This is Halloween!

This is Halloween, this is Halloween

Pumpkins scream in the dead of night

This is Halloween, everybody make a scene

Trick or treat till the neighbors gonna die of fright

It's our town, everybody scream

In this town of Halloween

from Nightmare before Christmas

Hurray for my favorite holiday of the year. No religious stuff, no presents, little controversy, just community, and lots of candy!

And then you get silly costumes

and happy kids!

It's been a big week around here for Dragonfly Fibers. As you may know, i have a new ravelry group, thanks to my lovely fairy godmother, Laura Garcia (Blueswirly). Contact her if you need some graphic design or branding help; you'll be very glad you did! Thanks to her and Ravelry, and Sheri of the Loopy Ewe, and my friends Gryphon and Sarah, and many other loveley people, and don't forget many fabulous customers!, my business has been, well, very busy. Yay, indeed. THANK YOU!!!

I now need to announce updates, and thanks to so many kind and wonderful customers, have learned how to make the update all go at the the same time. There is some re-organizing going here at Dragonfly headquarters, so I can dye more stuff in the same time, and I'm trying to drop a shift off of my schedule at the hospital. Also, as i figure things out, there will be glitches, for which i am sorry, but I am definitely open to suggestions:)

Sweetheart Merino-Silk Roving

Speaking of announcing updates, I will be updating the shop on Friday at 9 pm. I am hoping to make this a regular update time, and items will be pre-loaded so it will all go up at once (thanks juliespins!) I know for sure that there will be dragonsock, spinning fiber, dragonlace and merino worsted (I just have a little at this point, but have ordered more!). I don't have my inventory list in front of me now, so not sure of the rest:) Some of the roving is on my flickr, if you want a preview:)

ETA: I forgot to mention that we are holding a lottery for Djinni Sock on my Ravelry group (will add link later) starting today. i am doing this because I only have a little bit left before the big truck from the mill comes in and I want people to have a fair crack at it. So, go check out my group, ok?

Sistine Ceiling Merino-Silk roving

Ok, now closing with the promised SAFF photos. Still some to come off the cell phone, too.

Our Booth

Gryphon and her new wheel

Gryphon enjoying and "un-birthday" moment, dancing with the waiter

Katey, who made that moment and many other things possible

Brittany, the Knit Witch, who "accidentally" organized the party

Amy showing off her handspun made from Dragonfly roving in Robin's Egg

There and back again

SAFF was, predictably, a great time. This despite the fact that our trip did not begin well as we found out at the very last moment that our Sarah would not be able to join us. Gryphon and I swallowed our disappointment and soldiered bravely on, and soon were giggling hard enough to comprise our safety behind the wheel. Driving the "Beast", as Sarah and Sam have dubbed the crazy yarn bus the Sanguine Gryphon takes to shows, is truly a"laugh as hard as you can so you don't cry" experience anyway, and then add pouring rain and gravel mountain roads and maybe some confusion as to where the road is and you can get true near-death moments. Phew.

Pictures will come, once they are re-sized and flickred and such. For now, you must use your imagination. Imagine the usual beautiful and very medieval Sanguine Gryphon booth, with music and booth decorations, and a lovely lady garbed in amazing period costumes, including one she made herself that was just stunning. You know who that is. Now imagine that kate forgot to bring her Dragonfly Fibers sign, again. Duh. Although, it does say something about the growth of my business that people overall had heard of me and knew my stuff was different from Gryphon's. Hurray! That was a big moment for me, actually.

I think that one of the reason's I had such a great time was this sense that Dragonfly's presence is growing. I do not know the actual numbers from the show yet, but it seems that my yarns and fibers sold really well, too. I know that when i unloaded the Beast yesterday, I found less than half of the yarn I'd brought to SAFF with me. I keep thinking there must be more somewhere, 'cause this is weird. But good weird, you know? I also had some nice wholesale inquiries, and one potential wholesale customer did buy a good amount of Dragon Sock for her shop:)

But probably the best part of the trip was the friends. We'd met so many great southern knitters and spinners at Stitches South last spring and got see many of them again. (Missed seeing a bunch of them too-i'm talking to you, Carla, LindaB, Phyl, and Ro!) Katey helped us set up (THANK YOU!) and helped us throughout the weekend in the booth as well. She and her buddies Amy and Lori also started an impromptu knit and spin in near our booth, sending even more customers our way. Yay!

