Yeah, Skacel has called and the Addi Turbo Lace Needles are on the way... we should have them in by Thursday or Friday of this week! Very cool! Lace knitters, get your patterns ready! Also on the note of lace, we have received our Possum Lace from Cherry Tree Hill. These yarns are on the website and gorgeously dyed. Each hank is 440 yards in length and we have around 8 of each hank in case you need several for your project. Get some of this exotic fiber soon as once it is gone, it is gone for the year.

Other exciting news is we met with a couple of reps in the past week (Euro Yarns and Westminster Fibers) and the fall line up is fantastic. We are excited about the new Mirasol line which is being distributed by Euro Yarns. This line is a "Fair Trade" line which sets aside a certain percentage of sales revenue directly to Project Mirasol which finances a social project in a certain area of Peru. In particular, they are working on building a new school and financing the education of the children of the Alpaka and goat farmers that reside in that area. This line consists of four different weights of yarns that include blends of cotton/wools, merino wools and one that is 100% baby llama (supersoft) and a collection of patterns that are wonderful. We expect to see this yarn in early September but we will be listing it on our website for early preorder. We will have all of the colors available. Our Westminster Fiber brought us exciting news about a new book being published by Kristin Nicholas (www.kristinknits.com) and we are trying to secure a date with her to do an all day workshop on color use! This is not to be missed; watch our blog for an upcoming date for this! Also, Regia has teamed up with Kaffe Fasset to bring us a new sock yarn that is a combo of Regias wonderful sock yarn and Kaffe's amazing color use! Some of the colors will stripe and other will pattern, but all of the colorways are fantastic. This yarn will be on the website for preorder in July and available for shipment upon arrival (probably September!).

We are also expecting our copies of Charmed Knits (The Harry Potter Knitted Items book) to arrive any day now. The very cool sweater with the big H on the cover is knit using Rowans Felted Tweed which we have in stock.

Oh, and then there is the update on our ribbon shawls... We decided to use the Interweave Knits Diva Shawl pattern (that is actually done using Muench Diva ribbon yarn in the pattern - which is also gorgeous if one wants a shawl done in a single colorway rather than variegated we are getting from the Cherry Tree Hill Ribbon yarn)....This is a picture of the original shawl done in colorway Navy in the Muench Diva Ribbon. Carin has gotten the most done on hers (of course!) Carin is working on Silver Streak for a colorway, Nancy is working on Serengeti and I am working on Northern Lights - Paola came by yesterday for the first time this week (school vacation and her cherubs kept her at home) and chose Tropical Storm for her colorway and Hannah is out today participating in the MS walk - Go Hannah Go - she is working on Foxy Lady but we haven't a picture yet. I must say, the entire staff here is a shop owners dream... they are fun, sweet, helpful, beautiful, talented, and wonderful... did I mention everyone who meets them loves them? Well they do! Thanks Ladies! You're the BEST!

We're Weaving Now Baby or Just Completely Warped

Is it right to have so much fun at the place you work? Last night was the third night of the weaving class and everyone was having a blast.... including Jerry and I... if you have been by the shop, you probably noticed the floor loom that sits in the front window and has become an extra spot to hang hanks of yarn and the bench holds the extra books that aren't fitting in the bookcase - well thats all changed now! Thanks to our wonderful weaving teacher, Carol, we are on the road to a gorgeous new shawl... so the plan is to make a 20" wide shawl - not sure of the length yet, but there is plenty of warp to probably cover two shawls. YEAH!

We warped our yarn last night, a wonderful selection of Rowan Damask and Gedifra Rubens and around 11:00 PM we decided that was it for the night..... it took us a little longer than expected since we missed one heddle when threading and go figure, we missed a middle heddle... so half the threading had to be redone... it helps that both Jerry and I were threading it together. Here's a shot of how far we got... Now the big question is what to weave with... we are tossing up the idea of Katia Caribe in a creamy blend or possibly Gatsby Lux in a black, pink and gold colorway... ahh decisions decisions! Maybe both?

Fun, yarn, weaving and more!

