Monthly Discussion
This month we're talking about fiction that has yarn in it, be it set in a yarn store or just one of the characters knits or crochets. Tell us if you've read a book like that, and what you thought of it!
You can weigh in with your thoughts here.
Finished Objects
Here's a selection of objects finished with yarn from our shop.
As a group project 15 girls got together a few times over the past several months with the goal of making an blanket. Some learned to crochet for the first time. Everyone went away and made a square or two and the end result was a beautiful afghan for our friend Anna and her new baby! We used the Dark Horse Fantasy yarn for this project it was definitely a challenge to stitch all the pieces together as some were "funny" sizes and shapes but in the end it worked out and it was a success! Thanks for the great advice on using this yarn!
- Melissa
- Joan's "leftover yarn" scarf
Could we feature your finished object? Drop us a line if we can use your photos!
Upcoming Shop Events & News
2009: The Year of the Afghan
This year we'll be switching from scarves to afghan squares. While we will be using yarn from our shop to make each square, the patterns will be written for any worsted weight yarn that gets approximately 4.5 stitches/inch on a US 8. So feel free to substitute anything you have in your stash! At the end of the year you will have twelve squares (more, if you do some of them twice) and while the squares will be interesting enough to keep even advanced knitters interested, it would also be a good project for the new or intermediate knitter who is interested in learning some new skills throughout the year.
The March pattern is available
here, and you can check it out on Ravelry
here.
Do you think you might need help with some of the squares? While the patterns will always be free, we will be offering some workshops that for a fee will give you three hours of class time and instruction, a set of needles, and appropriate yarn for the project. March's workshop is Saturday, March 7th, from 2-5 PM. You can sign up in advance at the shop or by calling us at 352-338-7222; the price of the workshop is $30 and includes materials.
Uptown Art Hop
We had another succesful Uptown Art Hop on Friday, February 13th, 2009! Can you tell we loved the Barbershop Quartet? The next one will be Friday, May 1st, from 6-9 PM so set that date aside in your calendar. More information will be available at
The Uptown Art Hop website.
New! Shiny!
New things we've gotten in the shop in the last month include the
Addi Clicks and
Zephyr Style patterns. And other items that we've gotten some fabulous restocks on include Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, Malabrigo (Worsted, Sock, and Silky Merino), our indy fibers (not available online although you can see photos of them
here), Trendsetter Merino VIII (which we're using in the afghan classes), Aslan Trends Artesanal (we're getting a great worsted weight cotton from them next month, so stay tuned for that),
and GGH Tara. Links to the yarns are all to the left of this page on the sidebar.
Upcoming Classes
Introduction to Lace Knitting
March 5, 12, 19, & 26, 2009 (Thursdays)
6-8 PM | $100 | Materials Included
Introduction to Knitting
March 7, 14, 21 & 28, 2009 (Saturdays)
10:30– 1:30 | $100 | Materials Included
2009 Afghan: March Square
March 7, 2009 (Sat.)
2-5 PM | $30 | Materials Included
Sock Knitting using DPNs
March 11, 18, & 25, 2009 (Wed.)
6-8 PM | $75 | Materials Included
Learn to Knit Mitered Squares
March 14 & 21, 2009 (Saturdays)
2-5 PM| $50 | Materials Included
Make Your Own Stitch Markers
March 28, 2009 (Saturday)
2-5 PM| $25 | Materials Not Included
Buttonholes, Seaming, & Picking up Stitches
March 30, 2009 (Monday)
6-8 PM | $25 | Materials Not Included
Introduction to Spinning
April 10, 17, 24, May 1, 2009 (Fri.)
6-8 PM | $125 | Materials Included ($200 refundable material deposit fee)
Tip of the Month
About a month or so ago I was working on Tubey (
pattern link;
Ravelry link). Now, everything turned out ok; but at one point I thought I had really outsmarted myself. See, I've made it before and wasn't too happy with the result. And I thought I remembered to tell myself at the very beginning that when I was knitting the flat part that even though I wanted to slip the first stitch,
not to slip the first stitch. Well, after I finished both arms, and went to pick up to knit the body... guess what? I had slipped the first stitch on every row. Now while that did give me a nice even edge, it also COMPLETELY messed with my ability to evenly pick up the right number of stitches all the way around.
For instance, in the front (where I was supposed to pick up 19 stitches) it looked like I had room to pick up more like 14. But "fortunately" because I had so much room thanks to the slipped stitches, I was able to throw a KFB (knit one front and back) on the 1st, 4th, 8th, 11th, and 14th stitches. This brought my count to 19 and did so evenly. I noticed that doing a regular knit stitch, though, made a giant ugly hole - so instead I knit into the back of the stitch, twisting it. You can see how it wound up looking in the photo below. It may not win any awards, but I like it a whole lot better than giant gaping holes. Also, if you know me at all, you know that I subscribe to the thought that "perfect is the enemy of finished" and since I wanted to wear this to a wedding on the 7th, finishing was more important than continuing to rip out and reknit until Master Knitters everywhere would weep at the beauty.
Then when picking up along the back (where I was supposed to pick up 86 stitches) thanks to the slipped stitches it looked like I had room to pick up more like 61. Ah, math, my old foe - we meet again! 86 minus 61 is 25; adding 25 stitches to 61 evenly means creating a stitch every 2.44 stitches. So I knit one, did a KFB, knit two more, did a KFB, and continued like that until, LIKE MAGIC, I had the 86. And that, folks, is how I successfully saved myself from a completely bone-headed mistake of not paying attention to myself at the beginning of a project. A mistake that I am proud to talk to you about, so that you see that while plenty of new knitters may be nervous about asking us for help, afraid that we're going to laugh at you for your mistakes... we won't. Really. We have probably made exactly the same mistake, and even continue to make mistakes! But through trial and error we figure out how to fix things.
Do you have a tip or story that you'd like to share? We'd love to hear it, just drop us an email!
Archived Newsletters:
February 2009 |
January 2009 |
December 2008 |
November 2008