News

We have a cast-on start date for our Butterfly/Papillon shawl knit-along: Tuesday, August 21. That’s one month to pick your colors, pick up the pattern at the shop (saving $3), and get wound up and ready to go.  You’ll find lots of color inspiration among the 594 projects for Butterfly. We already have a knit-along (KAL) discussion thread in our Ravelry group.

If you’re unfamiliar with knit-alongs, they are an opportunity for knitters to work on the same pattern at the same time. Starting with yarn and color choices, it’s a chance to share your progress with each other, as well as your questions, observations, and suggestions. Most importantly, you can get and give plenty of support and encouragement along the way, with a prize for one lucky finisher.

In the last post, there were pictures of a Butterfly in a blue/purple colorway. Of course, all skeins sold out immediately, so we’ve ordered more! Here is another combination of Urth Yarns Harvest (solid) and Uneek (self-striping) that’s just as stunning…

Below, a vibrant color of Uneek and several of the naturally-dyed Harvest shades. (Which solid would you choose to go with that Uneek?)

 

Our final shipment is in from indie dyer Knitted Wit. Grab these round and bouncy skeins of Big Sky Worsted while you can. They’re spun from 100% Targhee wool, ideal for hat and mitten patterns calling for worsted to aran weight. The yarn is both hearty and soft and 100% made in the U.S.A.

Maybe you’ve noticed this summer we’ve re-ordered quite a few old favorites in new shades. First, there were the new 2018 colors of  Fibre Company Luma…

…and now Solo Lino from Lana Grossa yarns. Linen? Yes. Starchy and stiff? No way!

A slinky, silky sport weight, Solo Lino is 80% linen viscose/20% linen flax. The happy little group of yarns shown above is one of several colorways we’ve created for a pattern Brigid found for Solo Lino, Windom Silk Wrap* by Virginia Sattler-Reimer.

 

This is such a genius yarn/pattern pairing! I can’t wait to post pictures of Brigid’s project, which is being made in this cool, blue palette:

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Now for your FOs.

Ann sent along this photo of her daughter wearing the June’s Favorite Cardigan she made for her. Pattern is from Hannah Fettig. She used Blue Sky Fibers Woolstok in the color Driftwood. She says it “was a dream with which to work.” She mentioned that she substituted stockinette stitch for the original diamond pattern alongside the cable.

Stephanie made her graceful Greenwich Dunes Wrap from Raven Knits Design with Knitted Wit Single Fingering in Great Smoky Mountains.

A second FO from Stephanie, here is Martina Behm’s classic Hitchhiker* done in Dream in Color Smooshy. Wait for it… the color is Burr.

Don’t you love the way the colors fall into different patterns, depending on the length of the rows?

And I’ll close with more pretty Smooshy colors chasing each other, this time ’round and ’round Rebecca’s Beaded Koigu Beret*, made without beads and without Koigu. The shade is Morning Glory.

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

 

As promised in the last post, here are the instructions for our adaptation of the Graphic Design Scarf, a free pattern on Ravelry from user miinemost. The original is based on a traditional C8F/C8B cable pattern. Our version adds rolled reverse stockinette ends and is narrower. The original calls for the first stitch of each row to be “slipped,” presumably purlwise. Below are specific instructions for a slightly different technique for a slipped stitch edging.

Gosh Yarn It’s CABLED SCARF

Materials

200g Berroco Ultra Wool (100% super wash wool, 218 yds/100g) or approximately 400 yards similar worsted weight yarn

US 9 / 5.5mm needles

cable needle

Gauge/Finished Measurements (after blocking)

4.5 sts and 4.5 rows = 1″ / 7.5″ wide x 66″ long

Abbreviations

C8F = slip 4 sts to cable needle and hold in front, knit 4 sts, k 4 sts from cable needle

C8B = slip 4 sts to cable needle and hold in back, knit 4 sts, k 4 sts from cable needle

K = knit

P = purl

RS = right side

Slpyf = slip first st purlwise with yarn in front

Slkyb = slip first st knitwise with yarn in back

st/sts = stitch/stitches

WS = wrong side

Pattern Notes

RS rows are odd-numbered. WS rows are even-numbered.

