(Scroll down to learn how to win a free skein of yarn!)

Hemp Laceweight is easily the most popular yarn I dye.

As soon as I list it in the shop, it sells out.
As soon as I bring it to A Novel Yarn, it sells out.

Because of it’s fly-off-the-shelf qualities, I’ve been dyeing the same 5 colors:

Grape

Azalea

Pumpkin

Leaf

Fog

And now I have a big cone of unddyed hemp and I’m ready to try something new!

Is one of the above your favorites or would you like a different color?

Leave your suggestion in the comments below and NEXT Friday I’ll choose 1 response (randomly).

The winner will win a free skein of hemp in the color they suggest and that color will be available in the next hemp update (whether it’s a new color or current color doesn’t matter, just tell me what you like!)

Looking over yarnies’ (this is what I call super-small indie-yarn-makers) websites today, trying to find just the right ones for A Novel Yarn (my real-life yarn shop), is frustrating.

I love handmade yarn and I love yarnies.
I want to help them all.
I want to see them all succeed.
I do NOT want to say No.

But the most frustrating part is – the yarnies left me no other option.
Based on what they’ve given me, I can’t say yes.

Why am I saying No?

There are 7 mistakes yarnies (and all sorts of crafters) are making, so I turned on my recorder and ranted a bit.

You can download it here: 7 Reasons I Say No
(right click and Save As…to save to your own computer)

The first step to getting your goods onto a shelf in a shop?

Stop doing these 7 things!

The second step:

Figure out what to do, how to do it and how to ROCK it in this Wednesday’s class,
How to Rock the Shop.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Today’s the last day of the Month of Love and here are the final yarns:

Booth+Brennan
(Inspired by Bones, suggested by fraksmom)

Holmes+Watson
(Inspired by, well you know, suggested by Amy)

Lorelai + Rory
(Inspired by Gilmore Girls, suggested by Minnie)

Liz + Jack
Already sold!

I’ve really enjoyed this Month of Love, thank you SO much to all who played along!

Another contest?

I’d like to do another Month of Yarn like this in the next few weeks…what do YOU think the theme should be?

Suggest the winning theme (in today’s comments) and you’ll get free shipping on your next order!

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If you were one of this week’s winners – claim your prize by putting MOL when you buy your skein and wait for a corrected (50% off!) Paypal invoice.

You can see past week’s Month of Love yarns here:

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3

Happy Month of Love!
Have you suggested a yarn yet? Read the contest details here!

Adama + Roslin

Commander:President
Navy Uniform:Burgandy suit
Read more here…

Baltar + 6
Human:Cylon
Selfish:Faithful
Pinstripe suit:Red dress
Read more here…

Luke + Leia (already sold!)

Don + Betty Draper
Heartlessly handsome:Perfectly pretty
Gray suits:Pink Dresses
Read more here…

This week’s winners are  Steph, who suggested Adama+Roslin and Kim, who sugested Don + Betty.  Steph and Kim – claim your prize by putting MOL when you buy your skein and wait for a corrected (50% off!) Paypal invoice.

Suggest a couple (or group) AND specific colors in the comments of this contest post and if I spin it, you’ll win 50% off!

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You can see past week’s Month of Love yarns here:

Week 1
Week 2

This week’s month of love contributions is a smidge abbreviated because I’ve had a rough week.

Our house was broken into. Again.
They stole nothing this time, just rifled through cabinets, breaking cups and squashing any sense of safety.

I thought about skipping this all together, but I love yarn, I love the Month of Love and more than anything, I love sharing it with you.

So, let’s get to the good stuff.

Legolas + Gimli

Luke + Lorelai (already sold!)

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This week’s winner  is commenter Wordlily, who suggested both the color and the concept for Luke+Lorelai.

Suggest a couple (or group) AND specific colors in the comments of this contest post and if I spin it, you’ll win 50% off!

_________________

PS. I appreciate your good thoughts, sweet comments and concern. I would greatly appreciate it if you could refrain from sharing advice or ’shoulds’. Thanks!

Happy Month of Love!
Have you suggested a yarn yet? Read the contest details here!

It started simply enough, with Sesame Street:

But Month of Love morphed into Geek Week with lot of sci-fi type inspiration.

This week is all Lord of the Rings-inspiration with Celeborn + Galadriel:

Arwen + Aragorn

and Legolas + Gimli (coming tomorrow!)

Just to solidfy my geek-cred, we have Spock + Kirk:

Next week, the geekery continues with Battlestar-inspired yarns (along with a few other, less geeky TV shows, like Gilmore Girls and Mad Men). Catch them all here, a new one every day!

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This week’s winner  is Karma, who suggested both the color and the name for Galadriel+Celeborn. Aragorn + Arwen were mentioned in the comments but with different colors and I had already spun this yarn with them in mind.

Suggest a couple (or group) AND specific colors in the comments of this contest post and if I spin it, you’ll win 50% off!

Did you know Valentine’s day is a month away?

I’m not a big fan of V-day, but I do LOVE thinking about love and how we change with it and how we change it.
And of course, when I think about something, it seeps into my yarn.

All this love-thinking birthed the Month Of Love series of yarns, 2 years ago.

Month of Love is a month-long yarn-party from 1/15 to 2/14 (Valentine’s Day!); I make a yarn representing a famous pairing or couple (and this year: group) every weekday for the entire month and share it the very next day.

