OCTOBER - 2007

October 31, 2007

I have good news and bad news.  The good news is that we're diligently working out a new class schedule.  The bad news is that I don't have time to post this week because I'm working on the new schedule.  More good news:  Janelle is working on a new format for this blog and a place where you all can post your own pictures of finished projects, etc.  More bad news - she needs my input and I don't have time to think about it this week. 

Anyway, good things are coming, and we'll blast out an e-mail when they're ready for prime time.  Meanwhile, here are some great projects for you to check out:

Barbara Balatgek made this gorgeous sweater jacket from Montera for her daughter.  Excuse the picture, it doesn't do it justice at all.  The cabled ribbing at the bottom and shoulders is really exquisite.

Sandy Albert looks great in her Oregon Vest made from Soho Bulky Tweed.  Great job on the zipper, too!

Kathy Leh made a sweet little baby shrug and put a funky button on it just for fun.  The yarn is Waterlily, beautiful and yummy soft:

And Lynn Nagle crocheted this beautiful shawl.  You can't feel the softness, but you can see the drape and how wonderful the colors are - it's all so perfect for this time of year:

Thank goodness some people are finishing their projects!  Me? I don't want to talk about it!  See you at the shop...

Trish

October 23, 2007

Wow, I've seen some really great projects this week - lots of pictures to show you.  Also, there was one that didn't turn out as expected and I want to talk about that, too.

First, though, Janelle at Design Revolution has put up a new type of calendar, so click on the link above and tell me what you think.  There's not a lot on there, I know, but click on the items that are and you can see more detail.  We'll be working on new classes soon and I asked Janelle for something easier to update than a listing of events.  I love it! She's also working on a different e-mail program, because I think I lose some e-mails that I want, while definitely getting all the Viagra/Rolex/loan offers I can possibly handle.

Karen Wenrich just finished a new sweater model for the shop in La Gran mohair.  It's a simple design with almost no finishing required, very wearable and cozy.  We're calling it Misty Mohair Pullover, ( Mo for short). She picked these murky purples, like heather on a Scottish moor, and they look wonderful.  We have a lot of color combinations to choose from, and the pattern is free when you purchase the yarn. La Gran is a very soft mohair with as little shedding as I've ever seen from a brushed yarn.

Okay, now to customers' projects:

First, Barb Werner brought in hats she made from leftover yarns.  the designs are from Charlene Schurch's Hats On!, a fun book with all sizes, levels, gauges and styles of hats to try.

Amy Mammarella finished a cabled reader's shawl with pockets in Galway Chunky.  It's very, very pretty and well-executed.  And she was wearing the coolest T-shirt.  In case you can't see, the yarn-ball skull is saying "Yar-r-rn!"  Love it!

Trish Nierle finished a Baby Surprise jacket, which is too big for the baby but fits her older sister very well.  The colors are perfect for this beautiful little girl, aren't they?

And speaking of beautiful little girls, here is Lily modeling (quite professionally, I might add) a jazzy poncho that mom Amy made for her.

Love the colors with her strawberry blond hair!

Myrna Fuchs finished an argyle vest - quite a challenge, but worth it now that it's over. (Sort of like delivering a baby?)

  And Sarah Rothermel finished this beautiful top-down hoodie in Noro Kocheron for her daughter-in-law:

: And she's working on another for her daughter.

So many wonderful things!  It's definitely that time of year when people are finishing things up and dying to start something new.  Even my sister Janet, who is a very on-off crocheter has the urge to start a throw.  I just sent her a few yarns to try.  She needs something warm but not heavy or hairy in a burnt tangerine - if I had known last week that the urge to create was going to strike, I would have taken samples of the colors in her living room!

Oh, let's not forget the project that didn't turn out as planned.  One of our knitters came in with a lovely black shrug she made for her daughter from Royal Bamboo, which had seemed to grow once it came off the needles. She had washed it hoping it could be brought back to size.  Unfortunately, that just made it worse.  Our knitter didn't do anything wrong, but there are things she could have done to protect her project.  Once you have knit with a soft and slippery yarn like Royal Bamboo, you know it's a far different experience from working with wool and other animal fibers. Since we all love softness, and because the world may be getting warmer, we should learn to deal with these non-wool fibers.

What can you do to protect yourself from a stretched-out garment? 

1) Use a yarn that is appropriate for the gauge you want to achieve.  If you use a worsted weight yarn to make a heavy-worsted garment, it will be loose and saggy from the start. 

