Yarn Pirate Shop →

Well!  Thank you all very much for your feedback.  It was very helpful.  I am hugely relieved that most of you are in the sans-swag category.  I love finding cool stuff, especially stuff from other indie crafters, but the thought of coming up with a bunch of stuff month after month was giving me fits.

We do have a few cool things up our sleeves here at Yarn Pirate headquarters.  There will be special (and cost effective) treats for those of you that sign up right away- a welcome bag kind of thing.  I am crossing my fingers that everything will be ready to go for July 1st.  So sign ups will be some time in June.  I’m still mulling over a few details…do I want  to do an initial 3 month club to “see how it goes”?  Maybe 6 months?  Maybe an ongoing, cancle-any-time paypal kind of thing.  So much to think about! 

The club itself will be exclusive club colorways, and most likely a different base yarn every month.  Well, if it’s for 6 months I can’t do a different yarn each month.  There are only so many base yarns (that I like to work with).  At this point I don’t think I want to make them available to the public down the line.  What’s the fun in that?  The club will be open to my wonderful international customers as well.  I’ll ship anywhere!  Ew, but shipping internationally via USPS is a mess right now.  I’m looking into FedEx or something.  It used to cost me like $6.50 to ship to Canada and today I had to pay SIXTEEN DOLLARS because I couldn’t cram the yarn into their tiny cardboard global priority envelope. 

We have lots of other fun stuff in the works.  It’s going to be a busy summer here at Yarn Pirate Central.  The Stitch N Bitch calendar comes out around the end of June, featuring lots of talented indie dyers (including little old me!).  There is also one SUPER TOP SECRET project I am working on.  It’s something I am really excited about.  Hm…want a few extremely vague hints?  It’s something I’m making.  I won’t have a finished object to show off for a while.  It’s something I’m making up as I go along, so I won’t have a pattern to share.  I guess that means I can’t submit it to Knitty.  It will be one of a kind, and I can already tell it will be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever made.  Unless I happen to finish my Habu scarf kit first, cause that thing is amazing!!

I want to make a Yarn Pirate Sock Club and have it be an ongoing thing.  If it’s feasible, I’d love to do it 6 months out of the year or more.  There are a lot of sock clubs out there, and I want to make sure mine is…well, the best.  I want it to fit the needs of my customers better than any sock club out there.  So I have some questions.  Oh, and because I hate doing a post without pictures, the images below are examples of my hand dyed roving after it’s been spun (by me). 

 1.  How many of you are interested in joining a Yarn Pirate sock club?  Even if you’re just a little tempted, let me know.  I am very good at talking people in to buying stuff ;).

2.  How important is the “swag” that comes with a lot of these clubs?  See, scrounging up cool extra stuff to send every month is A) expensive, and B) time consuming.  Having limited or no swag would make the club more affordable.

3.  How important are special patterns?  Do you want a pattern to knit with each installment?  (See A and B above)

4.  Would you like Mr. Yarn Pirate to make some kind of “members only” blog so you can post pictures of what you’ve been knitting?

5.  What makes a sock club “worth it” to you?  What keeps you coming back for more?  Is it the cool, exclusive yarn?  The extra stuff they throw in?  The customer service?

See, here’s my take on the sock club thing.  I don’t belong to any sock clubs, but I did join 3 fiber clubs this year.  If I joined a sock club, all I would care about is the yarn.  The little goodies are fun, but I don’t feel like I need them.  I don’t get goodies with my fiber clubs, and I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything.  The patterns… lets just say I am a very stubborn/lazy knitter and while I would no doubt admire a special pattern, I’m willing to bet I would knit a plain old cuff-down stockinette stitch sock.  So, all I really care about as a customer is the yarn/fiber.  But I’m way more interested in what my customers think.  Please leave a comment!

I had such a great time on Sunday on our unofficial yarn shop tour.  The weather was beautiful.  I went with my two friends Melissa and Kate.  We took the ferry over to Kingston and drove to the very picturesque historical town of Port Gamble.  I think I have mentioned more than once my love for old houses.  I was in heaven in Port Gamble.  It’s nothing but beautifully restored houses from the mid to late 1800s.  It has a cute town center with old shops, a mill, and an old firehouse.  The old firehouse was our first stop.  It’s the home of The Artful Ewe, the studio and shop of the very talented Heidi (also, check out her blog for a super cute picture of a newborn lamb in her shop).  The Artful Ewe is my kind of store.  It’s full of spinning fibers, many of them hand dyed by Heidi.  She also sells spinning supplies, knitting supplies, and beautiful hand crafted things made by her fiber artist friends.  Check out my purchases.  I got some good stuff!

I got a wonderful hand woven cotton/linen hand towel (for a certian MIL I know), a lavender wand thingie to keep my stash smelling fresh, some hand dyed bombyx silk (the blue package), hand dyed mohair locks, and in the center is 1 oz of bison fiber.

I want to talk about this bison fiber a little.  I know there has been a little controversy about the high price of this fiber, not to mention the weird patent on the process.  I normally wouldn’t buy into crap like this.  But here’s the thing- my father was really enamored with the bison as a symbol of freedom in the wild west.  He loved to paint and sculpt bison, and he owned a few Native American artifacts made from buffalo hides.  I remember in particular a pair of beaded moccasins with the soft, thick wool on the inside.  I have always wished that I knit my dad a hat or scarf out of bison yarn.  He would have loved something like that.  He died several years ago, before I ever got the chance to knit him anything.  So now I’m going to spin this bison fiber into yarn and think about my dad while I spin.  I’m going to knit something special for myself with the yarn so I can remember my dad when I wear it.

Our next stop was Church Mouse Yarn and Teas.  Um, wow.  That is a fabulous yarn store!  They had a great selection, and lots of stuff I’ve never seen in a LYS before. 

I’m disgusted with myself for buying a skein of STR.  Honestly, I’ve always felt kind of “meh” about the colorways.  I don’t even like the one I bought all that much.  It’s your basic neopolitan-colored yarn.  I thought it would be cute for baby knits (NOT THAT I’M PREGNANT, THOSE OF YOU WHO WILL READ THAT AND EMAIL ME TO ASK ).  The base yarn is pretty darn amazing though.  I got a skein of medium weight.  They ain’t lying.  It rocks.  It’s really soft and round and squishy.  Love the base yarn…don’t really get the whole frenzy thing.  But whatever.  On to the next item.  I got a Habu merino & silk stainless steel scarf kit.  I’ve seen these on Flickr, but there’s nothing like seeing/feeling one in real life.  Wow.  I had to have it.  I didn’t care how much it cost (luckily it was under $30!).  I am SUPER excited to start this.  It has totally renewed my interest in knitting.  You may have noticed I’ve been a little obsessed with spinning.  Well, I’m telling ya, I think this scarf will have me staying up late to knit just like I used to when I first started.   Oh, and I got some ginger-pear tea too, which is really yummy.  I love ginger anything, but there’s something about ginger tea that I find really soothing and comforting.  It’s really good with a dollop of organic raw honey.  Mmmmmmmm!

Our last stop was this fantastic fabric store, Esther’s Fabrics.  I think I’ll let the picture do the talking.  My first fibery-love was fabric.  I can’t wait to find a little time to sew.

So, it was a fabulous day filled with fun and loot.  It was nice to get away from the yarn for a few hours…even if all I did was hang around other people’s yarn.  Have a great Monday!!!