recap of Norah's visit

Wow, did we have fun yesterday. It is always so great to see Andra, as she is so full of energy and enthusiasm about life, yarn, fashion, knitting, etc. She arrived first, and soon Norah arrived, with boxes of garments from her Norah Gaughan Collection: Volume One. We had cleared out the back of the shop and had lots of mannequin bodies all naked and waiting to wear her samples. As Norah pulled items out of the boxes, we all "oohed" and "aahed". What can I say people? Yarn and knitted garments excite us! That's why we do what we do.

The coolest thing about the visit yesterday was not SEEING these items in person...though that pretty much rocked. It was getting to try them on. And she had multiples - as in the same garment in both a smaller size and a larger size! We all have different body shapes and sizes, and a lot of times, a certain sweater STYLE may look great on one body type, and awful on another, even if it is sized properly. It's just that the style doesn't work for multiple shapes. The great thing about most of Norah's designs in this book, is that they worked on multiple body types. Believe me! I tried these things on. Kalen did, Michele did, Alex did, Barb did. And many customers did. And we are ALL shaped differently. And a lot of the pieces looked great on each and every one of us. So that was a really enlightening experience for all of us, and for all of the people who tried these things on.

The other really interesting thing is that the sweater that I liked the LEAST in the book, turns out to be one I like the MOST. It's the Aamu (shown below, and thanks to Berroco, Inc. for letting me borrow these pictures):

Yeah, not really one that sells you in the picture. But it is so cute in real life, that Kalen, Michele and I are each making it! I picked red, Kalen picked blue and Michele is doing brown. I started mine last night and am CRUISING on it. Love Pure Merino, love the color, love the pattern.

Andra also made (yes, MADE) me try on the Aune skirt (below.) I was really resistant to it. I mean, come on, puh-leese. I am not a knitted skirt kind of person. I put in on over my jeans, and guess what? It was really cute, and I could totally see myself wearing it! Michele and Kalen also tried it on, and we all fit in the same size and looked great. We might have to make one up for the shop...

So when I finish my Aamu sweater, I think I will make the Anais top (below, in blue.) This is just so cute, with a beautiful detail at the neck and the sleeves. It's made out of Ultra Alpaca Light, and is again, a sweater I never would have considered, had I not tried it on.

The sweater that most of our customers fell in love with was the Manon sweater, below. They had it in two sizes, and it is really flattering on a wide range of people. Not to mention, it's fun to knit! No boring stuff here...

Another one that people loved was the Annikki long sweater coat. WOW.

And the Kaari:

And the Kaino vest:

And the Kukka:

And the Chantal (this was really cute!):

And one easy personal favorite was this Luce scarf. I'm definitely doing a shop sample of this one!

So it was super fun, and my needles have been flying in each spare moment since 5pm last night. Thanks Norah. Thanks Andra. Thanks staff. Thanks customers.

Of course for pictures I was terrible. I got too busy to take any! So Marc took a couple - he and the girls were sitting out front with some apple cider and Barb's yummy pumpkin cookies and molasses cookies. They were watching all of the Hot Rods drive by the shop, as the Hot Rod show was just up the street. Here's one shot (dark, and blurry - sorry!) of Norah and some customers trying things on in the back of the shop.

And here's Andra after the event, taking a well deserved break with Helen, Sophie and me out front.

Today was GORGEOUS! We went to Stowe. The kids and Marc rode bikes on the rec path and went through the corn maze.

My sister and I took an 8.5 mile run. As a reward after my run, I chowed down a Stowe Dog and some lovely onion rings. MMMMMMM. Michele and Kalen and I are running the Leaf Peepers 1/2 Marathon one week from today. Fingers crossed that it will be even close to today, weather wise!

Norah Gaughan coming this Saturday... and Berroco SALE!

Remember - Norah Gaughan is coming on Saturday! She'll be here with our Berroco rep, Andra, and they are bringing a trunk show from Norah's "Norah Gaughan Collection: Volume 1." So come in between 1pm and 3pm and get ready to try things on. What a great opportunity to meet Norah and Andra, and to actually get to see these garments in person, AND to try them on!


