Our classes return in March, with Spring in their step, after hibernating through holidays and (we hope) the yuckiest of Northeast Pennsylvania’s weather. Intarsia? Check. Cables? Check. Also brioche knitting, and socks, and short rows, and two classes for sweaters!

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Above, two children’s patterns featured in upcoming classes that are great practice for making garments you will love to wear. That’s right, wear out in public. Sweaters that will generate ooh’s, aah’s and “you made that?” compliments. Kristen Rettig’s Gingersnap*, a pieced and seamed cardigan, and Jennifer Steingass’ Adventures With Rainbows*, a seamless top-down round neck pullover, will have you as giddy over making sweaters as Jill, Catherine, Brigid, and I are!

Each of us has completed at least one sweater apiece in the last couple of weeks. Some have appeared in posts before, but now it’s time for a “team photo”…

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Above, Catherine’s Heavenly* by ANKESTRiCK and Jill’s Mountain High* by Heidi Kirrmaier. Below, hot off the needles, Brigid’s Cromwell Pullover* by Bobbi Intveld and moi in my sleeveless Weekender* by Andrea Mowry.

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All four designs would look great on you! Our yarn choices were New York from Trendsetter, Ultra Alpaca Natural from Berroco…

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…Woolstok from Blue Sky Fibers and Luma from The Fibre Company.

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Look for even more sweaters on the way – not only have we just restocked our shelves with Berroco Ultra Wool, Berroco Vintage, and Malabrigo Rios (below, beautiful Diana in Rios) but new spring/summer yarns will be here before you know it!

We’re particularly excited about Berroco’s new Indio, a 100% linen chainette DK weight. It’s going to fill a huge hole in our hearts and stashes left when Shibui discontinued their Linen yarn a few years ago.

Spoiler Alert: another new yarn coming soon…

If you aren’t feeling your sweater mojo yet, check out our other offerings on our Classes page. Perhaps a new technique, such as Intarsia or the brioche stitch of Andrea Mowry’s Harlow* might be just the thing?

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There’s a theme to our FO gallery: gradient yarns. Below, Gina’s asymmetric Over the Sea to Skye* by designer Kalurah Hudson. It used two-thirds of her ball of Gomitolo 200 from Lana Grossa. Knit sampler-style in bands of garter, lace mesh, and eyelet lace, this easy pattern would look just as nice in a solid yarn.

Brigid made her show-stopping Eidolon* from Schoppel-Wolle Zauber Flower. Pattern is from Lisa Mutch.

If you love the classic Zauberball, Zauber Flower is the same yarn with double the gradient length – !

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Here’s another beautiful FO from Brigid in another of our gradient yarns, Urth Uneek Worsted. The Stocking Cap with Long Tail from Nathalie Godbout is a free pattern on Ravelry. The ribbed cuff and tassel of Brigid’s hat are solid color Woolstok; the rest of the hat is just the Uneek, doing its self-striping thing.

I’ll close with Jill’s pompom’ed Conversationalist hat from Plucky Knitter Design, another Ravelry free pattern. Her yarns are Maxima from Manos del Uruguay and Berroco Ultra Wool. While we wait for Spring and spring yarns to arrive, a shipment of pompoms is on its way, since there’s plenty of winter left for enjoying cozy hats like this one!

Note: Patterns marked with an asterisk (*) available at GYI.

Saturday Night Live’s now-classic “Sweater Weather” video clip, starring Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph, makes its annual appearance on social media around Labor Day, but it takes a bit longer for actual sweaters to make it here to our gallery of finished projects – but we’ve got ’em now!

The last post featured Barbara’s chic cabled cardigan from Bergère de France and Jill’s Mountain High. Now, I’d like to present Jill’s Crosscountry* in madelinetosh Tosh Chunky, designed by Alicia Plummer.

Pretty gorgeous, right? And I finally crossed the finish line with my sleeveless Weekender*.

