Ready, Set, New!

A new shipment of Manos del Uruguay wool called, Maxima, came in last week!

Here is Steven with his bundles of the Maxima in the new colors!  Now, you may say, "What does one make with this beautiful Fair Trade 100% Extra Fine Merino Wool?"  I am so glad you asked!  Why not make the Campfire Cowl? 

Click here for the Campfire Cowl pattern

 Or, the Botany Kerchief!
 Click here for the Botany Kerchief!

 We also continued to be enthralled with the Namaste Bitty Bag and all things Namaste!

Christine, one of our members and regular attendee of Wild Women of Wednesday, is shown here with her Hermosa bag, Bitty bag, wallet, and Oh Snap! project bags.  She is all smiles with her coordinating Namaste products!  Namaste makes all knitters lives easier with their products!


I was very excited to open the new trunk show and yarn from Alchemy Yarns of Transformation!

We received a combination of Haiku, Silk Straw, Silk Purse, Kozmos, Pagoda, and Juniper.

We received The Poet's Shawl

 and the Portrait Scarf

 and the Ripple Wrap and the Wisdom Wrap.  Steven will be bringing the trunk show back and forth between the two shops, along with the yarn and pattern books.  We can't wait to see you!  We want to see what you are working on, have finished, or would like to start!

Pioneer Press!!!

Our Minneapolis shop, StevenBe, was featured in the Pioneer Press!

Check it out!

Urban Knitters at StevenBe.......

We had a delightful day at StevenBe on Sunday afternoon.  It was one of our regular weekly events and we had many new things to show!  I was really excited to have opened our shipment from Namaste on Friday night!  The girls at Pizza & Purls got a small preview of the new bags and new color. 

In this display we are showing the new Bitty Bags and the new light pink color in the circular needle case and buddy pack.  10% of the proceeds of the light pink products will be dontated to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  Be sure to ask Steven what his "Bitty Bag" story is if you haven't already heard it.  He becomes quite animated when he tells it.  We are really liking the Classic Hip Holster.  It comes in all the great Namaste colors. 

Also, in the display are the Trendsetter Bowl Bags.  We have them in Lime, Pink, and Navy. 
I, personally, have the Lime Bowl bag.  It is FABULOUS!  I love that it has a zippered divider inside and I love the size!  I can get everything I need for work in it along with a knitting project.  I had this bag in L.A. and I took it everywhere, much to Steven's dismay.  I thought it fit in on Rodeo Drive just fine!

We had a new trunk show from Skacel to promote Mosco and Kid-Seta.

We have the beautiful cabled cowl, Mosco jacket, and Entralac Shawl.  They are all done using either Mosco alone or along with Kid-Seta.  We are waiting for another shipment from Skacel with additional Mosco colors for these projects.  We also received Fashion Angora which you should come in and try out.  Let us know if you love it, hate it, or can't live without it!  We are hoping it will be our new favorite Angora.  Stay posted for more new, new, new!

NEW! NEW! NEW!

As promised, here are the NEW items that we just unpacked!

We have received the new DARE yarn which is the perfect one skein project yarn! 

Click here for the FREE Dare scarf pattern!

We received new colors of Trendsetter Cha Cha yarn.  This is the ruffle yarn which many of you are currently working with.  Our favorite way to use the yarn is to use two skeins of different colors and hold them as one.  This creates a two colored ruffle!  It is divine!  Steven's favorite color combination is gray and lime green.

We also unpacked the new Malabrigo Book 3!

Unfortunately, we sold out the same day we opened them!!  We do have some Rasta left, and hopefully, we will be receiving our new shipment in the next week.  Stay posted for that arrival of the books and the Rasta! Click here to reserve your very own Malabrigo Book 3!

We also recently unpacked the new Kim Hargreaves book, Cherished.

This book is FULL of fantastic patterns!  Kim Hargreaves brings us fashion-forward knits that are sure to be a favorite!

