The Knaughty Knitter

Just a slight change...

Summer hours will continue through July and August and we will start opening again on Tuesdays after September 1st.  I have also changed Friday hours a bit. We will be open 11-8 now. 

1. The Mystery Anniversay Shawl is coming along - today is the last day to sign up.  It'll be pretty.  I've been busy finishing things...I finished a sock last night and should have another done tomorrow.  Had to...needed to finishe something so I could start new stuff.....pictures later...

Hey, here's a new thing...

The help card.  Need project help but not in need of a lot of time?  Get a help card good for an hour of expert help.  You can use it whenever you need help and the time is checked off in ten minute increments.  No appointment needed either unless we get swamped or it is a sale day.

I have added a couple of classes to the calendar too.  In August there's another weaving class and also felted bag class.  We'll make this weaving class a little less intense and less back breaking and do a pillow cover - I'll have a sample probably next week.   For the felted bag we'll do a Booga Bag - with some embellishments.  This one will be on Thursday evenings at the end of August.

And just a reminder - We wil be closed on the 4th of July.  Happy 4th, everyone.  Enjoy the fireworks and BBQ.  We will be open regular hours for the rest of the weekend though.

Look what Janet did...

Originally these balls of spun yarn were one of my hand dyed rovings.  Janet spun 'em up and plied with some novelty yarns to make the yardage go further and here they are.  Think I need to dye some more....

Saturday at the Spin In we made a fiber sandwich and then spun it.  Even though the same basic fiber combinations got to everyone, they all looked completely different.  This inspired Janet again and she went home and put a bunch of different fibers together and spun them.

It's all good.

New Mystery Knit Along

Some folks just told me about this today.  Goddess Knits - they have amazing lace patterns has been around awhile and she is doing a lace pi shawl knit along.  5 charts, big circular shawl and you can choose your design as you go....anyway the deadline for signing up is June 30th.  You can search for pi shawl in groups at www.yahoo.com.  Anyone else want to do one?  And we have lots of lovely lace yarn to choose from.  I think mine is going to be a natural creamy alpaca...

Socks in a Day Class

Carole will be teaching this wonderful class on Saturday, August 2nd from 11-4.  Using the book Crazy Toes & Heels, you'll be making a little sock out of worsted or DK weight yarn to learn the techniques in a day.  This technique uses one needle to make a toe up sock that fits perfectly! You must already know how to cast on using the long tail cast on, increases and decreases.  Carole says she didn't realize those one size fits all socks you buy or make really didn't fit until she made these.  They feel so much better.  Sign up for this one quickly, space usually fills up fast.

SPIN IN

Saturday we'll be spinning from 1 to 4.  Come join us.  Bring your wheel or spindle and spin in public.  Here's some roving I dyed last week that is available too.  Bring an ounce of fiber for a fiber sandwich and we'll all have a bit of it and have something interesting to spin.  (Fiber Sandwich - a conglomeration of different fibers, all put together and ready to be spun to make wild and crazy yarn)

Isn't this pretty?

Susan finished it as a sample for her next lace class.  She'll be teaching beginning lace using this lovely pattern from Fok Shawls.  The class isn't scheduled yet so let me know when is a good time cause she's pretty flexible about when she does it.  This one is a made of lace weight alpaca from Misti and is so light. 

Yeah, Weaving

I was looking at an old copy of Wheel magazine from Ashford this weekend and got inspired to do more weaving.  There was a woven kimono style coat made from strips of woven fabric.  It was monochromatic with different textures and was something I would definitely wear - once I tweak the design a little.  And then I saw some rugs woven from rags - I had already done one, but am more inspired to do more.  At the Dickson Fiber Festival there was a woman who wove gorgeous rag rugs &  got some ideas from watching her that should make the Knitter's loom work better for this and make the finished product look more refined.  And....I got to looking through the weaving books here and found some new techniques I had forgotten existed.  So there will be lots of weaving classes coming up - one this month on the 21st to do a pillow top, one more in July.  There will be one in August too of more advance weaving techniques - as soon as a I do some samples. Yeah Weaving! 

I have changed the formats of the various webpages (calendar, etc) so take a look. And look for your monthly newsletter soon too.