---

Spotlight on New Classes: Spinning By Carol Did you make a New Years Resolution to get in shape this year? This revolutionary new class will show you how to do it in under 2 hours!! Now that I have your attention… By customer request, we’re introducing a new class this year to teach you how to take care of your spinning wheel. After all, a wheel is a finely made machine that costs an appreciable amount of money and it needs to be looked after. I’ll be showing you how to dis-assemble your wheel and gently clean it if necessary, why and how to oil it, and how to make adjustments so your spinning will progress more smoothly. We’ll talk about drive bands, tension bands, where to get help when things go wrong, and play with tools. While this class is geared towards Ashford wheels (we’re a dealer of their fine equipment), the information is relevant to most non-electric wheels. Keeping your spinning investment in top shape only takes an hour or so every six months and will keep your wheel going strong for your lifetime (and maybe a few lifetimes after that!).

New Product Review: Addi Clicks By LisaBee, frequent customer I was lucky enough to get one of the first sets of Addi Click interchangeable needles. I love them! They feel solid and well made, the cables are very flexible but strong (and purty blue), and the case makes them feel like jewelry or flatware. I have owned three other kinds of interchangeable sets: metal, wood, and plastic. I prefer metal needles anyway, and I find that the Addi needles are the perfect sharpness (not so sharp as to be painful if I need to nudge it back out of a stitch, for example) and slickness (not too slippery for bamboo or silk, but still slick enough for speedy knitting). The Addi set includes U.S. sizes 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10.75, 11, 13, and 15 (no 5 or 10.5), but they more than serve my needs. The case that comes with the set is about the size of a small laptop computer (though far lighter in weight!). The Addi set is a little more expensive than other interchangeable sets at $149.95, but they feel very solid and comfortable, and the tips are a bit longer than some other tips, key for many knitters with larger hands (read: men) who find short-tipped circulars to be painful on the palm. The cable is very flexible and easy to use. The join is smooth, but not completely, which means that tighter stitches with splitty or fuzzy yarn may catch sometimes. However, I haven't found this to be a problem. The set also includes a metal piece that can join the ends of two cables to make one longer cable with tips on either end or can join the ends of a single cable to keep your project neatly contained if you need those tips for another project. (Not that any of us ever starts another project with a work still in process, of course!) The set contains three cable lengths, 24, 32, and 40 inches, with metal ends attached to the plastic part of the cable. The join is extremely secure and easy to use once you learn the trick to make it “click.” [Ed. The best tip we have heard so far for using the joins is to think of them like they’re your KitchenAid mixer. While it’s easy once you get used to it, it might be tricky for arthritic hands.] Before I learned to knit, cooking was my passion and hobby. I learned quickly with that hobby that the right, high-quality tools can make a HUGE difference both in the quality of the end product and in the pleasure (or frustration) in the process of getting there. I find that the same is true with knitting: the right, high-quality needles and notions make my knitting more pleasant while I'm doing it (especially because I, like most knitters I know, am very tactile), and they make the resulting garments and other finished objects more beautiful, like the well-crafted, beautiful, and functional treasures I want them to be. Enjoy!

What’s in your notions bag? By AnnaW Ask any knitter or crocheter what’s in his or her notions bag and you’ll usually find some standard answers: a darning needle, a measuring tape, stitch markers, maybe a pair of scissors. But every so often, something truly weird appears in those bags. I asked my coworkers to pull random stuff out of their notions bags and report back to me. Here’s what we found. Monica: a stressball (one of those squeezy things) and highlighters Anna: a bag of tiny hair elastics, chapstick, cuticle cream Teri: um, what’s a notions bag? Charissa: fishing line yardage thingies [Ed. “thingies” is the precise term Charissa used], little plastic square bread bag ties for bobbins, noses Kelli: a handi-tool….wait, did Charissa say noses? Melissa: Melissa lost everything in her notions bag except for a cable needle and a calculator she lifted from the shop “by mistake.” Carol: a nail file in case of jail breakout Carla: a fork A fork??? What’s in your bag? Chime in on our newly restarted blog at www.naturalstitches.com/kniton.

Show and Tell When people ask “What’s the best part about working in a yarn shop?” the obvious answer is THE YARN. But seriously, it makes our day when our customers bring in their finished objects for us to see. Pamela came in to show us her stunning Pinwheel Jacket, the result of CarlaK’s class and a lot of hard work. And here’s Carla modeling frequent customer David’s lovely Shetland Triangle, knitted out of Crystal Palace Panda Silk. We love show and tell! Please feel free to share your projects with us, in person, by email, and/or by our Natural Stitches Group on Ravelry

Never Give In -- Never, Never, Never, Never A customer came in the other day already hard at work knitting heirloom-quality Christmas stockings for next year. Her industriousness combined with our holiday-knitting fatigue made us resolve to sponsor some Holiday in July events this coming summer. Stay tuned for more details as we vow “never again!” to last minute holiday speed knitting and half-done mittens stuffed in a box. From the staff of Natural Stitches, we wish you a very Happy New Year and look forward to serving you in 2009.

From the entire staff of Natural Stitches, we wish you happy knits, creative crochets and splendid spinnings. And, as always, if there's anything we can do to help, just let us know!

Please check out what is happening at the web page.
Past editions are always available online as well.