Shroom Hat -- I was wondering what I could knit out of SWTC's Dream Big yarn and saw this pattern from Knitty.  Since I only used  half of a skein, I had enough left over to do something else.  What to do?  Make a neckwarmer to go with the hat.  Pattern?  Something simple -- so I made a seed stitch pattern complete with slip stitched edging -- very simple -- only 7 stitches, but you can certainly cast on more.   I made the neckwarmer about 24 inches long and still had yarn left over.  I think it took about an hour to knit and that was with interruptions.  This is the neverending skein of yarn -- superwash super bulky.  Here's the pattern.

Dream Big Neckwarmer

Materials ½ skein of SWTC  Dream Big, button

Needles – Size 13

Gauge:2.5 stitches = 1 inch in seed stitch

Cast on 7 stitches

Row 1: Slip first stitch as if to purl with yarn in back, K1, p1 for rest of row

Repeat this row for 20 inches

Next row -- Slip first stitch as if to purl with yarn in back, K1, P1, Bind off 1 stitch, P1, K1 , P1

Next row -- first stitch as if to purl with yarn in back, K1, P1, Cast on 1 stitch, P1, K1, P1

Repeat row 1 until there are 24 inches. Bind off. Sew in ends, sew button to correspond with buttonhole

Customers have been busy knitting with some new yarn -- here is the beginning Barbara Jean's sweater out of Stonehedge Fiber's worsted weight merino -- so soft.  

And here is Terry's cardigan made out of Punta Yarn's South American Cotton.

New classes coming up -- Microwave Felted Purses.  The class is on Saturday, Oct 2nd.  Hope you can join us.


New Woolbearers hand dyed yarn -- superwash merino, bamboo and nylon -- fingering weight.  Bonnie knit the Nougat neckwarmer by Susanna IC in the colorway Blueberry Bog.

The new Amy Butler, Belle Organic yarn is proving to be a big hit.  I knit the Sycamore Fingerless Mitts from her new pattern book.  (Ok -- so it's only one mitt).  Great yarn to knit with.  Come in and try it out.

Oh that Wonderful Wallaby.  Woolbearers had another wallaby class.  I always like to teach a new technique, so this time I wanted to everyone to learn how to do a tubular cast on. 

First thing you do is an e-wrap cast-on with waste yarn. Cast on half the amount of stitches you need. I prefer to use cotton as my waste yarn so it is less likely to stick to the "real" yarn.  Next you take the yarn you will knit the sweater with and purl all of your stitches.

Do 3 more rows in stockinette. Now the "purl" side should be facing you.  Purl the first stitch, then pick up the loop of the first purl stitch you did on the very first row and bring it up to the left hand needle and knit through the back loop. Purl the next stitch and then bring the next purl stitch from the first row up to the left needle and knit through the back loop.  Keep repeating this until all stitches are knit - you will have to pick up the last loop from the selvedge edge.  You now have double the amount of stitches you started out with.

You can pick out the waste yarn anytime after you knit a few rows.  For ribbing, it has a nice professional finished look.  I will probably use this cast on everytime I start a project out with ribbing.

Jackie is hard at work kitchenering the hood together, while Katie's is still on the needles.

Here is Jackie's finished Wallaby, underneath hers, is Clare's. 

Clare did a great job with striping hers.   There's one more gal in my class, Janet,  who is working on two Wallabys at once.  We had to do quite a bit of ripping this week, but she's doing a great job for someone who has only been knitting for 2 months and I hope to have pictures of her finished product next week.  I just realized that everyone in the class knit theirs out of Berroco Vintage -- a great superwash yarn, especially since all of these Wallabys will be worn by kids.  Mine (up top) was knit out of Classic Elite's Solstice - a merino/organic cotton combo and it knit like a dream.

I love when folks come in with a project made out of my hand dyed yarn.  It's really special to see these beautiful projects.  I almost feel like Sally Field crying "they really like my colorway".  Joanna is modeling her finished Whisper Cardigan out of Woolbearers' Merino/Silk/Cashmere laceweight yarn in cornflower.  The ribbing is out of Plymouth Baby Alpaca Lace.

This week must have been Woolbearers hand dyed finished project week.  Rebecca knit a feather and fan scarf out of the hand dyed Sterling Silver sock yarn -- colorway Deep Magenta and Bonnie knit a Summer Flies shawl out of of Baby Llama Glow in colorway Colonial Blue

Joanna also knit a Summer Flies shawl out of Plymouth Royal Bamboo

And Katie knit an Andrea shawl out of Claudia's Fingering 55 (merino and silk) with a border out of Plymouth Buckingham

Will's Traveling Woman shawl is out of Blue Heron Sock Plus

Gary's sweater is a top down sweater of his own design.  He double stranded Karaoke and Plymouth Llama Linen for some fabulous results!

Judy is going to be teaching a class for Woolbearers in the Fall. We'll be knitting this lovely modular lace shawl.  I can't wait for the class. She knit this shawl out of Koigu, but I think the possibilities are endless.

So, there I was, driving to work one day, minding my own business when this rock came crashing through my windshield. Miraculously, it missed me by about 2 inches and landed in the trunk of my minivan.  The damage was only to my windshield.  Can you believe that?  I continued along to work because I knew I had to be there to receive a UPS delivery of new Rowan yarn and figure out how to get my car fixed!  A quick phone call to AAA got the Mobile Glass unit to my parked car the very next day and yes, the UPS man waited for me!

Here are some of the yummy things we got.

This is the new Rowan Drift yarn -- Big Wool as a tweed -- 2 st/inch

This is the new Rowan Renew yarn -- one of their "green" yarns.  It's made from recycled wool for a  great tweed effect -- 3 1/2 st/inch.

New from Shibui -- a collection of baby patterns and new sock colors

There's lots more new stuff -- I'll save it for later posts. Of course, you can see all the new yarn in person.  Here's a sneak peak at our new store layout

And here are some great customer projects.  Bonnie has been busy knitting shawls with Woolbearers' Handyed Sterling sock yarn.  The first one is Azzu's Shawl and second is the Traveling Woman Shawl

I thought these fingerless mitts were so cute.  Bonnie made them out of Classic Elite Wool Bamboo and Frog Tree Sportweight Alpaca.. Pattern is Mrs. Beeton from Winter 2005 Knitty. 

And here's my finished Seriously Simply Shawl  out of Kauni colorway EP.