Time for Spring?

Well, not yet! We have a long winter ahead of us, I'm sure. But this week I've been meeting with a lot of sales reps... and fondling some fun spring yarns. It's scary but I have quite a few yellow carbon sales orders stacked up on my desk, which means lots of new SKUS to put into the system.

Some yarns that are already existing have just had new colors introduced. Some of these new colors will be here by next week (like Berroco Comfort DK... FUN new variegateds! We added all of them, this yarn is so great for kids and babies and the variegated shades are super additions to an already spectacular color range!) And other new colors in existing yarns will be here later this month (Berroco Vintage... oh such scrumptious new colors!)

I ordered some Lobster Pot sock yarn... it's not cashmere, but it's in the beautiful bright Lobster Pot colors that we all know and love and it sells for $23. This yarn should arrive in a couple of weeks and there's a really cute little baby sweater pattern that only takes one skein. It's free with yarn purchase. We'll definitely make it up into a shop model.

There are some other great spring yarns that will be arriving in the beginning of January. Seems so far away, but it's actually right around the corner!

Project Recap

Temps are falling fast and stitches are apparently flying. There is a lot of knitting going on around here. Polly finished a vest for her son from the Queensland Collection Book 9. She used Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend - isn't it gorgeous?

Shawn finished an afghan for some friends recently. It's so cool - she used 8 colors of Berroco Vintage Wool (2 skeins each.) We're going to have this pattern available soon. The size is perfect, and it's a really easy knit.

Yvonne K. brought in her vest in Noro Kureyon, from Designer Mini Knits. So cute!

Barb and Shawn have each cranked out a Quincy hat from the new Jared Flood booklet, Made in Brooklyn. They both used Rowan Cocoon which is becoming one of our most sought after bulky yarns.

Berroco Trunk show is here!

Wow! This week has really flown by. We've all been commenting on how quickly the days have passed. We get here in the morning, the doors open, and next thing you know, you check your watch and it's closing time.

We can't really account for all those hours in the middle of the day, but we do know that the parking lot is full, the door is opening and closing all day, the shop is bustling, we're seeing so many folks from out of town in town for some foliage peeping and yarn shopping, we're restocking and straightening like crazy and our "emergency doorbell" is ringing and ringing. We installed a doorbell under the front counter so as soon as the people working the floor need help, they press the button, and the buzzer rings upstairs. Then everyone upstairs drops what they're doing and comes to help. (It's our new favorite "gadget"!)

TRUNK SHOW ALERT!! Yesterday afternoon we unloaded the Berroco trunk show: Oh my gosh. There are some SICK SICK SICK sweaters in this trunk show. My list of "wants" has just increased! Just now we had a welcome lull in the shop, and I called everyone down to try things on. We has so much fun seeing how the sweaters fit us. I have to say, we were working it big time. Watch out ANTM, here we come!

We're all REAL people with REAL bodies, and our bodies are all different shapes and sizes. It's so great to see that a lot of these sweaters work well on different figures. We also tried on sweaters that we didn't think we'd like, and we ended up liking them! The biggest surprise for me was the bright yellow Potter from Norah Gaughan 5:I knew this was a popular sweater, but it didn't appeal to me in the least. After trying it on, however, I realized I love it! (And yes, the color is growing on me too...)

