Fall is in the air

Back to work tomorrow after a great vacation. We went to our camp in Maine, where we go for a week or so each summer. We usually go in early August when it is nice and hot. The camp is right on a lake, and the water is shallow by the shore and great for swimming. We spend 8-10 hours a day in and on the water.

This year we took a later vacation, and has anyone noticed how fall-like it's been for the past couple of weeks? Our first day was the warmest, and then we had very chilly temperatures, wind, clouds and some sprinkles. It was still a great time - and because of the cool temperatures, I became an expert at lighting the woodstove. (I'm always up for fine tuning one of my skills!)

The great thing about being on a lake is that the scenery is never dull. It changes from one minute to the next. (Can you see how COLD the air was? Brrr.)

I did do some knitting on my trip. I finished and blocked my Koigu slipstitch hat - it's very cute...

And I started and finished a simple little roll neck raglan (top down - Knitting Pure & Simple 9730) sweater out of Lang Mille Colori. This could be one of my new favorite yarns. SO soft, and NO way to know what color will come next. It's a really fun yarn and it was nice, mindless knitting. I also knit a little newborn sweater out of Blue Sky Worsted. It's finished, almost. I need to single crochet around the edges. I could have done it, but I need to pick a button or two out tomorrow when I go back to the shop.

Nana came to our camp and taught the girls to fish. On the first day, they practiced from the dock.

Fishing can mean waiting. And waiting. And waiting.

And one day, while we were out exploring in the car, we saw what we always hope to see in Maine... a moose. This one was about a year old and just off the side of the road. A few minutes later, we realized that it wasn't alone.

It was with Mommy and a younger sibling! They were really spectacular.Because of the cooler temperatures and one of the girls getting a fever of 102, we came home from our trip a couple of days early. Even though the week wasn't as warm as we'd expected, we finished our vacation with a gorgeous day on top of Stowe (Mount Mansfield) yesterday with some great friends.

Tomorrow I'll be back at work, and hope to finish the fall newsletter - it's almost done, just a few more touches and then off to the printers.

Classes are posted

The fall class list is posted. We will be formally announcing it in our weekly email this weekend, but we are accepting signups now. Scheduling classes is one of the more difficult things we do - we spend hours and hours on it. So when each class list is posted, we breathe a HUGE sigh of relief. Yeah!!! It's done!

So this weekend I ran in my first 5k race. I had never run more than a mile and a half, so I was worried I wouldn't finish. But I did and I only walked through the water stops. My sister Lisa stayed with me the whole way, and encouraged me through the hard times. There were several times I thought I would die, but I hung in there and I'm already excited to do another one! My run last night was easy, now that I know what I can do.

Now I'm trying to get my desk cleared off before I leave for vacation on Friday. We've been getting in more new yarns. Yesterday we received Terra from the Fibre Company. It is GORGEOUS. One of our internet customers was in visiting us and she bought a sweater's worth in the color Cochineal. I can't even begin to pick a favorite color. If I do pick one, and then turn away, when I turn back, I forgot which was my favorite and I have to pick one all over again.

And we got some new colors of Blue Sky Bulky Hand Dyes and Blue Sky Worsted that are just beautiful. We also got a new yarn from them called Brushed Suri. I am working like crazy to get all of these yarns up on the website before I leave.

On the drive down and back I worked a little on the slipstitch hat. It's going well, I really like the colors I picked. It will look nice when it's blocked!

And we're now open for comments on the blog!

New yarn... and classes coming!

Barb is back from her vacation - she had a lovely and restful week at her camp up near Barton, Vermont. Barton is the home of Cherry Tree Hill Yarn, and while she was at camp she bought a skein of CTH Silken Mohair. She wanted some mindless knitting, so she made a simple shawl with the full skein. It is gorgeous.

Since I'm a sucker for anything new, as soon as I saw the shawl, we ordered the yarn for the shop. It will be available on the website within a week or so, it is last in a long line of my "to-dos."

India stopped in today to firm up some fall class offerings. The final class schedule should be ready next week sometime... I know you're all chomping at the bit, but we are waiting for a few instructors to get back from vacation to finalize things. We have some great classes, so it will be worth the wait.