2) Do some homework.  Knit a sizable swatch - a couple inches on 10 stitches will not do.  Make a 6" x 6" or 8" x 8" swatch, using the needles you want to use on the finished project.  Be sure you're getting the proper gauge - don't fudge it just because you want to start your project.  Measure stitch and row gauge carefully.

3) Once you're using the correct needle size, wash and dry your swatch the way you intend to wash your garment and check your gauges again.  If they've changed significantly, you may have to go back and swatch with a different needle size.

4) If the gauge is still true, you can move on to the next step, which is to hang the swatch up with a little weight on the bottom of it (a few clothespins or a lightweight snack clip will do the trick).  Leave it for a day to see how it reacts to gravity, then measure your gauges again.  Has it significantly grown in length? You may want to adjust the pattern's body and sleeve lengths to accommodate some growth.

A lot of trouble, you may say.  Well, you should know that the experts think this whole process should be done at the beginning of ANY new project, including wool! We all know wool is more forgiving than any other fiber because it retains its shape, it's blockable, it's shrinkable, it's stretchable.  It's my absolute favorite fiber to knit with and to wear, but variety is the spice of life and of knitting, so we adapt and we learn, yes? By the way, if you are one of those rare folks who really can't wear wool, you want to get Amy Singer's book No Sheep for You, which discusses characteristics of non-wool fibers in detail.

Have fun, and I'll see you soon...

Trish

October 16, 2007

Look what I found over the weekend!

His name is Jackson and he's a little ball of fire. I adopted him from Oldie But Goodies Cocker Rescue in Northern Virginia.   I didn't realize how set in our ways Geordie and I had become until we introduced this little guy into our household.  We think he's about 1 - 2 years old, is still in the chewing phase and seems to have an affinity for yarn.  Last night I was catching up on e-mails when this little streak runs through the room trailing something yellow, which happened to be my lace shawl.  An hour later I had the yarn straightened out again - luckily no damage to the shawl part of the assemblage.  In fact, it has actually grown since last week:

I'm about ready to start the edging, which is the part I'm a little nervous about, because I'm not sure it will flow very well.  But that's okay.  This is a trial and I still have time to figure it all out.

I wasn't at the store much this past week, so I don't have a lot of projects to show you.  I did, however, get a shot of these very cool Christmas stockings Melissa Korth did for her daughter and significant other.  They're beautifully knit, and embellished with cute buttons and pins that Melissa found, and were personalized at Initials Only in West Lawn:

                                                   It's never too early to start on those presents!

Cannot wait to get to the store today.  I feel like I've been away for a month and can't wait to say hello to all the yarn and see what's new.  Hope you feel the same way!

See you soon...

Trish

October 9. 2007

Well, did you miss me last week?  I'm sorry I didn't get to post, but starting a new schedule and keeping up with paperwork just didn't allow enough time.  You got our e-mail about the new hours, right?  If not, check them out on this page.   I'm really happy about it; this is the first time we've been able to increase our store hours for years.

New yarn has been piling in almost every day.  Jim, our UPS guy, tumbles box after yummy box of yarn out of the truck every morning, while Geordie whines and wiggles, waiting for the treats Jim brings him.  The last two weeks brought shipments from Plymouth, with new Galway, Suri Merino, and Alpaca Bouclé; new colors of sock yarn in Colinette's Jitterbug, Jawoll, and ToFutsies; new colors of Blizzard and Rapture from Reynolds...Oh, if I looked through the invoices, I could name many more enticing yarns, but if you don't mind, I prefer to be in denial about invoices for just a little while!

Here are some projects I wanted to show you: 

The first is a cardigan in fingering-weight cotton, knit by Rochelle Mann for her daughter.  Rochelle always does amazing work, designing her own sweaters and enjoying the whole math-y part of design.

Here are two Fair-Isle cowls from the class that just ended.  Dave Ritz and Chris Dreazen used different motifs and color combinations and you can see how different they came out. Bravo and brava!

This is a project I really love.  First of all, it fits me perfectly and feels fabulous, and second of all, it's beautiful, and third of all, I didn't knit it.  This top-down wrap sweater was knit by Deb Cech for a class she's going to teach when she gets over being sick of the sight of it.  (Don't you feel that way when you've been working on a big project?) When you see her, be sure to ask for the class, because believe me, you want this sweater!!