Wayne and Brittany of the Knit Witch repeatedly performed heroic feats for us and helped us set up, and stay up:) It was so great to see them again and get to know them as friends! I may have spent some money in their booth, some on Christmas presents and some on, well, me. There may have been a sweater's worth of merino roving in my shopping bag. Love Brittany's roving; the color play and the silkiness are calling me! I'm also crazy for Wayne's pottery and special ordered a few things he hasn't made before: a drop spindle vase (don't you need one for all of the spindles you've been collecting so you can show them off in your living room?) and an earring bowl (very cool idea i saw at Crafty Bastards). These are going to be the next big thing, i'm sure of it!


There are quite a few other highlights of SAFF, but for the sake of breveity, I shall continue my story in a few days when i get my pictures together. in the meantime, go see Katey's pictures. I believe there is a video as well:) Of course, i have some no one else has!

One more thing. Thanks to my friend Laura (and much encouragement and reassuring from many others), I finally have a Ravelry group. Hurray! I've been saying that alot, and thanks to some very fine work on Laura's part, as well as some great friends, i already have over 100 members. More yays! I want to let you know that as a promotion for my group, the first 200 members to join will be entered into a drawing for a skein of my new sock yarn, Djinni Sock, in a colorway of the winner's choice. This 200 includes those already in the group. So, go tell your friends, okay?

Okay, two more things. Speaking of Djinni Sock, did you happen to catch that Sneak Up on the The Loppy Ewe on Monday? Talk about exciting! The Djinni Sock went up in the evening and was ALL GONE by mid-morning the next day. I have doubled my next order from my Djinni "dealer", and I thought this last one was pretty big. So, okay a third thing, as soon as i come down from the nice rosy pink cloud I'm floating around on, I'll re-open my shop and update it. (That will be tomorrow, Thursday afternoon and evening) And yes, there will be a few skeins of Djinni Sock, for those of you curious to try it.

Making Ready

Last week, it rained endlessly, slowing the dyeing and making little boys completely insane. Insane enough, in fact, to run out in shorts and a t-shirt to shoot hoops in the pouring rain. I wonder if it was also the rain that made him declare "I love shopping!" while thrift store shopping with his mom. I believe we were looking for clothes for his sister at the time, too!

Little girls (young ladies?) were less insane, as my mermaid had to get up at 5:30 Saturday and Sunday to go swim in a meet. She spent the dryland portions of her weekend lying prone on her bed, avoiding homework. Although, in the pool, she showed up to swim and went so far as to knock 11 seconds off of a 50 (that's 2 laps to you and me). My girl dropped a ton of time in all of her events, reaping the benefits of some hard work and a great new attitude! "Yay me" she says (with maybe a touch of irony in her tone). Then she showed up to sing in the church choir; luckily the robe covered the cut offs and uggs combo she was sporting that am! I'm digging 7th grade so far!

I have dyed as much as I can for SAFF, but really wanted to get Sheri her order so the first Djinni Sock update can coincide with the fest (although why do I think people will want to order more yarn during or just after a fiber fest when they have spent all their money already on woolies?). I will definitely have some Djinni, and lots of beautiful spinning fiber, and Dragon Sock, Lace, and Worsted. And many other yummy yarns, but maybe not as much Marengue as I would have liked. Well, come see. I think you'll be pretty happy!

So, the three fates are hitting the road again. Tomorrow at a rather civilzed hour, for a change. I think I like it when Sarah starts the trip off:) We'll be picking Gryphon up in Harrisonburg, VA (and not, as the confused among us thought, Harrisburg, PA) sometime late morning and we'll be knitting and barrelling through the beautiful Smoky Mountains to Asheville. Look out, Southern Knitters, here we come!

What I'm doing today

Maybe not as productive as Abby, but I do have my good days. A little laundry, pictures, blogging, and of course, working over the dyepots:) With a little bit of kids, and soccer on the side. Maybe I'll even cook dinner. Pork tenderloin anyone? Come on over; we'll have plenty!

No carpool today, giving me an extra hour. Perhaps this is what makes me think I have time to blog? The lovely Jack is out of town, so no one to complain about my mess! More dyeing time, too!

I'm cranking out an order of Djinni Sock for the Loopy Ewe; biggest order ever. I'll let you know when it's up, so you can go over and check out how pretty this stuff dyes up. There will be new colorways; the above bit of loveliness is called "Golden Pear". "Atomic Pear" might be a more accurate name!

