Yarn Gallery Blog

Sorry I missed posting last week, but I was too busy celebrating getting the class schedule done.  Just couldn’t face one more second on the computer, but that means that I have a bunch of terrific photos to show you this week.    First, though, let me say that we’ll be closed Monday through Friday the week of Christmas and the week of New Year, but open both weekends during regular hours. That means there’s just this week to shop before Christmas if you need a project to keep you busy over the holidays (I hear you laughing hollowly, but it’s possible to have a little time for knitting!) or if you want a gift certificate or whatever.

I love this picture:

Slipper for BigFoot

Amy Wall has made a bunch of these felted clog slippers for her family for Christmas.  She kept coming in for more yarn, more yarn.  I couldn’t figure out where all the yarn was going, then she brought this one in to show me.  Look at the size of this unfelted slipper!  She’s wrapping them unfelted and then having a shrinking party to size them to everyone’s foot.  Sounds like a riot, doesn’t it?

Nancy Rambo made this pretty baby blanket:

Nancy's Baby Blanket

I think it’s in Encore Boucle, not sure, but aren’t the colors great and won’t that baby be happy all wrapped up in it?

Karen Walter made this lunch bag for her daughter Alex.  It’s so darn pretty and I don’t remember where she got the pattern, so if you want it, you’ll have to track her down at the shop.  Alex will always know which lunch bag is hers, right?

Alex's Lunch Bag

Suzy Crump made this present for a new baby girl from two colors of Baby Bunny, a cotton and angora blend.  It’s just so sweet with all the little flowers!

Suzy's Baby Gift

Katie Perkins brought in this pretty entrelac scarf in Silk Garden, to get yarn to make fingerless mitts to match.  Entrelac does wonderful things with self-striping yarn.

Katie's Entrelac Scarf

And Billie Beadle made this wonderful coat-jacket from a Mari pattern and Cascade’s Eco wool.  The fit is perfect; she did a terrific job!

Billie's Coat-jacket

I get some of my best ideas from my customers.  I knew that when I had time I wanted to make this top-down sweater from Classic Elite

but not from La Gran, which just looks ratty when it’s knit at this large gauge.  I wanted to make it with Como from Debbie Bliss (wool/cashmere blend, very warm and soft and made to be knit at this gauge) but I was afraid the cowl would be too heavy.  Along came Pam Ellenberger who immediately saw that the cowl could be made from a lighter yarn and in a coordinating color and would make the sweater really unique.  I of course immediately stole her idea and this is the result:

Como/Cayenne sweater

The cowl and cuffs are done in Katia’s Cayenne, and the body is in Como.  I love how it turned out and finally the weather is right to wear it.

And Jennifer Gensemer, who is always right on top of the latest trends, brought in a cowl she had found at Talbot’s and wanted to duplicate it.  It’s great because it will sit around your neck beautifully or pull up over your head when it’s just beastly cold.  So we copied it – she’s trying it in Reynold’s Blizzard, an alpaca/acrylic blend, and I made this one from Gedifra’s Highland Alpaca, an alpaca/wool blend.  I wrote a pattern for it, simple as can be.  You can still make a couple in time for Christmas!

Garter-Stitch Cowl

And finally, I predict that many of you are going to make this next sweater.  It’s from imagineKnit’s pattern “Lucia” and I made this one, modeled so prettily by Diane Huddleston, from only 4 balls of Tahki’s Dove.  I made a couple of adjustments, of course, and am writing them up (soon!) but the sweater is easy, pretty, and thrifty!

Diane in "Lucia"

Enough!  The dogs want a walk and so do I.

See you soon…

Trish

icelandic sweater, originally uploaded by yarngal628.

hi trish
i finished my fair isle sweater i wanted to make for a while now for myself…this is probably my fav. technique.. im going to start another one in the brown and tan yarn i got form u a few weeks ago…but got to make 2 more xmas gifts first…
hope to cya soon.
Dave

Well, here it is – December. The year is almost over and (again) I can hardly believe it.  I think I say that all the time now and after a while, you’d think I’d just accept that time flies and get over the astonishment, but somehow I can’t.  A year seems like such a long time when you’re looking at it from the beginning, but at the end, it’s like – where the heck did it go?  Okay, enough with stating the obvious!