Fashion on the Runway, Fun and the Staff Cave into the Ribbon

What a day it has been! First, our newest arrival is the long awaited Runway Knits (which we didn't expect for another month) arrived today - YEAH! What a gorgeous book full of patterns that are gorgeously designed with cables, lace, long deep bolero sweaters and just wonderful colors and yarns and designs and... well you probably get the point! Tonia Barry (our own Windham Designer) has been asking for this book for months - I don't think she will be disappointed... maybe she will give us a quick review from her professional designer expertise. We feel at the height of fashion and if we were to all make each of the sweaters we would be gorgeous and have to set up a runway in the shop to just be around ourselves..... :)

Oh, and speaking of making things as a group, the entire staff has caved into making ribbon shawls... we can't help ourselves... all other projects have taken a back seat and we have immersed into knitting shawles and rectangular ponchos from the specatular hand-dyed ribbon we received last week. We all chose different colors, most of us choosing glitter sachet with the exception of Hannah who chose the sachet sans glitz. We chose Blueberry Hill, Foxy Lady, Serengeti, Northern Lights and although Java is her favorite, Silver Streak was preferred by Carin this time around (of course she already has a shawl done in Java). Stop by and check our progress - I will post some them as they grow past five inches. These will work up quick on #19 needles.

It is always fun here and I think our Tuesday morning class will attest to this... our five ladies were full of spunk and most of them left today with ribbon for scarves for either themselves for fall or for Christmas gifts! Great thinking! Other good news is Barbara's search is over for the yarn and the pattern to go with the model in the shop - i.e., we received the yarn, Pehuen, and the model, but no pattern came until this week. It has been months waiting for the pattern to arrive, but finally it is here and is in the Araucania by Jane Ellison book (cover sweater too which helped find it quickly as it came out of the box)... Barbara scooped up her yarn this morning during class and we wound a few skeins for her on the skein winder to get her started... Go Barbara Go!

Also, Nichole's (Lap Dog Creations) specially ordered hand signed copy of Special Little Knits arrived and she is thrilled. She has emailed me a list of people who she would like to have us bring in as designers - She's the Best! I love this! I will be spending some time in the morning emailing them and hopefully, a near future blog will have a posting about a confirmation for another designer visiting us.

Cheryl Potters Newest Book, Lizard Ridge, and Carin's Beautiful Shawl!

Today we received our first shipment of Cheryl Potter's newest book, Special Little Knits from just One Skein. It is wonderful - and each copy is handsigned by Cheryl! We have already posted this book on our website and as I write this post and look around the table, everyone on staff at the moment is looking through the book and smiling and pointing out all the wonderful projects! Ah, another wonderful day at the yarn shop!

We have ordered more Noro Kureyon as we have run low from so many people making the Lizard Ridge Afghan from Knitty.com so if you are looking for any skeins of Kureyon we currently have almost all of the colorways in stock and if not in stock, they are on the way!






And for todays project of the moment - a sneak peek at Carin's Beautiful Prism Shawl that she is making from a 2.5# fiber arts bag of mixed luxurious Prism yarns in the colorway Orchard - it is scrumptious! She is working up the yarn in a simple triangle shawl pattern and randomly using the yarns two strands at a time... each time she drops a yarn, she picks up a new strand of another -wonderfully simple, fast and amazingly beautiful! Don't you agree? We will post often to watch her progress - she is a knitting machine so it shouldn't take her long to advance on this wonderful shawl

The Hardest Thing about Working in a Yarn Shop is.....

All the yummy yarn that arrives every day! The hard part is not making a project from every yarn in every color! When the boxes arrive (and we never know when a box is coming or what is in them) - the boxes are quickly opened and all in the shop (staff and customers) start to ohh and ahh over the contents - then we start leafing through the pattern books that arrive, matching up gorgeous yarns with wonderful and flattering patterns and wallah, we are in project heaven. But the hard part now - putting the beautiful yarns and patterns books on their shelves and trying to stay focused on the projects we are each currently working on... there is always tomorrows shipment!



So, with that out, I am completely fogged over by the recent arrival of Cherry Tree Hills Ribbon yarn that was delivered on Thursday - not so much by the amount but by the colors! We worked all of Thursday and most of Friday to display the yarn and to get it up on the website (we take all of our own pictures you know!) The hardest part here is a combination of knowing this is discontinued yarn (four of every colorway arrived but it is already going quick) and what each of us want to make for ourselves! We are fiber addicts at heart and love it all! The skein in the picture was the first out of the box - Cherry Tree Hills Glitter Sachet in colorway Country Garden - Rita, our wonderful new friend and customer of the shop and staff was in to see the unpacking of the ribbon and bought the skein on the spot - she asked us to stop unpacking until she left as she was falling in love with every skein that I unpacked - I can't blame her, we all fell in love too! Oh, we did find out from her wondeful sister, Ellen, from Georgia that she makes fabulous beaded jewelry and she is making some for us! Yeah, Rita!