Woolbearers Spring Newsletter

My daffodils are peaking through – it must be spring. Here are some of the new things popping up at Woolbearers.

Yarn Tasting -- April 25th at 7 pm – Woolbearers is having another Yarn Tasting. It will be it at the Robin’s Nest Restaurant again. This time we will be sampling yarns that are “green” – organic cotton, bamboo, etc. It was loads of fun last year. Coffee/tea and desert (the deserts at Robin’s Nest are to die for) and all the yarn you can knit up ---- all for $30. We hope you can join us again. Just bring all sizes of knitting needles or crochet hooks. Come into the store and check out all the yarns you will be using. Details are on the website www.woolbearers.com or call or come in to sign up.

Knit-a-longs

Currently we are knitting the clapotis shawl/scarf,
along with 10 other gals who come into the shop on Friday afternoon. Take a look at our blog for all the beautiful clapotis everyone is knitting. Next, we’ll be doing a Moebius scarf KAL. Call us or come in to get more info.

Classes

Starting April 5 and running every other Saturday until the end of May we’ll be doing the Adult Surprise Jacket. This is the bigger version of the Baby Surprise Jacket you’ve probably seen all over the store. I’m almost finished and can’t wait to start another one. If you can’t make the Saturday class we’ll be doing it on Friday afternoons as well.

April 6th is the date for our Finishing Class with Anne Hulsizer. If you want to learn all the techniques for making your garments look professionally finished, this is the class for you.

Beaded Purse Class on April 12 with Uyvonne Bigham. We are so lucky to have Uyvonne come and teach for us. She has worked for Lily Chin and Plymouth and will be showing you all the techniques you need to make a beaded purse. All materials are included in the class. See the examples in the shop.

New Weaving Classes starting the week of May 5th on Wednesday evening and Sunday morning for 8 weeks.

Back by popular demand --- we’ll be doing two more session for making the Wrap Me Up Shawl. One session is starting on Thursday, April 17, the other on Saturday, April 26.

Woolbearers is a Sox Hot Spot. What’s that? Check out http://thinkoutsidethesox.com/SOX/About_the_Think_Outside_the_SOX_Contest.html for more info.
Suzie has been giving demonstrations in our “Getting Started Series”. We just had a triangle loom demo and the big triangle loom is all set up and ready to go. We have several triangle looms in stock. It’s a fun, easy way to make shawls, ponchos, table linens, etc. On April 13th we’ll be giving a demo on the Ashford Knitters Loom. We have 16” and 20” looms in stock.

NEW YARN

Where to begin?? Plymouth has done it again with their Bristol Gallery Collection. It includes worsted and fingering weight cotton /silk blend and a cotton/nylon boucle. Great pattern support. We also have Plymouth’s Royal Llama Linen, a llama/linen/silk blend that also has great patterns to go with it.

This season we brought in Punta del Este’s South American Cotton – a bulky space dyed cotton with free patterns online at http://www.puntadelesteyarns.com. We also have their linen/alpaca blend. We have a few free mini samples of their undyed yarn. Let us know if you are interested.

J. Knits is a new hand dyed company. We have their Superwash Sock Yarn and something called “Lacelicious” -- a laceweight alpaca of 1200 yards for $29! Beautiful colors. Mano has a new yarn – silk and merino in a DK weight. We’re having a hard time keeping it on the shelf. Makes a gorgeous clapotis shawl. Mission Falls just came out with new cotton colors and some of them are multis! We’re already on our second order.

Classic Elite’s new yarns include a cotton/bamboo blend and their patterns are even better, if that’s possible, now that Pam Allen is at the helm. Rowan’s new yarn is called Purelife. It’s organic cotton that is naturally dyed in beautiful soft pastel shades.

Nashua’s Creative Focus cotton is a new addition for us. It’s good basic worsted-weight cotton in lots of beautiful colors.
Socks, socks, socks. We have so much sock yarn – Trekking in wool and bamboo, Regia Bamboo and Silk, Step, Artyarns Handpaint Stripes, Dream in Color Smooshy, Soxx Appeal, Fixation, Sockina, Sockotta, Wildfoote, Kraemer Sterling (hand dyed by yours truly), and of course Woolbearers “Woolie Bears” sock yarn. Did we leave anything out? Come into the shop to see.

Attn: Spinners -- Woolbearers is the sole distributor for Gotland fleece from Whitehall Farm in the UK. Come into the shop to see this rare breed. We also have the new Schacht Ladybug wheel . It weighs only 12 pounds and spins just like the bigger Schacht wheels. Come in for a test drive. Also, keep on eye on our yahoo group and website for upcoming spin in dates.

Our next “Meetup” get together is Friday, April 4th at 6 pm. Everyone is welcome. As always, you can come and knit anytime. There’s always coffee/tea and great company.

Myra & Suzie