Emily never thought she'd like Nimbus in Peruvia Quick - but she changed her tune after trying it on. And look who is peaking out on her Woman's Bob Tee! That Ravelry Dog sure does get around!Barb looked awesome in Assemblage from Norah Gaughan 3. This sample is knit in Inca Gold. Here she is admiring the detail on the cuffs. This one's a little blurry (sorry!) but Shawn is sporting Nuss in Blackstone Tweed (Book #288). The blur is because we were both laughing so hard, NOT about the sweater! We just felt so funny posing for the camera.Shawn is wearing the Beagle Sweater from Norah Gaughan Men shown here in the smallest size. Even though this pattern is in the men's book, it's clear that the style is quite unisex. Shawn would shorten the sweater if she made it for herself - she's got it rolled up in the picture. And here's me in Drift. This is a free pattern and it combines the stitch pattern from Beagle (above) with a more feminine fit. This was super comfortable and very flattering, knit in Vintage Wool. Here's Emily in Anhinga - very cute! (Pure Merino, Norah Gaughan 5) Barb tried on the Osprey Shawl from NG5. This is an easy piece that is very versatile, and it uses Ultra Alpaca and Ultra Alpaca Fine. And here's Shawn in the Nonpairel in Blackstone Tweed (Book #288).. This looks so great on her! In the pattern book it's shot with such a different outfit. I never would have put it with just jeans, but it takes on a whole new meaning when dressed down. Okay, Shawn was a good sport to put this next one on, as ruffles just are NOT her thing (Sweater is the Heron, NG5). We always like to tease her about it though, that and her favorite color "pink". (NOT) So if this sweater were done in pink, this could have been a great blackmail photo. She's such a good sport though, she was really having fun with this shot! And since we're on the subject of ruffles, here's me in Cormorant (NG5). I've actually started one of these for myself. I'm making the next size down, in teal Vintage Wool, and I've only got the sleeves done. This is a reminder that I need to get moving on that. And to stop spinning like a 4 year old wearing a skirt! This was another of my favorites, the Curie from NG5. We could only get the detail to show up without the flash. It's gorgeous and fits like a dream! Here's the last shot - I'm wearing the Danielle Coat from Book #287 in Berroco Sundae. Great coat! And Shawn has on the Goodall Sweater from NG5 in Inca Gold. This was stunning!So come on in now (through next weekend) to check out these sweaters!

A few completed items!

Today we got a package from Karen (aka Choochooknits), one of our sample knitters from New Jersey. She finished the Seneca sweater from Jared Flood's Made in Brooklyn.

Seriously folks, this is a super yummy sweater. Not only is the design gorgeous, but the yarn... WOW!!! It's Classic Elite Lush and it's soft, fuzzy and scrumptious. We put it right on the mannequin and it made for a good laugh. See, our mannequin is a bit difficult to dress. You have to remove both arms in order to get a pullover onto her, and to remove the arms you have to twist them backwards and over her head. Anyway, I tried for several minutes to remove her arms but had no luck. I did manage to knock her off her stand and she practically fell over. Michele rushed over to help me, and at that exact moment, about 5 customers walked in to find us both in a fit of giggles, and me dancing with a headless mannequin. Ah... good times, good times.

Shawn was able to remove the arms and then once I had the sweater on her, I had to get Shawn's help AGAIN to put the arms back on. I tell you, the mannequin was so wobbly, even once she was all re-assembled and secured that I have to wonder if she's hitting the sauce at night after we close the shop. I might have to start testing her BAC.

Wait! What's that in her hand? Caught her!!! I thought I was clear about no drinking at work. I guess we'll have to work on teaching her what beverages are appropriate for the workplace. Anyway, she wears the sweater well, and Karen did a great job on it. Thanks!

We've had some customers in recently with works in progress and completed works. Deborah N. is almost finished her Yankee Knitter English Ribbed Pullover. She is using Berroco Vintage Wool, which is SO popular that many of the colors are on backorder at Berroco. We're still okay on our stock, and we have more on order, but we're pretty sure we will see some delays with certain colors of this yarn. That's what happens when a new yarn is such a hit!

Then Beth C. came in yesterday with a really creative project.It's pretty clear she's a quilter! She made a jacket that is quilted, but the arms are knitted. She used the Blue Sky Melange for the sleeves and Emily luckily thought to grab the camera so we could share it with you. We closed out the Melange recently, but it was (and is!) a beautiful yarn!

Bring in your projects and let us photograph them and share on our blog. People love to see FO's!

Cassidy is almost finished!

