Yarn Gallery Blog

…(sung to the tune of “On the Road Again.”)

Thank goodness!  I’ve realized just how dependent I am on the internet since I was basically without it for a week – I felt very out of touch.  Sometimes we yearn for that, but not unless it’s our choice, right?  It’s not just that I couldn’t write a post or upload pictures (could, but very slow on the BlackBerry), it’s not just that I couldn’t ramble around Ravelry or download podcasts.  I couldn’t check my bank account at 10 at night, I couldn’t place orders with some suppliers except during business hours, and volunteered for a web-heavy project for our LYS group and had to do it via BlackBerry – very hard on my eyes and thumbs.

Okay -  I’m done complaining.  I want to thank all our Frequent Buyers for a wonderful response to our sale – and let everyone else know that there are still good buys to be had on sale merchandise and as soon as you turn in a new card, you’re assured of an invite to our next sale!  It’s been too long since I had time to think, so I’m not sure what has come in since I last talked about new yarns, but we have a nice selection of summer yarns and great models – including the Sprout Cardigan that David Ritz posted a week ago or so – another great job by David!

We’re hard at work on the summer class schedule – it’s going to be wonderful.  Some of the models for the classes are done, or at least done enough that we could take pictures at our teachers’ meeting.  I’ll  whet your appetite a little next week and hope to have the schedule ready for you in another week or so after that.  I’ll send out emails when it’s up on the site – if you’ve changed your email recently, be sure to update it here.

I’m deep into a wool vest for a rather studly friend, who has a 38″ waist and a 52″ chest.  He also has the nerve to be long-waisted so in addition to remembering to shape the body by incorporating increases into the (thankfully simple) stitch pattern and working 300+ stitches every row, I’m also going to have to lengthen the body quite a bit.  I don’t care, though; after knitting with cottons and summer blends for the last 3 months, it’s just a pleasure to work with a nice plain wool.  No hurt fingers, no sore shoulders – there’s just something wonderful and satisfying about it.

I have a bajillion pictures to show you, so here we go:

Pat Schaeffer finished her second sweater in as many months.  It’s our Misty Mo pullover, but done in yummy pink Alpaca Bouclé and bordered with a pretty multicolored mohair.  It will be wonderful to wear next winter!

Karen Wenrich made this wonderful afghan from a Manos Del Uruguay pattern and various colors of a really yummy superwash merino wool.  I wish you could feel it – even in 90 degree weather, you still want to touch it.

Here’s a detail:

Sheila Yarus and I both made designs from the Noro Flowers collection, and both in the same colorway of Taiyo – I guess we were both just yearning for bright, striking colors after a long winter. Sheila’s jacket is done sideways at the top; she looks just beautiful in it, doesn’t she?

Here’s the one I made: It only took 4 balls, which is still not inexpensive, but do-able.  We have the newest colors in stock as well as favorites from last year.

Look at this cute little creature, knit by Kelly Straub:

And Lynda Slovitsky designed and knit this wonderful sweater, inspired by a photo she loved in a magazine. She used Plymouth’s Royal Llama Silk in a design that incorporated seed stitch and sideways stockinette.  Looks so perfect on her.

Doesn’t Kris Hahn look great in her Curly-Q scarf, knit in a wonderful green shade of Kidsilk Haze from Rowan and edged with Paris Nights from Ironstone?

Sandy Albert finished this wonderful sweater from a Mari pattern in Cascade’s Ecowool.  She added the black accents for collar and cuffs and it sparked up the whole look.

Here is Barb Piazza in her “favorite sweater ever” – what a great look for her in an awesome red:

We started our beginner crochet series this past weekend. The class was full and they all worked hard!  Inspiring them was teacher Lynne Nagle, who has some wonderful projects planned for crocheters this summer, and who wore this beauty to the teacher’s meeting, crocheted in Rowan Summer Tweed:

I should have gotten a closeup of the pretty pin she had on with it – perfect.

Well, I could yak on for a while, but you’ve probably had enough, already, and I’ve got errands to run.  So nice to talk to you again!  See you soon…

Trish

I hope everyone takes a minute to look (way) below and check out David Ritz’s latest creation and Jennifer Gensemer’s lovely gift for her sister.  What challenges we take on, and doesn’t it keep the knitting fun?  David’s Cobblestone pullover is a favorite on Ravelry.  It was designed by Jared Flood, who writes the Brooklyn Tweed blog, one of the best knitting blogs around.  I also heard about the Cobblestone on David Reidy’s podcast, Sticks and String, a weekly audio blog from Australia that is incredibly enjoyable.  I download 3 or 4 episodes at a time since I don’t have time to listen every week, but that’s okay.  When I get to listen to several in one sitting, I feel like I’ve just have a nice catch-up visit with a good friend.

