Yarn Gallery Blog

Look who came in to brighten up a rainy Sunday afternoon:

David came in to show us this beautiful sweater he just finished.  What a wonderful job he did, all this stitchwork on 00 needles!  He even knit his initials into the lower right (as you’re looking at it) corner.  In addition to the obvious details, there are anchors, trees, and stars going in columns down the sleeves and on the body to the shoulders.  The sweater is classic, knit in Nature Spun sportweight and is light and soft and perfectly blocked.  David also informed me that he is so done with this sweater that he threw away the pattern. You know how fast he knits – this sweater took, I think, about three months even for him -  but it’s completely worth it!

I won’t write much today – we had a meeting to set up our summer classes and I need to spend my computer time today working on the schedule and all the other things that go with it.  I’m really excited about the classes – we’re trying our first mother (or father) – daughter (or son) beginner classes, we’re going to make some really pretty crocheted jewelry, we’re going to do a toe-up sock class (oh, here are mine, by the way, finally done and blending into the carpet they’re blocking on -

and although they look a little strange here, they fit quite well and I learned a new cast-on, a new – for me – heel and a new bind-off.)

Anyway, details to come.

Here’s a cute photo of Janet’s Cuzco class – everyone modeling their successfully completed wraps!

And here is a pretty spring bouquet that Virginia Griffiths brought in to thank us for some help – it was completely unnecessary, but very thoughtful and everyone has enjoyed it immensely!

Happy spring!

Trish

I made at least a thousand decisions this morning.  Plymouth’s sales rep was in with their fall line – yes, it’s not only dryin’ time again, it’s also buyin’ time again.  We piled up all the new yarns and all the old yarns with new colors, as he told me why I should buy them (or shouldn’t – he’s pretty honest but then he’s been in the business for a long time and knows that, over the long run, it doesn’t pay to push a bad choice on customers.)   Then I went through and said no to this, yes to that.  Then all the yeses involved more decisions – colors, quantities, shipment dates. Then we went through all the new patterns.

How fun! you’re thinking.  And  yes, it’s fun and much more fun than buying say, janitorial supplies, but it’s also exhausting.  Seriously, I had to take a nap when I got home, just to clear out my head and settle down.  But they had one particularly nice new yarn and very pretty new colors for their standards (Encore and Galway), a good new sock yarn and some fun things, too.  You’ll be seeing a couple of them soon, then spread out over the summer into early fall.  And I have to do this approximately 10 more times over the next month or so.  I need lots of naps in April and May.

Here is Kris Hahn who looks wonderful in this coral vest, made in cotton Sprout.  This piece is so easy and so versatile, and the color is so flattering, yes?

Rebecca Botvin brought in two neat finished projects the other day.  One was this really cute little sweater for her son Asher – who refuses to wear it, period, for some reason known only to himself…

…and this pretty Shalom Cardigan that she made from Tibet tweed.  The pattern is available on line (Google it) and it’s free, but it’s written for one size only (I think a 32″ bust?), so you have to do some math to adjust it to fit a grown woman.  Rebecca did it to perfection.  The yoke has very pretty detail, doesn’t it?

And here is Jettie Hunt wearing her Puzzle-Me-This Jacket.  She looks wonderful, doesn’t she, and the jacket isn’t bad, either.  I want you all to know that Jettie ripped out a pair of socks she had made for her husband Michael so that she could finish the jacket!  I think it was worth it, don’t you?

Karen Walter made these kuh-razy socks basically just because they had to be made.  She already had the wild yarn and this pattern just seemed to be its soulmate.  Don’t look at them too long or you’ll go blind!  I hope that Karen is going to teach a basic toe-up sock class this summer – we’re working on the schedule this week, I promise.

And here is Barb Werner’s new grand-daughter Tessa, whom I scared with the camera in order to show you the very pretty sweater she’s wearing, of course knit by her grandmother:

And here is Tessa with mom Laura, still wondering why that weird person is pointing that flashy thing at her, but much more composed now that Mom has her:

Sweater and baby both gorgeous!

That’s it for now – still reeling from all the yarn I saw this morning – I’ll see you soon…

Trish

Well, the cat hugs have been delivered and greatly appreciated.  As I told you, I meant to split them between the Humane Society and the Animal Rescue League but they all got unloaded by helpful volunteers at the ARL while I was being distracted by a beautiful parrot and a crazy yellow lab (is there any other kind?) and I wasn’t going to make them put half of them back.  That’s okay – they’ll be useful and that’s all that counts.  I haven’t had much feedback on other projects, so I’ll just keep looking until one strikes me.

So I’m still fooling around with the sweater I re-designed for no particular reason, but I’m on the bottom ribbing and will soon be done.  I’m also knitting a slipcover for a chair (have I admitted to this before?) and will be working on that because it has been ignored for a while.  It’s a little tedious right now because I have a lot of stockinette to do before I get to the next shaping, but it’s interesting figuring out how and where to do the various bindoffs and castons and increases to make it fit.  The arms will be tricky but fun.  This was another project that came to me in the dead of winter and seemed like a great idea.  I’m still interested but wish I had picked something larger than DK weight to do it.

