Easter Eggs

The Zauberball Cotton looks like a basket of Easter eggs, just in time for spring! This 100% cotton yarn does the same cool gradual fade that the wool Zauberballs do, and there is a ton of yardage in these little balls. 

One is plenty for a colorful and generous shawl or scarf, with no changing skeins or worrying about coordinating shades. This would be a great choice for a baby a sweater, too. Maybe a Baby Surprise Jacket or the Gry's Jacket, both personal favorites of mine.

We also have the Wunderklecks from Schoppel, a really unusual yarn with long stretches of color giving it a hand-painted look. The ones with the white background are really striking. Take a peek at some of the projects on Ravelry using this yarn for some ideas.

I am totally inspired by some of the wacky socks, scarves, and wraps that people have made with this yarn. It knits up with a tie-dye look to it, and I think it's really cool. Some folks combined it with a solid color, and the effect is really interesting.

Pop in the shop to see these new-to-us yarns for yourself. They are worth the trip!

Fresh Goods on the Sock Wall

Our wall of sock yarn has been freshened with a few old favorites this fall.

Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball does a really cool marled-fade-slow-color-change sort of thing. It would be great for funky socks, scarves, hats, baby sweaters...all kids of cool stuff.

Photo borrowed from Ravelry pattern page.

There is a great design in Weekend Hats (the best hat book ever) using just one ball of this yarn, the Brier Toque.

Ambiente has been freshly-restocked as well. This is always a popular yarn. You can see an example of the self-patterning action in our sock sample. I know a few of our knitters were using Ambiente to make Sock Yarn Bunnies a few years back. One ball makes a bunny, if I'm remembering things correctly.

Photo borrowed from Ravelry project page.

The little mascot for the new Opal Classics sock yarn line is adorable, isn't she?

The sock yarn is good, too. I've knit a few pairs of socks with Opal yarns, and they just don't wear out. I like the range of color in these new shades. They would be really great for man socks, too...plenty of yarn for some big socks.

It's always nice to replenish some of our favorite sock yarns. What else would you like to see back in stock?

Color Options

The calendar says spring is officially here, and many of us will be on spring break next week.  Let's look at some nice color, shall we?  

First up, Crazy Zauberball.  It's a crazy fingering weight wool with a cool handspun/marled/gradient thing happening.  Great for socks, hats, cowls, shawls...I love it for the September Circle.  I made one of these with Kauni a few years ago, and I can highly recommend the pattern.  It would be a great first lace project if you are looking to dip your toes into that pool. 

For a super-easy option, the Baktus is always a good choice.  The simplest garter stitch triangle will really highlight the cool yarn, on its own or striped with a solid.  You really can't go wrong with a Baktus.  As for sweaters, the wardrobe staple Funky Grandpa cardigan uses the Zauberball for stripes against a solid background.  There are nearly 12,000 projects on Ravelry with this yarn.  That's usually a good sign.

During the yarn crawl, I had several knitters ask about Footlights from Blue Ridge Yarns.  I had not really thought too hard about the possibilities for this pretty stuff, but I started looking after the crawl.

These little bundles contain 400 yards of four coordinating colors of richly-dyed superwash merino sock yarn.  You can use them for shawls, mitts, cowls...any place you might want smallish amounts of colors that will go together.  I've linked to Ravelry projects that caught my eye, but there are so many possibilities.  Blue Ridge Yarns offers a free sock pattern, too.

We currently have Navajo Sunset, Pansies, Apple Rose, and River Rocks.  Sometimes it's the colorway names that get me, and these are good ones.

Finally, we have everyone's favorite shade of Shiraito back in stock for the Soft Waves Hat.  There are several more on the way, but I wanted to make sure you knew this one was on the shelves.

There is some really pretty yarn rolling in for lighter weight knitting.  I am really excited to tell you about the newest yarn from Berroco...more on that soon!