Jennifer’s sweater was in Vogue Knitting last summer – I fell in love immediately and went to it, and had a terrible time with the neckline and shoulder shaping.  Jennifer waited a bit and, as she said in her post, found a lot of help on VK’s site.  We still have a couple issues of the magazine in the shop if she has piqued your interest and if you already have it, here is the link to the errata page where you can download the shaping suggestions.

It’s a brilliant, breezy, cold day out there and the dogs are hankering to be out in it, so let me get on with all these great projects I have to show you.  Unfortunately, my website is being contrary and I’m just sick of the clunky interface, so I’m going to Flickr and post them individually.  Very shortly I’m going to learn how to do this from my BlackBerry so I can update this blog more frequently with photos, and then when I sit down to write, I can just write to you all instead of worrying with downloading, uploading, photoshopping, and all that.  There’s just got to be a simpler way!  (That’s my motto for life in general for the coming year – simplify!)

There’s a correction to the afghan classes listed on the Class page on the website.  If you’re interested, check it out. We’re meeting this week to talk about summer classes – how about a nice complex Aran sweater to knit along with?  Hmmm, what did I just say about simplifying?  I’m sticking to that for summer knitting, but for fall, (which, let’s face it, has to be started in the summer) something complicated seems just right.  We’ll explore the possibilities!

See you soon…

Trish

Even though it’s totally frigid today, I’ve got the spring-cleaning bug.  You all have got the spring-knitting bug, because we’ve been getting a lot of questions about spring yarns.  These two inspirations have combined into my wanting a permanent place for our lighter weight fibers in the shop.  Currently we put all the cottons and blends away for the winter, and then have to root through the piles of bags, interrupting classes and so on, when someone wants to look at “summer” yarns.  So, I’m going to replace the novelties, which are in the upstairs front room, with the cottons.  That part is fairly easy.  Finding a place for novelties won’t be so easy and they won’t be available until we do.  Most of you won’t miss them!  Anyway, that will all be happening this week because most of my spring yarns will be shipping in the next two weeks and, as usual, I have no room for them.  And as usual, I just can’t wait for the new stuff to get here.

Here’s one new model that’s finished.  It’s from the current Debbie Bliss Magazine, and was quite fun to do. You start by making the back and both fronts to the armholes, then cast on for the sleeves, combine everything on one needle and finish in one piece.  I knitted it from Wendy Supreme Luxury Cotton, because I wanted a really bright color. I didn’t change anything except to add a border of single-crochet to the front edges to reduce curl. (With forethought you could just add 2 or 3 extra stitches and work them in garter.)  You can use any DK weight yarn.  I didn’t buy Prima, which is what all these designs in DB#2 are purportedly knitted from.  I didn’t like it, it’s slinky yet hairy and I can’t imagine it being comfortable to wear in any season.  And very few of these designs were originally knitted in it – most were in Cathay which has been discontinued.  In other words, don’t be afraid to substitute yarns!  If you’re not sure, do a swatch or get some advice.

The shop has been full of people working on projects and I have lots of wonderful pictures to show you this week, so let’s get going:

Mary Ann Posey brought in this delight:

It’s a beautiful lace scarf knit from qiviut, a rare and precious fiber from the muskox.  It’s lighter than a feather, softer than cashmere, and warmer than down.  Mary Ann’s daughter bought the yarn in Alaska and knit the scarf as a present for her father.

Margie Leisawitz knit this sweater using intarsia to add color to the cable panel that runs up the front and down the back.  A perfect skating sweater!

Donna Howard is taking the Great American Aran Afghan classes and brought in her partially-done afghan.  It was the first time I’d seen any of the blocks put together and just had to have a photo even though it isn’t finished yet.  She has, I think, 8 more blocks to go; every single one is a work of art.

And she also brought in a version of the Lady Eleanor Entrelac scarf, done in a bright colorway of Ty-Dy Sock: Can’t wait to get in the new colors of it, and the new colors of regular cotton worsted-weight Ty-Dy.  Speaking of which, check out David Ritz’s latest posting below this one – he’s knitting like a fanatic, as usual, and I really like the design, don’t you?  Looks like it would be fun.

