New patterns from Swans Island.

Posted by Julia on October 11, 2014

Not long ago, we received a bunch of new patterns from Swans Island.

The “Axis Shawl” calls for two shades of Swans Island Organic Merino Fingering, which come together in a striped slip-stitch pattern against a background of soothing garter stitch. Lots of “Axis Shawls” are starting to pop up on Ravelry; look there for some interesting color combinations.

The “Northwoods Vest” and “Trail Ride Mitts” both make good use of Swans Island Organic Merino Worsted, and show how nice it looks in a cable pattern.

Most of our new Swans Island patterns call for their Organic Washable DK, which is soft and springy, with great stitch definition.

Swans Island makes this yarn machine-washable with a process called Ecowash®, which coats the yarn with an organic compound rather than stripping the scales from the fiber. This helps to prevent felting, making it easy-care for baby and children’s things.

Come by the shop to flip through the Swans Island pattern binder, which is full of inspiring uses for their special yarns!

Triangle Yarn Crawl.

Posted by Julia on October 9, 2014

The Triangle Yarn Crawl is a self-guided tour of local yarn shops, where knitters and crocheters get together and hop from one shop to the next, shopping, entering raffles, and seeing the full breadth of available fibers. They happen twice a year, and the time has come again: the Autumn 2014 crawl is coming up this weekend on October 11th and 12th!

Each local yarn shop has something special to offer, and we’re no exception: all 14 of our in-stock Mirasol yarns will be 25% off during the yarn crawl!

Mirasol yarns come in a wide range of weights and fiber combinations, from sport weight up to bulky, from organic cotton to luxurious alpaca and silk.

There’s a bag of goodies at each of the participating shops, a raffle prize full of yarn, patterns, and more.

Triangle Yarn Crawl sponsors like Cascade, Berroco, and Lantern Moon generously donated yarns and a needle case for the event, and we’ve tucked something special in the bag, too: 3 skeins of Shibui Pebble, and a copy of “Mix No. 32,” just in time to cast on and join the Shibui Fall Knit-A-Long on Ravelry!

We’re lucky to live in such a fiber-friendly part of the world, with so many choices available to us, and the Triangle Yarn Crawl is a great time to see all of those choices. Come see us as you’re crawling along!

A reminder: all sales are final on sale items; there can be no exchanges, no returns, nor will we special order. Discount applies only to in-store purchases. Thanks!

Shibui Mix Party.

Posted by Julia on October 7, 2014

On Sunday, we hosted a Shibui Mix Party.

In preparation for the event, I’d moved all our Shibui yarns into the spotlight, towards the center of the room, where we all gathered around to admire them and plan projects.

We tried on garments from the Monochrome Trunk Show, then plotted color and yarn combinations.

Mix Party attendees sampled all five of the Shibui yarns that we now carry, including the newest, Maai.

In between sips of mimosas and bites of bagels, knitters and crocheters worked up swatches in all manner of Shibui yarns and yarn combinations, sharing pattern ideas as they stitched. I passed around a few new swatches Amy and I knit for the shop, showing what happens when Maai is combined with other Shibui yarns.

It was a delightful morning, spent chatting and laughing with a great group of people, enjoying each other’s company as much as the yarns. If you’re sorry to have missed the Mix Party, get in touch with us–we’re happy to email you a heads-up when the next one is scheduled. In the meantime, come by the shop to see all things Shibui!

Hello, Maai.

Posted by Julia on October 5, 2014

We are thrilled to announce the arrival of Shibui’s latest yarn, Maai.

Maai is a dk weight blend of alpaca and merino, soft and lofty due to its chainette construction. This yarn has tremendous elasticity, making it a pleasure to work with and surely a pleasure to wear.

Shibui’s yarns are designed to be mixed together, held two or three strands at a time to create bespoke yarn blends. For that reason, they’re dyed in closely matching colorways.

We’re delighted to add Maai to our selection of Shibui yarns, which have become favorites over the past year. I can’t wait to see how Maai behaves when knit together with Silk Cloud, Cima, Pebble, or Linen!

Maai is happy to be knit just as it is, however; Anne made this sample scarf using a single strand of Maai and the result is absolutely decadent. The pattern, “M.1,” is free when you buy Maai for the project; 3 skeins makes a scarf this size. Check out our “Inspiring Stitches” board on Pinterest for more ways to use Maai!

A photograph can’t do this yarn justice; you must come in and touch. See you at the shop!

Hello, Ultra Alpaca Chunky.

Posted by Julia on October 2, 2014

Meet the newest yarn from Berroco, Ultra Alpaca Chunky.

A bulky weight blend of wool and alpaca, Ultra Alpaca Chunky is the newest addition to Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca line.

Each 100 gram skein boasts 131 yards, enough for a hat or a pair of mitts. With a suggested gauge of 3.5 stitches per inch on a US #10, this is instant gratification yarn, perfect for cozy accessories and warm, jacket-like sweaters.

Berroco booklet #349 features patterns for Ultra Alpaca Chunky, a collection of accessories and garments.

A sample of one of these patterns, “Duchamp,” now hangs at the shop, knit in a cheery red.

“Duchamp” is a textured shawl, a modular knit whose construction is sure to keep you interested as you stitch.

Look out for this free pattern tucked into the Ultra Alpaca Chunky cubby–a cozy textured scarf, knit with just 3 skeins.

Come by the shop to see Ultra Alpaca Chunky and plan some instant gratification knitting of your own!

