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!

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*)

All photos by Chris Clark, motionmind on flickr

KSD hit the road last week for the inaugural Smoky Mountain Fiber Arts Festival in Townsend, TN.  It was a small event, but was so much fun!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more enthusiastic crowd of participants.  I talked to so many excited, interesting knitters, crocheters, spinners, and fiber folk.  The vibe was so happy!

The festival had a small selection of vendors (that’s our booth, in the Townsend Elementary School Gym), and with the overwhelmingly positive response and turn-out, the organizers expect a much bigger second year, and I definitely agree.  I met some wonderful fellow vendors, including Walter Turpening, who crafts the most beautiful, comfortable handwoven chairs and benches for knitters, spinners, and weavers.  He’s old school, with no website, but you can see one of his coveted knitter’s rockers at my friend Kristin’s blog.  I need to sell more yarn so that I can get one of these amazing chairs!

There were spinning, weaving, sheep shearing, livestock, and herding dog demonstrations (I didn’t get to see!  I was too busy in the booth.) And the organizers had great kid’s activities for all ages, even my friend Julie’s toddler had things she could make, including an ingenious soda straw weaving project.  This simple project completely mesmerized all of the kids who were working on it, and you could see groups of children (including teens) with heads bent over their work, happily weaving headbands and chunky bookmarks.  I saw a few kids wearing their finished pieces around the event later!

Chris and I borrowed a pop-up camper and camped at a nearby campground for the weekend, the Mountaineer Campground.  It was so quiet and peaceful, and a wonderful mini-vacation.  I could see why people call Townsend, TN the “Peaceful Side of the Smokies”.  And the campground had pet chickens!

So if you get a chance to visit the beautiful Smoky Mountains next spring, mark you calendar for this fiber fest.  This first year was so great, I can’t wait to see next year’s event!

For information, visit www.smfaf.org

There’s been a lot of chat in the internet craft community about the joy and power of FREE, as in sharing creative works for free to spread goodwill.  I love this idea, sharing tutorials and ideas, but I wanted to take it a step further.  So here’s my next big thing, a free online class where I’m not only sharing knitting knowledge, but giving you the opportunity to share some free, too.

Visit my class site to sign up for a completely free online video class on how to knit socks with the Magic Loop technique.  The class project is a teeny pair of toddler socks that can be (but don’t have to be, your choice, no pressure) donated to Children in Common.  CIC helps provide warm clothing and other assistance to children living in orphanages in Russia and the rest of the former soviet Union.

SIGN UP HERE

So in my excitement and KAL inexperience (it’s my first time as a KAL organizer), I realized that while the Pavo Real KAL began yesterday on ravelry, I completely neglected to post about it HERE.  FAIL*.  Hopefully, it will sound like so much fun, some of you will still want to join in and forgive my gaffe.

So without further delay, here are the details:

The KAL’s homebase is in the KSD group on ravelry.  The only real rules are use KSD yarn (because it’s a KSD knitalong, right?) and check with me if you have any major pattern issues before freaking out mid-forum (I’m not expecting any real problems since the pattern’s been knit by several different knitters, but you never know.).

If you’re on twitter, tweet with the hashtag #PavoKAL to join in on the conversation there.

The KAL’s flickr group can be found HERE.

This is a month-long knitalong for February, so join in at any time and share your projects.  I can’t wait to see them.  We’ll aim for finished shawls by the 28th, but since life sometimes has other plans, just show us what you’ve got along the way.  It’s the journey, right?

And again, not to plug it too hard, except I think it would help new laceknitters, but if you love the look of these lace shawls but are intimidated by hole-y knitting and charts and markers, consider signing up for my online Pavo Real lace class.  I promise to make you more confident and capable with lace knitting, and you’ll get a lovely shawl to boot!

*I could blame it on the groundhog.  He is awfully compelling.

Are you ready for the Pavo Real knitalong? We’ll be casting on for our shawls tomorrow, Feb. 2nd, and I’m super excited to see what variations y’all are working on!

The knitalong’s home will be on KSD’s ravelry group, and I’ve also set up a flickr group to share photos of your projects.

I’ll start a fresh forum thread tomorrow morning for you to post your progress, photos, questions, and ideas. And, because this everyone loves prizes, there will be random prize giveaways for KAL participants during the event!

Get out your needles and KSD yarn and get ready, this is going to be awesome!  Want to participate but feel a little out-of-your-league?  This project is much easier to learn than you would think! CLICK HERE for more information on the Pavo Real online class, where I’ll teach you step-by-step from cast on to bind off how to knit this fun (and addictive) lace project.

For directions, e-mail me at mail-at-kitchensinkdyeworks-dot-com.

Free shipping discount will be given as a PayPal refund after your purchase. Discount applies to US orders only. Free shipping is good on all custom dyed orders, including Girl Friday sweater kits. Standard order turnaround applies, normally 1-2 weeks.

Browse our custom listings at the etsy shop, or see our yarn and colorways here on our website.

Charlotte shown on Merino Bamboo fine, Seacell Merino Fine, Luxe Merino Fine, and Merino Fine (from L to R)

We’re Miss January for 2010, along with a beautiful gathering of indie dyers, to raise money for Knitters Without Borders/Doctors Without Borders. Sexy, eh?

Pre-orders now open, shipping begins on November 2nd.
Eleven indie yarn companies have joined together to create the first Year in Yarn calendar, a must- have for dedicated knitters. Each month features gorgeous photography of hand-dyed yarn and the calendar pages include important dates knitters will want to keep in mind for 2010 – like the deadline to apply for Meg Swansen’s Knitting Camp, when and where Stitches and TNNA shows are taking place, and Elizabeth Zimmerman’s birthday.
Over twelve months, knitters will be greeted with photographs of yarns from established and up- and-coming indie dyers, including:
- The Sanguine Gryphon
- Three Irish Girls
- Rainy Days & Wooly Dogs
- A Verb for Keeping Warm
- Miss Babs
- Creatively Dyed
- String Theory
- Kitchen Sink Dyeworks
- Happy Hands
- Briar Rose Fibers
- Van Der Rock Yarns
The calendar retails for $16 CAD. Three dollars from the purchase of each calendar will be donated to Knitters Without Borders/Doctors Without Borders.
The calendar is available for purchase online at www.yearinyarn.com Order yours today!

Toronto Island Sheep by Duchamp

Southerners, come see us at SAFF in Fletcher, NC, the great gathering of fiber folk for the Southeast!

We’ll have tons of yarns and spinning fibers in booth #113 in the Sales Arena, and we’d love to see you there!  Last year Kristin (Girl Friday) and I visited and had so much fun visiting with sheep and alpaca herders, and seeing all the amazing fiber offerings.  Someone even came home with an angora rabbit, but you didn’t hear it from me!

Sheep at watering hole by Crowt59

alpaca's Delight by woodleywonderworks

Seriously, you haven’t lived until you’ve met an alpaca (or six).  I hung out in the alpaca shed talking to the herders for hours last year.

Sheep Stampede by pussnboots