july - 2007

July 25, 2007

I'm a little late with my update this week, because I went out and had fun yesterday - but you know the big news anyway, which is that the Handmaiden shipment finally came.  I have to rave just a little bit, okay?

First, the Seasilk, which I've been wanting to get to know forever, is very special. 

The colors I chose are summery because this is a cool, smooth, and silky yarn, perfect for a summer shawl or an openwork coverup.  I love the look of a simple cap-sleeved tee over a tank for hot weather.  You look dressed and feel cool.

I couldn't resist starting a scarf with a skein of 4-ply Silk Cashmere.  The colors are surprisingly vibrant, the silk glows and the cashmere makes your skin wish it could purr.  My fingers are very happy working with this yarn, and the scarf, based on Jettie Hunt's neckwarmer, is coming out really neat.  I'm working with the orange and lime.  Amy Mammarella ( a beginner who has surpassed all our expectations and just taken off with this whole knitting thing) bought the red/blue/navy combo for a pair of fingerless mitts.

Mini-Maiden is a silk and wool combination with wonderful yardage and amazing colors.  I chose all semi-solids for this yarn and can't describe the beauty of the colors.  The yarn is soft and lovely, too, but just look at that red - and that purple - and the gold!  Every one is gorgeous.  There are many wonderful shawls waiting to be created.

Last, but my absolute favorite of this batch, is Camelspin.  Baby camel and silk.  The silk is luminous and surrounded by the softest and subtlest haze of baby camel.  If no one else buys any of this yarn, I'll be happy to keep it all, that's how special it is.  (Please note that this does NOT apply to most other yarns in the store!)  You can't imagine how lovely this yarn is:

                                        You simply must touch it.

All right, my rave is done, for now.  I'll keep this short today so that I can get to the shop on time, but also have to be sure you know that we just got in Sockittome from Cherry Tree Hill.  (That's "sock it to me" for those not of the Laugh-In generation.) A huge pile of great one-of-a-kind colors in a fluffy wool and nylon fingering weight, very different from their Supersock.

  I'm itching to start their new sock pattern.  I need more hands!!

Pearl (aka The Pearl Buck Swing Jacket) is finished, and Trish Nierle and her mom Patsy Gibney modeled it for me the other day.  It's knit in Rowan's Felted Tweed which is arriving soon in grotesque quantities (love the yarn).  I love the shape, and the back pleat, and just about everything about the design:

Here's Trish in Pearl

and here's Patsy showing the back pleat. Thanks, guys!  Now get back to work on those cabled sweaters, doggone it.  Due to my poor photography, you aren't seeing the stitch details, so you'll have to come in and inspect it.

And look at this gorgeous shawl that Susan Drake knit.  It's so beautiful, from 2 skeins of Jade Sapphire 2-Ply Cashmere.  She's letting me display it for a while, and you should come in to look at it.  Not only did she do a wonderful job of knitting it (although she knows and obsesses about some truly invisible mistake that only she can see), she also lost her fear of blocking, which has a miraculous effect on lace knitting.

All right, I have to cut this short because I played yesterday.  Karen Wenrich and I went to Kitnit near Lancaster and visited its new owner Betsie Lesher, whom I love, and checked out her remodeling - the store is small but now it doesn't feel that way at all, and saw all her beautiful yarns, and, of course, bought one gorgeous skein of Artyarns' Silk Rhapsody.  I may not get a chance to knit it until I'm old(er) and gray(er), but I love knowing it's in my stash.  Then we had a fabulous lunch at Lily's in Ephrata.  What fun!

See you soon...

Trish

July 17, 2007

Greetings from the land of yarn deprivation.  Oh, I know what you're thinking - "That woman has a store full of yarn and she's complaining?  Give me a break!"  Well, I may be immune to a lot of consumerism but I am a yarn junkie.  I need a thrill, something new, I need a fix, and I'm jonesin' for some Handmaiden Yarn.  It's not here yet.  I whined to the gals at Handmaiden and they assured me it's on the way.  Yeah, that worked, like it works when a mom tells a 4-year-old that Santa will be here soon.  NO!  I want my Barbie doll now and if I don't get it, I'm going to lay down and have a tantrum right in the middle of the store.

Okay, I'm done for now.  Emily at Handmaiden in Nova Scotia said she really thinks it will be here this week - her e-mail had a patient and soothing tone to it.  Do you think she often gets these whiny questions from impatient Americans? I bet she does, all the time. 

