Close Knitters

We’ve been having a good time choosing the Yarn of the Month, and a project for it. This month it’s Berroco’s Weekend Chunky. A soft blend of acrylic and cotton, it’s light enough to wear in the summer, with a wonderful springy texture.

The colors are great, some brights and some neutrals.

When the yarn first came in Carissa immediately said, “Summer Sweater!” She found a great pattern on Knitty for it, Iced, and knit it for the shop.

Weekend Chunky is baby and kid friendly, too; it’s machine washable!

Also new in the shop this week are lots of colors of Cascade’s Fixation, a cotton yarn with a touch of elastic, great for summer socks. One ball will makea pair of footies, ask for Kim’s pattern.

People often ask about classes at the shop.

When we first opened we had a lot of classes for a specific project- lots of felted bags, socks, and beaded scarves.

But what if you want to learn something new, but nobody else wants to work on the same thing right now?

So we’ve changed our class structure.

Introducing the Close Knitting Class.

It’s one class, which meets once a week, for four weeks. There’s a daytime session, and an evening session. Our teaching staff is flexible enough to help with several different projects at once. One knitter is working on a hat to felt.

It’s going to get felted flowers, too. A brand new knitter has finished her first hat

It’s a single skein of Glen, plain stockinette so that the brim will curl. Everybody likes the subtle color changes in Glen.

Now she is working on the Glen shrug, another quick knit.

Others are working on a cabled scarf and hat, and someone else on a child’s lace dress.

So when you find a knitting challenge, come to our class. Class is ongoing, so you can start anytime for a four week session.

As always, pre registration and pre payment are required. Materials must be bought at Close Knit, and there is a 20% discount on materials bought for your class project, one project per four week session.

Spring finally feels like it’s here, and we have some great yarns for spring.

One of the new favorites is Weekend Chunky.

Weekend Chunky is an acrylic cotton blend, which works up to a lightweight 3 stitches to the inch. Machine washable, it comes in lots of fun colors. The top above is a nice open front cardi, nice for changeable spring weather and cool summer evenings.

Remix is a true recycled yarn. Consisting of nylon, cotton, acrylic, silk and a touch of linen, it’s made in France out of the fabric that’s left afte rcommercial garments are cut out. This is a very popular yarn for those who avoid wool. It knits up at 4 1/4 stitches per inch, is machine washable, and has slightly nubby texture.

Glint is another softie, mostly cotton, with little shimmery metallic thread running through it. Dressy tops, fun bags, or maybe a dressy shawl for summer evenings.

It’s sale week at Close Knit! Lots of great yarns, 40% off. Sale through Saturday March 26.

One of the favorite yarns for quick scarves is back in stock.

Flounce is an acrylic tape, just the edge is knit, which creates ruffles.

Lots of colors-come check them out!

The Zauberballs have been getting some action.

Wonderful sock yarns, they are self striping, with each stripe being pretty long.

And like all sock yarns, they work beautifully for other things, too.

Kim has been working on a stunning scarf/stole.

It”s a Knitty.com pattern, Fleece, and uses two colors of Zauberball, which adds a nice contrast to the striping.

Phyllis’ hat is done with the sport weight Zauberball, a cosy hat.

We have a great trunk show in from Berroco.

A nice assortment of sweaters, in an assortment of yarns. Some are old favorites, like Pure Merino and Peruvia Quick. Others are newer yarns- the reddish sweater above is knit in Remix, a newer yarn from Berroco that we will be carrying this spring. It’s 100% recycled, made of nylon, cotton, acrylic, silk and linen that is recovered from clothing manufacturers. Very soft, with a slightly nubby texture, and machine washable.

Comfort and Blackstone Tweed are there too, Comfort shows off how well it does cables in a sweater with traveling stitches, and there is a multicolored sweater in two colors of Blackstone Tweed.

Our store bear models one of the hats, done in Berroco Sox.

Happy Hour on Friday afternoons, 3 to 6 pm. It’s BYO Knitting (or crochet). Come join the crew!

What’s a yarn crawl?

Well, beer lovers go on pub crawls, when they drink their way around a city’s watering holes. The knitter’s (or crocheter’s) version is a yarn crawl- visiting as many shops in a day, or weekend, as you can.

The Northern New Jersey Yarn Crawl is the weekend of February 19, 20, and 21; and Close Knit is thrilled to be a part of it. Yarn companies have donated some wonderful baskets to be raffled, one basket for each store. And there’s a scavenger hunt- find the flowers in each shop, send in an email, and qualify for a prize.

We’ll be open our regular hours,with a special yarn crawl sale of 15% off everything in the shop.

Come visit and check it all out.

More information about the yarn crawl is on the website: www.northernnjyarncrawl.com

Today we joined the legions of stores with Superbowl Sunday events.

It was great- and in answer to the question of “What about those Bergen County Blue Laws?” we point out that this wasn’t regular store hours, it was a special party, to which we invited 2700 of our closest friends.

And they had a great time.

With a generous discount on all the entire store, and an extra discount for yarn in team colors, there was a lot of knit planning going on. Deborah had to work on her shawl for a bit to decide which yarn she needed next.

Knitters often bring along non knitters to give advice on choosing colors. While he didn’t give much advice, Zachary was one of our favorites for the tag a longs.

Note his handknit hat, truly a knitter’s kid!

If you missed this sale, come check things out the weekend of February 19, 20, and 21. We are a stop on the Northern New Jersey Yarn Crawl! There will be discounts as well as a raffle for a goodie basket donated by the yarn companies, and a scavenger hunt. More information to come!

Two big events this month!

First is the first ever Close Knit Superbowl Sunday Sale! 10 am to 3 pm, February 6.

Superbowl Sunday is getting to be an unofficial holiday, complete with sales. To get you in the mood for the game we will be offering 25% off on yarns in the team colors, and 15% off everything else. And non perishable food items brought in to be donated to a food bank will be thanked with a coupon for a future purchase.

Then, the weekend of February 19, 20 and 21 (President’s Day) is the first ever North Jersey Yarn Crawl. We’ll be part of a group of shops with specials that weekend. There will be a raffle (one big basket at each store, donated by the yarn companies) and other knitterly treats.

Now we just need to weather to cooperate with our plans. If it snows President’s Day Weekend the crawl will be the following weekend.

Susan has been working steadily on a nice baby sweater.

It’s a lovely Debbie Bliss pattern, a real classic for a baby boy. She was looking around the shop for a new project, and spotted this hat.

The Squiggle Hat is knit in light sport weight yarn to fit a newborn, though a heavier yarn would fit an older child. Since it’s so small, it has to be knit on double pointed needles, or two circulars, or with the magic loop technique. A 16 inch circular is too big for it. Susan has never used double points, so this seemed like a good time to try something new. A lot of knitters will try to keep expanding their knitting experience by trying something new with each project. Cables, lace, ribbing, and circular knitting all expand your options, especially when you’ve just learned to knit.

We made sure that Susan got her hat cast on, and the first row knit on the double pointed needles before we let her out of the shop. We hope to see a finished hat soon!

The Squiggle Hat is a Close Knit pattern, free with purchase of the yarn.