India is going to be teaching a class on a slip stitch hat, made with two colors of Koigu - one hand painted and one solid. Isn't it spectacular?! She wrote up the pattern, and it just needs one more round of testing, but it will be ready for the class and available for sale both in the shop and online. I plan to make one on MY vacation in a week and a half.

And what's this? An ALMOST finished Koigu & Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Diagonal afghan? Why yes! I seamed it together two nights ago - and I have a few ends left to work in. I decided to grab another two skeins to fringe it. I'm not going crazy with the fringe, I just feel it needs a little weight on the ends. And mind you, this is NOT the couch that I made this afghan to rest on. My color sense is a little better than that. This is our couch at work...In other news, a few of us have started running recently. We have taken advantage of the lovely Vermont summer to start getting in shape by running. Kalen is already a runner, but Michele started running in June and just ran her first 5k last weekend. Yay Michele! I started running on July 4th and am doing my first 5k this Saturday in NH with my sister (I hope I make it!) And Barb started running last week at camp, and will join me and Michele on October 1st for the Leaf Peepers 5k in Waterbury. That race is also a half marathon, but OBVIOUSLY we will only be participating in the 5k part. It's a great way to push ourselves to do something we wouldn't normally do. And yes, I would much RATHER be sitting and knitting, but that's not really getting me into shape now, is it?

A litte makeshift blocking

I finished the Blue Sky "Royal" Alpaca fingerless gloves this weekend. I didn't have my blocking wires at home, and couldn't find a pin to save my life. So I cut a piece of cardboard (thanks to a birthday shipment for Helen and Sophie from LL Bean), covered it with a little plastic wrap, and inserted it in the glove while it dried. Perfect!

A few finished items!

Another busy busy week here at the shop. I have only a minute to show some finished things .

Wee One Welcome Set in Koigu Kersti - took 3 skeins. SO easy and cute. Great FUN colors for babies - either boy or girl.

Recycled Silk & Springy Capelli roll brim hat. Easy, QUICK (2-3 hours) and beautiful.

Ribbed hat out of Berroco Memoirs in Berroco Book #252. Took EVERY bit of one skein. Easy and fast. Great color choice and soft yarn.

MinnowKnits Kangaroo Sweater done with Manos Cotton Stria. Very sweet little sweater. Another easy project.

All of these will be online as kits next week.

A Rainy Sunday and Blowout Sale Bins!

This past weekend was a bit of a washout. Luckily I had some finishing to do on the ballet wrap cardigan, and the rainy weather forced me to do it. The most time consuming part of the finishing was knitting the 2 ties. Each one was 45" long. Long skinny pieces are not my favorite.

The sweater pieces went together quickly and then it was blocked, and voila! It's on the mannequin in the shop now and a few of our customers have already started it for themselves. I made a 34.5" finished chest size, which called for 6 skeins of Prism. I almost got away with 5 skeins, but needed to go into the 6th for the second tie.

Our weekly special on Saturday was 15% off Lamb's Pride Worsted and Lamb's Pride Bulky, through this Thursday. So I checked orders from home on Sunday. WOW. LOTS. And because it was raining I thought it would be a good idea to kill some time before our matinee (CARS) by pulling some of the orders. So I went in to the shop with my soon to be 7-year-old "helpers" Helen and Sophie. They like to help out when they can (they are in training for after school helping a few years down the road!) and they are pretty good at holding/carrying bags of yarn and writing down order numbers (with my strict supervision so numbers aren't transposed!) They are also REALLY good at:

1. playing with the UPS label machine
2. putting return address stickers on things (mostly themselves)
3. playing with the laser scanner
4. sitting on Betsy's chair in shipping and rolling across the floor (these uneven wood floors!)
5. collecting things from the warehouse floors like rubber bands and paper clips

Unfortunately, those are all things that don't really help to get orders picked any faster. I told them if they did a good job helping (and I meant helping at bag holding), I would let them each have candy at the movies, and that I would give them a dollar. I know it's bribery, but it did work. They still managed to scan a number of non-scannable items with the laser scanner, sticker themselves, collect some rubber bands, and roll around in the chair.

Last week Barb and I put together some great yarns for our local customers. They are just inside the front door of the shop, by the mannequin. The yarns are on blowout - they are just $1-2 a ball! Locals, don't wait! We've already had to refill the bins about 5 times since Saturday. At this price they won't last for long.

