Live Stitch @ Little Knits

A quick entry…a very quick entry.

We are back from TNNA and have many surprises in the works for you.  You just wait!

And, new colors of Malabrigo Sock are in and they are lovely.  Some eye candy is in order:

Arbol   

Ravelry Red   and Light of Love 

And a new dye lot of Alcaucil 

I hope you like them too.  Back to work and to my somewhat sad thoughts about my thorn up kitchen.

Other than getting up early in the morning to go for a run I did not accomplish much today.  How about you? 

It was a beautiful day to do a run even though it was windy and a little cold.  I did get a lot of knitting done, which was great and so was the run.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  I am also hoping that a short entry would be OK for this Sunday. 

When I go through my blog bookmarks there is always one or two that have been inactive for a long while, which makes me wonder what may be going on with the blogger in question?  Is she away, is she not well, did she simply take a break and the most important, when and if she will come back and post again?

For me it has been a combination of things and I did take a break to resolve some site related issues, to sleep more and to decide how I wanted the blog to evolve.  After weeks of intense data conversion work we are getting ready to launch our new website with better functionality, advanced search options and simply put a new website that will be much easier for you to use.  I did sleep a little extra but not that much and I constantly thought about what I could be writing while trying to take a break.

So hello!  I hope you are here reading cuz I have much to tell.  First bit of news is the new Ella Rae Book Eleven that comes with 14 lovely bags to knit and felt.  The patterns in the book primarily use Ella Rae Classic, a basic worsted weight wool that is similar to Cascade 220 with a few differences: Ella Rae Classic is slightly softer; unlike Cascade 220 it comes in 100 gram skeins that do not need to be put into a center pull ball (ready to be used right away), and the price at $5.50 per 100 gram hank makes it a great deal.  It also has a huge color range.

The new Ella Rae Book Eleven has lovely bag patterns.  Some of my favorites include:

Sushi

Picnic

High Tea

Plum

and, Chocolate…here is me naming a few.

Just a quick entry to say hello and now a good night from an unusually warm Seattle evening.  I am thinking a glass of cold water with a little bit of lime juice may not be so bad.  It is too late to have ice cream, right?

As I said, I have been hit hard by the hand-dyed yarn fairy and with that in mind here is Lace Wing Not-So-Solids.

 Here is Mahogany, one of my favorite colors…I wish you could be holding this skein to see how lovely the color work is.  This also makes me wonder if it would be hard to dye such colors, I would imagine so…I would think it would be hard to get the color on color variations but I am not a dyer.

And I am very fond of Amethyst and Teal so they must be shown of course.  These subtler color combinations make this line ideal for more complex sock and lace patters (IMHO).

 And for good measure here is a lovely stole pattern, Cranberry Chain Wrap, which uses only one skein (!) of Lace Wing.  Here is a photo of the detail tho I am sad to say that this photo does not do justice to the 3 dimensional beauty of this wrap pattern.

Watch for the next entry for another hand-dyed beauty.

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas, love and good health during the holidays.  And, of course, a happy new year! 

  

I am sorry to have waited this long to post.  I assure you it was not voluntary and it motivates me to post often this week and for the remainder of the year.  So that is a promise I make and you can call me on it.

This delayed post is about Knit Paint socks, a labor intensive dye process by Fly Designs of Washington.  The process can be summarized like this:

 First the yarn is knitted in its natural format (undyed), into socks on an antique sock machine.  Once the socks are knitted each pair is hand-dyed with a sponge brush while using the sock like a canvas.  Each set can take up to 2 hours to dye.  The socks are then left to dry. 

Once dry they are soaked and washed to set the dye and dried one more time.  The socks are then ripped (yes, they frog the whole thing), and reskeined.    When knitted Knit Paint skeins create lovely color patterns.

 Here is a link to Barb’s blog, a customer of ours who has knitted a pair of socks with Knit Paint.  Barb I snagged one of your photos I hope you don’t mind.

Hope you are all well and knitting with a smile.

 Have you ever knitted with a 100% cashmere yarn?  If yes, then you know the hand, the feel and the satisfaction of seeing a garment finalized with the ultimate yarn experience.  Now lets add to the equation the colors of Jade Sapphire, which results in Jade Sapphire Special Edition Cashmere, a 100% cashmere 2-ply yarn (lace to light fingering), that comes in BIG 90 gram skeins with 640 yards.

 When the nice folks at Jade Sapphire offered this limited edition yarn to us I jumped with a smile on my face.  Then we sat down and decided how to divide the limited amount of skeins they had into a good color spectrum – I hope you like our color selection.

