Important Happenings
Natural Stitches will be closed for Labor Day, September 7th.
This means that those of you entering the Summer of Socks and Lace have until Sunday, September 6th to get your final items weighed in!!!
Sock, Lace and Orphan sale
To help you win the Summer of Socks and Lace:
From August 16th - August 31st almost every sock and lace yarn(*) will be on sale for at least 20% off!
Also, anything in the Orphan bin is an extra 10% off of the already discounted price. This means that if it is marked 40%, it is now 50% off!!!!
(*) Sorry, the new Bison and all Pagewood yarns are exempt from this sale. Does not include special orders or yarn on hold. Sale items may not be placed on hold during this sale. |
What's New?
So much fun stuff, so little time!
Is it a needle gauge or is it jewelry? We've had a lot of requests for these little guys from Debra's Garden. Three varieties are available: standard needle sizes, sock sizes, and crochet hook sizes. We also have cords available to easily turn these into a necklace. |
We have many different colors. |
Just some of the lovely colors this yarn comes in! |
We love a good work horse! And Berroco has a new one. Vintage Wool is 50% Acrylic (makes it washable), 40% Wool (makes it feel oh so nice), 10% Nylon (makes it durable). It comes in over 30 gorgeous colors (you should see the heathers!!!), and at $6.00/ball, you don't feel like you need to sell your first born to make a sweater for your dad for Christmas. |
| The FedEx guy has come to dread the days that he drops off a box of Pagewood Farms at our door. Carla almost mauled him the last time. In this shipment, the same colors you love in a sock yarn, now in a laceweight. (Update! Just this past Monday, we received TONS of new sock yarn from Pagewood too!) |
| Lantern Moon dropped off a bunch of gorgeous needle holders, gift bags, and Baaabs to keep your scissors from running away. Why is it we're not supposed to run with scissors, but they always seem to run from us? |
Isn't she cute? |
You MUST come touch this stuff! |
Finally, we have copies for the new Interweave Knits for Fall 2009. Inside is the gorgeous Freyja Sweater and Hat, made out of Road to China Light. I don't think there's a single “non-luxury” fiber in this yarn: Alpaca, Cashmere, Camel & Silk! Yowza! |
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Store Happenings
Confession time: I love the Tour de France. I think I'm one of two people in Pittsburgh who do (Hi, Amy!). If you put me on a bike, I'd last less than 5 miles, but these guys handle that while eating their lunches at the same time! Unfortunately, it's over for this year, so I'll stop evangelizing for it.
A few years ago, someone decided that such a display of discipline, sacrifice, and hard work had to have an equivalent in the fiber arts. The Tour de Fleece was born! Like the Knitting Olympics for spinners, Tour de Fleece “riders” commit to spin every day of the Tour. They rest when the cyclists rest, and they challenge themselves to do their absolute best, perfect their spinning techniques, and delve into new ones. They come together in teams , just like the cyclists do, and so it came to pass that the last Thursday of the Tour, we housed the spin-in for Team Three Rivers for the 2009 Tour de Fleece!
Being the one up on a chair taking these pictures, I have to say that this was really cool to see. Spindles and wheels speeding too fast to be seen, and oh my, the fiber. Gorgeous colors, great conversation. Ladies, it was wonderful watching you. Thanks to Sarah for thinking of us as a venue! Come & visit any time. (Editor's Note: Spinner's Central is our regular spinning night, the 2nd Thursday of the month.)
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What I did on my Summer Vacation
Like a lot of the country, the staff here at Natural Stitches enjoy summer by taking a trip somewhere, a change of pace, new scenery. Nothing reinvigorates the body, mind & soul like travel. Monica spent some time in Finland (stay tuned for that story), Anna is currently in Wyoming. Of course there are knitting adventures to be had on vacation: new yarn shops, new knitting friends, or hilarious stories of people who just don't understand why you would bring wool to the beach.
As for me, I haven't gone anywhere. No, I'm not bitter. Why? Do I sound like it? I have a week in Cape May coming at the tail end of August, but my summer has been defined by learning a new language. I spent most of the summer just a few blocks away from the shop absorbing Biblical Greek, 2 ½ hours a day, 4 days a week, with about a dozen other people. I've already taken Greek twice, but I need to know it to pass my exams to become a pastor, (like passing the bar exam), so I needed to brush up.
If ever a situation called for knitting, man this is it. It was my solace in those days listening to classmates struggle with pronunciation and wrestle their way through sentences that seemed easy to me. Then as the class got harder, I was amazed to find that knitting helped me focus on what the professor was saying, and gave me a rhythm to memorize verb endings and vocabulary.
 Yes, I know I spelled threw as “through.” I've been making that mistake since I was 7.
So for those of you about to head off to college and grad school (sorry high-schoolers, I haven't found a high school teacher yet who would let you get away with this), I offer this brief tutorial called…
“How to Knit in Class”
1. Ask the professor.
Whether it's a big survey class where you can hide in the back or a small seminar, permission is crucial. No permission? Put those needles away and doodle like the rest of the class. Bribing the professor with a pair of handmade socks or a hat may help grease the wheels here.
2. Keep it simple, student.
As impressive as it might be, this is not the time to pull out your Alice Starmore Aran, your Kaffe Fassett colorwork, or your Estonian Lace Shawl. This is a time for repetitive, monotonous knitting, a pattern you've done 3 or 4 times, one you can do without reference to a book, a chart, or a piece of paper. Simple scarves, hats, or the legs and feet of socks are highly recommended.