I am looking forward to the upcoming long weekend to finish up some knitting projects. The Cassidy Sweater for Liz (from Chic Knits) is almost done (I used Berroco Vintage Wool - it's gorgeous!)

I have finished all the pieces, and now just have to assemble it. I actually like putting a sweater together, but only if I am the one who knit it. I never do increases and decreases on the edge stitch and I even use short row shaping for shoulders and sleeve caps to make a smoother seam. All I have to do is pre-read the pattern to plan for these changes along the way, and the sweater is easier to finish.

Once Cassidy is finished, I need to finish the Wrap Me Up by Knitting at Knoon. This is close to being done, but I reached a point where it was just too hot to work on it. A couple of weeks ago it was high humidity and almost 90 degrees out, and I just couldn't bear to have almost 1000 yards of worsted weight yarn on my lap! The evenings are now cooler so I plan to finish this project soon.

What next? Maybe the Twist from Chic Knits (another one for Liz), but I can't decide on yarn for that one yet. Our Mission Falls 1824 Wool is arriving next week so maybe that one?

Or...I could really use a new vest and I've been looking at the Debbie Bliss Rialto or Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool each time I pass the back room. I guess I'll just have to set aside some time to look at all the new patterns that just arrived!

Le béret - c'est fini!

That's right! Last night Sophie finished her first real knitting project. The beret from The Charmed Knits book, knit with Berroco Vintage Wool.

She knit the hat on a 16" circular, and did really well with the decrease rows see how nicely they line up?

(We only had to knit backwards a few times to fix mistakes - she has a habit of talking while knitting, and that's not always good when you are needing to pay attention to decrease counts!) Last night she mastered double pointed needles and was thrilled to model her beret for us. Now she just needs to figure out how to wear it - as berets allow numerous styling options.

Helen should be finished hers this afternoon. Next up, preemie hats. Then they can practice an entire project on double pointed needles.

Best Picks

People always come in to the shop and ask us what other people are knitting. So we thought we'd do a show and tell for you on the products that have been really popular over the past month:

Best Pick for Kits:

Scarf Kits Galore! The Pagewood Farms Tinkerbell Needle Felted Silk Scarf Kit, the Be Sweet & Artyarns Synergy Shawl Knit Kit and the Jade Sapphire Cashmere Scarf Kits (for Him or Her)

All of these kits are really grabbing attention in the shop. We have some gorgeous samples to fondle and purr over if you have a chance to stop in. There's such a variety of fiber goodness in these four kits, and they come in such wonderfully tempting colors that everyone is ogling. Come in and see these before the selection is gone - they'll make a great gift or an outstanding conversation piece for yourself. (I know not enough of us create FOR ourselves and all of these kits are great values! Now I just have to finish my own cashmere scarf...)

Best Pick Patterns:

Norah Gaughan volume #5, Berroco Book #288 Blackstone Tweed, Jane Ellison's Queensland Collection Book #9 (featuring some of the most handsome new men's designs!) AND Queensland Collection Book #10

Best Pick Accessories, Notions, & Needles:

The Namaste Mini Clutch, especially in Black or Eggplant (this is a super supple PVC-free faux leather mini clutch with a shoulder strap-check 'em out) and the Kollage Square Double Pointed needles in both 5" and 7" lengths. We're still getting great feedback about these needles and how much people love trying them out both in the store and as additions to needle collections.(Yes, there's a set on the counter for you to try!)

Best Pick Yarn(s):

Berroco Vintage Wool and Kollage Half & Half are the favorites of the month! Vintage Wool continues to be a strong choice for customers because it's so soft, and they can't believe it's a washable acrylic/wool/nylon blend. We added more new colors, too, so we've rounded out the pallet a bit for those of you looking for more options. And Half & Half is milk protein mixed with wool. NO, you can't drink it, but people are amazed that it contains milk. And once you touch it, it's on the counter waiting to be rung out.

