PLAIN YARN: LAMB--What will you make?

Plain Yarn is organic, undyed, local Romney Wool

Still trying to decide what you might do with Plain Yarn: Lamb from Lancaster, Pennsylvania?  We have some ideas!  We have two natural, un-dyed colors in stock this spring--a beautiful deep brown, and unbleached natural white. 

Felt Flock by Bev Galeskas knit by edirks on Ravelry

It is always a privilege to see what knitters and crocheters make with yarns from LYS--and we are impressed and thrilled with the creativity we've seen when it comes to Plain Yarn! We can't wait to see what you've made, and we'd love to hear what you're planning to make with this beautiful yarn.  Post your projects on Ravelry, or send us a photo!





We fell in love with Erica Dirks' projects using the "Felted Flock" pattern by Bev Galeska.  We wrote our own pattern for a warm, comfortable hat called the 'Shepherd's Checkerboard' (which is available as a kit in the shop or on our website).  And several of us made the 'Change of Heart' cowl by Justyna Lorkowska (Knitty Deep Fall 2014), it's very pretty in natural white or brown.

Lately, I've been thinking about what would be the 'just right' project for the fingering weight lambswool skeins and I hit on the traditional Shetland Hap. Now, I can't stop thinking about them. So, I've googled and searched around on Ravelry--and it turns out there's more than one way to knit a hap! There isn't consensus on the meaning or etymology of the word 'hap,' but mostly it seems that it's Norse roots mean to 'cover, wrap, or enfold; shelter.'  In knitting it refers specifically to the Shetland Island tradition of making warm, comfortable shawls suitable for daily wear and usually featuring an old shale patterned border.

Kate Davies recently published a collection of traditional and modern takes on the knitted hap, and she is in good company. Jared Flood, Gudrun Johnston, and many more outstanding contemporary designers are giving haps a chance. Yardage for a traditional full hap ranges between 850-1,700 yards of fingering weight yarns.  A two color hap in Plain Yarn: Lamb may very well be in my knitting future!

photo Shetland Museum & Archives

'Haps may well surprise you: they can be square, triangular, or hexagonal, incorporating lace, cables, or colour. Though haps are, by definition, functional, wearable textiles, you’ll find they can also be elegant and fascinating, graphic and abstract.'  --Kate Davies

#LKR2017 and Sunrise Ruby

Attendees of the Lancaster Knitter's Retreat took home skeins of LUMEN in a beautiful new color called 'Sunrise Ruby.' Named for a beautiful poem by Rumi, Sunrise Ruby is incandescent and RED! 

The light returns! Lumen has been re-stocked for online and in store sales.  437 yards of Superwash Merino and Silk make each skein a soft, luminous choice for shawls, garments, and accessories. 

 

Stripes! (the siren call of a favorite look)

I am crazy about stripes. Indiscriminately so. I wear wide striped sweaters with scarves featuring narrow stripes. I like fair isle patterns that resolve visually into a striped pattern, I like stitch patterns that fool the eye and create vertical, horizontal, and diagonal stripes. I like my eye to be led across and up and down and back.  I love striped, hand knit socks. LOVE them.

Yipes Stripes by Ann Weaver

I like stripes in my knitting, and I like them in the world, too.  I like painted crosswalks in bustling towns, the orderly vertical stripes of a bike rack, and telephone poles strung out in lines. I like the way a curled shelf fungi can radiate color to the edge.  I love the white and yellow and black stripes on monarch butterfly caterpillars, the endless variety of striping in leaves, flowers and stems, and the wonder and grandeur of colorful and textured stripes in stone formations.  Driving through Lancaster County's verdant, precious farmland, I am cheered by the contoured fields as the seasons change the colors, heights and textures of the landscape stripe by stripe. Stripes get my attention. 

Self striping yarns can be gorgeous--so much variety and color! And stripes made with leftover bits of yarn are just as appealing.  Gradients allow us to knit and crochet gently changing stripes of color in any shape or configuration.  We'll talk at length about color and strategies for knitting interesting stripes at the Lancaster Knitter's Retreat with Ann Weaver in May.  We'll also be knitting stripes in many of our upcoming Free Workshops--including the Frieze Shawl, Leventry, and the Home & Away hat.

Ursula by Kate Davies in Kettle Dyed Sock Yarn

How do you satisfy your knitting obsessions?  I wear and knit stripes nearly all the time, in some configuration or another. Meanwhile, I add stripey patterns and knitting ideas to my endless list of favorite patterns, and scheme for more time to knit!

#LKR2017: MEET THE TEACHERS

Lancaster Knitter's Retreat 2017
#LKR2017

MEET THE TEACHERS

We are delighted to announce that Ann Weaver and Melissa Leapman will be teaching at #LKR2017 in April! 

Ann Weaver sees knitting patterns in container ships, Tom Waits lyrics, Moby-Dick, classic cocktails, and the work of artists like Josef Albers and Mark Rothko. When she is not traveling to teach knitting workshops, Ann lives in Baltimore, Maryland.  Ann comes to LKR highly recommended by knitters who have studied with her at other events in the mid-Atlantic and beyond. 

Melissa Leapman joins us from New York City!  With over 1000 designs in print, Melissa Leapman is one of the most widely-published American crochet and knit designers at work today.  Nationally, her workshops are popular with crafters of all levels. She teaches at every major knitting and crochet event, including STITCHES, VKLive, and the CGOA/TKGA shows, as well as at nearly every TNNA industry trade show for the past twelve years.

Ann and Melissa will be teaching at the Lancaster Knitter's Retreat in Bird-in-Hand,  Pennsylvania.  Let's knit together!
Sign up HERE.

Winter Knitting

My knitting bag has a haphazard, weary look these days.  Truth be told, I'm not entirely sure I know what exactly is in there. It certainly is full though--and I bet there's some good stuff in there!  

I think I'll take a little time to sort through it and uncover which projects didn't get finished.  I need to get it done, I have a new project ready to start that needs to fit in the bag!

Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year--and one that's filled with beautiful yarns, patterns that interest you and push you a little, and time to spend on things, people, and projects that are important to you! 

Happy New Year!

When a Pattern Speaks to You...

You know what I mean.  You browse Ravelry, or Knitty, or pinterest, Instagram, Twist Collective--and you idle over new patterns as older patterns drift by in your 'favorites' or pile up in your knitting queue.  Some patterns wait quietly for the day when you match them up with a beautiful yarn, and others are more insistent. They show up over and over! 

That has been the case for me since I first saw the graphica's 'Inspira Cowl' (right) on Ravelry nearly five years ago. I 'favorited' it. I downloaded it. I read it. I looked at all three versions, and pored over many of the 3,500 projects posted on Ravelry since it was published.

And this week, the pattern came together with two beautiful yarns, and I cast on!  I'm making the Mesa Rock version which is written for Aran weight yarn.  I'm following the pattern as written, except that instead of using two ombre' style color changing yarns, I'm using Reggae Ombre' with a coordinating solid color of Kenzie.  It's already incredibly soft and appealing--and I can't stop knitting!

photo c graphica