Yesterday, the very first day of spring, my mom’s dairy goat, Emily, gave birth to two sweet little babies:

We all went in to check on Emily in the midst of celebrating my little brother’s 11th birthday. We had no idea that she had just given birth, until we saw sweet little brown kid standing there shivering:

Next to him was laying his little white brother, still, uh, shall we say, freshly born?

Within 30 minutes they were both trying out their new legs, mumbling to their mama and searching for their first meal.

I’m often asked “What’s a Blonde Chicken? Where’d that name come from?“.  It’s an adorable little story, so be forewarned: Cuteness lies ahead.

Jay has a huge family. Over 15 aunts and uncles (not counting their spouses, their children and their spouses). Huge. One day they all came to our college campus for a big family thing for Poppa, the family patriarch.

Jay and I had been dating…maybe 2 months? And he wanted me to meet the family.

When it came time to meet Poppa, I leaned down (he was in a wheelchair), gave him a “kiss on the jaw” and moved on. I might have said “Hi, Nice to meet you”. Maybe.

Jay was behind me and Poppa grabbed him and said:

“Don’t let go of that blonde chicken!”

As a proper young feminist, I was appropriately disgusted with the nickname.

Of course, Jay used it to relentlessly tease me.

Months passed, Poppa passed away and Jay kept calling me his Blonde Chicken.

We fell deeper in love, graduated, got married, got jobs and when I started to think about maybe, sorta opening a business, Jay insisted that I should do it.

When I faultered for a name, Jay offered up “Blonde Chicken”.

When I doubted that I could really, truly put all the parts of a business together, Jay insisted.

When I considered quitting my day job, Jay insisted.

At every step, at every opportunity for me to turn back, Jay’s had my back, insisting I could do the Thing.

And for him, it isn’t even a big deal. It’s just the Thing, Tara’s Thing She Needs To Do.

He’s just quietly certain I can do it. No big pep rallies (even when I thought I wanted one), no big deal. I can do it. Period.

Today, on his 27th birthday, here, in this space he’s helped to create,  I just wanted to acknowledge his insistence, and to thank him for not letting go of this blonde chicken.

(PS. The real tragedy – Jay’s red/green colorblind. I work with color all day and he can’t even enjoy my current favorite color, an enchantingly juicy Cherry)

But as I stock the shop with a rainbow of handspun organic cotton yarns, I’ve been getting asked: “What can I make with it?”

The short answer: Anything.

What? You want more than that?

Ok, the long answer.

First, the details:

You can get Handspun Organic Cotton right here.

This yarn is handspun into a smooth worsted  to heavy worsted weight. I suggest using needles that are US 8-11. But of course, everyone’s knitting is different, so you may need a different size!

A few things to remember when working with cotton:
-It’s not as elastic as wool, so your fabric won’t “bounce back”. This means you’ll probably want to avoid knitting things that might sag (like skirts or shirts).
-Cotton is heavier than wool, which contributes to the “sag factor” if you make something big.
-Because of it’s inelasticity, it may be harder on your wrists. I combat this by using circular needles, so there’s not so much weight on one wrist at a time.
-Cotton can be machine washed! But if it gets caught up in your washing machine, it’ll be pulled out of shape, so I always handwash (if you have a front-loader that won’t happen).

Pattern Ideas:
I’m  making a shawl with the cotton and banana yarn. I’ll be releasing the pattern next week (but here’s a sneak peek).

Until then, here are a few other ideas:

• Le Slouch, a beret (on Ravelry)

• Bubby, a bear (on Ravelry)

• Simple Baby Bib (on Ravelry)

• knitCOWL (a cowl!), a Free Ravelry Download

What are you making?

See what everyone else is making by checking out the Handspun Organic Cotton Ravelry page here.

You can also share ideas, thoughts and your projects in the Blonde Chicken group on Ravelry.

What would you make with Handspun Organic Cotton?

In one week, I’ll be responsible for my own health insurance.

In one week, I’ll set my own schedule.

In one week, I’ll live in a new house.

Next Wednesday is not only my first day of full-time Blonde Chicken Boutique shenanigans, it’s also Moving Day!

The whole family + the whole Boutique is moving (just across town).

To say I’m overwhelmed in as understatement.

Excited and nervous and scrambly and full of oh-my-goodness-what-did-I-forget sort of thoughts!

Last night I couldn’t sleep and started thinking about ALL the yarn and fiber I need to pack before moving. And the unpacking! The new place will have a dedicated fiber studio (yay!) but I hate to be apart from my fiber for even a day or two.

So instead, instead of moving all that yarn across town,  what if I just send it to you?

How about free (domestic) shipping on any order over $50?

You’ll be cheering up both of our weeks by heading over to the Boutique and stocking up handspun yarn, organic cotton and Spinnables.

(to get the free shipping, just place your Etsy order (of over $50) and wait for a CORRECT Paypal invoice)

This little moving sale will be on for just ONE WEEK and on July 1st, I’m going to close the Boutique until I’m all settled in my new studio.

When it reopens, it’ll be filled with new and different yarns, so if you like what you see, snatch it up now!

Since posting those videos, the questions have switched to  “where can I get those dyes?” “Are THESE the right dyes?” I’ve always answered with a general “Well, this is where I get mine”, but when I got an email from someone in Japan who loved the videos, but couldn’t find the Easter egg dyes at a good price (they go for $4/box on eBay!), I knew I could provide the answer.

I was telling Jay about how exciting it was to send something so American to Japan.

He responded said “So why don’t you offer kits to EVERYone who didn’t stash 1000s of boxes at Easter time?”

Duh! (I’m going to promote him from “tech guy” to “Product Development” although it occurs to me now that this might have been a sneaky plot to “help” me part with my huge stash of Easter egg dyes!)

Quick as a lick, I put together everything you need to dye some fiber using a pack of East Egg dyes.

12 oz of fiber, already divided into the size you need for each tablet + pack of dyes + instructions!

You can find the Make Rainbows kit right here!

And you really lucked out, because the dyes I have the most of come 6 to a pack (last year I only found 5-packs) and they are HUGE. Each tablet dyes 2 oz of fiber!

Your resulting fiber will look something like this:

(of course, if you don’t want to try dyeing, you can find the already-dyed fiber right here)