When we say "Superwash", we really mean it!

I live on the 4th floor of one of the oldest buildings in San Diego. It's amazing, and the views are incredible, but the drawback is that this historic building lacks an elevator. And my bedroom is in the attic, and the laundry facilities are in the basement, so washing my clothes requires climbing up and down six flights of stairs. The upside of this is that I don't have to go to the gym on laundry days, since I climb up and down some 90 stairs with each load of laundry (it's weight lifting and a stair machine all in one household chore!). The downside is that I tend to procrastinate when it comes to washing my clothes, so that I have more trips at once up and down those stairs. And carrying my un-dried delicates up the stairs is even less pleasant, as they hold the extra weight of the water. So I tend to run as many things through the dryer as I reasonably can, even if only on the 'air fluff' setting, to remove some of the moisture.

Because of my lazy ways, I decided to run a crazy experiment with our yarns.

I made two identical swatches in each of our weights. One swatch I soaked in Eucalan and blocked. The other swatch I ran through the wash in the coin-op washer/dryer in my basement. With a load of my jeans. On "Permanent Press - Warm" wash setting, and on the "High/Hot" dry setting. An ideal environment for felting, no?

You'll be amazed at the results. I was.

From Left to Right: swatches in Lace, Sock, Sport, DK, Worsted, & Bulky
Top row was machine washed & dried; bottom row was hand washed

Here are the close-ups of each weight, side-by-side (in each image, the swatch on the left was machine washed and dried, while the swatch on the right was hand-washed and laid flat to dry):

Oink Pigments Bulky in "Hibiscus Kiss"

Oink Pigments Worsted in "Melon-choly" 

Oink Pigments DK in "Dill With It"

Oink Pigments Sport in "Tumbling Turquoise"

Oink Pigments Sock in "Lavish Lavender"

Oink Pigments Lace in "Zoot Soot Riot"

Pretty impressive, right?? Shrinking and fulling are almost imperceptible, though there is a wee bit of color fading from the heat. Obviously we don't recommend doing this, but I thought it was important to see what happens to our yarns when you treat them TERRIBLY. Because accidents happen, and I've definitely had tragic felting disasters that killed a sock or sweater that accidentally made its way into my load of jeans, rather than my 'delicates' pile.

I'd say this makes our yarns ideal for baby things, for gifts to non-knitters, and for lazy apartment dwellers like myself. It's also great for those favourite sweaters that you wear and wash again and again. We still recommend that you hand wash our yarns and lay them flat to dry, but I'd suspect that they hold up beautifully through repeated washings and dryings if treated kindly - machine wash cold, delicate cycle, air fluff dry. Your mileage may vary, of course, so please make two swatches and test one in YOUR machines before you run your favourite handknits through the wringer, but rest easy that the errant sock-stuck-in-jeans incident will most likely not result in tears.

Announcing Kepler

We are ever so thrilled to announce the official release of Kepler!

Buy the pattern NOW and use coupon code oink2off for $2 off! Valid through 11:59pm PST Sunday 2/22/15.

BETTER STILL! Buy two skeins of Oink Pigments Sport and get a digital copy of Kepler FREE. Our Sport will be making its retail debut at Stitches West this weekend, and will be available in our online store next week. Once we make it available online, if you place your order on our website, we will email your custom download code for Kepler when we process your order. If you buy two skeins of Sport at Stitches West, we will give you a custom download code to use right then and there!

This asymmetrical shawl, worked bottom up from the base of all triangles to the tip of the largest, is formed of a series of (nearly) golden ratio triangles in (abbreviated) Fibonacci stripes. The pattern is named for 17th Century German mathematician Johannes Kepler, who first observed that the ratio of consecutive Fibonacci numbers converges to the golden ratio; though he did not have the chance to observe how lovely they are in this combination.

The pattern is a little tricky, you’ll be keeping track of stripes in one pattern while decreasing in another. It can get a little confusing, so this might not be the best knitting to travel with, drink wine over, or take to knitnight, unless you’re very fastidious about keeping track of rows, or very good at reading your knitting (and have a much better memory than mine).

Materials required:

• Size 6 circular needle, 40” or longer in length
• 4 stitch markers
• Oink Pigments Sport, 2 skeins, in contrasting colors. 

Shown in “Sea Glass” & “Dill With It” (slate blues & lime green) and “Mystery Flavor” & “The Silver Lining” (orange, grey, purple & pale grey). If substituting yarns, you will need appx 345 yards Color A and 315 yards Color B

New Year, New Things!

At TNNA in Phoenix last month, we launched a BRAND NEW PRODUCT that we are super duper excited about: Oink Pigments Sport! It will be making its retail debut at Stitches West in Santa Clara, CA, February 19-22, 2015.

