Hello from the exhausted web person.

Yeah, I, Martha, have many hats and web person is just one of many.

The last two weeks I’ve been doing a pretty major upgrade to make the web page just a bit better. So, now you can find information about pretty much every yarn in the shop  AND every spinning fiber (and tools) in the shop!

Now, keeping up with this major undertaking presents a challenge. So, hopefully, between the web page and the blog our current offerings will be kept up-to-date. As well, each page has a listing of when it was last updated.

New stuff comes in on a daily basis (Our poor FedEx guy won’t know what hit him tomorrow when he (hopefully) delivers the Pagewood Farms order!) so keep an eye on the blog, twitter and the web page!

Martha

Carla has a Secret Owl-Mirer who leaves her owl things from time to time. Here’s the free pattern: Owl Dishcloth.

Kelli was looking for a gift to make for someone the other day.  As this person is academically inclined, I suggested the Calla Lily Bag by Cat Bordhi in the The Knitter’s Book of Yarn (scroll down in the newsletter for a review of this book).  Totally a selfish suggestion as I was planning on starting one after Easter (when I’m allowed to cast on again — 2 more weeks!), and it would be wonderful to have a knitting buddy.

Since we have this little in-store knit-along starting up, we thought we’d open it up to you!  Like I said, we’ll be casting on after Easter (yay casting-on, how I’ve missed you so!).  The pattern  looks to be simple in technique but from what I’ve heard on Ravelry is a bit of a mind-bender to work up.

As far as yarn goes, Kelli and I are upsizing ours and using chunky yarn (Cascade Eco Wool & Cascade 128, we think).  If you’re thinking of doing that, I’d also consider the Kaya or the Talinay (both of which are on sale).  Ooh!  The Rowan Colorscape!  Man, wouldn’t that be pretty?  If you want to go with worsted as the pattern suggests, you’ve got the Cascade Wall to choose from as well as the Noro Kureyon or Silk Garden, the Steadfast Fibers Wonderful Wool (Sale!!) or the Kramer Naturally Nazareth (Sale!!).

One caveat that Martha would want me to include:  Not all white wools felt well.  Something about the bleaching process, I think.  Test swatch, test swatch, test swatch.  I believe the one in the picture above uses Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride in Winter White, but if you’re planning on using another brand, (say it with me now) test swatch, test swatch, test swatch.

Ladies & Gentleman, start your needles!

68 pounds of Cascade 220 arrived yesterday. Our big Wall O’ Cascade -  which has every color of the regular 220 plus a lot of the Quatros and Handpaints – is one of our major features, and we love, love, love having this stunning palette of color to work with, but sometimes maintaining this wall is a lot of work!

When a shipment arrives, we open the box and cross-check the packing list against what is actually in the box. Then Melissa or Monica enters the receiving information into the computer and prints out the labels. Next, we unpack all the yarn and label it, making sure the correct sticker goes on each yarn. Then we put each skein on its proper peg on the wall, checking to make sure the dyelots are consistent.

Here’s where you guys definitely win out. When we have inconsistent dyelots, if there are just one or two oddballs, they go into our Orphan Bin for 25% off. Now, Cascade 220 is pretty darn cheap at $6.60, but 25% gives you 220 yards of Peruvian yarny goodness for, what, $4.95? It’s a great way to stock up for hats, mittens, colorwork, charity knitting, or to take the edge off of the “I really need some yarn but I’m broke right now” feeling. Plus, when we order so much Cascade 220, we’re making sure that we generally have enough in stock for you to have a full sweater’s worth of yarn in any color you choose, which is great for that urge you may have to start that cute cardigan you just saw on Ravelry RIGHT NOW.

Check out the orphan bin

This week, the Cascade unpacking is taking a little extra time. Okay, really, it’s probably going to take us a few days. We’re checking to make sure all the colors (and we do mean ALL) are in order and labeled correctly. Then we’re shifting the Wall O’ Cascade down, moving the Quattro and Handpaints to the other end of the wall, and, just in time for Spring and Summer knitting, adding a Wall O’ Tahki Cotton Classic because we’ve just received a ton of new colors to supplement the many colors we carry already. So if you come to the store in the next few days, we’re sorry about the mess! But we hope you’ll enjoy this new, fresh perspective on these fantastic workhorse yarns.

Colleen, Monica, and I have been having a lot of fun with composing themed yarn and fiber baskets. In January, we made a Steeler basket with black and gold yarn. For Valentine’s Day, I gathered up all the pink and red yarn I could find. After that, Colleen filled the basket with beautiful shades of green. And now that it’s finally spring (despite the temperatures, the calendar says it’s spring and I’m clinging to that), we’ve collected some beautiful pastels. We hope that these baskets will inspire you to come up with your own seasonal color combinations and put a smile on your face.

