December's "Teaser" & Registrations Open

This colourway is very seasonal! I hope everyone enjoys it. Everything ships today and in fact, I'm on my way out the door to the post office with all the packages!

Happy Holidays everyone and see you in the New Year!

Registrations are open again for 3 & 6 month memberships beginning in January of 2009. Please see the link in the right hand sidebar for more details or click on the link provided. Deadline to register is January 8, 2009.

November's "Spoiler"

Oh gosh, I can't tell you how much I enjoyed dyeing November's colourway! Anything that neighbours in the vicinity of red makes my heart go pitter patter and this one was no exception! I didn't want something bright orange or bright red so I opted for something right in between. When it was finished drying, it reminded me a lot of red curry spice so that's where it got its name from. I hope everyone is enjoying this colourway!

December's colourway will be in the mail very soon and it's already dry and about ready to be shipped! It's a lovely colourway as well and reminiscent of the season.

Happy knitting everyone!

November's "Teaser"

Here's the teaser for this month with the liquify effect. The base yarn this month is 100% superwash merino (springy & soft) and the colourway is Red Curry for one further hint to the colours of this yarn!

Enjoy everyone - this a very seasonal colourway and I hope you all enjoy it!

October's "Spoiler"

Ah, here she is! A beautifully pink and girly colourway named "It's a Girl"! Quite fitting don't you think? :) I haven't done much of anything in the pink family and I thought this would be nice and cheery for the changing season. Hope everyone likes it! It's almost time for November's shipment!

October's "Teaser"

Here's this month's yarn in teaser format! I found a cool new feature to use which makes the colours look liquefied....pretty cool don't you think? This is definitely a nice girly colour that I hope everyone enjoys! I thought a nice pair of soft socks in this colour to wear to bed would be nice and would match maybe a pair of PJs! This yarn, with the cashmere in it, should be treated a little more softly than the regular wear sock yarns even with the nylon in it. I have visions of soft sockies to wear to bed for the upcoming cool weather! Enjoy everyone!

September's "Spoiler"

Wow, it's almost time for October's colourway so I thought I better post the spoiler for September! How's everyone doing? Hope you're having a great Fall season so far! I know I quite prefer this season just because it's much cooler for me when I'm dyeing the yarn and it's also turning to a season of colours that I just love! Enjoy! This colourway is called Beaujolais :)

September's "Teaser"

Here's the little sneak peek teaser of this month's colourway! I hope everyone likes it :) I decided to do something darker and more saturated because this base yarn definitely looks much nicer when it's darker. Hope everyone's doing well and yet another month going in the mail today! Enjoy everyone :)

Registrations Re-Opened for October/2008

I'm happy to re-open registrations for club memberships to start in October 2008 for 3 and 6 month terms. If you are currently a member and not sure when your current registration is ending, please don't hesitate to contact me by email at zenyarngarden [at] yahoo [dot] com and I'll be happy to look it up for you.

More details can be found in my store under "Yarn Clubs". Thanks everyone for your past support and future support - I am having a great time with this club!

Deadline to subscribe is October 7, 2008 for October 15, 2008's mailing.

August's "Spoiler"

It's already September! Can you believe that? I'm so glad - I'm looking forward to Fall and Winter because these seasons definitely are conducive to knitting or any of the fibre arts we enjoy! I've recently taken up spinning so I'm looking forward to more time to spin the wheel too. Yay!

Hope everyone's enjoying this base yarn choice for August - isn't it just totally squishy and soft? I love it! I hope you guys do too!

August's "Teaser"

I'm a bit early again this month which is just fine with me as I get to post a teaser photo a little early this time! This month a few suggested blue so I decided to go with it because I love blue as well and on my new yarn base of 80% superwash merino/20% bamboo it looks wonderful! I hope everyone enjoys this colourway this month and I don't know about you but I'm sure glad to see it's mid-August because the weather will be cooling soon and Fall will be around the corner! Summer is great but Fall is better for getting our knitting mojo back! Summer weather puts a damper on my dyeing mojo too so I'm happy to see it'll soon be cooling off and I can start dreaming about Fall colourways!

Everything mails on Friday or maybe even Thursday if I get the packages all together. Enjoy!

July's "Spoiler"

Hope everyone's enjoying their summer and this colourway! Have you started a project with it yet? Don't forget to post right here on the blog too if you want to! I know we all love Ravelry but it's also nice to see the blog filled out with member posts too. Don't be shy :)

July's "Teaser"

We're on track for this month's yarn to mail tomorrow and here's a little glimpse into the colourway! To give you further insight into the colours, I named this particular colourway "Honey Wheat". Why? Because it seems like that's all I see here in Ontario at the moment - farmers out gathering their wheat! I couldn't resist. I hope everyone enjoys!