Faraday by Helena Bristow, knit in Oink Pigments Sport, "Melon-choly"

This deliciously smooshy 2-ply sportweight yarn boasts 345 yards to 100g, is 100% superwash merino, and just like the rest of our yarns, is 100% USA made from Sheep to Shelf - USA grown on American sheep, USA spun in an American mill, and USA dyed in our wee dye studio in Vista, CA by two Americans! Helena has joined Alexa in the dye studio, so now we both wrap our wrists in wet wool on weekends (say that three times fast).

We've also made FIVE beautiful new colorways for Spring:

From Left to Right: Dill With It, Sea Glass, Size of the Boat, Mermaid Tales, and Mystery Flavor

Helena has written a new shawl pattern featuring the new colors in Oink Pigments Sport. Kepler is an asymmetrical striped shawl that requires two skeins of Oink Pigments Sport. The pattern will be made available for purchase on February 19th, 2015, to coincide with Stitches West 2015. Sign up for our mailing list and you will receive a coupon code for $2 off the pattern price, valid during the weekend of its release!

How We Spent Our Autumn

Happy New Year! It's been a wild and crazy Autumn, and right now it looks like that won't slow down until well into summer!

We went to approximately Five Million craft events and yarn shows in the Fall. That MIGHT be an exaggeration.

And we put a HUGE amount of old stock on clearance. Some colors are discontinued, and others have just been sitting on our shelves so long that we are tired of looking at it. You should check out the sale - there are still some AMAZING deals to be had!

And then we dyed TWO THOUSAND skeins of yarn. That's actually NOT an exaggeration.

More to follow soon! :@)

June Newsletter

This newsletter will be filled with all the updates for June, but for up to the minute on any spur-of-the-moment sales or other events, make sure to follow us on the social medias- Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

In this issue:
        1. Mystery Knit-a-long- Two color shawl knits for this mystery KAL!
        2. WWKIPD- World Wide Knit in Public Day at Loop & Leaf!
        3. Yarn Stores- An update on the shops carrying Oink Pigments.



1. Mystery Knit-a-long
Oink Pigments is doing its first MKAL! It will be a two-color crescent shaped shawl made with Oink Pigments Sock. Kits are now available for pre-order in the shop. There are 2 different kit options- see photos below. Pre-orders will be accepted until June 22nd, with orders shipping out the first week of July. The pattern is Sun Kissed Shawl by Katie Degroff- see her all of her patterns here. The pattern is available for purchase now on Ravelry, which will give you an info page with stitch definitions, yarn requirements, and clue schedule. The first clue in the pattern will be released on July 12th.

Teal Appeal & Motion of the Ocean

Lexi's Lilies & Sunny with a Chance of Peaches

2. WWKIPD
World Wide Knit in Public Day is this Saturday- June 7, 2014! We will be doing a trunk show at Loop & Leaf in Santa Barbara, CA. We will be there all day long, so if you are in the area make sure you stop by and say hello. It's going to be a super fun event! The trunk show at Loop & Leaf will be kicking off the launch of Oink Pigments in their shop!

3. Yarn Stores
The "Where to Find Us" section of the website has been updated. We are in a few new shops, and have more coming soon! Our newest additions include Colorful Yarns and Barbara Sue Brodie Needleworks. If you want your LYS to carry Oink Pigments, have them contact us- either by email or by phone.

That's all for now! :@)

Subscribe to the Oink Pigments newsletter!

Lots of news!

Lots of news in this blog post!! Some of it good and some not-so-good.

Let's start with the not-so-good news.
We are very sorry to report that starting March 1, 2014 all yarn prices will be increasing. It's a bigger jump than we would like, but unfortunately it's necessary. The new pricing is: Sock $24, DK $22, Worsted and Bulky $20.

Now on to some better news!

We will be at Stitches West again this year! Woohoo! We will be in Booth 733.
We are doing something special during Stitches West: the Passport Game. You can get all of the information on that here.
Also, the current pricing will still be in effect during Stitches West, so take advantage of that!

Another thing happening at Stitches West is the debut of a brand new yarn- Oink Pigments Lace! Not to be confused with Fancy Lace, this yarn is 820 yards of 100% Superwash Merino- shown here in "Motion of the Ocean."

The Lace will be only $22 until March 1st, and then it's getting a price increase as well (increasing to $26), so make sure you snag them while you can, before prices go up!

Some more good news is Oink Pigments will be in at least 5 new yarn shops over the next few months! More shops are in the works, including a few trunk shows. Make sure to tell your LYS to contact us about carrying Oink Pigments yarns and fiber!