Still, it’s so busy right now!  We’re getting classes sorted out and I’m really striving to get them posted within the next 7 days.  It’s nuts, though, even when all the instructors are scheduled and so on, the web page has to be set up with descriptions and photos (which somehow become elusive as soon as I need them) and signup sheets have to be typed and printed, homework and materials sorted out and listed and ordered, handouts typed and printed, email set up and sent…so I’m working on all that, seeing vendors for spring yarns on my”days off” and trying to get Christmas presents made (or bought) and sent, and trying to keep up with all the regular paperwork because tax season is just around the corner and I don’t want to fall behind now.  Plus my computer needs to be cleaned out and updated – it’s slow and one of these days it’s going to explode from all the old photos that I can’t seem to get rid of – I just love looking at the things you guys have made over the years!  I wish I could do a screensaver with all your projects scrolling past all the time.

Okay, no more whining!  If you’ve tried to leave a message in the past few days or called to find out if we’re open, I’m sorry!  I switched phone companies and of course, Verizon showed up with no appointment last week just as I was trying to leave town, and I had no way to set up voicemail.  I’ll do that today – it’s on my list!

I have wonderful projects to show you, so why don’t I just hush up and do it?

Here are a few projects from recent classes:

Lynda Slovitsky made these crocheted mitts from Lynne Nagle’s class – a pair for her granddaughter and half a pair (she was using up stash and ran out so had to come in for more yarn – isn’t that always the way?) for an adult:

Lynda's Crocheted Mitts

and April Jones, a very new knitter, made these from Karen Walter’s Twisted Stitch mitts class:

April's mitts

And I can’t remember if it was April or her friend Karen Drawbaugh who made these gorgeous scarves from our Braided Cable pattern.  They were both working on this pattern.  I apologize!

Braided Cable Scarves

If you’re still looking for quick gifts, this beautiful neckwarmer in Misti Alpaca’s Handpaint Chunky is it.  It took Janet less than 3 hours to make it, and the pattern is free with purchase of a skein of Misti:

Alpaca Neckwarmer

The pewter shawl pin is from Annie Adams.  We have several styles of shawl closures. They make unique gifts that you won’t find anywhere else.

Here is our amazing David Ritz in his gansey, beautifully made and finished in record time.  Don’t miss the felted market bag and the Christmas stocking below this post – he whipped those up in less than a week.  He’s got to have a couple of extra hands concealed somewhere, I can’t believe what he gets accomplished!

David's Gansey

Nancy Rambo looked so chic in her Edie’s Wrap the other day, I just had to get a picture:

Nancy in her Edie's Wrap

Chris Orban finished her first sweater, a beautiful piece in Berroco’s Blackstone Tweed.  I love the back detail on this cardigan. We’re going to miss her when she goes off to grad school at Pitt, but we’re so happy she got accepted into their Library Science program and we’ll look forward to seeing her on breaks:

Chris's Blackstone Cardy

Carol Sullivan finished her Cuzco wrap recently and it looks just great on her. Here she is looking at one of Donna Guthrie’s many projects.  The color suits her to a T, yes?

Carol's Cuzco

And lastly, Carol Whitcraft (are all Carols amazing knitters?) finished this wonderful wrap in Montana from Tahki, then gave it to her daughter Nadine, who looks wonderful in it.  I imagine she gets questions (where did you get that?!!) everywhere she wears this piece – I was speechless when she walked in to the shop, it looked so good on her!

Nadine in Montana Wrap

I want one!

Okay I think that’s it for this week, I’m 30 minutes past schedule for this morning already but I did want to catch up with you all.  Stay tuned for classes – you’ll be hearing from me soon!

Trish