All is right with the world!

Rejoice! Spring is here! That and the studio computer is back up and running after 11 days of being out of commission. The loaner was great in the mean time, but it's wonderful to have "my" computer back.

The lilacs have a halo of green around them behind the studio, and our grass is greening up nicely. It's been in the mid 70's here, and I spent many hours this weekend playing outside with the kiddos. We have three small kiddos - the twins, Miss E and Miss G - are one month away from their third birthday and Mr.X is 16 months old. They love being able to go outside after the long winter. We made a new discovery - sidewalk chalk! It was supposed to be for their Easter baskets, but the weather was too nice to wait.

This yarn is a new colorway that will be available in our Summer Collection. It's dyed on a natural, superfine merino, sportweight yarn. It will be making it's debut at Knitter's Connection and then be available via the site!

Manly Yarn - tell me now!

Just a gentle reminder that the deadline for the contest is coming up quickly - March 31st (at midnight). Send in your ideas for a chance to win! I've already started dyeing up some of my favorite suggested colors, so those will be along shortly. Remember, even if I don't use your suggestion for the first release of Many Colors, you can still win. You'll get to pick your choice of colorway, too. Who wouldn't like to go shopping for free! Oh, and the Manly Yarn Collection will actually be called the Mr. Darcy Collection. It's more in keeping with our site theme.

Free Wool Wash

Our shipment of wool wash came in yesterday afternoon! We're offering a new incentive at Yarn Love. Order two skeins of yarn, and receive a free sample size of wool wash (Good for 3-4 washings.) Order three skeins or more and receive a free full sized bottle of wool wash. It's 4 oz, and it will last you a good long time!

This is the wool wash that I use for the final rinse of all Yarn Love yarns. It contains natural lanolin to condition the wool fiber. Plus, it's very low sudsing, so you don't have to worry about surface felting if you've used a natural wool yarn. It's also great for any other wool garments that you've knit.

Just put WoolWash4Me in the coupon line when you order. And if you sign up for our newsletter, there's another way to get free wool wash!

~katie

And we're back!

We are back in business after a few days delay due to a blown motherboard on our studio computer. We now have full access to the site and to email via a loaner computer while ours is getting put back together. For the short term, however, there won't be any pretty pictures on the blog. My camera driver disagrees with the loaner computer (which is pretty darn old and slow!) so I can't pull pictures off to post for you. And since this isn't my regular hard drive, I can't pull pretty pictures that I've taken previously, either.

Order Update
If you placed an order recently, it's on it's way to you. We are currently caught up on shipping. There was an extra delay for some customers who ordered over the weekend - you'll find a little surprise in your package as a "thank-you" for your patience. I hate to make you wait!

Limeade And Violet
There will be more instock Limeade and Violet up in the store early next week. We sold out after Miss Violet mentioned us in this week's podcast. Don't fear, more is on the way. Scarlett and Joan will be dyed up over the weekend, and Juliet will follow later. I'm out of Juliet stock at the moment, but the shipment should be here by midweek.

Now, I must get off to dye and reskein some more Limeade and Violet!

Yep, still here

I know that I have been "away" from the blog for longer than usual this week. I wanted to leave the Manly Yarn Contest in the top spot for a good long time. It was featured on the Knitting Cook this week and I didn't want all the listeners to have to scroll to find the contest.

Exciting things have been happening around these parts. I got a large yarn order in on Friday and also my power skeiner! It's new and it works wonderfully. I'm very excited about it. I've been ramping up production recently to accommodate more dyeing for the Knitter's Connection show, and my wrist was getting very sore. (I used to hand wind every hank off the cone and then rewind it into skeins you see in the store. Ouch!) I figured that at my ideal production rate I would be winding 15 miles worth of yarn a week. It was just too much. So here's Bessie - the new workhorse of the studio. You won't notice any difference in the Yarn Love yarn, but I sure will! Yay! We've been getting to know each other over the weekend and I think we're going to have a great working relationship.

Her photo is at the bottom of the post, because she's big and makes for a pretty dull picture. The pic up above is a fraction of what I skeined on her over the weekend.



Loopy Yarns
In case you don't get our newsletter (To sign up go to our homepage, and input your email address in the form at the bottom right of the page. It's easy.) you might not have heard that Yarn Love will now be available at Loopy Yarns in Chicago. We're dyeing up two exclusive colorways for their upcoming Sock Club, so drop by and sign up, the yarn is gorgeous. A big thanks to Kristen at Loopy Yarns, too.



Purls the Yarn Studio
Purls in Des Moines, Iowa just got a big order of Yarn Love in, too. It's nearly all sock yarn, so if you're in the area and love socks (or have that great knitting book about what else you can knit with sock yarn) drop by. Shopping locally means you don't have to wait for the post office to deliver your yarn.

Yarn Love Fiber
If you're a hand spinner then you'll be glad to know that we have Yarn Love spinning fiber in the works. It will be debuted at Knitter's Connection. The fiber content will match our already spun yarns and it will be dyed up in our colorways. We'll have selections from our three collections: Spring, Summer and Manly, too.

I'll leave you contemplating the utilitarian beauty of Bessie, the latest addition to the studio!

The Official Manly Yarn Contest

A couple days ago, I posted about the Manly Yarn Contest. I thought that I would give it it's own post and make things easier for all contestants wanting to play!

Here's the deal:

You - provide your idea(s) for the perfect skein of manly yarn - the one that you want but can never find. The "perfect" skein for knitting and gifting to the favorite man in your life, or at least one he won't look down upon as girly.

Me - I put your name into a drawing for at least one skein of free sock yarn from Yarn Love. (You'll get to choose!) If we get a lot of entries, I'll increase the boodle accordingly. I'll draw the winner April 1st and let them know.


Stats -
* You can enter multiple times, as long as you provide a unique color idea each time

* Enter by posting a comment or emailing me at katie AT shopyarnlove DOT com (remove at & dot and insert appropriate symbols)

* Anyone can win and you don't have to buy anything! So even if your particular suggestion or suggestions doesn't make it into the inital Manly Yarn Collection at Yarn Love, that's no reason for not being able to win.

* Be as specific as you can about color. Include links, graphics or pics of the colors you have in mind if you can.

* Tell your friends. Seriously, this is free sock yarn! Grab a button and tell your friends about it.

The first Manly Yarn Collection will be available with the Summer Collection, early May 2007. This is your chance to be a part of it!