Titus Shades.

Posted by Julia on May 27, 2013

Titus, a fingering weight yarn from British company Baa Ram Ewe, has been a hit since it first arrived at the shop in December. At that time, it came in only one color, an oatmealy tan the natural shade of the alpaca, Wensleydale, and Bluefaced Leicester wool it’s made of. A few months later, Titus Light and Dark became available, two new natural shades. On Friday, we were delighted to receive Baa Ram Ewe’s latest creation, a shipment of eight brand new colors: Titus Shades.

Each color is inspired by and named for some aspect of the Yorkshire landscape or culture: a deep, warm orange is called Parkin, a ginger and black treacle cake; a cool, pale blue is named Aire for the river that flows through Yorkshire’s traditional woollen district; a glistening white is called White Rose, for the flower on the Yorkshire flag.

These new shades fill out the Titus palette quite nicely, expanding the range of neutral colors beyond even those initial three.

A lovely knitter we know, Margaretta, has been working on a Color Affection shawl in the three original shades of Titus; here’s a sliver of her shawl-in-progress, still on the needles.

I thought of Color Affection as I was photographing the new Titus Shades, and couldn’t keep myself from arranging them into groups of three that I thought would make nice Color Affection combinations.

When Anne gave me the enviable task of creating a shop sample with Titus Shades, we brainstormed for a long time. Would stripes or stranded colorwork be the best way to show off these new colors? What kind of garment should it be? We finally decided on a lacy, striped cowl, and I got as far as casting on for that cowl when Margaretta came in to see Titus Shades with her Color-Affection-to-be in hand. At that slightly open gauge, Titus posseses the “drape and softness of a sleeping cat,” to borrow a phrase from Clara Parkes. Anne and I agreed that I really ought to be knitting Color Affection, and I ripped out my cast-on to begin again. I’m now a handful of rows into it, enjoying every stitch.

Come by the shop to see Titus in all its glorious hues, and to pick a color combination of your own. There are so many wonderful two- and three-color shawls that call for fingering weight yarn, and Titus is a perfect candidate. See you at the shop!

Going to Market Sale!

Posted by Julia on May 24, 2013

Every year, we attend the National Needle Arts trade show and market, a gathering place for yarn companies and retailers, and a time for placing Fall and Winter orders. As we prepare to go to market, we offer a sale for the three weeks before our trip: a Going to Market Sale.

This year, all yarns and booklets by Debbie Bliss and Noro are discounted by 25% between Friday, May 24th, and Wednesday, June 19th.

Between Debbie Bliss and Noro, we’ll have over 50 yarns on sale in all kinds of weights, colors, and textures.

These yarns lend themselves to a great variety of projects, from shawls and scarves to socks and sweaters, from baby things and blankets to dishcloths and market bags.

There’s truly something for every knitter and crocheter here, so do stop by between May 24th and June 19th to see all the fabulous yarn we’ve discounted!

Some reminders:

All sales are final on discounted yarns; no returns nor exchanges
Discount applies only to in-stock yarns; no special orders

Thanks for understanding!

From Lantern Moon.

Posted by Julia on May 22, 2013

Recently, we replenished our supply of yarn-out boxes and other goodies from Lantern Moon, a company that supports artisans in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Bali, Indonesia. Their handcrafted tools and accessories are as aesthetically pleasing as they are functional, perfectly suited to knitters and crocheters, who seem to love their tools along with their craft.

These silken cubes open up to hold your yarn as you work from it, keeping it safe from rolling away or becoming a pet’s plaything while you’re stitching.

The Lantern Moon sheep stitch markers have been such a hit that this time, we ordered a menagerie of markers: squirrels, butterflies, ladybugs, and scottie dogs, along with the sheep.

Sheep adorn these embroidered drawstring project bags, as well. Look for them hanging in the front window of the shop.

You may have seen cable needles and repair hooks from Lantern Moon at the shop before, made of ebony and rosewood. These FeatherLight hooks and needles are made in the same style out of a lighter weight, sustainably-produced wood. Give them a try if your metal or plastic cable needles prove too slippery; wooden tools tend to hold onto stitches more readily.

Come by the shop for tools and accessories as well as for yarn, patterns, and inspiration. See you there!

Shawls and seamless knitting: two new books.

Posted by Julia on May 20, 2013

Last week, we received two brand new books from Interweave: The Art of Seamless Knitting and Free Spirit Shawls.

The Art of Seamless Knitting, by Simona Merchant-Dest and Faina Goberstein, offers patterns, techniques, and tips for creating garments without seams.

Many knitters love knitting sweaters seamlessly from the top down or bottom up, and this book shows how to bring more intricate patterning to garments like those.

Along with plenty of good-looking seamless sweater patterns, this book offers guidance on how to include cable, lace, and texture patterns in seamless garments.

Lisa Shroyer’s Free Spirit Shawls has all kinds of shawl patterns in many shapes and gauges. Paging through it, I saw a few familiar yarns put to good use. Here’s a simple triangular shawl that shows off the delightful stripes in Schoppel-Wolle’s Zauberball yarn.

