It’s a big one.

I have been negligent in blogging as of late. My apologies. A couple of things have conspired to keep me from being able to post regularly; mainly I’ve been super busy dying, drum carding and knitting that I haven’t had the opportunity! The drum carder I bought last month is certainly being put to good use and I am definitely getting my money’s worth out of it. Which brings me to my first big announcement for today:

I’m starting a batt club! Unlike the sock club the batt club will not be in the ‘rock n roll’ theme but will offer much broader based appeal (I’m hoping) to a wide variety of types of spinners. I plan to follow the same basic principle as my sock club however and send extra goodies with each package and a story of why/how the batt you’re receiving came to be. I really love to know what inspired hand crafted items, so I like the idea of sending along plenty of information for the spinner about the fibers they are getting. I’d also like to offer either recommended listening or watching with each shipment, either music, a podcast, t.v. show or movie to accompany your spinning fiber. This batt club will be offered in various quantities to suit a variety of different spinners; there will be 2, 3 and 4 oz clubs offered in 3, 6 or 12 month increments. I think the 12 month one is going to be an every other month subscription instead of every month. (Obviously the price will reflect that) because I know some spinners just don’t need new fiber every single month. If you are interested in this club please email me or leave a comment here indicating your interest so I can get a rough idea of whether this idea is one that has wings or needs to be reworked more before implementing. If you have any suggestions on how this club could or should run, feel free to let me know. In all things fiber I’m still feeling my way around, so any suggestions are always greatly appreciated. I plan to roll out sign ups for the club in late July for the first shipments to be in August. This club will probably ship near the middle to end of each month, since the sock club ships at the beginning of the month.

Speaking of Rock Your Socks Off, July’s yarn is done! And it’s beautiful, if I do say so myself. We had low membership this month and so I decided to open this one month up to a limited run of ‘yarn only’ listings in my shop. I’m adding a limited run of 5 more hanks available for one off purchase through my ArtFire shop, these listing will only get the yarn not any of the extras that go with the club membership. (Sock Rockers! Do not click that link, spoiler pictures of your yarn is up there.) This is probably the only month I am going to do this and the only reason I am doing this is because the way the yarn was dyed this month; each hank that is going out to the club members is one of a kind and unique and the ones available in my shop are too. So everyone is getting a completely one of a kind hank, there’s no diluting of the specialness of the club offering. In my opinion at least. Next month marks the clubs 6 month anniversary so I’ll be sending along a very special extra goodie to our current members. Remember if you’re not currently a member or you’re due to renew now is the time to do it; I’ll be raising the price effective August 1st to the initial intended $115 (for the 3 month subscription) however if you are a current member or sign up before August you will always get the price you signed up for at. Always. It never changes. That is my promise to you since those members who signed up from the beginning and/or in the last 6 months took a chance with me and this club and I really appreciate it.

Other things that are going on at Chez DaniDo as of late: I will be participating in the Tour de Fleece which is a spinning challenge to spin every day the Tour de France rides. I’ve even started a team, Team Should be Committed which is a team for those of us who a) take on insane challenges like this one even though we have plenty of other stuff on our plates and b) will probably freak out at some point during the Tour and want to chop our spinning wheels into kindling to use as a sacrifice to the Fiber Goddess. If you feel like you fit the bill and want a challenge, please join our team. We have no extra requirements other than to try not to have a nervous break down during the challenge. Tour de Fleece starts Saturday July 4th and I will be kicking off the start of the tour with bestie Christina Marie; we will be spinning, listening to albums and recording reviews/arguments for upcoming Indie As podcasts. We may even set up the webcam and video conference with other spinners if I can figure it out in time and get my work space clean enough to broad cast on the internets.

I recently built solar ovens to heat set my yarn and fiber in, so starting with this months Rock Your Socks Off yarn; all of my yarns and fibers will be heat set using completely natural energy for at the very least the duration of the summer. I figured; really, I live on the face of the sun basically and I know it gets at least 120 degrees in my adobe and tile courtyard so it really wouldn’t take much to concentrate that heat into a single space to get it hot enough to cook yarn. And I was right! I built my ovens for less than $50 and I have enough room to do between 30-50 hanks of sock yarn at once. I will probably do a tutorial on how I built them, but it’s so silly ridiculous it’s not really worth the space it would take it. They’re tupperware containers lined with black trash bags and have cooling racks in the bottom so any condensation will run into the bottom of the tub instead of sitting on the yarn/fiber. I toss in my probe thermometer and clamp the lid on and set the buckets in the center of my courtyard in front of a glass window so that it gets both direct sunlight and the reflected rays from the glass. This week the temp in the ovens got over 160 degrees. The yarn set beautifully with absolutely no run off. There you have it; between the Greener Shades natural dyes, powdered citric acid and now solar heat setting, any DaniDo Crafty yarn or fiber is processed in as natural a way as possible. The wonders of living in the desert!

In knitting business I am currently working up Cabled by Hinke in a purple angora/acrylic blend. I’ve made quite a few mods, of which I will detail in length once the sweater is finished and I know the mods worked. For now, here’s a WIP shot.

And lastly, but certainly not least, on the writing front I am excited to announce I’ll be having a special column every Friday on HandMadeNews in the Inspiration Department just for fiber related things! The column debuts tomorrow and is titled Fiber Friday. Check back every Friday for articles that combine inspiration and my love of all things fiber related. If you have an idea for something you’d like to see featured in the Fiber Friday section please email me at daniella@danido.com and let me know! Also, just in case you’re ever looking for a way to kill a few minutes be sure to check out the Word Find Wednesdays and Get Crafty Crosswords which come out on Sundays. Both are always tons of fun and a great way to kill time, if you’re not knitting of course.

The Rock Your Socks Off yarns will ship today or tomorrow morning, so the playlist, photos and video will be up early next week!