I pulled about 8 yarns from my stash - some ribbon, some boucle, some thick and thin, whatever I had - and knitted away. The needles were a little awkward at first, but after I found the position that worked for me, I was flying. What a great idea! Because of our anticipated move, we do not have a supply of these in the shop, but would be happy to special order them for you. Just email or call us.

All those lovely hand knit sweaters and scarves. You don’t want those ruined, I know. So, what to do when you need to store them? First off, make sure they are clean. One little dot of ketchup, or your favorite drink or whatever, acts like a homing beacon to moths. So, wash those garments. I have found my favorite to be Meadows Wool Wash which comes lavendar or cedar scented. The scents don’t kill moths or even repel them. They just do a good job of confusing moths, letting your stash of wool sweaters be a secret because all they smell is lavendar or cedar. And then after it is clean and dry, nicely scented, store them in those giant zippered bags. I get the 2.5 gallon size which will take a hefty winter sweater or several smaller ones. Squeeze the air out, zip it closed and put it away for the summer.

Better Safe than Sorry

Throw that bag of roving you just couldn’t pass up, that ball of yarn with unknown history, any suspect  ball of yarn (hey! did that bug just come out of my yarn???) into your freezer for 3-5 days to make sure that all is taken care of. A stay of 3-5 days in a chest freezer (not your refrigerator freezer) will kill a moth in any stage of development from larva to winged creature. So don’t take chances with the unknown, throw it in your freezer. Many a time Dan has come grumbling back from the freezer saying there is more yarn in there than food.  If a customer returns yarn to the shop, it’s the smart thing to do, because I don’t know the circumstances it has been kept under.

I love mindless knitting, and what could be better than being able to ball it up and stuff it in your pocket as you head out the door. Gotta have something to knit on in case there’s some down time where ever you’re headed. That’s this triangle shawl knitted from Lace Merino yarn.

The colorways offered in this yarn are beautiful and the yarn is tightly spun so there is no splitting. The yarn is also sold as a sock yarn, but I haven’t tried that yet.   Love the ties and the shawl stays put on your shoulders. The results you see here are from one skein. We have a free pattern on request for the shawl when you order the yarn. My customers come and pounce on it with an oohhh! and aahhh! wearing it until time to leave the shop.

We need to cut down on our inventory to make our move easier. Our sale is 25% off everything in the store (with the exception of those items already on discount). This sale continues through June 4th. We are looking forward to getting settled in our new location on Chincotague Island, VA.

Love those small projects and when they like what you knitted…what a bonus! This little hat with its knitted embellishment of a flower just called to me as I thumbed through the Louisa Harding book, Enchanted Garden. There was that little flower and I just had to give it a try. So, chose Panda Cotton in two very bright colors which when I got going in it, I wondered if it was too much for a little baby girl. The little bit of elastic in the yarn was a bonus to help it fit an unknown size head except by choosing the age in the pattern. The picot edge was different, you began with it as the cast on edge, not adding it after you finished your knitting. And the flower was so simple that you wanted to knit a couple dozen just to stick on your other projects. Cool!

Here she is, baby Caroline with her new duds. Sarah, her mom, says she alternated pulling it on her head and tucking it under her chin and “wearing” it there. What fun!

I was working for Mom on the website checking out patterns and making sure they come up correctly, when this pattern for the scarf appeared. I thought, ” Oh, this would be a fun one to try (never having done shapes before, am I nuts!) and it would also show off some yarn colors nicely. So Mom supplied me with the pattern and the yarn. It’s a Regia 4 ply sock yarn called Avenue Color (coming soon to the website) and the Regia solid color white. The pattern is a Cabin Fever pattern called, Calling All Angles. Here’s how it progressed. There was an Oopsie with one of the middle blocks where the TV got more attention than the knitting which meant all the cast on stitches went on one side which meant a mess and another hour of backtracking and starting over. ARGHHH!

See what you think of it.

Cast on with the solid color and use those all important stitch markers!

 

Add a little color and things look a bit different.

 

 

 

 

 One block completed!

 

Two blocks.

And now three blocks. After the initial blocks you work smaller blocks around the neck and then complete the scarf with the larger blocks

 

 And now the finished product!

Yes, I did do it. Finished the Einstein coat/sweater for Sarah to take back to Philly with her. Turned out very nice if I do say so myself. Only thing not pleased with completely are the buttons and may have to find some others to replace them. It took 7 skeins of the Noro Kochoran yarn. I made it shorter than what the Sally Melville pattern in the Knit Stitch called for because I didn’t really want a coat length, that is when I was planning on wearing it. Ahem! Definitely a fun sweater to knit, to keep one in progress for when you’re traveling and need mindless knitting. Barbara at KnitXperience showed off her lovely Einstein coat, a full coat. Outstanding!

After knitting what seemed like non-stop on this sweater and a bunch of fingerless mitts for Christmas presents, i decided my hands needed a rest. That lasted about 6 hours max, until the hands and needles were going again. How about you? Did you get worn out knitting Christmas gifts or are you still going strong?