KSD went on vacation and all I got was…Awesome Yarn!

Photo credit: Valeriano Della Longo, used with Creative Commons Attribution license.

So much better than a souvenir t-shirt….

I’m hopping on a plane bound for sunny Aruba for a real live vacation!* And I would love to bring back seashells and carved coconuts for everyone, but my suitcase is only so big, right?

So to share some fun while I’m away,  I’m stocking up the KSD shop full of cheap, lovely yarn for you!

What’s on SALE?
I am overstocked on some beautiful yarns that are lonely one-skeiners, Odd Ducks (one-of-a-kind microbatches), discontinued colors and fibers, and a few random things just for the heck of it.  I’m cleaning out these little gems by marking them down to make room for new items coming this fall, and to build up the KSD travel fund for upcoming shows. (note- I just found a hidden, unmarked box of amazing odd duck merino fine skeins, so y’all totally scored on that!)

Stock up while they last!

All orders will ship when I return to the studio, Friday and Saturday next week.

Cheers and I’ll see you when I get back (probably slightly sunburnt)!

Mercedes

*I will be incommunicado (no internet! no email! no phone! yikes!) for about a week. If there are any snags on your order, I will clean it up and make it all better once I’m back in Alabama.

  • Share/Bookmark
July 16, 2010 | Tags: , | View Comments

One door closes, or: Be Yourself!

Photo, Two Doors, Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark

And another one (or more) opens!

Yesterday, I turned down my first knitwear design job.

It was the first time, in a long time, that I was asked to make enough significant changes to my original idea that it would have sent the design on a very un-Mercedes path. But hooray for clear, calm communication, I was able to express my concerns and the client and I parted ways amicably, with possibilities for future projects together (SO much better than the scenarios in my head!).  I trusted my gut, and I think that was the best advice I could have given my self.  I have many, many more thoughts on the subject of staying true to your thing, and will be writing more in coming weeks.  I take being yourself very, very seriously.  Except when I sing kindergarten-esque silly songs about it. 

One of the nice things about being a craft floozie, is that I tend to have eleventy-three irons in the fire at any given moment*.  So as soon as I hung up the phone and took a deep sigh of relief, my inbox provided my creative self with another fun opportunity, this time for KSD!

I’m happy to announce that I will be dyeing a custom Kitchen Sink Dyeworks colorway for Shannon Okey’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo readalong + knitalong on Ravelry!  I’ll be dyeing the colorway for Steig Larsson’s second book in the trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire. I’m super-excited, especially as these books were on my beach reading list for my vacation next week**! 

 

Join in on the knitalong on Ravelry. 

Books, yarn, socks, knitting?

This is going to be awesome!

 

*Because, really, why have one career, when you can have a circus act by juggling four or five?

**Other best piece of advice? Take a freakin’ vacation!

Posted via email from piebird’s posterous

  • Share/Bookmark
July 15, 2010 | View Comments

Free Online Sock Class is on the move…

A while back, I started a free online sock class to teach the magic loop technique (my absolute, deeply-loved, favorite technique for knitting in the round).  The class project was a teensy pair of toddler socks, which could then be donated to Children in Common, a charity benefiting kids in orphanages in the former Soviet Union, establishments which are underfunded and underheated.  The class was a brainstorm resulting from a flurry of craft writing that was making the rounds on the blogs of some of my favorite folks, all about the “Power of Free”. ,

I had originally been hosting the class on a Ning social networking sitewhich was free at the time.  Ning is changing their business model to pay per month for hosting, and when I thought about whether or not this was the best medium I could pay for to get the class out there, well…it wasn’t.

So, now I’ve decided to make it easier for more knitters to access the videos for the class by moving the video materials to YouTube, and the supplemental materials (pattern PDF,…etc.) to my design blog, piebirddesign.com.

The full class materials list with file and video links can now be found here:
http://piebirddesign.com/classes/free-online-sock-class/

My piebirddesign YouTube channel can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/piebirddesign

If you haven’t signed up previously, come on over and check out the videos!

If you’ve enjoyed the class, please help spread the word by directing people to the new class page.

And if you’ve finished a pair of socks, drop me a line, I’d love to see your projects!

Posted via email from piebird’s posterous

  • Share/Bookmark
June 30, 2010 | View Comments

Tweety-tweet-tweet


Hey kids! I just changed my Twitter username from @kitchensinkdye to @mercedesKSD.  If you’re on Twitter and not following me yet, run on over and join in!  If you’re not on Twitter (come on, it’s fun!), you can still get updates through the newsletter list or right here on the KSD site, but without as many jokes and links and other little things that get posted everyday.