Fresh Fashion Knits arrived and it is also full to the brim with exciting patterns!

And.............Rowan Magazine #49 was unpacked by yours truly this afternoon!  I couldn't even wait for Steven before I opened the box!

Click here to see the patterns in the magazine.

We are so excited for the Spring/Summer patterns and we hope you are, too!  Stop into Yarn Garage or StevenBe to look at the new yarn and to look through the new pattern books!

Final Days at TNNA

Okay, so we flew back from L.A. on Monday night, and I do realize that I am almost a week late in reporting on our last two days at TNNA.  I beg your forgiveness and I hope the wait will have been worth it!  One of the biggest things that happened at TNNA was Steven placing our first order with Shibui Knits!

Here he is wearing their fabulous Piega Cowl and don't worry, we ordered the pattern and the yarn to go with it.  Their yarn is beautiful and we will be unpacking in a the next month or so.  Julie, the designer behind CocoKnits, uses Shibui yarn.  She will be one of the teachers we are hosting during Yarnover weekend.  Steven will once again have classes before and after the Yarnover.  It will be called StevenBe's Fabulous Fiber Frolic.  Okay, so we are still working on the name of the weekend festivities, but whatever the name it will be amazing.  Also, the Ravelry crew will be in town to discuss Ravelry with everyone!

This is Steven with Mary-Heather, Jessica, Casey and Sarah, all from Ravelry.  This picture was taken in the Madelinetosh booth with the fantastic Madelinetosh girls!  Their booth is ALWAYS beautifully displayed.  They were taking Polaroids of everyone and then you were supposed to write on the Polaroid the name of the color of Madelinetosh that best described your personality.  Not your favorite Madelinetosh color, but the color that matches your personality. 
I chose "Baltic" as my color. 

What would your color be?  Steven got distracted before I could get him to decide on his color.  What color do you think best describes Steven?  Click here to see Madelinetosh colors. 

We were super excited  to see everyone from Namaste and to see the new Namaste Bitty Bag! 
Email Steven for your Bitty Bag pre-order.  Here we are with Kelly from Namaste Inc.

Another celebrity who will be visiting us during Yarnover weekend is.........

Nicky Epstein!!!!!!!!!!!!!  She will be our mistress of ceremonies!  Her new book "Knitting Block by Block" will be in the shop soon.  Steven may let you take a peek at his personalized signed copy before the our arrives. 

We had a good time with the boys from Feza Yarns.  We have some great new samples from them and they sent us great new one skein patterns using Alp Oriental.  Emre and his brother Emir are the brothers that run Feza here in the USA.  Their company has been in the yarn business for 50 years in Turkey, and they have been here in the United States since 2004.  They took us out to dinner at The Ivy. 

Dinner was fantastic and we love Feza and the Feza family!  After dinner we had another run-in with a celebrity.  Well, everyone else had a run-in with Christian Slater!  I just happened to have left the table when he got up and stood right next to our table to talk to a waiter.  When I came back to the table, Steven asked, "Who is Christian Slater?"  Really?! He doesn't know Christian Slater?  Dreamy, dreamy Christian Slater?!?  I just don't think it is fair that Steven kept seeing celebrities and I only saw a terrified Maureen McCormick.  He didn't even appreciate the Christian Slater sighting!  Steven described him as "short and scruffy!" 

Anyway, back to yarn...........

Here is Steven with the Trendsetter team. 

This concludes the TNNA report.  One last picture for you all.  Here is Steven in our rented PT Cruiser convertible.  Please note the amount of luggage sticking out of the backseat.  Keep in mind the trunk was all full of luggage.

And here I am.....

I am attempting to look very chic and sophisticated, but I think it came off as disgruntled.  I have to admit, I was disgruntled that we had to leave the beautiful California weather.  See you later, L.A.!!!   

Knitting Celebrities!