I think that's all for now! :@)

Sock Yarn Clubs!

Sock Yarn Club memberships are now available in the online shop!

Club memberships are 3 months long, and consist of 3 brand new, exclusive colorways.

The first one will be "Summer" and is for the months of July, August, and September. Registration is open until July 10th. The yarn will be sent out on the 25th of each month. One skein per month is the base price of the club, but you can purchase additional skeins for any/all months- up to 3 skeins total per month.

The price includes USA shipping, but there is an option in the listing for international.

"Fall" registration is also available, but you have plenty of time for that one.

Introducing: DK and Bulky!! and a SALE!

You may have noticed some new additions in the online shop, or seen them at recent Oink Pigments events.

Introducing Oink Pigments DK and Oink Pigments Bulky!
Both are 100% Superwash Merino Wool, just like the Sock and Worsted. The DK is 270yd/100g and the Bulky is 120yd/100g.

There is some DK scattered about the shop, with more coming soon.
I don't have any of the Bulky currently available in the shop right now, but will definitely have some for the cooler months.

As always, any color that is out of stock (or if you just need more skeins that what is in stock) can be custom ordered. There are 2 ways to do that, you can use the "Custom Color" item in the online shop, and just put in the colorway of your choice in the description. Or you can shoot me an email or a phone call letting me know what you want and I can adjust the quantities to accommodate that.


And now for the SALE:
All BLUE yarns will be on sale from now until May 31st! Use coupon code BLUEOINK to receive 10% off all yarns that have blue in them!

All colors can be ordered while using the coupon, but the discount will only apply to blue yarns.

So go check out the Online Shop and see what's on SALE!


Quick note about the online shop: the formatting has been changed so that all yarns are in 1 category instead of having a separate one for each weight. You simply find the color you want, and when you are on that color's item page then you can select your desired weight(s).

Upcoming Events: April/May

A couple events that are coming up in the next month:

This weekend (April 11-14) is the LA Yarn Crawl.

Oink Pigments will be having a trunk show at The Yarn Garden of Whittier all day Friday.

Be sure to check it out, as there is a brand new yarn making its debut!

Oink Pigments will have a booth at the Fiber/Dance Festival coming up at Julian Weaving Works in Santa Ysabel, CA on May 4th and 5th. It is free to attend.

We are working on arranging a camping weekend for the night of the 4th. We are looking into Green Valley Falls, and it would be about $10/person. Drop me an email if you are interested. We need firm numbers by 4/15, so let me know asap if you would like to join.

Stiches West 2013: 48 days left!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we have about 7 weeks until Stitches West. Can't believe it has gone by so quickly!

We got our booth number this morning! We will be in Booth 846, just across the way from our friends at Slipped Stitch Studios!

There is still a lot of dyeing to do, but the shelves are filling up nicely. I still need to order a little more yarn, but I will be doing that in the next week or so.

The yarns are in rainbow-ish order and the empty spaces are colors that I still need to dye. The middle shelf is Sock and the right shelf Worsted. I didn't plan on spaces for the other stuff, so those will probably live in containers until the first shelf empties. When I am done, all of those shelves will be stuffed full of yarny and fibery goodness. As you can see by the first shelf, I still have a ways to go.
(You may be able to see some new colors hiding on those shelves, but some of them still need names, so I will announce those in a new post later.)

What we are planning to bring to Stitches:
Sock- 100% Superwash Merino, 420yd/100g
Worsted- 100% Superwash Merino, 230yd/100g
Fancy Lace- 70% Baby Alpaca, 30% Silk, 875yd/100g
Minis- ~25yd of OP Sock
Superwash BFL Roving- 4oz braid
BRAND NEW! Merino Roving- 1oz knot

Hopefully everything will get done in time. I am still on schedule (for now), so it's not crunch time yet!

I think that's it for now. I'm off to go dye some yarn! :@)

Stitches West 2013: Day 1

Now that things have settled down at home, it's time to focus on the next big thing. STITCHES WEST 2013!

We are so excited to be going; it's such a dream come true. Clever Knits will be sharing a booth with us selling amazing handmade circular needle cases, zippered pouches, and other great notions.

You may have noticed the new addition to the top of the website: the countdown to Stitches has begun! The countdown is to preview night, which is for people registered for classes only.
Market Preview Night is Thursday February 21, from 5-8pm. The market is open to the public the rest of the weekend. The hours are Friday and Saturday 10am-6pm, and Sunday 10am-4pm. For all of the info check out the Stitches website.

I plan on bringing a TON of yarn- not literally of course, because that would be about 10,000 skeins of yarn.