Designer Andrea Mowry suggests making her pattern a pullover vest by simply leaving off the sleeves, but I wasn’t keen on the idea of having the reverse stockinette curling at the edges of unfinished armholes, so…

…I worked a slipped stitch on the edge and introduced columns of 1×1 ribbing, adding another column every 6th row, until my ribbing merged with the original neckline of the pattern. I am pretty chuffed with the results. Not so with my centered column of slipped stitches, however. If you make your own Weekender (and I hope you will; it’s one of the easiest sweaters to make and wear) learn from my mistake and give your yarn a tiny tug when you pass it behind the center stitch when slipped. I didn’t for the first few inches and got a wobbly column of stitches and sloppy reverse stockinette on either side of the column (left). When I wised up, things got much tidier (right).

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More sweaters? Yes, please! Joan shared her fantastic Chadwick with us. Her yarn is Woolstok from Blue Sky Fibers in Midnight Sea. I could live in this cardigan for the entire month of January.

Give designer Sarah Solomon five stars for such intriguing stitch patterns and Woolstok the same for great stitch definition.

Another way to stay cozy from Joan: Leah McGlone’s Beech Hill*, sized to be more ruana than poncho, in silky Acadia from The Fibre Company.

She made it her own by adding an elegant silk/mohair edging to discourage the fabric from rolling.

Oh, Acadia. You make such beautiful fabric…

And finally, knowing you can’t go wrong with Madelinetosh Pashmina, Joan chose it for her Tracie* shawl by Joji Locatelli.

Pashmina’s blend of merino/silk/cashmere makes a perfect Tracie.

Tina says she has been on a “brioche binge” lately. As you can see from her Checkerboard Keyhole Scarf from Nancy Marchant, she has progressed well beyond the basic two-color brioche stitch. She used Berroco Ultra Wool for this snug neckwarmer.

Stephanie cast on for Laura Aylor’s recent mystery KAL with some Ultra Alpaca from her stash, and the result is this stunning Winter Orchard* cowl.

Naming her project “Drive the Cold Winter Away,” Stephanie included lyrics from the Elizabethan carol on her project page:

Good fortune attend each merry man’s friend, 
That doth but the best that he may; 
Forgetting old wrongs, with carols and songs, 
To drive the cold winter away.

Carols and songs may work fine for some, but in the bleak midwinter, I’ll take Berroco Ultra Alpaca every time.

I had toasty toes on my mind when I made these baby booties for Granddaughter #2. They are based on Veronica Van’s Dreamy Baby Booties, a free pattern on Ravelry. My only change was to continue the 1×1 ribbing down the instep, rather than switch to garter stitch. It’s a well-written pattern, but I’m still on a quest for an even more adorable bootie. I’m attempting to create a seamless version of these cuties right now and should have them ready to share in the next post.

Even pups need to stay warm! Sharon made this custom Darling Darby Sweater for her new best friend Lola, adding a darling panel of cables down the back. There’s even a notch in the ribbed edging for a wagging tail. I’ve never seen a dog so happy to be wearing a sweater as Lola!

One of the joys in working at GYI is teaching Knitting 101. Last Saturday, I had the great pleasure of introducing 12-year old Rachael and her friend Gabriella to knitting. Rachael’s mother took this photo as we worked together. These bright, enthusiastic young ladies mastered the basics in record time, and I expect to see wonderful things fly from their needles. If you have room for one more New Year’s resolution, why not teach someone to knit in 2019? You’ll both benefit!

The GYI staff is putting together a lookbook of pattern suggestions for new knitters. (All-garter stitch scarves can sour you on knitting pretty quickly.) Catherine just finished this shop sample of the Quality Time* scarf from Fifty Four Ten Studio, one of our finds: a simple scarf with an easy-to-memorize stitch pattern that will hold a new knitter’s interest. Do you have a favorite “first” pattern? Please share it with us!

Note: Patterns marked with an asterisk (*) are available at Gosh Yarn It!

The last batch of 2018’s customer FOs and shop projects are ready to share. Be ready to get some ideas for 2019!

We begin on a high note: Jill’s fantastic Mountain High* from Heidi Kirrmaier. Her yarn is Berroco’s new Ultra Alpaca Natural. I hope you’ll be seeing Jill wearing this perfectly-fitting pullover in the shop soon.

Don’t you love the way the increase and decrease stitches create detailing on the front, and the garter stitch band runs alongside the raglan shoulder shaping and down the sides to create faux seams?

While Ultra Alpaca has been a much-loved staple yarn for years and years in dyed shades, Natural is – you guessed it – a blend of the natural colors of alpaca with undyed wool fibers.