  • Share/Bookmark
June 17, 2010 | View Comments

On the Road Again

KSD in Tennessee this weekend!

Visit KSD on Memorial Day weekend, May 28-30, at the Dickson County Fairgrounds off Hwy 47 East, in Dickson, TN.

Friday 1-6, Saturday 9-5, Sunday 10-4

Mercedes will be there with heaps of yarn in your favorite KSD colorways, with lots of bright, fun summery colors!  The fairgrounds will have lots of southeastern fiber vendors, activities, classes, and exhibits.

For more information, visit http://www.tnfiberfestival.com/

Have a fun, safe holiday weekend!

  • Share/Bookmark
May 27, 2010 | View Comments

Stitches South



Our booth at the Townsend Fiber Fest.  For Stitches, take this and imagine it HUGE.  *grin*

See us at Stitches South

Visit KSD this weekend, April 22nd -25th, at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta, GA, for Stitches South, in booth 232.

Mercedes will be there with heaps of yarn in your favorite KSD colorways, and lots of bright new colors, too!  The booth will be stocked with beautiful projects to fire up your imagination and set your needles in motion.

Win $50 Gift Certificate!

Stop by our booth (232) this weekend to enter to win a $50 Gift Certificate to the KSD online shop!

See you in Atlanta!

  • Share/Bookmark
April 21, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , | View Comments

Almost ready for Stitches South…

I’ve been dyeing up yarn all day to be sure we have plenty of goodies to bring to Atlanta for Stitches South next week. I’m so excited!  I kept piling up fresh yarns until I ran out of room on the cooling racks, and dyed up plenty of skeins of new colorways.

Now on to washing, drying, and reskeining. Whew!  I think for now, it’s beer o’ clock.

Quick note, the KSD website is down temporarily (I hope!). I’m
researching the bug and will try to sort it out tonight.

Fixed it! (Obviously, because you can read this now, instead of seeing a pesky error message. Yeah! *fist pump*)

  • Share/Bookmark
April 14, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , | View Comments

Twist Collective Spring/Summer- Lena

The new issue of  Twist Collective is out, and it is chock full of amazing patterns.  My want-to-knit list has grown by several projects.   I was especially anticipating the release of this new issue because my new Lena pattern is in it!  A nice, easy lace infinity scarf, Lena is cast on in the round (on surprisingly short needles, I used a 32″ circular, so no needle wrestling.), and knit in alternating bands of singled and doubled strands of Seacell Merino Fine.

Once you get the lace pattern started, it’s easy conversation-friendly knitting.  While I like a good challenge, sometimes it nice to just relax and enjoy the yarn, so this pattern fits the bill, and it helps make it an especially beginner-friendly into to lace stitches.

After it’s bound-off and blocked, Lena grows to a generous 72″ loop, and can be worn all sorts of ways, as seen in the shot above.  The model shown has an optional crocheted picot edging, which I admit scared me a bit when I thought about the fact that I would be crocheting 12 feet of edging.  But I sat on the couch and went to it, and after one episode of Doctor Who it was complete, no sweat!  I think that with the cool Seacell blend yarn and easy-to-follow texture pattern, this will make a perfect vacation-knitting project (or backyard knitting, poolside knitting, you get the idea!), which is exactly what I was aiming for when I started imagining the project.

I’ve listed some Lena kits in the KSD shop, with some suggested pairings to help ease color indecision, or choose your own two colorways for personalized Lena.  The PDF pattern is available for purchase through Twist Collective for $5.00.

Now I just need to decide on which colors to pick for my own Lena, probably in blues and greens.  Hmm…

  • Share/Bookmark
April 6, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , | View Comments

New colorways in stock

Valencia semi-solid, shown on Seacell Merino Fine

I’ve just posted our bright new colorways for spring,  and the shop has been updated with new arrivals.

This week, get FREE shipping on all orders to the US and Canada, use coupon code 0J2A1AMRO0PJ at checkout.  Code expired 4/9/10.

Ruthie semi-solid, shown on Merino Fine

I couldn’t wait to begin knitting with some of these beauties, so I just cast on for a re-vamp of one of my old scarf patterns, the Petal Edge Scarf (it will be available at the KSD booth at Stitches South later this month) in Mai, an over-the-top super-saturated red-orange that I am completely besotted with.

Mai semi-solid, shown on Merino Fine

  • Share/Bookmark
April 1, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , | View Comments

Been busy in the kitchen…

Cooking up new colors! I’m editing photos and updating the online shop now, so look for an announcement soon!

(Those oranges? I’m crazy about them. Crazy, I tells ya.)

Posted via email from piebird’s posterous

  • Share/Bookmark
March 31, 2010 | View Comments
« Older Entries