Introducing: The One Cowl To Rule Them All

So! I’m on the road! I’m currently in New Jersey with my friend Jesh and we are having a fabulous time. I’ve fallen in love with one of her foster and I am seriously looking into methods of smuggling him out of New Jersey. Look at his face! So sweet.

I had an idea for a book the other night and yesterday I fleshed out a book proposal to send to some publishers. I don’t know which ones yet, but I have the proposal! That’s a start at least. Look at us, working away like we’re professionals or something. Jesh and I spent about 8 hours at a coffee shop yesterday just plugging away on various projects. She’s writing a Math for Knitters course (which is brilliant by the way.) that is going to be a whole series, starting with fairly simple concepts and going into much more complicated stuff as it progresses.

For those of us who are Math Wary (or Math Non Functional in my case) but are visual learners who can grasp things in terms of knitting this course is going to revolutionize how we knit. At least I think so. I’ve only read the first bit to help her proof it but already she made some stuff make sense to me that I hadn’t formerly been able to grasp.

This evening Jesh and Friends are taking me to a fair type thing where there will be fireworks. I am insanely excited about this. Tomorrow we’re going to NYC!

So I’m letting ya’ll know about some things you can do to help raise some money. First and foremost of course is simply clicking on that ‘donate’ button in the sidebar and tossing in a few pennies. Or you can order some pretty sweet swag from the Craft Culture Zazzle Shop.

Or you can buy some of my patterns. I’m offering a buy one, get one free deal on the patterns right now. If you buy one of the patterns that is $5 or more you can pick another one of my patterns and I will send it to you for free. All you have to do is buy a pattern and when you do send me a note on Ravelry with which other pattern you’d like and I will send it to you through Ravelry so you can save it in your library.

If you’re looking for something yummy you can buy some tea, if you buy at least $15 worth of tea you’ll receive a free 1 ounce bag of your choice of tea. If you like yummy AND soft you can sign up for the Goddess Tea & Yarn Club for August. If you buy a club membership you’ll get a free pattern in your August club package.

Teas and club packages need to be purchased by July 1st. The tea shop will be closed while I’m on tour so if you want some tea you’ll need to order before the 1st if you want to get it before I go on tour. The Goddess Tea & Yarn club sign ups close that same day.

The buy one, get one offer on the patterns is good through the month of July, ending August 1st. Thank you to everyone who has helped the Tour so far! You all have made it possible!

Pattern: French Press Slippers by French Press Knits.
Yarn: roughly 1.5 balls of Cascade 220
Needles: US15 straights
Notes: There is a mod for a seamless version of this. I’ll be making my mom a pair but doing the modded version since the seaming on these things SUCKED. The large size really is LARGE. Too big for my size 10 feet, these are super cute though so they’ll be going to live with Cheena Marie since her feet are a smidge bigger than mine. I’ll make another pair for myself as well.

I also finished a quick little cotton hat:

Pattern: My own. Still debating writing it up or not. Super simple.
Yarn: 1 hank of Mirasol Hap’i (100% Tanguis Cotton)
Needles: US8 16″ circulars
Notes: ridiculously simple 2 st cable pattern. I needed something simple to knit up out of this hank of cotton and thought a little summer cap would be perfect. Took less than a single hank of this soft cotton.

Now I’m working on an Ishbel shawl out of reclaimed yarn from a sweater my friend Sarah Jo had. It was her mothers sweater and was hand knit, she wanted me to rip it out and use the yarn to make something she could wear. (The sweater was gorgeous though, all Aran cables and a beautiful mock turtle neck.) I don’t know what kind of yarn it is, it’s not wool so I’m a bit worried how the shawl is going to block out when I’m done but I think it might be a cotton blend so we’ll see. It’s definitely something synthetic but it’s got some kind of natural fiber in there too. I’m winging through the stockinette portion of the Ishbel pretty quickly so hopefully the lace goes fast as well. I’ve knit this pattern before so I’m hoping it won’t be too difficult. I had problems with the lace chart the first time I knit it but I think there’s been corrections to the pattern since then.

And just because I can here’s a gratuitous shot of my niece and I because she’s the most beautiful baby on the planet:

On that note, I will be opening up sign ups for the Goddess Tea & Yarn Club for August sometime this weekend or next week. I’ve just finished dyeing the yarn for the first shipment coming out this month, but if you missed out on the original sign ups you can get in for the next shipment in August. (This club is shipping every other month instead of monthly so it’s perfect if you don’t always quite knit up club yarns super quickly and it gives me time to come up with hopefully awesome color ways and teas!)

Some of you emailed about being on the waiting list for August, those of you who emailed ahead will get an email from me before general sign ups start next week with information on securing your spot ahead of time. I sold out of the DK club memberships for August already with people who pre-payed for 3 months, but I should hopefully be able to put in another order that includes DK weight before the October club comes around. The sock and lace clubs are available though (and the mix, but only 2 of them are currently available until I can order more DK weight.) If you know for sure that you want in for August you can email me ASAP for the waiting list as well.

I’ve got some excellent goodies coming for upcoming clubs that I’m really excited about and I’m getting all kinds of wonderful inspiration for color ways being back home. I’ve always been really inspired by Alaska but being back here has really brought all that back to the forefront for me.

