Duplicate Stitch

I'm happy to say that after more than 30 years of knitting, I have added "duplicate stitch" to my skills.

I'm not sure why I was against learning the duplicate stitch? I think I'd seen way too many bad examples of it to want to try it. But now I realize that the bad examples I've seen were because the yarn used for the duplicate stitch was too thin, or the tension was all wrong.

Barb took 5 minutes on Saturday to give Kaitlin and me a little tutorial. 

Counting the stitches and marking out exactly where the design was supposed to go took up most of that 5 minutes... the duplicate stitch part only took about 30 seconds to master. I finished it at home this weekend and now all that's left is seaming... my favorite part!

The sweater is the Little Boater Crew from the Thirteenth Little Sublime Hand Knit Book (#668). 

There's an adorable blanket that matches... what a great baby gift idea! 

The pattern calls for Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK, but as we already have a number of shop samples out of that yarn, I chose the Sublime Extra Fine Merino DK. I LOVE the yarn... maybe a sweater for myself will follow?

Customer Project - Vintage Crochet Blanket

contributed by Shawn


A lovely crochet project came through our doors recently and we wanted to share!

This is a blanket crocheted using Berroco Comfort DK yarn and adapted from a vintage pattern that originally called for crochet thread. The design looks beautiful in the black and white and our customer added tiny rosettes for a finishing touch.

It's Coming Up Tulips!

We are very ready for spring weather here in Vermont and Michele decided to try and hurry it along a bit. Don't the colors remind you of spring? Green grass, bright blue sky, and tulips in shades of yellow, peach and red!

This is the Tulip Sweater kit from Dream In Color. The sweater pattern comes with the kit and can be made in two sizes, 6-9 months or 12-18 months. Each kit has a different selection of 8 colors of Classy yarn included. The yarn is 100% superwash merino in hand-dyed vibrant colors to inspire spring blooms. 

All of the staff have admired the kits and Jill knit us a sample for the shop since it is so difficult to resist the yarn and the colors! Note the different edging techniques that they chose:

We have a selection of these kits available in the shop so come on in and check them out. This is a fun project and perfect for all those baby showers that happen at this time of the year!

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!

Elephants on Parade

Michele brought these in last week to share with us!

What a perfect gift set for a new baby!

This is Elijah the Elephant, and the Roo Designs Elephant Pullover (pdf pattern) knit to match using sport/dk weight yarns. She used Sublime Extrafine Merino Wool DK. It comes in a great selection of colors and is machine washable for friendly projects for little ones.

Suprise Baby!

How many of you have made the Baby Surprise Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmermann? I've just finished my second, and it's one of the easiest (and most confusing!) sweaters I've ever made.

Don't get scared off by me saying it was confusing. Because it's not the directions that are confusing, it's the shape of what you are making that is confusing. You are knitting back and forth and working increases or decreases, and following a really well written, line by line pattern... so that's the simple part. But at any time during the knitting, if you try to LOOK at what you are doing, and imagine that it's going to turn out looking anything remotely like a sweater, that's when you get confused.

My only advice is to set worry aside and just follow the pattern. In the end, you will have a light bulb moment and it will all just make sense. It's a really great pattern and fun to make in sock yarn since now there are so many wonderful sock yarn choices.

This shop sample is in the new Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20. LOVE the color. Can't wait to pick out the buttons!

Organic Cotton for Baby

You already know we've received Classic Elite Seedling in the hand painted colors, but I wanted to share with you my experience with this yarn.

I'm not a big cotton fan. I always have to go down at least 2 needle sizes to get gauge with cotton yarns. This isn't such a big deal - I mean the number of stitches you are knitting on, whether you are using an 8 or a 6, is the same. But what makes it less-than-enjoyable for me, is the pain I feel in my hands when I'm knitting cotton on a small needle. And now that I've hit my mid-40's I'm feeling every ache and pain. Why give myself more pain if I can avoid it?

But I was in the shop after Christmas and I was looking at some of the new yarns we've received for spring. I pulled a skein of each of the new hand painted Seedlings from the shelf, and was amazed at how soft they were! For some reason, I always thought this yarn had a rougher feel to it. I was so wrong!

We used to sell some similar looking cotton yarns with nubbly textures like this and they were, indeed, rougher to the touch. That must have been what I was thinking about when I was "imagining" the hand of the Seedling. Luckily my imagination has now been replaced with a wonderful reality. This is some seriously smooth and soft fiber.

I pulled a copy of the new Yankee Knitter Baby Sweaters, Hats & Blankets #31 pattern and grabbed 3 skeins of color #4566 Lei. It's fun combination of pink and orange with a hint of avocado green thrown in! From the pattern, I chose to make the sweater: a super simple top down raglan cardigan. The thing I liked the best was that when you finished the yoke, the pattern tells you to work the sleeves FIRST, before the body. What's so smart about this? Well, it eliminates stitch holders, for one. And two? You can work the entire piece on a straight needle. Smart thinking!

I whipped up the size 3-6 month sweater in no time, and was pleased to discover that to get gauge, I only had to drop one needle size. My hands are pain free, too! I started the hat this morning and it should be finished soon.

And... if you like hand paints, there are some great colors from which to choose:

Don't Forget... Sock Yarn is Great for Baby Sweaters, Too!

It's funny how many customers look at sock yarns and think (just) "socks". 

Fingering weight sock yarns come in a great range of fibers and many of these are machine washable. They're also soft, and if they're soft enough to put on your precious piggies, they're soft enough to put on baby! And finally, these yarns are lightweight, yet warm. Perfect for wee ones who like to stay cozy without so much bulk.

