Holiday Hours

Happy holidays, y'all! 

We hope that you are all finding time to rest and enjoy your fiber habits these last few weeks of 2019. We will have a few days with special hours these next few weeks, but we can't wait to see you all to supply your fiber needs.

Here are our special hours:

Tuesday, December 24: 10-3
Wednesday, December 25: Closed with no Open Knit Night

Tuesday, December 31: 10-4
Wednesday, January 1: Closed with no Open Knit Night

Otherwise, we will be in the shop regular hours for you!

There is still time for gift certificates! Or you can sign yourself or a friend up for a class! We have so many fun options on the horizon, including the annual and improved Blanket Classes, Crochet Workshop, and Beginning and Beyond. Let's knit and crochet our way into 2020!

Knitted Wit's National Parks and a Sock-A-Long

The National Parks line in Knitted Wit Sock is making the shelves so bright and cheerful! Look at these crazy fun color combos, all inspired by a different national parks.

 

I am a bit obsessed with this one inspired by Haleakala National Park in Hawaii, and I can't decide if it's the weirdest or most beautiful sock yarn ever. Maybe it's both, but it definitely says Hawaii.

If these yarns are your jam, consider playing along with the Socks on Vacay 2019 kint-a-long. To participate, you need to knit socks with one of the designs from the KAL using the National Parks sock yarns before September 2, 2019. You can enter your socks on social media using the hashtag #socksonvacay to win some cool prizes! There is more info on their website and on the cards we have in the shop. 

Yay for colorful summer socks!

RCYC

The Rose City Yarn Crawl starts today! We have so much happening at the shop. Here's a breakdown of the lovely guests will have over the next several days.

Thursday: 
Emily Delvin trunk show
Nerd Bird Makery in the shop

Friday:
Earl Grey Fibers in the shop
Lisa Carney-Fenton trunk show

Saturday:
Farmer's Daughter Fibers trunk show
Lisa Carney-Fenton trunk show

Sunday:
Knitted Wit in the shop
Shannon Squires Designs trunk show
 
It's really fun to meet the fabulous people who dye all of this yarn that we love so much. Stop by and see all the goodies they will be bringing and chat them up about their gorgeous yarn!

We are also excited to have trunk shows from Harrisville Designs, The Fibre Co., as well as the Eco Cashmere trunk show from Blue Sky Fibers. It's a real treat to try on the garments and see how you like them before you committ to a knit.

The yarn crawl is such a fun event! There will be a raffle for huge prize baskets, door prizes, yarn discounts, free pattern codes, and lots and lots of fibery fun. We can't wait to see you all. Safe crawling!

Eye Candy

The Rose City Yarn Crawl starts on Thursday, y'all! Shops all over town will have trunk shows, special guests, door prizes, free patterns, discounts on yarn...oh wow it's all so much. A few lucky folks will win huge prizes baskets again this year. Maybe it will be you!

I am loving the tote bag this year. If you pre-ordered one, you'll pick it up on the first day of the crawl at the shop you requested. This is a nice bag, friends. Sturdy and thick and so stinking cute. There should be some left at each shop for purchase, but I don't think they are going to last long. There's even a spot for all the little shop pins you can collect during the crawl.

Did you know that Sally's super-talented daughter Emma designed the tote and the enamel pin this year? Such a creative family. I'll keep you posted about who and what we will have at the shop during the crawl. Prepare yourselves for a fibery weekend!

Side Hustle Sock Party!

We are, once again, happy to have the Side Hustle Socksters in the shop for a sock cranking party! Please join us Friday, February 8 from 5-8PM.

Pic borrowed from SHS Instagram.

You can purchase a fabulous skein of sock yarn for 10% off and have it wound into a sock tube during the party for only $20. The Socksters will provide you with a pattern to add afterthought toes and heels to your tube, turning it from a long yarn snake into fabulous socks.

Priority will be given to yarn purchased during the party, but feel free to bring sock yarns from home to add to the queue. We will be hosting another party on March 15, but I will remind you of that when we get closer. See you February 8!

Side Hustle Socks

On Friday, November 30, Close Knit will host the Side Hustle Socksters for a sock machine party!

For $20, you can have a skein of sock yarn cranked into a stockinette stitch tube, ready for you to knit afterthought heels, toes, and cuffs. This will speed up holiday gift knitting (or selfish chilly weather knitting) while still allowing you the fun of knitting with some lovely sock yarn.

