Chevron Blankey

We've been carrying Fancy Tiger Crafts Heirloom Romney for a bit now, and a few of us have fallen in love.  Our girl Lisa has been cranking out the accessories, and I am looking forward to casting on for my Kilgore Mitts in the pretty pretty Poppyseed colorway.  (Sometimes it's the names that get me.  Does that happen to you?)  

Well, they just sent us a fresh batch of patterns and a few lovely samples to show off their good stuff.

Can you say blanket?  Wow.  This is so ample and lovely.  I want one.  

It's the Heirloom Chevron Throw, and it's a free pattern.  It does call for two skeins of five colors, but it's a large blankey.  You could make a smaller size with just one skein of each color, and I bet it would still be great.  And you only need one color at a time, so you can just choose colors as you go if that makes you happy.

I like that it's knit a little loosely on a US10...if it were knit too tight, it would be impossibly warm and dense.  As it is, the fabric is cushy and cozy and drapey.  See how it hangs so nicely?

We also have samples of My Favorite Sweater, Howelsen Hill, and maybe the Radish Hat.  I can't recall.  I was so distracted by this gorgeous blanket.

Yarn Babies

Not that you could miss them, but I wanted to let you know that we have more Big Loop from Loopy Mango.  We have some nice US50 needles, too.  If you have a few hours available, you can have a blanket.  Thirty minutes and you have a cowl or scarf.

I've been looking at Big Loop projects on Ravelry.  People are really loving this yarn and these projects.  And look at that Dirty Dirty Pink.  I'm not normally a pink kind of girl, but that stuff is pretty...

Don't Argue

Just get your keys and your wallet and hustle down to the shop before this stuff is all gone.

We only have four colorways of Noro Shiraito, and they are all beautiful.  The bottom one, No. 21, is my favorite...probably because Sally used it to make this thing of beauty.

The Soft Waves Hat is a freebie on Ravelry from Vivian Hsu, and you'll need just one skein of Shiraito.  An inspired use of Noro, don't you think?  The little lacey ridges match up nicely with color changes, and the ribbing, stockinette, and lace are very well-balanced.  So good.

I am not normally head-over-heels in love with Noro, but this stuff has me.  It's cashmere, angora, and wool, so it is fluffy soft and light as air.  And that little orangey brown bit at the bottom...so rich and rustic.

This sample lives at the shop, but Sally is making another because she couldn't bear to be without this one.  It's that good.  So please don't argue.  Just come get your yarn.  Save one for me.

I Spy...

Something bright!  How about some really vibrant sock yarn to liven up that knitting basket?  This is Neon Now from Plymouth Yarns.

I know I promised to make socks for myself this winter (and spring and summer and fall).  Time to get started, I think.  How about you all?  Do you have cold toes?  The kids, too.  They would love this stuff.  I could get a few pairs of kiddo socks out of each ball, too.

According to the Plymouth site, it looks like it does some loose blended stripes.  (Roll over the photos of the colorways on their site to see a knitted up sock in each shade.)  

Photo borrowed from Wooly Wormhead.

It would make a fun little hat, too.  How about an Angular Cap, a sweet freebie from Wooly Wormhead?  It is garter stitch in the round, squishy and reversible.  The Neon Now version would be great for spotting someone on a crowed playground!  We just took the kids tubing this weekend, and it would have been brilliant to have one of these on each of their noggins.  Hmmm, next time, for sure, because I need some bright to break up all the grey of February in Portland.

Ready?

The Rose City Yarn Crawl is just a few weeks away, friends.  There is so much going on with this event...I'm having a hard time keeping up.  One of the most popular aspects (and my favorite) is the collection of free shop patterns.

Photo borrowed from RCYC Ravelry store.

Sally came through with the St. John's Slouch last year, rumored to be one of the best hats ever.*  This year, it's the Cowlberta knit up in squishy garter stitch and Spud & Chloe Outer.  Yum.

Photo borrowed from RCYC Ravelry store.

Each shop will have a neighborhood-inspired pattern available for free with a purchase.  After the crawl, all of the shop patterns are available for purchase as an eBook through Ravelry.  Go take a look and see all the great stuff our local shop owners and designers have for you!

The crawl starts on Thursday, February 27 and ends Sunday, March 2.  All of the shops are open from 10AM until 6PM every day of the crawl.  We have been filling the shelves with beautiful yarns, so you all will have plenty to choose from.  Get ready!

*Purely a matter of opinion, but it's a good opinion.

Quickie

Need a quick project with some big ol' yarn?  

How about these pretty colors?

This is Mountain Fusion Teton from Mountain Colors knit up into the warm and cozy Vermonter Hat.

The yarn is thick and chunky, with a contrasting thread running along with it, giving extra strength to the bulky single ply.

Mountain Colors does an amazing job with color.  Amazing.  I've always been drawn to the deep, variegated, earthy shades.

The texture of the yarn is really interesting knit up, too.  It's just good.  Come and grab some yarn on Friday.  We'll be open through the snow!

Sometimes...

Sometimes, it's the simplest things.  Sometimes, it just takes the right color combination.  Sometimes, you just want to knit a scarf.

The whole thing came together for Sally recently, and this perfectly simple and simply perfect scarf is the result.  Looking for a nice easy project to keep her fingers busy during Yarn Crawl planning meetings (yes, it's okay to knit during those), she cast on for the Churchmouse Pressed Rib Muffler.

There is just something about the rustic, marled grey and the rich, sunny gold, right?  It's just three skeins of Cascade 220, one of the solid and two of the marled.

We just restocked the 220, and we have all of the marled colorways on the shelves.  

The hardest part will be choosing the solid for the ends.

I was thinking that this scarf would be lovely with Cascade Eco Alpaca as well.  We have several marled colorways and coordinating solids for a more subtle look.  These are some of my favorites, but they really do all go together so nicely.  This yarn is buttery soft, too...sure to please anyone.

I like the quiet combo of the silver shades here.

The chocolate really plays up the brown strand running through the interesting grey/blue/brown marled yarn.

The charcoal grey looks great with the more graphic marled yarn in this color combo, too.

Bold or subtle, we've got you covered.  Swing by and see which colors move you to try your own simplest thing.  Now, where are my needles?