To celebrate her visit, we will be having a sale on all Berroco yarns. Save 10% on ALL Berroco yarns on Saturday (in the shop only!)


So this weekend I started a cute little Bolero for Sophie in Velvet Touch. It's a new pattern from Knitting Pure & Simple - #275, the Children's Neckdown Bolero. I have some Velvet Touch in a discontinued color - very bright - but Sophie likes it. She and Helen have finally outgrown their last Velvet Touch sweaters (I made them each a size 6 and they wore them all of 1st and 2nd grade!) so a new Velvet Touch sweater for each of them is definitely in the cards for this winter.


What a gorgeous day it was yesterday! We drove to Stowe and rode the gondola to the top with my mom. It was really beautiful - the leaves are starting to change, but only slightly. It was freezing! The temps were only in the mid 50s, but it was much cooler up on top of the mountain. Yes, we're all in winter coats!

We weren't prepared to hike, but we walked around a bit on some trails - it was just gorgeous.
This is the first year my girls have been organized about Halloween. Sophie went through the dress up box and decided she wants to be a bride. Helen, along with about 2-3 million other little girls, will be dressing up like Hannah Montana. Saturday we went out and got the wig. I'm not really sure what else she needs to wear, but I'm sure that some of her own clothes will be just fine.

One exciting bit of news - tomorrow (we think!) our new Berroco Comfort will be arriving! 30 shades of a great new yarn from Berroco - a blend of nylon and acrylic in a worsted weight. This yarn has 10 more yards than Plymouth Encore for the same price! We are so eager for it to arrive...

I'm ga ga for bags...

Each time we get a new style of bag in the shop, I just have to get one. We just received our new Della Q "Daphne" bags in two great colors, and as usual, I'm getting one. I just can't resist. This style is SO cute!
When I ordered this bag, I knew we'd all love it, so I ordered extras, since I knew we'd each be leaving with one. Which colors did we choose?

Alex - blue & brown

Kalen - black & white

Michele - not here today, but I'm betting she'll go with blue & brown

Barb - can't decide

me - black & white

Cat Bordhi Workshops in our area in November - Benefit for Breast Cancer

Here's an important event!

Cat Bordhi is coming to Vermont to help support breast cancer research. Cat is teaming with Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needles to raise funds for Vermont’s own S.D. Ireland Cancer Research Fund. She will speak at the (free) 10th Annual Vermont Breast Cancer Conference Saturday, November 3 at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel & Conference Center (870 Williston Rd.) Click here for more information or call 802-656-5665.

Cat will also teach two daylong Moebius knitting workshops: Friday, November 2 at the Commodore’s Inn, Stowe Vermont from 10:00am – 4:45pm and Sunday, November 4 at the Health Science Research Facility (Given Building, 89 Beaumont Ave) on the UVM campus. A tour of the S.D. Ireland Cancer Research lab will also be included. 10:00 – 5:30

The course fee is $75, (non-refundable) which is donated to the S.D. Ireland Cancer Research Fund. Participation is limited to 24 in each class, and registration began September 1st. If you are interested, please contact Laura at 802-888-7917 to register, or go the S.D. Ireland website to fill out a registration form. See class description below:

Transformational Moebius Knitting (6-hour workshop)
Learn the secret of surrendering to the grace of the Moebius as it unfurls on one long circular needle, allowing you to knit extraordinarily beautiful scarves, garments and containers that have only one continuous surface and one continuous edge. Cat will transmit both knitting and life lessons in this workshop, relating the mystery of the Moebius to the mystery and grace of cancer.