Scarf begins and ends with an edging of 4 rows of reverse stockinette, with RS purl rows and WS knit rows. Body of scarf is stockinette with RS knit rows and WS purl rows.

Beginning with Row 6, the first stitch of every WS purl row should be slipped purlwise with yarn in front (Slpyf) for body of scarf.

Beginning with Row 7, the first stitch of every RS knit row should be slipped knit wise with yarn in back (Slkyb) for body of scarf.

Pattern

Using long-tail cast-on, cast on 42 sts.

Row 1 (RS): P to end of row.

Row 2 (WS): Slkyb, K to end of row.

Row 3: Slpyf, P to end of row.

Row 4: Slkyb, K to end of row. (End of reverse stockinette edging.)

Row 5: Slpyf, K to end of row.

Row 6: Slpyf, P to end of row.

Row 7: Slkyb, K to end of row.

Row 8: Slpyf, P to end of row.

Row 9: Slkyb, K to end of row.

Row 10: Slpyf, P to end of row.

Row 11 (RS): Slkyb, C8F, K8, C8F, K8, C8F, K1.

Rows 12-18: Work 7 rows in stockinette st, beginning and ending with a (WS) P row, slipping the first st of each row, as per Pattern Note.

Row 19 (RS): Slkyb, K8, C8B, K8, C8B, K9.

Rows 20-26: Work as for Rows 12-18.

Repeat Rows 11-26 to approximately 3” before desired length.

Repeat Rows 11-17 once more, ending after a (RS) K row.

Next Row (WS): Slpyf, K to end of row.

Next Row (RS): Slpyf, P to end of row.

Next Row: Slkyb, K to end of row.

Next Row: Slpyf, P to end of row.

Next Row: Bind off knitwise.

Finishing

Weave in all ends. Wash, roll in towels to blot up excess water, and lay flat to dry. Stretch scarf slightly as needed, length-wise and width-wise, to maintain both straight columns of cables, square ends, and scallop edges. Measure width at regular intervals along the entire length of the scarf, from top to bottom edge, to achieve a perfectly rectangular shape.

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Sample knit with 175 grams of Ultra Wool by a “tight” knitter. Because your gauge may vary, use whatever size needle makes a fabric to your liking, keeping in mind finished measurements may be affected.

If you find the slipped stitch edging for the body of the scarf confusing, just remember:

• If the last stitch of the previous row was knit, slip the first stitch of the next row purlwise with yarn in front.
• If the last stitch of the previous row was purled, slip the first stitch of the next row knitwise with yarn in back.

And if you find a mistake in my directions, please tell me about it with a smile!  Enjoy.

 

 

Sometimes a yarn company sales rep visits months before the yarn actually arrives. Only rarely can a rep leave us a sample, so I take pictures of the yarns we order. As we see one rep after another, the photos help us “curate” our collection for the upcoming season. Back in April, we saw Urth Yarns for the first time. I did take pictures, but it has been impossible get these amazing hand-dyed yarns out of our minds. We knew we had to bring in Urth first for Fall/Winter 2018.

Swatches showed us what the colorways of their self-striping 100% extrafine Merino Uneek Fingering would look like knit up.

A ring of mini skeins made it easy to pick shades of their Harvest Fingering, also 100% extrafine Merino, dyed with natural plant-derived dyes.

Then the sales rep showed us a knit sample of Uneek Fingering and Harvest Fingering used together: the Butterfly/Papillon* shawl by Marin Melchior.

Oh. My. Love at first sight. A closer look…

A show stopper, right? It has KAL written all over it, and I’m so excited to invite you to cast on for your very own Butterfly/Papillon next month with our KAL, which will be both in-store and online in our Ravelry Group. There will be lots of tips, explanations, and pictures. (Shawl shown was made with Uneek #3012 and Harvest in Indigo.)

And, drum roll, please… our Urth order has just arrived!

