Category: knitting

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Time for a staycation?

Wow! Let’s be real here. The world is changing by the minute, right? Two weeks ago I was dreaming about my 10 days in Europe on a river cruise. I was thinking about what clothes to take, what books to read and what knitting projects to take for the long plane ride. Now? We’re staying home. Not because we are worried about getting sick, but because we were worried about getting stuck someplace. With MD sheep and wool festival coming up and off farm jobs awaiting, we just couldn’t risk getting stuck. Are you experiencing something similar?

Yarn for Conflagration scarf kit

If you want to drive out to the country and shop for materials to make a new shawl or sweater, just shoot me an email and make an appointment to come over and shop.

Another colorway for Conflagration Scarf

Do you need to self quarantine? Well, you can always buy a kit or a sweater full of yarn in our webstore.

Yarn for a Fade cardigan

Knitting is always there to help you through long days. And we are here to help you with new inspiration and ideas to make your hands and heart soar!

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FO Friday Cowl Edition

Pile o’ Cowls

Here is a pile of my finished cowls. I have knit all of these over the past couple of years. I love cowls. Have I told you that before? I love them because you put them off and they never fall off. They never unwind. They don’t drag on the floor. They are just perfect accessories in my opinion. All but one of these is my own design as well. The zephyrette cowl patterns are available here.

Do you like to wear cowls? Reply to this blog and let me know.

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new sweater in the works

URSA Sweater is available on Ravelry

I need a warm and really sturdy sweater for this winter. The yarn I’m using is Cacao that I made into a 3 ply so that it is more of a bulky weight. I tried, believe me I tried to get the half brioche stitch correct in the raglan areas. I finally gave up and did a PKP rib there. Because this is going to be a outside sweater and barn sweater, I’ll probably make it longer than the pattern suggests. We’ll see how it goes.

What are you knitting this winter? Reply here or on Facebook and Instagram to let me know.

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fun and easy knit for the new year

shawl for alpaca wool blend yarn
Camau Shawl

This is a really fun and easy knit shawl. It is a flat triangle shawl that can be worn in a variety of ways. It is primarily a garter stitch shawl with intermittent short rows of eyelet (k2tog, yo). The yarn is a 3 ply farm yarn that is a sport weight. There are 2 plies of wool and one of alpaca. So you have a slightly heathery look to the yarn. The yarn will keep its shape because of the wool but add some lovely softness from the alpaca.

Each kit is one of a kind and they are on sale to!!! So be sure to grab one here while they are still in stock.

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curated shawl trios for your new shawl

So many people feel overwhelmed when trying to make color choices for the next new shawl or sweater. Helping shoppers pick out colors is one of my favorite things, so I thought I would put together skeins that will make your next new thing.

All of these threesomes are fingering weight, but some are Corrie Sock, some are Really Fine and some are Sparkly.

I searched Ravelry’s patterns and there are more than 4300 choices of shawls that use 1200 yards of yarn. The choices are immense. Lots of A-list designers have shawls that use this kind of yarn in this amount: Stephen West, Melanie Berg, Casapinka and Andrea Mowry just to name a few.

Which will you choose for your next project? Click here to find the triad that knocks your socks off.

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when yarn and pattern come together

A couple of years ago, a knitter came into our festival booth with a gorgeous scarf that was full of flame shapes. Of course I asked about it and came to find out that the yarn needs to be specially dyed for it. I put the scarf into my Ravelry queue. It is called Optical Delusion: Conflagration. See it here.

Then I forgot about it, as one does, right? So I finally tackled dyeing up some Sparkly yarn to make the scarf. Here is an in process photo, because I have yet to finish it. This pattern is full of short rows and I must count every row, so it’s only something I can work on when I’m alone and totally alert.

So I’ve dyed up 2 colorways for this project for you. You can buy a kit that includes a skein of yarn and the pattern here. Your order will be individually hand dyed once you order.

If you want to see it in person, come out to the Holiday Fiber Art Studio Tour this coming weekend.

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quick and functional mitts to keep you warm

This is my cutest cup and it’s full of Mexican hot cocoa. Yes I’m inside today and it is still so nippy outside. I let the fire go out in the stove and until I restart that fire, I’ll be keeping these beauties on. This is from my Fingerless Mitt Kitts. You can grab one here.

The pattern is one of the featured free patterns that will be given away during our Fiber Art Studio Tour on December 7 and 8. You can find out all about this tour and how to get a set of free patterns from each of the studio stops here.

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holiday knitting? Too Late?

Is it too late to start knitting for Christmas? Maybe, but maybe not. How can you figure that out? Well let’s do some math…it’s simple math.  

  • How long can you knit each day? For me, it’s realistic to say that I could knit 1 hour a day for at least 6 days a week. That’s 6hours a week.  
  • How long until the holidays or when I have to mail presents?There are 6 weeks until christmas and hannukah week. So that is 36 hours of knitting.  
  • And so how long would a project typically take? Well that depends, right. So we have to think strategically. Use a bigger yarn and bigger needles or a smaller project like hat, cowl, mitts.  I know that I can knit a fingerless mitt in about 2 hours. And so that is 4 hours for a pair.  I could probably do a hat in that time as well. And I’ve timed myself on my Lacy Cowl made with luxurious Zephyrette and I know that takes me about 3 hours of knitting. So let’s go with 4 hours.  I could make 9 projects in the time left.  9?!?!?!

But is that reasonable? I’ve already told you all that I am the world’s slowest knitter. But still I could conceivably get some presents knit for some very special people.

Need some ideas? Well a Zephyrette cowl makes a very luxurious gift with very little knitting time. The Lacy cowl below took me 2-3 hours of TV knitting to complete. The other cowls will take slightly longer. The yarn is so soft and warm and beautiful that it is a pleasure to knit and it will be a treasured gift for that knitworthy friend or relative. Pick a skein of Zephyrette and let me know what pattern you are interested in and we’ll get you started on this gift.