Anyway, I was looking through the fall orders today and in August, it looks like I won't know where to put all the stuff that's coming in.  I go through the orders and dream about the yarn and what we'll all make from it - oh, I've got it bad.   I'll try to keep you up to date as it all arrives, and to do more e-mails than I've been sending to date.

What am I knitting?  I finished Pearl - she's upstairs in the bedroom, all warm and steamy.  (No, Pearl is not a bad girl, she's being blocked.)  (And no, there's no double entendre there so quit looking for one.)  The Wrap-Me-Up shawl is coming along - getting rather large and heavy for this weather.  I just finished a giraffe (also from Knitting at Knoon) - Karen finished an elephant last week - oh, is it cute! - and I had to start another.  There are great instructions for 4 different animals on the pattern, and they're not huge so they don't take a lot of time, and they're not boring! A fun way to use up odds and ends. Here he is -

I know he's a he because he's hogging the remote.

Look what Jettie Hunt made for me.  She's a very talented knitter and very accomplished at sewing also.  She made this cute bag out of an old pair of jeans, then lined it in this elegant toile fabric

- a clever little juxtaposition of funky and elegant, kind of like Jettie herself.   She's got a really cute pattern for an easy neckwarmer that I'm going to knit up in something yummy and if she allows me, the pattern will go up on the website pattern page soon.

Margie Leisawitz just finished this great Oregon Vest.  What a doll!  She's working on inserting the zipper, then it will be ready for fall.  I don't know if she's planning to wear it while she ice-skates, but I think it would be very appropriate.

Becky and I spent a very steamy Wednesday last week cleaning up the kitchen at the store.  Due to a leak in the apartment above, the ceiling fell and a bunch of soaked tiles and filthy water poured into the back room.  It was a mess, but luckily, there's very little yarn back there. We did lose a bunch of needles and supplies but it could have been worse!

Okay, enough - come see me and if you can't come see me, be sure you're enjoying yourself anyway.  Summer is flying by!

Trish

July 10, 2007

Wow, it's hot.  It's July, so this shouldn't be big news, but everyone else is talking about it, so I will too.  Do you still knit when it's hot?  I do, of course, and this is the time of year when I'm knitting fall models for the shop so I'm working with wool.  It's, to say the least, warm work.  However, you can also be practical and knit for cold weather before it gets here by choosing your projects carefully.

One obvious choice is to work on small projects in the summer.  Socks are always a favorite hot-weather project because they're small, portable, and, once you have the pattern in your head, you don't need instructions.  In fact, if the socks are for you, you don't even need a tape measure, just your foot.  You need needles, yarn, maybe a small crochet hook for picking up dropped stitches and a sewing needle for grafting the toe.  4 - 5 ounces max for something absorbing and/or calming to do on the car trip, the plane ride, or at the family reunion with all your strange (and I don't mean unfamiliar) relatives.  Speaking of socks, we just got a big order from Lantern Moon that included their rosewood Sox Stix - smooth, pointy, 5" long needles in a nifty silk drawstring bag.

   We also have new bags ...very cool, and cute, cute, cute new tape measures ...bees and lady bugs.

Back to summer knitting.  Mittens and hats are also obvious choices, and a great way to get a start on holiday presents or to knit for charity.  Baby things are small, and there seems to be a constant demand for them. If you don't know anyone having babies at the moment, there are charities that always need baby things. 

If you only like to knit sweaters, you can still do it. Choose a pattern that is designed in pieces, so that you aren't sitting with an entire sweater on your lap at one time.  Pick lightweight yarns - fingering, sport, DK - instead of heavier gauges.  I'm working on Pearl because at the moment she's in pieces and I'm working on sleeves,

Pearl in pieces

but I've put down a really fun shawl that is worked in blocks that are attached as you knit because it's just too heavy for this weather.

                     "Wrap Me Up" from Knitting at Knoon

When I finish Pearl's sleeves, I won't be sewing her together right away, unless the temp drops.  I'll start a pair of mittens I've had my eye on in the new issue of Knitscene:

These colors for these mittens:

Now, I want to let you know what's going on with Bev Bortner.  I know a lot of you took classes with Bev, and many of you know that she and her husband Andy moved out the far western edge of Pennsylvania this past month.  It was a whirlwind move that left no time for good-bye parties or anything else, but they're settled and just as importantly, her sheep are settled!  Bev got her teeny little flock of 3 sheep mostly by accident.  Sadie, her black sheep, wandered into her yard one day and stayed.  When it became apparent she was permanent, Bev bought Mabel as a companion for her (sheep really hate being alone.)  Then, surprise, surprise, Mabel had a little ram, (and, yes, his fleece was white as snow!)  So here are a couple pictures of the flock in their new home.