With your yarn cranking, the Socksters will include their own pattern for afterthought toes and heels (with a great trick to avoid holes when picking up stitches for the heel), including a photo tutorial.

Close Knit will be open for shopping and sock cranking from 5-8 PM. Priority for on-the-spot cranking will be given to yarn purchased at Close Knit that evening, but you can also bring your own sock yarn to be cranked later in the week and picked up. There will even be a discount on sock yarn during the party!

Emily will be offering a class on after-thought toes and heels in December in case you'd like some guidance as you finish those tubes into socks!

Local Yarn Store Day

Hey friends! It's a beautiful day in Portland...perfect for a stroll down Alberta Street, a trip to the yarn shop, and some relaxing knitting!

Come on by today to help us celebrate Local Yarn Store Day! There will be raffles and a fabulous freebie for anyone who makes a purchase today. Can't wait to see you!

Yarn Crawl KAL and CAL

The Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery Knit-a-long and Crochet-a-long begin today! The create-a-long part is a fun way to stay motivated to get your project done by the yarn crawl weekend of March 1-4. The mystery part is fun, because you don't know what the finished product will look like until you're done! The first clue has been released today, and the remaining 3 will be released each Wednesday.

If you follow the links, you can purchase your pattern through Ravelry. You can also take a peek at previous years' mystery patterns, as well as all of the shop patterns from yarn crawls past. Each pattern will require two skeins of fingering weight yarn, totaling at least 700 yards. We have sooo many beautiful and inspiring options to choose from...solids, semi-solids, hand-dyed, speckled, variegated...the sock wall is your oyster.

We would love to see you at Open Knit and Crochet tonight from 6-9PM at the shop. We can get you all set up with your yarns, and we can all get started together. Come and mystery-a-long with us!

P.S. Check out the swag page for awesome Yarn Crawl goodies and a chance to glimpse one of our own Close Knitters modeling a rad tote bag.

Done!

Rose City Yarn Crawl 2017 is in the books. I hope you all had a great time visiting all of the shops and meeting fellow fiber nerds. 

Did you find some special treasures at Close Knit? I want to see what you all are most excited about! If you are an Instagrammer, tag your photos with #closeknitpdx so we can all gush over the beautiful yarns together. If you prefer Facebook, share some pictures with us on our page. Thank you for coming out to support the local yarn shops!

Building Knitting Skills: Cables, Lace, and Colorwork

Many of you know Adrienne. I’m guessing she even taught several of you how to knit. Well, she wants to teach you more skills! Her newest class will take the basic skills you have learned in her Knitting: Beginning and Beyond class (or another beginning knitting class) and add more tools to your knitting arsenal. If you know how to cast on, knit and purl, you are ready to dive into this class. What all will you learn?

First up, cables. You will use a nice bulky alpaca to create this richly cabled cowl. It’s not nearly as hard as it looks, and you will catch on quickly. I promise.

Next, you will hone your increasing and decreasing skills to create this lovely glove. Increases and decreases form the basis of most lace knitting, so this little glove will be your first foray into the wide world of lace. Again, once you know the basics, you will be able to knit any lace pattern.

Finally, Adrienne will lead you through colorwork, or stranded knitting. This technique involves using multiple colors to create a design. Most often, only two colors are used in each row, with the unseen color loosely held behind the knitting. There are a few key tricks and tips that will help you to be successful with colorwork, and you will walk away prepared to knit the most complicated Fair Isle sweater. Or just lots of hats.

Adrienne has developed a class with your busy lives in mind. The class will meet three times on Monday evenings, once in September, once in October, and once in November. Take a look at the available dates over on our class page. There will be a little bit of homework for you to complete in order to be prepared to learn the new skill, but nothing crazy…cast on and knit a few rows before class. Mostly, you’ll just want to be at the right point to be able to get the most out of Adrienne’s teaching time. The class is $60 for six hours of instruction, which is a screaming deal, and your materials for the class will be 10% off during the duration of the class.

If you get your homework done and stay on top of your projects, you will finish this class with at least three lovely little gifts by the holidays! So, if you’ve been itching to try some new skills, give us a call or pop in the shop to sign up. I think this series of classes is going to be very popular.

Happy Hour!

