Thank you everybody...so much!!!!!)

Now, for the downer....I've got the contest blues. I haven't received any contest entries! I don't know if everyone is more intent on giving or if it's just too much work for the contest. Either way, I have wanted participation! So, I've decided to revamp the contest. The essential same rules will apply, as far as if you've purchased one, you can still participate and if you win, you can give away the club you win, keep it for yourself so you'll have two, donate all your money from your original purchase, or receive a refund (partial or full). I'm changing the contest to just an essay on how Ravelry has inspired/affected you. You won't need to do the photos and I do apologise to those who've taken them already, if any have. I'll also post a sidebar note on it but I request that the essay is no more than 1500 words and still submitted to the bluehandsfibers@gmail.com.

Sock club reveal

Oh shooters, I couldn't wait...(I told ya, I'm more impatient than anyone)



Go check it out!

SOCK CLUB PREVIEW!

okay everyone...officially fourteen days till the launch. The contest to win a free sock club opens today. I'll list all the fun stuff then the rules.

Photo Scavenger Hunt
You will need to take the following six photos:

1. A picture of you holding up as many needles/crochet hooks as you can without using your hands. Sticking needles through clothing doesn't count. If we can't see them in the picture, doesn't count and it can only be 1 picture.
2. Go to your local yarn shop and ask to bury the owner in as much of her stock as she will let you.
3. An alternate to 2.: Use yarn as an artistic medium in a photograph. An example would be like using the sock club preview image, with a piece of yarn as the sustenance of the brunch plate.
4. How many center pull balls can you hold on top of your head?
5. Knitted/Crocheted Graffiti. 'Tag' something out in public with a bit of knitted graffiti...but nothing illegal, you'll be disqualified for it. :( When in doubt, graffiti something you own.
6. Knitting/Crocheting in public.
7. Knitting/Crocheting with another medium other than string. Like if it was possible, to knit coffee cups.

Okay, those are all the pictures you will need to take. Now, here's the fun part....essay time! (oh, stop groaning!) It's a lurv essay. "How Ravelry has impacted my life." ohh, the plot thickens, so what's this sock club all about? It's The All Raveled Up Sock Club. My hope is to raise a lot of money to give back to Jess and Casey for how they've impacted my life and help keep ravelry going strong and give them what they need because they've already done it for so many people. (Okay, mush, need a moment!) The colorways are going to be Ravelry inspired. More on exactly what the names and everything else.

Okay, now for the rules. The submissions must be your own, original, untouched work. If we find our they are not, you will be disqualified. You do not have to purchase to win, however, if you do purchase a club and you win, you have the option of having the money returned back to you or donating all or part of your club fee to the Ravelry donation. I'll see about getting a little thermostat thing as well to show what will be being donated to them...my goal is to get it as high as I can!

Submission dates: March 1st to April 15th. Winner will be announced on April 30th. Odds of winning depend on submissions. Incomplete submissions will be disqualified. There may or may not be notification of disqualification. Please send submissions to: bluehandsfibers AT gmail DOT com

So that's it for now, I'm working on building up the stuff for the etsy store for these to purchase. Oh, and quick note too on the sock club. The yarn is my standard, Sock Yarn base, the three ply merino super wash. Very yummy and squishy!

BHF wold map, Taking a Quck Breath

I am sooo excited! Yesterday was my birthday and Hubs got me exactly what I wanted: A HUGE map of the world. I wanted a world map so that I could put it up in the office on some cork board and every sale that I got, I would put a red push pin from where the customer who bought it was from. I got this idea when I saw a visitor map on Lime and Violet's blog and thought it would be cool but I wanted to do it 'my way'. So as soon as I can procure some red push pins, I will post pictures up and try and have an updated picture of it every week or so. It'll be my little way of appreciating everyone who's got a little piece of me. :) (sorry, squishy heart stuff, I couldn't help it!)


I'm also going to be taking a 'breather' for a bit. I'm having a big birthday party this weekend and having a guest come and stay with me and it looks like a flock of sheep exploded in my house...ack! I am doing some dyeing today but I would be lying if I'm getting them up before the weekend (okay, I might try, but no promises). In the pot right now; Fawkes, Mrs Norris, Oz, and hopefully I'll get some Norberts, Crookshanks and also finalizing the four other colorways of the Sock Club. (Only two more weeks till it officially opens!)

A quick note on the club too...which I can't remember now if I had said something earlier or not, I've got the contest rules finalized and to give a quick note on it, I'm going to do a photo and essay contest. No, no rules on the length, but the photo contest is going to be a scavenger hunt of sorts. When I post it, if you absolutely cannot due the photo contest for one reason or another, please send me a message on etsy, here or ravelry (tonks) and I'll see what I can work out.

