Announcing:

I can do batts now! Click on the picture to go straight to the Fiber section of my Artfire Shop. I also have a few batts up in my section on the Spindies shop as well. I don’t cross post, so be sure to check both places for all the goodies. I am no longer adding new items to the Etsy shop either, I’m going to be moving my entire operation to ArtFire and Spindies.

Since my ArtFire shop is finally somewhat stocked I’ll be having a Grand Opening Sale for the next week. Everything in the shop, including sock club memberships AND brand new batts will be discounted by 15% for the first few days and 10% the last part of the week. So if there’s something you really want, be sure to snap it up as soon as possible. Also remember since I’m not going to be able to dye July’s Rock Your Socks Off yarns until next Thursday you can still purchase (or renew) sock club memberships between now and then and get in on July.

Also, I ran across this other super awesome yarn club that I think you guys should check out. It combines two of my favorite things: coffee and yarn! Click here for information about the Unique Sheep’s Sip n Stitch club.

So some of you may listen to the fabulous Lime and Violet podcast or keep up to date with their one stop shop for all things fibery site The Daily Chum, well last month I was chummed and as of yesterday I was also mentioned in their latest pod cast. At length. And yes, I squee-d all over the place and forced friends, family and other assorted loved ones to listen to the podcast multiple times. It’s the closest to famous I’ll ever get, I had to savor the moment. You can hear the podcast, titled ‘In Which We Become Pro Whale Exploders’ either on the blog or by searching iTunes for it. It’s pretty fantastic if I do say so myself.

In writing news: I’ve got a few new articles up on Handmadenews.org in the Inspiration department that may be of interest to some of you. The Place You Live and Social Networking for Creative Inspiration. The Inspiration Department also sadly said goodbye to our editor Paula Picard of Picard Creative but has welcomed Marjorie Dawson who was a fellow columnist as our new editor, she has a shop selling beautiful art dolls that is definitely worth checking out. I wish Paula all the best in her future endeavors and am sad that our time working together was so short. I am looking forward to continuing to write for the Inspiration Department with Marjorie as our new editor however and encourage all of you to check out our department regularly for new content.

I think that’s all the new stuff for right now! I’ll be having another contest coming up shortly featuring hand made socks from Christina Marie out of some of my hand dyed yarn. Yup, the socks are already knit so all you have to do is put them on and enjoy! I’ll come up with some kind of fun hoops for ya’ll to jump through to try and win them.

So, I’ve been super busy this last week but I’ve got some new announcements that I would like to share with you all. I’ll also be sending out a newsletter to those on my mailing list in the next day or so with the same announcements, so if you read this and get the newsletter my apologies for being redundant.

First of all I want to personally thank the current and past members of the Rock Your Socks Off club, you guys have been incredible and have really helped me develop as a dyer and small business owner. Thank you all for taking a chance on this new club and making it a success. You are wonderful.

When I first started the club, I offered it at a discounted price to get it started. Now that we are established and have developed a solid base; I am going to be raising the price of the club membership to the original $115 for the 3 month membership that I had initially intended on selling it at. However there are a few exceptions: a) the price change will not go into affect until August so if you buy a club membership of at least 3 months between now and August you will get the lower price. b) any current member will ALWAYS get the price they signed up with at, plus I usually offer a 15 % discount on renewals during the last month of your membership. This means that if you are currently a member and plan to renew, you do not need to worry about a price hike, this is my gift to you for being early adopters and believing in me and the club before it was established.

Starting in August I will no longer be adding the stitch markers to the packages either. I doubt anyone will be horribly heartbroken by this fact since I’m aware I am not the worlds best stitch marker maker. I will continue to add extra goodies to all the packages and I’m hoping that by cutting out the stitch makers that I will be able to add BETTER goodies. You may still receive stitch markers in packages, but I will probably buy better ones from the wonderful artisans I know who do a far better job of making them. I’m hoping that by cutting out the time I spend making the ones you currently receive I will be able to develop patterns or other fun things to add to the packages to make them more complete. My initial idea for this club was to be a well rounded package that you were excited to get each month, I think I’ve done okay in keeping with that idea but I would like to really make it an exciting package every month that you would be stalking the mail man for.

Truth be told; I hate making stitch markers. When I started the club I liked them because it was something new and honestly I just like going to bead shops. In reality, the stitch markers are what hold me up almost every single month and they are my least favorite aspect of putting together the club packages every month.

