Knit Happens

Have any of you found yourself wishing that Knit Happens had longer hours? How about leaving work and realizing that you need another ball of yarn or some needles or have a question… then realizing you won’t be able to get to us before 5:30? We know how frustrating that can be and Aimée and I wanted to be able to help out with your busy day as much as possible – so we decided that we needed extended hours!

As of this Tuesday, our hours will be:

• Monday: Closed
• Tuesday: 10:30am – 7pm
• Wednesday: 10:30am – 9pm
• Thursday: 10:30am – 7pm
• Friday: 10:30am – 7pm*
• Saturday: 10:30am – 7pm
• Sunday: 12pm – 5pm

* The first Friday of the month is still Knit ‘N Nosh! We will be open until 8 on those nights.

One change that you may notice is that we’ll only have one person working until noon and after 5:30 on weekdays and until 11 and after 6 on Saturdays. It means that we’ll be here to help in person and over the phone later than before, but it also means that we’ll be juggling more customers at once while we’re on our own.

We hope to see more of all of you with the new hours!

As we’ve mentioned before, the fabulous Karida of Neighborhood Fiber Co. is introducing a new yarn and a new charitable partnership with the Anacostia Watershed Society!

Her new yarn is Watershed – a 70% Merino Wool, 30% SeaCell blend available in all her current amazing colors. She is donating $1 to AWS for every skein of Watershed sold. How cool is that?

Watershed will eventually be available at a number of retailers and online, however, we will be the first store to have it. So, naturally, we’re hosting the launch party. (You all know how we love a party!)

Come to Knit Happens Wednesday, October 24th — we’ll have Karida, representatives from AWS, and locally grown organic fare from Charlene’s Kitchen from 7 – 9 PM. (That’s right, we’re staying open until 9 for this event!)

Think globally, act locally!

Karida’s sock yarn is an easy way to donate money to a fabulous cause, get some great yarn, AND a cleaner river!

Well, at least her bags have finally arrived, that is. When Aimée and I saw these at TNNA in June, we knew we had to have them – unfortunately (well, fortunately for Amy Butler), so did everyone else.

These bags are roomy enough to carry a large project in (like a new sweater for fall, maybe?) and still have room for your wallet, cellphone, keys, iPod… whatever. (Or you could just carry more projects. Options can be a good thing.) The bags are done in Amy’s new fabric line, Nigella, that she’s distributing to fabric stores through Westminster Fiber, and uses two fabrics – the inside fabric is complementary to the outside! Each bag is cushioned, so needles won’t poke through and precious yarn won’t get hurt.

There are four styles of bags, each style done in three colors. In the top picture (from left to right), we see the Hampton, the Sanibel and the Nolita bags. In the bottom picture, we see the Nolita and the Asbury bags. (Fun fact: Rossana has nicknamed the Asbury bag the “Chinese Takeout Bag” due to its fun shape.)

We have had so many people ask about these bags that we’re not sure we’ll be able to keep them in stock for long – I’m already planning to reorder more on Tuesday! If you didn’t go up to Rhinebeck this weekend, come on by and take a look at the bags while they’re still in stock!

Even though it doesn’t feel like Fall outside (85 this weekend? yikes!) it’s starting to look like Fall at Knit Happens!

We’ve gotten huge shipments from Rowan, Misti Alpaca and Sublime, packing our shelves with the luscious colors of the runways and the delicious fibers we all love.

Rowan’s new yarns!
Aura: the big sister to Kid Silk Haze, Kid Silk Aura is a worsted weight silk and mohair blend with a color selection to make you drool.
Baby Alpaca DK: a delectable alpaca with a color palette to die (dye!) for. Great pattern support and Rowan’s trademark hand.
Alpaca Chunky: all the goodness of our beloved alpaca, in a heavier gauge. Add to that three pattern books and a rainbow of colors and you’ve got your holiday knitting covered, from accessories to coats!

We’ve also added more colors of beloved Cashsoft 4 ply, Baby, DK, Aran and Chunky, to expand your knitting options. Come in, hop over the boxes and take a look!

We were outed by Lime & Violet’s Daily Chum!

Karida (the brilliance behind Neighborhood Fiber Co.) has announced that she’s introducing a new yarn and a new charitable partnership with the Anacostia Watershed Society. Her new yarn? Well, she’s calling it Watershed – it will be a 70% Merino Wool, 30% SeaCell blend and will be available in all her current colors (and we did order all of them). She is donating $1 for every skein sold to AWS. How cool is that?

Watershed will eventually be available at a number of retailers and online, however, we will be the first store to have it. So, naturally, we’re hosting the launch party. (You all know how we love a party.) Keep Wednesday, October 24th free on your calendar — we’re staying open until 9pm and will have Karida, representatives from AWS, and locally grown organic fare from Charlene’s Kitchen. I’ll be posting the press release on our site later this afternoon.

The Anacostia Watershed Society is a local, non-profit organization dedicated to the restoration and preservation of the Anacostia River (designated as one of the most polluted rivers in the nation). AWS is fulfilling its goal of making the Anacostia a fishable, swimable river again by creating programs for education, action, and advocacy. Since 1989, AWS volunteers have removed over 536 tons of trash and 11,000 tires from the river, and planted over 12,000 trees.

We’re always hearing the phrase “think globally, act locally”. This is a great, easy way to help the environment, while picking up some very cool sock yarn to boot! (Yes, Karida had to pry the mini-skein she brought in to show us out of my hands.) Inspired by the growing green revolution, we wanted to make our product line more environmentally conscious. Karida’s sock yarn is an easy way to donate money to a fabulous cause, while marrying our craft with a cleaner river.

On a personal level, I love this project — I am a 4th generation Washingtonian (well, via the ‘burbs). My father grew up in Anacostia, by the river. Over the years he has told me all sorts of stories about spending the day fishing on the river with his older brothers and uncles back in the 1950s (probably when he was supposed to be in school). By the time he was telling me these stories in the late 1970s and 1980s, the Anacostia had already become the polluted river we know today.