Day Four started with Mosaic Knitting for Steven and a Spring/Summer 2011 product review from Debbie Bliss for Jessie.  Steven was so inspired by the ease and flexibility of mosaic knitting that we are planning mosaic wine cozies and special designs for Naughty Knit Night Mosaic Knitting!  Who knows what designs we will come up with for Naughty Knitting!?  You better come to StevenBe on Jan. 20th to find out!  Tim is already furiously knitting our first design!  Debbie Bliss has some great patterns for Spring and Summer.  Of course, cutest kids sweaters and some elegant mohair shrugs for the ladies!  The Debbie Bliss Magazine hits the stores soon!! 

We had a wonderful time on the sales floor greeting our friends like........

Claudia from Claudia Hand Painted Yarns - did you know there really is a Claudia behind the company?  Well, here she is!! 

And, everyone should know.........

Cat Bordhi, the creator of the Moebius cast-on technique. 

We ran into a delightful knitter named.......

Lily Chin who is sassy as ever!

One of the highlights was visiting with the Knit Collage gang.

Their booth is ALWAYS a visual treat and they are so sweet!  Steven discovered them at last January's TNNA and we have loved their yarn ever since!  

TNNA Day Two and Three......

Day Two in California took us to Santa Monica and Fred Segal.  It looks like cowls, scarves, capelets, and slouchy hats are still on trend for spring and summer.  Steven had his first celebrity sighting!  It was Carson Kressley!  Of course, Steven didn't have the camera with him, but he SWEARS it was Carson.  We also cruised up and down Main street checking out the local boutiques.  It looks like knitting has hit Santa Monica.  We found hand-knit Swiffer covers!  Who knows, perhaps we will have to have a class on this phenomenon!  We also stopped into American Rag, the store where Steven was discovered by Versace!  This is were we had our second celebrity sighting.  We saw Maureen McCormick, who played Marcia on The Brady Bunch.  Actually, Steven almost ran her over when pulling into the American Rag parking lot!  Oops!  Then, we relaxed over dinner at Tres by Jose Andres.  We felt oh, so chic!  We were the celebrities there!

Day Three had us attending classes.  Steven took "Heels and Toes" and I took "Opening Weave Felted Scarf."  Steven like his class, but I LOVED my class.  It was really fun learning how to set up the loom and in three hours I had a completed scarf.  We didn't have time to felt the scarves, but I am excited to get home and throw it in the washer.  I think we will DEFINITELY have a class on this cool and easy way to create unique accessories.  After class we relaxed on the boardwalk and watched the sunset.  Then, it was off to Sample It! where we got a sneak peak at all the new items that the vendors have to show.  We can't wait to get home to be able to show it to you all!  Steven then got to help with the fashion show where over 80 garments were shown.  We are excited to meet with all our favorite vendors tomorrow! 

TNNA in L.A.

Steven and Jessie took off for TNNA in L.A. on Wednesday morning. Shopping couldn't wait until California, however. Steven found fiber creations in the Denver airport during the layover.

The slippers were so cute with felted poppies and other crazy looking flowers on them. Inspiration!

We also found a Fair Isle hat using recycled sari silk yarn. There were felted bags with recycled sari silk strips as fringe. The cutest crochet hats with dinos and flowers on them. Who knew such creations could be found in an airport?! Steven, of course! Once we got to L.A. we got our rental car and headed to the hotel. Steven fits right in! The hotel is fabulous! We are the lookout for celebrities! We will keep you posted! After we dropped off our loads of luggage at the hotel, we headed out for shopping at the Beverly Center and on Melrose! It was HEAVEN!! Shoe heaven that is! Steven made a stop at his favorite shoe guy Tony K. Steven stops in every time he is in L.A. and they know him by name. It is a family run business for the past 22 years.

This is Tony's son with Steven and some of the fabulous shoes! Who could resist? We couldn't! Now we are off to find some local yarn shops! Keep checking back with us as we will be blogging about the trip. We don't want you to miss a thing!