In addition to fingering weights of Uneek and Harvest, we brought in Uneek Worsted (imagine the hats and cowls!), a silk and Merino laceweight called Coexist, and the cutest Uneek Sock Kits (75% extrafine Merino/25% nylon), pre-wound cakes that make matching self-striping socks.

I will be taking more pictures as we unpack and put the Urth Yarns out on shelves, but I couldn’t wait to share the good news with you that they were here.

ALSO JUST ARRIVED: our favorite Paca Peds HT sock bundles from Alpaca Yarn Company. You get 100g of one shade of alpaca/wool/nylon blend sock yarn for the foot and 25g of a complementary color for the heel and toe – a whopping 550 yards total. These never last long, and no two are alike, so visit soon for the best color selection.

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Ready for some finished projects? The first two both use the same yarn, Wonderland Yarns Mary Ann. Gina took the Stripes and Swaths Shawl* by Stephanie Shiman and – no surprise! – gave it her very own fun and creative “twist.”

  

Suzanne’s color my stripes*, using Mary Ann for the background and mini skeins from a Sweet Georgia Party of Five set for the stripes, is stunning. We love this pattern from Lori Versaci and really love Suzanne’s colors!

If you read my recent post about wanting to finish up a few WIPs before settling in with Andrea Mowry’s The Weekender* and some Fibre Company Luma, here’s a gallery of what I’ve been able to (finally) get off my needles:

The sample for my class for the Log Cabin Mitts from Fringe Association could be finished once they were no longer needed to demo the anatomy of log cabin knitting. This is a great pattern for using up scraps of worsted weight. I used leftovers of two shades of Malabrigo Rios and a madelinetosh Tosh DK. The pattern is free on Ravelry.

I based the cabled scarf below on the free pattern Graphic Design Scarf by miinemost on Ravelry. I changed the width to use 2 balls of Berroco Ultra Wool and worked the cast-on/bind-off edges differently. My adaptations will be ready to share here on the blog on July 15.

Before washing and blocking, it looks nothing like what it will become.

Which is, I think, pretty awesome!

(And did I mention Ultra Wool is next-to-skin soft and machine washable?)

Then I cast off my Vertices Unite* from Stephen West. Ohmygosh, I loved making this! I will be teaching a class on it in the fall, and you can learn Mr. West’s special techniques for joining colors in the style of patchwork piecing.

Get comfy; I got a little carried away taking pictures of it. But I do think it’s helpful to see how the “pieces” fit together when it comes time to pick colors for this shawl. My yarn is Isager Alpaca 2, a 50% wool/50% alpaca blend made in heaven.

   

Now there are just two more WIPs between me and The Weekender: a second Gooseberry Hat from Suvi Simola and my Match & Move* from Martina Behm (pictured below) in madelinetosh Merino Light that I started last August. I am determined they WILL be finished before the end of the month, and then I can get going on my Andrea Mowry sweater.

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

July starts with a bang around here; it’s Clearance Sale time!

New Fall/Winter 2018 yarns will start to arrive before we know it, and we need to find homes for some great yarns to make room. Bargain hunt with us July 3-5-6-7 when everything in the shop will be on sale, including our newest sock yarn, Frolicking Feet from Done Roving Yarns – fireworks for your feet!

(Also available in some beautiful non-neon, more subtle colors, too.)

Congratulations to our customer S., whose Reyna shawl is the first project we’ve seen finished with our Camp GYI featured yarn for June, Knitted Wit Victory Sock.

 

If you look closely, the two pictures show the “right” and “wrong” sides. The maker prefers the “wrong” side, which makes sense – Knitted Wit yarn loves to sparkle and speckle.

July’s camp yarn is here now: Knitted Wit’s Single Fingering in more dynamic colorways inspired by our National Parks.

I finished my second Wee Liesl* from Ysolda Teague, again in Ewe So Sporty from Ewe Ewe Yarns. I love this pattern and yarn even more with each project. If I’m knitting for your blessed event, you now know what you’re getting!

There are a few more classes on the Summer schedule, Knitting 101 & 102, plus the Sallah Cowl and Top Knot Hat. Give us a call or visit for more information and to register.