Some of you may have gotten “Don’t Stop the Rock” notices with your club shipments this month, if you got one it’s time to renew your membership to still be in the club for July. There is a discount offered on that notice, so when you renew you’ll automatically get the discount refunded to you. Dying for July will happen later this week so if you want to secure your spot for July you’ll need to renew or purchase your new membership before Thursday of this week.

July’s band is going to be Concrete Blonde. I didn’t get any suggestions for other bands and I have a wonderful idea for a color way for this band, so I’m going to see that one through. Our July goodie is pretty special too and has been commissioned by one of my favorite fellow Phat Fiber artisans.

In other news: please check out Spindies the online fiber festival that I participate in. Also, I’ve got some great new articles up on Handmadenews.org that you should check out and keep an eye on indieas.wordpress.com for blogs and video reviews of this years CineVegas Film Festival that Christina Marie and I recently attended.

My Etsy Shop and my Artfire Shop will both be updated with new hand spun yarns and hand dyed fibers in the next week as well.

I got a lot accomplished yesterday and because I was all moosey-faced and feeling sorry for myself I completely failed to mention some of the things I’ve gotten done lately. Namely, the June Rock Your Socks Off packages. They’re going to the post office in about an hour. I’m going to go ahead and put a picture up here so if you want to be surprised and you’re in the club; LOOK AWAY!

But first; I finished spinning 2 of the batts from the Serendipity Fiber Arts Batt Club that I recently joined. This is a blended batt that included recycled Sari silk fibers. I absolutely adore how it turned out and I’m so glad I joined the club, because I never would have picked these batts out for myself.

This is just the spun single, I didn’t ply it because it was perfect just by itself. I think this would be gorgeous as a little scarflette, or as edging on a larger item. It’s not super soft, not necessarily ‘next to skin’ soft for people who are really sensitive to fibers on their skin, but I absolutely love this. I haven’t decided if I’m going to put it up for sale or knit it myself. It’s one of the more unique yarns I’ve spun and I’m still kind of in love with it. I’m really looking forward to the batts I get next from Serendipity, she’s got a great eye for color and fiber combinations!

Okay, now the RYSO club yarn. I did Alkaline Trio this month, song: Nose Over Tail because it’s Mike and I’s song and it’s one of my favorites. I actually asked him to name the colorway and he thought about it for awhile and decided on that one. I was torn between Nose Over Tail and Take Lots With Alcohol, which is another favorite song of mine and one of the few songs that Danny sings lead on instead of Matt Skiba (or The Skeeb, as he’s known around here) that I actually like.

I finally got a real true red. And all with Greener Shades dyes! So it’s 100% natural! Genius! I dyed enough of this this month for my sock club members AND one for myself (to make Mike a pair of socks with of course) AND to send a hank to Miss Violet and Miss Lime of Lime n’ Violet fame. I actually sent one hank of this, and one hank of Aprils yarn, my very own personal hank of the Cure colorway In Between Days. All because I lubb them so much! Also, I was chummed a few weeks ago and it kicked up a few sales for me, and I feel thankful. Though technically I should be sending the yarn to Bunky Bobo’s because she’s the contributor who chummed me. Maybe she’ll get some yarn in July. Also, while on the topic of music; Christina Marie and I started yet another blog together, this one devoted to being music snobs. You may remember our long running joke that we’re Indie As F*ck. Well, guess what the name of the new blog is? Check it out, it’s funny and we’ll teach you all how to be music snobs as well. Right now it’s just a handful of blog posts featuring mostly “An Open Letter To…” style rants, but soon there will be video and podcasts of us flailing our arms around and openly mocking trashy pop music. I swears, it’s good times.

Speaking of! Ideas for the July band? Anyone? I fall in love with bands so quickly and often that it’s hard for me to be partial about picking the bands to do for the club. I REALLY want to do a Concrete Blonde one and if I don’t get any other/better suggestions I’m going to lean towards them for July. I have this great idea for a “Still in Hollywood” colorway.

In addition to yarns, I’ve also been making stuff for Pale Soap as well. Yesterday Amy and I finished up 3 of our signature soap blends (which are curing and not very pretty to photograph yet.) but also some body scrubs.

That’s our ‘Man Scrub’ but we’ve also got a great Lavender Sweet Scrub for the ladies (or girly mens). Also, of course, we’ve got the lip balms up there for sale as well right now. As soon as the soaps finish curing those will be listed as well. We’re aiming for later this week to have those up.

Oh, and also, did I mention that I’m officially accepted to UNLV? Yup. Official. Have to go meet with my advisor later this week and I’ll be there full time in the Fall. Pretty stoked about that.