Back in stock: Ultra Alpaca and Ultra Alpaca Fine.

Posted by Julia on September 30, 2014

These mighty big boxes arrived from Berroco last week, with over 30 pounds of Ultra Alpaca yarns in each one. New colors made up some of the weight, as did some old favorites; the rest was a new yarn entirely, but that’s for another post. The unpacking, sorting, storing, and displaying took Anne and I most of a day!

Good old Ultra Alpaca. This 50%/50% blend of wool and alpaca is a classic, with the structure and elasticity of wool and the drape, halo, and softness of alpaca.

It comes in reasonably-priced, 100 gram hanks with 219 yards each; enough yarn to make a small scarf, a hat, or a pair of mittens. Ultra Alpaca comes in a wide range of colors, from fun brights to classic neutrals; I’ve always particularly admired the heathered shades.

Ultra Alpaca is a great sweater yarn, too, as Mindy here can attest. A bit of show and tell: Mindy came in the other day, having heard about our big Berroco shipment, to show off her very first sweater, knit during a “Start Your First Sweater” class here at the shop. She used Ultra Alpaca in a heathered charcoal and a friendly top-down seamless cardigan pattern from our pattern binder. Look at the fabulous result!

We also got new colors in Ultra Alpaca Fine, a fingering weight blend of wool, alpaca, and nylon. Its fiber content and gauge suggest socks, but Ultra Alpaca Fine is equally at home in larger garments, and especially shines in openwork scarves and shawls.

The alpaca content gives it a bit of a fuzzy halo, something to keep in mind if you’re planning a project that requires sharp stitch definition–those fuzzy fibers can obscure delicate texture patterns a bit. That said, those fuzzy fibers also give the finished fabric softness and warmth.

Come by the shop to see all the new colors in Berroco Ultra Alpaca and Ultra Alpaca Fine, and keep them in mind for sweater, sock, and shawl-making this fall. Stay tuned for the newest Berroco yarn, or come by the shop to see it before it hits the blog!

Shibui Monochrome Trunk Show.

Posted by Julia on September 28, 2014

Yesterday, we were surprised and delighted to receive the Shibui Monochrome Trunk Show a few days early. Why wait? We put them right up on the wall, after petting them a bit.

The Monochrome Collection features designs by Kirsten Johnstone, all of which are knit with multiple strands of yarn at a time. There are many fun and useful things about trunk shows, like being able to play a bit of dress-up and try garments on for size, but one of the best aspects of a Shibui trunk show is seeing these yarn combinations in person.

It can be hard enough to imagine how a single yarn will behave as knitted fabric; throw two different colors or fibers into the mix and it can be a real leap of faith. That’s where our shop samples and swatches are most helpful–ah, this is how Cima and Silk Cloud work up together–and whole garments are even more illuminating.

Come by the shop before October 14th to see the Shibui Monochrome Trunk Show for yourself: try on the garments, browse the patterns, and plan your next project.

See you there!

Back in stock: Wool Trees.

Posted by Julia on September 26, 2014

We’re so happy to see a little forest of Wool Trees back on our shelves! These elegant yarn-ball controllers are handcrafted in California from maple, walnut, and sapele.

Wool Tree Mill makes a few variations on its original Wool Tree, as well. Here’s the tray model, with storage for your stitch markers, cable needle, point protectors, measuring tape–whatever bits and pieces sit beside you as you stitch. (Shown with a delicious skein of String Theory Caper Sock, sold separately.)

We also stock other products from Wool Tree Mill, including drop spindles and lucets. We’re happy to special-order Wool Tree Mill products that we don’t regularly stock, like the Wool Tree Double, with two spindles: perfect for two-color knitting. Come by the shop to see our selection of Wool Trees and other notions!

Interweave Crochet, and a few new books.

Posted by Julia on September 24, 2014

The Fall 2014 issue of Interweave Crochet is here!

In this issue, you’ll find garments and accessories that use many different crochet colorwork methods. The patterns within are decorated with all manner of stripes, intarsia, tapestry crochet, and Tunisian stranded colorwork.

There’s also a handy article on colorwork management, teaching how to work with multiple colors at once–a must for many of these patterns.

Look to the teacart at the shop for the latest crochet books and magazines, but don’t stop there; we have plenty of older titles on the bookshelf with patterns, techniques, and other inspiration. For example, we recently added this trio of crochet booklets for children’s garments, noticing a gap between our baby and adult patterns.

Megan Kreiner’s Bathtime Buddies also arrived at the shop recently, filled with patterns for crocheted sea creatures. If stitching toys and stuffed animals is right up your alley, be sure to check this one out, along with our other amigurumi books.

Browse them all at the shop!

New colors in Ewe So Sporty.

Posted by Julia on September 22, 2014

I’m happy to report that our supply of Ewe So Sporty has just doubled! Ewe Ewe just came out with 10 new shades of this soft and bouncy superwash merino.

Ewe So Sporty is named for its gauge, a sport weight yarn that knits up between 5.5 and 6.5 stitches per inch, depending upon needle size and desired fabric. It’s ideal for baby and children’s things, especially because it’s easy to care for–machine wash cold, lay flat to dry.

Anne recently knit this “Sleeping Cedars” baby bunting with four skeins of Ewe So Sporty. It doesn’t have its buttons or drawstring yet, but I had to snap a photo, lest it be gifted before I had another chance to document it.

Come by the shop to see all 20 cheery shades of Ewe So Sporty, and remember it whenever your next opportunity for baby knitting should arise!