Lots of photos to show you:

Aggie Wallace was visiting from Nashville and wore this scarf she made from the free pattern on our website.  Doesn’t she look great?

Suzanne Wetmore also modeled a scarf she made in Bubbles from one of our free patterns at the shop, in a wonderful pink/coral:

Janet’s Cabled Mitten Class wound up last week and showed off their finished (for the most part) mittens. Well done, all of you!

Rochelle Mann made this cute baby set from Dreambaby and (of course) her own adaptation of a classic pattern:

Donna Lengel bought this beautiful Noro yarn a few years ago and made most of a cardigan with it.  By the time she wanted to finish it, the yarn was discontinued and no longer available and there just wasn’t enough to finish the sleeves, so she flexed and made this great sleeveless jacket, which is very much in fashion and looks just great on her:

I showed you Janice Bieber in her Manos “Mirkwood” a few weeks ago. Then she had the inspiration to make these chunky gauntlets to go with it.  She chose a bright color of Haciendo, then embroidered the mitts with leftover Manos.  Just stunning!

Virginia Diehl brought in this wonderful Lily of the Valley shawl to show us, made from Silky Alpaca Lace, and bought yarn to make another:

Aaaaagh, all those nupps. Beautiful job!

Deb Schlarb does some wonderfully funky knitting.  Here is her son Jonnathan wearing his latest fish hat, and then one she made for his school bus driver:

And these socks, made from leftovers, are from The Knitter’s Book of Socks:

Next project?  The craziest tea cozy you ever saw – I can’t wait to see it.

And Stephanie Fishkin makes the most beautiful afghans and baby blankets for her family and friends.  The latest one is from Noro Kocheron.  She has them monogrammed at Initials Only, now conveniently located right down the avenue from us!

Some of you have asked how my sister’s puppy Gracie is doing, so Janet sent this latest picture.  She says it’s her Winston Churchill look, but I personally think she’s channeling W.C. Fields:

Puppies – they grow up so fast!

See you soon, unless you spent all your money at the sale!  If so, knit up something fabu and come show us!

Trish

Hi Trish
This is the first of 2 dahlia sweaters made from fresco. Got to wait to block 2 nd one when first one is dry. I started the first and my sis wanted one too!!
Cya soon
Dave

This sweater, made from this ice blue color of Paloma, is one I’ve wanted to make all year.  May we say that the finished version is heavily adapted from the pattern, to be kind?  Simple things, such as length and neckline, and complicated things, such as sleeve caps, all had to be “adjusted” (i.e. fixed) to make things work. I’m tossing the pattern because I would have to re-write it to be able to sell it with a good conscience.  But now that it’s done, after being ripped out several times, I’m happy with it:

And I’m working on a Four Seasons afghan in beautiful dark jewel tones of Manos Clasica.  So satisfying to knit, and the stitch patterns are simple.  It’s good TV knitting, done in strips, then sewn together, although I think I’ll pick up along the edges (simple because all the blocks are edged with garter) and use 3 needle bindoff to connect the strips.  I took advantage of our snow day last Saturday to make some progress:

I’m whittling away at the projects I couldn’t resist bringing home over the last few months, even though I knew I couldn’t work on them right away because I had a lot of store models to knit.

Now, here’s what everyone else has been doing:

Sandy Albert finished her Mondo Cable sweater, done in Rittenhouse 5-Ply Merino.  Perfect fit and color – great job!

Donna Hain is on a roll, with another beautiful wrap made from a mixture of yarns, and set off with the perfect shawl pin:

and a sweet little cabled cowl in Chunky Mochi that she finished in a flash.  She bought the yarn one day and came back for buttons in a couple of minutes, or that’s the way it seemed to me!

Karen Walter is modeling a new shawl she made for the store from Filisilk, a drapey singles in wool and silk.  I totally forget the name of the shawl – hmmm – it’s free, it starts with an H – oh, well, sorry, you’ll have to come in or call.  I like the simplicity of it, with the traditional edging – very classic.