In the meantime, I’m doing little things, like this fun sunhat that I just finished crocheting – Geordie is modeling it for me, rather reluctantly:

It’s made from “Paper,” a yarn from Katia that is 100% cellulose fiber, so it really is paper even though it’s (gently) washable.  The color variation occurred naturally even though it was the same lot  (and then I read the label which tells you that this happens.)  It’s fine, though, and it was fun to do and the yarn is surprisingly easy to work with.  The pattern is a free download from Vogue Knitting‘s website.  You have to register for their emails, then when you’ve reached the free patterns page, scroll to the Vogue Knitting section and find Floppy Brimmed Hat.

Now, here is the tease part of this post.  You’ve been wondering what’s going on with David and why he hasn’t posted for a while.  He’s been working on a truly beautiful fisherman’s sweater on size 00 needles and sends status updates now and then.  He hopes in a couple weeks to be able to model it for us, but for now, I’ll just show a tiny section of it:

And I mean tiny!  This is probably a 1.5″ by 3″ section of the sweater, so you can see how rich in detail it is.  But I don’t want to ruin the impact, so that’s all I’m showing till it’s complete.  See? We all have these wild projects every now and then.

More practical is this pretty top-down tee that Mary Ann Posey finished this week in Haze, a very soft cotton/corn viscose blend.  It has sweet seed stitch borders all around and is light and soft and cool.

Soon we’ll all be looking for something light, soft and cool to wear…at least I hope so, although it’s hard to believe on this chilly foggy morning.

Janet is away this week but she’ll be back for her Knitting in the Round class this Saturday.  There are still spots left so if you want a primer on this subject, give me a call.  I’ll see you soon!

Trish

Thanks to everyone who knitted or crocheted hugs for our Cat Hug Drive! We have over 120 cat hugs to donate, and I’ve decided to split them evenly between the Animal Rescue League and the Humane Society of Berks County, since we have (and are) fans of both.  Penny Pinto won the gift certificate for most hugs – she made 21!  And the name drawn at random was Judy Bohne, who made almost as many.  Congratulations to Penny and Judy, and thanks again to everyone else who donated time and yarn.  A special thanks to Margie Jozwiak’s mom-in-law, who knitted a bunch of cat hugs while recuperating from cataract surgery.

Anyone out there have a proposal for another charity project?  Let me know about it.  There are so many good causes to knit for – my personal bias is to keep it local but I’m open-minded.

Spring fever has struck and I’m busy with cleaning and wanting to plant stuff (really, it’s too early for anything except peas and pansies – so I planted a few pansies just to get it out of my system) and washing sweaters. Yes, sweater-washin’ season seems to come around more often than any other – I’m going to declare it an official season of the year, with special decorations, carols, and food.  We’ll burn candles with the scent of wet wool.  We’ll set up stacks of sweater dryers in our living rooms with lights strewn around the edges and gifts of skeins of superwash yarn underneath. Carols – well, we could sing “It’s Dryin’ Time Again” with a country catch in our voices and a wailing electric guitar in the background, or adapt the old Eagles song “Take It to the Limit” to “Take It to the Cleaners” when we’ve finally had enough.  We’ll put wreathes on the front door decorated with little bottles of Eucalan and tiny sweaters to appease the shrinking gods.  Special food – hmm…I can’t really think of anything appropriate, but the centerpiece on the table has to have some lavender in it, symbolically keeping moths away.

Here is Chris Dreazen looking gorgeous in yet another beautiful sweater.  I don’t know how she does it!  I love how she looks in these colors.

My knitting is going very slowly, but I’m working on an intricate pair of toe-up socks because I’ve never successfully done toe-up and I want to do it so I don’t have to do it any more. It’s not the method so much as the sizing.  I love making socks cuff-down because you can try them on and see where you are.  Placing the heel is no mystery- when the cuff is long enough, you start the heel.  I’m not so sure about toe-up and so I’m working my way through a really pretty pattern from the Joy of Sox book in a really luscious yarn (Regia Silk 4-Ply) to keep myself motivated.  It’s slow-going, though.  I’m also doing a sideways sweater from Knitting in the Sun, which is shown as a cardigan and which I’m adapting into a pullover.  I wonder why I do these things.  I love the design as it is, it’s fun knitting it – some cables, some lace, very pretty – then I get this idea, the pencil and calculator come out and I’m off into Re-design Land, a world that’s very like a board game with lots of spaces that say “Go back 5 rows” and the like.  It’s actually a bunch of fun, but it’s not particularly productive.

Here is Diane Huddleston modeling another sideways top that is a free pattern at the shop.  There’s a simple cable in the front that gives it some shaping, otherwise it’s really easy.

The yarn is Felicia Cotton from Ironstone, which has been discontinued, so when it’s gone, it’s gone.  I haven’t seen anything to replace it yet, although something will come along sometime.

Bernie Ilgen is making this afghan as a wedding gift from Lily Chin’s Reversible-Cable pattern. 

It’s awesomely beautiful!

And finally, Cheryl Condrath, who is a relatively new knitter and took Janet’s beginner cabled scarf class this winter, loved the pattern (Plymouth IN93) so much that she wanted to make a baby blanket from it.  We adapted the pattern to make it wider and changed the gauge to use Encore Worsted and she’s doing a great job!

Isn’t it pretty in the colordrift Encore?  It’s working out so well that we made a free-with-purchase pattern that will be available this week at the shop.

Okay!  I think that’s it – the boys need a walk and I’ve got a billion errands to do, so I’ll see you soon…

Trish