Also a quick note about my dyeing for the new members. I use a particular technique when creating semi-solids which means there will be some variation from skein to skein with how light/dark each one is and also with how much of a tone each skein will have. So once the teaser is revealed and you think your skein is darker or lighter, don't worry - that was meant to happen! It's a by-product of the dyeing technique I use. My goal is to create yarns within the same tones which works out quite well each month and as an added bonus, everyone also gets a unique skein!

June's "Spoiler"

Wheee, another month finished and I am hoping everyone is enjoying the Bling yarn who ordered it and for those that didn't, I am hoping you are enjoying the Gemilicious Fingering from Louet! Has everyone realized that ravissant is actually French and means ravishing in English? I thought it would be kind of chic to give a blingy yarn a French name! Enjoy everyone!

June's "Teaser"

I am happy to say I'm a little ahead of schedule with this coming month's yarn so I have a teaser to show already! The Bling is coming along nicely and this teaser shows a bit of a hint but doesn't show some of the "undertone". You'll understand when you get the yarn...LOL A few variations came out of the same tone as well - some of them had the undertone predominant and some of them had the overtone predominant. Either way though the bling is quite blingy with these tones :) Enjoy everyone!

I will also post a teaser of the non-Bling yarn when it's ready to be photographed - DONE (on the left)! :)

Registrations Re-Opened for July/08

I'm happy to re-open registrations for club memberships to start in July 2008 for 3 and 6 month terms. If you are currently a member and not sure when your current registration is ending, please don't hesitate to contact me by email at zenyarngarden [at] yahoo [dot] com and I'll be happy to look it up for you.

More details can be found in my store under "Yarn Clubs". Thanks everyone for your past support and future support - I am having a great time with this club!

Deadline to subscribe is July 7, 2008 for July 15, 2008's mailing.

May's "Spoiler"

Oh gosh golly green....some love it, some hate it. I always have a heckuva time dyeing it because it is tricky to get a good tone and also tricky to get good saturation. I'm really pleased with how these turned out even though I had to dye them twice to get the colour I wanted...LOL Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes and I was glad I made the mailing date deadline given a bit of unforeseen circumstances :)

You may notice hints of gold or red in your skein - that's quite normal - it's from the colour pigments that make up green :) Enjoy everyone!

June's Bling Yarn :)

Hello everyone...I thought I'd post this here too as I'm not sure we're all on Rav - I think we are but better to be safe than sorry...LOL

One of our clubbers made a special request for Bling yarn for the month of June which I'm happy to accommodate - I was going to do a special extra something to add in with your packages in June but this way, we'll do the special yarn instead! This works great because my regular pattern writer is taking a bit of a holiday and isn't available for June. The picture with this post is a sample of the Bling yarn - in case you aren't familiar with it. It's got silver strands in it! Here's the stats on it:

YARN DETAILS:
63% Superwash Merino/20% Silk/15% Nylon/2% Silver
Approx. 420 yards
Suggested Needle: 1-3 (US)
Fingering Weight

As I said in Rav, I'm fine with sending non-Bling yarn too - please email me at zenyarngarden AT yahoo DOT com and I'll make sure to send you the regular yarn combos we originally started the club with - merino, merino/nylon or merino/bamboo/nylon all in fingering weight. I do realize some of you may not prefer the Bling yarn and that's just fine with me...it's just a little record-keeping to make sure you get what you like :)

As for colour, please let me know if you have a preference - we are leaning toward a darker chocolate/purple in Rav and if you visit my photo sets of the Bling yarn in Flickr (linked above) you will notice that the darker colours really set off the silver strands compared to the lighter shades.

Hope everyone's having a wonderful Spring - it will be summer soon! :)

May's "Teaser"

A little taste of this month's colour! I ended up with warmer tones and a few variations of them with this colour. I hope everyone likes it! It surely does remind me of Spring and all the colours that are becoming richer this time of the year.

This colour is always a tough one for me to do - not because it's not a good colour but because it's not one I do a lot of. I am envisioning men's socks with this colour or a nice scarf even. I'm sure you guys will find a great way to use it! Enjoy!

April's "Spoiler"

I've been dieing to dye (pun intended LOL) a red/pink combo for awhile now so I thought April would be the perfect month for it! I hope everyone is enjoying this month's Rambling Rose colourway! It should knit up into a red/pink combo.

