Close Knitters

UPS brought several big boxes this week. For a while we were buried in bags of yarn, and kept saying to each other “Hey, look at this!”

So though the calendar says January it’s starting to feel like spring in the store. After all, if you want a new sweater for April you should really start knitting now.

This is Sirdar’s Baby Bamboo, it’s 80% bamboo with 20% wool. The wool lightens the bamboo a bit, and will help it to keep it’s shape. Bamboo can sag a bit.

Also from Sirdar is the Baby Cashmere Silk- 75% merino, 20% silk, and 5% cashmere. Can we say soft and silky? And great colors? It’s sportweight, so nice for baby clothes as well as lighter weight adult garments.

The bamboo silk is incredibly silky. The manufacturer sent us a child size sweater knit out of it that has incredible drape. It would make a wonderful shawl or lacy sweater. And it’s worsted weight, so it will knit up quickly.

And last but not least is Ella Rae’s hand dyed sock weight merino. We have samples knit out of this, too. Come see the great colors.

Most of the yarns above are machine washable. The bamboo silk is handwash, but think of washing it as a time to commune with this gorgeous stuff.

In the boxes with these beauties were several pattern books from Ella Rae. We have a collection of patterns from Sublime for the Sirdar yarns, too. There are patterns for babies, kids and adults. Many of them are interesting adaptations of classic styles, and we have samples of some of them.

Lois Cooper stopped in to show us her latest felted bags.

Here’s the “everyday” one

Beautifully knit out of Cascade 220- she used two strands of one of the heathered colors for the body of the bag, and a strand of the heather with a strand of black for the ruffle.

It’s not just a felted bag, however.

It’s a lined, organized bag. It even has a matching change purse tucked inside, with a zip top. And of course a cell phone pocket, pen pocket, and pad of paper pocket.

Her friend was carying another of Lois’s beauties.

The clutch is the same basic shape as the handbag, with an asymmetrical flap and nice button.

Thanks for bringing them in for us to see.

Sherry and Diane both mentioned entrelac in their comments- what is it?

Entrelac is French for “interwoven”. It’s a knitting technique that creates an interwoven fabric.

See how it looks like there are strips of knitting that got woven together? It’s knit that way, block by block. It’s another form of modular knitting, which is so much fun with the self striping yarns.

Like ribbing, it’s something that you can use in a lot of ways.

Here’s the blanket that Sarah knit as a baby gift. She used Big Baby yarn in Denim for two squares, and cream for the other two. It’s done in garter stitch, so it’s reversible. Here’s a closer look at the entrelac.

And no, she didn’t sew the squares together, she picked up along the edge as she worked the new square. Sarah doesn’t sew, at least not knitting that can be done in one piece.

Entrelac is a great way to use up an assortment of yarns- it makes really nice felted items, too.

Want to learn? There’s a class on Thursday evening, January 28. Two sessions, the second one is a week later. Call the store to register, or use the link from the website to register on line.

Loose ends- Whatever happened to the sock contest?

And Resolutions- what are your thoughts for the knitting year ahead?

The sock contest winners were delighted- they each chose a fresh Zauberball to play with.

Everyone who works with this yarn enjoys it, though one knitter who received Zauberballs and sock sized needles for Christmas is wondering about “the sock thing- these needles are really small. What is it that all you sock knitters like about this?” And yes, she’s seen the pictures of the colors. Still knitting on her first sock, we’ll see how it comes out.

Knitting resolutions- we all see the new year as a time to make changes. Some people like to start the new year with nothing on their needles. They actually rip out incomplete projects on New Year’s Eve. Probably after the second glass of champagne. I can’t imagine ripping out half a sweater. I do like the idea of having fewer projects on the needles. So that’s my goal for the year, to have only two things to work on at a time. One needs to be conversational knitting, something that I can knit on and carry on a conversation at the same time. The other can be more complicated, for when I want to really concentrate on the knitting.

What are your knitting resolutions?