Good morning and happy Friday to you! I have a few things to talk to you about today.
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Thank you!
First and foremost, as the year draws to a close, I am looking back over the past year for Purple Lamb, and I just want to tell you how grateful I am for all of you! I truly have the loveliest, kindest customers. I love what I do (as I’m sure you know), and I love that it makes you happy!
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My Christmas Plans
I’m going to take some time off for Christmas so I can spend the time with my family. The last day I’ll be shipping will be Monday, December 20th. After that, I will leave the shop open, and you are welcome to buy yarn and fiber, but I won’t be shipping it until January 3rd. I’m also taking down the dyed to order section of my shop for now. I will be checking my emails once a day, so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to use the Contact form on my website.
If you have visited my website recently, you might have noticed the new Chat link at the right bottom corner of the website. The good news is that it works as an alternative to email, and it links to my phone too. The bad news is that I probably will not be able to respond instantly most of the time since there’s only one of me. How I wish I could bilocate! I bet you do too! Just think how much knitting and crocheting we could all get done.
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Advent Calendars
For those of you who purchased one of my yarn or fiber Advent calendars, I hope you are enjoying it so much. I hope it’s providing a fun respite in this very busy season and that you are enjoying the colorways too. A few of you have been posting your progress on Instagram, and I love seeing your photos so much! I’ll be sharing a video of the whole set in January.
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What’s New in the Shop This Week
This week, I dyed up a new batch of Beautiful Universe on a number of bases. Here it is on Stained Glass Sock:
After talking about it with some of you on Facebook, I also decided to start dyeing up Buttery Soft DK after a hiatus of several years. It’s really so lovely and soft. I never stopped offering it as a club option, but I’m beginning to make it for the shop again now.
It’s made of 45% baby alpaca, 45% non-superwash merino, and 10% silk. It is not a superwash yarn, so it can felt. That means it should be washed by hand in cold water if you don’t want it to shrink. The good news though is that it can be fulled, so if you are a weaver who wants to be able to full your cloth, this would be an excellent base for that. It’s great for knitting and crochet too.
Because of the alpaca and silk content, it dyes up with softer colors. Here is Beautiful Universe newly dyed on Buttery Soft DK:
It’s sort of hard to believe that I dyed both of those skeins using the same dyes, isn’t it? I did though.
I also dyed up Sapphire Dreams on six different yarn bases this week. Here it is on Buttery Soft DK:
For comparison, here is that same Sapphire Dreams dyed on Squoosh DK:
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Gift Cards
If you are in need of a gift and don’t want to worry about whether it will get there on time, you might consider a gift card to my shop for your favorite fiber artist. When you get one, it will be sent directly to your email address, and then you can print it out or forward it to whomever you would like with your own note. The good news is that it is available anytime, and it’s instant, so if you tend to be a last-minute shopper (or someone who loves you fits that description), it might just be the perfect gift for you, whether you are the giver or the recipient.
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January Club Colorway
Last month, I was debating between two paintings, and I heard from a lot of you that you prefer cheerful colors for winter, so I decided on Degas’ “Dancers in Blue” for January. Here’s the painting:
This should be a really interesting one to work up. Speaking of club colorways, I got my Past Club Colorway Gallery updated, so now you can see all the club colorways I have made. That being the case, if you haven’t gotten the December club colorway yet, you might want to wait until you have to look. Here are the Past Club Colorways.
If you are interested in joining one of my yarn or art batt clubs, you can do so here.
I hope you have a very Merry Christmas! I’ll “see” you next year.