As you can see by the above picture, I have some very empty shelves, anxiously awaiting to be filled. But boxes full of bare yarn and roving on their way (plus that little bit you see on the shelf), and they can't wait to be dyed and fill up those shelves!

There is so much to do, and less than 110 days to do it! Since I am the world's worst procrastinator, I have already begun planning everything out, and tomorrow I start dyeing!

I will be posting progress updates and pictures along the way. As soon as I have booth information, I will post that as well.

Make sure you follow on Twitter and Facebook to get all of the latest news and updates! We are also on Ravelry and have a group there too. :@)

Quick Update

Just a quick reminder that Oink Pigments is on vacation! Any orders placed will not ship until October 24th at the earliest. The only exception to this is patterns. Those will still be emailed on time.

The Etsy shop has not been updated with the new inventory, but the website shop should have all of the inventory. I will update Etsy when I get back from vacation, and double-check the online store.

Oh! And Oink Pigments will officially be at Stitches West 2013! I will keep you guys updated on that as I get more information.


:@)

It's Fiesta Time!

It's almost Fiesta time! Just 10 days left to go!

The Vista Fiber Arts Fiesta is October 13 & 14 from 10am-4pm at the Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum in Vista, CA and is completely FREE to attend. All of the info is here for those who are interested.

It's going to be a blast! This is the second year, and it's going to be bigger and better than last year. Last year over 2,000 people attended, so hopefully this year we get even more! There will be alpacas, live music, food, and of course YARNY GOODNESS! And other fiber-related goodies as well. So save up those pennies, because the spread is gonna be great!

I am about 5 months behind on dyeing (which is why the shop stock is so very sad right now) from everything that has been going on these last few months. Which just means that I will be dyeing every second that I have from now until the Fiesta.

Our booth will be one of the first booths when you walk into the vendor area, on the right of the foot bridge.

Also, after the Fiber Fiesta, I will be going on vacation for a week to see my bestest friend in the whole wide world for her birthday. Orders will still be able to be placed (here and on Etsy), but they will not be processed or shipped until the 23rd. I am hoping to be able to stock the shops with anything that didn't sell at the Fiber Fiesta before I leave so you will at least know what is available.


Hope to see everyone at the Vista Fiber Arts Fiesta! :@)


P.S. A little birdie told me there will be some new colors showing up, so you will definitely want to go to the Fiesta and check those out!

Long Time No Blog

It's been quiet around here for a while. Sorry about that. It's been pretty crazy the last few months, and it's gonna still be crazy another month or so. BUT! I am planning on updating more (I know I always say that, but this time it's true!) and adding new things! Lots of exciting things are in Oink Pigments' future!

First things first. The Oink Pigments Online Store is back! The Etsy store is still around, but the focus will be mainly on the store here. To kick off the store re-opening, use the coupon OINKOINK to receive 20% OFF any purchase (only works in the online store, NOT ETSY)! I haven't been able to dye yarn in a while, so I'm sorry if the color you want is out of stock! I am working on fixing that ASAP! Also, Mini Skeins will be available individually in the shop, as soon as I have some to stock it with.

Second item on the agenda: Vista Fiber Arts Fiesta. Last year was the first one, and also Oink Pigments' first show. It was a ton of fun and worth every second of the horrendous sunburn I got. I am planning on dyeing a TON of yarn for this, so there should be way more yarn than last year! The Fiesta is the weekend of October 13 & 14 from 10am-4pm and admission is FREE. This year all of the vendor spaces have been filled, so it's guaranteed to be a good show! Last year they even had live alpacas, and they are supposed to be here again this year! I will be posting more about it as we get closer to the event.

Third bit of news: Stitches West 2013. Last week I mailed in my application for Stitches West 2013. That's right, Oink Pigments is going to Stitches (hopefully)! ^_^ I can't even describe how excited I am about this! I am pretty sure my application will be approved, but I am trying to not get my hopes up (WAY too late for that), just in case. Stitches West is February 21-24, in Santa Clara, CA. It's a bit of a drive, but I can't wait! Keep an eye out here, because the plan is to make a mini blog series, complete with tons of pictures, of how things are going in preparation for Stitches. Which means you get sneak peaks into the world of Oink Pigments, and will get to see all of the awesome stuff that will be heading up north with us.

Fourthly, I am looking into some new yarns and working on some new colors, so sometime soon, there will be additions to the Oink Pigments family. If there is a certain kind of yarn (fiber or weight) or a color that you would love to see, let me know! I'd love any input on this matter.

Last but not least, make sure you follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook to get all of the updates and news for Oink Pigments. Any sales or news will get posted on both, but may not get a dedicated blog post.

