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We will be CLOSED Monday, May 25th for Memorial Day. We hope you enjoy the holiday!

Remember in our last newsletter when we hinted there might be incentives for knitting and crocheting throughout the summer? Well, here are your rewards! Bring It On: Summer of Socks and Lace #2 It’s baaa-aaaack. Start winding your laceweight, polishing your Addi Turbos, and making an inventory of your sock yarn. We’re kicking off our Second Annual Summer of Socks and Lace contest, beginning NOW until Labor Day (September 7, 2009). Who can knit the most pairs of socks? Who can knit or crochet the most yardage of lace? The prize is a $50 gift card from Natural Stitches, one for the sock category and one for the lace category. As well, there will be a small prize for every participant. (Got your attention now? Keep reading.) We’ll be going by yardage of the final project as that seems to be the fairest way to go. When you finish a project, bring it to the shop with the ball band and we’ll record the yardage. (The ball band is critical as it will help us to more accurately figure out how much yarn you used.) You can feel free to use any yarn from your stash, but yarn purchased at Natural Stitches will be counted as DOUBLE yardage. (Another reason the ball band is so important.) Answers to commonly asked questions: Crocheted lace is eligible as are crocheted socks and slippers If you knit lace socks, they only qualify in one category. You pick which one. You can participate in both categories. PLEASE BRING IN PROJECTS AS YOU FINISH THEM SO THAT WE DON’T HAVE A HUGE RUSH ON LABOR DAY One winner per category will be contacted shortly after Labor Day and will be announced in the Newsletter published after Labor Day. If you’ve never done socks or lace, both our Knit and Crochet teachers offer beginner and intermediate classes in socks and lace. Our apologies to handspinners (yet again), but we still can’t figure out a way to accurately calculate yardage without making our heads explode. Need to expand your stash? We’ve got several sock and lace yarns on sale (remember…double points for Natural Stitches Yarn!) We will keep track of your total yardage in a ledger as well as on a publically displayed leader board. So….

Get Ready, Get Set, Go! In honor of our Second Summer of Socks and Lace contest, I asked the staff what their go-to sock patterns are, the ones that they rely on again and again. Anna: I learned how to knit socks from friends and by the handholding provided in Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s Knitting Rules, which I always fall back on when I need to make a plain sock. For “fancy” socks, I like Monkey and Spring Forward, both free patterns from Knitty. Carla: My plain vanilla toe up sock pattern I created with my Sole Solution Software. Carol: Judy Gibson's You're Putting Me On Socks. They're a quick knit and always fit. (Plus, free pattern!) Charissa: Plain old stockinette stitch heel flap no pattern sock pattern. Melissa: Good Plain Sock recipe in Knitting Rules! Her explanation of how to turn a heel changed my life. Sensational Knitted Socks is also a desert island resource book, especially when planning socks for other people (particularly men). Monica: My go-to sock pattern (not that I've yet done enough socks to have more than one pair of each pattern I've tried) would probably be the Yarn Harlot's Basic Sock Recipe from Knitting Rules. I'm also curious to try Cookie's outlined instructions from her new book, Sock Innovation. Martha: I have no idea where I came up with my go-to sock pattern, but it's probably based on the Yankee Knitter pattern #29 I encountered nearly 15 years ago. And yeah, I have some socks that old that I still wear regularly.

What’s New? We finally have a new shipment of the Microclip LED lights. Shaped like an iPod shuffle, you can’t beat this deal at $6 each. Classic Knits, the Marianne Isager Collection of patterns translated into English from the original Danish. Several new yarn lines from Cascade: Magnum, an un-plied super bulky wool Heritage, finally a solid colored sock yarn that should be around for awhile! It comes in great handpaints too. Baby Alpaca Chunky / Paints: That one pretty much speaks for itself. About a dozen (give or take a few) new colors of Cascade 220, 220 Heathers, & Quatros. So Melissa will be spending the next few weeks moving around the Cascade wall!

Yarn Review: Malabrigo Silky Merino By Monica I had seen it sitting on the shelf every time I came in for work: Lovely, vibrant colors, that silky shine, the well-loved spin of the fiber. Yet it was one of those yarns that I always looked past and never really thought about. It was like the proverbial forgotten stepchild, something that had not made any of my lists for project contenders. But when Melissa handed me one of those fluorescent pink skeins to make a swatch sample with, I knew I was going to have fun. And once I got started on the swatch, it was hard to stop. Malabrigo’s Silky Merino is an absolutely gorgeous yarn to work with. With beautiful stitch definition (especially for cables!), attractive colorways, the ability to felt, and a familiar softness, it is everything you would expect a Malabrigo yarn to be – with the added luxury of silk. By now you’re probably asking yourself, “Well, if Silky Merino is so similar to the popular Merino Worsted, why wouldn’t I just keep buying that?” The answer – Silky Merino is spun in a DK weight. All those projects that called for a DK yarn that you dreamed of using Malabrigo for, you absolutely can. Just reach for the Silky Merino. With that supple, single-ply texture that you have come to adore, a delicate sheen, and a luscious fiber content of 51% silk and 49% merino wool, Silky Merino is sure to become your next favorite Malabrigo yarn. (Eds. note: We anticipate bringing in several new colors of this lovely yarn sometime after June's TNNA.

End of the School Year By Carla All the kids love this time of year. Soon school will be out and they will be free to do what they like in the warm weather and no classes to contend with. And soon, you will be free from helping them with homework! Maybe it’s time for a change. How about you going to classes instead of them? Use that homework and study time for yourself and take a class at Natural Stitches. Learn a new skill. Be able to rub elbows with other folks who speak “knitter.” Have your own homework to do. (Can we really call it homework when we love it so much!?!?! You bet we can if it makes everyone leave us alone because we are “doing our homework!”) Carol, Charissa, and Carla have lined up the best slate of classes anywhere. In a normal month the three of them offer over fifty classes! That’s pretty remarkable. They cover Spinning, Crochet, and Knitting and leave nothing out. In fact, if you think of something we don’t teach, take a student’s choice class and challenge us to teach it to you. If the class you want to take doesn’t fit your schedule then take it as a student’s choice class, or check next month, as that class may be offered at the perfect time for you. So stop into the shop and look around at all the new yarns we have in and take a look at our class samples. You are sure to find something to pique your interest. And here’s a great incentive: The Buddy System. Take a class with a friend (or relative) and you will both receive 10% off the price of the class (both students must sign up at the same time either by phone or in person). Then you will have a friend at your side for class and someone you can work along with on your new skills. This offer is good for classes signed up for between May 16 and August 31. (Classes may be taken after that date but must be paid for at sign up.) We hope to see you in class soon!

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!

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