socks and the News

Wow. Progress has been made. The Holiday Special is out and I can actually see the 'wood' surface of my desk in a few places. Jenni isn't so lucky at the moment, but I think we'll be able to see her desk sometime this week. Maybe after Thanksgiving.

Today I have some cool staff (and patron) projects to share with all y'all. First, we have Mike's sock, made with ShibuiKnits Sock in "Dragonfly". He wrote up the pattern and gave it to us to share, which we have since managed to lose (it's on a scrap of yellow, lined paper if you happen to see it lying around...), but here is the finished sock for your viewing (if not knitting) pleasure:

You never know, though, the pattern may yet show up on the blog. We just have to find it first.

Right. Continuing on with the sock parade, here's (short) Sandy's cashmere sock:

Knit with ArtYarns Cashmere Sock in color #2244, using the Waving Lace Socks pattern by Evelyn Clark in Interweave Press' Favorite Socks. There was a slight hiccup in this project. The finished sock ended up way too big for the size 4 foot it was intended for. Ouch. It's now a shop sample, if you want to come by and pet it. Or sympathize with Sandy's pain.

And while we're on the subject of store workings, I have photos from LaBrie's Nuno Felted Scarf workshop last weekend:

Yes, you are actually seeing drop-cloths on the floor. It looks like they had a lot of fun, though! The workshop was focused on a particular Japanese felting technique (nuno), in which wool roving is felted over loosely woven silk fabric (a silk scarf in this case). It makes for a beautiful, gauzy, and warm finished fabric. The process involves water and a lot of agitation, hence the blue tarps everywhere.

I hope some of the participants will bring their scarves in for us to admire...

Anyway. We're doing another Nuno Felted Scarf workshop on December 13th, because we couldn't fit everyone into the one last week. So, if you're interested, I'd recommend you register now before the next workshop fills up, too.

Next on the list of things to cover, our In the News bulletin:

1. Update on the Jared Flood Lecture. Slight recap: Jared Flood (brooklyntweed) has agreed to lecture on January 8th (I think I mentioned this). At the moment, we have narrowed the choices of venues down to two suitable options and are now looking at the logistics aspect of all this. I swear to you, we're working tirelessly on this and will have registration information up soon.
2. We just got another Oleana shipment in. I succumbed, and bought one of the felted wool blankets. It's so soft and lovely that I couldn't resist. There are also several new styles of wristers and scarves in stock, for those of us who only buy cold-weather garments when it's cold enough to wear them (ask me how I'm familiar with this habit).
3. We are currently out of stock of both the Elfin Santa Hat and Beaded Silk Star Christmas tree ornament kits. Honestly, I don't think any of us were expecting to sell out in a day. We have lots more of the yarn on order, but... well, there's going to be some delay before the ornaments are on sale in the store again. Sorry about that!
4. We will be closing early tomorrow, at 5 pm. Also, we will not be open Thanksgiving Day.
   

And, last but not least, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

can't stop

Holiday Special to finish. But here are some photos 3M took of the spinning class Tuesday:














Have a good weekend!

slightly overwhelmed

We have so much going on at the store right now (what with the Holiday Special going out on Friday, visiting instructors to organize and the holidays approaching waaay too quickly), that everything is a little discombobulated at the moment.

On the subject of the holidays (and classes, technically), we can finally reveal the surprise ornaments from Sandy Kay's workshop last Wednesday:

The stocking was designed by Kristin Spurkland, the star by me and the wee Santa hat by Sandy Kay. And, yes, the Christmas ornaments will be available as kits (and another workshop!) for $12 ea/ or 3 for $30. The star pattern also has instructions for making a six-sided star or Mogen David, for those interested. The kits will be available online this Friday.

Let's see, let's see. We've got several Newsletter article updates:

1. Both of the Jamiesons of Shetland colorwork tams are sold out/ back ordered. Before I left the store on Friday, I made sure we had enough yarn for TEN tams. When I arrived yesterday morning... we had enough for one. Clearly I underestimated the level of interest in these two patterns. I'm sorry about that! We're working on getting the yarn and patterns back in stock ASAP. Please bear with us in the meantime.
   
2. Both of Jared Flood's intermediate knitting classes are FULL. There is a waiting list. Call us at 868-656-5648 (toll-free) with any questions. Also, if you want more time with Jared, he's agreed to a lecture on January 8th, 2009. Details are forthcoming. There will be an entrance fee (we're betting we're going to need to rent a very large space), part of which will go to charity. Stay tuned for more information.
   
3. Yes, the Holiday Special will be sent to all of our Newsletter recipients, I promise. Honest.
   

And, finally, Kandyce (Jenni's youngest) turned 3 months old today:

Aaaaww.

Feel free to plotz.

Wool with a twist

The night before last (Tuesday), was the second class in my Introduction to Handspinning course. It went swimmingly, by all accounts. Even better, 3M managed to catch the moment when two knitters became handspinners (my other two students managed to avoid being photographed). Unfortunately, I didn't think to get their permission to post their faces on the blog, so here's two photos of their first skeins:

aaaand...

It's always a magical moment when a person holds something they've just realised they made themselves. Think about your first knit or crochet project - can you remember the shock that it was something other than a lump of tangled yarn? Handspinning is much the same. You take a sheep's hair and twist it and somehow it all turns into something other than a giant knot.

Anyway. It was a great night. We also went over the process of making a sheep's fleece more spinable. I.e. carding. 3M and the ladies found it so fascinating that I thought you might, too.

