THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM?

Yes today is Thursday the 31st..I decided that I would get this blog thingy done early this week so if the crazy email decides to give me any trouble again I would be ahead of the game.. Yeah..ok..ya know, like you work, work, work and you are thinking yes I might be ahead this month then....THE CAR BREAKS DOWN...yeah like that! or your furnace explodes! I know, I know, we all know what that's like. UGH! The blog is still ahead of its time (Monday) but 1 day late for the SALE!!!

I wanted to give all of you a heads up....For the month of February the Crystal Palace Aran yarn will be ON SALE, 20% OFF and each Monday in Febuary we will be giving a free pattern that uses this yarn! It comes in a ton of great colors and is feltable if you so choose.

Also below is a link to the Crystal Palace website. There is a felted bag using the Aran yarn that is georgous... The picture is also below..
http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns/bags/EnglishGarden-felt.html

Hope all of you have a great week and I hope to see you soon! GO GIANTS! Sorry New England fans but I'm from Jersey!
This is a picture of the free scarf pattern this week.

KNITTERS GALORE!

As you can see from below, It was knitting central here on Saturday! The room was filled with lotsa knittin. Even some new knitters! WE LOVE NEW KNITTERS! Remember the old Girl Scout song "Make new friends but keep the old ones, one is silver and the other is gold" I used to love singing that song when I was in Girl Scouts......Yes I am a dork! SO WHAT! Ok well Pat was busy, busy,busy! Yikes!


On to other things, Here is a bagone of the new knitters (Joan)brought. If any of you out there have seen this pattern somewhere please let us know! If not we are gonna make our own. We loved it!
Here is a picture of my dog, Onyx. Yesterday he got a NEW handmade knitted sweater. His sister Allyssa made it for him..He loved it so much that he and our other dog started running all over the house.

Here is a picture of next weeks free pattern. The cute freckly kid is Sean. (he's gonna be embarrassed) He dosent come with the pattern. We thought he made a cute model. Sean cooperates much better then the dog.

Below is a picture of a pair of thrummed mittens that Carol made. I love them and plan to make a pair. ASAP just like all of the other projects that I am planning. Yeah, I know YOU know what that's like. The second picture is the inside. The picture didn't come out so well but you get the idea.


Also, I have a customer that comes in from time to time from over by philly. She made this beautiful vest and stopped by to show it to me.


Here we have a cute cabled bag that Mary Jo made. Her and her friend made ribbon pins to put on the front. They are soooo cute. She was in today and is going to make a few for spring in cotton and ribbon. We can't wait to see them!

Below is what I have been working on. My mothers friend had knee surgery and needs a knee warmer sooo, here it is!

Here is one of the last pictures of one of JoAnne's students. She is bound to pop any day now! We hope everything turns out well.

See all of you soon I hope....

ADDING MORE CLASSES!

Hi all, There are several new things to tell you. Yay! I'm so excited! There are several new classes being added to our list.

JoAnne Turcot will be having a weekly class every Wednesday from 6:30-8:30, starting January 23rd. For the first 4 classes she will be working on a baby sweater using Encore Worsted. You are welcome to join them and bring what you are working on. She will present the lesson for the evening then help will be available. Cost is $5 for each class.

Also Linda Miller will be here every other Tuesday evenings from 6:30-8:30,Starting January 29th. So I here, she is the sweater master...If you have ever wanted to make a sweater and were afraid to try alone...This class is for you. Sheteaches from start to finish...I think I might join, I want to make a Fair Isle sweater that actually fits after I"ve done all that work...We all know how that is! Cost is $5 for each class.

Customers pictures: Above to the left is Judy, she made these gorgeous cabled hat and scarf set in Pat's class and wore it right out of the shop on Saturday. Its hard to see the cables in the picture, but they came out great! Above Middle: Carol is making a pillow from Interweave's Holiday Issue 2007. She knit it out of Mission Falls 1824 Wool and is in the middle of making an H on the front of it for her hubby, Harold. Above right: The is a work in progress...this customer is making a sweater out of Mission Falls 1824 Wool. I am sure it's going to be gorgeous...More pictures to come!

This cutie sweater was made by me for a baby shower that I attended on Saturday for my friend Steph. Unfortunately I didn't finish it so I had to bring it back with me to the shop and today I will be adding the buttons. Luckily I hear that I'm not the only one who runs short on time. I always think I will have enough and never do..

Above is a lacy scarf I'm working on. It will be one of the free patterns soon I hope. Maybe by next week. HAHA! (time again) I am using really really nice handspun with gorgeous tiny glass beads. If you look reeeeal close you might be able to see the beads...See the cute stitch markers? I love them! It's 70% Merino Wool and 30% Silk...MMMM..very nice. Its about 150 yds. so it should make a decent size scarf. There are several other colors as well. Charcoal, green, brown and this tan.

Last week on the blog I told you about a hand dyed yarn called Starbug knits. This a picture of a sock (obviously) knit with this yarn. Just to give you some idea.

I almost forgot, I found a pattern for 4 felted bags on http://www.etsy.com/ I fell in love with them as soon as I saw them and ordered. Below is a picture of one of the bags. It's one of the best felted bag patterns I have seen in awhile. Also, below is the link to Madeline's blog, if you decide you would like the pattern also, you can go to her blog and order them. I think this will be my next project. HAHA! The bag to the right is a new bag the Madaline has..It is not listed on her site yet, but will be very soon. I love this one also.

http://www.knittingdream.blogspot.com/

Last but not least, I have decided to pick a pattern from Berroco for this weeks pattern. I love this little bag and it only uses one hank of Jasper. Dont forget it can be made in any of the colors we have. I hope you love it as much as I do...Another project waiting for me...AAAAA!