I’m less than a month out from the start of the Craft Culture Summer Tour as well! I’m still looking for a host house in Richmond, VA but I’ve got beds secured in all the other cities. I’m still trying really hard to get local yarn shops to respond to me though, having a bit of a rough time with it as emails aren’t being responded to. I’ve worked in an LYS before and I know how difficult it is to respond to emails so I’m doing my best to be patient, however I could use your help. If you have a favorite LYS in your aread (and you’re in or near one of the tour cities) you could do me a huge favor by mentioning the tour to your LYS owner/manager and asking them to consider hosting an event with me. It doesn’t cost them anything, I just need a room to speak in and a place for people to gather. It could potentially be a great opportunity for a LYS to bring some extra/national attention to the shop as I will be blogging, podcasting and video blogging about everywhere I stop on the tour as well as adding any shops I visit to the ethnography I’m writing at the end of this trip.

Anyway, that’s my pitch. Word of mouth has got the Tour this far (thus proving my theory that crafters are a demographic to be reckoned with!) and the more ya’ll talk about it the more successful it will be. While I’m begging for your attention, I might as well include that I’m still accepting both personal and business sponsorships as well. Tossing a couple of bucks into the pot will go a long way to make sure I don’t starve to death on the road. I happen to know I can survive on nothing but water and Cup o’ Noodle for at least a month (hey, I am a college student.) so I don’t need much to survive.

Thank you to everyone who has been supportive and awesome (and patient!) during this transition in my life, I greatly appreciate all the kind words and encouragement I have received.

Things happen. No one has complete control over the Universe and I think to believe otherwise is folly. So, things are changing. My life has just taken a drastic left turn and I will be packing up the DaniDo Crafty Collective and moving to Alaska very shortly. I have the opportunity to spend some time with my family, including the newest addition (my sweet niece Erin Marie), and to attend the University in my hometown.

I will be continuing with my Interdisciplinary Studies in Sociology and History and the Craft Culture Summer Tour is still moving forward (relatively) as planned. There may be a few changes to the itinerary since I’ll be starting out in Anchorage, AK instead of Las Vegas, NV but aside from that it’s all still a go as long as our fund raising goal is met and I can secure host families in each city.

For the time being Goddess Tea is going into stasis, I won’t be accepting any new orders or club members until I can get settled in in Anchorage, but all existing orders and club memberships will continue to be filled as scheduled.

The same goes for the Choose Your Own Adventure Club and the Goddess Tea & Yarn Club. Existing memberships will be filled but I am not currently taking any new members until I get everything moved to Alaska and settled in.

I am sorry for any trouble this may cause some of you but please know that all of my existing club members and customers will be taken care of as planned. As soon as I get settled in Alaska I will resume business as normal! In the meantime keep an eye on Buy DaniDo for some destash items. Alaska is awfully hard to get to and I won’t be taking my car with me so moving by plane and shipping stuff can get expensive. I’ll be stream lining a lot of my stuff to make the move more cost efficient.

Thank you all for your understanding and support during this time of change. More news when I get to Alaska in a week or so!

That is not what this blog post is about. (Also, check it out! I’m typing! Not talking a camera!) This blog post is about the Goddess Tea and Yarn Club that is going to be launching in June. I am pretty excited about it actually and am stoked to be starting it soon. We’re still accepting sign ups but they will be closing (the pre-payments at least and the monthly for June) May 15th but space is limited. Since this is a luxury yarn club and hand blended tea I can only commit to a limited number of spots to ensure the quality of the yarn and tea.

Let me tell you a little about the club (you can read all about it by clicking on that link above). Each yarn will be based on a Goddess currently in the Goddess Tea pantheon. The yarn will be dyed in her likeness or in someway that relates to her. You will get 2 ounces of hand blended tea that corresponds to the Goddess of the month. You will also get a small goodie and/or pattern each month as well. I’m working with some designers I know to hopefully bring you guys some wonderful patterns that will work with the yarn and as always I buy my extra club goodies from small indie business owners and crafters to bring you the best the hand made community has to offer.

Right now the following number of slots are open:
Lace Club: 8 memberships available
Sock Club: 6 memberships available
DK/Sport Club: 3 memberships available
Mixed Club: 4 memberships available

These are for the pre-paid memberships. For the June shipment there are 4 left in each of them (except Mixed.) The club ships every other month instead of every month giving you enough time to (hopefully) work up your hank of yarn before the next one arrives. Or to pet it and love it appropriately before the new favorite child arrives. Whichever suits your fancy!

Tell me what you’re workin’ on!

February Maiden Socks & Sedona Socks are the ones featured.

Vloggy Thoughts #6 was recorded today (April 22nd) about 15 minutes ago. This one features the box of AWESOME I got in the Merry Unbirthday Swap from Julianne (you owe it to yourself to go to her blog because she has pictures of WEE BABY KITTEHS! So cute! Why didn’t I get one of those in my box Julianne?)

THANK YOU!

Email monster pictures to daniella@danido.com. If you want.
Also, you should also go download Jesh’s February Maiden Socks. They are awesome.