Currently on the needles

Louisa Harding Aimee... so incredibly soft and lightweight! I've been wanting to use this yarn for so long but I just couldn't figure out what to make with it.

After my recent color work mitten project, and my mosaic swatching, I'm still sort of bitten by the color bug. I knew that I couldn't use just one color of Aimee.

So I grabbed three (Cupid, Cedar & Bud) and after looking through all of my Barbara Walker stitch books, I found a great pattern.

Here's the gorgeous right side:

And the not so bad wrong side:

All I will say for now is that it's easy and pretty mindless and totally lays flat. I'll share it when it's completed!

Manic-In Monday

First manic-In Monday of 2011... my apologies that we skipped the last one of 2010. Christmas and New Year's are busy here at the shop, and we thought we'd let our gal off the hook for last week.

So she's back to work after the break, and for this week she chose a sweater that is perfect for any workplace attire. A flattering v-neck, interesting and slightly flared ribbings at the sleeves and waist, and a beautiful stitch detail at the edges means that this sweater will be in the wardrobe rotation for years to come. Sweater: Saturday cardigan in Lousia Harding Blue Monday pattern booklet, knit with Louisa Harding Willow Tweed. In the booklet, the sweater is photographed in two versions: one is a solid done in another DK yarn, and one is striped, worked in two colors of the Willow Tweed.I love seeing a pattern worked up in so many different versions. I think it's neat (and different!) that the buttons continue up one side of the neckband. But if it's not your thing, remember... you can easily leave it out.

Bag: Lantern Moon Swing Bucket Bag, in Orange Print. These fabrics are all limited, once they're gone, they're gone! We just added a new one today.

Manic-In Monday

I know you're shocked! It's Monday, and I'm on time with posting our mannequin Monday post. Here's why... it's school vacation week. I knew I would be working from home this morning while my kids grabbed a few hours of extra beauty sleep after a big skiing weekend. So yesterday on the way back from Sugarbush, I stopped at the shop to grab a big stack of new patterns and books to work on this morning. Our mannequin clothing changes occur Saturday evenings, so I snapped a quick picture, loaded it onto my computer, and remoted in this morning to do the post. Yay!

This sweater is one of my new favorites. I love the tweedy yarn, love the style, and love the gorgeous soft colors. I also love the new yarn she's sporting as a choker!
Sweater: From the Louisa Harding Little Cake pattern booklet in Louisa Harding Willow Tweed yarn
Choker: BRAND NEW yarn from Tilli Tomas called Beaded Superwash, this is a beaded SUPER SOFT superwash merino! Think Flurries, but softer and superwash! (I think you need to make a new Baby Beanie for some little baby out of this!)

Small squares

It's been a weekend of squares... for me and for some others too! On Saturday, our Learn to Love Entrelac Hat class was full, and from 9 am-12 noon we had 8 folks up in the classroom with Barb. By the end of the class, they had all made quite a bit of progress on their hats... and we think they realized that Entrelac isn't really that difficult... it's just different. Really - just one little tilted square after another, all bonded together and looking quite amazing in the end!

Shawn grabbed my camera and went into the classroom to take some shots of the entrelac action: So here we have photographic evidence of entrelac hats getting bigger, with smiling and fun! It was really neat to see the different yarns that people chose, and in the end, the hats will all be unique. I'm not positive, but this looks like Manos Silk Blend in color 3109!

The pattern they all used was the Fourth Grade Hat pattern, a free download from Twist Collective. Each person downloaded it at home - for copyright purposes. Even though it is free, we are not able to download it for each person. Hopefully it got folks familiar with Twist (that was sort of the purpose!) as it's a great resource for knitters. (Like Ravelry... we're still spreading that word, too!)I have been working on squares of my own this weekend. I'm recovering from a nasty cold that hit me early last week, and about 5 nights of insomnia on top of that. So mentally, small squares are about all I was good for this weekend! We got some new yarns in on Friday, and I grabbed a ball of each to swatch. These will be online either tomorrow or Tuesday. A lovely blend of soy viscose and cotton:A blend of hemp, cotton and modal: A 100% naturally dyed organic cotton: And a merino wool, microfiber and cashmere blend (think Kashmir Aran!) in a sport weight:And speaking of squares, stay tuned for an informative post by Shawn tomorrow. She's going to explain our charity knitting program for this spring - and we want all of you to join us if you can! We've been discussing it for a while now, and the details are finally ready...

Kashmir Aran - just in!

We just made some room in the shop for Louisa Harding Kashmir Aran. This yarn is SO soft - it's a blend of merino wool, microfiber, and cashmere. Similar to Rowan Cashsoft DK in feel, but because of its chainette construction, the Kashmir Aran is not going to pill like the Cashsoft, and that's a nice feature! And, it's a quick knitting yarn at 4.5 stitches to the inch - and we like that!
We got 12 great colors - and I think I'm most excited about the gray! Take a peek!

We have a great pattern booklet for this yarn, and a beautiful sweater sample, both of which will be in the shop on Monday.

Fall is here

Brrrrr - fall is in the air! Last night I went for a run and an hour later returned shivering, with teeth chattering. The temperatures drop quickly around here when the sun sets, and even after a 5 mile run I was freezing! I think the temperature had gone down about 15 degrees. After a hot shower I quickly cozied up in some flannels and pulled out my latest knitting project - the Rocketry baby blanket in Dream in Color Classy yarn. It's coming along nicely!I definitely think that doing it all in one piece is the way to go. When I get to the edging I will need a long needle - as I plan to do all four sides at once. I'm actually psyched! it will give me a chance to try out the new Addi Turbo Lace Knitting Needles. We recently added more sizes in the Addi Lace needles - we now go up to US size 9 in 60". I will use a 7 US in a 47". They've gotten such wonderful reviews, but I already own just about every Addi Turbo and a Denise Kit, so I couldn't justify buying one until now.

On Tuesday we received a shipment from Euro Yarns, a division of Knitting Fever, Inc. I ordered some awesome new yarns, and Michele, Kalen and I spent ALL day unpacking them, putting them out, getting them online, and re-merchandizing the shop. It was exhausting, but worth it. The shop looks great, and the yarns are really fantastic - I'm so glad I ordered them.

I got two fun novelty yarns from Louisa Harding. Customers always come in looking for those "special" yarns... and these two fit the bill. Glisten is a really cool thin ribbon that has a bit of bling! It almost looks like it has silvery droplets running down the center of the yarn. I'm going to come up with a cool scarf project that mixes Glisten with another yarn - perhaps Madil Kid Seta?

The second yarn is Louisa Harding Sari Ribbon yarn - a wide ribbon that comes in amazingly gorgeous variegated colors. It has a great glitzy metallic running down the center. This yarn can be worked alone, but I grabbed a ball of it along with a ball of the Be Sweet Mohair Boucle. I knit this simple, yet gorgeous, scarf in a matter of hours. It is really cool! Very pretty up close.Like it? Come on in and buy a skein of each and we'll give you the easy pattern. I'll have it online in the next couple of days. Didn't have time today because Kalen came up with 26 (!!) colorways our favorite hat kit - the Sara's Magic Ball hat. It took a while to get those photographed and edited today, but they're online and they look great. The hard part is deciding which one to make for myself.