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