A Renewed Interest in Knitting

I taught my daughters how to knit when they were 5. They're 13 now and over the years they have picked it up, and put it down, and picked it up, and put it down. They've made charity blankets, preemie hats, and scarves, hats & mittens for themselves. The past two years they haven't really wanted to knit, so I haven't pushed them.

Next week we are moving back to Vermont from Finland, where we've been living for 2 years. And all of a sudden the girls are excited to open boxes that have been in storage while we've been gone. (It's like Christmas I guess?) 

Even though they are past the (playing with) American Girl Doll stage, they have been asking me a lot of questions about their dolls. "Mom, did we save the dolls? Did we save the clothing and accessories for the dolls?" "Yes, we did," I keep telling them. I asked them if they were planning on playing with dolls and they said they just wanted to knit and sew clothes for them. I'm wondering if this inspiration comes from the Project Runway we've been watching on Hulu recently!?

Anyway, I'm thrilled. Smaller projects are more manageable than larger ones and there are still a lot of techniques they can learn when making small sweaters. I'm all for them learning how to follow patterns, too. We've got some great patterns for 18" dolls and they're already picking out their favorites:

Knitting at Knoon 18" Doll Wardrobe Collection #1

The garter rib hooded pullover is adorable, and the pink sweater with stripes is perfect for using up tiny bits of stash yarn. Even novelty yarns would be fun in the stripes!

Knitting at Knoon 18" Doll Wardrobe #2

The Darla sweater (middle right) is great for practicing lace stitches, and the Seth vest is perfect for learning how to work neck decreases.

Fun Fashions: Contemporary Outfits to Knit for 18" Dolls

Another great use for fuzzy novelties - the ballerina outfit! And I think all dolls need a lounge around outfit like this cute blue one.
 
Once they have success making a few of these, they're excited to start designing some patterns of their own.

Happy Spring!

Beginning April 1st, our Wednesday evening hours will end for the season and we'll be open Wednesdays from 10am-5pm until further notice. Thanks!

And, in April our Open Knit & Crochet times will change to the FIRST Wednesday of each month, from 3-5pm. 

Hope to see you with some fun spring projects on your needles & hooks!

Vogue in Black & White!

contributed by Shawn 

The new Vogue Knitting Magazine is here! 

The spring/summer 2013 issue has some hot new black & white projects in it. Our customers all love the "sleek, chic white stripes" that are featured on Ellen Liguori's black mini-dress. This dress is going into so many knitting queues! 

We'll be sure to order additional stock of the Brown Sheep Cotton Fine in the colors Cotton Ball and Cavern for you this week.

Spring is on the way!

contributed by Shawn

And we know what that means...Baby Showers!

I absolutely couldn't resist the My First Regia yarn when it arrived and before we even had the pattern booklet I took one of the little Easter Egg like skeins home. I made these teeny booties (Saartje's Bootees by Saartje de Bruijn):

They are so stinkin' cute that we've kept them on the counter for a couple of days just to watch the reactions of our customers. 

I'm thinking you can guess the reactions!

We all make mistakes!

contributed by Shawn

Can you spot what is wrong with this mitten?

Yarn: Classic Elite Liberty Wool Print yarn, color "Reflecting Pool"

If you look closely above you will see that the thumb gusset shaping runs right up the middle of the photo. The gusset was incorporated into the body of the mitten hand and is not where the thumb was added. 

OOPS. This is a wonderful reason to put down your knitting when you are tired!

It's a good thing that the pair I did as gifts turned out with the thumbs in the correct spot!

Yarn: Berroco Vintage yarn, colors "Fennel" and "Tide Pool"

Both mittens are from our free Easy Mittens pattern. And it IS an easy pattern, as long as you pay attention when you knit!

Chess, Anyone?

contributed by Shawn

I wish I knew a chess enthusiast to entertain with this amazing knitted chess set. 

A customer of ours recently shared these images with us and I just had a chance to take a closer look. The way the figures of the knights are sitting on the horses is amazing!

Ravelry lists the project and it looks like this pattern was published in 2011 in a Simply Knitting pamphlet.

Very cool!

Indulgence

Self striping sock yarns sure are fun, but sometimes those size 1 & 2 needles can really tire out my fingers! So when my sales reps were visiting last month, I found a nice DK weight sock yarn to bring in to the shop... Knitting Fever Indulgence.

It's available in 12 really fun colors and it's an extra fine merino blend, which makes it SO amazingly soft. 

Of course it's a sock yarn, so it's great for sock knitters. But we've always got customers looking for striping yarns in sport and DK weights for shawls, scarves and baby sweaters. Even lightweight hats and gloves! 

My latest project is the Niche sweater, by Norah Gaughan, knit in Berroco Maya. It's a fun pattern and not one I would normally want to set aside, but I had a vacation with the family planned for last week. And the Niche sweater is knit all in one piece, from cuff to cuff. This is great for people who don't like to seam... but for travel knitting? 

Not so great, especially since I'm about halfway finished. I wanted to pack light on this trip, and dragging half a sweater around on my needles wasn't going to cut it.

So I grabbed a ball of Indulgence and found a really cute and fun free pattern on Ravelry (the Top Down Raglan Baby Sweater - Garter Ridge version). With 12 great colors, picking one was the hardest part!

It was the absolute perfect project for my trip. I'm sad to say I did not complete it (some of the roads were pretty windy and I'm prone to getting carsick!) but I'm only about 8-10 rows from having it completed.

The only changes I made were to the ribbings. They were supposed to be k2p2, but with the modified garter pattern on the body, I thought a regular garter stitch ribbing looked better!

Customer Project - Spotlight on Lang Tosca Light

contributed by Shawn

We recently snapped a photo of a wonderful example of Lang Tosca Light yarn crocheted into a circular shawl. 

Our customer Florence shared this beautiful project with us and said it was created from a vintage (& unidentified) crochet pattern. The Lang Tosca Light yarn shading really is striking.

Lang Tosca Light looks great in knitted projects like this Wonderful Wallaby sweater too!