After taking a trip to Florida, I have a few ideas for next month's colourway already! It's good to be back :) Hope everyone's doing great and enjoying the warmer weather that seems to be coming around more lately!

April's "Teaser"

Wow, it seems early to post this but as you know, I'm away next week so we're a bit early this month! I had no particular reason to dye the colourway this month other than I've been dieing to dye (LOL) a blend of these colours so I decided to kick off April with it! I hope everyone enjoys! The majority of you will receive my Squooshy Merino/Nylon blend yarn but a handful are getting my brand new Gemilicious Fingering (Louet Gems) base yarn as I had more join at the last minute than I expected! The colourway is the same on all yarns....Louet Gems is wonderful as a base yarn too...enjoy for those that do receive it this month! It's one I will be using again for another month :)

Hedera Socks WIP & April Sign-Ups Close Tomorrow!

I keep forgetting to post my Hedera WIP from the Sun Kiss colourway so thought I would do that today and remind everyone that tomorrow is the last day to sign up for the next round of semi-solids. If you are interested in signing up, you will find more details here. I'm excited to get going again and welcome to all the new members who have signed up for the next round! Thank you also to all the members who have decided to continue on for the next round too :)

As for my sock, I'm almost to the toe now so I should have a finished sock to show soon too!

Everyone ready for April? Yarns will be coming out next Friday already!

April's Yarn Shipment

Hello guys...hope everyone's doing well! I hope to see some of you using the wonderful pattern Alyson did for us too :)

Just to let you know, April's shipment will come out early this month (around the 11th) as I am heading out of town and won't be here on the 15th. I thought it better to get it out early to everyone rather than late.

Stay tuned!

Design & Dash!

Hi! I'm Alyson, and I was delighted to design the "extra" that was included in the March shipment, the Ribs & Seeds pattern. These little drive-by posts (zoom!) are a great way for me to say hi, and to thank you all and Roxanne for giving me the opportunity to play and create along with you! I hope you like the pattern design - I'd been wanting for a while to do a cabled design on the back of a sock, and lately I've been kind of fixated on the look and feel of seed stitch. I don't normally do "resolutions" each year, we did decide at the first of the year, when evaluating our budget, to start eating out way less. In rediscovering how much I love cooking, I've been looking at tons of recipes - and since I like a little spice in my dishes, I use quite a few recipes that call for hot peppers. When I saw the phrase "ribs and seeds removed", I had a little revelation: Ribs! Seeds! Seeds...cables...ribs...seeded cables...seed rib...ha! Some of my favourite elements, all put together, with heat!

Often my patterns are inspired by something I see, like the cathedral that inspired the Reims stocking pattern, or maybe I'll see a clever stitch pattern that I can adapt or tinker with - this is the first pattern I've designed that came more from an idea, a simple phrase in a recipe, rather than from a visual. I had a lot of fun sketching this one up, and I was also trying to keep in mind something a bit more unisex, something with a little pizzazz but that my husband would wear. Not that he'll necessarily get the ones I made...but that's beside the point, right? It's the thought that counts! ;-)

I never get tired of working with Roxanne's yarns - I know you all love them every bit as much as I do! Thank you, Roxanne, for giving me the chance to work with you and your wonderful rich yarns once again. It's always such a treat!

Happy knitting!

March's "Spoiler"

I hope most of you have received your March yarn! If not, don't click on the photo or you'll see the yarn up close and personal! I hope everyone's enjoying the Sun Kiss colourway - hopefully it'll make Spring hurry up and get here??!!! ;) No signs of Spring coming quite yet!

I've started a Hedera sock - what are your plans for this yarn?

March's "Teaser"

Ahhhhhhh, Spring...it needs to get here soon! I couldn't resist doing something entirely different for the month of March - Spring is around the corner and it was time for a bit of a cheery colourway! I hope everyone enjoys this colour! I had to do a last minute sub on the yarn so this month is a surprise blend! My yarn supplier was late with my order by 3-4 weeks so I had to improvise so everyone didn't have to wait :) It's a lovely blend and it is just as cheery as the colourway this month. Enjoy everyone!

And a thread was started on Rav about yarn bleeding - just a quick note here as well - some colours have a tendency to run (blue and red being the two worst offenders) so if you see a bit of colour in the water when you're either blocking or washing, don't worry - it's excess dye coming out and your colours will be just fine. When I dye semi-solids there tends to be a lot of mixing of colours so blue and red can show up often :) With any brand spanking new yarn, it's just inevitable that some colour will come out - I have heat treated the yarns for 30-45 minutes so don't worry, colour will not bleed right out of your yarns. If you want to help the colourfastness last longer then I suggest a bit of vinegar in your wash and if you really want to be doubly sure, make your socks damp in a solution of a bit of vinegar and water and put your socks into the microwave on high for about 1-2 minutes. Remove them and let them cool off. Make sure they are damp so they don't get crispy :) This just doubles up on the heat setting treatment I've already applied to the yarns. Hope that helps for anyone who was wondering about this tendency for handpainted yarns.

