We will be open our regular hours through December 30, all the better to help you stretch your yarn dollars with our end-of-year sale on select yarn and all books. You’ll save 30% – plus we’ve stocked the clearance corner with new items marked down 40%!
Don’t forget that 2017 Frequent Buyer Points expire this Saturday. During the sale, if your Frequent Buyer Points earn you greater savings than a sale price, we will redeem your points so you will save more.
I realized recently that I hadn’t written here about our new mYak Baby Yak Medium yarn, a luxurious worsted weight. This extraordinary yarn has all the boxes checked: it’s soft, sustainably sourced, incredibly durable, warm, comfortably light, and just plain beautiful. mYak (pronounced my-yak) is a good yarn: good for the Tibetan herders who raise the animals, good for the the planet, good to work with and to wear:
Paola and Andrea, the founders of the mYak company, have lived and worked for more than twenty years with the nomadic herders of the Tibetan Plateau. Together, they and their Tibetan partners are building more than a business; they are building a future for one of the world’s most ancient ways of life. mYak yarns are spun from 100% natural fibers, hand-combed from the undercoat of baby yaks with no harm to the animal. The fiber is sent to Italy to be spun by the expert craftsmen of the finest centuries-old woolen mills.
Yak wool is warmer than lambswool and as fine as cashmere. It is one of the world’s strongest natural fibers, but spinning such fine fiber requires remarkable skill. The yarn is spun using carded spinning, generally reserved for the most precious yarns. Carded spinning allows the yarn to achieve an incredible softness and pleasing “hand,” ideal for knitting and crochet.
To respect the environment and to safeguard the natural properties of the fiber, the yarns do not undergo depigmentation. In this way, the authentic natural color is preserved, without affecting its original properties and without treatments that would require polluting agents.
There are three natural shades of down color (chocolate, desert and oatmeal), which are dyed according to the shade to achieve a palette of soft colors. Most yaks are of darker shade, making light colors very rare and more precious.
mYak aims to combine sustainability, social responsibility, quality, and technology to create a unique experience that will change your way of thinking, creating, and stitching.
Above, our shop sample of the Bonner Hat* from Sarah Solomon in the Desert shade of mYak Medium. The Baby Yak loves cables.
Our palette is a versatile mix of natural shades, light/dark shade pairings, and “pop” colors, too. With January, a.k.a. “selfish knitting month,” approaching, we hope you will treat yourself to this unique and deeply satisfying yarn – because you deserve it!
Jane’s Christmas stocking is a masterpiece. The pattern is from Michelle Hunter, Christmas Trifecta*. The yarn is Ultra Wool from Berroco. You can count on this designer for clear and well-written patterns, plus she includes helpful video support for all techniques used.
If you (like me) look at such beautiful work and think, I should make gorgeous stockings for my family, too, here’s some advice: don’t wait to cast on until next December. Start knitting those heirlooms now!
If you are already familiar with Fair Isle knitting, please join our Stranded Knitting Group on the first Wednesday of the month at 2:00 p.m. It’s free, and it’s not a class. It’s just an hour or two for knitters who love this technique to “talk shop.” Next meeting is January 3.
Our newest sample: Bermuda Scarf* from Ilga Leja. Okay – the pattern isn’t new to GYI; we had this shawl on display years ago, knit in a now-discontinued yarn, that was one of our most popular samples ever. But when our Dipinto fingering weight arrived from Lang Yarns, we knew it was time to revisit Bermuda. Catherine made this lovely model for the shop. (Who doesn’t love self-striping yarns?)
Note: Patterns marked with an asterisk (*) are available at Gosh Yarn It!