 

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

 

Warning: picture heavy post ahead!

Camp GYI Yarn Bingo is in full swing. It’s great to see the cards being filled in and on their way to winning $10 gift cards for lots of folks.

Some of you may have a square on your bingo card asking for the “Easter egg” that can be found on our page on Facebook or here on the blog. What’s that? Wikipedia says, In computer software and media, an Easter egg is an intentional inside joke, hidden message or image, or secret feature of a work. This post’s Easter egg is coming up!

The Knitted Wit Victory Sock camp yarn is practically flying out the door. Luckily, the Single Fingering ordered for July arrived early. The base yarn is nearly identical to our madelinetosh Merino Light, as well as (if you have some stashed) Jilly from Dream in Color, so mixing yarns within a single project is fine. Knitted Wit’s Lorajean Kelley truly has a painterly eye for color. More of her amazing colorways inspired by the National Parks will arrive in August in her Worsted base.

Since it is now officially Summer (Happy Solstice!), I’ve been collecting pattern ideas for summer sweater projects for our Fibre Company Luma DK weight. There aren’t many yarns you can wear year-’round, but Luma is one. Cotton, linen, and silk give it a light, dry “hand”; wool gives it breathability and warmth (just enough). As soon as I wrap up a few projects now nearing their finish lines, I’ll be casting on for Andrea Mowry’s The Weekender*. The pattern calls for an aran weight, but I got exact gauge with Luma on a US 9.

I’ll be making the designer’s sleeveless version – as in, you just don’t make the sleeves!

Here’s my gauge swatch. I tested both US 8-5mm (bottom) and US 9-5.5mm (top) to be sure.

We have new 2018 Luma colors (below) plus some from last year’s palette, too good not to bring back.

Stone Point* by Courtney Kelley has to be the most popular Luma pattern on Ravelry. This slipover poncho is easy, breezy to knit and to wear. It’s just two rectangles, joined at the shoulder with a 3-needle bind off, and a cowl neck knit from live stitches.

If sweaters are more up your alley, the designer has obliged with a re-design that adds sleeves and is called Sawyer*.

And here are my finds for summer Luma sweaters. My criteria were: a DK-ish gauge, plenty of positive ease, unconstructed shaping, and beginner- to intermediate-level knitting skills, simple enough to finish and wear in 2018 – really! (Ready for that Easter egg? Next time you visit the shop, mention you read the term “positive ease.”)

Alanis* by Elizabeth Smith

Hatcher* by Julie Hoover

Jujuba by Norah Gaughan

Stonecrop Top* by Roberta Platt

Gemini by Jane Richmond

Chatwin* by Alison Green

Rock Street Tee* by Martha Wissing

#02 Lace Hem Top by Mari Tobita

Mimic by Veronika Jobe

Derecho* by Alison Green

Lourdes* by Amy Christoffers

Monterey Tee by Kate Gagnon Osborn

Etch* by Shellie Anderson

Crochet Granny Diagonal Block Sweater* by Ana D.

If you feel you aren’t ready to tackle a sweater yet, let us know. We can help with that!

Watch for my musings on making The Weekender to appear as a discussion thread in our Ravelry Group.

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FINISHED PROJECTS ON PARADE

Jill finished her beautiful Camilla Blanket in Vintage Chunky in plenty of time to send it out into the world as a baby shower gift. The pattern comes from Carrie Bostick Hoge.

 

She also stitched up Joji Locatelli’s on-trend Hipster Shawl* using 5 skeins of mYak Baby Yak Medium. Want to make one for yourself? Choose your color, get a 5 skein “kit,” and save 10%.

 

Gina made her jazzy Purless* from designer Rosemary (Romi) Hill with Lang Dipinto. As perhaps you can guess, no purls in the entire pattern!

Did you see Gina’s tiny sweater in an earlier post with a yoke of bouncing Fair Isle puppies? She used the same Baby Camilla Sweater pattern from EweKnit Toronto to make this cutie, again in Ewe So Sporty from Ewe Ewe Yarns.

