Kaleidoscope Update

The Kaleidoscope Crochet Blanket Club members have just received their June pattern instalment.

The club has been a massive learning curve for me, I've run crochet clubs before and only ever had about 20 members, so I wasn't expecting the response we got to Kaleidoscope, the club has just under 90 members and we are still getting new members joining up!

I started designing the blanket back in October last year, I had the bare bones of the design when I started crocheting, I didn't really plan the colours so used what ever I had to hand at the time.
We decided to send out the yarn each quarter rather than send it all at once, my main concern was the membership costs a lot of money and so I wanted members to be able to spread the cost over the course of 2014 - BIG MISTAKE!!
I hadn't even thought about how and when we were going to dye the yarn or the fact that most of the colours would need re-winding into smaller skeins.
So we were dyeing and re-winding yarn for Kaleidoscope during the whole of December, and then again in March and now we are working on the third quarter, plus preparing for Woolfest, plus we have a couple of massive wholesale orders in!

BUT its all been worth it, the club members have been amazing and crocheted like busy little bunnies.
I am adding each month's pattern to my designer page in the Ravelry database just after the members get it, which you can find HERE
And members have been posting their blanket photo's in the KALEIDOSCOPE GROUP
So there are plenty of photo's to look at.

The photo's below show how the blanket has grown over the last 6 months, they are a bit rubbish as they are my wip photo's and were all taken with my iPhone, but you'll get the idea :-)
I will be making a Kaleidoscope Gallery page for member's photo's, maybe today, maybe tomorrow.......

                                            JANUARY                                 FEBRUARY

                                            MARCH                                             APRIL

                                                   MAY                                              JUNE

What I've been doing this week

I've had a very busy week playing at being a Graphic Designer and I am really smug and happy with the way my design work has turned out :-)

Its for next year's crochet blanket club, I know it seems really early, but we are going to send all the wool out in January, so all the members will need to be fully paid up by then and we want everyone to have a chance of being able to pay for it.
I've already added it to the site and made an information page - HERE
We'll be opening the club membership sign-ups during the first week of July 2014

Here is my Graphic Designer work

I've also been a incredibly bionic crocheter and will have made the whole of Book Blanket NO 3 in 2 weeks.

That is if my plan works and I finish it tonight or tomorrow.

I've decided I love DK and can't wait to start Book Blanket NO 4 which is also DK.

I think NO 4 will take a bit longer than 2 weeks, but if I can finish it by Woolfest I will have caught up with myself and be ahead of schedule rather than behind which is what I have been all year.

And here's the sneaky peak, the photo reveals a bit more than the previous 2 blankets photo's, but I don't think it hurts to give you a "bit more" from time to time :-)

New Crochet Scarf Kits

I've finally managed to find the time to add a couple of new crochet scarf kits to the NDS website.
You can find the crochet kits on the crochet kit page of the website which you can find  HERE

I say new, but what I mean is one new and one old kit.
The new kit is Ariana, I've been holding off listing this kit and pattern, because I'm not 100% happy with the photo's.
But I decided that I was being a bit too OTT, so have decided to add it and change the photo's when I've taken some new ones.
The scarf can either be made with NDS's Dazzle HT and a slightly bigger and more luxurious version in Godiva Silk and there is a kit for each yarn option.
The scarf in the photo's is made with Godiva Silk

 I've also re-listed some new Lula Scarf kits.
The original kit contained 10 x 20 gm skeins of Dazzle HT, but we could never find the time to rewind the 20 gm skeins, so the kit has always been unavailable.
So we've changed it, now it contains 5 x 50 gm skeins of Dazzle HT, which means you can make the scarf slightly larger.
The Lula kits will contain at least 1 variegated colour skein.

Identities and blogs

I've just resurrected the Dye Studio Diary blog.

The main reason is I am writing/designing a crochet blanket book and need to separate my identity from the day to day workings of NDS.

I've always just been a designer in the background who designs for NDS to help sell yarn, but my book means I have to start thinking about myself as a designer who has her own identity, as I will need to do lots of marketing for it.
All the designers I know are designers who design under their own names and so have blogs and facebook pages and are known for who they are and what they do.
I feel a bit embarrassed about being "Amanda Perkins - Crochet Blanket Designer"
I feel like I'm puffing up my pants and saying "look at me, look at me" the whole time, although I already do it already for NDS without any worry.

Yesterday I started a Facebook page for "Amanda Perkins - Crochet Blanket Designer"
I told the NDS page I was doing it and overnight gained 169 likes, which has given me a lot of confidence.
I've always thought that our "likes" were from knitters who suffer the crochet while waiting for the wool posts to appear, guess I was wrong.

Another reason for becoming myself is the changes we are making at NDS, but you'll have to read DYE STUDIO DIARY to find out what they are :-)

I have copied and pasted part of the post, but I thought I'd add a bit more here, not much, but a bit :-)

The bit more is this photo of the Ariana Scarf on top of a pile of blankets all waiting to be photographed.

The pile includes book blanket's NO1 and NO2, the finished Kaleidoscope club blanket and Supernova.

As soon as we get a lovely sunny day I will photograph and publish Ariana and Supernova.