A little birthday knitting

Ten years ago today I was 3 and a half weeks away from my due date with twins. I had a checkup, as my blood pressure had been climbing and they were worried about pre-eclampsia. At my checkup, the doctor came into the room, after running some tests, and very calmly told me that my blood pressure was super high and I needed to check in to the hospital within the next couple of hours so they could induce labor. Marc and I headed home to pack a bag (hadn't even done that yet) and drive 10 minutes to the hospital, not even needing to break the speed limit along the way.

The next 7-10 hours went quickly, and just after 9 that night, I was taken down to the emergency room to join the 22 or so folks who were on hand for this "multiples" birth. Nothing like a small, intimate birth! I think I had 8 or so people tending to me, and then there were at least 6 people on hand for each baby. At 9:37 pm Helen made her entrance, followed at 9:55 pm by Sophie. They were whisked away to the NICU... and the rest is history.

So today is the big double-digit birthday. When I asked them what they wanted to do, they both begged to knit all day! If you think about it, wouldn't that be the greatest gift?!

Right now they are sitting upstairs in Sophie's room in their new bean bag chairs... knitting. They were so excited after last week's knitting camp, that they bought the Charmed Knits book. (We're reading the 7th Harry Potter book together, aloud, and it's Harry Potter talk, all the time, around here these days!) They are each making a beret from the book, with Berroco Vintage Wool, and following the instructions all by themselves, with only a few questions so far.

Thing One and Thing Two

Well the rainy weather over the past few weeks has been good for one thing - knitting! Even if it didn't feel much like summer weather (until this week!) I've been knitting quite a bit and it doesn't seem inappropriate to be working on my fall and winter projects due to the cooler temperatures. So the wedding gift I'm making is growing and I just finished a really fun set of socks for a couple of my friends.

I often knit when I'm at other people's houses while I'm sitting and visiting with them. One of my friends has a daughter who is very interested in watching me knit. She's not quite ready to try it herself, but she is enthralled by the motions and the fact that something like a hat can grow out of the process. She also loves to wear socks to bed and I thought it might be fun to knit up a pair of slightly crazy socks for her so she could see what was happening along the way. Since I've been having such a good time knitting with Berocco Vintage Wool on my other project I decided to try it out on these worsted weight socks - especially since it is machine wash and dry.

I picked out her favorite color, red, and matched it with something fun, robin's egg blue, for stripes and contrast. The socks were quick (I used the Yankee Knitter #29 Classic Socks pattern as a guide) to knit and everyone who has seen them is tickled by the colors and stripes.

I finished up the red pair for my friend's daughter and realized I had plenty of yarn left to make another complimentary pair of socks. Wouldn't it be neat for these two to have a 'matching' pair of slipper socks?! I love them and the colors remind me of Dr. Seuss' Thing One and Thing Two who appear in the Cat in the Hat aptly during a rainy day when no one can go out to play.

Hope you are tickled by Thing One and Thing Two Socks just like my friends and I are! :)

Get wrapped up with fun stitch patterns!

Knitting new stitch patterns is always fun, but even knitting up a new pattern can quickly get "old" when it's a large project.

This isn't true with the Wrap Me Up pattern by Knitting at Knoon. We saw this knit up at TNNA in the Knitting at Knoon booth. I knew it would be a fun project, and a great idea for a class!

It's a fun wrap to knit, as it's a modular sampler wrap. The blocks are all different sizes, shapes and patterns. So just when I get bored with a stitch pattern, the block is done and I move on to a new one! It's going to be gorgeous when it's done.

I think I might like a small blanket done the same way. OR.. I have even been thinking of a scarf with a fingering weight yarn, smaller needles - but the same pattern. I can't wait to knit tonight! I'm moving on to another block.

Chris de Longpre intended this to be knit with a self striping yarn as the main color, with a solid yarn as the contrast color. Obviously any of the Noro yarns would be a wonderful choice - either the Silk Garden or the Kureyon would be just beautiful. We wanted to make our shop model in a washable yarn, and we also wanted to show that it can be an affordable project, so I chose Jojoland Rhythm as my main color, and Vintage Wool for the contrast.