I used it for a pair of Rathtrevor fingerless gloves from designer Jane Richmond. OK, I went a little off-pattern, adding rib to the thumb and hand and using the tubular cast on and bind off. But isn’t that the fun of making our own?

Below is a shot I took right before Christmas of several of our not-quite-white yarns. Ultra Alpaca Natural is in the front row, alongside Trendsetter Icon, with its glittering micro sequins. (Topas, Llamor, Woolstok, Ultra Wool, Drizzle, Classic Alpaca, and Maxima round out the group.)

I realized after taking this photo that I’d never posted pictures here of our Icon shop sample, the Hasukai Cowl* by Hiroko Fukatsu.

For this version of Hasukai, I again went off-pattern: I used 3 skeins, approximately 475 yards, of chunky weight Icon on US 10.75/7mm needles for a pattern that calls for 900 yards of lace weight yarn on US 7/4.50mm needles. Making the switch was easy: a quick, small swatch gave me my stitches per inch, then I only had to change the number of stitches to be cast on. It was a quick knit, finished in about four days.

Hasukai is knit in the round. It’s just a big tube; imagine the same shape as penne pasta, but with a ruffle at each edge. I can highly recommend the pattern, whether you go chunky as I did or stick with the original lace weight. Notes on my adaptation to the original directions are available when you purchase either your yarn or pattern at the shop.

Its unique shape allows it to be worn as an oversize cowl when folded in half, above, or as a ruffly scarf, below.

It can even be pinned as a shawl.

From the designer’s Ravelry project page, here is Hasukai done in Malabrigo Lace…

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Here’s one more FO from Jill, a sporty Twisted Trails* from Lisa K. Ross, made for a lucky grandson. Machine washable, 100% wool Berroco Ultra Wool gave her great stitch definition in these intricate cables.

And, finally, Barbara’s pièce de résistance: a drop dead gorgeous cardigan in, once again, Ultra Wool. The pattern comes from the French yarn company Bergère de France. Like many European knitting designs, it has plenty of what we Americans would call “couture construction techniques.” (That’s code for many hours spent puzzling over vague directions and ambiguous schematics.) Nevertheless, Barbara persisted. She knit, un-knit, and re-knit until she was 100% satisfied. After finding some buttons at GYI that she adored, she even re-designed the button band so they would be front and center, rather than hidden behind a covered placket, as in the original. Her investment of industry and ingenuity paid off with this beautiful masterwork.

I can’t wait to see 2019’s first FOs. How about you? Want to know whenever we post the newest gallery of customer FOs? We can now send you an email notice every time a new post is published to this blog! It’s not the same as our general email list; it’s just to get an alert for this page. Just sign up to “stay in touch”!  (This feature may not appear in Mobile View.)

Note: Patterns marked with an asterisk (*) are available at Gosh Yarn It!

Breaking news! The Wyoming Valley’s own Carolyn Kern has brought out two new original patterns: the Sidereal Check Hat and Sidereal Check Cowl, both knit in Arranmore Light from The Fibre Co.

Says Carolyn, “My Sidereal Check Hat & Cowl were selected by The Fibre Co. for their Fall 2018 Yarn Support Programme! These colorwork projects were inspired by high fashion garments featuring graphic variations of houndstooth check. I enjoyed charting some of these checks for stranded knitting. The check pattern I use here was one of my favorites. I love how the background color appears as a series of four-pointed stars. ‘Sidereal’ means of or relating to distant stars or constellations.”

Samples of Carolyn’s stranded hat and cowl will be on display at the shop for the next 10 days. Come see how lovely they are! Two skeins for the main color and one of a contrast color will be more than enough to make both the hat and cowl – and we have lots of beautiful Arranmore Light colors to choose from.

Carolyn’s not only on The Fibre Co.’s radar – she is a longtime contributor to Quince, and her Daphnis* appeared earlier this fall in their Scarves, etc. 7 and as an individual pattern available in-store through Ravelry. Suzanne was quick to pick up her needles for this elegant shawl worked in aran/chunky weight yarn. Her beautiful Daphnis in our GGH Topas is below.

It’s a busy time for knitters, and we often miss seeing a lot of the projects finished in December because they are quickly “gifted” away. Luckily, quite a few FOs have visited the shop recently, and they are an impressive bunch!

