Yarn Gallery Blog

I love it when the weather cools off a little, not just for the better weather but because I see some folks that I don’t see all summer.  When it’s hot, they’re traveling, gardening, lounging by the pool, entertaining royalty, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, deep-sea diving, negotiating peace in an obscure African nation, tracking yetis in the tundra…whatever it is, you can tell I firmly believe it’s more exciting than whatever I’m doing.  Then, when the first few nights in the 50’s occur, they all secretly jet back to Reading and trek to the yarn store, yearning for a new project.  It’s one reason I love this time of year!

The other, of course, is the anticipation of receiving the new yarns.  When that really gets going, I’m like a kid with a 6-week long Christmas – highly over-stimulated. (Well, at least something over-stimulates me – at this age, it’s a plus.)  And August is the toughest month, because the trickle just barely starts.  Yarn distributors are like the rest of us – they don’t want to bring in things too early because they won’t have the money to pay for them, but if they come too late, their customers (yarn stores) are unhappy and likely to order elsewhere.  Every season I have to figure out what to bring in early, what to allow to come later in the season, and when I have that all nailed down to perfection, some of the early yarns can’t be shipped on time, and then Trish’s yarn gratification is delayed and poor baby Trish has a tantrum.  Well, I don’t but every now and then, I just bellow,  “I want more yarn!!!”  Somehow, it helps.

And it makes me vulnerable to the evil Yarn Rep, who, in the guise of a very sweet lady from Baltimore named Rivka, showed me some beautiful yarn, and in my weakened state, what was I to do?  I ordered some more, of course, and one thing I can barely wait to get my hands on is a cashmere and silk laceweight that will be perfect for a one-sleeved wrap that I’m going to copy from Nordstrom’s.  My sister wants one (and she may get it, eventually) but you’ll be the beneficiary of a free shop pattern, if and when it turns out well.

So what do you think of the new classes?  So far, we’re having a good response, even with people being so busy with back-to-school.  I hope you’ll come in to see the projects because they are absolutely beautiful.  Plus we have some beautiful scarves in the making – it’s definitely the year of the big, long, wide scarf and we’re having fun making models galore.

So even though I don’t have any new yarn to show you this week, I did see some beautiful finished projects and here they are:

First, Barb Werner made this very pretty Debbie Bliss design from Silky Wool.  Barb knits all the time but she rarely knits for herself so it’s nice to see her in her own work:

And Melissa Korth finished her Adult Surprise jacket – it’s another beautiful project from Melissa and another great example of the jacket.

Lynda Slovitsky made this adorable little shrug from a wonderful Knitting Pure & Simple pattern and Plymouth Boku. I love it in the self-striping yarn.  I’ve seen this shrug in a bunch of different yarns and I finally had to make one – it’s be in the shop this week so you can see one in person.

And finally, just look at what Jan Gardner – who lives in Virginia but visits here frequently – made and brought in to show us.  It’s based on a doily pattern, I believe, but it’s about 42″ in diameter.  She knit it on 0’s in a lace-weight cotton, and said it “didn’t take that long.”  I’m speechless with admiration!

Here’s the big picture:

Here’s the edge detail:

And here’s a detail of the motif:

I can’t top that, so I’ll just say…

See you soon!

Trish

It’s a beautiful crisp morning and feels lovely after a couple days of high humidity.  I feel pretty good, too, because the 12 “weekend” hours I’ve spent on the computer getting the fall class list straight is nearly at an end and I can go back to work, thank goodness!  The updated page should be up by the end of the week, just a couple details to verify and a photo or two, then I’ll send out the e-mail.  I love our schedule for the fall, we have projects to interest most levels, that are beautiful, and most important of all, will be fun to do.  I’ll talk more about them next time, because, frankly, I’m sick of looking at this screen.

Thanks to everyone who came to our little end-of-summer sale.  It puts a nice period to the season, and this week we’ll be putting summer things away and beginning to bring out fall yarns and new models.  I’m ready! We received 2 new yarns last week from Classic Elite.  Moorland, a wool, alpaca, mohair blend is just a beautiful soft and misty tweed that could be knit at any gauge from 4.5 to 6 stitches to the inch, depending on the fabric you want.  I sold out of 3 colors on the day I received it, and of course have more coming this week:

And Montera now comes in heathers and they are really beautiful – this is my next sweater project, just cannot get enough of this yarn:

And thanks also to everyone who sent birthday greetings – if you sent an e-card and didn’t hear from me, it’s because all the dire warnings from my computer prevented me from opening any.  (“Warning! Clicking on this link could me the end of civilization as we know it!!” and so on.)

