Winter is Coming...

It seems like the holidays come earlier every year -- there are pine wreathes on all of the doors today!  And on the way to work today we saw three houses with the full set of inflatables and lights.  Mid-November apparently says "Santa!" to some people...

We've had several knitters who have already begun (or even completed!) their gift knitting for the year come through, and many others coming in to buy yarn with which to start their presents (you have plenty of time!  what's the big hurry?).

There's also been a good number of people coming in to buy things for their knitters.  Y'all are some of our favorite people -- knitters ourselves, we know how great it is to get something knitting-related for [insert winter holiday of choice here].  At the same time, we know it can be difficult to walk into a yarn shop and have no idea what's going on, and that's why I'm gonna give you some ideas.

Let's say you have $20 to spend on your knitter:

click on me!

click on me!

Try an assortment of funky tools: the stitch markers (fancy!  handmade!  won't make a gap in your knitting!), a great repair hook (I have four), a pair of scissors in a leather case.  Every knitter needs all of these things, even if they already have some.  You wouldn't believe how often this stuff goes missing... (did I mention that we have measuring tapes?)

We have two in-house pattern kits that come with the pattern and the yarn; both are designed to match colors and patterns found in old Amish wedding socks of the last 100 years or so.  All the needles you'd need are available too -- just ask!

Let's say you have aspiring crafters in your life -- are they little?  Do you need potholders?  The potholder looms are a great place to start your kids/grandkids/nephews & nieces.  The box kit comes with everything you need to make 2 potholders and we have plenty of extra loops.  And if you start them making these now, they'll still want to make them in 20 years... trust me.

If you have an aspiring spinner in your life (or if you think it's funny to give your knitter more things to do with their time), you may want to get them a drop spindle and roving.  We've got wooden spindles that are a great weight for spinning and a bunch of different colors of roving in 1 and 3 ounce bags.  Also good for needle felting, thrummed mittens, and fake beards.

Here's a particular favorite of mine: the kaleidoscope!

What's this doing in a yarn shop, you ask? Well...

Let's say you (or your knitter) have three colors, and you want a fourth.

You might say "You know, the red just isn't working..."

Why don't you take a look through the kaleodoscope?  Maybe a bit of red is exactly what your project needs.

And of course we have to mention the YARN JARS.

They come in "big" and "small." 

Now let's say you have $30 for your knitter:

Kettle Dyed is will make great socks (one skein makes three socks!), great shawls, great hats, great anything.  Sock yarn is super popular right now, so if you want something good for your knitter, it's always a good bet.  Plus it's locally hand dyed -- who doesn't love that? 

The first photo above is the four colors that arrived today -- Buggy Top, Sage, Grape Jelly, and Flannel Shirt.  If none of those are doing it for you (or if your knitter only wears hot pink), don't worry, we've got plenty of cool colors!  And if you really can't decide, how about a Rainbow Sampler?  Six mini-skeins for the same price as one big skein!

Of course anything yarn-related makes a good gift for the fiber freaks in your life.  We can set you up with everything they (or you!) would need to make a hat (about $25 for yarn, needles, and pattern), a pair of socks ($35-40 for the same), a shawl ($18 to $50, depending on what gets your attention), or anything else you could possibly imagine. 

Can you imagine it? 
Made by edirks

Knitting Bags

We all have one.  It doesn't matter what form it takes -- might be a nice big canvas bag, might be the front pocket of your backpack, might be a project bag stuffed into a purse or a big coat pocket.  No matter what sort of thing you carry your knitting and crochet around in, you've probably noticed that knitting bags accumulate things.

A knitter who shall remain unnamed mentioned offhand yesterday that it would sure be nice to use her big knitting bag again.  We looked at the bag, and an idea began to take shape...

This is the bag in question.

Today, finding myself with a spare hour, I decided to clean out that knitting bag.  I have posted my method here for anyone else who may, upon looking at their knitting bag, realize that they too need to engage in some drastic measures.

Examine the knitting bag.  How big is it?  Would you reasonably expect it to carry, say, a gallon of milk?  A small child?  Determine the likely amount of contents and find a clean surface on which to work.  I used the kitchen table.

Look at the top of the knitting bag.  What's visible?  In this case, it was the circular needle case and a bunch of yarn.  Nothing too surprising, right?