It takes only minutes to learn Cat’s unique Moebius Cast-On, and then you have the key to her innovative books, A TREASURY OF MAGICAL KNITTING and A SECOND TREASURY OF MAGICAL KNITTING. Your first project could be a Moebius scarf - to introduce you to this magical, friendly form, which is the heart of every Moebius bag, bowl, boot, cape, wrap, and bed. You can use one or multiple strands, or change yarns and textures along the way, and will discover that everything you do forms a beautiful mirror reflection growing from the spine of the scarf out to the edges. She'll talk about what happens if you introduce a diagonal stitch pattern, how to work with stripes, how to sequence lace repeats, learn several edge treatments, and explore the basics of designing your own Moebius scarf or wrap. And if you can knit a Moebius scarf, you are just steps away from being able to knit a Moebius sling bag, bowl, basket, or Jester Tentacle Bag. A warning: it’s hard to make just one of these mysterious, graceful, and fully functional shapes. A Moebius container, which really and truly has no inside or outside (even though it appears to, and can hold your valuables), casts a spell over both knitters and non-knitters. A one-skein basket makes the perfect small gift for anyone, even a billionaire, who may not own anything quite so amazing as this.

Materials: Yarn and needles for your chosen project – choose a Moebius scarf or a Moebius basket to begin (see the TREASURIES for details, and please bring the book with you so you can use the instructions.)
Skill level: Confident beginners all the way to advanced (something for everyone!)

Cold hands, warm heart

...as the old saying goes. Now that fall is truly in the air, here are several great ideas for those cool hands. (Think gifts, people! These are perfect for gift knitting.)

Our customer Sue B. came in yesterday. She brought in several pair of wristlets that she had just completed, and Kalen and I just loved them! So I asked her if I could photograph them and put them up on the website as kits. She said okay, so this afternoon they will be up! Here's a quick preview...
The first is the Eric's Glovelets pattern from Green Mountain Spinnery. She used Jasper, a great new yarn from Berroco. She had purchased the Jasper to make the Polygon bag, but then realized that she wouldn't really use the bag, so she made the glovelets instead. She followed the pattern - went up to size 4 needles, because the Jasper is slightly heavier than what is called for. The result? Fantastic! Really dense, SOFT and beautifully striped wristlets.
Then she made the Composed Mitts from the Fall 2007 Interweave Knits (which is an AMAZING issue, by the way.) We carry Frog Tree Alpaca, and that was a perfect substitute for the Blue Sky Alpaca Sportweight that it called for (and less expensive!) She eliminated one color, and they are just beautiful! There is enough yarn to make two pair, as long as your main color is different in each pair. What a great gift these would make! THANKS Sue!

And here's another great project for those cold hands... Alex recently finished this wristlet for the shop - it's called the "Solar Mitt" and it's in the new Rowan Accessories Book (Book 20, will be online today). Just 2 skeins of Rowan Silk Wool DK will yield one pair of these scrumptious little handwarmers.

Stay tuned, she's almost finished with the Solar Hat - an adorable cabled hat with a fun pom-pom tie closure at the top, also made with Silk Wool DK.

What did you do for your vacation?

I did a lot on my vacation! I relaxed, I read. I swam, I sunbathed. I panned for gold, I went running. I played tennis, I ate well (too well.) I knit, I hung out with friends. I went hiking, I went to a funeral, but a happy one. Let me elaborate on a few of these things.

I ran in a little race the first weekend of my vacation. It was the 5th Annual... so you'd think there would be a lot of people in it. Not so! We (my friend, my sister and I) arrived at the race and there were only about 25 people (or less!) registered. I've always worried about running in smaller races. Not that I am concerned about beating other people - I just like to race against myself. But coming in last, or close to last can be a bitter pill to swallow. So we lined up at the start, in total disbelief at how few participants there were, and off we went. We came in 1st, 2nd and 3rd... to last! It was actually pretty funny, I laughed about it for days. But I still matched my best 5k time, so I consider it a success. If coming in last is the worst thing about a small race, the best thing is the odds are in your favor for winning raffles and ribbons! I came in third place for my age group (out of 4 - my friend was fourth) and my sister came in 2nd in her age group. We all won raffle prizes - from fold up chairs, to homemade jams, to coupons on new running shoes and more.

There was a kids' 1 mile race and Helen and Sophie did it with their two friends. Hey, they got front page coverage!

Sophie is in the yellow sweatshirt/pink sweatpants (#8) and Helen is to the right in blue shorts and blue shirt (#7). They had such fun!