Just courious what do you all think of a mystery pattern?? Do you think it would be fun? Or not? Like a dishcloth, maybe? Good for beginners and advanced alike! and fun

At least the weather makes me want to knit!

Hello again gang, We have some new yarn in our midst...Starbug has decided to leave us with some gorgeous hand dyed superwash. As you can see the colors are to DYE for...again I crack myself up! Right now we have fingering weight, great for socks or even fingerless gloves. My daughter decided she wants the blue and yellow color. Hopefully soon she will be bringing us some worsted weight cause we love the colors!


We also received some great Handmade stitch markers. Listen, the elves that made these, worked very hard and did a great job. They are beautiful. As you can see they come in a varity of sizes to fit needles 0-13. Next time your in check them out!

A few more show and tells, Lois made this beautiful felted bag with black wool and Optic. Great job Lois...Gail,(told you she was our shawl model) made another prayer shawl in blues this time...Again it's gorgeous!

The http://www.knitourousmrsb.blogspot.com/ sent me a survey so I could figure out what kind of fiber I was...as you can see I'm a Camel...I'm not so sure that I like that! Oh well, I yam what I yam! a camel it is! I am hoping she can forward you to the survey because now I can't seem to find it anywhere.. I even went to the site and it vanished.

Here is the picture for your next free pattern. As you can see ( I hope you can see) It is a beanie to match the fingerless gloves...The beauty in the picture is JoAnne's daughter.

Classes are filling up quick so if you think of it, please call first just to make sure that everything is going as planned and there is room. Have a great week and hope to see you all soon...Don't forget, this Saturday starts the baby sweater class with JoAnne. Please, If you want to join, call and let me know asap so we are sure to have space for you. Hope you all have a great week and see you soon..Donna

FREE PATTERN NEW YEAR!

Hi everyone, I hope your New Year is off to a good start! I have to say, I am so glad it's over...See Below??? This is what happens to you around the holidays when your kids are off for a week or two! I crack myself up!!! Now I want spring! We are going to be spoiled by the nice warm weather tomorrow...It's supposed to be 66. Imagian me thinking that 66 degreese is warm...I'm a 86 degree on the beach sweatin and a knittin kinda girl!
Ok ok, I gotta say, they are cute though!

I have a few customer project pictures to show you but first I want to remind you not to forget the Baby Sweater class that is starting January 19th with JoAnne Turcotte. The class runs from 10am-12 the 19th and 26th. Learn everything you need to know about making a sweater and have some fun too! I am making a baby sweater for a friend as we speak and I have taken it out 3 times already.... I have this issue with gauge. I'm not afraid to admit it. I knit loose and I can't stand how much smaller my needle needs to be then the pattern suggests. Ugh! If the pattern says a size 8, I have to use about a 6...I hate that! So usually I try to get away with using one needle size smaller but guess what...It dosent work! So I waste time reknitting..Why you ask? I dont know, maybe I think I can tame that darn yarn to do what I want! Never mind what it wants! I think I should take JoAnne's class....

>Also, Pat Walker's class is doing well Tuesdays from 1-3pm and Saturday's 1-3pm. I don't have a picture of Pat, sorry. (I will get one when she least expects it...hehe) during Pat's class the shop is open so she gets lucky in the picture dept! I can't follow her around.. This is Gail. She takes Pat's class every Saturday. She made a gorgeous prayer shawl out of Plymouth's Boucle. It came out so nice. We all loved it. She is our new prayer shawl model!!! Work it Gail!!!!

Mary Jo made a cute cabled bag for her mother for Christmas. She added an initial pin to the front and it is sooooo nice! We love it!
Donna (not me) made both of these adorable hats for her grandchildren for christmas! (lord help me, no grandchildren)

Diana is here on Thursday Evenings from 6-8pm and her class is going well also...They are a roudy bunch I'll tell ya that..After they leave my stomach hurts from laughing! Here is Diana sittin on the floor helping one of the girls! (She's gonna kill me also)
This is the Thursday evening class knittin away! or yakin for that matter...HAHAHA!

More News: In December JoAnne and I went to Lehigh University to help teach a sorority how to knit... they were knitting hats for patients in New York's Prespyterian Hospital, Oncology ward...
JoAnne taught and I fumbled through...haha...Im not such a good teacher! I admit it at least! The girls were great. All of them were polite, Their moms would be proud, our hats off to ya Ladies! GREAT JOB! Thanks Lauren for the pictures. Pass this on!

Ya know when you bring your camera all prepared to be the photographer? and the battery goes dead as soon as you open it? Yeah, that's what happened to me so Lauren was nice enough to send me her pictures... http://www.headhuggers.org/ If you want to make Chemo caps to donate you can check out this site...There are several patterns for free and they even have listed where you can send them when your done....

Drummmm rollllllll Pleeeeese! Last but not least, Everyone that has the Internet knows that you can find million of patterns out there floating in cyberspace at any given moment....We are going to add to those FREE patterns weekly!! I will be posting a free pattern each week that I love...and hope you will to. This week it will be....Fingerless gloves! Ok I know this is very small..haha! I have been sitting here trying to figure out how I can make it bigger so you can read it. Now my brain hurts, sooooo for now I am going to attach it to the email in a word document. I will figure out how to add it to the blog at some point hopefully sooner then later. Have a great week and hope to see ya soon.