Notable New....s
Not news in the information sense, but new in the plural sense......new this and new that mean many "news" around here. So today focuses on some of them.
It's been "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" around here of late....every day has been busy, we're getting closer to caught up on things (I swear, it's happening....the mail bin is full every day when our carrier takes it away and it's half full already today), and new stock is everywhere! Thank goodness for our wonderful helpers--we've gotten some shelving built upstairs and some yarns moved up there (and some that weren't out before are now on the shelves) and we're moving things here and there on the first level. The entire island in the front room, previously filled with with Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride (both weights) and Cascade Pastaza, is now being converted to cottons and spring/summer yarns. The color is a wonderful addition to the room, and we are working to get the conversion made. Come see sometime soon!!
In the new boxes of wonder from our dear friends at
Koigu Wool Designs were some wonderful things, so I'll bring you a little samplin' of them. We're beefing up our stock of their Kersti (dk-weight merino yarn that's a fantastic and cushion-y cabled fiber) and these are some of the fab multis that arrived this week
Top Row (left to right)--K324, K534, and K117 (we have two dye lots of the K117--ooooooh, pretty)
Bottom Row (L to R)--K118L (just like the baby blanket Painter's Palette), K513, and K610 (I asked for this specifically, as it's one of my absolute faves in their Painter's Palette)
In addition to great multis, we did get some nice, nice solids. Here's four of them
L to R--K1125 (rose), K4001 (light sage), K3000 (purple), and K2130 (turquoise)--those are my color names, not theirs, just for your reference.
No shipment from these great folks would be complete with out some Painter's Palette (we use the more formal name now, instead of just "Koigu" or "KPM/KPPPM"). Check these incredible multis
Left side--top is P610, bottom is P133A.
Center, top to bottom--P131, P706, and P133B (I put them side to side to show folks that just cuz they have the same P code, you need to beware the letter)
Right side--top is P824 (a stunner in person), bottom is P130 (lovely lavender shades)
I am not the biggest orange fan (I'm a blonde, remember), even if orange is the new pink (everything in fashion is being shown in orange for spring/summer--and the yarns coming definitely reflect that trend, from what reps have been showing us), but I have to make a pair of socks out of that P133A. It's sooooooo bright and sooooooo cool. Their use of complements from the color wheel (orange vs. blue) is perfect, and the other tones in there are just so perfect. Yup--those folks at
Koigu Wool Designs are artists, and it shows.
Revisiting a former friend, their yarn called Fancy, I can only think that a knitted shell or something else out of this yarn would be awesome. We have a very creative mind on this for us, and she's seriously contemplating a design using this yarn that would be a fun collaborative effort between the two of us. You know and love her, and her designs are awesome, so look for it in the weeks ahead (no timeline on this one, as she's a busy gal and has a full plate of personal things to work on). Just in case you forgot Fancy, here she is in all her glory
It's a wonderful wool boucle that knits at the aran gauge (4.5 sts/inch) on a 4mm needle, and the resulting fabric is so awesome (last weekend I made a small swatch...the nubbly texture is very fun). Now to find something to do with it.....besides a scarf (though several of our local folks have made BEAUTIFUL scarves with it).
Someone wrote in and asked to see the colourways we've received so far in Noro's Lily Multi, which is 70% cotton and 30% silk. Who am I not to oblige??
We have a little bit of pattern support for this right now (World of Noro #14) and more coming, but this is a dk-weight yarn (could easily go sport) and is just amazing in the hands and beautiful knitted up.
Friday brought us something new and wonderful--
Plassard Yarns, fresh from France. We wanted to get ahold of some of their T'Chao for a customer who wanted to make the jacket that was in a recent "Knit N Style" (jacket and yarn can be
seen here), but when we saw the entire sample book, we went a little wild. They do have eyelash and it was in stock (a rarity these days), so we loaded up on that in two forms--
Insolite and
Folie--as well as other yarns of theirs (Merinos, Versatile, Frange, and more). But the one the rep did a strong sell on was called Point Virgule, so I caved and ordered (tough for me to do, no?). Look at this fun yarn
I made a scarf with it in about 2-2 1/2 hours of knitting....and it's pretty cool and over six feet long!
The yarn is mostly polyamid, but there's also some wool and alpaca in there, and it does lend warmth to the knitted fabric (I was working on it last night while we looked at a HUGE warehouse space that may be on our list of new homes---can you dream of 12,000 square feet of
ThreadBear? We did last night.). Check out the close up of the fabric, which has fun little color pops all along the way
In addition to fun yarns, they have pattern books for women and children, as well as ....... FOR MEN. Many designs for each, and they're actually pretty packed with fun designs. The women's book may have to appear here shortly--we've sold a couple of them so far (yesterday). Good stuff!
One more thing and I'm outta here.........I have no one to blame but.........
BOOGAJ for this one. She's a self-admitted alpaca homing device, and her blog introduced me to Misti International, who handles some of the most incredible baby alpaca yarns on the planet. Just the
scarf project and picture seduced me, so I had to order some Tuesday evening. It arrived Friday afternoon and it is amazing stuff. I tell ya, it's softer than the cashmere we have on hand, and you get double the yardage at one-third of the price. Look at the colors that are here right now in the bulky weight
Those are what they call moulinette, and here's the solids
The hanks are 108 yards each and are $12.40 retail, so we offer it at $11.16 each. Julie used one hank for her scarf, but even if you went with two, it's an amazing project for just over $20. This stuff is soft as the dickens, folks. And it also comes in sport and lace weights, which we also ordered. I see an alpaca lace-weight shawl project in my future--I've already looked through Myrna Stahman's book of scarves and shawls and have a couple picked out.
If you're curious about how the moulinette would knit up, here's a swatch for your perusal
That's just beauty, folks. And lemme tell you about the feeling of the knitted fabric in my hands.......wait, I can't. It's too sultry for words.
And with that, I'm out of words............so have a good Sunday. We're getting some snow, finally........with a ton expected (by our standards, not real northern standards). Hopefully we'll get snowed in and I can get caught up on things even more!