New this week!

• Four new colors of Blue Sky Alpaca Dyed Cotton* for Spring, including, finally (!) a good Steeler-y gold
• Opal’s latest color series, Opal Memory
• Wisdom Poems Sock Yarn – we’re particularly psyched about this one as it’s all the stripey goodness of Noro but in a superwash wool and nylon blend
• The latest Lorna’s Laces Color Commentary Colorway, Clara’s Garden, a pale pink and yellow named for Clara Parkes, author Knitter’s Book of Yarn
• New colors of Sidar Snuggly and a new booklet called “Ooh la la!” to go with it
• We have a new crochet booklet featuring the gorgeous Superior cashmere, plus new Tahki booklets for Tahki Sierra and Tahki Cotton Classic.
• We also received a gorgeous sample from Berroco – Flower Child – from the cover of Norah Gaughan 4 knit in Pure Pima.
• And some of our spinning fiber has gone on sale for 20% off!

How cute is this? Amberlee made this to commemorate Franklin’s visit.

We also want to note that Amberlee and her family made crafting for the Women’s Shelter their family project and donated eight garments!

Yes, we’re entering the 21st century. Please “follow” us and let us know if you’re on Twitter yourself!

Like some of you out there, I’m sure, I was really excited when I saw the blog post that said we got in the Cottage Creations patterns.  I’d been looking to get my hands on a Wonderful Wallaby ever since I’d heard of it.  But when I started going through the Cottage Creations binder, I became confused.  While the Wonderful Wallaby is their best known hoodie, Cottage Creations has produced SEVERAL.  I’m not going to tell you which one is best for you, but here’s some additional info to help you out:

1.     Wonderful Wallaby:  (Ravelry Link) The Classic one that started it all.  Seamless, as all of their hoodies are.
Knit from the bottom up (think Elizabeth Zimmermann’s  seamless sweaters) with a yoke style of sleeve.
Stockinette stitch with the option of garter stitch hood.  But really, it’s a blank canvas for color, stitch patterns (just make sure you get gauge), etc.
It’s a pullover with a single kangaroo pocket in the front.
It’s unisex & runs from Child’s Size 2 (about 21” chest) to Adult xxl (48” chest)

2.    Kyler’s Kardigan:   (Ravelry Link) This guy’s also seamless.  However, it’s knit from the hood down (think Carla’s Top-Down Sweater class) with a raglan style sleeve.
It’s all in garter stitch.
It’s a cardigan with two pockets.
Choose between button or zipper closure (instructions for both are given).
It’s unisex & runs from Child’s Size 2 to Adult xxl.

3.     Lillie’s Little Sweater:  (Ravelry Link) One more time – seamless!  Knit from the hood down with raglan sleeves.
Choose between a cardigan or a pullover.
No pockets this time.
All stockinette stitch.
Unisex
Size is the kicker for this guy:  Sizes range from newborn to 3 years.  No adult sizes are given.

Make sure you also check out the Rambling Rows Afghan (Ravelry Link) (I’ve got one planned to use up odds & ends) as well as the some other great Norse sweater patterns.  There’s a reason these guys are all classics!  Check them out on Ravelry to see tons of examples!

What’s New?

•  A boatload of stuff from Noro: Jenny Watson’s Noro Flower’s Book 4, a collection featuring the new Noro Chirimen;
  

  new colors of Noro Taiyo and a big restock of Noro Silk Garden

• Cottage Creations patterns, including the famous Wonderful Wallaby pattern
• New Spring colors of Mission Falls 1824 Cotton Whirl
• Buttons galore

Franklin! Franklin blogs about his visit with us here.

You know someone on tv!  Melissa’s nieces and nephews (for whom she made the adorable knitted bears) will be on Discovery Health Channel on Tuesday, March 10. The original show on the quads will air at 8:00; the brand new update show will air at 9:00.

We had an absolutely amazing visit with Franklin Habit on Saturday and Sunday. Details to come in our next newsletter, but in the meantime, here’s a peek at our weekend:

Franklin shows off his Print ‘O The Wave shawl in his lace class.

Posing with the staff after the reading and signing

This is just a fraction of what we collected for the Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh. We are blown away by the generosity and creativity of our customer in knitting and crocheting for this worthy cause.

We haven’t stopped talking about what a great time we had. Thanks so much, Franklin!