Last year I asked for your suggestions and that post became the MOST popular post on my entire website. I got so many great ideas and awarded so many prizes and the whole thing was SO much fun, that I’ve been dying to do it again this year!

And here it is, the day before the Month of Love!

Let’s get this love-y party started!

I think I said it pretty well last year:

I’m interested in how this interplay of colors and how the addition of a color (or person) to a yarn (or your life) can change a color or at least, the perception of that color. And some couples, they just have a single color to symbolize the pairing (ex. Cheech +  Chong = green). Of course, this applies to more than just romantic couples; it happens with any sort of pairing: PB & J or Bert & Ernie.

(PB&J, from last year’s Month Of Love)

I need help thinking up these couples AND the colors associated with them!

If you suggest a couple + color that I choose to use, you will win 50% off any skein in my shop.

To enter the contest: leave a comment below this post with both a COUPLE and their COLOR(S). You must include your email (no one will see it) so I can let you know if you’ve won. You may suggest as many couples as you like and if any couples are duplicated, the winner will be the first who mentioned both that couple and the colors I use.

For example: Sesame Street: red for Elmo, yellow for Big Bird, blue for Cookie Monster, green for Oscar
(note: I already made that yarn, so don’t suggest it!)

PS. To keep up with Month of Love yarns, you can see them on the blog every Friday and you can getthem in this section of the shop. Last year, the yarns sold out pretty much as soon as I listed them, so I’m thinking they won’t hang around for long!

You know it’s what you want.

Your family knows it’s what you want.

Yarn.

But if they’re anything like my family…they don’t know how to give it to you.

And I know your family is like my family, because they’ve been emailing me, asking me what they should get you; how much, what color, what it all means.

So I’m making it easy for all of you.

Tell them to get you a BCB gift certificate and then YOU can pick out the skein of yarn you want. No math, no shipping: 1 gift card will get you 1 skein of yarn. Simple, eh?

But maybe you want more than a skein of yarn?
If that’s the case, point your loved ones to the Year of Yarn and you’ll get a skein of yarn EVERY month for a year!

What are you hoping to get for Christmas?

I own a yarn shop.

A real-life, bricks and mortar, come-in-and-have-a-seat yarn store.

I signed the lease just 11 days ago and we’re opening tomorrow. Tomorrow!

I’ve been blogging our day by day progress on the website, you can read it here.

I’ve waited to announce it here, because I was still working out the details. What would the shop be like? What would it’s personality be?
How would it affect Blonde Chicken Boutique?

Now that I know the answer, I’m ready to share it with you.

Blonde Chicken Boutique is going to continue on as it has. It’s my own company, my own line of yarn. I will keep posting new yarns weekly to the Boutique and talking about eco-friendly fiber and pattern ideas here, on the blog. Blonde Chciken Boutique is my creative outlet and it’s not going anywhere.

A Novel Yarn is in partnership with my mom. We’re trying to create an open studio for fiber arts and a gallery for handmade yarn.

But what’s that mean?

Open studio: I’ll be spinning at the shop during business hours. I’ll also have my carder, so you can see the process from fiber to yarn. I’ll also have one-on-one lessons for knitting and spinning. We’ll be teaching classes on a all sorts of knitterly endevours from learning to knit to knitting with handspun to using Ravelry.

Gallery for handmade yarn: Our shelves with be overflowing with handmade yarn from myself and a host of my spinny friends. Anyting relating to fiber that is handdyed, handspun or otherwise handmade  is welcome! We’ll have handpainted needles, Learn to Knit Kits, books by indie publishers and (eventually) patterns by indie designers.

It has been a whirlwind to get open but so so satisfying to just begin to promote so many fabulous fiber artists.

Tomorrow is our first day and December 19th is our Grand Opening. If you’re in Jonesborough, TN, come say hi!

And if you can’t come in to the yarn shop, you can always find your favorite Blonde Chicken Boutique yarn right here in the shop.

The holiday season has too many “shoulds”.

And, as knitters, we’re often overwhelmed with the “shoulds”:
We should knit a gift.
We should have handknit stockings.
We should knit ornaments for the tree.

But I like to let go of the shoulds and focus on the wants.

What do I want out of the holiday season?
Lots of time with my family.
Knitting by the tree.
Giving handmade gifts to the people who really appreciate and cherish them.
Teaching young cousins to knit (with this kit).

In that spirit, I’ll be sharing some great ideas for patterns to knit for gifts, IF you want to knit gifts this year. If you don’t, then I bet you’ll enjoy making them for yourself!

To start with, I’ll share what my family really loved the past few years:

Handspun, handdyed crocheted mitts for my little brothers.

Pattern: Basic Fingerless Mitts
Similar yarn: any of this handdyed handspun yarn

Boring Manly scarf for Jay

Patern: 1×1 rib.
Yarn: Jo Sharp Silk Tweed, purchased at Churchmouse Yarns.

Every year I make my mom a scarf from my handdyed, handspun yarn, but I can’t seem to find ANY pictures of her wearing them! Hmm…
The scarf that was the most popular was probably the Multi-directional Scarf (especially cool in a self-striping yarn, like Neon Rainbow)

What have been your successful knitted gifts?