A great way to start the new year -- finishing projects and starting new ones

This will be our fair isle class -- the Midnight Sun Tam designed by Sandy Blue using fingering weight yarn.

I did finish my "Citron" fairly quickly. It's a Knitty pattern and mine is done in Malabrigo Lace weight. This yarn is to die for --- so soft. I was afraid it was going to break since it's laceweight, but not one problem and did I say it was soft -- that is an understatement. I've seen this pattern knit up in different yarns -- I'm thinking of doing another one out of Kauni -- just enough color changes to make it really interesting.

I also finished my Mrs. Roosevelt mittens. Can't say enough about working with the Nordique yarn. In fact, we will be having a trunk show of all of Veronik Avery's patterns from her first St. Denis pattern book in February.

Gail came in to show me her latest creation from the Holiday issue of Vogue made out of Nashua Creative Focus Worsted.

Some pretty new yarns --- well, we've had the Blue Heron Rayon Metallic before, but I got some new colorways.

June showed off her new hand knit socks.

and BJ came in to show me her cardigan out of Woolbearers Cotton worsted.

Sara bought Woolbearers Ringspun/Alpaca blend at the Garden State Sheep Breeders show in the Fall and couldn't wait to show me her latest creation. It's a Knitty pattern ( can't remember the name of it -- sorry-- can someone help me?)

and Laura came in to show me what her mom knit out of our Alfresco yarn that she purchased at Garden State Sheep Breeders show too. Isn't it yummy?

Jane and Teri have been knitting the same shawl from a Vogue on the go book out of Cascade Magnum

and Teri finished this scarf for her niece out of Tilli Thomas Disco Lights.

Joanna has yet another Luna Lovegood scarf -- this time out of Woolbearers hand dyed Sterling sock yarn and some silk for the edging. Isn't it gorgeous?

Have you all seen the latest issue of Knitty? There are beautiful sweaters, shawls, hats and socks. But what really struck me the most was this pair of mittens. They look kind of ordinary and functional. But they are anything but ordinary. The original designer of these pair of mittens was none other than Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. She was quite an avid knitter and two patterns that she authored were found among her papers by a park ranger, Mary Ann Colpy at Hyde Park. Ms. Colopy asked Franklin Habit if he could help test and translate the patterns. What a treasure! It's really a neat feeling to know that someone of Mrs. Roosevelt's stature knit these same mittens. I am making my mittens out of St. Denis Nordique yarn, which was the yarn recommended in the revised pattern. It knits like a dream --- I started these last night and am almost finished with the first one.

Just got this model in -- it's the Origami Pullover from Frog Tree. Gwen kindly agreed to model it for us. It looks great on Gwen and I am sure it will look great on everyone.

Marinel came in look for one last skein of Jamieson's Spindrift to complete her Santa Fe Wrap. Love how she improvised the design at the top of the scarves.

Linda brought it in herManos Silk Sweater -- the pattern is from Oat Couture and is called the Celtic Cardigan. Linda is definitely what I call a Type A knitter. This sweater is just perfect.

Sally is going to ring in the New Year with this Martini Felted Tote by She Knits for Knitters.

Gwen used my new hand dyed colorway "New River Rock" in a knitted scarf.

Louise finally finished her Wrap Me Up shawl out of Boku. Great colors!

Louise and Donna are busy dyeing socks after taking my sock dyeing class. They used Kool Aid dyes and went to town!

Sally showed off her Vest using K1C2 Linus. The original pattern is written for Baby Alpaca Grande, but I've seen it knit in every yarn. It's such a versatile pattern.

I have collected close to 100 helmet liners --- if you have any more finished, please bring them in. I'd like to get them to the Red Cross before Christmas.

Just a reminder -- we'll be having our annual Fiber Finishing Frenzy Sat, Dec 19th at 6 pm at Woolbearers. We'll provide the food -- you just come with your soon to be finished projects. See you all then!

Janet brought in 24 helmet liners she knit and vowed she would never knit another one! It reminded me of when I had the brilliant idea of knitting all the yarmulkes for my son's bar mitzvah, out of hand dyed, handspun silk, no less. I made 54 of those da**n yarmulkes and still have one on the needles. Zach is almost 19. Maybe I'll finish it for his wedding. Oy vey!