Knitting Nature Trunk Show!

This is some advance notice for our local customers - we will be hosting the Trunk Show for Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughan August 17th - August 28th. If you haven't seen it yet, this is a GREAT book! There are some really amazing projects in it. You will NOT want to miss seeing the garments in person!

In knitting news, the Ballet Wrap sweater in Prism is almost finished. I should be able to do the rest of sleeve #2 tonight, and then I have to knit the "ties" and do all seaming. It is SO cute. Prism is definitely one of my favorite yarns. It's soft and QUICK and the colorways are amazing.

Michele is almost finished a Suede tank from Berroco Book 215. It was supposed to be done in Glace, but she picked Suede and it's really nice. She brought it in so Barb could help her with the crochet finishing around the neck.

This week and next, Kalen is relaxing in Florida, and we hope she's having a great time. Betsy had a mini high school reunion last weekend, and wore her Rayon Boucle Wrap in Quince. Barb saw it and said it was gorgeous! Michele did get a lot of knitting time when she was on vacation in Maine. If you are reading this Michele... bring in the pieces of your Trilogy top on Monday so we can see!!

Folk Hats Trunk Show

The Folk Hats Trunk Show arrived a couple of days ago, and to celebrate we are offering 20% off the book. Locals should definitely come in and check out these unique hats. Here are some of our favorites. First up - Ruffled Dignity:

Next, the Folded Bloom:
Now the Cable Braid:

And finally the Big Cossack:

So while it may be super hot out there, come on in to see some great hats. And enjoy the comfortable AC while you are here.

We just decided to have one of the new MinnowKnits patterns "Kangaroo" knit up as a shop model in Manos Cotton Stria. It is so cute - and will have a couple of nice Zecca buttons on it. I am going to start the Wee One Welcome Set in Koigu Kersti next week. It has been so popular that we sold out of the pattern, but it's due back in tomorrow. Kalen left on her vacation today, and hopes to finish the shell she is making out of Rowan Summer Tweed. And Michele gets back from her vacation on Monday, and hopefully she will have something to show on her Berroco Trilogy sweater.

Buried!

This is normally our slower season, but boy have we been busy here at the shop! We've had SO many of our internet customers stop in to see us over the past month. Vermont is a beautiful place to travel, and customers from all over the US are visiting our area and stopping in to see the shop in person. It's been great to meet all of you!

Last weekend was the Vermont Quilt Show, just down the road at the Champlain Valley Expo Center. They had over 7,000 people in attendance, and a LOT of them visited the shop last week. They were so excited about the new venue for the quilt show, and we are thrilled that it will be back for the next couple of years.

We have been keeping busy with the great sale on Cool Wool Big and Cool Wool 2000. They are over 40% off! These are two yarns that we LOVE. We are sad to let them go, because they are really wonderful to knit with, and they are so soft, and superwash merino. But Lana Grossa does not have the name recognition that our customers seem to demand, so they are going bye bye. If you haven't tried this yarn, don't delay. They will be gone soon!

And we have several amazing new yarns - one of my favorites is Royal by Blue Sky Alpacas. It is so soft - and luxurious. I am making a pair of wristlets - they are about 12" long with a gorgeous ruffle at the top. I only started last night, but the yarn is a dream to work with. We also got in our new yarns from Colinette: Tao and Parisienne. They are so much fun. I especially like the Parisienne. The patterns for this yarn are nicely shaped and figure flattering. I'm not a big laceweight fan, but this yarn just might win me over!

New Berroco Fall Yarns are HERE

The Berroco fall yarns have arrived. We got them online, but they aren't out in the shop yet. We have to move things around before we can get them on the shelves, but they should be out by next Tuesday. Patterns will be online by then too. Some really great stuff!

We also got our shipment from Farmhouse Yarns. This yarn (called "Lumpy Bumpy") is gorgeous. So colorful and so SOFT. Look for it in the shop by this weekend, and online early next week.

TNNA recap

Barb and I are back from TNNA, our big fall & winter buying show. We flew out to Indianapolis on Friday morning and got there without any problems. I had a hard time picking out my trip knitting, and ended up choosing the Ballet Wrap Cardigan on the cover of Interweave Knits 2005 Winter magazine. I have always loved the sweater, and so I grabbed 6 skeins of Colinette Prism in #77/Dusk.

