The Zombie Apocalypse has hit the knitting world

A customer came in recently and asked us to place a special order for this book: Knit Your Own Zombie by Fiona Goble.

Whenthe book arrived and I looked through it, I got a good laugh! I also made sure that Emily (Crafty Hedgehog) had a chance to see this since she knits so many different dissections.

Within a couple of days, all of our copies of this book had sold out. It's due back into stock shortly, so be sure to stop in  to check it out.

(Please note: the zombies call for using snaps and Velcro to keep their appendages attached - this enables you to take the arms and legs off as needed during a zombie attack. One of them even has a removable brain in case the others get peckish.)

Customer Project - Skylark

We love Rowan Lima yarn because it is so soft and luxuriously squishy. Our customer Lisa stopped by to pick out buttons for her Skylark sweater and it made us swoon. This is going to be a wonderful sweater to cozy into next fall!

Skylark is a lace ribbed cardigan with a soft neckline from Cherished: 21 Designs by Kim Hargreaves.

Anyone familiar with tatting?

I'll admit, I'd never heard of tatting until about a month ago, when Barb showed me some things she'd been working on.

Tatting is a process of making stitches composed of half-hitch knots. A single thread is looped and knotted with the aid of a small shuttle, and the results are intricate and beautiful!

Barb had tried tatting 25 years ago, and this winter decided to try it again. I guess the second time's a charm because she's hooked! Here are some of her completed projects:

Earrings:

A doily for one of my Finnish treasures (a large "Iittala Kivi" votive):

A heart doily for her daughter Liz for Valentine's Day: 

And most recently, some beautiful handmade note cards:

Check out the detail on these!

They remind me of a fun project in the Beginner's Guide to Needle Felting that we received recently:

 What other crafts do you like to do besides knitting and crocheting?

Customer Project - Reading... and knitting!

contributed by Shawn

Our customer Pauli D. has been visiting Malta this summer and she's keeping in touch with us on our facebook page.  We always love hearing what she's been up to. She was just back in Vermont and stopped in the shop before heading back to the Mediterranean. Pauli told us she's been reading Casting Off by Nicole R. Dickson. While she's been enjoying the story, she's also been trying out some of the Irish stitch patterns that are included in the book.

This is a sample that she brought by to show us:

The story teller is a woman who visits an island off the west coast of Ireland to research Irish knitting.  She finds that each fisherman's handmade sweater tells a story.  Stories and knitting! Guess I'll need to stop by the library this weekend.

Knitters Love Cats

contributed by Shawn

We're thinking that a lot of our customers must love cats because everyone seems to want a copy of the new Knit Your Own Cat book! It's got 16 different cats to knit.

Emily has a British Blue Short Hair at home named Phineas, and when we received the Knit Your Own Cat book, Emily dove right in and picked out some yarns that would look just like Phineas.  Here's the real Phineas:

"You know you love me, mom."

"Beef jerky. Pleeeaaase!"

And here's our shop Phineas:

Naptime.

"Treats? Treats? Did I hear someone say 'treats'?"

To make our shop Phineas kitties, Emily used BrownSheep Nature Spun Sport yarn and Rowan Kidsilk Haze yarn held double stranded and some of her favorite double pointed needles.  I love the curled up sleeping pose!  Knitted cats are the best - you don't ever have to chase them out of your knitting or crocheting because they are perfectly behaved.

Don't worry, if you are a knitter who prefers dogs over cats you can see we have another book just for you! Knit Your Own Dog is also available featuring 25 different breeds that you can knit.

Knit Noro Accessories

contributed by Shawn

Noro has done it again.  The new Knit Noro Accessories book is another great hit!  This time there are another 30 must-knit patterns packed into the gorgeous pages.  Some of these are so irresistible we've already been working to get some of them knit into samples for the shop. 

Check out the Entrelac iPad Cover that Jill worked up in a flash.  This fun knitting technique isn't too difficult once you have the hang of it and just 1 skein of Noro Taiyo Yarn becomes a striking knit cover for the latest technology. 

One of our sample knitters just brought in a finished Slip-Stitch Cowl last week. This pattern called for Noro Kureyon but we chose Taiyo so people who aren't able to wear wool. Can you tell we love Taiyo? The knitted fabric created by the Taiyo yarn is amazingly warm and soft, and it slides smoothly onto your shoulders just like a giant hug.  I love how the slip stitch pattern shows off the wonderful Noro colors.

