And we have winners!

Hello from Fall, 2010! Please give a warm welcome to our brand new, customer-inspired seasonal colorways, with my apologies for being a tad late. The fall colors were out meeting the people at Shenandoah Valley Fiber fest this past weekend, and I am just finished unpacking. More on the fun there later.

As always, I had so many gorgeous photo's and ideas that it was tough to choose. This lovely is Turning Leaves, inspired by this shot from Connie and a beautiful tree with changing leaves from Molly.



Pumpkin Head is a colorway that i've made in the past, but Caryn brought it back with this shot:)

Fresh Olives might be my favorite from this season, based on Susan's lovely shot. I cdn't figure out how to link to it, but you should go see it in the contest thread on Ravelry. This color may need to become a fall sweater for me!

Inspired by Mette's very cool mushroom picture, we have Mushroom Hunting. Not an activity I've ever done in the Fall, but I've certainly fantasized about it. And i LOVE "wild" mushrooms:)

Finally, inspired by Susan's shot of a bouquet from her visit to the Fair, we have County Fair.

I think you will enjoy knitting fall items with this one. Five colorways is alot, but I love the way these came out.


There were a few other pictures I really liked but didn't translate well to kettle-dyed yarn. Don't give up on the Halloween-themed color. I may still release one a bit closer to the big holiday. My favorite!

Laura Blueswirly will run the rng, perhaps when she is home this evening and announce the winners on the "news" thread. I should also mention that the colorway Peach Melba was also suggested by Caryn; I will be donating 30% of sales tot he American Cancer society in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month (October). Starting Friday, I'll create a listing in the shop for it in Djinni and dragon, as well as some Spinning Fiber (requests?) Thank you so much for your ideas and photos; I love what has come from them and i hope that you do too:)

Now, onto our fabulous weekend at the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival in Berryville, VA. I decided kind of at the last minute to apply for this show, becasue i wanted to do a local show with my girlie. She enjoys working these festivals and being surrounded by all things fibery, and does such a great job for me. And i love the shenandoah, especially in the fall. Brings back such great memories of my 'youth" (I'm still young, right?)

We wound up having a booth in the Dairy Barn, as the fest has been growing for the last few years and had no more indoor spots available. Our neighbors included Angora bunnies, and the cutest Alpaca babies, and their very lovely people. Also we were very lucky to be across from Connie Delameter of Delly's Delights, who shared her considerable show experience with me and who was a delight to hang out with. She also hooked my mermaid up with some spinning fiber when she got the spindling bug after watching me show folks how to use the Trindle over and over again.

We had a great dinner with Kate of Serendipitous Ewe. I think my girlie is ready to adopt her a a big sister; she even came by and stayed with her at my booth a bit on Sunday so i cd go wander. Thank you Kate! Keep an eye out for some cool collaborations between me and she and Angela. With their colors involved, you know it will be pretty.

I converted many local knitters to the cult of the Trindles, including my own daughter, unintentionally. Probably my favorite moment was when she came back to the booth after some wandering around time and said, "Mom, I'm turning into you. I just spent all of my earnings on yarn and fiber!" That's my girl!

Is it just me, or is time speeding up?

Here we are at September again, somehow. Bam, we are back in the crazy, crazy school year schedule. With a few important changes. Mainly, I'm only working one job and not constantly running between home and the hospital. And it's better. Way better. My kids are happier, and more relaxed, and, therefore, i'm happier and more relaxed. So, keep buying yarn everyone!

Somehow, even though I haven't even started the fall colorways yet, i have been dyeing new colors like crazy. They just keep coming:) I have been thinking about companion colorways lately. Semisolid colorways to coordinate with more varigated ones. Like these two: Coral Reef
and Sunshine Daydream. And you are right if you are thinking, "that Coral Reef colorway likes an aweful lot like Meadow". I re-named it. I developed that colrway with coral reefs in mind, and Meadow just wasn't working for me. So there you go, sometimes names do matter:)

The next companions are Titania and Oberon. You know that disobedient Fairy queen and her jealous husband? You know the reference, I'm sure. One of my favorite pairs. In New Orleans, they appropriately named a Mardi Gras ball after Oberon. I think Titania deserves the same.

Bad Moon Rising and Black Pearl are, for me, another pair worth considering. Imagine the striping possibilities here, or doing a border or edging in the semisolid, and the body of the piece in the varigated. I am planning on doing Ancient Bark by Ilga Leja in one of these combinations. I like them all so much i can't decide:)

Speaking of Back pearl, let me introduce another colorway for the "Pearl series". This is a pink pearl colorway that i am calling Flannel pajama's. That is just what it wanted to be named. Dyed the same as Black and Arctic pearl, but not so pearly. Much more like your favorite pair of soft pink pj's. Titania is also dyed in that style, but clearly she had a mind of her own as well. just couldn't be Sagey Pearl:)

This dark color is named Sleepy Hollow. I have been working with a bunch of new dye colors lately, trying out the new Dharma dyes. Sleepy Hollow is full of deep dark secrets, and has me thinking about Headless Horsemen riding in the night.

This beauty was inspired by a customer, crazidazi, who suggested a pink colorway for Breast Cancer awareness month. This seems particularly appropriate for me this year, as my father has been struggkling with treatment for neck cancer. He is, by the way, doing well. recovering now from the surgery and very intensive radiation and chemo and is visiting us this weekend to get a grandchild fix. I know that I am not talking about breast cancer here, but this is the first time the disease has touched my life in such a personal way.

So, I have decided to donate 30% of sales of this colorway, Peach Melba, to the American Cancer society. This colorway will first be a available next week at the Shenandoah ValleyFiber Fest. Don't forget to come see me in the dairy barn if you will be in the area. What cd be better? the Shenandoah in the fall, at leaf changing time, with fiber and yarn and animals? I'll be in booth 14. After i return, I'm planning to do a miniclub and will definitely be offering Peach Melba in both yarn and spinning Fiber.

So, where does one buy all of these new colorways? i just sent a nice big batch over to Sheri at The Loopy ewe, so keep an eye out in the next few weeks if you can't get to the fiber fest next week. I'll be doing an etsy shop update on Friday, October 8th, after we do inventory following the show. Of course, I will have new colorways and fall colorways for that update, and will open the Yarn and Fiber Miniclub at that time.

To change the subject, did you receive my first newsletter? My dear friend and high priestess of marketing, Laura of Blueswirly fame is cooking the next one up. in fact, there will be a coupon for those of you who will be visiting me at SVFF next weekend. I am very excited about this new way to interact with customers, and it looks great. Not surprisingly, considering who makes it:) Go here if you want to sign up.

That's enough for now. need to go hang with my dad:)

Soon to come:

October Club DragonWitch shipment (I suppose it is appropriate that the "witch" got October:)

Mini club starting 10/8

SAFF 10/22-24

edited to keep surprises as they should be (don't tell:)