TL;DR right up top for folks in a hurry:

• The metal tool cards are coming back! I’ve been getting constant requests for these since the summer, and I’ve finally found a place that can make what I want!
• In a day or two, I’ll open a preorder. We’re doing a preorder because production takes several weeks, and I want to be sure I get enough for everyone.
• I’ll have a pack of two for $50 or a pack of five for $100. If you preorder in the first week, you’ll get free bonus gauge cards (one with the two pack, two with the five pack).
• They’ll ship December 1 (assuming, you know, a functioning post office and no disasters). Shipping is included for stateside preorders (I have to check with the post office to see what international postage costs before I can say if it’s included). Things should arrive to stateside addresses in time for Christmas (and December 1 is more than a week before the international shipping deadline, so in theory they will probably arrive in time overseas too), but we are all at the mercy of the post office and the world is on fire, so no promises.

I will do a big info post when the preorder opens with more details about everything. And there’s more background info about the project at large below. If you want me to email you when the preorder goes live, make sure you’re on my mailing list or become a free member on my patreon.

Longer version for folks with questions:

Ok so I’ve never had people be as excited about anything I’ve ever made as they were about these. Which is fantastic…and also a little overwhelming! I’ve literally gotten emails and DMs every single week from folks saying either ‘I neeeeeeed them’ or from mail club folks who already got one saying ‘I need moooooore.’

I’ve been hard at work talking with three different manufacturers to try and find one who can make just what I have in mind. (The manufacturing process on these has been an adventure, and I have Learned Some Things. Lemme know if you want me to talk more about that some time.) I finally found someone who can make them, and they’re working on a sample run right now. The samples will take about three weeks to show up at my door (then we have to wait three more weeks for the the big pile of them), which means it’s time to open the preorder.

We’re doing a preorder in large part because these take so long to manufacture (and because they’re expensive enough to make that I don’t want to have oodles of extras). I’ll open that in a day or two and leave it open up through when I put in the big order (which will be a day or two after the samples come). I will order a little bit more than what gets spoken for in the preorder, but not a ton. So if you want to be sure you get them, the preorder is the way to do that.

The biggest problem with something like this is it is simply not feasible for me to sell them one by one. Luckily, the most common request I get is some version of ‘I want a stack of them.’ People really want one in every knitting bag and one in their wallet, and a whole lot of you want to use them as stocking stuffers or to give them to all the folks in your knitting group. So the plan is to have a two pack (for $50) and a five pack (for $100). That solves both problems at once (I’m not trying to ship a bunch of orders that are too small to be worth the overhead involved in fulfilling them, you can get the pile of them that so many of you seem to really want). For preorders placed in the first week, I’ll also include the awesome little gauge cards everyone likes so much as a bonus (one in the two packs, two in the five packs).

The plan is to ship them December 1. That should be well before both the stateside shipping deadlines (Dec 17) and even the international deadlines (Dec 9). BUT the postal system is under tremendous pressure at the moment and the world is on fire and I cannot promise anything other than a good faith effort to have things there by Christmas. Stateside preorders will include postage (and I’ll cover international ones if I can, but I have to go to the post office and find out for sure what it costs before I promise anything, worst case scenario I can for sure ship it if you want to cover the postage, just sometimes the postage is staggering).

I’m also considering doing a very very limited amount of wholesale orders. If you are a yarn shop (or a dyer, or someone in a fiber adjacent field who wants to carry these), shoot me a message ([email protected]) and let me know. If you want your favorite yarn shop to carry them, reach out to them and let them know, I have it on good authority that yarn stores don’t mind if you do that (this is also how you can get just one if you really really really want to get just one).

Wrap up:

The preorder will go live later this week (likely Thursday). There’s nothing to do right this second (other than be excited…). And if you want me to let you know when the preorder is live, you can get on my mailing list or become a free member on my patreon.

Yay for making cool new things!