We did a very small hike - if you can call it that - and enjoyed some beautiful views of Mt. Blue and Tumbledown. Note the 2 American Girl Dolls in Sophie's backpack - they came too.

We went to a very special funeral on August 24th. My husband's great uncle was killed in WWII in Papua, New Guinea and they just recently recovered and identified his remains. Read more here or here. He received a burial with full military honors and I was so glad we were able to attend. It was really amazing, and a great history lesson for all of us, especially the kids. Here are some photos that were particularly meaningful to us:

More to write, but it will have to be tomorrow!

The 80's make a comeback

I had started a sweater out of Twinkle Handknits Soft Chunky months ago, but there were so many errors in the pattern, and the Twinkle Handknits Big City Knits book had not yet put out an errata... so the project just sat. Then 2 weeks ago the new fall Interweave magazine came out, and I came across this one:

It's definitely an 80's style, but that's what we are seeing these days. It's really cute and a quick knit. Sorry to all those who were waiting for me to knit the one from the book. Sometimes you just have to rip and start fresh. This was a fun sweater to do. All short row shaping for the yoke, something I'd never encoutered (to such an extent) before.

I'm cruising along on my Malabrigo Chunky vest. Just one more side to go. Love working with the yarn. So soft... and QUICK. That's my kind of knitting.

My next project is the Astrid shawl from the Norah Gaughan Collection, Volume 1 book. Love it! Lots of different sized circles all put together at the end in a fabulous shape - this project is totally portable and EASY. It was perfect vacation knitting (I'm in Maine this week) and of course, the ususal happened. I was 20 minutes into my trip over here, on I-89 outside of Montpelier. I had wound my first ball, cast on, worked my first row, and WHAT!?!? Change to next smaller sized needles? What are you talking about? I checked the pattern before I left, and it called for size 9 DP needles. So I had 2 size 9/20" circulars, since I prefer that to DP knitting. Well, that little course I took in what, 7th grade? on skimming and scanning always gets me in trouble. I NEVER read carefully. So I checked the materials list, and of course, it ALSO calls for size 8 and size 4 DP needles. Oops. So before I lost cell service, I called Barb at the shop and she put together a nice little needle "care" package for me. It arrived Monday. Thanks Barb! Now when I finish my Malabrigo Chunky vest, I should be all set for the Astrid shawl.

It's been a bit nippy here at camp. The mornings are cold...

But the evenings, especially post-thunder/lightening/hail storms, are quite beautiful.

Today we went panning for gold with Aunt Maddie, who grew up here. We found lots of "fool's gold" and had a great time.

Happy Birthday times two

Today is Helen and Sophie's 8th birthday! They don't officially turn 8 until 9:37pm and 9:51pm, but as far as they are concerned they are already 8. In fact they're both convinced they grew taller overnight. It's going to be a birthday weekend, full of celebrations. It started out with blueberry picking at Owl's Head Farm last night and a little picnic dinner there with my parents. We picked 18 (!!!) quarts of blueberries and this was part of my take:

Imagine coming home to find no freezer ziplocs!

The celebrations continue - with camp friends today, with my parents again tomorrow (and a little visit to the Alpine Slide at Stowe - can't WAIT for that!), and with 10-12 friends at their official party on Sunday - a nice scavenger hunt and water slide party. Summer birthdays are so much fun when the weather cooperates.

I was looking through some photos this morning, and getting a little nostalgic. Here are some of my favorites...

4 months old and posing for a Christmas card:

1 yr old in Maine:

2 yrs old and a little swimming:

2 1/2 yrs old on the playground:

3 1/2 years old - ice cream cones in FL:

4 yrs old - showing off new lunchboxes:

5 yrs old - Fairies for Halloween:

5 1/2 yrs old with their dolls:

6 yrs old - in the backyard:

7 yrs old - first time fishing at camp:

almost 8 yrs old - going out on the Sea Doo with dad:

Happy Birthday girls!