I'm still working on my Whiskey sweater and wishing I was a whiskey-drinker to see if that would motivate me to move along a little more quickly on it.  (Maybe the cooler weather that's coming will help?)  Still poodling away on my mini-Wrap-Me-Up for the knitalong.  Finished a cute jacket in Alpaca Bouclé that simply will not be photographed - it refuses to look like anything but a big gray pile of fleece in pictures.  And started 2 things, a very cool crocheted afghan in 6 colors of Boku (Plymouth's self-striping wool) - it's one big granny square on size M hook - you just tear along! - and this lovely little bit of lace:

I started this yesterday with Handmaiden's "Mini-Maiden" hand-dyed silk and wool.  I'm using a design from Evelyn Clark's new book called "Knitting Lace Triangles," which is available at the shop.  Evelyn Clark did all those great triangular shawls for Fiber Trends - Leaf Lace, Flower Basket, Angel Lace, etc.  The book gives a general outline of how to start and build a triangular shawl, and then gives ways to combine 4 different motifs as you go.  I started with Leaf lace, and then transitioned to a combination of Leaf and Flower, and will next go completely to Flower.  I'm making up my own edging, because this is a practice piece for my Georgette shawl that I want to design this winter.  While Ms. Clark's designs are wonderful and not hard to knit, I'm really trying hard to think about everything as I knit and learn something about lace design.  The combination of this really, really wonderful yarn - smooth, gleaming, rich, and so easy to work with - and the easy lace charts (she also gives written directions for you chart avoiders) and the Addi Lace needles make this a dream project.

New doggie update:  No news yet - again, no time!  Maybe this weekend? 

Oh, yippee - it's raining!

See you soon -

Trish

September 25, 2007

Well, last week was fun!  We got new shipments of Claudia Handpaints and Della Q bags, and we're still ga-ga over them.

Claudia does really lovely colorways, and this year I bought her new semi-solids. (Everyone seems to have them this year and I just love them!).  Becky found space for them on the shelf right away and just look at how beautiful they all are, interspersed with a little mohair.

I have to warn you - a couple of the colors shown here are already gone, so if you see something that calls to you, don't let it get away. I'm looking for the perfect color for a wonderful jacket with ruffles in the back.  Don't ask me why, I'm not a ruffle kind of gal but I have to make this jacket, and the color is in here somewhere.

We also got Claudia's Silk Lace, all smooth vibrant shimmer, and irresistible for a special lace project.

(I believe this is known as yarn porn on the net.)

The bags from Della Q are really great this year.  We received totes in her classic striped fabrics, and totes and leather-trimmed bags in her new tweeds, with Ques (her circular needle cases) and Lilys (her combo needle cases) to match. 

The new bag style...             

and a look inside the Que, with these clever pockets labeled with needle size, and a zippered pocket, too.

Geordie prefers the traditional tote style, obviously:

I've found another project for "Whiskey," Reynold's classic Shetland-y wool that didn't work out for my Fair-Isle wrap - it's from the same Jamieson collection, but is worked in various textures using just four colors.  I changed the pattern to work in the round and will pick up for the sleeves instead of working them separately.  I'm having a lovely time with it, and working on my mini-version of the Wrap-Me-Up shawl at the same time.

This is what the sweater will eventually be:

and this is what it looks like now: (Not particularly impressive, I know, but the colors are really quite pretty.)

 The knitalong piece I'm doing looks like this so far:    

I'm doing it in reversed colorways in fingering weight, so the semi-solid (Ranco from Araucania) is the main color, and the contrast is Koigu, very wild and crazy for a whole shawl, but on size 3 needles, it will be an amazing scarf. Everyone else is ahead of me, I think, and maybe tomorrow night I'll take pictures of all the beautiful WIPs.

Here is a really successful project by Jamie Slegal, who used a pattern from Berroco, then changed the gauge and other things to use Southwest Trading's Bamboo yarn and then modified it some more to fit her.  You can see how well it all worked.  Jamie looks like a model anyway and could make anything look good, but this top is perfect for her.

I'm in discussions with Cocker Spaniel Rescue in Virginia for a sibling for Geordie, and if all works out, I may be at an adoption show in the DC area this weekend. I'll be staying in Baltimore with my sister Janet, and this will also be a trial run for Thanksgiving, to see if Geordie gets along with Zack and Maddy, Janet's two golden retrievers.  Should be a very doggy weekend! Dogs, knitting, sisters - what could be better? If all does not work out, I'll be at the shop.  One dog, knitting, yarn and you - still pretty darn good.  Who is as lucky as I am?

See you soon...

Trish