One reminder – we’ll be closed on Sunday, August 31 for Labor Day Weekend (open Saturday as usual) – and now on to some awesome projects:

First, Deb Hawk and Janet K finished their Surprise Jackets this week.  Deb used a bunch of different yarns as most of us did, and Janet used just one – Noro Taiyo – and don’t they both look wonderful!

Katie Perkins (with sister Margitta Pfleger) modeled this wonderful sweater with chunky open cables on the front and sleeves.  She made it from Ethno, a beautiful  and (sadly) discontinued yarn that we’ll all miss.  I’m going to dream about this yummy soft sweater on cold mornings this winter:

Lauren Turgeon brought in her first lace project – it turned out beautifully!  Done in laceweight Zephyr silk and wool, it definitely wasn’t a piece of cake; she really challenged herself:

And Rochelle Mann designed this lovely shrug for her granddaughter, who wanted – and got  – pink!  It’s another masterpiece from Rochelle:

That’s it!  Expect the class e-mail in a day or two, and I’ll see you soon…

Trish

…and so it is, or hereabouts, anyway.  I think that at “a certain age” we should get to take a birthday hiatus.  I mean, there’s not that much to celebrate about being my age. (Curious?  Just take 2 x the 11th prime number, add Geordie’s age, add my age when I got married the first time, subtract my age when I got divorced for the fourth time, multiply by the hours I’ve spent wondering why I’m such a slow learner, and I have no idea what you’ll come up with.  I got off track.) Don’t get me wrong, I love my life and my age and would change very little about my circumstances.  But must I celebrate?  Seriously, it’s not hard for the average American to get to this age, it’s not a landmark birthday, I’m past the first set of ages for cake and ice cream and balloon animals and have yet to reach the second.  I would be very happy if my birthday went unmarked until – oh, let’s say, I add another 30 years.  Now that would be something to celebrate, especially if I can still knit!

Anyway, I got the nicest gifts this week in the form of a beautiful bounty of completed projects to show you, so let’s go…

First, we’re so proud of Peggy Evans, who has worked really hard at learning to knit, who practiced and practiced on blankets and never thought she could do anything else.  Look at this adorable baby set that she made in Peter Pan DK:

Lori Yatron finished this lovely summer top.  The vibrant blue looks wonderful on her, the fit is perfect and in Hempathy, a cotton and hemp blend, it’s cool and flattering.

Carol Slifka and Lynda Slovitsky both finished their Adult Surprise jackets and brought them in to model.  I love them both and I love how Carol’s looks tailored for her job and Lynda’s looks relaxed (she’s retired, lucky girl), just as they planned.

Two pretty scarves.  The first from Barbara Haag from a free shop pattern in a hand-dyed silk and mohair blend called Nantucket:

and the second by Mary Drehs from a Fiber Trends pattern in a hand-dyed fingering weight wool:

Barbara used a challenging yarn with a fairly straightforward pattern, and Mary used an easy-to-work-with yarn for a challenging pattern.  Both did really good jobs.

Lynne Nagle is an absolutely fierce crocheter who makes the most gorgeous and adventuresome things.  Here is her second pair of socks, in Panda Silk.  Soft, and she says they fit really well:

These gorgeous scarves are too much.  The first (modeled by Karen Wenrich because her top was the perfect color) is in Noro Kureyon Sock yarn from a pattern she found on the internet that translated a knitting design into crochet.  I think this open pattern must be a pain to knit – lots of bindoffs and castons, like 10,000 button holes, but Lynne said it was fun to crochet, and the self-striping yarn was a perfect choice.

And the next scarf is more like sculpture.  I saw the design in Interweave Crochet magazine and loved it, but seeing it in person is stunning.  Lynne again used a sock yarn, this time a rich rusty red semisolid shade of Ranco  to make this amazing design.

And here she is modeling a bolero/vest she made:

I’ve got to talk to this gal about teaching some classes, don’t you think?

