Susan was inspired by the Emily Ocker discussion and knit this tiny baby cap using the technique, then started the baby blanket using Woolbearers Kona in Colorway Baby's Garden. The mitered square blanket is a pattern by Cottage Creations called Rambling Rose, which you can buy in our online store!






Hannah finished this fabulous lace stole of Rowan Kidsilk Haze. The pattern is from Victorian Lace. Isn't it beautiful?

Kelly bought the yarn and knitted all of this while sitting in the store for an hour! It is a lace shawl done in Woolbearers mohair, colorway Early Frost.

Other 'in progress' works seen this weekend are a Pi Shawl knitted by Joanna in Woolbearers Fingering weight wool in colorway Herb Garden, a cardigan in a Rowan yarn knitted by Loren, several projects for grandchildren by their loving grandma's including a beautiful lace cap knit by Hinda for her granddaughter, not yet here! Lots of pregnant daughters and daughters in law out there.

UT's Gone, But Not Forgotten

Six weeks ago, I had a hysterectomy. Aside from a slightly thinner waistline and a hairier chin, I haven't really noticed feeling anything different with all of my innards gone. So much for all the hoopla. Someone asked if I was sad about not being able to have more children.....my youngest is 32 so I really didn't think along those terms!

At least the desire to knit, and the ability to read a pattern has returned. I've had so much anesthesia in the past 18 months, I doubt I would ever pass a drug test. It's truly amazing, the effect all of those drugs have on one's memory and concentration. I feel a little like a dud much of the time. Thank you to Myra for patience and filling in the gaps. I love my knitted uterus, by the way.

Lot's of you stopped by this weekend with finished projects and projects just begun or in progress. The Pi shawl is still hot. Also, the Wrap featured last week has taken on a life of it's own. You have to see it in person to really appreciate how beautiful the different squares are, and the lovely yarn in all the different stitches. My favorite areas of the shawl are the beaded lace and mosaic knitted squares. It calls out for close examination.

Jane finished this adorable cardigan from an ancient pattern, knit of Cashsoft DK. The cable around the front and neck really makes the sweater. She knit this lace sock of Reynolds' Soft


Sea Wool. (Held by Rich Carty of Pinelands Music, who just stopped by and also almost sat on my uterus, which was resting on the chair.)


Jane is starting a sweater of Weaver's Wool from Mountain Colors and the colorway is so lovely, we wanted to share this picture of the beginning ribbing with you just for inspiration. Also by Jane, this feather and fan scarf done in Jitterbug Sock Yarn by Colinette.

Sabra is knitting a fabulous sweater of Woolbearers Ringspun, colorway Wildflower. The top down sweater is also going to be a class this fall. Isn't it a lovely color? Everyone who sees it comments about the yarn.


I am having trouble downloading all the picture I took, so I will publish this and start another post.

FO - DONE - FINIS. I finished the Wrap last night and blocked the edgings this morning. I have never enjoyed knitting a project as much as this one. There are 21 separate blocks -- so you never get bored and the color changes of the K1C2 Paintbox are fabulous. We already have two classes and may add a third session. Can't wait to see what other color combos folks come up with. BTW, Gwen started hers, using Plymouth Boku and some N-word yarn. Here's what Gwen's wrap looks like:

Have you wondered whatever happened to Matt's Tattoos. Well, Miss Suzie dyed some yarn and it flew out the door. Here are some pix of what our customers have done with it. Lisa is making a Pi Shawl and Gwen made some very cool socks.

I got inspired by the colorways and did some dyeing using these bright colors -- a big departure for me.

Since I finished several projects in the last few week, I gave myself permission to start two more, another wrap from the latest Jo Sharp book and the scarf from Simply Shetland out of their newest yarn -- cashmere and lambswool. It is yummy to work with. We have a skein of each colorway at the shop -- these are going to be used for our "Little Bit of Lace" class, but it looks like we are going to have to order bags of each color. The latest book from Simply Shetland is already on reorder and many of the patterns use the new yarn.

Emily Ocker -- Where are you? It all began when my customer Judith came in and wanted to knit the Nomad Hat and Scarf from the latest Interweave Knits. After looking for the perfect yarn for almost an hour we finally found something that would give the same gauge but not be too heavy -- Bulky Leisure an alpaca/cotton (50/50) mix in a tweedy red colorway. Then, the question came up -- can you help me with the cast on. Sure I said. I looked at the pattern and there it was. The Emily Ocker Cast-on. Now, I heard of this cast-on before. Gwen was going to teach a top-down class last fall and included in her description was the teaching of the Emily Ocker cast-on. So I knew it had to be something special. I looked at the directions in Interweave Knits. Not a whole lot of information there. So, I went online and sure enough found tons of references. I found a tutorial, complete with pictures http://www.spellingtuesday.com/circular_co.html and another website with a neat explanation -- http://jgibson.cts.com/knitting/ocker.htm. It turns out that Emily Ocker was a neighbor of none other than Elizabeth Zimmerman and this is her favorite cast on. Special indeed! But wait, I actually found pictures of the famous Ms. Ocker on another website http://sanityknit.blogspot.com/2006/08/camp.html complete with pictures of her showing the cast-on herself. What a find!

