The 3rd Annual Woolbearers Yarn Tasting held at the Robin's Nest Restaurant was a great success. Here are some pix of tasty yarns.

Some of the gals crocheted squares of all the samples. Kris went to town and made a scarf of yarn samples from all three tastings.

So far, I think the favorites were Misti Pima/Silk and Plymouth Royal Llama Linen. Classic Elite's Sprout was very nice to knit with and although it is a bulky yarn, it knit up very nicely on smaller needles. I am almost finished with my Sprout Tee from CE's Johns Bay pattern book.

On Sunday, folks came to knit on the Botanica Medallion Cardigan. A few said they would be wearing their's when Shiri Mor comes to the store on Thursday, May 7 @ 6 pm.

One gal came in on Sunday all upset because she couldn't figure out how to fix a mistake in her beautiful bamboo tape wrap. I was able to drop it back a few rows and pick up the problem stitch. It is knitting up so nicely!

We've all heard that Knitting is the new Yoga. The CBS Early Show did a segment on Knitting for Your Health. You can view it here. But, of course, we already knew all about the health benefits. Especially when you have to rip that sucker out for the 18th time. Verrrry relaxing.

Well, so there were errors in the Botanica Medallion pattern. Folks were emailing me on Ravelry with corrections -- so glad I didn't have to figure it all out myself. I emailed Shiri Mor, the designer of said pattern and she not only sent me corrections, but has agreed to come to the shop as part of our Botanica KAL. She will be here on Thursday, May 7th at 6 pm. Hope you can all come. Here are some pix of progress on the Botanica. The turquoise color is by Gwen - we all know that she knits in her sleep, mine is next and then Amy's.

I must say that I had to rip it out a few times, but once I really got going, it is coming along quite nicely and I am really enjoying this pattern. Love working with the yarn I chose -- Rowan Purelife Organic cotton -- very soft and drapey. I was wondering how the outer ring was going to fit around the medallion. This is a very clever pattern as one side of the pattern is longer than the other. Can't wait to see how it fits together!

Dori finished the Adult Surprise jacket for her mom. Dori is an airline pilot who gets up at 5 am and knits for at least one hour in the morning. She really got this done relatively quickly. You can imagine what it's like to knit a row of over 300 stitches. It would take me close to an hour!

Woolbearers is having a KAL for EZ's Seamless Yoke Sweater. We have all almost gotten to the fairisle yoke part of the sweater. Kristen cheated a little. She wanted to do the fairisle on the bottom part of the sweater and she came away with gorgeous results. The pattern is done with Rowan Tapestry -- looks like she used many different colors, but it's all one yarn. I just love it. You can see the beginning of the fairisle pattern on my sweater and Marinel is almost finished with hers.

Joanna crocheted this lovely scarf, called Luna lovegood out of Lorna's Laces sock yarn (say that 5 times fast).

Speaking of Yoga -- Woolbearers is having a Yoga for Knitters class starting on May 30th. See our website for more detail.

I swore I wasn't going to do it--so I'll blame it all on Donna. She came in the other day all excited about the cover of the latest Vogue Knitting Magazine. I thought it was really pretty, but was more intrigued with the shaping of another project in the magazine. So, we looked at what yarns would be appropriate. I thought the Rowan Purelife Organic Cotton was the closest match to the yarn that was called for in the pattern. I've been knitting with it to make toys that were featured in the latest Rowan book for kids and really liked working with it. When I got home that evening, I opened up my copy of Vogue and started looking more carefully at the pattern. Gee, I already had the yarn -- so I couldn't resist. Since I finished up two projects recently, I just had to start yet another three.

I love knitting lace -- this pattern reminds me of the Hemlock Ring Blanket, of which one is finished and another is still on the needles. Be forwarned. There are errors in the pattern. The first one is on Round 2 -- you need to increase to 3 stitches from 1 in order to get 18 stitches at the end of the round and Round 10 should read K1 at the end instead of K2. I know this is a major problem -- errors in patterns -- I found 2 big errors and am only on Round 40, so I suspect there may be more. I have to wonder where the errors are actually made. Are they from the designer or are they made during the transcription process. Is anyone doing a thorough job editing? I happen to speak with Nicky Epstein at TNNA last year about this. I had a few customers who were very upset with her, because of the errors in her books and they swore they would never buy anything from her again. She was adamant that when the pages of designs left her hands there were no errors. Somehow the errors appeared during the "editing" process and I use that term loosely, because someone is not paying attention. Whenever a customer comes in with a problem, the first thing I do is look for the errata sheets for the pattern. I'd say that 75% of the time, that's the answer. That is not a very good batting average. I think the industry needs to do a better job. How many UFO's do you have lying around because you are stymied by the pattern and just gave up?

Thank goodness Harriet didn't give up. She just had to have this beautiful pattern and found the right yarn that worked. She used Cascade's Rustic - a wool/linen blend and can't wait to start another project with the same yarn.

Jill has been busy getting ready for Easter.

On Saturday we had 3 brave souls and their knitting machines with their first attempt at machine knitting. Uyvonne Bigham came to teach the basics of machine knitting, while making a beaded purse on the machine. Here is a selection of Uyvonne's work -- I think there may be a book in store for this -- and a few pix of student works in progress.




Sunday finally finished her socks -- she came in to show them off to her teach, Sabra.

Linda finished her Stonington Shawl out of Jamieson Spinddrift. Isn't it a beauty?

And Bonnie is almost finished with her Great American Aran Afghan. It is gorgeous! She made it out of Punta del Este's Lava -- a machine washable wool/acrylic yarn. Good choice for an afghan.

A new display of kids sweaters and such.