Anne Nordhoy made this adorable baby set in fingering-weight cotton:

Dreadful photo, I know, but you can see how cute it is.  She also went to Vogue Knitting Live in NYC and took a class from Elise Duvekot on Knitting One Below, then used what she learned to make this beautiful jacket, mixing a tricky hand-dyed yarn with a solid to blend the colors – again, sorry about the picture – we were so busy and the table was a mess!

Donna Guthrie made this adorable bag from the leftovers from her Fair-Isle Yoke sweater.  She, being Donna, also lined it and threaded a cord through the I-cord handle to stabilize it. Wonderful!

She comes from a talented family.  Her cousin Cathy made this lovely afghan for her and her niece did the embroidered flowers:

Sandy Yarnall came in wearing her stunning Crayon Box Jacket – it’s a work of art!

Beautiful jobs, one and all!

That’s it – they boys want their walk.  See you soon…

Trish

Suzy Crump made this little Sonatina dress for her new granddaughter Anje, who is just up on her feet and able to model it:

She’s wearing it with black leggings – very stylish! (I like the sock in the background, too – not handknit I don’t think, but cute!)

That’s all I’ve got this week!  See you soon…

Trish

Lynne just brought in the class model. How cute is this?!!

Class is Sat. March 3, 11:30-2:30.

Last week was a super-busy one, so I didn’t get a lot of pictures.  However, Mary Ann Posey brought in this cute baby sailor sweater that she whipped up in a few days:

It’s done in two colors of Jeannee, with an i-cord border joining the collar to the body.  Here’s a look at the sailor collar from the back:

Pretty cute!  It was a free pattern from Crystal Palace, written orginally for their Bunny Hop yarn.

Ann Thornton has been making more felted pet beds.  Geordie had a hopeful eye on this one:

and it’s big enough for him, but alas, it’s for Ann’s own dog.  She made this smaller version for a friend’s cat to curl up in:

Isn’t it great, with the bows just begging to be toyed with while the cat lounges in luxury?

I got a few things done this week – sort of!

This scarf turned out well, a ripple scarf in another color of Liberty Wool.  (I hope this isn’t a repeat photo.)

Three balls of Liberty Wool and a free pattern – also great in any self-striping yarn.

I did this summer shawl sort of on a whim, from a free Ravelry pattern  called Summer Flies:

It’s a nice sized shawl when done in Ty-Dy cotton and size 9 or 10 needles.  It was fun because the stitch pattern changes every so often.  The pattern is good if you like things spelled out row by row.  I found no errors in it and there were plenty of stitch counts so you can check yourself often. Took 2 balls, but I had to cut down on the bottom edge by about 4 rows – I don’t think it suffered much.

And this is the amber cardigan I wrote about last week, done in O-Wool Balance, an organic cotton & wool blend, the only blend I’ve found of these two fibers that I really like:

It also was fun to do, except for the 3″ ribbed border, but by then you’re on the home stretch and going to get it done no matter what!  However, I didn’t know until I started to block it that I made a mistake in the lace on the left front – damn and blast!  The trap of not thoroughly looking over your work before you start finishing is a beginner’s error – and I fell into it with complete abandon, like a lemming off a cliff! There’s no way to fix it properly without taking it apart and I mean all apart.  That’s not going to happen, so I’m going to make one tiny cut in the row I messed up and see if I can undo it and redo with a sewing needle.

But first I’m going to take a nap – then it’s a deep breath and…SNIP!

See you soon!

Trish

Hi Trish,
I thought I would share some cool and interesting apps .
1. Gaughfy: It helps you calculate your gauge easily also helps you to
adjust your gauge for the pattern you are working with. Calculate your end
goals.

2. Raglanify: This app will guide you through the construction of a top
down raglan pullover. Use the generated pattern as a complete pattern or
modify it by incorporating your own design elements . Included are options
for necklines, waist shaping, sleeve length and length of ribbing

3. Buttonhole wizard: this app let you choose either a horizonal or
vertical band, includes one row, two row, and eyelet buttonholes. I use
this one a lot.

4. And my fav of all!!!!! Knit evenly calculator: it computes how to Inc
or dec Sts evenly across a row for knitting flat or in the rnd.