Hey, hey, I wanna be a rockstar

Not the Nickelback song, though I do like it... nope, it's our new sweater with Tilli Tomas Pure & Simple and Rockstar, and WOW is it gorgeous. Most people are thinking scarves with these yarns, but folks please do NOT stop there. No, these yarns are MADE for sweater knitting. This sweater is a "gotta have it" knit for this fall. We barely had the sample out of the Priority mail package (thanks Joy!) and we sold two of them in the shop. The fit is amazing and the detail with the patterning and beads, well, see for yourself.

If you don't care for this style, we have some other patterns that aren't so fitted, and work perfectly with these yarns. This kit should be online by Friday sometime.

Today is a computer day - I am busy putting up new yarns on the website. We got in Nashua Handknits Sitar, Lace-a-licious and Superwash-Me Sock from J. Knits, Plymouth Baby Alpaca Brush Paint and Alpaca Boucle Paint, and Old Western from Artful Yarns to name a few!

Kalen and Michele are moving a lot of things around down in the shop - we had to fit these new yarns in and so things had to SQUEEZE together.

I can't believe it's almost the middle of August! School is just around the bend. On September 30th, Michele, Kalen and I are running in the Leaf Peepers Half Marathon. Last year we did the 5k and this year we are stepping it up. We are training for it (sort of!) and hope we can do well, or finish anyway... Last weekend Michele ran the Egg Run 10k here in Fairfax, VT and I travelled to Cape Elizabeth, Maine and ran the Beach to Beacon 10k. What a fun (and well-attended!) race! I even got my first medal, since it was the race's 10th Anniversary.

Norah Gaughan to visit next month!

We're so excited to announce that Norah Gaughan will be at our shop on Saturday, September 22 from 1-3pm. She's the author of Knitting Nature, and is the design director at Berroco. Mark your calendars and come in and meet her! If you haven't seen her newest book (from Berroco) The Norah Gaughan Collection: Volume 1, come in and check it out. We've only had it in stock for about a month and I think we've reordered it 4-5 times. It's got some really great designs in it. Our sales rep Andra, who visited with all our customers last November, will also be here.

India and Suzie stopped in yesterday to go over their plans for sock classes this fall. Boy have they been working hard on this! They both love knitting socks, and not just basic socks, but socks with lace, with fair isle, with slipstitch, and not just socks with your basic heels and toes, but short row ones and different cast ons for top down, and different bind offs for bottom up. So they've had some phone calls and some test knitting, and some email exchanges and some test knitting, and some breakfast meetings and some test knitting. And they've come up with some great sock classes for this fall. Of course they'll offer the basics - learn to knit socks on double pointeds, and on 2 circulars. And then they're going to tag team and offer a toe-up workshop, where they teach a short row toe and heel, and also some fun bind offs. And then there will be a lace sock class, a fair isle sock class, and a mosaic sock class - which can be worked top down or toe up. They brought samples for me to see, and I'm really excited to get these classes scheduled!

We are working on scheduling fall classes, and they should be finalized by the end of the month. As they are ready, they will be added to the classes page on the website so keep checking back since they will not all be added on the same day.

In other shop news, Kalen is back from a great vacation in Florida and Barb heads on vacation next week to her camp. We were so busy in July. When I say busy, what I really mean is BUSY BUSY BUSY! It's been so great to see so many of our out-of-state internet customers. Some of these folks visit Vermont each year and always make it a point to come in and see us. Others just made it to Vermont for the first time this summer, and they, too, were sure to save an hour or two to come in to our shop. It's always nice to put a face with a name, and we've all been thrilled to meet you in person.

We have unloaded so many new things recently. Felter's Dream from J.Knits came in last week and it's gorgeous. We can't wait to whip up a little felted bag in this yarn.

We got new sock yarn from Regia - 12 gorgeous colors in the Kaffe Fassett Design Line. Many of you know Kaffe Fassett - he is an internationally creative textile and knitwear designer. This sock yarn is just gorgeous - 6 great striping colorways, and 6 great variegated colorways. Have your pick!

Just in - a new sample for us - the Cocoon Lace Shawl done in two skeins of Jade Sapphire Cashmere. GORGEOUS!! I blocked it on Monday morning and it looks amazing.

And for those of you who want to try a lengthwise sock - checkout our Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome Lengthwise Sock Kit.