Yarn Gallery Blog

We’re back in the 90’s – whoo, I hope it’s the last heat wave of this year. Susan Groene, who lives in North Carolina (my old and beloved stomping grounds), was visiting here last week and said “If you think you had it bad…” which only goes to show that there’s always someplace that’s worse.  Still, it’s hard to work on the seed stitch vest that I’m making out of Brown Sheep’s Burly Spun Handpaint when it’s a sweltering 95 outside and, since I’m trying to be conscious of energy use and so on, it’s a balmy 80 in here.   It’s going to be pretty, though.

Their colors have improved one thousand percent since they introduced handpaints some years ago, and the vest is quick to make with no finishing  – and I mean NO seams, and NO weaving in if you spit-splice, always a good thing with a big fat yarn like this.  Just sew on three of our fabulous big buttons and off you go.  It’s a very nice house pattern, free when you buy the yarn to make it.

Along with Burly Spun, we received a new supply of Lamb’s Pride Worsted, such a delight to knit with – makes beautiful warm sweaters and felts wonderfully, too – and Nature Spun Sport, a lovely wool for Fair Isle or other lightweight knits.  We have a good array of colors, both basics and accents, and I think Donna Guthrie might be thinking of working up this set, from Knitscene, Fall 2010:

Speaking of Donna, she just finished making this little shrug/cardigan for Pat Burkhart, who is modeling it for me:

I wish I had Pat’s figure – she looks fabulous in fitted cropped sweaters, darn her anyway.

Here’s a sweet little top that Deb Hawk made from (I think) last year’s Vogue Holiday issue.  It look a little misshapen when it’s not on a body, but drapes just beautifully and is perfectly knitted.

Deb’s been in a little knitting slump for a while, but recently has finished several projects that have been languishing – we all have those times!

Patty Golembiewski came in with her second felted tote – she has a great eye for embellishment.  These beads came pre-strung, she said, and were absolutely perfect accents for her bag:

We got a huge shipment from Plymouth the other day (yes, once again, I have gone overboard.  Would it be fall if Trish didn’t become frantic about where to put all the freakin’ yarn she bought?)  I bought a lot of Encore this year because they added so many lovely and subtle heathers and tweeds that I couldn’t resist.  As so many of you know, Encore is a perfect yarn for afghans and sweaters that need to be tough and easy-care.

Now is the time to choose your project – our stock is at its max.  And if you’re looking for a little more luxury, we also have full shelves of Baby Alpaca Grande – still the softest yarn ever, in ever more lovely colors and hand-dyes.

Okay, enough!  You know I could talk about yarn for the rest of the day, but really, I must get some knitting done today (not the seed stitch vest, but another adorable vest with lots of cables and in Rowan’s Lima – yum, yum, yummy!)  Then I must pick out some sock yarn for my big-footed nephew, whose birthday (Oh, God, he’ll be 40 – that means I must be 60 – eek!) is coming up very soon.

Remember we’ll be closed this coming Sunday for the Labor Day weekend, let’s all hope for reasonable weather – no hurricanes and no 90’s.

Have a great holiday, dear friends!  See you soon.

Trish

Do you ever wish for the luxury of uninterrupted time?  I do, even though I know I’m lucky that the thing I want to do (knitting) is the thing I have to do to make a living, but still, the washer buzzes, the phone rings, the bathroom needs cleaning, the dogs have to go out, it’s time to go to the doctor/vet/grocery store/bank…and I wonder what it would be like to have Help to attend to all that stuff.  I’m listening to “The Help” on my iPod right now – it’s an engrossing story and beautifully read – and wondering what life was like for the upper-middle-class Southern white women of that era (1950’s and 60’s) when the child care, household chores, cooking, and all domestic tasks were taken care of by someone else.  In the book, they go to Junior League meetings, swim at the country club, plan dinner parties and play bridge. I want that life!!  Then I remember just how limited opportunities for women were in those days.  Even though I was a pretty smart kid, everything I read or was told about women in the late 50’s and early 60’s suggested that I had three career options: to become either a secretary, a teacher, or a nurse. I would only work until I got married, then have kids and stay home and be a housewife and mother.  What a career path!  Thank goodness those days are GONE.

Enough of this idle musing – which has been interrupted by the dryer and the phone, by the way. (Where the heck is my ivory tower anyway?) Here’s a look at our Adult Surprise Jacket Knitalong wrapup.  We had an adorable and delicious cake – made by The Well-Dressed Cake on Penn Ave:

and here most of us are, finished, or nearly so, with our jackets:

Everyone’s jacket is unique and all are really beautiful.  I think everyone enjoyed the process of bringing Elizabeth Zimmerman’s design to life and figuring out how and why it works.  I just loved seeing everyone’s yarn choices and how they all used color so differently.

Janice Bieber came in with another beautifully worked sweater, this time in crochet.  She always is perfectly accessorized, too!

