Happy New Year – What’s Coming in 2020

The holidays are completed for 2019 and a new year has begun.  I look back on this past year and realize that even with several tragic losses, my family and I have so much for which to be thankful.  One of the things I’m most thankful for are you, my customers, who constantly encourage me to push past boundaries, try new things and new techniques and always let me know you “get it” with some of my wilder imaginings with color.

I just recently did my first subscription box: The Kwanzaa Calendar.  I had so much fun creating it and then reading various customers’ remarks about it on Instagram.  I am so happy that it was so well received.  For those of you who are reading this and are not familiar with the box, you can watch a review of it on Happeeknits’ End of Year podcast.  You can find it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcloxWlGu68  If you aren’t familiar with this podcast, you should be!  Yolanda and Jordan are great.  They review new trends in handknitting and crocheting as well as products.  Yolanda frequently has giveaways for her viewers.  Her son, Jordan is her “sidekick” and he is not only knowledgeable about fiber arts, but is tongue-in-cheek hilarious.  The interaction between mother and son is funny, adorable and loving.

Since I had so much fun with the Kwanzaa Calendar, I have decided it will be an annual event.  I will definitely do one in 2020.  Watch for the subscription sometime in August.

Also, because I had so much fun doing the boxes, and so many of you enjoyed them so much, I’ve decided that I’m going to do a quarterly subscription box.  Subscribers will be able to choose between Fingering or DK weight yarn and the boxes will contain yarn, knitting and crochet patterns and notions.  The boxes will contain 2 or 3 hanks of yarn of the same colorway or colorways that play together or fade together.  There will be enough yarn to make a shawl, cowl or other largish accessory.  Because this is a quarterly subscription, payments can be made in January for the March box, April for the June box, July for the September box and October for the December box.  Subscriptions will close for the quarter on the last day of the month payment is due.  The subscriptions will be listed on the “Specials” category on the website.  By the way, the theme for this year’s subscription box?  The Queen of Soul herself, Aretha Franklin.  I will be exploring her music legacy in color!  The theme of the first box is “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman.”  The price of this first box will be $125 and will include 3 hanks of yarn, a project bag, a pattern and an accessory.

For all of you who have seen the “no-name” maroon sweater that has been in my booth at all the fiber festivals, I have good news for you.  The pattern has been written, has been tech edited and is going out for test knitting this month.  I plan to have it available in time for DFW Fiber Fest at the beginning of April.  The name of the pattern is “Seeding Fields.”  It will be listed on Ravelry and available for purchase in a kit on the site.  There will be several unique colorways dyed up just for this sweater, as well as the original colorway Drogon, for purchase or you can customize your own kit by choosing yarn in the shop or having it custom dyed.  As we get nearer to DFW Fiber Fest, more details will be available.

Lastly, my Chicken Feet base is going on vacation.  The remainder of my Chicken Feet stock will be reduced by 25% until sold out.  I brought out a new base last month, Leghorn, which is a single, fingering weight yarn with 400 yards.  I just love how it grabs color.  I do plan to bring out a heavier fingering/sock weight yarn that is 437 yards per 100 grams or thereabout.  Foghorn, of course, will remain in the shop and has the same yardage as Chicken Feet, but is a 4-ply as opposed to Chicken Feet which is 3-ply.  I also have become curious about working with mohair.  I will be releasing another fingering base that is a merino/mohair blend.  More about that later.

I plan to continue my love affair with silk.  More silk and silk blends will be dyed this year.  I currently dye a lace and fingering weight 100% Mulberry silk.  I tend to carry this base to fiber festivals rather than sell it online.  That is going to change.  It will be offered online, too, in the next few weeks.  It is hard to capture the luster of silk in a photograph, but I will give it my best try.

I have a few other plans up my sleeve for this coming year, including blogging more often!  I hope to see many of you at fiber festivals over next year and I hope to hear from you, too.  Don’t be shy, drop a comment, send an email, post on Instagram or Facebook.  I do respond!

Until next time, Happy Knitting!!

Love, Carol