If anyone wants to say hi to Bev, her email is bevann716@verizon.net.  Gosh, I miss her but the good news is that she has found a couple yarn stores not too far away - so life is good!

Amy Lipton sent a picture of a yoga mat bag she knit from "Punto" - very stylish!

Now that Lily Grace is growing up, Amy has some time to knit again.

Stay cool, everyone, and see you soon...

Trish

July 4, 2007

Happy Independence Day!  I just love the idea of a day to celebrate independence, don't you?  The country's and our own!  Parades, picnics and fireworks are fun, but I prefer to celebrate the fact that my little "independent" business is thriving - all thanks to you folks, of course - and that I can still tie my own shoes and dig my own garden, etc.  A friend passed away this week, and, though she was elderly and incapacitated these last few years, her independent spirit is something I am also celebrating today.

I'm going to let pictures do my talkin' this week, because I have a lot to show you.  One thing I do want to mention, however, is that the Handmaiden Yarns shipment is now on the way, including Sea Silk and several other beautiful silk blends in wonderful colors.  They should be here in about 5 - 7 business days - I'll definitely let you know when they arrive.

Customers keep coming in with beautiful things, and I cannot resist showing you, so...

Here is Paula in her Einstein Coat, ready for fall.[Photo deleted - Trish]   (I deliberately didn't show you the flip-flops she was wearing when I took the picture!)

And here is Theresa Schmal in the gorgeous cabled sweater she made in our Cabled Sweater class.  It's a really wonderful color for her, isn't it?

Carol Kohler came in with a pretty shawl made from Baby Alpaca Grande.  Carol knits AND crochets. She's bi-craftual!

Barb Piazza finished an adorable tank.  She knit it in stripes, then used duplicate stitch to create the wave effect.  Very cute and clever!

And here is Donna Hain modeling a shrug I recently finished in Manos del Uruguay.  It looks so adorable on her and it was really easy to knit!

Last but not in the least least ... yeah, I think that's right... is Donna Guthrie's gorgeous Swallowtail Shawl in Zephyr in a rich shade of brown.  Donna participated in the lace knit-along and zoomed right through her shawl. She's ready to start a second one for her twin sister!

It's hard to believe, but pretty soon we'll be thinking about fall classes.  What would you like to see on our schedule?  Click on my name below and send me your thoughts.

Have a wonderful holiday!  See you soon...

Trish

June 26, 2007

I think this will be a quick update (you never know once I get going) - I'm going to State College for the day and am not sure whether I'll be back tonight or tomorrow morning.   So, let's get going!

First, we received a skillion bags of Encore this past week, in a pile of wonderful colors.  Why, when I carry a bunch of Encore anyway?  Because Plymouth has just come out with a folder full of patterns for 8-Hour Baby Blankets, and are they fun?  Janet (just back from 2 weeks in Italy, poor lamb!) took 4 balls of Encore home with her Friday night (all the blankets take just 4 balls, on size 13's with double stranding) and came back Saturday morning with half her blankie done.It's so cute!

I just finished mine (in stripes) after 3 days, and Karen is working on one also, so we'll have nice samples to show you. If you need a quick shower gift or want to give something personal, this is just the ticket!

Did you read Knitter's Review this past week?  Clara Parkes did a review of Vermont Organic's "Balance," a nice organic cotton/wool blend.  I think I've already mentioned it but can't remember if I showed a picture of the cute little cardy I did.  Here it is, and Balance is now in stock.  Karen is working on a  traditional Aran sweater in a lovely green shade - it's seriously beautiful.

We also received "Venus" from Trendsetter last week. This is the first novelty yarn I've bought in a long time.  It's not overly crazy, but a nice knittable blend of fibers and textures all in one 200-yd. skein that should be pretty for scarves, shawls, fancy top-down sweaters, Omega wraps and mobiuses (mobii??).  I haven't had a chance to play yet, so here are the colorways, with my tootsies showing at the bottom of the picture:

I have lots more to tell you and maybe I'll do another update later in the week but I must get on the road now, so come see me in the store soon!

Trish