Can't wait!

Quick Update, New Stock, Decision Time

Urg, two days till I turn 28....16 seemed like only yesterday! I've got high hopes for my birthday party, it looks like things might finally go off without a hitch. (hitting knuckles hard against the wood desk!)

I'm uploading new stock as we speak. (or as I write) Things have been 'difficult' getting things in order this week for some reason... I also have three orders of Sunflowers and had my last batch not go so well. They're in the pot today attempting to own up to the colorway and hopefully my luck will turn with them.

Decision time: My theatre job has been getting in the way of my dyeing job. I love working up there, but like today I'm going as quickly as I can to get stuff done. I don't like being rushed and I've felt that way for the past four weeks. It is my last two days, today and tomorrow so I'll just have to see how I feel. With the sock club coming up, everything is going to take a back seat to it. Just going to have to think on it.

Oh and a quick preview of the ad for the sock club....maybe there is a clue in here? (I'm not telling!)

Have had no time to post!

Things have been super busy...even since last time I posted! I'm trying to get ready for the sock club launch. I am soooo excited about it. I hope it does really welll. I think the colors in it are going to be nice but the fact that it's going to a good cause.

So I've been thinking about the contest for the club and I have come up with an idea. I picture scavenger hunt and a 'short essay'. I'm going to assign 6 different things that you have to photograph, all yarn related. And the essay will be about how this entity has affected your life. I am going to keep the essay down to a minimum. At the end of the sock club once all the yarn has been received and hopefully been knit up, I'm going to send in the contest photos, the stories, and hopefully pictures of FO's to this entity. ARGH! The inability to say anything about it is killing me!!! March 15th......not too far away.

Okay, other news....hmm. I've come up with a few new colors.

• This is Mrs Norris, Revved, Fawkes and Arc from left to right.

I'm soon going to be adding a Norbert, Crookshanks, Nagini, and a Buckbeak. Yes, I got bit by the Harry Potter bug, but I thought it'd be much more fun to give the lesser characters their stamp.

Revved and Arc have not made it up into the Etsy store yet. I have been having 'issues' with Etsy all of a sudden so it's made life getting things up on the store much more a pain. It only further perpetuates how frustrated I am that I don't have my own website or someone willing to work on it. I'm getting to the point where I was seriously considering sending a desperate plea to an ex boyfriend... I've looked at some's services online and a lot of them are just not me and the ones I've seen with the mostly self service are still WAY out of my price range. I guess we'll just have to see.

Sorry for a quick and vague update. I'm going to open a presale here a couple days before the official launch on the etsy. The contest is going to be officially announced on March 1st including the details of the rules. Forgot to add that if you purchase a club and enter the sock club and win you can receive all of your money back, or donate a partial or full amount. And like all other contests, no purchase to win.

Back to work!

Busy Bees

Oh, have I been busy busy! Many of you may have noticed the stock that's updated into the store. It has been a bit of a slow process, but everything seemed to come to ahead this past week. Some news:

1. The Franken Winder will be going today/tomorrow for testing! Yay! The only thing I'm worried about with it is that it does better than my yarn!
2. I have some sock club news, starting in mid April. I might do a sneak preview or a contest for 5 people to get a special discount off of the subscription. Because this is a charity club, there isn't going to be any real savings for doing the club, but you can feel really good about helping out!
3. Two more weeks and I'm done at the threatre for the month! I love this job but holy jeeves, did it happen to come around this time at the WRONG time. I got my first double digit order of yarn and I had to work....elsewhere.

I still have about twenty skeins to play with before I'm all done dying. For those who missed out on this productions best sellers, black light and burned, I will be doing them again. I've also done up a absolutely gorgeous custom dye for one of my fab customers, stickchicky, that I'm thinking of calling Fawkes. It looks like a blur of pheonix feathers to me, absolutely beautiful. It is named after a character in the Harry Potter book series, Dumbledor's pheonix. But since doing the Harry Potter colorways is massively gone after by dyers, I think I'll stick to just this one.....for now. (Oh come , you know I've gotta have a challenge.) Great, now I'm thinking of how I can capture Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans...

