Sunday, November 25, 2007

Bad Luck or Bad Needles?

I have been enjoying my knitting with this lovely Knit Witches mohair. It took me a while to find a pattern that wouldn't drive me crazy. This one is from MagKnits, and takes a little concentration, but not too much.

Knitwitches-scarf-2

The other day, I was reading an article about how great the new Knit Picks Options wooden tip are for knitting lace. I do love the metal ones, but this yarn has been just sliding right off, so I decided to give them a try. The tips are pointy, but not too much, great for lace. The only problem is that after one row, my tip came off of the metal holder. I figured this was a fluke, and asked Nathalie to borrow one from her set. So here I was, sitting in the coffee shop near Stash yesterday, enjoying my lace knitting, when here we go again...

Knitpicks-wood

I telephoned Knit Picks after the first needle, and they are sending me one. The lady on the other end of the phone seemed a bit confusted by what I was telling her, she wasn't the most helpful, but did finally figure out that I need a new one of 4.5 mm. I guess I will be calling them again about the other. I am now wondering about the rest of my set. Do I ask them to replace the entire thing? It could be quite a while before I get around to trying every size. The questions now is, was this just a bit of bad luck, or are these bad needles held together with childrens paste?

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Veste Finished

The Veste Everest is finally finished! I think that it is a little too short, but all of my fashionable friends have told me otherwise. I am so pleased with the color, and it fits perfectly around the bust and waist. It was a pretty quick knit, and though there were no sleeves, there was quite a bit of finishing to do. In the interim, I have been working on some Monkey socks, and have finished one, and a bit of another. The best part is that I can now start working on Cherie Amour, which has been in my queue for a few weeks now.

Vest-Everest-finished

On the shop front, we have a new yarn in, All Hemp 6 from Hemp for Knitting. I recently saw the pattern for Eiffel in Knitty and fell in love. This was about the time that Lana and Melissa contacted us to see if we would be interested in their yarns. At first this yarn is pretty rough, but when washed, has many of the same qualities of linen. I have learned some interesting things about hemp as well, it can be washed and dryed in the dryer, it does not stretch or shrink, and it has anti-microbial qualities. This makes it a good candidate for making dishcloths as well as garments. The colors are beautiful, and we have it in the shop right now!

Friday, November 09, 2007

Knit Witches

I know its been a whole week since the Knit Witches evening, but it took me this long to get the photos from Nathalie's camera. Here is a photo of the yummy yarns that are in the shop now.

knitwitches1

We have four yarns available, a sock yarn, silk laceweight, cashmere laceweight, and mohair. The colors are beautiful semi-solids.

The evening was alot of fun, swatching, and catching up with some regulars who we haven't seen in a while. We were able to present Anne with the Lizard Ridge blanket that some of us knitted for her.

lizardridgeblanket

Big thanks to those of you who participated. Anne has left a card in the shop, so if you come in, take a look.

In case you didn't know, we have recieved a huge new shipment of Dream in Color Classy worsted and Smooshy sock this week, hope you can check it out!