The Joy of Fair Isle Knitting

I love to teach. I especially love to teach fair isle knitting techniques or stranded knitting. When I first learned to knit, I jumped right to color work--with occasional success and lots of trial and error. Who knew there were rules?

I was knitting patterns from weaving charts and adding colors like I was warping a loom.  Twenty colors in one row? SURE! Why not?  Purling in pattern? SURE! Why not? It worked, and I was making fabric.

I've studied a great deal since then, and I still love deeply patterned knitting.  I'll be teaching another session of our 'First Time Fair Isle Workshop' next week.  Click here for details! Won't you join us?

Kate Davies' Deco Cardigan--Winter 2015

My swatching is complete! Our Advanced Sweater Knitting Class starts January 24th. Registration OPEN!  Join us, won't you?
Details here: http://lancasteryarnshop.com/events/2014/10/15/sweater-knitting-for-advanced-knitters-2015

Your First Sweater--You Can Do It!

I love teaching and knitters love to learn new things. I find that sometimes our own assumptions are the only thing limiting our knitting progress.  Do you think you're not ready to make your first sweater? Let's figure it out.  Can you cast on and bind off? Can you knit and purl?  Can you increase and decrease? Yes? Then you're probably ready!

Many beginners wait too long to move into more interesting and challenging projects. Don't let this happen to you! 

Our First Time Sweater Knitting Class can take you to the next level in knitting.  We will work with you from your first cast on stitch, to the last thread you weave in. You will learn how to follow a pattern, how to work the magic that is short rows, what 'dividing for sleeves means,' and how to work in the round.  Learn how to knit a garment to fit you--and you will make a sweater that you will want to wear! 

This class starts in January, 2015.  For more information, click here.  Call now with your questions or to sign up!

Project:  # 994 V-Neck Neck-Down Cardigan by Diane Soucy

 "A tried and true basic you can dress up or down, and wear every day! Uses worsted weight yarn at a gauge of 18 stitches to 4 inches, finished chest measurements 36 to 52 inches."--Diane Soucy

Class size is limited.  There will be homework! 
Preregistration is required.  (717) 768-8007.
Materials for Free Workshops at LYS must be purchased at LYS.

Introducing: LUMEN

We have a new yarn from Kettle Dyed Yarns!   LUMEN is locally hand dyed and offered in five beautiful new colors. 

LUMEN means light.  The season of waning light is upon us and the days are growing shorter and darker.  Indirect light in a landscape intensifies color; saturates it, isolates it from shadow. Overcast days light the world from within.

When the sky clears,  when the sun or the moon shine on the world from high above, light refracts, bounces.  Direct light reveals and conceals details, adds shine and dimension.

I think of the way color saturates good wool, how your eye is drawn in to the twists of the wool instead of resting on the surface.  Silk's shine resists introspection and instead creates a surface that dazzles the eye, moving light along it like clear water moving over stones.

LUMEN is shiny and smooth--pure pleasure on the needles. It's a marvelous balance of everything we love about Merino wool and silk. 

A fine, four-ply yarn, LUMEN produces a beautiful fabric for shawls and scarves in the 4.75-5.25 stitches per inch range on US 4-5 (3.5-3.75mm) needles. LUMEN is wonderful at a finer gauge for silky soft socks, fingerless mitts or gloves.  These numbers are useful as a starting point for your own swatching.  Crocheters may wish to experiment with E, F, or G hooks.

Fall/Winter Hours

Please note our Fall & Winter Hours

November 1 -- December 31, 2014
Monday - Friday 9:00-5:00*
Thursday 9:00-8:00 (Knit Night every Thursday year round--unless it's a major holiday)
*Saturdays in November we’ll be open until 6pm
  Thanksgiving Day       CLOSED*  (no knit night)  *THIS IS A CHANGE
  Christmas Eve             9:00-4:00
  Christmas Day            CLOSED    (no knit night)
  New Year's Eve           10:00-4:00
  New Year's Day           10:00-4:00 (no knit night)

     Old Fashioned Friday Nights:  Shop until 9 PM!
November 28, December 5, December 12, & December 19, 2014
JOIN US FOR FREE EVENING WORKSHOPS ON FRIDAYS, DECEMBER 5, 12, & 19

We keep the same hours as Kitchen Kettle Village - that means we are open every day except for Sundays and Christmas.

      2015
January 1 - February 28  M-F 10:00-4:00/Saturdays 9:00-5:00
March 1 - April 30               9:00-5:00
Thursday open til 8:00 (Knit Night every Thursday year round--unless it's a major holiday)

NEW! First Time Fair Isle Hat Kits

I love stranded knitting. I started knitting because I was in love with weaving charts and wanted to make fabric.  My earliest projects were swatches of fabric that revealed how poorly I understood knitting but how powerfully I loved color and patterning. 

I didn't know there were 'rules' or traditional techniques for Fair Isle or stranded knitting, so I 'unvented' as I went along.  I've learned a lot since those early days, and I still love color work.

Lamb's Pride Worsted is a beautiful wool mohair blend in a heavy single--and an incredible range of colors.  It is a great choice for an introduction to color work.  The yarn is just 'wooly' enough to make an excellent fabric surface that is perfectly suited to Fair Isle.

As a knitting teacher, I particularly like to teach Fair Isle technique.  I developed a simple repeating pattern for a cap or toque that allows you to learn and refine your strategies for color work.  The hat is worked in the round. 

We are very happy to offer kits featuring the First Time Fair Isle Cap Pattern for sale in our shop and online.  Each kit contains two skeins of Lambs Pride Worsted and a Free copy of the pattern.  We have nine color combinations available. 

Note: The hat is knit on US #8 16" circular needles and US #8 DPNs, and you will need stitch markers.