 Second was the patterns with which to pair this lovely yarn which is when we decided on Fiddlesticks Knitting, Heart Strings and Fiber Trends patterns.  Of course, we should not forget Bad Cat Designs.

 Then came the pricing.  The standard 55 gram skeins of cashmere 2-ply by Jade Sapphire is regularly sold at $38-$40 (with 400 yards/skein), making the approximate price of SE $64 (Special Edition comes in 90 gram skeins with 640 yards).  We then compared SE to Classic Elite’s Embrace, a 250 gram 100% cashmere yarn (worsted weight), that retails at $280 a hank – if we were to price Special Edition based on this product, per skein price for SE would be $100.  We hope you like our price better.

 Finally, if you purchase 2 skeins of SE you can have your order shipped free (US orders only), OR have a free pattern, OR have a free set of Addi circular needles (Turbo or Lace).  Simply purchase 2 skeins of SE and indicate which free offer you would like in the additional information window and we will take care of the rest.  The order repeats for each two skeins ordered.  So if you order 4 skeins you can have a free set of Addis and free shipping, etc.

Hope you like Jade Sapphire Special Edition Cashmere.  We have fallen in love with this scrumptious cashmere yarn.

Fulay (aka Sue)

I have been thinking about the yarns we carry at the store, some of which (most of which) are listed at our webstore and some are not.  So I decided we should have a series of sales that focus on our high-end yarns.  What do you think?  And, I thought I would kick the series with Tilli Tomas. 

 I am not done listing all our new colors in the current yarn lines and…we have a new line, Exotica!  We have closeout colors in this yarn line on sale at 40% off.

 Here is a new color of Pure and Simple called Stormy Waters that is just lovely in person.

 And here is another new color for Pure and Simple yarn called the Forest.  Don’t you think its pretty?

I am late to the store so this is going to be a short post.  I have lost more to share and will post again tomorrow.

Sending sunshine your way!

Fulay – she who has no control over sunshine.

Just in case you did not notice, a quick FYI to let you know that we received new colors of On Line sock yarns.

 The first one is the On Line Beach color.  Appropriately Beach Color has 45% cotton content and it is very soft.  As I type this post, I am wearing a pair of socks knitted with this yarn (a sample that came with the yarn, I admit I did not knit them), and they have gone through 2 machine washings and held up their shape and their color wonderfully.  They have also gotten softer and my feet are happy to be in them.  The color line I have on is #943, Pink, Lilac & Plum Gerber Daises by the Sea, and I have 4 requests for socks for this color line.  It is very Spring/Summer like, and light without being washed out.  There are 8 Beach Color lines for your viewing pleasure.

 The next line is called Summer in the City, and this line has slightly deeper color set with jewel tones.  Summer in the City is also a self-patterning yarn with thick and thin stripes and jacquard like breaks between the stripes.  I have found 3 sample sock sets for this yarn line (again came with the yarn and not knitted by anyone at the store), and they were all ‘taken’ home by friends & customers.  I can imagine wearing this around Seattle in my sandals, though I could not have been able to do the same thing in my previous hometown in Pittsburgh, which I imagine is having warmer weather than we have in Seattle right now.

I know I am going off topic now but if you are a Pittsburgher and have any news of the town or the Strip District (much like an international district and has nothing to do anyone shedding their clothes), please do drop a line and let me know.

 Finally, On Line Tropic is back!  When we first got in Tropic, it sold out within 2-3 days so when our distributor ‘found’ some in their warehouse I jumped on it.  The color lines of Tropic are simply beautiful and the yarn does justice to the pattern with its distinct separation of lines and color to color transition.

We have a total of 5 On Line sock lines that come in a total of 40+ colors.  To see them all go to On Line Sock Yarns and all US purchases of $75 of On Line sock yarns in any combination ships free with the ‘line’ free shipping coupon (to be used at checkout).

Well, I am heading to the store with morning coffee in hand, which makes me smile.  I have rather big yarn related news coming up that I hope will make you smile.  Watch for a post in the next two days!

Fulay (aka Sue)

We received a new shipment of Lady Godiva a short while ago and I finally had a moment to take the photos of the lovely new colors of this beautiful 50% merino 50% silk yarn by Hand Maiden.

 This specific color is called Amethyst.  I have always liked Amethyst the stone and this new Lady Godiva color makes me want go search for a piece of jewelry made with Amethyst.  Isn’t she lovely?

 This new color is called Blackberry and it is just as scrumptious.

 Finally, Mahogany is another new color for Lady Godiva at our store with beautiful deep browns, bronze, gold and walnut hues.  All of our Lady Godiva colors are up at the site for your viewing pleasure.

Hope you are all well and knitting with a smile.

Fulay (aka Sue)