Oh, look, a bead!

And here is the maker herself, sporting a well-earned smile of accomplishment.

Joanne brought in these amazing Zarathustra socks one day when I was out of the shop. Thank you to Catherine for the lovely photo. The designer is Caoua Coffee.

Mary Ann sent us a shot of her color my stripes* from designer Lori Versaci. She used Wonderland Mary Ann for her background with some stash yarn to color her stripes.

Designer Joji Locatelli makes another appearance with The Girl from the Grocery Store* shawl. Deb chose Manos del Uruguay Alegria and Baah La Jolla for this great project.

 

And, finally, Francie visited with her own smile of accomplishment and her completed Guernsey Baby Blanket*, my pattern based on Jared Flood’s Guernsey Wrap*. It’s free with yarn purchase here at the shop. Francie’s yarn is easy-care Modern Cotton from Berroco.

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

Let’s have fun this summer. Remember travel bingo? Looking for “No U-Turn” signs and red barns? Now imagine a bingo just for knitters and crocheters, and that’s what our Our Camp GYI theme is going to be this year!

When you make your first purchase after June 1, you’ll get a Camp GYI Yarn Bingo card. No matter if you’ll be out-of-town most of the summer or enjoying a stay-cation at home, you can still fill your bingo card to win $10 GYI gift cards any time during June, July, or August.

No worries about forgetting to bring your card with you or losing it; all cards in play will be kept at the shop. (Some GYI purchases will be necessary.)

Gone are minimum yardage requirements for camp projects. Gone are deadlines for finishing. In fact, gone are camp projects. To win, you fill your card in a horizontal/vertical/diagonal bingo pattern. There’s even a bonus round to win again. By adding more squares to your card and spelling out a “G’, a “Y”, or an “I,” you can win up to 500 Frequent Buyer Points for discounts on future purchases. Rules are explained over in our Ravelry group discussion thread for camp, here.

Of course, we’ll have “campfire” get-togethers over the summer, and some wonderful limited edition camp yarns are on the way – we couldn’t not have a camp store!

Lorajean Kelley of Knitted Wit, one of the indie dyers inspired by the “Knitting Our National Parks” project, is sending us three different collections. We kick off June with her Victory Sock (80% superwash merino/20% nylon). Worsted and bulky weights will follow later in the summer.

We hope you’ll love Lorajean’s colors as much as we do and join us on a virtual road trip to visit some of our awe-inspiring National Parks with this fabulous yarn. The colorways were suggested by photos from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Instagram feed. Below, June’s yarns/parks: Crater Lake, Denali, Badlands, Acadia, and Big Bend.

    

Victory Sock, no surprise, makes super socks. If you are new to sock knitting, get going with our beginner class Toe-Up Socks on Magic Loop or 2 Circular Needles on June 16 & 23. The only pre-requisite skill is previous experience using 2 circulars or the Magic Loop method.

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Last post I mentioned we were re-stocking lovely Luma. It’s all here now. Below, Blue Dusk, Ancient Stone, and Flamingo, three of the new colors for 2018.

Fibre Company really, really knows how to blend fibers for yarns that are a joy to work with and to wear. Luma is a lofty mix of organic cotton, linen, merino, and silk. Their Arranmore Light is a tweedy DK weight wool/silk/cashmere combination. Project after project, season after season, both are proving themselves to be truly useful, enjoyable yarns.

One of our customers, we’ll call her L., recently brought in her just-completed Sothia* shawl from designer Robin Ulrich and said she is already looking forward to using Arranmore Light again.

 

Last week, Catherine cast off our newest shop model of Arranmore Light. It’s a small shawl called Torrent* that can be worn like a scarf. It’s light, next-to-skin soft, and a quick knit. What’s not to love?

 

Didn’t she do a spectacular job? Finally, my latest pet technique is helical striping, and I used it with the Gooseberry Hat, a free Ravelry pattern from Suvi Simola. It’s made with Cascade 200 Superwash Sport, but our Ewe So Sporty would be a fine substitute.