I believe the apps were no more than .99. Each.

Enjoy! Back to knitting..
Dave

The humans managed to keep the peace between the dogs as they all got acquainted, although there was a lot of growling, most of it coming from one little black dog.  This may look like a cute picture, but believe me, there was constant growling coming out of the one on the couch.

He must have come home with a sore throat!   By Day 3, when we left, there was actual play going on instead of just fending off so all in all, everything went well, and Gracie is a sweet and good little girl:

Okay, just one more, of Gracie and her “big sister” Maddie:

Where was Geordie, you ask?  Asleep and well away from the fray, if he had anything to say about it.  Which he did.

Other than that, I spent my time cleaning, doing laundry, organizing my office at home (lots of sorting and dusting of books, mostly) and that kind of thing, which is actually a pleasant activity when you have time to spend on it.  I also had a jour de beauté, which I swear is a concept I learned from Glamour magazine in my teens (oh yes, it’s been around that long!).  In those days, I read it assiduously, absorbing the fashion do’s and don’ts,(if stockings still had seams, believe me, mine would be straight) the boyfriend tips, the stuff to buy.  There were a lot of rules in those days.  Anyway, a jour de beauté was a day to spend taking care of yourself, including a luxurious bath, hair and skin treatments, manicures and pedicures, etc.  It’s a great excuse to stay in your bathrobe all day, covering various body parts with glop and goo, then washing it off, “sloughing away dried skin along with dirt and toxins.”  Teenagers don’t really need this.  Sixty-one year olds could use it way more than once a year.

And of course, I spent some time knitting! I started this baby sweater at my sister’s (easy to pick up and put down, small enough to hide from puppies – turns out Gracie thinks yarn is pretty cool) and finished it a couple days later.  I used fingering-weight cotton, but the pattern (from Oat Couture) also gives instructions for DK weight yarn:

I also got fascinated with a diagonal slip-stitch rib that I thought would make a great cowl.  It did, then I ripped it out and made it into a loop scarf, so you could wear it at least two ways.  Made one for my niece while I was in Balto, then came home and made one in this gorgeous pink.  Both were in Classic Elite’s really chunky Toboggan, a soft and warm alpaca/wool blend in great colors:

Isn’t the stitch great?  The slipped knit stitches look over-sized and the diagonality (?) (a useful, albeit made up, word) is done by making left twists every other row, moving the elongated stitches one place to the left.  It was fun to do, even though I did it quite a lot!

I also made this little cowl in another color of Liberty Wool.

My goal was to make something in every colorway we have left, but I didn’t get there, being muchly distracted by many other knitting ideas.  I do love the yarn, so I may make the goal eventually. Anyhoo, these two cowls will be free patterns with purchase.

Finally, I finished the fingering-weight sweater I’ve been alternately loving and hating for the last month. Love the pattern, love the yarn, love the sweater.  Not for the faint of heart or the impatient.  Fair warning.

The yarn is Mousse from Grignasco, a nice supply of which should arrive at our door shortly after we re-open. Lovely blend of soy, merino and silk.  The pattern is Mendel by Carol Feller.  I love it for the little ruches at the bottom of one “side seam” (it’s actually completely seamless) and both sleeves.

It’s just so “Trishy” isn’t it?  If I were smart, I’d have checked to see how many little purple pullovers I already have before starting this one.  I guess I really didn’t want to know.  Anyway, moving on, I’m deep into a great amber-colored cardy in O-wool Balance, a really nice washable organic cotton/wool blend that you’re going to love!

I won’t get all wordy about the start of another New Year.  I’ll just say thanks to my wonderful customers and friends and express my hope that the coming year will see less hunger and anger in the world.  Oh, and less of me, too – about 20 pounds worth!

See you soon…

Trish

Sent from my ATT iPhone 4S

Hi Trish
Happy new year to u all!!
I finished 2 sweaters. The green one is a pattern called nakniswemo made with cleckheaton country naturals
The 2 nd one is from a pattern country wool called ribbed raglan
Cya soon
Dave