GnomeAcres: Be Kind, Rewind (Episode #5) from GnomeAcres on Vimeo.

Show Notes:
- Donate your unwanted yarn to the Hat-A-Day Challenge.
- Done something nice for someone lately? Enter to win an Avengers mini skein bundle.

July Knitalong Pre-Order:

- Monday, May 21st at 9am & 9pm CST.
- Fingering sock & worsted weight will be available in either “Froggy Monkey” or “Knitabulls Franklin” colorways. Can use any pattern for the Knitalong, but it has to be in one of these two colorways.
- Yarn will begin shipping in early to mid-June.

Shop Update:
- More “Froggy Monkey” and “Knitabulls Franklin” SAL fibers will be available. All are made and ready to ship. First come, first serve.
- Bertie Bott’s fiber and sock yarn back in stock.
- New colorway, Punky Gnomester.

GnomeAcres: Avengers in Yarn! (Episode #4) from GnomeAcres on Vimeo.

Show Notes:
- Supporting handmade.

- New Avengers inspired yarn colorways. (NOTE: Offer mentioned in podcast is only good while supplies last.)
- New Ron Weasley colorway.

- July Knitalong (KAL) with Knitabulls & Knitting in Circles podcasts.
- Yarn pre-orders on May 21st, 9am & 9pm CST.

Enabling…
- Music City Suds
- Lo-Lo by Bar-Maids

GnomeAcres: May the Fourth be with Ewe! from GnomeAcres on Vimeo.

Ever had one of those days when you think to yourself, “Wow. If you would have told me a year ago that this is what I would be doing, I’d think you done fell off your rocker.”

Yup, that pretty much describes today…and this entire week for that matter.

I have a BIG announcement. I will be a guest speaker at Geek Girl Con 2012 in Seattle, WA on August 11 & 12. I will be sitting in on the “Art in Business” panel. I am SUPER excited about this! As in, if you have new carpet, you probably don’t want me around it right now.

The exact date and time of the panel has yet to be set, but I will be sure to let everyone know the details as it gets closer to August.

The theme for the April Phat Fiber box is “Tea Party”. Since I’m not really a drinkin’ tea with my pinky out kind of gal, I decided to add my own flare to the theme.

I came up with a new colorway called, “Hulk Smash”. This is a colorway I’ve really been wanting to produce for a while now, but haven’t had a chance to. I was waiting to find the right shade of green and purple.

Here’s my favorite part about this colorway. I contacted a friend of mine that can draw comic book characters faster than I can eat bacon…and I wuv bacon. I gave him a brief overview of what I was looking for, and here is what he came up with.

Isn’t this awesome?! I am always in awe of his mad drawing skills.

But, the comic wasn’t quite ready for prime time yet. I gave the black & white comic above to Hubby Gnome, who is also a crazy good illustrator and comic book enthusiast. He put the final finishing touches on it.

I love my husband for many, many reasons…one of them is definitely because of what he did with this comic.

I will have 12 “Hulk Smash” samples and 4 full size skeins available to purchase in my shop for Thursday morning’s update. Each sample and full size skein will get a copy of the above comic.

Exciting news! I am doing a May SAL (Spinalong) in conjunction with the Knitabulls Podcast and Knitting in Circles Podcast. The SAL will begin on May 1st, and end on June 18th.

There are two fiber colorways that I have designed specifically for Diane (Knitabulls) and Aimee (Knitting in Circles). See below.

The first pre-order is on sale right now in my shop.

There are 10 different fiber bases to choose from. A total of 25 pre-order listings will be available today. Another 25 pre-order listings will be posted this Friday morning.

I will have another pre-order take place later in the month, but if you want your fiber by May 1st, it’s best to get in on the initial pre-order! (Especially for those ordering outside the US.) For the second pre-order, the choices of fiber bases will be limited to Polwarth/Silk and Superwash Merino.

For full contest details about the May SAL, please check out the Knitabulls Podcast and Knitting in Circles Podcast.

Dyeing is an extremely physical job.

Let me set the scene for you…

My dye pots weigh anywhere from 20-50+ lbs when filled with just water. I typically have no less than 3 dye pots going at one time for a span of at least 5-8 hours, 1-2 days a week. I’m in constant motion when dyeing — similar to a “last chance workout” that you would see on the TV show, The Biggest Loser.

Because of how labor intensive the dye process is, it takes a great toll on your body, which has caused me to review my current custom order policies. Lately, I have been dyeing 3-5 days a week. While I am INCREDIBLY grateful for the orders, it is very important that I have some down time in between dyeing days to recuperate so I can keep all of GnomeAcres going. If I’m dyeing all the time, mini skeins aren’t being made, fiber isn’t restocked, blogs aren’t written, social media is ignored, Phat Fiber contributions start to suffer, shop updates get behind, my previously broken tailbone starts to flare up, and, most of all, my family starts to give me the evil eye.

Starting today, March 28th, any custom dye orders that come in past Monday of any given week, will be processed on the “Dye Day” of the following week. I typically dye every Sunday and/or Monday. Having said that, if I have the time and ability to squeeze in an order in between designated Dye Days, I will definitely let you know.

Hopefully you all can understand the need for the new policy. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

With the arrival of the new season, of which I’m calling “Sprimmer”, I’ve been working on creating some new colorways for both yarn and fiber.

This past week I came up with three new yarn colorways; The Burrow, Dean Winchester and Maleficent.

The Burrow is dyed on a bulky Superwash Merino yarn that is sooo squishy and delicious.

Dean Winchester is dyed on a bulky Peruvian Highland & Superfine Alpaca blend. It seemed only natural to use something called “Superfine” when in relationship to “Dean Winchester”. Hubba, hubba…

Maleficent was created by special request from a fellow Twitter peep. I’m in wuv with this new bright green dye I have. In fact, I’ve already use it to create another super secret yarn colorway that will debut with the April Phat Fiber box. More info on that next week.

All of these yarns will be available in the shop update this Friday morning. It’s going to be a big one!

P.S. A new mini skein bundle will be available on Friday!  <|:0)

GnomeAcres: Fiber Friday Fun Udpate (Podcast #2) from GnomeAcres on Vimeo.

This is the third month that I’ve contributed to the Phat Fiber box. It’s been so much fun! This month’s theme is “Blinded by Science”. I decided to draw my inspiration from something that is big at my house right now, The Muppets — and more specifically, “Beaker“.

(Pssst…if you don’t know about Phat Fiber yet, check out their site for details.)

Beaker is a specially formulated blend of merino (Clementine & Slimer from my shop), llama, bamboo and fake cashmere. It is super soft and has some great shimmer to it, thanks to the bamboo.

There are 20 samples of “Beaker in a Petri Dish” that will be going out in this month’s box. I will also have a special coupon code on the Phat Fiber Secret Site, so watch your emails for the link!

Already working on next month’s theme, “Tea Party”. I’m adding my own spin to this. All I can say is that The Hulk might have been invited to tea…