First came the hand cards and wool combs - both of which are used to basically brush the locks of wool into a fluffier state that is easier to spin. The next lesson was the drum carder:

Which is the mechanized, and much quicker, way to process a fleece. (I actually shouldn't just single out sheep, since we also carded alpaca and goat hair, too.)

Anyway. Everyone left with a pile of wool (or fiber as the case may be) that she had carded or combed herself. Spinning it is the homework for the next class. I'm evil, I know. If you want more pictures from the class, 3M took a bunch that are all up here.

photographs under halogen

I figured that I better dash any hopes that you, beloved reader, might have had for decent photography immediately. The workshops with Miriam Felton this weekend were fantastic, the pictures of said workshops are significantly less so.

Anyway. I took the Introduction to Lace Design class and it was completely worth sitting for six hours, charting lace on teeny-tiny graph paper. I think we all learned new tips and tricks that will come in very handy with future projects.

But, before I begin to wax eloquent (trans. "bore you to tears"), I thought I might mention Sandy's upcoming Surprise Ornament workshop.

Tomorrow night (Nov. 12), 6:30 - 8:30pm, participants will knit one of three mystery Christmas ornament patterns and take home the kits for another two. The yarn above is used in the ornament I designed for the class. We still have a couple of spots left, if you want to make a special holiday gift for a friend or family member. Or, if you just want three really cool handknit Christmas tree ornaments for your own tree.

Now back to the lace, and bad halogen/ flourescent lighting photos:

We had quite a few early birds. They (well, the whole class) were treated to a display of many of Miriam's designs, which were arranged around the room for inspiration.

Once everyone had arrived and imbibed some caffeine, we were given several sheets of graph paper and blank charts. We were instructed to choose a lace motif (or two...) that we wanted to use:

Between everyone in the class, I think we had nearly every book on lace, stitch patterns and designing there is for knitters. Books were being passed left and right, charts were being diligently reworked and we were all getting writer's cramp.

By the end of the workshop, I had two charts (for two different shawls, I'm ADD). Here's the crazier chart I created:

Miriam seemed quite impressed with my display of lunacy. I forgot to get permission from the other students, so we won't be showing their charts today.

Next came the swatching:

Where we all tried out the first few rows of our individual designs and did one of many things: rip (I did that twice), change projects to cool down, switch lace yarns (again, twice), continue on with knitting, or...rechart. It was kind of interesting to see how people reacted to their own swatches.

All in all, I think everyone enjoyed the class and left happy with their designs. I hope so, anyway. I can't wait to see if all the participants finish their projects or go on to design something else.

And, with that little narrative, I am leaving you to work on the upcoming newsletter. Ooh, and on Thursday, maybe we'll have a photo or two of our mystery ornaments...

making html look nice

Well, as promised we have some interesting Sock The Vote results. And the ranking is (not surprisingly):

1. Michelle
2. Hillary
3. Cindy
4. Sarah
   

Michelle sold out within a day, and Hillary is likely going to be next. One has to feel a little sorry for the Republican gals, since it might be awhile before they go to good homes...

And, in self-congratulatory news, we have most of the Winter workshops online and open for registration! If you don't think that's something to inspire self-confidence, I challenge you to understand this gobbledygook:

See? Not so easy, is it? But completely and utterly worth the headache and confusion necessary to add a new instructor and class to the website.

Soooo, if you want to make this:

or this...

or maybe t h e s e :

You'd better register NOW, because space is very limited (15 students max for each of Jared's workshops) and it might be a while until any of these wonderful instructors can visit again.

And that's everything I can write for now. I still don't have Ruth Sorensen's upcoming classes up, and they're going to be doozies.

did you know silliness is contagious?

It is. Honest. For all that we're a serious business and attempt to appear professional, we at Knit Purl occasionally suffer from outbreaks of silliness. Case in point...

We had such a positive reaction to our felted window display, and received so many requests for a photograph without window glare, that we attempted to stage an impromptu photo-shoot.

Being located above the 45th parallel means our outdoor lighting in the fall and winter is scanty at best, so we had to arrange a curtain to prevent the sunlight from ruining the picture:

Which probably would have worked better if we had set up a frame and rod, but remember I used the word "impromptu". It worked relatively well, but it soon became apparent that our silliness was quite contagious...

As we started to infect perfectly harmless spectators, who left the scene giggling. At least it's not a permanent condition, right?

Well, for some.

Moving on to more serious matters, we have an absolutely gorgeous baby set knit by Fran for her newborn grandson:

The pattern is from the book "Knitting For Baby". Fran made the Cashmere Delux Hat, Cardigan and Baby Blanket. The entire set took 13 skeins of Joseph Galler Pashmina and about 6 months worth of knitting. Simply beautiful. It was such a pleasure to watch Fran cast on and continue to make progress and then come in with the finished cardigan and hat.

Thank you, Fran, for sharing with us!

I also had Natasha's first sweater on this demonic camera, but the photo-quality was so shoddy I didn't want to make Natasha's project look bad! It's amazing, with two other (professional) cameras in the store, I always manage to grab the tiny cybershot that hates everyone but Sandy Kay. Next time, I promise I'll get a real camera for customer photos.

And, before I go off to do real work, we agreed to remind all our lovely and loyal readers to VOTE! We don't care who, how, or why. I hate to quote a shoe company, but JUST DO IT.

Next time I'll let you know who won Sock The Vote.