Knit Happens

We will be closed Sunday, July 4 so we can all celebrate the holiday with family and friends. We will reopen at 11am Tuesday.

We hope that you all have a happy and safe 4th of July holiday!

Ahhh, the age old question of which to get first if you can only get one: do I get a ball winder or a swift?  At Late Night Knitting this past Wednesday, we might have come up with the answer.  (Well, it’s always been my answer, but it convinced one of our customers!)

Arabella had picked up the last of the Araucania Lonco from the clearance bin – the Lonco is a gorgeous mercerized fingering weight cotton with amazing stitch definition, but it’s a bit of a b!#&% to wind.  I am convinced that drunken monkeys were hired to reskein up the yarn once it was dyed.  In almost every skein that I’ve wound, there has been an extra twist put into the hank, making it a tangle.  I gave Arabella some warning about it (probably not enough) and she was off winding.

Fast forward an hour: she’s got 5 ends to the yarn and she’s about ready to quit winding and just cut her losses and run. Bolstered by my fourth (very small) cup of wine, I tell her that we’re not going to cut the yarn, that we can save it.  Fast forward another hour or hour and a half: it’s after 9pm, we’re still hand-winding the yarn into 3 different balls, just trying to find the end that’s attached to the ball on the ball winder.  The entire time, we’re cracking jokes about the mutating ends of yarn and how we’re lucky we’ve got the swift because neither of us know anyone who’d be willing to hold the yarn for that long!  I offer to wind the rest of the skeins for her before Knit ‘n Nosh, so she doesn’t have to deal with it, besides, I’ve had decent luck with getting the Lonco wound before, right?

The next day, I spent another three hours with a tangled mess of yarn – the drunken monkeys have been at it again.  However, the next few skeins weren’t bad at all.  (Apparently, the drunken monkeys only work on about half of the dyelots.)  Yesterday I handed it all back to her, wound of course, and she told me that I had convinced her that she needed to get a swift to have at home. 

I got a ball winder about a year before I splurged on a swift and it was a huge pain in the rear to get anything wound into balls – I had to have someone standing right there holding my hank of yarn while I wound it, or laid it on the ground and wound slowly – not good when there are pets around…  Once I got my swift, life was a lot easier.  I could hand-wind or use the ball winder – and my yarn was (relatively) safe from my cats (who love to think of it as theirs).

So, weighing in on this debate, I’m going with get a swift first if you can’t get both.  However, if you can get both (or are dropping very last minute Mother’s Day hints to husbands and children) you can save 15% off of the set!

Olga and I were looking at the calendar yesterday and realized that we’ve only got just over 2 months to Christmas! Eek! When did that happen? So, we started brainstorming quick gift ideas to stockpile for those last-minute gifts – or that last minute decision to make this a handknit holiday season.

Just in time for the holidays: a shipment of Studio Sock and Victorian Bulky from Neighborhood Fiber Co!

We have been woefully low on stock of both of those for the longest time – Karida is only one person, after all – and to be surprised with a shipment of sock and bulky is like an early Christmas gift!

For the interested, the colors in the picture are (top shelf, L to R): Randle Circle, Logan Circle, Dupont Circle, Lincoln Park, Brightwood, Grant Circle, Sheridan Circle
(bottom shelf L to R): Columbus Circle, Cooper Circle, LeDroit Park, Kalorama Circle, Tenley Circle, Foggy Bottom, Truxton Circle, Thomas Circle.

In the Victorian Bulky, we have (L to R): Columbus Circle, Cooper Circle, Sheridan Circle. (We did have LeDroit Park, but sold out of it the day after we got it in!)

We also still have plenty of the Studio Sport and the Maisonette (her 50% Merino, 50% Silk blend laceweight) in stock as well.

Why is this a Holiday Gift Idea? This a perfect gift for a knitter who might not live in the area or who used to live in the area and needs a little reminder of home. All of the colorways in the Neighborhood Fiber Co line are named after DC neighborhoods, both well known and obscure. And all of the colorways have stories behind them. I know of a few knitters who will be getting a skein or two in their stocking…

Don’t forget our holiday hours!

Christmas is just around the corner (everyone have your freakout now…. There, better?) and we have changed up our hours next week to reflect that. (The changes are in red.)

Sunday 12/21, 12 – 5
Monday 12/22, 10:30 – 7
Tuesday 12/23, 10:30 – 7
Wednesday 12/24, 9 – 1
Thursday 12/25, Closed
Friday 12/26, Closed
Saturday 12/27, 10:30 – 7

So, you’ve been by the shop and looked at the luscious Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn and wondered what you could do with it, other than making socks (why, I don’t know, but go with me here). How about this idea – use one skein to make a gorgeous, lacy scarf that’s easy and quick to knit?

Well, that’s what we thought too, but no one had enough time to sit down with it and play around to find a lace pattern that wasn’t obscured by the striping, which is where our lovely 4-Ply Katie comes in and saves us! Katie just got back from her honeymoon and is spending lots of time in the DC area before she has to go back to the Sudan and has been acquiring yarn to add to her stash. Well, when she picked up a skein of the Silk Garden Sock, she had the same thought as we did – only she actually came up with a pattern! And what a cute pattern it is… Thanks Katie!

4-Ply Katie’s Simple Chevron Scarf

Materials

1 skein Silk Garden Sock yarn (approx. 320 yds)
1 set US5 needles

Notes

• Scarf will have a three stitch garter stitch border.

• Scarf is approximately 80” long and 5” wide if entire ball is used.

Pattern

Row 1: k3, *yo, k1, sl1, k2tog, psso, k1, yo, k1; repeat from * to last two sts, k2

Row 2: k3, purl to last 3 sts, k3

Scarf

CO 29 sts
Knit 6 rows
Repeat the two rows of the pattern until the scarf is the desired length.
Knit 6 rows.
BO all sts.

Block scarf firmly to achieve openness and end points.

So, the holidays are fast approaching and I’m sure that you all want know just when Knit Happens will be open – just in case you need some time away from… the hecticness of the holidays. Or a yarn fix. So the following will be our holiday hours through the beginning of the year.

• Wednesday, November 21 – we will close at 3pm to help our families out with Thanksgiving dinner.
• Thursday, November 22 – Thanksgiving Day, store closed
• Tuesday, December 25 – Christmas Day, store closed
• Wednesday, December 26 – Boxing Day, store closed
• Tuesday, January 1 – New Year’s Day, store closed

In addition to these hours, just as a heads up, we will be closed Wednesday, January 2 through Friday, January 4 for inventory. (If a day isn’t listed – like Christmas Eve – it means that we’re following our regular shop hours.)

**I am going to try to “sticky” this to the top of the page, so you may receive this in your Bloglines or GoogleReader multiple times. I apologize in advance.**