So now I found myself trying to learn how to do this cast on while Judith and her husband are staring at me. I tried with some practice yarn and after a few tries, I actually got the hang of it. You need a crochet hook and you hold the yarn so that it forms a circle and actually do single crochets around the circle. A little tricky but just realize that you go under the circle, grab the yarn and then go over the circle and grab the yarn and pull it through the loop on your crochet hook. Sounds simple, but believe me you need to practice for a bit. Then, I tried it with the yarn I want to use to make my Nomad Hat -- which is Woolbearer's Alfresco. A single spun hand dyed wool/acrylic mix. Kind of chunky. The Emily Ocker cast on was a little trickier with this yarn because of the bulk, but I did actually master it and can't wait to start knitting up my hat. Thank you Emily Ocker.

Almost Finished There are 20 blocks in the wrap. I'm now on Block 19 -- almost done. I would have been done a lot sooner, but ran into a little problem. When doing the lace block, I kept ripping out because it wasn't coming out right. So, I finally charted out the pattern and it appeared to me that the pattern was wrong (an extra k at the end of row 1). Since we are having a class I knew that I had to get it right. After tearing my hair out for a while, along with tearing out the yarn, I decided to email Chris at Knitting at Knoon and lo and behold, I was right. She's adding this to the errata on her website.

Here are some of the new items that came via UPS today.

The 25th anniversary issue of Vogue Knitting is a must-have issue. I just finished reading the article entitled "Chatting and Knitting with the New Guard". It's an interview with Vickie Howell, Shannon Okey, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Clara Parkes, Debblie Stoller and Adina Klein. -- icons of the "new generation of knitters". (or so dubbed by me) It's really interesting to read what these gals have to say. Run, don't walk to your nearest LYS and get your copy.

The new Rowan book has great, gorgeous patterns. Can't wait for our new shipment of Kid Silk Haze. We also got in the new Artfelt kits from Skacel. The mix of colors is wonderful -- can't wait to see what everyone comes up with. This week we are still waiting for our new laceweight yarn from Jumbuuk and the new lambswool/cashmere blend from Simply Shetland.


FINISHED I do actually finish some things from time to time. Here is a Rowan Bamboo Tape top and a baby blanket that I started over 2 years ago.




And here's a picture of Nina's felted purse -- made out of Woolbearers handpainted NZ Woolshire -- bobbles and all

The Wrap is Growing . We scheduled class time for this. Check out our new calendar on the woolbearers.com website. I cheated and used two colorways in Paint Box -- I love how the colors interact in this one particular block -- the one to the right of the beads.

Today we got many packages. New yarn! Yeah! First, we finally received our new Anny Blatt scarf kits. Part of the proceeds from these scarf kits are being donated to Ovarian Cancer research. The colors is a much deeper turquoise. Kinda shocking color when I first opened the box.

We got in our shipment of new kids yarn from Reynolds called Playtime. Great patterns and the colors are not your typical baby colors. The yarn is 80% acrylic 20% wool and very soft -- worsted weight so whatever you knit will knit up in no time. Of course, it's machine washable.

Jo Sharp's new book arrived. Great, great patterns as usual. There's even a felted bag out of Silk Road Aran. I'm definitely going to knit the wrap out of Alpaca Lustre. You'll have to come to the shop to check out all the patterns. Our new Lopi book came too. How many pattern books have patterns for a horse blanket?

Last but not least. the first shipment of Opal Sock Yarn arrived. I can hardly wait to knit socks now!

IT'S A WRAP! Have you ever just loved knitting something? I found this pattern -- "Wrap Me Up" from Knitting at Knoon. It's a shawl/wrap knitted in self-striping yarn -- 20 different blocks -- mitered squares, beaded, ruffles, linen stitch, moss stitch, etc. etc. So, the ADD in me won't be bored -- you are constantly jumping from one thing to the other. I love watching the patterns grow and play one against the other. Self striping yarn is always fun to watch as the color changes ever so subtly. I am using 2 different colorways of Knit One, Crochet Too's Paint Box (color # 6 and 10) and a little bit of Manos to tie it all together. Woolbearers is definitely doing a class for this -- everyone who comes into the store is oohing and aahing. Can't wait to get started on another one.

New Books! New titles in the store include Pursenalitites, by Eva Wiechmann. Twenty crocheted and felted bags, easily made with a large hook, wool yarn and some novelty yarns grace this book. $19.95.













Romantic Style by Jennie Atkinson is probably my favorite book of all time. Every single project in it is something I would love to do someday. There are several wonderful knitted jackets, a shawl of crocheted Kidsilk Haze grannie squares, lovely decorative things for the home, including a beautiful neck roll. I am a confirmed bed sitting reader and will definately make this for myself someday......I love it.

We are waiting for our new Rowan books to get in; there is Nashua pattern book that is all great bags. I'll keep you posted.