This 2-color kerchief makes the most of high-contrast colorways in Claudia Handpainted Yarns’ fingering weight merino yarn.

This cozy shawl is shaped with short rows, and knit with good old Berroco Ultra Alpaca, a worsted weight blend of wool and alpaca.

Come by the shop to check out these and other new books. See you there!

Botanical Knits.

Posted by Julia on May 18, 2013

For the past few months, we’ve been anxiously awaiting the newest collection of patterns by Alana Dakos, the West coast half of Coastal Knits. We’d previewed the patterns on Ravelry, admired the twelve designs that make up the new book, and tried to be patient until it was published and we could hold it in our hands. Now, it’s here: Botanical Knits, by Alana Dakos.

Just like Coastal Knits before it, Botanical Knits is beautiful both as a collection of knitting patterns and as a book.

The layout and photography are as inviting as the patterns themselves, each one inspired by foliage of one kind or another. Tiny knitted leaves are scattered throughout the book, made in each yarn Dakos used in the collection, and at the end, there’s a pattern showing how to knit leaves of your own.

I was even charmed by the schematics, which use tiny photos of the garments to show their measurements instead of the typical line drawings.

Come by the shop to see this gorgeous pattern collection, and to plan a botanical knit of your own. See you there!

Interweave Knits.

Posted by Julia on May 16, 2013

The latest issue of Interweave Knits has arrived!

This issue offers the usual mix of knit tees and tanks that we normally expect from a Summer magazine, along with a nice selection of more substantial sweaters for cool evenings and aggressive air-conditioning.

Seeking Summer knitting inspiration? Come by the shop to flip through Interweave Knits and plan your next project. See you there!

Noro Knitting Magazine.

Posted by Julia on May 14, 2013

The latest issue of Noro Knitting Magazine has arrived!

The premiere issue came out last fall, and all our copies were quickly snapped up. Lovers of Noro will find plenty to knit in this current issue, too; all of these patterns take full advantage of those self-striping yarns. From shawls and scarves to sweaters and dresses, these patterns make good use of self-striping yarns in many gauges, often combining them with solid colors for an interesting effect.

There are patterns here for crocheters, too.

Come by the shop to grab a copy of Noro Knitting Magazine, and plan your next project with Noro yarns!

Show and tell: sweaters, bags, a bunny, and a rug.

Posted by Julia on May 12, 2013

My collection of show-and-tell photos is growing, once again. It seems that we’re in a finishing season, for knitters and crocheters are completing projects left and right, and bringing them into the shop to share with us. Some are making garments, some are making bags, one industrious knitter is making bunny after bunny, and one industrious yarn shop owner has crocheted a rug. Let’s have a look at the latest show-and-tell!

Sue brought in a pair of finished garments from Vicki Square’s Knit Kimono Too, a seed stitch top and short kimono made in Cascade Ultra Pima.

The design is elegant and wearable, and the yarn, a dk weight mercerized cotton, has a slight sheen that highlights the texture of the fabric. If you like this set, come by the shop to flip through Vicki Square’s books for similar patterns.

Here, Bo models her first sweater, a hooded jacket made in Berroco Peruvia Quick. Technically, this is her second sweater; the first was made in this same yarn, then ripped out and reknit once this enterprising knitter took a careful look and decided she could do better. The first sweater was beautiful, too, but by the time she was done knitting it, she’d learned more precise seaming techniques, more symmetrical increases and decreases, and how to shape the fabric while leaving a neat selvedge edge, and she thought it was worth it to try again with all these new skills.

Sometimes, it’s truly worth ripping out and reknitting, even if it’s a lot of work–Bo is so happy with this completed sweater!

Here’s another happy knitter, Jennifer, showing off her Small Clutch Bag. Jennifer completed this bag in a class taught by Marsha, who also teaches Beginning Knitting, Fixing Mistakes, and many of our other technique classes. Along with being a great teacher, Marsha also does some knitwear design–the Small Clutch Bag is one of her own patterns, made up in the worsted weight Plymouth Galway. Come by the shop to see a sample bag and get yourself a copy of the pattern!

Anne and I have been making bags, too–you may have read about our Hexagonal Market Bag Knit-Along on the blog last week. We’re both happy to report that it’s a quick knit, and we have two completed bags to prove it. They came out sturdy and stretchy, capable of accommodating an armful of yarn.

Anne’s is made with Louisa Harding Nautical Cotton in black, a favorite color of hers, and mine is made in Plymouth Linen Isle in a natural beige, a favorite color of mine. Many knitters have been inspired to create their own Hexagonal Market Bags in a rainbow of colors; wont you join us in knitting along?

Becky is on a bunny kick, and this Bunty Bunny is her latest creation. The little details are incredible, the result of close attention and long hours of knitting, sewing, and embroidery. Becky brought her in to share with us before sending her off as a gift, and selected yarn to make another Bunty Bunny, this time in regal reds and purples–a queen bunny. I can’t wait to see how it comes out.