Travelling always makes me a little tired, and when we got to Chicago we had about a 20 minute walk (or so it seemed) to get to our connecting gate. Did you know that in O'Hare International Airport, you can find a Starbuck's on just about every corner, and sometimes in between? That's okay, I'm a huge fan.

In Indianapolis, we arrived at our hotel just before 3pm. There was a Starbuck's in the lobby, of course. (And another one in the hotel next door.) We had a few hours to kill, so I asked the woman at the front desk if there was any shopping within walking distance. She said there was a mall two blocks away with a Nordstrom's. Yep, I was excited. See the big letters? S-A-L-E.

A few hours, a couple of bags and a pair of shoes later (Clarks was having a 40% off sale - how could I resist?), Barb and I made our way to the convention center to register for the trade show and see the "fashion show". This year there were about 150 garments. The big trends we saw were laceweight mohair sweaters, knitted coats, knitted bags, and lots of DK/Sport weight sweaters.

By Saturday morning we had our attack plan in order. We met with Unique Kolours in their booth before the show, and ordered two of their new yarns. Parisienne is a new laceweight mohair that is wonderfully soft and gorgeous. They have great patterns for this yarn - beautiful sweaters that are figure flattering - not big and ovesized like a lot of Colinette patterns. We also bought Tao, a 100% silk yarn that is really gorgeous. This yarn also has some great patterns also.

By the time the show opened at 10am, Barb and I split up to cover more ground. Barb ordered new colors of Jade Sapphire and Mountain Colors, and then went to look at new books, patterns and notions. I went straight to Koigu - it takes so long to get Koigu that it's important to get that order in first thing. Then I went to see Frog Tree, and I got new colors, new buttons, some cool wooden shawl pins, and several new sweater samples. We usually knit our own samples, but Frog Tree has them available for purchase. We pay for them and the money goes right back to the women in the co-op in Bolivia. Next was Blue Sky Alpacas - they have several new yarns that I fell in love with. Talk about SOFT and luxurious. These should be arriving in the next several weeks.

Barb and I met up and walked the show together for the rest of the day. We got some great new Gita Maria shawl pins - but we won't see those until October or November. We bought a neat new line of knitting and crochet patterns called French Girl Designs. And we are SO excited about the new Lexie Barnes bags that should be arriving next week! We got the Lady B knitting bag and the Flo bag. They are SO cool.

We loved the Mango Moon yarns, and bought 3 different ones: Recycled Silk, Bali Sky Sarong, and Springy Capelli. And we got two great yarns from the Fibre Company in Portland, Maine. Terra is a blend of merino, baby alpaca and silk... and Organik, a beautiful and soft NEW organic blend. We liked this one so much we got all 20 colors!

So Saturday was a very full and tiring day. Not so tiring, though, that i couldn't drag myself back to the Clarks store, where another sale pair of shoes made it into my luggage. Yes, I have a problem.

With all the new stuff we bought, we arrived home knowing we needed to clean house. Check out the sale pages for deep discounts on great yarns!

Now back to knitting my sweater.

A little Dr. Suess

Old House

New House

Grey House

Blue House

Ainsley’s Blankie

Ainsley is my niece. She turned three on Thursday last week. When my sister in law Noelle was pregnant, I hosted her baby shower. I thought it would be a neat idea to have everybody coming to her shower help to knit her a baby blankie. I sent a ball of Berroco Plush to each person and asked them to use a size 10 US needle, cast on 30 stitches and knit every row until they reached the end of the ball. Obviously, every person had a different gauge, so when I got back all 9 of the squares, they were pretty different in size. I took a ball of Plush Colors and crocheted the squares together. Not your typical perfectly square or rectangular blankie, but a really adorable freeform semi-square. And of course, Plush is THE softest yarn ever, and just perfect for babies. Noelle loved it.

Noelle was not a knitter. On one of her visits to Vermont during her pregnancy, I thought it would be a good idea to teach her to knit. It was on a busy Saturday in the wintertime, and I had her spend a couple of hours upstairs in the classroom with Barb. Barb taught her all of the basics. After the class, she bought some Plush in 6 or 7 different colors. She loved the blankie so much that she wanted to make another smaller one. Obviously Plush is not your basic beginner's yarn. I tried to get her to start with something like Cascade 220, or even Manos. But she wanted Plush. Each time she sat down to knit, she became frustrated with how slippery it was. And so that blankie never really materialized. Noelle, who WAS not a knitter then, IS not a knitter now.

