I Have Found A New Love

Or at least a major obsession.....in a big, bad way. More on this shortly.

First off, we received a nice, hefty shipment of Claudia Hand Painted Yarns on Thursday.


That's an entire sofa packed with bags of ten each of Fingering, a lovely yarn in 50-gram skeins with 185 yards each, knitting around 7-8 sts/inch. What? You say you need a close-up and a list of what arrived? Gladly....


that's half...and here's the other half


Oh yeah, it's true beauty in a skein. Funny thing is, they sent us colourways starting at the beginning of the alphabet......an odd way to start filling our larger order, but it works for me. At just $12 each for this kind of beauty, who could resist???

At the most-recent trade show (back in June), Claudia announced a new yarn that she said would debut around Thanksgiving. Astute readers will know that this milepost passed last week, so it should be available, right? YUM


OH LAWDY--that's 55% silk and 45% merino in a fingering-weight yarn in 175-yard skeins for $18 each. Colourway---JohnB (one of my favorites from them, despite my not liking golds much). We'll eventually have all colourways in stock, but that's gonna take some doing! But worth the work, trust me.

My new love interest? Yes, it comes from this delivery


I am going to start SOMETHING out of this over the weekend--it's a given. I just don't know what kind of socks it will be. But it will be socks. I brought both of my "Sensational Socks" books by Charlene Schurch in today, but I haven't had a moment of free time to look through them.....yet. Maybe tonight.

Who knew that when this photo was snapped on August 3rd



we'd lose our beautiful girl just two months later. To this day, I miss her greatly and not a day goes by that I don't take a quiet moment to say hi, to tell her I miss her, and just be in touch.

Need anything yarn-wise that you see above? Call in (866-939-BEAR, toll free) or e-mail us and let us know how we can help!

Back For More!

Of course, I had to go full tilt and finish the hat yesterday (it wasn't that difficult to do--I had less than 2" of knitting remaining, and most of that was decreases, so it went faster and faster and faster). Here it is, in all it's glory


or is that in all it's flatness? Here's an "action shot" on our weird model that we call "Hedda"


and a quick shot of the top


because I think the top looks cool and I like the quickness of the decreases. Project specs:

"Basic Hat--Hemmed Brim" from Ann Budd's "Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns"

Three skeins of Elegant Yarns Fantasy in shade #28 (but just BARELY into the third skein...as in maybe six or eight rounds of knitting the decrease section)

Started Tuesday morning and completed Wednesday evening (with a full day at the shop on Wednesday stuck in there for good measure

So, another project finished--that means I can start two more, following my own rules! What to start..........what to start.......maybe some socks out of this


Our Classic Elite Alpaca Sox arrived yesterday (along with a BIG order of Waterlily, their amazing 100% merino aran-weight, in all shades). If you're not familiar, this yarn is sock-weight (8 sts/inch on a US 2/2.75mm), comes in 450-yard hanks, and is 60% alpaca, 20% merino wool, and 20% nylon. It retails for $19.95 a hank, so it's a great value, especially since it is a large skein of luxury fiber and a multi! I hear two colourways calling me, both from the top row--1805 (Fiesta) and 1815 (Emeralds). I pulled out both of the Charlene Schurch "Sensational Socks" books this morning and I'll look over some stitch patterns for consideration. I'm not sure if I'll do a pair for me or if I'll make a pair for my Mom (tho after her last pair, for Mother's Day 2006, I swore off socks for her as she said they were "...too hot and too big..." but pronounced them a good fit later on--and they were out of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock). The alpaca should make for WARM socks, so I'm not sure she's the right recipient. Hmmmmm....decisions, decisions. I might also use one of the SHARP patterns we just got in from Lorna's Laces in a 32-piece sock trunk show that's here for the month of December.

There are other things competing for my attention right now.....one of them being the new Silk Blend from Manos del Uruguay. We received ours last week, just before the holiday


and it's been quite popular! You've seen me start (and stop) something out of this yarn about a month ago (stopped because I was knitting it too tightly and tore it out to be started again). Who can blame me for coveting this yarn....check out the lustre in a solid


and the lovely colour play in a multi


This is some amazing stuff, and at 150 yards per hank, it knits up around 5.5 to 6 sts per inch. Solids run $11.50 and multis are $12.50, and we currently have every shade on hand. The Manos-based pattern support will not be out until after the first of the year, as this is their "new yarn for Spring 2008" and arrived plenty early!

Also "early" is a new multi in their wool line


it's called Olivewood and it's just beautiful! We received two kilos (20 hanks) of the yarn in our order and some are lighter and some are darker (ah the joys of a hand-dyed yarn!), so I shot one of each for illustration. Pretty stuff, at just $15 a hank for about 140 yards of beautiful, hand-crafted merino/corriedale yarn!

We're expecting TONS of new product between now and the weekend, including a big shipment from Claudia Hand Painted, tons of Lantern Moon goodies, and some other fun stuff from various vendors. Things were a little "plugged up" with no UPS service for two days last week, so this is our big harvest week! HOORAY! More things to tempt me with, since I can start stuff galore with no guilt (I still have a few "I get to start things" from finishing stuff last week, too!)

If you're interested in any of these goodies, just be in touch with the shop via phone on our toll-free line at 866-939-BEAR or via e-mail. I'm off to go knit for a tiny bit and then head in! BE WELL! and if you're local, enjoy the snow that's flying today (nothing much, but it's pretty!)

Not Quite Dead Yet

Who knew we'd be so damned busy for the past few weeks? Between a new beagle in the house (he's not a permanent resident--still a foster dog) and two consecutive weekends of sales, it's been a madhouse in these parts. Or "madder than usual", some would say.

A quick catch up on knitting---some has been transpiring. I knitted a pair of felted mittens this morning out of Garnstudio Eskimo, using a two-needle pattern we just got in on Monday at the shop. They worked up nicely and I tossed them into the washer with a load of laundry tonight, to felt up while I was fixing dinner. I didn't think about the yarn being a softly-spun single, and they're not adult mittens any longer...more like toddler. Oh well, one more time around.

Tonight, I'm still working on the hat that I started after the mittens, around noon on Tuesday. The pattern is from Ann Budd's "Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns" and is the basic hat, with hemmed brim option


I'm using Elegant Yarns Fantasy, a really inexpensive 100% wool yarn. The hem was fun to work


and turned out nicely. I'll probably finish it on Wednesday, hopefully, and we'll use it as a model to go with the mittens (from the same book) that I made yesterday.

I've also been working on a scarf


out of Diakeito Diadomina that is turning out nicely, too. It's a variation on the ever-popular multidirectional scarf


and is an easy knit. I should have it done by the weekend, as it's my "non thinking" knitting for the moment.

Otherwise, that's about it for now. There's been rekindled love for a cardi out of Colinette Iona (I'm on the second of two fronts), some work on the Spanish Dancer Shawl, and TONS of new and restock product at the shop. More soon!