It was tough getting a photo of this cute baby sweater that Sandy Albert just finished (her 6th version of this design!)  You can see how crowded the table was that day  – so many people trying to finish up their projects, we had overflow into the back room.  I love it when the shop is buzzing like that!

I finished a baby sweater too. This is from a Cabin Fever design, very clever one-piece construction that just flowed from the needles.  I did it in Hopscotch, a thick and thin superwash wool, soft and practical too. And Susie Crump finished her Sitka sweater and I had to show you how very special it is.  Now, if I had to bet, I would bet that this little grandson of hers is going to have this sweater for the rest of his life.  Where else is he ever going to find something with his name on it, and that displays the tree he was named for? 

And Lynne Nagle and I sat down to talk about crochet classes and she’s got some good ideas about projects for beginning classes.  We don’t have a schedule yet but we’re getting there.  She brought in this beautiful lace collar that she made from Frog Tree alpaca:

Isn’t it gorgeous?  That lace!  But don’t be intimidated – I made this pretty scarf from Ruca (hand-dyed sugar cane fiber!) and it’s soft and silky and I’m extremely proud of it, even though it was a simple 2-row pattern done on a pretty big hook.

Great yarn, a little (very little, in my case) skill and some patience, you got yourself a real purty scarf!

Okay, that’s it for this week.  I’m yearning to re-do my 80-year-old bathroom and went looking at fixtures and so on today.  I’m still in sticker shock and need to go lie down.

See you soon.

Trish

I dedicated an entire day yesterday to getting to know my new BlackBerry.  After a couple of weeks of waiting for Verizon and Verizon Wireless to decide how to handle what I thought was a simple request,(c’mon people, you’re a technology company.  I made two sweaters in the time it took you to switch a phone number!) I finally could upgrade to a smartphone and we can have a little bit of Internet at the shop.  It should help to find stats on yarn, to look at colors available, etc.  More and more, yarn companies are finding it too pricey to make and send color cards, and some very useful cross references are no longer being printed, so we had to do something.  I’m kind of enchanted by the little thing and, if I can do so successfully, I’ll be able to send (unedited- yikes!)) photos right from the store to the blog.  We’ll see how that works out.

Last week was so busy (thank you!) that I only got to take a few pictures.  Two of them are below, and the others I promised not to use because one thing wasn’t finished and the other thing was a gift for someone who keeps up with the blog.

We finally got our Addi Clicks in!  My, my, they’re very nice.  For the price ($150) they should be even nicer, but I must say they’re a joy to use.  We’re keeping the set at the store so you can inspect it in person.  The cords (24″, 32″, 40″) are super-flexible.  The tips look and feel like aerospace-quality.  Joining cord to tip is easy to do, secure and smooth. The shipping is still taking forever because all of these pieces are made individually by hand in Germany – they haven’t set up a full production line yet.  I hope that will come soon, and with it, some enhancements or available accessories, such as US size 5 tips (this size is not widely used in Europe), additional cords and connectors, and a more convenient storage system.

Lynne Nagle was in this weekend with some show and tell, but we were so busy I only got to take one picture and I missed half of the pretty neckpiece she made.  After that I lost track except for a few seconds to talk about crochet classes.  I hope we’ll find time to get together soon to talk about it.  Lynne is an excellent crocheter and I’d love to have crochet classes at the shop again, so I hope we can work that out.  If you are a knitter who turns up his/her nose at crochet, you’re not alone; Elizabeth Zimmerman felt the same way.  I feel very disrespectful to say this, but I heartily disagree.  Crochet is an art unto itself, and done with skill, good quality materials, and an adventurous spirit can produce amazingly beautiful pieces.  And, if you have no interest in crocheting an entire sweater, adding a pretty border or a central motif to a knitted piece can really enhance your garment.  I’m not a good crocheter (like every other skill, it takes practice and I spend all my time knitting, of course) but I often find it useful, and occasionally find it fun as a change from knitting.  I just received a bag of Araucania “Ruca” which is a yarn made completely from sugar cane fiber (I can’t wait to see what they’ll think of next).  It’s very pretty, very slippery, very splitty.  Knitting with it would be a pain, but I’m making a scarf using a simple 2-row crochet stitch and the yarn is very pleasant to work with. The scarf will be lovely and drape-y – and will take me a long time because I’m quite slow, but not in a hurry anyway!

I promised photots of spring projects and just didn’t get to take them.  Janet and I cleaned one morning last week, and we’re slowly spring-i-fying the shop.  Blast this cold weather!  I’m ready for warmth, sunshine, and bare toes.

See you soon…

Trish