I may have mentioned that I'm going to SAFF with Sarah and Gryphon. That show starts Friday, October 23rd and runds through Sunday. The best thing about a 3 day show is that you can really relax and have fun, cause so much of your time isn't taken up with set up and take down. And that show's awesome cause I'll get to see all my southern knitting and spinning friends. Yay!

I'm also working on getting some new spinning fiber dyed for the show. I'll have 50% silk, 30% wool, 20% sea cell like the beauty above. LOVE this roving for spinning. I'll also have some camel-silk roving, although the stuff is hard to dye because it is soooo delicate; it breaks when you're measuring off dyable quantities. I'll have it, but it will be all different sizes:) At between $6.5 and $7 an ounce it's an affordable luxury spin. You can see it to the right in this picture.

The yumminess to the left and below is superwash merino-silk. The ultimate sock spinning project, in my humble opinion.

And, hurray, Djinni Sock was well received in my etsy store. All gone, now. I'll be focussing on getting ready for SAFF and for that reason, won't be updating until after i return. For those who will be in Asheville in a few weeks, i'll have more Djinni, plenty of my usual line up, and some sweater yarns, just for fall and holiday knitting. Can't wait to see everyone there!

Well, as we already know, multi-tasking is more than it's cracked up to be for sure. I may have blogged today, but I missed the postman, and i had to re-dye a whole colorway 'cause i didn't have it quite right. Ah, well. I did dye some lovely CVM locks in "Atomic Pear":) I close with a picture of my gigantic busy boy trying out some natural dyeing.

Lookie, lookie!

Did you get your Fall Knit Picks catalog last week? It's a beauty, staring with the cover and going on to some great yarns in excellent colors. And the patterns are great. That's what I usually keep it around for.

Elizabeth noticed what I didn't. Page 17? That one's mine! My Messenger Bag pattern from Pints and Purls! Hurray! I'm not even sure i told you about this book; it came out in the Spring (when i was overwelmed andnot really blogging much) and features not one but TWO of my patterns. So here is the bag (Wheatberry Ale, I think:), knit in Wool of the Andes, a very pretty heathered yarn. The origininal is a pink and brown marled Cascade 220. And when i went to the website, i noticed, my NAME on it. That never happens. I think i may need to send a thank you note:) How cool is that?

The second pattern from Pints and purls is Barfly. Just went into a rav wormhole, discovering that my patterns are on the site and that PEOPLE HAVE KNIT THEM! Not very many, but wow. Clearly, i shall have to put a picture up of my Barfly, which actually fits me. Yay! One of the nice things about working with Karida and Libby, the authors of Pints and Purls, is that, not only are they lovely people, but they gave back the projects when we were finished with them How great is that? Except i let them keep the messenger bag for Cascade to use in a trunk show.

Ok, closing now with some shots of yarn that has benn put up in my shop, or will be by the end of the day.

Texas Bluebonnet Squishy Lace

Oceanic Gaia Dk

and finally, Shining Sea Milk Protein Fiber. Spins just like Tussah silk, only maybe not sticky. It loves the dye in the same way as silk though. And it really is this pretty in real life!

May I present

Djinni Sock! This beautiful new sock yarn is an exclusive cashmere blend designed by none other than those fabulous ladies at the Sanguine Gryphon. It is a true fingering, and is comprised of 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon for strength. The cashmere makes it uniquely soft, and loves the dye molecules, resulting in rich, multidimentional colors. It is 450 yards in a 4 oz skein and knits up to a fine gauge at 7-9 st/inch. I have just listed some in my shop and am working on an order for the Loopy Ewe. Yay!

This is Cinnamon Spice, a new old colorway that began life as a "one hit wonder" and was re-born at the request of Tiffany from Colorful Yarns. I guess I forgot to mention (whoops!) my yarn is in Colorado! Yay! At this awesome shop in Centennial.


I may have mentioned that I've been experimenting with dyeing in layers lately. A little like Gryphon and Sarah but not the same. It's intriguing for me to see how the dyes interact, and then to take advantage of these relationships. One of the many fun things about chemical dyeing is that the dyes don't always relate to each other as one would expect. Oh, and Delphinium, a one hit wonder.