Anyway, helmet liner knitting night at the Woolbearers was a huge success. There wasn't an empty seat and everyone had a great time. One of the gals said that she would give one of her helmet liners directly to her grandson who was being deployed to Iraq soon. So far, I have collected 75 and I know there are lots more of them out there. If you can, bring them to the shop by Dec 20th, so I can give them to the Red Cross before Christmas. Their goal is to have 1000 made by the end of the year.

Will lives about 1 hour away, but manages to come to the shop as often as he can. Here he is in his first raglan sweater made out of Cascade 220. Will was little embarrassed to ask if I had a few yards of Alfresco in the Key Lime colorway. He just needed 2 yards to finish the shawl. Well, I had a little bit of undyed yarn leftover and was able to dye it and match it to the shawl. Will just happened to come into the shop when I was about to mail it out to him. You can see the finished project here.

Another botanica done! This gal lives about 1 hour away as well. The last time she was at the shop was when Shiri came to give a talk about the Botanica -- here's the finished product. Great jobl

Kay is showing off her first weaving project.

Teena is fairly new to knitting, but y0u would never guess that by looking at her projects. The first scarf is done with one strand of Lana Grossa Chiara and one strand of Nashua Grand Opera. She decided to put an opening, such as the ones in the bowtie scarf and figured out how to do it with this Ruffled Scarf pattern. The other scarf is also the Ruffled Scarf pattern done with 2 strands of Lana Grossa Evento in two different colors. Love the outcome.

Anne is shown here once again teaching her famous Finishing class. As usual, the class is filled. We'll be doing it again next April.

Sandra is showing off the Endless Knitted Cardi Shawl by Stich Diva Studios. She gets together with about 5 other gals to knit and they are all knitting this lovely design out of Tilli Tomas' Silk Plie.

Linda has been knitting this adorable baby sweater out of Mission Falls 136.

More Knit to Fit --Brynn got her inspiration for her Knit to Fit sweater from this sweater she found in a magazine. I can't wait to see it finished.

And Rebecca finished her Knit to Fit creation and is almost done working on her second!

Donna's mystery bag is done. I just love the design and the clever use of the scarf and straps. I just wish there were more hours in the day.

Helmet Liners -- we will be knitting helmet liners for soldiers being deployed from the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst base. Come to the shop on Tuesday evening at 7 pm. We'll have pizza and drinks -- the pattern is free and any yarn purchased for the helmet liners is 20% off. The helmet liners must be made out of 100% wool and they need to be black. Give me a call or drop me a line to let me know if you will be there.

We've had a busy fall --- lots of interesting classes. Nelda Davis, the master spinner came for a workshop last weekend. Her students were so impressed that they have asked me to bring her back for another workshop.

Here Nelda is showing everyone how to use wool combs and the other picture she is demonstrating the proper technique for hand carding. We will definitely have Nelda back sometime in 2010.

Kathleen was so excited to show me more of her beautiful spinning -- she bought some of Woolbearers hand dyed merino and went to town. These skeins are just perfect.

Lucky for me, while Nelda was here teaching, Wendy came in to the shop -- all the way from Las Vegas and wanted to buy a drop spindle. I am a terrible drop spindler, but Nelda had a few moments and got her going. Wendy just couldn't stop spinning. I know we will be seeing her when she is in town again.

Here is the result of Jill's dyeing workshop with yours truly. It's a little hard to see the lace pattern, but it came out beautifully.

Karen's Knit to Fit class has always been a big hit with our customers. She'll be doing it again (right-Karen?) and we're hoping to have her do another class as well. Keep you posted on that.

Our beginning weaving class have finished their scarves. We'll be offering beginning and advanced beginning weaving in our next class list.

Sharon is working on her Einstein Jacket and Margie is working on another square for her Learn to Knit Afghan. Only 50 more to go!

Kris finished one of her Christmas stockings. Very cute!

And Gwen is crocheting another shawl -- this time out of Zauerball.

Donna is showing off her mystery purse from She Knits for Knitters. It will be felted -- can't wait to see the results.

Jane's shawl out of Punta's Merisock and a scarf made out of The Fibre Company's Road to China Light. She used a pattern from Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting Patterns

Looks good from either side.

Anita stopped by for buttons for her new Mission Falls sweater. Great colors!

Phyllis felted her bags. The top one is knitted out of Woolbearers' Delaware Valley Yarn and the blue one is out of Cascade 220