If you have any comments or questions, feel free to email any time to oinkpigments@gmail.com. I should respond within 24 hours, if not sooner- I am ALWAYS checking my emails.

:@)

Fancy Lace

There is a brand new addition to the Oink Pigments line: Fancy Lace! And it comes in 2 new colors!!

Fancy Lace is a 70/30 blend of Baby Alpaca and Silk. It is a dream to work with, and having 875 yards a skein gives you a lot of versatility.

From Top to Bottom: Painting the Roses Red, Golden Fleece, Mean Evergreen, Cool WIP, Crochet Me a River, Lavish Lavender, Grape Escape, Rasberry Wrinkles, and The Silver Lining.

Check it out and all of the other Oink Pigments line here. And don't forget about the SALE going on!

Super Spring Cleaning Sale!

Oink Pigments is having a Super Spring Cleaning Sale!

From now until the end of spring (June 19, 2012) all single skeins will be on sale!
Any time there is a lonely skein in the shop, the price will be discounted.
NOTE: This only applies to yarn. This does not apply to mini skeins, roving, or patterns.
oinkpigments.etsy.com

There are also some new things coming to the Oink Pigments line, so be on the lookout for them!

And in case you missed it, there are three new patterns up on Ravelry and they are also in the Etsy store.

Test Knitters Needed!!!

There are quite a few new patterns that are mostly finished, I just need some test knitters!

The patterns are:
-A set of 2 headband patterns (worsted)
-Cabled fingerless gloves (worsted)
-A magic-loop, toe-up, lace sock pattern (sock)

Since the patterns must be test-knitted in Oink Pigments yarn, the test knitters will receive 50% off of the cost of the yarn.

I would like 2-3 testers for each pattern.

If you are interested or have questions, please email me at oinkpigments@gmail.com

More patterns are also in the works, but aren't quite to the testing phase. If there is a pattern you would like to see, let me know, I am always open to suggestions!

Thanks! :@)

Customer Satisfaction

There is going to be a new section on the Oink Pigments website: "Customer Satisfaction."

It will be a gallery of projects made with Oink Pigments yarn. But the page can't exist without you guys!
I need anyone and everyone who has made anything with Oink Pigments yarn to send me a picture of it. If you have it, I would also like a link to the project on your Ravelry page, so I can link the picture to it; that way you get all of the credit for the wonderful item and people can get more information about what you made.

I will also be browsing through the projects on Ravelry that have used Oink Pigments yarn, and messaging those people for permission to use their project.

Please email all pictures and links to oinkpigments@gmail.com. You can email as many or as few projects as you would like. "In Progress"pictures are also welcome, but finished projects are preferred.


Thanks so much! Can't wait to see all of the wonderful things you have made! :@)

Woolgirl Sock Kit

Here's the info for the Woolgirl kit! 


Pink Squirrel
              The next kit in our "Drink-Inspired" Knitting series
Combine crème de noyeux, crème de cacao, vodka and cream and what do you
get? A Pink Squirrel cocktail which is out of this world! Join us this May in
exploring what makes this cocktail so delicious, so pink, and sooooo 1960’s!

KITS WILL INCLUDE:
A skein of yarn from “Oink Pigments”
One sock pattern and one non-sock pattern
Lots of gorgeous Pink Squirrel accessories
Cost: $65 Includes Shipping


Here's a link to their website: Woolgirl
There is an info page and a registration page.

SALE! and few other things

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been so silent on my end recently; wedding planning sort of took over my life! But that's all done now because the wedding was January 21, 2012! ^_^
Hopefully I will be updating more now that I am not stressing over that.

Just a few things today:

~A bunch of new listings were just posted in the Etsy Shop! So go check out all of the yummy yarn! Also, I am working on re-taking all of the pictures. Most are done, but some aren't and will be re-taken tomorrow (they still have new pictures, they will just get better ones tomorrow).

~While you are there, check out all of the stuff that is on SALE! All pink, purple, and red yarns are on sale until February 14, 2012 for Valentine's Day. (The listing prices will already reflect the sale price; there is no code or coupon.)

~Oink Pigments is going to be in a review Podcast on Knitcircus (knitcircus.libsyn.com) that should be up tonight (if it's not, it will be in the next day or so)! Please check it out! :@) Also, Oink Pigments is going to be in a book published later this spring.

~Oink Pigments will also be in 2 different sock clubs this year! In May we will be in the Woolgirl sock club, and in June we will be in TheKnitter.com sock club. I should have a bit more info on those once we get closer to those months.

~I am in the works of a few new patterns and will be needing some test knitters once they are done. More details on that once I am ready for testing.

That's all for now! :@)