Cowl pictured in book in Kureyon

Our sample, knit with Noro Taiyo. We show more ways to wear it!

I myself definitely have to decide on a colorway of the Noro Kureyon yarn to combine with the delicious textures used in the Tea Cozy.  I know of a friend's little teapot that will look so cool dressed up in this!

Of course I'm also going to use the excuse that my old Silk Garden fingerless mitts are wearing out to knit a new pair of the nifty Scale-Pattern Mitts. 

They will look great in my favorite Silk Garden colorway: Plum Mustard Tomato Tan. 

Michele has been talking about trying to get her cat to wear a sweater this winter.  (I think she's trying to avoid working on the never-ending sweater vest she has going.) I'm going to challenge her to knit this Dog Sweater just a wee bit smaller to fit the cat and try and get us a photo.

So many techniques: felting, cables, lace, intarsia, brioche, modular knitting, and more!  So many different types of projects: scarves, hats, pillows, bags, wraps, mittens, and more!  The combinations of colors and possibilities are endless!  I see myself adding the Welted Hat:

the Earflap Hat: 

and the Riverbed Rib Hat:

to my knitting queue. The difficulty will be making a decision about which colors of NoroNadeshiko and Taiyo Sock will suit my friends. I know they'll make great additions to their hat collections.

These pillows:

this short capelet:

and this felted bag are also great projects.

Over the Moon

The Cherished Book by Kim Hargreaves is a top seller in the shop. It seems like every couple of weeks we have sold out and I am receiving another shipment of this book.

Each time I receive it, I get a chance to flip through all of the wonderful patterns in this book.  One of my favorites is the Moon Hat. I've loved the Rowan Cocoon since last winter when I knit the Quincy Hat. I've been looking for another hat pattern to show off it's silky texture, and I knew this could be the one!

The hat is knit flat so that it is easier to work the lace pattern. However, since every other row is a purl row you could easily adapt this hat pattern to be knit in the round.

The pattern calls for 2 skeins of Cocoon.  I had just one skein to start with so I went ahead and began the project. Somehow I managed to squeak it out of one skein. I didn't have much yarn left as you can see.

I would recommend starting with two skeins to be sure you aren't a couple of rows short on yarn!  The hat is super warm and just a bit slouchy.  Remember our mannequin head has no hair so hats look a little bigger on her! 

New Knit Noro book!

contributed by Shawn

I really enjoy working with Noro yarns. For me it really is all about the enjoyment I get from the brilliant colors that unravel themselves as you knit. So it is always great to get new and exciting things from Noro.

This time it is a book called Knit Noro and it's full of wonderfully colorful knits! The photographs are AMAZING. The book has 30 designs and I like every single one. There are patterns for everyone in this book including sweater projects, afghans, hats, gloves, socks, and scarves. The designs span a wide range of skill levels so you will be sure to find 3 or more projects inside that you want to add to your knitting queue.

Since I'm currently knitting a Silk Garden afghan I am of course already planning another Noro afghan and the Modular Afghan is definitely going to be it!

Customer Renee J. and I already agreed that we will both be knitting this and we covet the colorway of Taiyo shown in the photo.

I'll be reserving a skein of Silk Garden from my current afghan stash to try the Spiral Beanie. (I might have to do this before the mitered square afghan is finished.)

In the spirit of utilizing as many colors as possible I think I will also have to pick out two Kureyon colors for the Fair Isle Cap.

Speaking of Fair Isle, the Fair Isle Cardigan in the book is not to be missed!

Looking for something a little more portable for summer knitting? I can't wait to try out the Diamonds and Stripes Gloves knit from Silk Garden Sock.

I'm also looking forward to adding the Ridged Ripples Scarf (reversible!), Felted Cloche, and Hooded Vest to my queue.

That covers only 8 projects out of 30! There are so many more to choose from...oh afghan we must have some quality time together soon so that I can move on to other projects!

Laceweight projects abound!

Last week we received another book dedicated to projects for lace weight yarn. We'd recently gotten in Silky Little Knits, which was so well received by our lace addicts, that we thought we'd try Lacy Knits.

We know it's hard to justify buying a book unless there are a number of great projects in it. Both of these books have a lot of neat patterns for lace, so we think they are worth it. I used to have a rule when buying music albums. I had to really like at least 3 songs on the album or I wouldn't buy it. I think that rule also works for books. And if so, I've just bought these two for sure.

