This Thanksgiving I’m so very grateful to you and to the entire fiber community. Last November, I sold a skein of handspun for the first time in the Boutique. That sale and the more than 200 that follow, pursuade me daily to pull out the dye pots or sit down at the wheel.
This blog, the Boutique, but most of all, YOU have stretched me. I’ve been challenged, inspired and encouraged. You, darling reader, have pushed me to try things I never imagined or to step into a role I hadn’t dreamed of. Because of you, I’ve started making small videos, to visit fiber farms and to try carding my own fiber.
For that, I am eternally grateful. A simple Thank You doesn’t seem like quite enough, so I hope you’ll enjoy the Thanksgiving Day Sale – 10% everything in the Boutique (even Gift Certificates!) from today through December 1st.
Have . . . → Read More: Happy Thanksgiving!
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What does “eco-friendly yarn” mean? In the next few weeks I’ll explain the three main tenets of Blonde Chicken Boutique: Local, Sustainable and Recycled. . . . → Read More: Eco-Friendly Yarn: Local Fiber You know by now that I’m dedicated to only spinning and dyeing eco-friendly yarns for the Boutique. But what does “eco-friendly yarn” mean? In the next few weeks I’ll explain the three main tenets of Blonde Chicken Boutique: Local, Sustainable and Recycled. Living consciously is a journey and I’ll be sharing the books, websites and people who have informed my journey. Eco-friendly means different things for different people, but this is what it means for me and for Blonde Chicken Boutique. Although all BCB yarn is eco-friendly, my first priority is always to find the most local fiber. Today I’ll cover the locavore lifestyle and tomorrow we’ll talk about what that means for yarn. So, What’s a Locavore?“Locavore” refers to someone who is committed to eating locally: local veggies, local meat, local dairy. I’m blessed to live in a very agricultural area with a long growing season. For 9 months out . . . → Read More: Eco-Friendly Yarn: What is a Locavore? As the holiday season approaches, I’m beginning to ponder the inevitable Christmas Gift List. Despite my best efforts to avoid it, I always feel the pull of handknitting gifts for my very dearests. The trickiest people on that list are also the smallest.I have two, sweet little brothers, ages 8 and 9. Although adorable and irresistible they have one ginormous flaw: they have extremely specific ideas of what constitutes “cool” handknits. They love knowing I knit something for them, but they are very particular about what they’ll wear. Here are just a few things I know they’d love: Stegosaurus Hat Ok, this one is a cheat: I designed it two years ago as a Christmas gift. Actually, D helped me design it: he drew a picture of his ideal hat and this is how it turned out! Fingerless gloves Both the boys want a set of fingerless gloves for recess. Leafy would be . . . → Read More: 6 free kntiting patterns for boys As the days get shorter and the opportunity for color fade into the brown of winter, I find it harder to become inspired. . . . → Read More: Finding Inspiration Most everyone knows that fabric comes from yarn or thread which comes from cotton, sheep or synthetics. But how does it really GET there? From farm to cloth? In the past few weeks, I’ve worked through and documented the process. You can read them all here. Today’s the last step: The Spinning. Finally! The exciting part – turning fluff into yarn! The finished yarn looks like this, all soft and squooshy: This yarn is Hilly Bourn and is available here. The name (and all of those in this line) are inspired by the John Keats’s poem “To Autumn”. I shared the entire poem here. I’ll be posting . . . → Read More: How to spin from a batt |
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