As part of our Retail Happy Hour, we are giving you a whole $10 back on every $50 you spend in our shop starting at 3:00 this Wednesday through close on Sunday. Here's a great chance to receive a generous discount on that large purchase you've been considering. See you Wednesday!

Rowan Sale!

Rowan yarns are becoming increasingly difficult to find these days, but we have worked to keep a nice stock of the basic on our shelves. As part of this week's Retail Happy Hour, we are offering 10% off all Rowan yarns.

We have some stunning shades of Kidsilk Haze, including the Stripe, Trio, and Eclipse lines.

Softknit Cotton is a great choice for summer, and the pattern support for this yarn is really nice.

We also have Cocoon, Fine Tweed, Fine Art, Lima, and Kid Classic. All of these lovely yarns are 10% off from 3:00 today through Sunday. Rowan lovers, it's your week!

$20 Off Loopy Mango Big Skeins

Retail Happy Hour happens again today on Alberta Street, with so many fabulous shops participating. Join us on Alberta from 3-6PM every Wednesday for great deals from some of your favorite locally-owned businesses.

We are offering $20 off the big skeins of Loopy Mango BIG LOOP, starting at 3 today until close on Sunday. We affectionately call these yarn babies, and we are always happy to see them go to a good home. One skein makes the stunning Nantucket Throw, a free pattern from Loopy Mango.

This gorgeous yarn is produced in the USA, and it is truly unlike anything else I've seen. If you have oggled it in the shop, you know how cool it is. This is a great chance to get your hands on some coveted stuff at a generous discount!

Knit With Us!

We are ready for our Meadow Knit-a-long! Are you?

So many knitters have trouble finding the perfect summer project. Never fear! We have found it for you. We will be knitting the Augustine Shawlette over the course of the summer. The project uses just one skein of the beautiful Fibre Company Meadow, a perfectly airy blend of merino, baby llama, silk, and linen.

Ann has been working away on a sample for us. The shawl is knit side to side with dropped stitches, creating an light and lofty finished product.The knitting is pretty simple, so it's a great project for beginners or for those of us looking for a nice mindless project. The piece seems like it will be small until you start dropping stitches...very satisfying. 

Adrienne is kicking things off on Wednesday night at Open Knit Night. The pattern is available on Ravelry, and you can purchase it on your own or through our shop. Come on in and choose your favorite shade of this beautiful yarn. If we all start now, we can have the perfect thing to wrap around our shoulders when this heat finally breaks!

Sock Weight Yarns on Sale

The Alberta Main Street Retail Happy Hour starts today, and we are offering 10% off all sock weight yarns. This means a discount on Malabrigo Sock, Misti Alpaca Hand-Dyes (above), Misti Alpaca Tonos (below), Noro Taiyo Sock, Noro Silk Garden Sock, and all of those lovely hand-dyed skeins from Knitted Wit...the sock wall is busting at the seams with gorgeous stuff. This is a good sale, my friends. And, since Sally loves you, she is willing to carry the sale from 3:00 today through Sunday afternoon.

Take some time to wander up and down Alberta Street and appreciate some of the wonderful small businesses participating in the Retail Happy Hour. And then come hoard sock yarn at 10% off. See you soon!

We have the next few weeks planned out, too.
July 1: $20 off the large Loopy Mango skeins
July 8: 10% off all Rowan Yarns
July 15: $10 off on every $50 spent

Retail Happy Hour

There is a lot happening on our little street. I often hear customers remark about how much Alberta Street has changed and grown over the last several years. There are street fairs, murals, art installations, a slew of new restaurants, and many amazing small retail businesses. We are so happy to be part of this thriving community, and we love that so many of you come out to support us.

 

The Alberta Main Street movement has organized a Retail Happy Hour for the summer, and many of our (and your?) favorite spots are playing along. On Wednesdays from 3 to 6 PM, nearly 40 participating shops will be offering a sale or special of some kind. We will be offering a discount on a specific yarn, and Sally might even carry the discount through the weekend. It all starts June 24, and I will let you know what the first few specials will be later this week.

The weather is gorgeous, the shops are fabulous, and the discounts should be good. Can't wait to get started!

Summertime Sales: Alpaca Time!

This week are offering 15% off all alpaca and alpaca blend yarns.  We have more lovely choices that I can begin to list, so come on in and find your favorites.  See you soon!

I Forgot About the Weekly Summertime Sale!