A college send-off gift

A couple of months ago my sister, Lisa, started crocheting an afghan for her daughter, Meredith, who had just graduated from high school. It's sort of a send-off blanket for Meredith to take to college this fall. Well, Lisa - I know yesterday was about the first bit of summer weather we've had, but you'd better get cracking grannying! Meredith leaves for school in just over 4 weeks!

I stopped in to see Lisa this past Sunday in NH as we were driving back from Maine. I asked to see the blanket. She opened her hutch and this is what I saw!A finisher's worst nightmare! Hopefully my visit (and gentle reminder that she needs to pull out her hook and get moving) will get her motivated to put all of these squares together in the near future. It is going to be gorgeous when it's finished, though!
BTW, she used Berroco Vintage Wool - a perfect choice for this project! Bright, fun colors, super soft, and washable. Remember how much of a pain it was to do laundry when you were in college?

Staying Connected

Vacation time! Here we are at our camp in Maine again. We make a summer trip here each year. This year we, together with Marc's sister - who also owns the camp - decided to forego some of life's little luxuries. Specifically TV (which we didn't really care about), a land line phone, and internet connection. And add to that - we use AT&T for our cell phones, and there's no AT&T service here. (Can you hear me now?) So we're completely NOT connected. Which is nice, in a way. So to connect, I must come to the library, which is only open 2 days a week for 5 hours a day. Luckily, they recently installed wireless, which is free and accessible from the parking lot. Last year I would laugh each time I drove by the library - it would be closed and there would be 2-5 cars parked out front. The people in the cars had their computers out, checking email, working, etc. And this year, I'm right in there fighting for a spot!
We went kayaking today on the Sandy River - and got up early to beat the rain, which has now returned after a two day break. It was the girls' first trip, and we went with Marc's aunt, who is a seasoned kayaker up here! We had the most amazing time. Thanks Maddy!And now it looks like more rain off and on for the rest of the week. So tomorrow we may trek in to Freeport - haven't been there for years.

I only brought two projects with me on this vacation. I started Cormorant before I left, and completed the first sleeve. I always start with the back, then the fronts, and then finish up with the sleeves. But several knitters I know do the sleeves first, and you know? I think I like it that way! I cruised on the first one and am well into the second one. The pattern calls for Berroco Ultra Alpaca and Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine. I wanted to make something that was machine washable, so I substituted Vintage Wool for the Ultra Alpaca. A lot of the colors are the same in these two yarns, so it was an easy substitution.

I also started a scarf out of Noro Silk Garden. This scarf is so simple, yet with the two colors of Silk Garden, it just keeps changing. It's really mindless and easy to knit. If you haven't seen this scarf and want to try it, you can see it (and the free pattern) on Brooklyn Tweed's blog.

I am using the Kollage square circular needles and I love them! I'm using a size 7, and when I'm finished the scarf, I'm going to swatch the Vintage Wool on them. I am using size 7 Addis on my sweater, so it will be an interesting experiment to see how different my gauge is on Addi 7's and Kollage 7's. Hmm. Stay tuned.

Vintage Wool Marathon for the rainy day blues

Just wanted to share my latest marathon knitting project with you today. I have been working on a wedding gift and it is a good thing that we've been having a lot of rain because I have a long way to go! Take a look at what I have so far:

It's about 40" wide and should be about 50" long when I'm done. I have two more colors to add in and repeats to do, but it already is impressive. I keep pulling it out in the shop to show to customers because I am using the Berroco Vintage Wool in several contrasting shades and it really gives a great example of how this yarn knits.

It is fast to work with, doesn't split, has great flexibility due to the 40% wool content and I'm happy to think of this present as something that won't accidentally be felted by the recipients (who don't happen to be knitters.) It looks great, will wear well, and feels so good!