We are having a ball knitting the pi shawl and piR2 shawl. The pictures are as follows:
1. Anne still on dpns.
2. Debra, coming along just fine.
3. Suzie, ripped out for the last time. Now flying along without stitch markers or the chart.
4. Meghan, beautiful, beautiful. You can see lace!
5. Gwen, lovely and going quickly.
Not shown, Sabra tore her's out and left it home! We will see it next time. Everyone said it is so much easier when the double points come out. I found that I can follow the lace design without looking at the chart or having stitch markers. The markers were just confusing me.

I've Got the Going Green Blues I'm a late bloomer in the recycling, ecologically friendly, planet protecting realm. Although the 'back to the earth' movement was an important concept to my family;( my husband and I took our newborn and four year old to a solar energy camp out in 1975), I think we did those things because they were cool to do and the participants had really good grass. We even added a geodesic dome onto our farmhouse in Michigan, heated our house with downed trees, grew our own food and raised animals for consumption. I had long braids, my husband had a beard and a ponytail , and there were two looms in our dining room back then, too. Unfortunately, when he graduated from college in 1979 and we moved to Philadelphia, all of that ended.

It takes me longer than most people to get on the ball. My friend, Hinda, recycled before you had to recycle. On trash day, she has the smallest trash pile in town because everything finds a place in the recycling bins. She encouraged me to try harder. Sabra, our employee and teacher extraordinaire, once took a pile of papers to her car to take home and recycle rather than see me throw them in the trash. Last week, I caught myself throwing empty water bottles and a glass ice tea bottle into my knitting bag to take home and put in the recyclables. My husband is becoming, though a little late, a fanatic about recycling. He asked me if I thought that the whole green thing is fleeting. I really don't think so.

We are striving to go green at Woolbearers. We use paper towels, but they are made of recycled paper. We don't use styrofoam cups, and we try to recycle plastic in the store by reusing plastic bags, bubble wrap, and styrofoam peanuts when we are unlucky enough to get them in a shipment. We use environmentally low impact dyes and only vinegar on our wool yarns. My sheep are on their way to being declared organic and I will like the day I can sell their wool as organic.

When we went to TNNA, we sought out organic products. Myra searches for interesting, beautiful yarns for our customers and found Vermont Organic Farms. Spun from luxurious 100% Certified Organic wool and processed in accordance with the Organic Trade Association's Fiber Processing standards O-Wool uses no harsh chemicals in processing making it durable, long lasting and a well-wearing fiber. O-Wool Classic, in the picture above, comes in gorgeous colors, is from long stapled wool so it resists pilling, and gets softer with washing. We should have it in stock, along with their two ply yarn, next week.

On the other hand, I'm not going to get ridiculous about this. Several years ago, I bought a large amount of weaving yarns, and part of the deal was that I had to take some acrylic yarns in the lot. I hate acrylic, but the truth is, the yarn is here, it's high quality (sounds like a contradiction), and to destroy it would cause a bigger impact on the earth than using it for something like blankets for the homeless, baby blankets, hats or scarves, whatever. So we continue to look for groups who need a yarn donation. I think part of the green movement is also using what we have and not being wasteful.

I keep hoping someone will come up with a use for another recycled product; 100 lbs of pink tricot strips, waste from a lingerie factory in PA that at one time I thought would make great rugs.

Yesterday six women came to dye in my barn. Our ages ranged from 18 to 56. (I was the oldest...). Three of the students studied natural dyeing and three used chemical dyes. The day before, I took skeined yarns in one pound batches and mordanted them. Using iron and copper sulfate in tiny amounts, alum, cream of tartar and tannin, the skeins were ready to go as soon as the students got there. I chopped up Japanese willow; no color at all. Dyer's Coreopsis with a few pink roses and some marigolds thrown in yielded a deep olive color I think because the whole dye pot was contaminated by a skein of iron mordanted yarn. Just two nettle plants gave the most beautiful, soft yellow with alum, a soft green with copper, and a light olive with iron. Yellow onion skins gave a sunny gold yellow. Red onions dyed a phenomenal rose, deep rose with iron, grey rose with copper, lighter taupey rose with alum. The ratio of plant material to fiber is huge in order to get color. I chopped up at least a bushel of sorrel and boiled it for two hours. The color was negligible.

We also used Earth Hues dye extracts and they worked wonderfully. Something called Quebracho, an extract from the bark of the Quebracho tree yielded a rich brown rose. Lac Madder extract gave a dark rusty red. I think this dye pot was contaminated by the iron mordant, as well. We also used Turmeric from the Acme; just two scant tablespoons gave a rich gold in varying shades.

The chemical dyers had the primaries to mix; blue, turquoise, magenta, red, sun yellow and clear yellow. I presoaked the skeins in a strong vinegar solution for about three hours. Using graduated cups, the students measured out the dyes and funneled them into small squeeze bottles, applying the dye to the skeins in any and every combination. We wrapped the skeins up in cellophane wrap and steamed them for half an hour. The skeins look like a work of art drying on the fence. The yard looked beautiful with all the color. The sheep were not impressed.

We had a great time and agreed we need to do the dye day again, soon.