July 2021 Newsletter!
Oh my goodness I haven’t written a newsletter since Willow left! I’m sorry you guys… though honestly I’m not sure how many of you read these when I first put them out, but I do hope they serve as a helpful resource after the fact when you are looking for pattern ideas etc.
Anyway… Summer is always super busy for us. There’s the ongoing house renovation project, and of course I couldn’t help myself and started a whole second construction project in my back yard, building a foundation to put my old studio on. This project has been kind of huge in its scope… but I am excited about the possibilities for this building. I’m going to put that at the end of this newsletter in case you’re not excited by other people’s building projects :)
Here’s what you’ll find in this newsletter:
Our Fan Club colorway and coordinating semisolid and info. on how to sign up!
Marina Storm’s gorgeous Wheat top collection and a coupon code for a FREE Pattern!
Mystery Bundles are back! But only for a short time… more on that.
Tiny Studio Renovation
FAN CLUB!
July’s Fan Club Colorway is inspired by the Blazing Blue Eastern Collared Lizard! For simplicity’s sake I named the colorway ‘Collared Lizard’ and the coordinating semisolid ‘Lizard Blue’.
If you are smitten with this color, you can find them at the following LYSs: Seattle Yarn, Notion Fabric and Craft, Harriet and Alice, Shabby Sheep and Ewe, Yarnatopia, Cabled Fiber and Yarn, Sethany Knits, Fancywork Yarn Shop, and Ewe-nique Knits!
Fan Club, for those of you who are not in the know, is a subscription club where we design a brand new colorway and coordinating semisolid through our Fan Club Facebook page. Each month, Fan Club members submit ideas, inspiration photos, and their preference in colors, dye methods etc. Through a series of polls, we design the colorway and coordinating semisolid for that month! Fan Club members typically subscribe for 1 skein, and each month they can choose which base they would like, how many skeins they’d like etc. To read more about Fan Club and to subscribe, click HERE. If you are on the fence, give it a try! You can always unsubscribe if it isn’t for you.
Last month I got a bit carried away because two dye methods were tied for first place, so I offered two colorways and the coordinating semisolid. Here are last month’s Fan Club colors: ‘The Narrows at Zion National Park’ and ‘The Water at Zion National Park’!
‘SUMMER WHEAT’ AND ‘WHOLE WHEAT’
FROM STORM KNITTING ARTS!
I was super excited to connect with Marina Storm of Storm Knitting Arts to collaborate with her gorgeous summer tops Summer Wheat and Whole Wheat!
These beautiful tops are knit up in our next-to-skin soft Alder base, and feel amazing against the skin. There is so much stretch in the fabric too! The top I am wearing in the photos below is a size 1 and I’m a size 6, so there is lots of stretch. It is knit up in our Alder Fingering base in the Botany Colorway ‘Nichol’s Turkshead Cactus’.
As you can see, this top is gorgeous in both semisolids and in our Botany collection colorways, and you can get the pattern for FREE for a limited time, with your purchase of $30 or more from Round Mountain Fibers! Just go to www.roundmountainfibers.com and find your yarn, then add the Wheat top that you’d like to the cart, and used coupon code ‘WHEATPATTERN’ to get the pattern for free!!!
Marina is also running a knit-along! To join go to http://ravelry.com/.../designs-by-storm-knitting.../topics and find the knit along!
MYSTERY BUNDLES ARE BACK!
For a limited time only, Mystery Bundles are back on all bases. There are more semisolids available than colorways right now, but go check what we have in stock by clicking HERE! Mystery bundles are always 50% off retail!!! And when you select your bundle, a pop-up survey will ask you for your preferred colors etc. to ensure you get a bundle you’ll love!
TINY STUDIO RENOVATION:
So… when we first bought our house we started by renovating the one-car garage and turning it into my studio! We hadn’t quite finished the interior when I quit my job rather abruptly and moved right into the studio and started Round Mountain Fibers! That was 2015! Rich was looking hunky, Gavin had just gotten braces, and I had come up with my first colorway, Blue Jay.
The garage was built on a slab, and we lifted the whole building up in the air and put a floor system under it so we could insulate the floor and have a wooden floor. We painted the interior, and we were almost done with the ceiling when I moved in.
Fast forward a few years, and we had outgrown the space. Not to mention we didn’t have running water… so we did a kickstarter campaign and raised the funds to start renovating the basement of our house to create a new studio!
And so the little studio became our woodworking shop, gardening shed etc. and filled up with all kinds of stuff as we worked on the house renovation.
Now it had always been my dream to renovate the tiny studio and turn it into a fully functioning studio apartment so we could do airbnb and have the possibility of a rental unit to help support us in retirement (both of us have been self employed for most of our lives, so there’s no safety net really other than social security). So after looking at different options for how to get plumbing into the building, and then wondering what we’d do with all the tools and things that are currently housed in the tiny studio, I decided the thing to do was to build a full walk out basement behind the studio, then lift the studio onto the foundation! That way, we could set up the shop in the basement part, and turn the upstairs into a really nice office for my husband that could double as an AirBnB and guest house!
So… the crane came this morning, and lifted the building off the slab and onto its new foundation!!!
So… that’s what’s going on in the background and on the weekends while I try to keep up with work.. hence the absence of a newsletter! I hope this newsletter finds you happy and healthy and enjoying some down time, be it enjoying the fiber arts, gardening, reading, or whatever floats your boat!
Hugs,
Monica MacNeille
Owner/Dyer
Round Mountain Fibers