Above is Bonnie’s Declan’s Hat from designer Samantha Kirby, a free pattern on Ravelry. Bonnie’s mystery yarn for her Declan came from deep in her stash, but it’s very similar to Maxima from Manos del Uruguay, another single ply that will have great cable stitch definition. Below, Bonnie herself modeled her version of Kathy North’s Tasseled Earflap Hat, another free pattern. This hat was given as a gift the next day. Our fox fur pom pom was a perfect color match for Bonnie’s Malabrigo Rasta. 

Staying with hats, Brigid is seen here behind an impressive stack of her knit hats being readied for a craft fair. The cute green one on top of the pile, though, is going to our holiday donation to the Misericordia University Women With Children Program.

I made a Focalise* hat for the Misericordia collection. The pattern comes from Kirsten McTeer. I used an easy-care wool/acrylic blend from my stash. I love how the decreases at the crown spiral like the spokes of a wheel.

Here’s Joan’s on-trend Rikke in madelinetosh Pashmina. Sarah Young’s popular pattern is both easy to knit and wear. Will the number of projects on Ravelry for Rikke top 11,000 in 2018? 

If these hats inspire you to pick up your 16″ circulars and cast on for one or two more hats before the holidays, our selection of Berroco Ultra Wool has been fully re-stocked, 45+ colors! Ultra Wool is our all-time favorite 100% washable wool worsted weight. May we suggest a handknit version of this season’s hottest hat, the Copy.Cat C.C Beanie by Emily Ingrid? 

Shifting to a shawl, here is Steven’s spectacular Seashell, Nicola Susen’s free shawl pattern, in Malabrigo Lace. The pictures speak for themselves…

Now a cowl: Steven’s Big Herringbone Cowl was a perfect choice for Rios, another kettle-dyed Malabrigo yarn. Purl Soho’s design is free on Ravelry. 

And flip-top mitts: Rebecca’s jewel-bright The York Mittens, a free pattern from Mariana Wegener, in some of her stash yarn. 

Gina’s long and happy career as a sock knitter so far has yielded enough leftovers for her to knit two Split Personality scarves. You can tell she had fun making this second one! Do I see some Opal in there?

And so we’ve gone from top to toe: Joanne’s lacey Hummingbird Socks by Sandi Rosner from Clara Parkes’ The Knitter’s Book of Socks. Her yarn is Cascade Heritage Paints with heels and toes from – you guessed it – stash leftovers. What would we do without our stashes?

Note: Patterns marked with an asterisk (*) are available at Gosh Yarn It!

Our customer Lisa and her Humulus* sweater knit in GGH Topas are famous! She made it into Kristy Glass’ 2018 Tell Me About Your Rhinebeck Sweater video, with over 27K views. Watch the video here on YouTube, and if you want to go straight to Lisa’s star turn, fast forward to 42:58. Humulus was created by German designer Isabell Kraemer, and it’s pretty famous, too. The pattern was the winner of Mason-Dixon Knitting’s 2018 March Mayhem. And, yes, Humulus is a pullover – Lisa steeked hers into a cardigan!! If that doesn’t blow your mind, Lisa told us, “I made it in 8 days so I could wear it to Rhinebeck! I am so glad you had the yarn for it!” You read that right: 8 days! Below, Lisa and Kristy Glass.

Here’s one of the balls of Olive that later went home with Lisa for her Humulus…

Jill’s been knitting up Topas, too. She zipped through not one but two shop samples recently: a Rikke Hat* from designer Sarah Young in pure white Classic Alpaca from the Alpaca Yarn Company and a Speed Demon Cowl* in Topas. Jill took some liberties with Speed Demon, increasing the number of stitches to be cast on from the original instructions, which were written for size US 15 needles and a super bulky yarn like Malabrigo Rasta. She used US 11 needles with her Topas, a bulky weight. The changes worked perfectly!

The clever stitch pattern of the Speed Demon Cowl, close up.

Jill’s needles are on fire – she also completed this gorgeous baby blanket in madelinetosh Tosh DK. The color is called Shire, and the pattern is Channing Road* by Michelle Hunter. The rich stitch definition of the yarn beautifully shows off the diamonds-within-diamonds pattern.

