Washable Mohair Blend

Are you a mohair knitter? Some of our customers, though they love to work with different fibers, are drawn to mohair yarns. And this new mohair from Lang is one that's already been noticed by these knitters.

Lang Odeon is a super soft and light bulky mohair blend - and it's machine washable! It creates a beautiful fabric when knitted alone, but would also be perfect mixed with other yarns (like Berroco Boboli or Manos Silk Blend Multi) in accessories or throws. Come in and check it out!

New Sock Yarn with a Touch of Attitude

One of our favorite sock & shawl yarns is now available with a bit of glitz! Introducing Mille Colori Socks & Lace LUXE by Lang. 

This yarn has always been a great choice for socks - of course - but recently many customers have been using it for shawls and scarves. Here's a Multi Directional Scarf made in shade 53:

The original sock colors are beautiful, and so are the 4 new Luxe shades! These new colors also stripe, but are a bit more subtle than the originals.

Brights are in!

If any of you have been shopping for clothing recently, you've noticed the trend toward bright colors and neons. These colors have also been making an appearance in yarns & other knitting & crochet products, and opening each box here at the shop is definitely awakening our senses after as we head into summer!

Examples? Here's a bunch of the new Manos del Uruguay Alegria sock yarn. They've got a lovely mix of bright & neutral colors. Boy, do those bright ones make a splash!

These Berroco brights arrived the same day as our new Hadaki bags. What a feast for the senses!

Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine (back), Berroco Vintage (middle) and Hadaki Multitasker Bags

The Hadaki bags are new for us, and they're so much fun! The fabrics are all bright & peppy and are coated so they're water resistant and easy to clean. This is the Hadaki Hanging Roll - perfect for storing all your notions:

This is the Hadaki Multi Tasker - a great project bag:

And the Hadaki Hannah's Tote works as a large project bag, a gym bag, a beach bag, a weekend bag, you name it:

Drooling...

...over the new yarn we just received! Just in, Malabrigo Arroyo - a sport weight version of the ever popular Rios.

This yarn is a super soft merino superwash and has a whopping 335 yards!

Don't know what to make? Here are some projects done in this yarn that we found on Ravelry. Hope they give you some ideas!

• Baby sweater
• Shawl
• Sweater
• Hat
• Cowl

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!

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!

Manos Fino Yarn

We recently met with our Manos sales rep and saw two brand new Manos yarns. Did we order both? Well, of course. You know we love Manos - from worsted weights Wool Clasica & Maxima, to the lighter-weights Silk Blend & Serena, to the laceweight Lace. And now we'll have two more additions to the Manos team!

Last week we received Manos Fino, a lighter-weight silk and merino wool blend that knits at 6-7 stitches to the inch. 

We've got 6 colors in stock with two more on the way shortly. This yarn comes in subtle tonal colors and it's absolutely gorgeous. I'm trying to pick a shawl/scarf pattern. Each skein has 490 yards, so I'm liking it for one skein projects!

We've got the Manos Alegria on order too. This is a new hand painted sock yarn and the colors are super fun! We'll let you know when it arrives. It's sure to make a splash!

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!

Get it while it's hot!

contributed by Shawn

Many of you may recognize this amazingly simple, flamboyant scarf.

And you probably also remember how the Flounce yarn was gone in a flash last season? And how we couldn't get more because the supplier was COMPLETELY OUT OF EVERY COLOR? We waited for MONTHS for our reorders to arrive and we only got a limited amount of just a few of the colors. It was certainly well after the holiday season before we could let customers know it was available again.

Well there are 8 NEW amazing colors available now and we have them in stock! But we have a feeling this yarn is going to be hard to get this again this season especially as the time for holiday gift giving draws near.

So we've purchased other ruffle yarns that are almost exactly like the Flounce. That means we have more supply and more colors! Check out Rozetti Marina, Plymouth Joy and Katia Ondas. In addition to these three we have many other new ruffle yarns. 

Even though we have added new ruffle yarns and increased our stock, we still anticipate another shortage. So please DO NOT WAIT to get the colors you like, or the colors you think your friends and co-workers will ask for as soon as they see YOUR scarf.

These scarves are quick and easy knitting projects (no purling!) and make great gifts.

Liberty Wool now available in a sport weight!

Classic Elite Liberty Wool is now available in a sport weight! Liberty Wool Light is the same beautiful machine washable wool as Liberty Wool Print, but in a lighter weight. 

This yarn is perfect for babies and children, and for lighter weight garments for adults too!

Need ideas? This yarn will obviously make some fun mittens and hats, but what about an adorable baby set?  Or how about some leg warmers?

And even though this blanket pattern was written for a heavier weight, it would be really cool in this yarn.

Crocheted shapes like this take on a life of their own when worked in color changing yarns like this one!

Ruffle Alert

Another new ruffle yarn is now in stock! Katia Ondas is available in 4 beautiful colors and is exactly the same as Knitting Fever Flounce yarn.

Start thinking about those one skein gifts you'll be wanting to make this fall and winter, and get your yarn before it's sold out!

Another new ruffle yarn

We've got another new ruffle yarn from Euro Yarns! Tinseltown is a glittery yarn that produces a beautiful ruffly scarf. 

It's available in 5 great colors and when you buy one skein, the scarf pattern is available as a free PDF pattern to be delivered electronically with your order confirmation.

Free Tinseltown Scarf Pattern

Thoughts on Afghan Kits

contributed by Emily

There are two things I am really, really looking forward to with the arrival of autumn. (Well okay, there are a million things – autumn in Vermont is my very favorite time of the year – cider, pumpkins, sweater weather, foliage!)

But what really has me counting down the days until October is the return of Game of Thrones on T.V., and the new Mountain Colors Afghan kits that we have! 

I have fallen head over heels in love with the Ice colorway, and can’t wait to knit it up while snuggled up on my sofa, watching the Lannisters and Starks battle it out!

Colorway: ICE