I feel very underachieving after all this.  I made this slouchy beret, modeled beautifully by Ol’ Scarface (our rather beatup styrofoam head).  It really wasn’t meant to be so slouchy and I should have used a smaller size needle to get a regular beret.  Luckily, this is much more in style right this minute.  It’s made in Aysen, a kettle-dyed wool/alpaca/silk blend that is really pretty and lovely to knit with:

I finished a pair of socks and started another in a new version of Jawoll Aktion that just arrived.  Great guy colors:

And here is the sock I started in the brown shade – really like the way it’s knitting up.  It’s all shades of brown, unlike the picture which shows some blue-gray.  The photographer apologizes:

So you can see, I’m not exactly keeping up with my customers!

Okay, that’s it!  Come to the “sidewalk” sale Friday, Saturday, Sunday this weekend if you can – we’ll have some sample items for sale as well as good deals on summer yarns.  Then we’ll be setting up for fall after that.  And I hope to have the new class schedule up next week – I’ll e-mail you.  See you soon…

Trish

Well, here I am again, yearning to get back to the shop after a few days off.  I must say, this has been an unusual summer for me – I’ve gotten away several times, and only one of those times was for business.  This is all thanks to Janet Kakareka and Karen Wenrich who have pitched in to cover for me while I go off and enjoy myself in all the glamorous jet-set spots. (Baltimore, State College, Columbus Ohio – yeah, baby!)  I joke, but really I so appreciate having such wonderful people to rely on – they’ve made my life much easier!

This time I went to State College because my nephew Eric, who lives in Houston, was home with his wife Hilary and their two adorable children.  So cute, so smart, so noisy!  It made me realize how quiet my life is at home – and what a luxury that is!  I thoroughly enjoyed them, though – the only time there was any problem was when Jonathan (who is 5) had to be dragged away from a brand-new Playstation game.  He was not amused, and I could almost identify with his – very loud – displeasure.  I think video games (apparently even Sponge Bob) are very absorbing and rather addictive, and block out the world around you, and when you’re abruptly called away from them, it makes you grumpy.

Knitting is my Playstation.  When I sit down to knit, I want a nice long uninterrupted stretch where I can become absorbed in the pattern and rhythm of the stitches, and not have the phone ring or the dog bark or a tea kettle whistle – and I get rather touchy when I don’t get to knit much.  It calms me, helps me to pass the time in a boring or stressful situation, and if I’m just sitting and my hands aren’t busy, I get restless. I smoked for a long time, and while this knitting addiction is milder and quite benign, it’s definitely there.   Thank God for an addiction I don’t have to fight!

Here are some great projects by other knitting fanatics:

Chris Dreazen, who is into fiber in every possible way – spinning, dyeing, weaving, quilting, and knitting (and perhaps other ways that I won’t speculate about…) (okay, I just did speculate, but everything I came up with was pretty darn harmless)…ANYWAY, Chris made this very beautiful shawl from lovely 100% baby llama yarn called Miski.  It’s a cute name and I don’t know what it means, but it a Mirasol yarn and everything sold benefits a project to build a school for a very poor village in South America where the animals are raised.  Soft, heathery, warm – just what a shawl should be.

Now, look how radiant Wanda Strickler looks in her beautiful wrap made of Manos Classico in a lovely blue with a variegated border:

It’s the perfect color for her eyes, don’t you think?

And Karen Walter popped in with this finished short summer sweater in a gorgeous color of Rowan’s Calmer.  Like me, she loves the yarn and, unlike me, I think she has a bunch of great sweaters in it.  The absolute best non-animal fiber for knitting ever made – I’ve never used another yarn like it.

By the way, Karen trained for and completed her first triathlon this summer.  In case you don’t know what that means, it means she ran, swam and biked about 5 bazillion miles – for some crazy reason.  I can’t figure it out, but sweetie, you go!  I’m behind you (way, way far behind) all the way.

I want to mention that our Beginning Refresher on August 16 has spaces left, and if someone you know has said, “Oh, you knit! I used to knit, can you teach me how?”  this is the class for them.  In one day, we’ll bring back all those memories that are stored in their fingers and get them knitting again.  You can read about it on our Classes page – which will soon be undergoing an update for the fall.

And Penn Avenue is having a Sidewalk Sale August 15th – 17th.  Now, I don’t think we’ll be moving things out to the sidewalk but we will be giving 10% off on all regularly-priced summer yarns in stock.  That means that if you have a full Frequent Buyer card, you’ll get about 20% off those yarns.  So pop over and spend a day on the Avenue and get some great deals.  (Please note: we’ll be open only our regular hours.)

Okay, I think that’s it!  See you soon…

Trish