Themed Quarterly Yarn Club ~ Firefly

Quarter 1 is drawing to a close, bringing with it the end of the first instalment of the Quarterly Yarn Club. For those of you that didn't get a chance to join in the fun, here is the final club box and the gorgeous yarns and goodies that everyone received.

I have a lot of fandoms that I'm particularly partial to. Firefly being one of my all time favourites. So I was thrilled when it won the vote. I really enjoyed creating it and I'd love to take you through my different inspirations for the colourways present in the Club. Starting with the Exclusive Club skein 'Serenity'.

Shown on our Tesseract base

Serenity was inspired by it's namesake, the Firefly class ship that is home to our favourite crew. I wanted to show the ship as a little battered but still well loved and beautiful in its own way. With maroon and orange flashes across the skein overlaid with a silvery grey/black reminiscent of the scene when the ship is flying though a sea of Reavers in Serenity. Lastly I definitely couldn't forget to add the section of engine burn orangey yellow, so that when in skein form it looks like Serenity is in full burn travelling through the black.

Crew Member Companion minis

Captain Tightpants/Mal

For Mal I really wanted to represent his bold nature as well as pay homage to his browncoat loyalties. To this end I played with rich reds and browns, whilst also including some yellow and beiges to balance out those colours. As I've said before I think his and Inara's colourway go beautifully together, both very bold and in brilliant contrast.

Reader/River

River was a hard one to represent, as in speaking to others, I've found she in particular is interpreted so differently. Even by me in this case, as her colourway very nearly ended up completely different. I had originally gone for a strong rich blue and Sage/olivey green to represent her dresses in two key scenes, both in the TV series and the film. However at the last moment I changed my mind and her colourway became silvery blue with more blue flashes and red speckles. As I think it represents the dancer's fluidity with which she carries herself but also a nod to her fighting skills and her scattered mind.

Companion/Inara

I have previously spoken about my inspiration for Inara's colourway, and how I feel the rich layered purples represent her strength of character and her beauty, so it was a pleasure to include her as a mini for this club.

Pilot/Wash

Wash and Zoe will always be my personal favourite characters aboard the ship, so it was a no brainer when I chose Wash as one of the crew member skeins, With his quirky one liners and his snappy dress sense how could I not! I took inspiration from his crazy shirts, with their pale green under colour and colourful prints and patterning. I followed this by creating a light mint green underlay and using orange, blue, teal and black for speckles and splashes.

As to why these four over the others, I have been working on some new Firefly themed colourways that I will début in the next quarter as well as some more Dr Who inspired colourways. Some of the ideas I had for crew members for Firefly couldn't be demonstrated to my satisfaction on mini skeins. Hence why these 4 of 9.

Goodies!

We can't forget this club's wonderful goodies. made in collaboration with some other artisans, including buttons from Crazy buttons and Allsorts, and some charms from Pinz n Thingz.
The notions pouches and stitch markers were made by me with the buttons made by Angie of Crazy buttons, she does beautiful work.

I will be offering themed notions kits upon my return from holiday in April and there will be a limited number of these Firefly ones up for grabs, so if you like them don't miss out!

Now onwards! Boldly into the next quarter and the beginning of voting on the next theme. Thanks to everyone on Ravelry who gave suggestions in the group as to possible themes for next quarter, The Random thing picker has spoken!

The themes for voting are!

• Discworld
• Fifth Element
• Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Don't worry if your theme isn't here for voting, I'll be working on lots of new colourways on my return from holiday so you'll see one or two based on some of the different themes suggested to me, Also keep an eye out towards the end of this year, there will be some exciting things happening, exciting but kind of secret so I can't share them just yet :D

In other news, there will be a "Because yarn is expensable, right?" Market Night this coming Saturday April 2nd over on the Facebook page, don't forget to check it out as all our ready to ship yarns will be on offer. with 10% off over £20 spent and 15% off over £50.

So what are you waiting for, Get Voting and Get Shopping!

New Year, New Things and the Quarterly Yarn Club

Happy New Year and Welcome to 2016!

We've lots of new and exciting things coming up this year, more shows, new bases, new designs and of course, more yarn!

We are starting a Themed Quarterly Yarn Club. Sign ups will be limited for each quarter but will be 100% worth it!

The first quarter runs from January to March

The first month of every quarter (in this case, January) you get to vote on your favourite theme from a shortlist of themes. Subscribers to the Yarn Club list get to go first and have more weight in the decision (they also get first dibs on sign ups). So subscribe to the list now if you're interested: here

At the end of the first month the theme is announced and sign ups are open through the second month, these are limited though, so don't wait!

In the third month the club yarn goes out!

What do you get?

Each Club membership of £42 gives you a skein of yarn exclusive to the club (and club members) for the year, a set of mini skeins and some mystery theme related goodies and accessories.

You are able to choose one of the following Superwash Merino bases for your exclusive skein of yarn.

• Companion 4ply
• Echo Dk
• Space Aran

You also have the option of picking one of our luxury bases for a little extra

• Tesseract Lace (55% Sw Blue Faced Leicester 45% Silk) 
• Hevelin 4ply (80% Sw Merino 10% Cashmere 10% Nylon)
• Sinaya Dk (MCN)
• Selkie Dk (50% Sw Merino 50% Silk)

Please note that our Ship's Mechanic Sock base will be available but will take the colours slightly differently from the superwash merino and BFL bases above.

There will be an even more limited number of just the exclusive skein sign ups for £16 available as well.

So without further ado get voting in the comments!

1. Dr Who
2. Firefly
3. Random Fandom!

Or head over to Facebook to vote in the comments there, don't forget to include your email address when commenting on the blog, so we can contact you when sign ups go live!

In the meantime check out the shop update!

Inara and Na'vi

Hi all,

If you've been following Third Vault Yarns on Facebook or Instagram, you'll see that I've recently posted pictures of two of my colourways on the TVY Companion 4ply base.

Companion 4ply is a soft squishy 100% Superwash Merino, that dyes up in vibrant colours. It's a 4 plied yarn that knits up beautifully, and is wonderful to work with (I'm knitting with it myself, I would never pick a yarn to dye that I wouldn't knit with). The base yarn is named after Companions in the Sci Fi and fantasy genre, from whatever walk of life they may come from. Be it Doctor Who, firefly or something else.

Inara 

Is a colourway dyed in varying layered purples, inspired by and named after Inara Serra, Companion by trade, friend and on and off member of crew of Serenity in Firefly and more often than not sparring partner to the ship's captain one Malcom Reynolds. I chose these colours to represent her because I see her has a vibrant character with lots of depth, and tend to associate her with the colour purple. Watch this space though as I might be adding more Inara inspired colourways in the future, based on her fantastic colourful and rich outfits throughout Firefly. If you're a fan of Cowboy's, Space and science fiction, go watch it, it's currently available on netflix if you already have a subscription or i'm sure elsewhere if you get a chance to look. 

Na'vi

 A colourway made up of layered blues, teals, greens and a splash of purple. It was inspired by the Na'vi people, and the beauty of their home world the moon of Pandora, as shown in James Cameron's movie Avatar. I loved the movie, even though I saw it ages ago when it first came out, and definitely think it's worth a watch if you haven't seen it.

These particular yarns will be coming to Nine Worlds with me on the 9th of August so if you want to pick them up there that will be your first chance, otherwise they should be available mid August in the Etsy store.

Check back for new colourways and more information about their inspiration in the coming weeks.