Waiting and Impending Birthday

okay, still patiently waiting for my new shipment of fiber to get in. I cannot wait to try out the new merino bamboo blend. It'll be my first time dyeing up bamboo so we'll see how it goes. (I just realized I might have already said something about that....but oh well.) I think that I'm going to try doing a few solids with this next shipment since I'm going to have more yarn than I've ever had (present stash not included)

I changed my mind and decided to have a birthday party this year. It's going to be an exclusive event with only the hippest of kids invited (ugh! snob!!!). Okay, seriously, I'm just going to invite the people who I know won't cause any drama, who won't put jelly in my bra, who won't sleep with my boyfriend, who won't take advantage of me drunk, (seriously, I've had four break ups over the course of all my birthdays and all within a week or so of the date in my 8 years of dating-past 8 with hubs doesn't count-...I don't know anyone else who's had worse luck) who will not let idiots around me, and most importantly, know that cheese whiz is, by the loosest of terms, a food product and not a hair care product. So, there should be me, and me at my party. Seriously, am I freaking out over something supposed or should I pay attention to the signs that say "DON'T HAVE A PARTY!" Speak up people, please. This is seriously freaking me out.

Holy Carp, where'd my stock go?

Wow! I just sold half my stock in two days, thank you so much to all my customers!! You are awesome! I also sold my all my dyed yarns from my first cone to my wonderful mom. I really wanted to list them, but how can you say no to mom? As soon as I'm able to order in my new cones, I'm going to re dye all but one of the colors from the photos.

The colors from left to right are, Gold Fish, Inferno, Clarine, Sparks, Cenote, Black Light, Oz, Borealis, and Burned. I'm not going to do Sparks again as it didn't have the look I was aiming for, maybe it'll have the same name, but not the same look.

That's all that I wanted to update for today! Thanks again to all my wonderful customers!!!

Fber greatness, slowing down, budding virtuoso

If only it wan't absolutely horrible outside right now! I could show you the new fibery yums. I did a couple renditions of older, popular favorites like black light and a new Oz, full skein and in the new yarn blend. I've also made up some new ones, one I call Goldfish, Forest of Trees (it's still a name in progress, it reminds me of being in the middle of a forest looking up through the canopy and seeing the sky...a little), and how about an Inferno? I can't wait for everyone to see them!!

Things are finally slowing down around the crazy house. We have one more sort of biggish event and then the next big thing after that is my birthday- which I don't do. I don't mind the getting older and yummy birthday cake (mmm...cake.....) I mind the curse on it that means something big has to happen so I intentionally keep big things from happening.

And yes, I've got a budding virtuoso, Goose, the fantastic dyer at the age of four. He came up with a wild colorway which I'll put up later for a vote if I should repeat and sell.

First Cone, Projects, Franken Winder

I got my first cone of yarn the other day...yay! It is so huge! It really makes me feel like I'm 'doing business' and not just playing around. I hope to look back on this day as a reminder of where it all started in that some people's mountains are other's molehills but they're all important.

Finally updated some stuff on the blog, I've been working on a Central Park Hoodie for myself. I had gotten a gift card to Yarns Ewenique in Fort Worth for Christmas and I splurged on a whole bunch of Sublime cashmere, silk, superfine merino yarn in this yummy drunken wine color. It is so rich and ultra soft. I had to do some converting of the pattern as the sublime isn't the right guage. Let's just pray it comes out okay!

Yes, the franken winder is nearly complete. That's all that I"m going to say at this time. We're about to enter into the testing phase, which will be interesting. Will post something official soon. In the mean time, if you scroll all the way down to the bottom, you can see a video of it in it's more bare form and hubs and I acting goofy.

2007 Recount, resolutions, new stuff!

Wow! What a year 2007 was. I typically come up with one word to describe each year after it's passed and I'd call this last one, reborn. So many things in my life seem to be reinvented, or transformed or revealed because of new things. My business, Blue Hands Fibers started it's debute in 2007. I went to two countries I had never been to before, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, both beautiful countries respectively. I finally learned how to knit cables successfully. I made tons, literally tons of new friends who now that they're around, I can't imagine life without them. I still have to say that the company starting up is the most significant. Feeling like an orphan in the rest of the working world and still subscribing to that saying, "I'll figure out what I want to do when I grow up" was begining to get to me. Now, I don't have that anymore. I have grown up (shh, don't tell anyone it's a facade) ;)

New stuff! I've just found out that paypal is offering a widgit so that you can sell your items from anywhere! I'm still working on how it works out but now I might be able to offer exclusives from my blog so please check back soon!

Yes, I've made a new years resolution. (shame on me!!) Loose weight! The last time I worked retail, about a year and a half ago, I went from 150 pounds down to 130 in about six months. Well, now I've gained it half of it back! Argh!!! Yes, I'm admitting my real weight on here so I can feel shamed for allowing myself to let go and indulge in way more food than I need to eat. I'm going to do a small part of each post dedicated to my results, what I'm doing food wise, exercise wise and health wise to get back into fighting shape. My goal is to get down to 115 by swimsuit season. 25 pounds in about 6 months? That's less than four pounds a month, should be doable so we'll see how it goes!