What's New: 3.10.10

The spring rain seems to be upon us. A bit early to claim spring is here, but the rain may help to wash away the dirty snow. It's still perfect weather for knitting. We have great yarns and project ideas for every level of knitter and budget.

Love to knit but want a project that takes more time to complete? Consider an easy lace scarf or shawl. Lace gives us an opportunity to purposefully make holes in our knitting. We have all created holes by accident at one time or another in a favorite project or two. Lace kniting does not mean you have to knit on size one and two needles. Many lace projects use fingering weight yarn and size 6 needles. Create a wonderful baby blanket using a simple feather and fan lace pattern. Visit HeartStrings FiberArts for a wonderful FREE Baby Blanket pattern.

Love to knit and want a portable project? Consider socks, hats, or mittens. Hate double pointed needles? Consider knitting on two circulars or use the magic loop method. We also have 8" and 9" circular needles that are easy to use for socks, wristers, and mittens. I hate double points but love using two circular needles. I will admit that I have been using the Kollage double pointed square needles on wristers and mittens and find that they are MUCH easier to work with than standard double points. Visit the Kollage website for some great quick to knit scarf patterns.

Tired of hats and mittens? Grab one of our new bright colored cottens and an easy dish cloth pattern. Dish cloths make great hostess gifts and Mother's Day is coming up. Tina combines a new dish cloth and a pump bottle of hand soap to create a wonderful, yet inexpensive gift that is knit from the heart. Check out the new dish cloth samples at the shop. Angel made a great St. Patrick's Day dish cloth. The pattern is available free on Ravelry.

Not ready for a sweater, consider a vest or a spring tank. Check out this cute vest, good for any season at Knitty.com: Rooibos Cardigan/Vest. It's shaped, has great pockets no sleeves to knit.

We have wonderful new spring fibers all over the shop and more are arriving daily. New yarn also mans new patterns and pattern books. Tina and the staff are working hard to rearrange the shop to showcase all the new cottens, linens, blends and more. A large shipment of Noro Taiyo has arrived. It is my favorite summer blend of the Noro yarns to date. It boasts good yardage, a great hand and vibrant colors along with wonderful pattern support.

Check out the new book of 60 patterns using Cascade 220 which arrived this week. There is a wonderful free scarf pattern using Cascade Eco Duo (FABULOUS Alpaca/Merino) on the Cascade website.

SAVE THE DATE for our Annual Spring Yarn Tasting Friday, March 26, 2010 (10:00 am-7:00 p.m.)

This is your chance to get the first look at our Spring Focus projects and purchase the yarn and pattern for those projects at the Yarn Tasting for 25% Off retail. We plan to feature at least 10 projects (more if we all knit night and day) that will make your spring and summer knitting baskets scream with joy! Food, Fun, Prizes & Surprises. Save the date.

Class Update

Slip Stitch Hat: 2 sessions March 14 & 21. Slip stitch knitting looks hard and resembles FairIsle knitting but is SOOO much easier. Join Lindsey for two sessions and you will be a pro.

Clara Dress-wonderful baby sweater class for that SPECIAL Little one begins March 11.

First Baby Sweater-Great class to try your hand at a sweater while knitting a wonderful gift for that special baby in your life starts March 21.

Elizabeth Zimmerman's Green Sweater (stop in to see the shop sample) starts March 20. Join Yvonne to knit this classic, go anywhere sweater. Yvonne just added one clasp to her closure instead of buttons. Visit School House Press for the history on this sweater.

MORE FREEBIES: Check out his cute crochet baby hat. Crochet lovers check out this cute Baby cap.