Happy Spring everyone!

Registrations Open!

I've opened up registrations again for 3-month and 6-month terms! If you'd like to register, please either register through my Etsy store (USA) or through my online store (USA, Canada & International).

Shipment dates for this new round of memberships will be:
April 15, 2008
May 15, 2008
June 15, 2008
July 15, 2008
August 15, 2008
September 15, 2008

If you are already registered for the next 3 months of April, May and June, please don't re-register now as I'll open the registrations up again in 3 months to give the opportunity for everyone to re-register if they like when your current term is over. Thanks and if you have questions, please email me at zenyarngarden AT yahoo DOT com.

February's "Spoiler"

Hopefully it's been long enough for everyone to receive their yarns for February! Here's a little Aubergine spoiler for everyone. I had a lot of fun dyeing this colourway - I wanted something in the "red" family because it was Valentine's month after all but I didn't want to just do plain ol' red so this one is a multi-layered colourway with even a dash of chocolate in it - very Valentine's isn't it?! I can't wait to see this one knit up to see how the colours look when knit!

Enjoy everyone and can't wait to see your projects :)

March will be here very soon! I am going to open up 3-month and 6-month registrations again for April 15's mailing so if anyone's interested in continuing on for April and are just finishing up their 3 months, stay tuned! I also have a nice little surprise coming with March's shipment :)

February's "Teaser"

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!! Hope you're all having a great day.

Yarns will go in the mail tomorrow and just to whet your appetite a little, here's a little sampling of what's to come! This semi-solid is a blending a few different tones of colours so I hope everyone enjoys it.

What inspired me this month? The month of February and Valentine's of course but I didn't want to dye a plain ol' red yarn so I did a bit of mixing and blending and got this colourway. If you are ever curious what colours went into the making of the colours, don't hesitate to ask! You might be surprised to know what I used for this one!

What's up for February?

I'm dying with the suspense! :) The teaser gave me an idea of what to expect for January so I'm sort of glad we haven't seen February's yet....I love to be surprised but then again, I can't wait to know! LOL

January's "Spoiler"

Yay, everyone seems to be receiving their yarns for this month! Here's my spoiler - don't click unless you want to see it up close and personal :) The colour is probably going to show more blue when you photo it as digital cameras tend to go to that end of the colour spectrum when they see blue-green. I have tweaked my photo as best I could with my monitor being optimized but it still may show differently on your monitor. Ahhhhhhhh, the joys of colour on monitors and how digital cameras pick them up....LOL Don't worry if yours photos more blue - it did for me too.

I can't wait until February...I have something a little different planned...this one soft, next month should be a little "bolder".

Can't wait to see your knitted items from this colourway...I find it very soothing :)

January's "Teaser"

This colour was really hard to capture with the camera but I think I got it :) All yarns are being mailed today and I hope you find this colourway calming, cool and refreshing! It's done on a fingering weight merino/bamboo/nylon blend yarn which is one of my favourites - very soft and wonderful to work with! Enjoy everyone!

Here We Go!

Wow, it's that time already! I really can't believe how quickly the dates come up for the clubs...and here we go with new 2008 colourways! I'm excited to get this yarn and this colour out to everyone!

For those who are new to the club, you will receive a Paypal notice of shipping tomorrow and airmail delivery time from Canada to the USA is 4-10 business days. In non-busy times it tends to average about 4 days but some packages will take just a wee bit longer. For our international clubbers, airmail delivery times is also 6-10 business days so hopefully about a week and you'll get your packages too! Those who are in Ontario, it's usually overnight service and if you're in another province in Canada, the wait can be a little longer depending on where you are but shouldn't be more than 7 days.

Here we goooooooo......

Just under the wire

Hi everyone!

I read about this yarn club on someone's blog and was SO excited to join! I have so many "varied" colorways but not very many semi-solids! I can't wait to get the first shipment!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone.
I am excited about joining the sock club.
This is my first club.
Can't wait to see the colours Roxanne has chosen.

New Year-New Yarn Colours

Happy New Year! I just signed up for another 3 months. :D I made gifts from Harmony Solids and Art Walk yarns. They all turned out lovely. My only regret is I did not take photos. I cannot wait for the next three colours. :)