Beth finished her amazing Shipwreck Shawl from the Knitting Harpy in Cascade Heritage Sock. The design is free on Knitty.com and is based on Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Pi Shawl formula. Says Beth, “It was a fun knit, but use lifelines!”

These photos do not do it justice. Trust me, it is a masterpiece.

Andrea Mowry’s Tinsel Mitts* pattern includes instructions for making them as full mittens, convertible mitts, or fingerless mitts. Stephanie chose the “flip top” version for the best of both worlds. Her yarn is Oink DK from our 2016 Oink Pigments Trunk Show.

Gina gathered up lots and lots of leftover bits of sock yarn and created this OOAK Split Personality, a free scarf pattern from Espace Tricot. That’s the wonderful thing about making it up as you knit along, your finished project is the only one like it in the world!

Finally, Gosh Yarn It! knitters joined with the Knotty Knitters group in Tunkhannock this year to knit hats for the children whose mothers attend Misericordia University in Dallas, PA, through their Women with Children Program. The hats go into gift bags that will be waiting for each child when they return to their residences from their holiday party. Special thanks to coordinators Jane Jones at GYI and Ann Way in Tunkhannock. Below, hats made by the Knotty Knitters, most in Berroco Ultra Wool.

Note: Patterns marked with an asterisk (*) are available for sale at Gosh Yarn It!

We’re down to the final three classes of the year: Reading Your Knitting, Saturday December 1st, and Be the Boss of Your Yarn and A Knitter’s Bag of Tricks, both on Saturday December 8th. All three are cram-packed with useful hints, suggestions, and techniques for all knitters. If it’s time to kick your knitting skills up a notch, flip over to our Classes/Upcoming Events page for more information!

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Bingo Funky Print: a name that may be hard to remember but a yarn that’s easy to love. The popularity of this Lana Grossa worsted weight has surprised even us! Bonnie topped one of her hats in Bingo Funky Print with one of our new fur poms…

…and another Bonnie beanie in Bingo was crowned with a contrast yarn pom made by Marsha. Bonnie used her own patterns for both of these hats.

Berroco Millefiori has been another sleeper hit this season. Again, not the easiest yarn name to recall but lots of fun to work with. Here, Bonnie used aran weight Millefiori with the Lorcan Hat* by Tracie Taggart, switching out the pattern’s moss stitch brim for traditional 2×2 rib.

She chose the perfect “Electric Blue” pompom for it.

Rebecca used Millefiori to great effect in her Basic March cardigan. A simple, classic design lets the yarn colors really shine. It looks absolutely great on her, too, but Maude the Mannequin got the job of modeling.

This sweater is a beauty, right down to the buttons.

Steven’s Origami Top Hat* took one skein of our Urth Uneek Worsted. He cleverly used the helical striping technique, working with a strand from the outside of a center-pull ball alternately with the inside strand, to get all these very cool skinny stripes. If the yarn had been knit in the conventional way, its color patterning would have been more like that of Millefiori. Pattern from Lori Versaci.

And I’ll close with one more of Bonnie’s imaginative hats; this one is done in soft Manos del Uruguay Maxima. It’s both imaginitive and original – she worked up her own pattern, including a brioche stitch brim – as she went along!

Note: patterns marked with an asterisk (*) are available at Gosh Yarn It!

 

 

…and the winning yarn/pattern pairing this season is Malabrigo Rasta and the Perky Little Hat. Seems like I see a new Perky every few days, hot off the needles! We have our customer Joanne to thank for introducing us to Sharon Lentsch’s free pattern. (I slurped the photo below from the designer’s project page to show how it looks pom pom’ed.)

 

Be sure to come see our Rasta selection soon. We can also give you lots of ideas for other quick projects to make with Rasta and US 13-17 needles. Joanne’s hat, the one at the head of the Perky parade, is below. One skein makes it with enough left over for a pom pom, if you are so inclined.

If you’re good with real fur, we have some great fox and racoon pom poms. They’re selling quickly, and a second order for both natural and dyed poms is already on the way.

Joan scored one of the last red pom poms from our first order. It now lives happily atop her Photographer Hat, another free Ravelry pattern. The designer is Lavanya Patricella. Joan’s yarn is our self-striping Urth Uneek Worsted.