There are many great patterns for fingering weight baby sweaters. One of my favorites is one I just finished - it's in the Regia Journal #004 pattern booklet, and has a hat and booties to match.

This yarn (Regia Angora Merino) is a blend of superwash merino wool, polyamid and angora. It's so incredibly soft and wonderful to knit with. I just love the pattern stitch - a 4 row repeat that's simple, and addictive!

My sweater, blocking

Other yarn choices for this sweater would be Tilli Tomas Artisan Sock or Shibui Knits Sock Yarn.

Another cute fingering weight sweater is the Knitting Pure & Simple Baby Layette.

This pattern is well written and also has instructions for a hat, sweater and booties. I'd choose Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock or Jojoland Melody Superwash for this one.

And we can't forget the Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Sweater.

This one looks good in both self-striping and variegated sock yarns. This pattern is sized from baby up to adult. We love the baby version in striping sock yarns - it's so cute! Regia Garden Effects or Kaffe Fassett Ombre would be fun on this sweater. And we now have a NO-wool option: Plymouth Diversity.

Because we know you like choice, here's yet another sweater option for fingering weight sock yarns. The Lachlann Baby Set by Figheadh Yarnworks is a classic, with set-in sleeves, stripes and cables on the sweater, and matching pants. 

Dale of Norway Baby Ull, Spud & Chloe Fine or Fibre Company Canopy Fingering would all be great yarns for this set.

Simple & Sweet Baby Sweaters

Each day we see customers in the shop searching for sweater patterns for newborn babies. It's no wonder - don't you always get the urge to knit a little sweater for a close friend or family member when you hear she's expecting? I know I do!

And as yarn shop employees, we've handled this many, many times, so we're always prepared to recommend a good assortment of patterns.

Like the Wee One Welcome Set from Knitting at Knoon.

This pattern is simply adorable. It calls for 400 yards of DK weight yarn. In our shop sample (above) we chose Sirdar Snuggle Crofter DK that knits up with a fair isle striping effect. This yarn is reasonably priced (it costs just $21 to make the set), comes in really sweet colors and is soft and machine washable.

We've got other great DK weight yarns that work really well for this little set. Berroco Comfort DK now has really fun variegated colors, and Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend is also a popular choice.

The Puerperium Baby Cardigan is precious! And it's easy and fun to make. This sweater is pretty hard to resist, once you see the (and feel!) the shop sample (shown below). We used Misti Alpaca Pima Silk and this yarn is just the perfect choice for a newborn. The color choice is spectacular, and it's heavenly to knit.

Another pattern that's been getting a lot of attention is brand new from Yankee Knitter. The Baby Sweaters, Hats & Blankets Pattern #31 is a great addition to the Yankee Knitter offering. The sweaters and hats are sized from preemie to 6-12 months and the blanket is a generous 33"x35". And they knit up quickly in heavy worsted weight.

Our top recommendations for this pattern are Plymouth Encore, Berroco Comfort Worsted, Berroco Vintage and if you'd like a soft wool, then Dream in Color Classy or Classic Elite Liberty Print.

And finally, one last recommendation for a great newborn sweater. We came across this one a few months ago and thought it was beautiful in its simplicity. It is more suited for little girls, but it's a top choice on our list for newborns.

In Threes: A Baby Cardigan is a pattern that's available on Ravelry. We also sell it in the shop through Ravelry. It's the sweetest little sweater. All worked from the top down, in one piece. It's absolutely precious!

We had some Putty colored Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece laying around and I knew it would be perfect for this sweater. It just needs buttons now, but the best part about using such a neutral color is that you can really be creative with your button selection!

Beautiful yoke detail

Angora Merino

Regia's Angora Merino is one of my favorite new yarns! I have just one word for it: SOFT. This yarn - a blend of superwash merino wool, polyamid and angora - is just unbelievably soft. And the color palette? Again, SOFT.

I loved the yarn when my sales rep first let me "pet" it, and I loved it even more when I saw it had its own dedicated pattern booklet for it (Regia Journal #004).

And the patterns are all great, not just one or two of them.

There are hats and scarves

and socks

and baby blankets

and baby booties!

There's a really beautiful shawl

that we made as a shop sample. Come on in to the shop and try it on!

We love experimenting with all the ways to wrap it.

I fell in love with this adorable baby set. I've started knitting the sweater and can't put it down. The pattern stitch is simple and so sweet!

My Jojo Ripple

I'm so proud of myself for finishing this blanket! I really do like to crochet, but single crochet is not my favorite stitch. I prefer a "taller" stitch that goes faster. (For all you folks who say crocheting is faster than knitting... it's not! For me, anyway!)

I was so inspired by customer Sue B's gorgeous crocheted blankets (see them and read about them in this previous post) that I had to make one for myself. But I wanted to work with one yarn that changed colors on its own.

I picked the Jojoland Rhythym Superwash yarn (color Cosmic Burst) because I wanted a worsted weight, and I lovee how the colors in this yarn are beautiful, yet completely random. And I mean COMPLETELY! There's no set pattern of striping in this yarn. Each colorway includes a set of colors, and then those colors are used throughout the spinning process, but in no particular order. If you're on the Type A side of the spectrum and want order in your yarn striping, this yarn may not be for you!

I used 11 balls of the Jojoland Ryhthm Superwash. And none of the balls were the same. This is the beauty of this yarn!

I was supposed to use a size H hook, but only had a G and was dying to get started. So my blanket is a bit smaller than it should have been, but not by much. It was supposed to be 30x36" and mine is 28x29". It's still a great size! (Pattern is Ann Norling Ripple Crochet Afghan.)

And doesn't this yarn (in this ripple pattern!) remind you of my Missoni Window blog post from August? 

Maybe that's why I enjoyed this project so much!