HUGE SALE - CLEARANCE YARNS!

First of all, we have a TON (and I mean TON!) of yarn on sale. We are making some changes to our inventory lineup and bringing in some new things - so these yarns MUST go. Check the sale pages, and place your order before it's all gone! It's online only, and locals should select PICKUP as a shipping method.

It's been a busy few weeks for me - the kids are getting ready for school, which starts next Wednesday. So the past couple of weeks have been full of back to school shopping, various appointments with doctors, allergists and orthodontists, and even a nice trip to the police station! Don't worry, I didn't do anything illegal! I was just there for fingerprinting. I am chaperoning an overnight sleepover on the second night of school and I had to have a background check. My kids got to see the holding "cell" and witness the new way of doing fingerprints. I was so glad that I didn't have to walk around with ink on my fingers afterwards... but really, Jill. It's 2009, wouldn't you expect that they have more modern methods of fingerprinting? (In my defense, I've never been fingerprinted, and have probably only seen it on TV shows years back!)

Anyway, my knitting has suffered because of the back-to-school routine. I did manage to whip up a quick baby hat in the Tilli Tomas Elsie. Forgive the picture here, it's blocking. It looks so much better when it's upright!

I put the Elsie yarn online a couple of weeks ago. It's a supersoft blend of milk protein, silk and wool and as I photographed (and held) each skein, I felt it would be perfect for a little baby hat. (Also for a sweater, but with my lack of free time, I couldn't commit to that!) The yarn is so soft and it comes in a great color range. I grabbed a skein of it and made up a little pattern. I used the Tilli Tomas Planet Earth Beads to add some fun to the hat. I'm excited with what I came up for at the top. I wanted something different, that I hadn't seen a lot of. So this is what I came up with - it sort of reminds me of a lettuce edging? I'll admit, the top detail took some time, but I think you'll agree, it was worth it.The hat took one skein of the Elsie (and I had a lot left!) and 2 colors (1 skein each) of the Planet Earth Beads.

The pattern will be available soon in our free patterns section.

Edited to Add: Here's the pattern!

That something extra

Recently we started carrying the Planet Earth Beaded Silk Yarn, from Tilli Tomas. When I first saw these mini skeins, I didn't quite get it! They're so small, each skein only has 25 yards. I wondered if they would even sell!

Tilli Tomas made these mini skeins for needlepointers, cross stitchers and crazy quilters. They've been out for a couple of years, and they've been really popular with these folks. Tracy told us they were also selling like hotcakes in knitting shops, so we ordered them at the TNNA show in June. They arrived on Wednesday, June 23rd, just as the Vermont Quilt Festival was starting, and quilters were streaming through our shop.

We were unpacking the Tilli Tomas box down in the shop and were swarmed by some quilters. All of our Planet Earth Beaded Silk Yarn was gone by the weekend.

Fast forward to last week. Barb and I realized that in the last month, we've had to reorder these mini skeins numerous times! Each time we increase our quantities, and each time they sell out! And while the quilters did gobble up our intitial shipment, it's been knitters buying them since then. People want to add just a little something to a scarf, a hat, a shawl, etc. and the size of these little skeins is perfect! I'm now a believer!

Last week I made the Chill Chaser, a cute little scarf pattern by Tilli Tomas. I used one skein of Tilli Tomas Raw Silk and 2 Planet Earth Beaded Silks. It was so easy, and super quick. Here it is (not yet blocked, sorry!) When blocked, it will look more like this:

Then this week we got the Tilli Tomas Elsie yarn - this yarn is 1/3 wool, 1/3 silk and 1/3 milk protein. It is gorgeous and SO SO SO soft! I touched it and immediately thought "baby hat." So I grabbed 2 mini skeins (in Caribbean & Dill) and a skein of the Elsie (in Warmth) and got started.

It's going to be really sweet. I introduced just a hint of the sparkly stuff on the brim of the hat... I'm saving the rest for a statement at the top!