I went back to one of my favorite (also free on Ravelry) patterns, the Rikke Hat from Susan Young when I wanted to make a new warm hat for my daughter. The slouch built right into Rikke only gets better with alpaca, so I used our Classic Alpaca from The Alpaca Yarn Company, based close by in York, PA.

Catherine found a bag that had been tucked away and, well, forgotten. What was in the bag? Treasure!

There were socks she had made for Ravelry’s Sock Madness competition plus “a few” more. What a find! Mostly made from Opal yarn, her bestie sock yarn.

If you want to start your own love affair with Opal yarn, you’re in luck! All the colors of the latest Handwerk & Hobby 3 Collection are now in stock.

Linda continues to outfit the  N.Y. Giants fan in her family with warm hand knits in team colors. Fortunately, our Berroco Ultra Wool has just the right blue and red for the job. Here is her Head Hugger by Gail Tanquary and Tiennie’s Ribby Neckwarmer.

And finally, stash yarn went into my Ballydesmond* fingerless gloves from Irish Girlie Knits. These were made for a recent class I gave on cabling. The discussion strayed into other topics, such as Magic Loop technique, altering patterns, and – ahem – the careful reading of instructions. By happy accident, i.e. my cursory reading of the instructions, I knit each round of the cuffs with the charted cable pattern twice, when I was supposed to follow the chart only once for just half a round. My goof allowed me to rib the palm, rather than have it be plain stockinette, and to adjust the placement of the thumb gusset for a better fit.

I do think my “custom” thumb gussets, which begin in the center of a cable cross, are pretty neat.

If you’d like a copy of my modifications, please ask when you purchase the Ballydesmond pattern at GYI. And remember to love all your projects, even the “mistakes”!

Note: Patterns marked with an asterisk (*) are available at Gosh Yarn It!

We can’t get enough of the Simple Slouch Hat by Robyn Devine and Hat in Slipped Stitch Ribbing for a Lady by Yelena Chen. They appeared on the blog a few posts ago, but they look even cuter in this shot with their buddy, the Churchmouse Fisherman’s Rib Beanie*. Catherine made the Slouch, Brigid the Hat…for a Lady, and Jill made the Beanie, which is conveniently sized for four different weights of yarn.

All three patterns are easy. All three are free. All three yarns are really fun to work with. Shown below, clockwise from left: Bingo Fun Print and Gomitolo Merino from Lana Grossa, and Brielle from Berroco. (And, yes, I had to look up “gomitolo.” It’s Italian for “ball of yarn,” pronounced go-MEET-oh-low. We are so much more than a yarn store.)

Three years ago, Catherine introduced us to Violet Waffles from Halldora J, which has become a huge customer favorite. Now she has tracked down mitts to match: Cozy Thermal Mitts by Karen Everitt. Brilliant! She made the complete set recently with Madelinetosh Tosh DK.

Crystal fell in love with our shop sample of Antonia Shankland’s Bubble Wrap Cowl*. Not finding the exact peacock blue she wanted, she dyed her own with Wilton’s Food Coloring using Woolstok from Blue Sky Fibers. Even though still on the needles, I had to take this UFO shot.

Stephanie finished her stop-and-stare-worthy 2018 Rhinebeck Sweater in plenty of time. Here is her Hadley Pullover from Veronik Avery, also in Woolstok.

Stephanie said she could be quoted: “I just have to say, this is the softest wool I have ever felt!”

Bonnie was among the first to snap up some of our new real fur pompoms and some of our new Millefiori from Berroco and voilà! Her Lorcan Slouch Hat* from designer Tracie Taggart.

Beloved* is one of those wonderful Tin Can Knits patterns that is sized from newborn to adult. Linda sent us this snap of her itty bitty Beloved in La Jolla fingering from Baah Yarns.

I admit to slurping this next shot from Ravelry of Julia’s Pumpkin Spice Hat* from Cutie Patootees in our Berroco Ultra Wool. How could I not share this much cuteness?

Joanne is scary good at customizing her knitting. First, she modified the Bankhead Hat for a deeper cuff using DK weight Classic Alpaca held double to make the worsted weight called for in the pattern.