Enter Ainsley, on May 25, 2003. The patchwork blanket we made her became her all time favorite. She took it everywhere, and so it needed a lot of washing. They followed my instructions – they washed it in a cold wash on gentle. I told them to air dry it, and only if needed, to put it in the dryer on air dry for several minutes. Somewhere along the line, as parents of toddlers often do, they became a little more lax with the washing instructions. The soft and cuddly blankie became a stiff and crunchy blankie. Did it meet up with some bad fabric softener? Did it get fried in the dryer? We’ll never know, but Ainsley still loves the blankie as she did when it was in its prime.

Last summer at our camp in Maine, I joked with Noelle. I asked her how the Plush blankie was coming along. In a moment of weakness I offered to finish (well, start... and finish!) it for her. I felt awful for Ainsley - she was lovingly carting around a fried piece of nylon. I asked Noelle to send me the Plush, and I told her I'd knit the blankie for her. After all, it was summer, and I generally have a bit more free time in the summer.

My slow time came and went. Noelle didn't send me the Plush until November. At that point, I was way too busy to knit the blankie. Her bag of Plush would resurface every month or so, as I was reorganizing my knitting projects. My knitting "corner" in the family room tends to grow and grow, and when it gets out of control I have to do a major reorganization. Each time I would find it, I'd feel guilty, and think... "Maybe I can get this done..." but, you know, it never happened.

Last week, just four days before her birthday, I pulled out the bag of Plush. Kim, one of our sample knitters, had just finished a project. I asked her if she would whip up this blankie for me. Instead of doing patchwork, we did basic stripes. She cast on 105 stitches, and worked in stockinette until the end of the skein. She worked through 7 balls, and brought it in today. It is adorable, and yes, SOFT. I am sure Ainsley will love it, though she is used to the crunchy one now, so you never know.

I sent it to her in Maine and she will receive it tomorrow. She already received one birthday present, and though this one is a week late, I think it will be worth the wait. I included a note with all of the care instructions again. Hopefully this blankie meets with better fate than the other one.

Spring Flings

I’ve been busy lately . . . busy knitting, of course. It began in February, when I started to think about what classes I’d like to teach at the shop this spring. Bundled as I was at the time in lots of layers of wool, the idea of lace—light, airy—was particularly appealing, so I put together several classes based on lace. Of course, I had to knit the items first!

There was the lace shrug in Manos Cotton Stria from Cotton Collection 3:

And lacey socks from the Spring 2006 Interweave Knits. I liked these so much I did a pair in Rowan Wool Cotton and another in Rowan Cashsoft DK:

And a lace washcloth for first-time lace knitters in Saucy Sport:

Then my family decided to spend the kids’ April vacation in Florida—vacation knitting! And because I do not get along with airplanes, I decided to take the train (30 hours!) and meet them there, so that meant train knitting. And of course I wanted to spike my vacation wardrobe with a nice, colorful cotton sweater—pre-vacation knitting! Here’s what I chose:

A striped pullover in Saucy (though to be perfectly honest, I did not finish this in time to take to Florida. It would have been too warm, anyway, but is just perfect for our chilly spring here in Vermont).

For the train, I chose 7 colors of Koigu to make a simple rectangular garter stitch stole. It was very portable and required no pattern to read or remember while bouncing down the tracks.

I also took along several pairs of socks to work on in case I needed a break from the stole. I chose Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Steelhead, Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Lakeview, and Lang Jawoll Cotton in a nice tweedy teal.

For beach and pool knitting I wanted something that would be easy and cool to work with in the heat. A lacey shrug in Plymouth Royal Bamboo was just the ticket, and will make a great present for my sister’s birthday next week.

Next in the queue: two-color slipstitch mosaic socks in a Koigu handpaint and a Jawoll solid!

We're getting a facelift!

Here's a preview of our new look. We have a long way to go - but the change is already pretty dramatic! Now we're not the 4th building on the right... we're the blue building on the right.