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

 

 

The trees are every imaginable shade of green. We’ve already flipped the heat off and the air conditioning on a few times. Planning for our 6th annual summer camp is in high gear. It’s spring at last!

When thinking about which cool, no- or low-wool yarns to feature this year, we realized there weren’t any we loved more than Berroco Modern Cotton and Fibre Company Luma, so we’ve re-stocked both in lots of new colors.

Modern Cotton gets its lovely hand from a blend of Pima cotton and Modal rayon. On the needles it’s a joy to work with, and once off it’s super easy to care for. Use this workhorse worsted year-round for blankets and afghans, wool-free clothing, and soft shawls and wraps – whenever you want a fabric that has a little drape, a lot of silky shine, and great stitch definition.

We now have a model of Diggory*, a child’s pullover from Berroco that really shows off how well Modern Cotton shows off stitch patterns.

I had to give up trying to get all the new colors into one photograph.

I recently heard Luma described as “the perfect DK.” Agree. This yarn was designed for light, comfortable layering, which means you can reach for it any time of the year. The fiber blend is 50% merino wool, 25% organic cotton, 15% linen, 10% silk. The new colors are yummy. Below, Chambray.

Our shop sample of the Stone Point Poncho* is still one of our most popular models. Easy to see why, since it’s so easy to wear.

Pattern Spotlight

We have a mindless (and so far nameless) knitting pattern* to recommend. It’s a project you start in the summer to have ready for winter. It’s ideal for when you need to knit something foolproof, maybe when you are a passenger in a car, plane, bus, train, or boat? First you pick a silk/mohair yarn.

Brigid created our model with five colors of Sugar Bush Yarns Drizzle silk/mohair. It’s more a recipe than a pattern – it’s that easy:

Cast on 100 stitches, join to work in the round. Knit 50 round stripes, then 20 round stripes, and bind off. Done!

Make it solid. Make it even stripier than ours. Use the needle size that makes a fabric you like. Brigid used a US 8/5mm, but you might prefer going down as small as a US 6/4mm or up to a 5.5mm. One thing’s for sure: you will love wearing so much airy mohair fluffiness when the cold weather returns!

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

 

 

When January lasts 119 days, you do get a nice long winter knitting season! The finished projects I’m sharing in this post were all brought in yesterday – that’s a whole lot of knitting that’s been going on lately.

Mary Beth spotted our class on Stephen West’s Vertices Unite* on the spring calendar and kindly brought in the two beautiful versions she has completed. Yarn color choice and placement guarantee that every Vertices Unite will be unique – one of the things I love about this pattern and a big reason why I chose it for a class. (Another reason being West’s clever patchwork construction. If you’d like to make one yourself, see our class schedule for details.)

Stephanie shared a yummy hat she named “Sugarplum” in her Ravelry projects, the #10 Maruna Hat by Irina Anikeeva from the Late Winter 2017 issue of Vogue Knitting. Her yarn is SimpliCria from HiKoo, a dreamy chainette super baby alpaca that was in the shop and gone all too soon.

Steven brought in two fantastic hats worked in Malabrigo Rios in Yerba (green) and Sabiduria (purple). The first one is Stephen West’s Botanic Hat*.

The second is this sassy adult version of the classic Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap – Hesh by Malia Mae, a free pattern on Ravelry.

Below, Carolyn’s Passerine Hat* from designer Erica Heusser in madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light. The birds were worked in stranded knitting with just a single Unicorn Tail of 52 yards of Merino Light.

What could she wear with such a charmer of a cap? How about her New Berlin Gansey from Amy Christoffers? The colors coordinate beautifully. Carolyn made it her own with some clever alterations for better fit. Her yarn is Arranmore Light from The Fibre Company.

Yesterday was not only a busy day for FO photos, it was also the third and final Gosh’s Guests presentation for Spring 2018. Tina Woodward gave a fascinating talk on embroidering on knits. She shared such creative ideas, techniques, and design resources. Her samples alone made you want to thread a needle and start stitching.

A few of her embroidered knits…

Tina gave us lots of hints for different stabilizers, canvases, and ways to transfer patterns onto knitted fabric.