So sorry about that!  I got so excited about Debbie Bliss event, that I completely forgot that all Classic Elite Yarns are 15% off through Sunday, July 20.  We have so many winners from this great company. Firefly, Canyon, Sprout, and Seedling (pictured below) are all fabulous summery yarns.  

Chalet (above) and Chateau, Wynter and Blackthorn, Vail, Crestone, and Vista are woolier options, many from Classic Elite's undyed, natural fiber MountainTop Collection.

And don't forget about the Liberty Wool and Liberty Wool Light.  We have a vast selection of Liberty Wool right now...so many colors to choose from.

Next week (7/21-7/27) we will offer 15% all alpaca and alpaca blend yarns.  Don't forget that you will get a discount on all Debbie Bliss products with your receipt from the Monday night event as well, but no doubling up please.  See you soon!

Yarn Crawl Time!

The Rose City Yarn Crawl is upon us! 

 

Sally's St. Johns Slouch is at the shop right now, and it's really beautiful.  She designed it using Manos del Uruguay Maxima, a favorite yarn at Close Knit.  The pattern is free with any purchase in the shop, but the Maxima will be 10% off during the crawl.  We have a nice deep stock in the gorgeous Manos colorways we all love so much.  All of the free patterns are inspired by the water and bridges of Portland, and Sally's cables look like the iconic St. Johns Bridge.

Photo from Portlandbridges.com

Things get underway on Thursday, February 28 at 10AM.  We have so so so much going on, it's hard to keep track.  There are multiple raffles for all kinds of amazing baskets, door prizes for the first 10 purchases each day, and trunk shows from some our favorite yarn companies.

We have the adorable Royal Petites Collection and the beautiful new wraps knit in Blue Sky Alpacas Metalico.

I am very excited to check out Julie Hoover's designs for Manos del Uruguay, especially the Beaubourg pullover.  My heart skipped a little beat when Jenni pulled this one out of the box.

We also have some lovely stuff from the Scrumptious line from Fyberspates and some unusual hand-dyed Tencel from local dyer Teresa Ruch.

There will be a limited number of Rose City Yarn Crawl tote bags available for sale at the shop, but they won't last long.  We will be open from 10-6 Thursday through Sunday, March 3.  Print out your Passport, collect a whole bunch of stamps, and win a bunch of great stuff!  

I'll see you here next week when the dust settles.

Shibui Mix Party

I know you are all jazzed up about the Rose City Yarn Crawl next weekend (seriously...where has February gone?), but I wanted to put another little thing in your brains.

We are now carrying a few lovely Shibui yarns, as many of you have discovered.  

After perusing the patterns, you might have also discovered that the designers at Shibui are mixing geniuses.  Many of their pieces call for two of their amazing yarns to be held together to achieve some really unique results.  With this in mind, they have coordinated the colorways of their yarns, too.

All this mixing and matching can be a little concerning, as you often don't really know what kind of fabric you will eventually end up creating.  For instance, this awesome orange hat, the No. 6.

I looked at the pattern, saw that it used mohair, and decided against it.  BUT, the finished sample is perfect, and now I must make one.  Probably in orange, too.  

The mohair is so tame in the sample, and it really just adds a subtle halo and softness without any itch or fluff.  Lesson learned.

We want you all to discover some interesting and unusual knitted fabrics with Shibui, too.  Since it is hard to justify buying an entire skein of each yarn just to play with, we want to have a little Mix Party!  We will be hosting the gathering at our shop on Wednesday, March 6 at 6:30 during our usual Open Knit Night.

There will be an array of Shibui yarns to sample, pre-knit swatches to play with, look books, and patterns to check out.  If you are interested in joining us, please call the shop to let us know at 503.488.4568 so we know about how many to expect.  Please bring some needles, ranging in sizes from US4-9ish so you can try out all kinds of combinations.  Sally promises cookies, too.

I wanted to entice you with some of their stunning Mix pattern line, including a few that have not yet been released.  Here we have No. 1, 4, 8, and 9.  (These photos have all been borrowed from the Shibui website.)

These pretties are No. 10, 11 and 12.

The new spring designs feature a lot of Linen and Cima, which we will be adding to our current stash of Silk Cloud, Staccato, Merino Alpaca, and Baby Alpaca DK.  Here we have No. 13-18, all part of the spring line.  There will be more information on these at the Mix party.

Give us a call if you want to try out these luxurious yarns and get inspired to make something amazing.  Have fun!