I’ll leave you with some great Handmadenews.org articles I really dug this week: New Pathways to Inspiration – A New Hobby (by me, of course), Sock Knitting Today Pt. 1 (there’s a part 2 up as well.) from the Craft Trends department and another in Amy’s series Performing A Green Audit.

Which is not good. Since I write about inspiration for handmadenews.org, or rather I’m supposed to write about inspiration. Lately I’ve been sort of stuck in a rut. I’m trying to keep things fresh by trying out new hobbies. Like say, starting Pale Soap with Amy. That has helped, but I’m still not getting much done in the way of knitting, spinning or dying. I did get Junes Rock Your Socks Off club yarns done, and I’m about 3 sets of stitch markers away from being able to mail them out. (Tomorrow, they’re going out tomorrow in case anyone was wondering.)

So instead of any real blogging here I’m just going to lay out some images that I’ve become attached to lately, I’ve either used them in HMN articles, wanted to, created them myself, or felt some sort of connection to them. I just need to put some pretty in the world today I think.

(Lip balm from Pale Soap)    

   (The Buhunkis.)

(Sheep!)  

(baby brother modeling his first knit scarf)

(Medusa from MyMagicMe)    

(Handspun Mug cozy, kits available)

Okay. Those are things that are making me happy today. I’m going to go get more coffee and maybe try to get a few rows knit on The Love Blanket.

First of all we ended up having a three way tie for winners! Victoria, Lesley and Sally all three had the exact same amount of entries. Each of these ladies went above and beyond to help promote the contest AND the Handmadenews.org website during the week we were running the contest. Victoria and Lesley have each picked a prize (both wanted roving from my shop which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy) but Sally picked a beautiful necklace from the Risky Beads shop. I’m really glad each of these ladies won because they have all been very supportive of me, my business and my writing on the Hand Made News website. Please take a moment to visit each of their blogs they are all very talented and incredible women who I admire. (Also, Sally is from my hometown, Anchorage AK and also works at one of my favorite yarn/quilt shops in town The Quilt Tree/The Yarn Branch, which is right next door to my favorite toy shop and right down the road from my old high school. These were once my stomping grounds.)

In other Handmadenews.org uh, news I want to share with you a few of my favorite articles from the last week or so; first up is this the premiere article from Wonder Webmistress Amy who is now officially my co-worker in THREE different ways (Knit Las Vegas, Handmadenews.org AND we’re starting a skin care line together for super sensitive skin types), Amy writes for the Green Wise department which is wonderful because she is one of the most natural, environmentally conscious without being annoying about it types I’ve ever met. Her article is titled Performing a Green Audit and gives great tips on how to ‘green’ your life up without it being a pain.

The second article I found particularly interesting this week was this one from the Marketing Department which is an interview with the owner of Pigtopia Studios about her marketing strategies.

Every few days or so I’m going to try to bring you a few links from articles on Handmadenews.org that I found particularly interesting. I know that it’s a big site with a lot of information and sometimes the really good stuff gets buried, I’ll help you dig it out. If in the meantime you find (or write) an article that you think deserves special attention send me a link at daniella@danido.com and I’ll do my best to bring it up on here. Since I’m already plugging articles, why don’t you guys check out my latest article in the Inspiration Department on how to get ideas from unusual places: Odd Couples.

Under the ‘and then some’ category I’ve got a few announcements as well. I’d like to formally announce the opening of a cooperative fiber shop that I am participating in along with 2 of my spinning mentors and a handful of other insanely talented fiber artists; Spindies. It’s one stop shopping for all the spinning goodies you could possibly want. We’ll be restocking regularly and will feature both fiber and hand spun yarns. We’re just getting started so not all of the contributors have stocked their shops, but keep checking because new items will be added daily. The items I am listing on Spindies will not be available through any of my other shops and will all be one of a kind items.

For those of you awaiting news of Junes Rock Your Socks Off yarn well, you’ll have to wait just a bit longer. The yarn is dyed and dried and ready to go, I just need to put together the packages and get them in the mail. As soon as they’re off to our members than I will post pictures but I’m quite pleased with the results this month. Very bold and different than the last 4 months of the club thus far. I’m excited, I even dyed an extra skein for myself so I could knit Mike a pair of socks.

As I was typing up this blog post my big yarn order from my wholesaler came so you can hopefully expect new additions to the диваниEtsy Shop and my Artfire Shop in the next few weeks. I’ll also be running a ‘I need tuition money’ sale in late July as well since I’m making the jump from relatively inexpensive community college to ‘holy cow 10k a semester!?! really?’ university. In the meantime, if you’d like to keep this broke college student in tuition and text books won’t you consider signing up for the Rock Your Socks Off club?