Two beautiful projects from Katie Perkins, a drape-y shawl/scarf in Hempathy – you should feel it, it’s lovely…

and a gorgeous afghan, and I’m sorry I couldn’t get the color right – it’s in a beautiful array of autumn colors of Encore, not the crayon colors that appear  here:

Deb Hawk looks fabu, as usual, in a chic tank she made from Berroco’s Bonsai:

We’re adding a couple of crochet classes to the list we published last week.  We’re going to have a Learn to Crochet session on October 9 and then a 2-session class to make this really cute hat in November:

I love it, and Lynne says it easy – although she always says everything is easy.  I want this hat for myself, only in blue to go with this little jacket I made for myself for walking the doglets and running around in cold weather.

It’s a Knitting Pure & Simple top down pattern written for 2.5 st per inch.  I squashed super-bulky Freedom Wool with a strand of worsted-weight mohair to give a really dense fabric so it would be warm.  I think I can testify that it will be, since I knit it in the midst of the last (I hope) heat wave of the summer.

This might be the end of my blue phase.  I’m really wanting to knit everything in deep forest green right now.  We’ve gotten beautiful shades of it in Country 8-ply and Kumara and a couple other yarns – it’s calling to me!

Trish

I don’t understand why everything has to be done so quickly these days, but it seems like I always have to be somewhere besides where I am!  But I do want to get back into my routine with the blog, now that summer is almost over and the yarn of the week sales are done for a while.  I have some catching up to do with photos, too, so I’m going to show you some really cool projects below.

We’ll have our class schedule up by the weekend and ready to take signups, so check it out when you get our email notice.  I’m really pleased with the schedule – there is so much variety, I think anyone could find something of interest.

Now, to the projects!

Carol Whitcraft has been knitting for her first great-grand, and as she says, she’s done more than 3 babies could use.  This is such a cute set:

I hope I get to see the baby in this!

Sheila Yarus has been knitting all summer, too.  Here are two of her finished pieces:

A pretty shrug in Royal Bamboo, and

a Featherweight Cardigan in Hempathy.  Beautifully done, of course!

Janice Beiler also knit this pretty cardigan from two colors of Hempathy:

Here is the detail of the neckline – such a beautiful touch:

Patty Golembiewski took a couple classes this summer, and this is her felted tote:

It turned out beautifully and I love the little details she added.

I hope to have Adult Surprise pictures for you next week, this is the last session of our Knitalong.  Next time we may do this:

which is Nimbus from Berroco.  The design is simple-looking but I made many changes to eliminate a whole lot of sewing at the end.

And doesn’t Geordie look sweet?  He’s sleeping innocently right now, unaware that we’re about to rush off the groomer!

See you soon…

Trish

…although you can’t prove it by this weather.  I’m ready for a little bit of crisp air instead of soggy unbreathable steam.  I know for sure I’ll never move to Florida! Meanwhile, the yarns that are arriving at the store are so inspirational and there are so many sweater designs that I want to knit, but I can’t seem to settle in to fall knitting.  I’m doing it, of course (that’s my job, lucky me!) but it seems a little surreal to be knitting these gorgeous fall colors and fibers when it’s 95 degrees out every single day.  I don’t even want to show you stuff I’m working on because it will make you all sweaty.

David Ritz seems to have no trouble staying motivated.  What do you think of his gorgeous sweaters?  And he’s about to embark on another really beautiful one from fall’s Interweave Knits.  And Joy’s socks are gorgeous, that blue!  Lovely – you know I’m into blue big time this season.  I’m deliberately not knitting anything blue right now, but it’s hard because that’s what my eye goes to.  Tahki’s Dove just came in and there is a lovely blue in it that I heart – but I must resist!  Maybe.  Or maybe just a great pair of blue socks – hmmm, Joy, you’ve given me an idea.

Our Adult Surprise Jacket Knitalong is almost done and I hope to have photos of finished jackets for you in two weeks.  Everyone has done so well and the jackets that have been finished are just beautiful.

The teachers are getting together this week to talk about fall classes, and I hope to have the new schedule ready for publication in 2 weeks or so.

As soon as all this is done, we’ll be talking about fall yarns and designs – it’s going to be a great season, and I’ll be back to posting regularly once the Yarn of the Week sales are done – next week will be the last for a while.  I hope you’ve been able to take advantage of them.

We’re redoing the store to get fall yarns out of the stockroom – excuse the chaos.  It feels like last week that I was talking about bringing out our new summer yarns!  Time marches on, and fall will be here soon – can’t be too soon for me!

See you soon,

Trish

keyhole sweater

Originally uploaded by yarngal628

hi trish.
yesterday i finished another keyhole sweater. this one was made with elsebeth lavold baby llama..
cant wait to start my sweater when i get back from calif..
cya soon
Dave