Felted Laptop Case

Every laptop deserves a cool carrying case, doesn't it?

I've loved the laptop case featured in Alterknits ever since we had it at the shop on a trunk show last month. Doesn't every laptop need a nice looking and functional case? This one is perfect - it can be made in three sizes. I'm making the medium. We have the small one on our website as a kit and it's been so popular! It is mindless knitting and I love the colors I'm working with: Lamb's Pride Worsted in Aubergine, Roasted Coffee, Raspberry and Bronze Patina. And with all the felting I've done in the past, I've never kept anything for myself, so this will be a first. (Note the great green gardening gloves in the back of the picture. My daylily transplanting that was scheduled for today was postponed. I was not in the mood for gardening in the rain.)

I do need to finish the Blue Sky Worsted vest. It is so adorable, and having seen a lot of the fall patterns, vests are going to be a big thing! The yarn is lovely to work with. The pattern calls for the back to be stockinette stitch and the front is obviously reverse stockinette with a gorgeous - yet simple - cable. We all agree that the whole thing should be reverse stockinette. Remember, just because a pattern tells you do something one way, doesn't mean you can't do it another way.

New yarns for Fall 2006... already!

Spring is so early this year. The leaves are popping out and I actually had to mow my lawn at home yesterday! I don't think I've ever had to do it in April before.

And while it is just starting to feel like spring, I've already seen a lot of new fall 2006 yarns. On Tuesday I met with my Berroco rep and I'm really excited about what they have come up with! The yarns are really nice - they'll all be well received by our customers. And the patterns are great - nothing too far out. There are classic, basic sweaters that show fashion forward thinking, but not TOO forward.

One of my favorites is Keltic, a heavy worsted wool blend that has subtle color shadings. Wait until you see the spectacular throw pattern that uses this yarn! It combines two colors and is worked in pieces. What a great project - so portable! Trilogy is another favorite. I wasn't too sure about it when I first saw it but after a few minutes it really grew on me. There are some gorgeous patterns for it - it's really a jacket yarn, and the patterns prove it. My other favorite is Pure Merino - a heavenly machine washable merino in an amazing color range. It's so soft and knits up like a dream. Definitely a winner. And a number of free web patterns for this yarn!

My rep also sells Brown Sheep ( a couple new colors there) and Mountain Colors (three awesome new colors!) Unfortunately, Mountain Colors is still 12 weeks out for delivery! Ouch. But for some good things, we must wait... We also ordered new colors of Velvet Touch (this yarn is THE best for babies and kids. My girls wear their Velvet Touch sweaters daily, and so obviously they've been through the wash a million times, and they're still going strong!)

I've been slacking a bit on my knitting, I must admit. I was on vacation in the beginning of April, and I did make some progress on a Blue Sky Worsted cable vest, but since I've been home, other things have been calling out to me (the garden). I arrived home to find that the balance of our Koigu order had arrived. With all 40 some colors up on the wall, I became inspired to start up another Koigu project. I have been working on crocheting some pillowcases for my family room, and I was going to crochet an afghan. BUT, let's be realistic. That afghan was going nowhere. So I switched gears (rather yarns, and techniques...) and am now knitting an afghan out of Koigu. I brought in my two pillowcases, and picked out 5 colors of Koigu KPPPM , 1 Koigu KPM and 3 colors of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock to make a throw. I'm using the following: Koigu KPM 1300; KPPPMs 117, 316, 335, and two others that we only had one skein left each; and CTH Java, Cabin Fever, and Indian Summer. The result is impressive. Strip one of three is complete, and I am in love with it! I'm knitting double stranded on a US 10, in garter stitch and making simple diagonal strips. The striping is completely random, and the three strips will be pieced together so the striping pattern forms a zigzag. I'm estimating about 14 skeins of Koigu and 3 skeins of CTH Supersock. After completing the first strip, I think those estimates are right on. It looks great and it's so much fun to see the colors evolve!

Barb brought in the lacy camisole she's making with Colinette Lasso in Monet. It is absolutely gorgeous! What a fun yarn. She is heading to CT this weekend and it was to be her weekend knitting, but we needed a skein of Lasso in Monet to complete an internet order, so she's going to start a gorgeous lace scarf out of Rowan Kid Silk Haze. Hey, our customers come first!