If you’ve been in the shop in the past few weeks, you may well have seen Anne crocheting this rug, a replacement for one she crocheted as a child that has only recently been clawed to shreds by her cat. Bulky yarn, like the Katia Irish Tweed that Anne used, makes for a sturdy rug that comes together quickly in simple rounds of single crochet. She inspired me to pick up a hook myself, and finally learn to crochet. The rug lives at her home now, but there are plenty of sturdy bulky yarns at the shop that would make beautiful crocheted rugs if you’re inspired, too.

Thanks to everyone who brings their work in to share with us! It is a delight to see such a wide range of knit and crochet projects, and inspiring to watch our yarns grow into finished pieces. See you at the shop!

New from Mountain Meadow Wool.

Posted by Julia on May 10, 2013

Last week, two enormous boxes arrived at the shop from Mountain Meadow Wool in Wyoming. Inside, there were new colors in Cody, along with four new yarns from MMW: Lilura, Dubois, Powder River, and Mountain Fusion Teton. At the Mountain Meadow Wool Yarn Tasting, we invited attendees to swatch with four MMW yarns and also to flip through color cards to see the many other yarns they produce. Some were drawn to delicate fingering weight yarns, some favored brilliantly colored bulky weights, and others were wooed by Cody, the first MMW yarn we’ve stocked here at the shop. We made a slew of special orders that reflected our yarn tasters’ desires and preferences, which meant bringing all these new yarns to the shop in just a few colors. Those of you who couldn’t make it to the yarn tasting can now get a sense of which MMW yarns our HYS knitters loved best, and see them in person at the shop.

Lilura is a fingering weight blend of US-sourced merino wool and North American alpaca, a round, smooth, 3-ply yarn with fabulous stitch definition and a lovely soft hand. The base yarn is a pale, heathered oatmeal color (pictured above on the right), and any hand-dyed colorways are dyed on top of that natural color. The result is a warmer, more subdued color than could be achieved by dyeing stark white fiber. We had a spare skein in the natural color hanging around after the yarn tasting, which I used to knit up the Rustling Leaves Beret from Coastal Knits.

Each stitch was a delight; I’ll surely be coming back to this yarn for a bigger project. The Rustling Leaves Beret lives at the shop now with all the newest MMW yarns; come by and take a look.

Dubois is also fingering weight, a pebbly 2-ply merino wool. One knitter at the yarn tasting ordered this to make a slouchy cabled hat, a perfect fit for this soft and springy yarn, but it’s equally well-suited to lace shawls, scarves, or perhaps a light-weight sweater.

Powder River, a dk weight blend of merino wool and alpaca, caught the eye of two knitters who plan to use it for a set of Welting Fantastic Cowl + Mitts. I’m flattered by their pattern selection, and can’t wait to see how this gorgeous yarn makes up in my design. Like Lilura, the base yarn is a light beige color, giving this blue shade extra depth and interest.

Mountain Fusion Teton is the result of collaboration between Mountain Meadow Wool and Mountain Colors, a bulky weight merino wool yarn. We have two colors in stock, both of which fall comfortably into the red category. One has orange and fuschia highlights, while the other leans towards burgundy and plum, but both are 2 ply, where one ply is thick and the other is thin. This gives a pretty consistent texture with plenty of color interest, not to mention enough yarn in one skein to create a hat in an afternoon.

Anne knit this up as soon as it arrived, working from a hat pattern provided on the yarn’s label. The only change she made to the pattern was to switch from ribbing to stockinette after an inch or two; the pattern as written makes a fully ribbed hat. Come by the shop to see it, and remember Mountain Fusion Teton when winter gift-giving is upon us and a hat in an afternoon sounds like a lifesaver.

Last but certainly not least, we did get four new colors in Cody, a bouncy sport weight 2-ply merino wool. This brings our current color selection to 16, a wide range of natural and hand-dyed colorways.

Come by the shop to see all these new yarns from Mountain Meadow Wool, and to admire the many colors and textures that this incredible US yarn company creates. See you at the shop!

Rodekool brioche scarf.

Posted by Julia on May 8, 2013

Recently, one of our teachers dropped off a knit sample at the shop, a scarf to show what she’ll teach in her upcoming “Brioche Neck Scarf” class.

Amy’s class will show how to work brioche, a knitting technique that creates two interwoven layers of fabric at once. It can be worked in a single color or in two colors, which yields a reversible garment like this scarf, “Rodekool,” a free pattern by brioche mastermind Nancy Marchant.

Amy knit her Rodekool (“red cabbage” in Dutch) scarf using Isager Highland, a fingering weight wool. Marchant’s pattern recommends using one skein of Crystal Palace Mini Mochi, knitting from both ends of the self-striping yarn at once, but that can create confusion when learning a new technique. For ease of knitting and clarity of pattern, Amy recommends working the Rodekool in two solid colors, and reports that the Isager Highland was lovely to work with.

Come by the shop to see this incredible garment for yourself. Meanwhile, you can read more about the upcoming “Brioche Neck Scarf” class on our website, and sign up there to learn this fascinating technique with Amy. We also have copies of Nancy Marchant’s Knitting Brioche, a comprehensive compendium of all things brioche. See you at the shop!