For Your Review: Ball Winder by Royal

A friend of mine, who has been knitting for YEARS, finally picked up a ball winder.

For those of you who haven't used one, they help turn a skein of yarn into a little yarn cake. It stays neat in your knitting bag and you can pull the yarn from the center of the ball, so that your cat isn't as tempted to try to fish the thing out.

I love mine and consider it absolutely needed knitting equipment. The plastic model here may not look like much, but we use ours daily in the shop, so you know it will hold up to one knitter's use.

Winding by hand is nice and all, but I'd rather be knitting! What do you consider your basic knitting tools? Yarn, needles, darning needles, ball winder, swift....

Goodbye 2009!

We are at the dawn of a new year and so we've taken a moment to reflect on some of our previous knitted objects from 2009. Some of them caused us great stress and frustration as we knitted them while learning a new technique. But being at the yarn garage we've always had the knowledge that Steven would be there to help us with finishings, casting on, jogless stripes and other things. So, from your knitters of 2009 and previous years, we say a huge thanks to Steven, a true knitting guru.




Even though Christmas is over and our garments having been wrapped and tucked neatly under the tree for their intended, winter is still upon us. From what I've heard, winter is cold and filled with snow. Which means we still have a whole season of cold before us to knit for.



Steven has an array of wools and patterns in the shop. With any luck when your head stops whirring with the sight of all the yarn goodness you might be able to find one pattern to start knitting. I suggest finding something that heralds in a wonderful new year and make it a benchmark in time for a new knitting year.

Luxuries of the Fiber Kind

This Wednesday was filled with many accomplished projects and itchy knitter fingers still at the ready looking for more cast on fixes. What can I say? We knitters just love that new project smell. There were socks being casted on and ripped out and then cast on again, all with the aspirations of learning a new technique.


A new woolen bag with handles ready for a top loading washing machine. After it's felted this ginormous hobo bag will be sleek, chic, and ready for all those yarn goodies that go into a fab bag like this. We're excited to see it when it's felted and dry.


Here's another wonderfully knitted F.O. (Finished Object). A warm and deliciously glamorous sweater. Made with different types of ribbon yarn and metallics thrown in for good measure. This garment is made specially for the Oh's and Ah's of the knitter kind. Don't let lady's this soft smile fool you, the sweater is as bold as her personality...she's just being coy.

We love seeing the progress of knitting, we're knitters, we love knitting. But we also love seeing what comes from all the time, yarn, and love invested in each project. So, don't mind if we end up petting the sleeve of the sweater you're wearing and asking what yarn was used or what pattern it is. We're knitters...it's what we do.


New for this week...

Yarn! Glamorous Yarn!

Colinette
(Art)
79% Wool/ 21% Bamboo
Size 5mm Needles/ U.S. #8
100gms/ 173 meters

Art Yarns
Beaded Pearl & Sequins
100% Silk w/ glass beads and sequins
50 gm / 80 yards

There's also a new pattern book in the store. Reversible Knits by Iris Schreier. This book is chock full of great new patterns that are already whispering sweet nothings to our needles. One in particular like this Flirty Headband below that uses a single skein of the featured silk yarn here. Come into the store and check out the book for yourself, make sure you check out the variety of Art Yarns we have in stock.


Also, for those sock knitters, there's new Jitterbug!

Colinette
Jitterbug
Fingering/4 ply
320 yards/ 110 grams
U.S. #3 needle

Featured Pattern for this week...

Baby Beach Blanket
It's soft, luxurious, warm and made with 10 balls of pure Heaven. No really, the yarn is called Heaven...

...see?Plymouth
Heaven
100% Nylon
50 grams/ 55 yards
#11 Needles
Machine Washable!

Guess what. It feels like Heaven too. It's soft and cozy. Perfect for baby items like a blanket. And if you want a treasured baby item for the little one in your life, this pattern makes what will sure to become a favorite blanky.