She recommended designers she follows on Instagram…

…and brought in her favorite books from her collection.

As Gosh’s Guests Gina and Linda had before her, Tina delivered an outstanding program. We’re so grateful they accepted our invitation, and we know they’ve sparked a lot of imaginations. I expect to see more and more FOs that have been beaded, woven, and embroidered.

Would you like to be our Guest? We’re “booking” the fall season of Gosh’s Guests now and would love to hear from you!

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

•  April 21 was the first ever Local Yarn Store Day. The shop was crowded and bustling all day long – thank you to everyone who visited! The only reason the Wyoming Valley has a local yarn shop is because of your support.  Let’s make every day an LYS Day. Come again soon!

Our free Gosh’s Guests speaker series wraps up its Spring season this Saturday, April 28, with Embroidery for Knitters with Tina Woodward.

Tina will present different techniques for embroidering knit fabrics, covering stitches and stabilizers to styles and motifs. Freehand stitchery can not only be used for embellishment (as on these darling mitts of Tina’s) but also for mending or hiding small holes or tears. Her talk starts at 2:00 p.m. Please join us at 1:00 p.m. for a BYOBag lunch. (The iced tea and cookies are on us.)

Last week’s amazing talk was given by Linda Mesavage on Little Looms. I wish I’d thought to count the many small portable looms she brought with her! She gave an entertaining, informative introduction to the wide variety of looms and weaving resources available. I did have the presence of mind to snap off a few photos…

 

Above, Linda demonstrating a Schacht Cricket rigid heddle loom. Below, attendees had plenty of time to examine the many finished woven pieces, magazines, and warped looms Linda shared with the group.

Below, Linda showing how to warp a Schacht Zoom Loom. By popular demand, we’ve ordered several of these fun updated pin looms. Will there be a Zoom Loom class in the future? Stay tuned!

Our first Gosh’s Guests program was Gina Thackara’s Beaded Knitting on April 14. That was another fascinating talk on a too-little-known technique. I didn’t have my camera handy that day, but I do have pix of two of Gina’s recent FO’s to share.

She chose Ewe So Sporty from Ewe Ewe Yarns for her adorable Baby Camilla Sweater. Her elegant Touchstone shawl from designer Laura Aylor was knit in Lang Dipinto. Touchstone is a free pattern on Ravelry.

Color My Stripes* by Lori Versaci is one of our newest shop models. Jill’s technicolor version beautifully shows off our Mary Ann fingering from Wonderland Yarns.

There’s a lot more creative talent out there, and we plan to schedule more Gosh’s Guests events come fall. Have an idea for one? Please let us know!

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

 

Note: If you’re looking for the schedule of events and exclusive offers coming up on Local Yarn Store Day, April 21, just flip back one post to our news from 04/12/18.

In this post, I have two beautiful FOs to share, Maureen’s Edlothia shawl from Jasmin Räsänen and Brigid’s riff on Anna & Heidi Pickles’ Simple Luxury shawls.

Brigid’s “Pickles” shawl is worked with a strand of Manos del Uruguay Maxima and a strand of Sugar Bush Drizzle silk/mohair. The two are knit together for rows and rows of simple garter stitch on large needles. Maxima is a worsted-weight strand of 100% extrafine merino wool. It’s super plump and super soft. Its silk/mohair companion adds a hint of shimmery shine and a glowing halo of warm fuzziness. The result is classic and luxurious yet easy enough to be a first shawl project.

 

Maureen used madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light, a full skein for her main color and various shades of mini-skeins, a.k.a. Unicorn Tails, to crochet her daughter’s delicate keepsake wedding shawl.

One of the best things about being an independent yarn shop is being a neighborhood gathering place for so many creative people, encouraging and inspiring one another. These two shawls started out as skeins of yarn on our shelves. We were lucky to be able to watch as the colors were selected and matched and, stitch by stitch, it was transformed into beautiful fabric. Then, finally – the best part! – the yarn drops in for one last visit to have its picture taken, all grown up now as a finished garment, to be shared here on the blog with you!