I still struggle with photographing reds, but this is fairly close to true. Dragonberry is deservedly an older favorite. It glows in the new yarn base, doesn't it?


This colorway is Pumpkin King. I was trying to re-create an effect I had obtained when overdyeing this amazing silver Romney cross fleece for Steph of Loop. Didn't work as I'd hoped, but it is a snappy fall color, isn't it? PS, if you were thinking of signing up for Camp Loopyfluck in October, scheduled to coincide with Rhinebeck, and just hadn't got to it yet, or want to do a really great class of Art Yarn carding and spinning, or you just want to have a great time spinning with some grweat people and learn alot too, GO sign up now! They may have to cancel if they can't get enough students to cover the class:(

While I'm announcing things, I also want to tell you if you are anywhere near Rehobeth, DE, run, do not walk to Kitschy Stitch. (I didn't even know she'd blogged us;) Allison is adorable, her son is a happy soul, and her knit and stitch shop is fabulous. Beautifully arranged and full of yarn, fabric, books, patterns, wow. You definitely won't want to leave! Oh, and Dragonfly Fibers is there now, too:) She doesn't have Djinni Sock but she does have another new seasonal yarn I am carrying. But that is another post! And this beauty is Heroine. Yes, with an "e".

Finally, I give you Red Maple. Another one hit wonder turned regular colorway. She's a pretty blend of autumn reds and browns, just like the amazing red Splitleaf maple in the yard next door. Remind me, and I'll show you. I have more cool stuff to share, so do stay tuned!

This and that

I wanted to show you pictures from our visit to New Mexico. My parents have bought a condominium in Las Cruces for my father to live in when he retreats from the many allergy seasons in New Orleans. While this change in their lives has been mind-numbingly stressful for them, it has improved my father's quality of life exponentially.

The kids and i spent a week out there with them so we could check things out and maybe help them get settled in. We didn't help much:) We did find this part of the world is so different from New Orleans and the mid-atlantic region, it was like exploring the moon. Thrilling, but pretty scary if you've been used to the same community all your life. And, besides, we don't enounter signs like this too often:

Isn't my dad cute? He and mom did everything they could to make this a nice vacation for us, and arranged a trip to the Gila mountains, about a 4 hour drive, much through twisty-turny roads, so we could hike up to see pre-historic Mogollon (pronounced "muggy-own") Cave Dwellings. Unfortunately, we weren't prepared for the magnitude of the trip or the altitude, and it turned out to be too much for my parents. The sights were amazing, and beautiful, but hard to appreciate when we were all feeling pretty sick!

And onto today. Steadily settling into our fall schedule; sports, mad science, grad school for the husband, more dyeing for SAFF for me. The boy, who does not like transitions, and i have made an agreement that he can do Mad Science if he promises not to scream everyday when he gets home from school. We'll see how it goes. 3rd grade is a big year here. The expectations go up with the homework. He can do it but I need to be there with him. The girlie is taking Algebra, and also is needing alot of support with her homework. She can do it but needs to freak out alot at the same time.

I have dyed some new colors. You remember cinnamon Red Hots? That is this color. Very warm and cinnamonny. I am dyeing more in layers of color, rather than putting the colors next to one another. It is pleasing to me, and possibly a bit simpler. i hope to have an update ready this evening. So far, i have only shot Dragon Sock, however. Tomorrow, a dyeing extravaganza with beautiful new yarn line.

I have been knitting, too. I started these lovely socks with A Piece of Vermont's merino/bamboo/nylon yarn. I love Jessie's dyework. I suspect she does cold pour, but i am aiming for something similar with my kettle dyeing technique. These are Evelyn Clark's Waving Lace Socks

from Interweave's Favorite Socks. What a delightful, and speedy pattern. I think i'll give them to my mom for Christmas.

And this is the Leafling pattern from the Rockin' Sock Club that I told you about. i brought it to New Mexico so that i wasn't knitting my mom's Christmas present in front of her and the knit the first sock in a week. Super speedy for me, but also the yarn is STR medium weight. A pleasant knit, but the gauge is a bit tight, and, therefore, hard on the hands. These will be winter clog socks for ME:)

Finally, an update on my pretty, pretty February Lady. I've just started the garter stitch hem. I ordered some beautiful clay buttons from Jennie the Potter for it. I think it may take a while for her to get to them:) Go see why! Isn't she beautiful? Nothing like a new life to bring hope and joy to us all.