In Silky Little Knits, my clear favorites are the Linda Beaded Boa: the Colorwash Mittens: and the Frilled Bedsocks: Although there are a number of other projects I just love, too.

And in Lacy Knits we have a few faves as well. Barb has already grabbed 2 skeins of Debbie Bliss Angel and started the Wonder scarf.She's made some good progress on hers, and look how beautiful it is! It's basically a 4 row pattern... but 2 rows are just knitted and the other 2 are the same, just offset.

I've picked out the Glow scarf and we're going to make that up as a shop sample. It calls for 2 different kinds of yarn, one a kid lace/mohair blend, and another one slightly heavier. I'm pondering our options on that one...

And I love the Beth cowl. Who wouldn't want to have this wrapped around them on a cool winter day?

Brattleboro Hat

When the New England Knits book arrived in the shop, I flipped through it to check out all the wonderful patterns, but there were so many good ones, that I couldn't decide which one I wanted to make.

A couple of weeks later the Fall 2010 Issue of Interweave Knits magazine arrived, and so did my solution! There was a nice review of New England Knits in the magazine, and and they published one of the patterns (the Brattleboro Hat) that appeared in the book. I couldn't stop thinking about the photo of the Brattleboro Hat that appears in the magazine. It was shown knit in Malabrigo Worsted, which is one of my favorite yarns. So I grabbed a skein and started.

I am pleased with the way the hat turned out and enjoyed learning the decreases to keep the textured pattern intact. Now if only I had waited a bit longer for the new easy care Malabrigo Rios yarn to come in. I think this hat would be amazing in the Sunset colorway!

Wrapped in Comfort - upcoming book signing

Mark your calendar for Friday, November 14th at 1pm! The author of Wrapped in Comfort, Alison J. Hyde, will be at Kaleidoscope Yarns for several hours that afternoon, and she'd love to meet you!

Her book Wrapped in Comfort is full of romantic shawls and scarves, and the inspiring stories that are behind each design. Gorgeous, lacy projects provide you comfort, while real-life tales warm your heart.

We're offering 20% off on her book and if you're local, you can come in and get it signed while she's here. For all of you who can't make it to the shop while she's here, don't worry. Order the book on our website anytime up through November 2nd, and we'll hold it for Alison to sign for you. Then we'll mail it out to you the next day.

Baby washcloths, in organic cotton

Today we looked out the window to find an intruder in the front yard.
It's not everyday you see a backhoe digging up a big section of your front yard. There is quite a bit of roadwork in the village this summer, which has really NOT affected any traffic, much to my surprise. On our street they're just replacing the water main that's located on the other side of the street. They're trying to find where they can attach the temporary water supply to our house. And guess what? They can't find it. :)

They could run the temporary supply in through a basement window, but then the window would be open for over a week, and the building would be unsecure. Not good! Also, I didn't think my customers would appreciate stepping (or tripping) OVER an annoying water hose each time they came or left, so I told them to keep digging. I feel very UN-stressed about this. Hey, it needs to be done. Sure, it's an inconvenience and it makes a mess, but why waste time worrying about it? So I'm not!

My latest project is a set of organic cotton baby washcloths. What a great idea for a baby gift! I chose three balls of the Rowan Purelife Cotton (which is on sale this week, online... by the way!) and made my first one in half double crochet with a single crochet edging. I really like it! I'm going to knit one next, but I need to come up with a pattern first. I like these because the yarn is so soft, and it's organic cotton dyed with all natural plant dyes. The shades are so soft - they're really lovely. I think three balls will make a nice gift of 3 washcloths, a tiny hat and perhaps even a set of booties. Not bad!



This is the first week of summer for us. The girls are spending the week at a camp at UVM. So far so good. Their favorite part is archery - though Sophie says she still hasn't gotten her arrow on the board. But wow, what a great attitude she had about it. She still loves it, and she just keeps trying harder. I love when you see that kind of personal growth in your children!

Today was SO busy in shipping. We got the Norah Gaughan books in yesterday. We have shipped over 60 of them and we have another 70+ coming in tomorrow and almost all of them are spoken for already. LOTS of international orders. We've sold a lot of the other Berroco pattern books as well. They are just GREAT this season.