Shake the bag a bit.  Does it sound like there's anything fragile in it?  No?  Good.  (If there is something fragile, you may want to skip this next step.)

Now -- this part is not for the faint of heart, dear knitters, but I believe in you -- grab the bag by the bottom and turn it upside down.

Don't worry, I got permission to do this.

Got that?  Okay, good.  I understand that you may want to sit down for a minute at this point.  It can be traumatizing to do that to your knitting bag, but remember: it had to be done.

Now, we knew what was in this bag, at least a bit.  The Knitter had said that it held "one big project, most of my circulars, and probably some other stuff."  I, knowing what the big project was (a sweater), was expecting to find a quantity of yarn fit for that project (a sweater's worth of yarn).  This was not the case.

Once you have recovered sufficiently to move on, try to sort out what was in the bag.  First, remove any projects, whole or partial, and put them to one side.  If you find more yarn that was clearly intended to go with a project, put that there too.

The inch of sweater was made out of this yarn, so I put a few skeins of this aside.

The goal here is to put like with like and find out what, exactly, needs to be in the ba.  I anticipated returning about a sweater's worth of fingering weight yarn to the bag, but then I realized that the sweater in question was meant to be a fair isle, steeked cardigan, and that there was a LOT of that yarn in the bag.

So I put it in its own pile and turned my attention to other things.

Pictured: a sweater (?)

From here, dear knitter, you are probably going to have smaller piles.  I ended up with a good deal of the sweater yarn (filed under "partial projects and associated yarn"), a bit of other yarn (something purple, two skeins of a weird variegated yellow-green-blue, odds and ends of other yarn, a piece of grey roving, and some pink embroidery floss).

Here is where things got organizational.  Finding myself short on table space, I put the sweater and all of its yarn back in the bag and hung it on a chair.  Somehow it didn't look any smaller for the yarn I'd removed, but I figured that was probably okay.  (If this happens to you: it is probably okay.)

I got a plastic bag and scooped all of the other yarn and the circular needle case into it.  That's going into the studio -- a room that houses the yarn, the sewing machine, the washer, and a bunch of household detritus that gets sucked in and usually only makes its way out in a big bag marked "GOODWILL."  It's basically the room equivalent of this knitting bag... but I digress.  Anyway, the other yarn is going there.

At the bottom of the bag, as at the bottom of many bags and backpacks, was a thin layer of associated tools.  I found...

• a single size 3 DPN, 7 inches long
• a tag for a skein of green Lamb's Pride
• a button
• a dime
• a loose stitch marker
• a small plastic bag containing two stitch markers and another button (different from the first button)
• a cable protector for an mp3 player
• a plastic envelope full of LYS business cards
• an unopened bag of heart shaped stitch markers

All in all, this wasn't a bad bag.  Everything in it (with the possible exception of the dime) is something that one would expect -- or even want -- in a knitting bag.  The problem, as the owner of this bag said, is that because there were things in it that are not associated with the Big Project, she hadn't touched the bag in weeks, and so everything in it was effectively lost. 

So, dear knitter, now that you have made it to the end of my adventure... I challenge you: clean out your knitting bag.  You too can salvage projects, find your findings, and recover use of your favorite project container once more. 

Take some pictures of the process (and the product!) and send 'em to us over here at the Facebook page.  One (1) free internet to the taker of the best picture!

New Pattern!

Because you need more things to knit, we have a new pattern!  It's a worsted weight, two-color hat in Lamb's Pride: 

Here's a link to buy it on Ravelry.  We'll have it in print here at the shop soon too!

Protip: worsted weight hats make good holiday gifts.  Can you say "this doesn't take eighteen hours to knit"?  And look how stylin' our model is!  Just imagine: you too can be that fancy.

Monsters of Knitting: "IT"

"IT" has begun.

I finished a hat last week and I said to myself "Self, you have the yarn for a Christmas present right here.  Why not start it?  This year won't be like last year.  You can have your Christmas knitting done on time.  It's only the end of October.  Look how responsible you are!"  And then I said "Self, that's a great idea."