Then she modified Katya Frankel’s Timber Trail Hat* pattern for a heavier yarn than called for in the pattern. She substituted worsted weight Berroco Vintage for the recommended sport weight.

 

THEN, she made up her own sock pattern for Manos del Uruguay Alegria to incorporate lace, eyelets, and multiple textures. Talk about fearless knitting – wow!

 

Note: All patterns marked with an asterisk (*) are available at Gosh Yarn It!

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, look, another grey day. What’s a good cure for the overcast blahs? Color! Here are Wanda’s Kite and Zanette Shawl to cheer us up.

Kite* comes from designer Ann Klimpert. Wanda used La Jolla from Baah! Yarn and Alegria from Manos del Uruguay.

The Zanette Shawl* was designed by Katy H. Carroll, a.k.a. Katinka Designs. Wanda’s yarns here are Shalimar Paulie and, again, Alegria from Manos.

Now, a word about the colors: the light pink of the garter section and dark pink of the lace edging weren’t Wanda’s idea. The latter bled onto the former, despite her using the (usually foolproof) trick of soaking a project worked in both very light and very dark colors in icy water liberally doused with white vinegar. The Alegria was originally white with speckles of pinks, reds, and blues. Alas, sometimes bad things do happen to good knitters. But if I hadn’t spilled the beans, would you have ever guessed it wasn’t exactly what she’d planned all along?

Now, some beautiful cable work. Suzanne made her Two Roads shawl from Melanie Berg in Berroco Vintage DK. She has it pinned at the shoulder poncho-style. Lovely.

I’ll end with a plug for another of our yarns, fingering weight Coexist from Urth Yarns. It’s an 80% silk/20% Extrafine Merino blend. Brigid created our shop sample scarf in the classic seafoam stitch.

Full disclosure: perhaps not the best choice for beginner knitters, since silk is famously slippery and inelastic.

But, that said, wow! Doesn’t it make a super wearable scarf? It will definitely attract both compliments and that comment we all love to hear, “You made that yourself?”

Note: Patterns marked with an asterisk (*) are available at Gosh Yarn It!

You don’t need to be a technique geek (like me) to want to learn a new knitting trick now and then. This fall’s classes are filled with tweaks and tips to make your knitting more enjoyable. Here’s what’s on the schedule so far (all dates are Saturdays):

Beginner Cables: Ballydesmond Fingerless Gloves with Ann Ross; November 3
So You Want to Knit a Sweater with Stephanie Hogan; November 10
Reading Your Knitting with Ann Ross; December 1
Be the Boss of Your Yarn with Ann Ross; December 8
A Knitter’s Bag of Tricks with Ann Ross; December 8

For full details, see our Classes page. Please check back often, as more classes may be added to the schedule. Individual instruction is always an option, and we’ve created a menu of the most frequently requested knitting techniques. Also ask about designing your own private lessons. We’re happy to customize a class to meet your specific need.

• Cable Knitting
• Cast-ons and Bind-offs
• Double Knitting
• Fixing Mistakes
• Horizontal and Vertical Seaming
• Increases and Decreases
• Intarsia
• Kitchener Stitch Grafting
• Knitting in the Round – Circular Needles, DPNs and Magic Loop
• Knitting from Charts
• Log Cabin Knitting
• Math for Knitters: How to Get (or forget about) Gauge
• Provisional Cast-on: Making It and Making It Disappear
• Short Rows
• Toe-up Practice Socks – 2 sessions
• Top-down Practice Socks – 2 sessions
• 2-Color Brioche Knitting (Flat or In-the-Round)
• 2-Handed Stranded Colorwork

Our last post featured one of our new yarns, Trendsetter Pure Collection New York. We now have two trunk show samples of New York on loan from the yarn company; here is the Get to the Point Pullover*.

This stylish intarsia sweater was designed by Barry Klein of Trendsetter Yarns. We love this versatile DK weight 100% organic wool. It’s also beautifully represented in the new Fall/Winter 2018 issue of knit.wear magazine with Norah Gaughan’s Sloane Dress.

Another of our new favorites is bulky Topas from the German yarn maker GGH (another Trendsetter import). For a chunky that’s happy on US 10-11 needles, it’s airy and light because it’s a hollow-cored chainette and soft because it’s a wool/alpaca/acrylic blend.