If you're not a one-project-at-a-time knitter, have more than one brainless project in your bag. That way if you realize you've dropped a stitch, have to fix an error, or turn a heel, you've got a project in reserve to work on. It's also a good strategy to spend weekends, breaks, really any free time, getting a project to a brainless point. Turn that heel during lunch, cast-on on Sunday night as part of your homework. Yes, your whole life must be focused on making knitting in class possible.
3. Who can knit in class?
Knitting in class is NOT (no way, no how, stop begging me) for beginning knitters. If you drop a stitch, are you going to be able to pick it up without losing the lecture? If you have to TINK, how much focus will be pulled from the professor?
Here's a good litmus test. Before your classes start, rent The Bourne Identity (if you've seen it 10 times, try The Red Violin…fewer have seen it, but it's not as exciting). Try to watch while knitting on a project similar to one you'd take to class. If at any point you find yourself so absorbed in your knitting that you have to rewind or find yourself so absorbed in the plot that you put down your knitting, you'll need to find a simpler project. If you're already on a garter stitch scarf, hone your skills at home and then shoot for next semester. This is a movie where you have to look at the screen to catch the action, where you have to read subtitles translated from several different languages, and where you have to listen or you may miss the finer points of the plot. These are all things you'll have to do in class: make eye contact, read, and listen without being distracted by what your hands are doing.
I can hear my mother's voice in my head, and I'll answer it right now: Yes, knitting in class and doing well in school can happen at the same time. I got an “A” in my class, but that was because I picked my projects carefully, I did my homework and prepared well for class, and I followed the most important rule of all:
IF YOU FIND YOURSELF UNABLE TO FOCUS ON THE LECTURE, PUT THE KNITTING DOWN!! |
Book Review: Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn by Carol J. Sulcoski
By Charissa
If you follow my blog at all (http://www.howe2knit.blogspot.com) you know that as a knitter, I have superpowers like time travel and invisibility .I also have a few yarn-specific superpowers. See, I can take any handpainted sock yarn and find exactly the right stitch count, gauge and pattern to make it pool in the weirdest way possible. OK, so it's not so much a super power as it is a curse. I have some odd socks, let me just tell you. You can imagine my joy to see a book all about battling the evil forces of color pooling! (Editor's note: I think we've all had this experience. Ravelers, check out the forums thread “Examples of pooling – Good and Bad!” for many, many more examples.)
 This book doesn't just talk about avoiding pooling, it teaches a knitter to take advantage of the unique color qualities of handpaints and really make them sing. After pages of great instruction, our sock guru includes 21 fabulous sock patterns by the likes of Ann Budd and Nancy Bush, among others. These patterns will get you well on your way to not having strange color patterns on your socks. I took some Flat Feet yarn (see the review below for your yarny reading pleasure,), which has HUGE potential for color weirdness and the Switcheroo pattern from this book and have thwarted the pooling curse!
So, on a scale of really old mildewing basement acrylic to hand spun buffalo, I give this book a rating of cashmere! If you ever plan on knitting socks with handpainted yarn at any point in your life, you need this book in your collection! |
Yarn Review: Flat Feet by Conjoined Creations
By Charissa
You know those flat swatches of yarn hanging in the sock yarn section of the shop? Right there in the window? Did you know those are NOT samples? Nope. Knitable sock yarn. Yeah, I'm serious. I thought it was kind of weird too at first, but the idea grows on you. I mean, how much fun is it to take that flat piece of fabric with a smiley face on it and turn it into a sock with no smiley face on it? Only you will know about the smiley face!
This is a wool nylon blend that is machine washable, so you don't have to worry about it wearing out too fast or getting washed in the machine by mistake. The price point is not bad for a full pair of socks. For $25, you get 400 yds. Unless you have really big feet (and you have my sympathies if you do), this is plenty for a pair of socks. To use the yarn, you just find the end (and it's not hard at all to find) and begin knitting with it. Just unravel the yarn as you go!
There are some real advantages to setting up your sock yarn in a flat like this instead of a ball.
- No knots. The last pair of socks I knit had TWO knots in the ball. I can't begin to tell you how annoyed I was by that. One of the joys of socks is how few ends there are to weave in. And knots mean more ends to weave. I'm too lazy for knots.
- No yarn barf, tangles or collapsing balls of yarn. It just keeps unraveling ever so smoothly with no hitches. I like that. Did I mention how lazy I am?
- Entertainment value. OK, I've been told I'm easily amused, but seriously, you have no idea what's going to happen next! That reindeer is totally not gonna show up on the socks. Is blue next? Yellow? A splash of pink? How fun!
Now, to be fair, I can't just gush at you about how awesome this yarn is without telling you there are one or two cons to using this yarn.
- It's a little wavy as you're knitting because it's already been knit with. If you're knitting your first pair of socks ever, this might not be the best choice. It doesn't take long to get used to, but could confuse a beginner a bit.
- If your kid/dog/cat/rabbit/etc. gets a hold of it and runs, you could have a HUGE mess on your hands. Keep it up and away from little "helpers."
- You don't get the pretty little cake of yarn that comes off the winder. I love those.
All in all, this is totally a fun yarn to try and it would make a great gift for the other sock knitters in your life! It gets two big toes up from me! |
And, as always, if there's anything we can do to help, just let us know!