So in a little more than a week, I started and finished my first Christmas present of the year.   It's socks!  I used the LYS pattern that I always use for sock presents, Lancaster County Blend.  I like 'em with the wrong side out, though -- see here, and you can like them that way too.

The first half sock

Currently, my list of Christmas knitting involves something handmade for pretty much everyone on it.  That's only seven people, so it's manageable -- theoretically.  Of course, since it's only seven people, there's time to maybe make some of them two things.  A hat and a scarf, or a hat and mittens, or at the very least two socks.  (That counts as two things, right?)

Unfortunately, finishing that first pair of socks has given me that false hope that says "Hey, you've got a great start.  You're doing fine!  Why don't you make something for yourself real quick?  Hey -- make that hat you've been ogling all month!  That won't take too long!"  

I've been revising the list to reflect this optimism: two things for my mother, one for each sibling, one each for two friends, two for another.  Sure, I can make two pairs of socks, a bandana cowl, a fingering-weight hat, and three or four more something-elses.  I have almost two months!  I'll be fine!

Ahh, but therein lies the problem.  If I have two months, why get started now?  There's plenty of time.  I only have seven people for whom I have to make things.  It's only November 5th.  I'll make something for myself (like maybe that hat I've been ogling for a month).

That, I suppose, is how IT begins.  I have all this Christmas knitting, and all of this time, and one piece under my belt.  I'm just going to finish this hat first, and maybe that sample I'm supposed to make for the shop.  And then I have to make myself a pair of socks, of course, because I haven't had a new pair in ages.  Oh dear...

...and IT cackled and opened its maw, swallowing the hyperconfident knitter and all of the Christmas presents, too.

IN OTHER NEWS, we have a bunch of really excellent new yarn from Knit One, Crochet Too: lots of elfin tweed and its hand-painted counterpart, kettle tweed.  It's a new yarn, and there aren't many projects on Ravelry yet, so who knows how it'll look?  (Hint: it will look great.  Wendy's making a shawl out of it and we're all jealous.)

AND we'll have more mini-skein sets of Kettle Dyed soon, too, for all of your mini-rainbow needs!  If you don't have any yet, don't worry: you will.

Oh, Capricious Gauge!

Gauge is a tricky, tricky thing.  I'm knitting yarn I'm familiar with,  a pattern I know, and using needles I'm comfortable with.  And my gauge is off. Way off.

So what happened? Maybe my hands were a little cold? Or the weather is suddenly dry and everything is different.  Is it too early for knitting? (never!) I'm not sure.

I admit I did not knit a gauge swatch--but that's because with a project this small, I'm willing to take a chance and let the first few inches of knitting serve as a 'swatch.' If it's wrong, my time investment isn't huge, and I can make the changes necessary without a whole lot of fuss. On the other hand, if it's right, well, I'm that far along with my knitting, aren't I? 

I think with this particular project the solution is even easier. Rather than rip it out, I am going to take out the four rows of knitting that follow the lace and re-knit them on either a US#3 or 4.  That should fix the gauge for the long part of the mitts, and is easily duplicated on the second mitt.  I'll work a few rows to be sure--and if it doesn't solve it, it's time to RIP and cast on again.

I'd like to recommend this great pattern, and  long time shop favorite, "Susie Rogers' Reading Mitts."  It's a free pattern, available on Ravelry. com.  We're making ours with two skeins of Classic Alpaca, a dk weight baby alpaca from the Alpaca Yarn Company--another shop favorite!  Use whatever needles YOU need to get gauge.

Close but not close enough.  

YARN JARS

At Lancaster Yarn Shop, we're intent on preserving tradition while moving into a thoroughly modern hand work aesthetic.  The YARN JAR is a clean and sleek solution to the problem of the loose and fuzzy ball of yarn.  The yarn is drawn smoothly and easily out of the YARN JAR through the grommet hole in the lid.  The jars are heavy glass in a charming farmhouse style with a brushed silver lid and fun graphics, and they come in two sizes: One Quart and Two Quart.  Their vintage appeal makes the YARN JAR a great and fun tool AND a great souvenir or gift for the knitter or crocheter in your life.   They are also fully capable of containing buttons, notions, pennies, marbles, candy - truly a jar of many uses!

YARN JARS™

One Quart    $ 16.95
Two Quart    $ 18.95