Close Knitters

Fall means festivals. In Bergen County we have our very own, the North Jersey Fiber Arts Festival. We have a booth, of course.

This year we’re bringing lots of yarn for single skein projects. Scarves, hats, and wristies that need only one skein of yarn.

This delicate scarf uses one skein of Superior, a cashmere silk blend. Just one ball!

The cabled hat needs one ball of Berroco’s Blackstone Tweed. There are some nice new colors- overdyed purple and green, along with the original tweedy shades.

One of last year’s favorite projects is the Suki Scarf. Start with a few stitches, increase, and then decrease. It shows off one ball of Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn beautifully.

The Fiber Fest is Friday, October 1 from 11 am to 8 pm, and Saturday October 2 from 10 am to 4 pm, at the Unitarian Society, 113 Cottage Place in Ridgewood, New Jersey. There are lots of vendors and demonstrators, including fresh from the farm yarn and lace demonstrations.

There are a lot of new yarns in the shop.

The Superwash Chunky from Ella Rae is exactly that- a machine washable chunky yarn. It’s 100% wool, in soft heathered colors. And the accompanying pattern booklet is full of ideas for items that teen aged girls will like.

Also from Ella Rae is Latte- a blend of alpaca, milk and microfiber. Yes, milk! It’s one of the softest yarns that you can imagine. At 3 and a half stitches per inch scarves will work up quickly.

Another new yarn for a quick knit is Presto, from Tahki Stacy Charles. A blend of wool, acrylic, mohair and a touch of nylon, this thick and thin yarn works up quickly. In multicolored balls, you can see the shadings in the scarf.

Lin is one of our best students. She loves to take classes. She’s a pretty good knitter, and quite good at figuring things out, so why does she keep taking classes?

She learns a lot, for one thing. And she enjoys the company of the other knitters. It’s also a lot easier to start something if you’re in a class setting- there’s a clear goal, and some guidance along the way. It’s a nice way to start a project, with a defined time frame. In multi session classes you need to get to specific point by the next class.

So far Lin has taken classes for socks, scarves, a Christmas stocking, and starting a sweater. The Christmas stocking class, taken in July, gave her a great start on her mission to knit stockings for all the nieces and nephews.

Interesting classes for this fall include Inge’s Design a Hat. Her plan is to choose yarn and do some swatches, playing with cables, bobbles and textures. Then guide students through the math to design a unique hat. There’s also a class to knit an already designed hat with cables and seed stitch. Diane is teaching socks using the Magic Loop technique, and has a new class to learn Fair Isle while making an heirloom quality Christmas stocking.

There are two sessions scheduled for the Beaded Waterfall Scarf

And Phyllis will be offering a Start a Sweater class monthly, to assess gauge and get started on a sweater.

Announcing Knitter’s Happy Hour! It’s BYO Knitting (or crochet) on Friday afternoons, from 3:00 to 6:00. A nice way to end the week, knit and chat with other knitters. Drop in for a few minutes or stay for hours, it’s very informal.

September means back to school for many, back to the routine for others, and for Close Knit it means two things. Sale time for the old yarn, and lots of new yarn!

Here’s the sale teaser-

Lots of goodies on sale- much of it summery- Origami and Seduce, both from Berroco; and Classic Elite’s Provence. In the wooly department come check out the Big Wool, Kid Merino, and Wooly Merino.

And in the new department

Yes, that’s the new Debbie Bliss magazine. And it’s surrounded by some of her yarns- there’s a soft as butter aran weight Alpaca Silk, Glen, and Baby Cashmerino. The baby cashmerino is a Debbie Bliss staple, a little lighter weight than sport, and lots of lovely colors. It will give you lots of ideas for baby items. Come see (and feel) the sample infinity scarf knit out of the alpaca silk, light and very soft.

The sale starts Tuesday September 7, at 10 am.

And check out the new class schedule, some old favorites are back and some new things.