Good morning, my fellow fiber artist! Just this week our weather shifted from the heat and humidity of monsoon season back to dry and really hot, but as I write this, I am enjoying the cool of the morning and awaiting the time when it really starts to feel like fall and I can pull out my wonderful handmade woollies. Do you feel that way every year too?

I know that not all of you spin or felt or have a use for fiber as opposed to yarn, so I have been a little more focused on the yarn end of my business in my newsletters of late. Well, today I’m going to make an exception. As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I’ve been busy organizing a new spinning competition called Spin Together. It’s going amazingly well, but it is also taking a wee bit more time than I had anticipated. Okay, truth be told, it has temporarily taken over my life, but it has been amazing to get to know and work with some of the fiber artists I most admire.

Fiber Sale

I’m offering everyone associated with Spin Together a 20% off coupon for all of my art batts, hand-dyed top, and other spinning goodies, and it’s only fair if I offer you the same, right? Between now and Monday night, you can use the coupon code SPINFELT20 to get 20% off any and all of my fiber goodies. That includes all my art batts, hand-dyed top, and fiber samplers. If you go to https://www.shop.purplelambfiberarts.com/discount/SPINFELT20,, the coupon code will be applied automatically when you check out.

Over the last few weeks, my husband, Robert, has been helping out by making art batts because I have been having trouble keeping up, so we have a wider selection than usual, including some I haven’t had in stock for quite a while. I’m really grateful to him for his help. He’s always there to support me and listen to my ideas for Purple Lamb, and whenever I do a festival, he is in charge of “hardware” while I take care of “software.”

Here are a few of the newer items we have in stock:

Bouquet is actually one of my oldest art batt colorways, but this is the first time I’ve had it in the shop for a few months. My inspiration came from a painting we have, and I’ve spun this into every kind of yarn you can imagine and enjoyed it every time. Bouquet contains merino, bamboo, mulberry silk, and angelina.

Here’s another related but different new art batt colorway. It’s called Bridal Bouquet:

Bridal Bouquet has baby alpaca, mulberry silk, merino, camel down, and angelina. It has a combination of floral colors and neutrals, and I think it’s a good transition between summer and fall.

Those are just two of the 31 different art batt colorways we have in stock right now. You can see them all in the art batt section of my shop.

I also have a few more braids of hand-dyed top available right now. Here’s my favorite:

This is my Marianne coloway, inspired by the ultimate romantic in Sense and Sensibility. It’s dyed on a 70/30 merino/silk blend. While my art batts are almost all repeatable colorways, my hand-dyed top tends to be more one-of-a-kind, so if you see something you like, don’t wait!

There’s one more new fiber item I wanted to show you. I put together a Luxury Fiber Sampler Kit for both spinners and felters.

Each kit contains one ounce each of eight different undyed luxury fibers including gold muga silk, silver baby alpaca, extra-fine off-white merino, light beige mint fiber, white mulberry silk, brown baby alpaca, and beige camel down. The eighth ounce of fiber is a surprise depending on what I have available. It might be angora bunny wool or locks or silk hankies or some other wonderful fiber I managed to source.

This is a great opportunity for spinners and felters to experience these wonderful fibers.

I’m hoping to make a similar kit using a variety of different dyed fiber preparations in the near future. Let me know if that’s something you would like to see.

Advent Yarn Calendars

I haven’t actually forgotten my wonder yarn lovers, and I never will!

Many of you will remember my Twelve Days of Christmas yarn sets from last year. Well, I’m going to be doing those again in a new gradient colorway.

Before those become available, though, I’m going to be making Advent Yarn Calendars for the first time this year. I plan to have them available for preorder in early September.

I’ll be creating different new colorways for the Advent Yarn Calendars and the Twelve Days of Christmas sets.

I have a poll going on my Facebook page, and so far the vast majority are saying they would prefer 24 twenty-gram minis as opposed to ten-gram minis, so unless that changes, that’s what I’ll be doing. If you would like to weigh in here or on the Facebook page, please do. I value your opinion.

Regarding the Advent Yarn Calendars, I’m planning to make a gradient over the course of the 24 minis in colors that are easy to use all year long and not just around Christmas time. I don’t want to give away too much, but my plans are to include my burgundy rose colorway, lilac, and several shades of blue.

I’d also like to include a shawl pattern to go with it from a great designer. If you have a favorite Advent calendar pattern that would work for right about 1900 yards of fingering-weight yarn, please do let me know.

New Goodies and a Trunk Show

I have a lot of new yarn and fiber goodies on the way, and I’m anxiously awaiting their arrival. Included among them are more of my new Dream Sock yarn base, So Silky Sock base, and Squoosh DK as well as mulberry silk top and silk hankies. I haven’t been able to get silk hankies for awhile, so I’m especially excited about those, and I’m also excited to dye up more 100% silk top for all of you.

Last but not least, I’ll be doing a one-day trunk show at Tempe Yarn and Fiber on Saturday, September 14th. If you’re in the area, please stop by. I’d love to meet you in person.

Happy fiber artistry!