And, while we did announce the winner of the last Live Stitch give away I thought I would mention it here too – it is the 23rd comment by Cathcart that was picked by the random number generator.  Enjoy your Madeline Tosh Kimberly!

Louis says, have a good week everyone! 

On to the blog give away.   Many thanks to Madeline Tosh for sponsoring this blog give away!  They gave us two hanks of their new prototype yarn, Tosh Sport.  I am holding a hank right now and I can tell you that Tosh Sport is soft, smooth and lofty.  It would make beautiful accessories, garments and yes, socks.  Tosh Sport is a 100% superwash merino that comes with 280 yards of yarn on each hank.  The hanks seem to be around 70+ grams each.  This is a guess as the labels are not marked and I don’t have a scale here.  The color line is Well Water.

If you would like to have these two hanks please tell us what you would like to see - more of - from Madeline Tosh.  A new yarn, a new color, new fiber combinations, new yarn weights, anything you heart may desire.  What would you like to see under the Madeline Tosh label?  Please post a comment with your suggestion(s) and we will add your name to the pool from which we will select a name randomly.  If your name is selected the yarn is yours.  You have until Sunday August 1st, midnight to post a comment.  Hope to see you here!

As you may already know Skacel is the U.S. distributor of Addi needles and crochet hooks as well as Trekking, STEP, Fortissima, and Zauberball.  Please let us know what specifically you like about Skacel products and more importantly, what other products or product improvements you would like to see from Skacel.  Please don’t be shy and let us know all your thoughts.

We will enter the names of all respondents into a pool from which we will select a name.  We will then randomly select a winner and annouce his/her name here and at Little Knits’ Ravelry group.  You have till Saturday (July 10th), midnight to get us your responses.

The winner will get the following goodies:

1. Addi Turbo 20” U.S. size 7 stitch holder
2. Cable stitch holders (set of two)
3. Two large safety pins (used as stitch holders)
4. “Rotally” row counters (set of two)
5. Turbo needle gauge
6. Small yarn scissors
7. One hank of Fortissima Socka Cotton (enough for a pair of socks)
8. “What is your addiction” Addi T-Shirt
9. A collectors eddition Addi Turbo/Lace circular needles.  These are 32” U.S. size 6 needles with an Addi Turbo tip at one end and Lace tip on the other end.

Hope to see you here!

For those of you who are in the Seattle area and wanted to know, yes, we are open on Monday the 5th and hope to see you at the store.  We hope it will be a sunny day.  We will have some new things for you at our West Seattle location.

I thought this may be a good day for a quick yarn review.  I am a big fan of Fly Designs and Pat Fly’s fiber-magic.  I am always amazed when she manages to get deep, intense, jewel tones on most unlikely fiber combinations.  This is especially true for Flutterby, a 70% angora and 30% Polyamide blend with a soft hand and a great feel next to skin.   

When dyed, angora usually dilutes colors and in hand-dyed yarns this usually results in a pastel color range.  Not so for Flutterby.  Unless intentionally left as pastels Fly Designs’ color lines are rich and saturated, which results in beautiful finished garments whether knitted

or crocheted.            In addition, Flutterby has an incredibly reasonable price point for a 70% angora yarn that come in comes in 4 ounce hanks with 900 yards of sport weight yarn. 

While working with Flutterby we have found that it has a soft hand and feels wonderful next to skin.  Here is what HelloKnitty of Ravelry had to say about her experience with Flutterby:

I worked with the Roses color line of Flutterby, which I thought to be a beautiful combination of light to dark pinks.  I like variegated yarns but sometimes have a hard time finding the right pattern to complement the colors.  With that in mind I set out to find the perfect stitch pattern for my Flutterby.  After a few tries I decided that the woven look of linen stitch worked well with this color. 

I started my wrap over three times and I can tell you from experience it is easy to frog (given the high angora content I was surprised).  I would recommend tugging gently as the yarn can snap when pulled hard.  The polyamide component of Flutterby provides strength that you will not find in 100% angora.

In my multiple attempts to come up with the right gauge I saw that linen stitch made a very firm fabric so I finally settled on U.S. size 9 needles, which gave me a soft, flexible, and almost a gauzy fabric.  I knit the wrap length-wise with 603 stitches.

The finished size for my scarf/stole ended up being about 110 inches long and 9 inches wide.  I think half as long and twice as wide would also be very functional depending on how you like to wear your scarves.  I can easily wrap this scarf/stole around my neck 3 times making a nice cocoon for myself.  

A quick note, I did wash and block a swatch while testing needle sizes but I did not block the finished wrap (I am too busy wearing it).  I was surprised to see my swatch was colorfast as in my experience intense reds and pinks – especially in hand-dyed yarns – have a tendency to bleed.

Overall, I enjoyed working with Flutterby.  While Flutterby is 70% angora and has a nice halo somehow this has been achieved without yarn being too fluffy.  This is a very soft and non-prickly yarn that is lightweight and warm at the same time.  Flutterby comes in beautiful colorways and has a wide color palette that can please everyone.

We had a program select a random name from all the posts and Leilasgranny (Ravelry ID), won a beautiful hank of Peek a Boo Fly, a 65% superwash merino and 35% rayonized bamboo.   We like this yarn because it has a subtle silky sheen, a silky drape and it has a smooth beautiful hand.  It comes in 8 ounce hanks with 1120 yards, which is enough for an average size garment, a large shawl or several accessories.  Our first shipment of Peek a Boo Fly vanished quickly and we hope to get new colors in July.

Leilasgranny is receiving the Cornflower color line, one of my favorite colors in this yarn line.  In addition, the first poster gets a $10 gift certificate to Little Knits – you know who you are.   We figured being the 1st must count for something, right?

Watch for the next blog give-away, which we hope will be a continuous event at Live Stitch.

All you have to do is to answer a question: please tell us the knitting and/or crochet product line that you would most like to see at Little Knits.  This question is not limited to yarn lines.  Your answer can be anything from a pattern line to bags, knitting needles/crochet hooks, simply put anything that you feel is important for your knitting/crochet needs.  Just let us know your suggestions and we will enter your name into the pool from which we will pull a name . 

We will announce the winner here and at Little Knits’ Ravelry group.  Before I forget, the winner will receive an 8 ounce hank of Fly Designs’ yarn with plenty of yardage for a shawl or a big stole or a light top that will keep your warm without being too toasty.  This way you too can participate in the Fly Designs’ KAL, of course, only if you would like to.  The name of the yarn we will be giving away, which is simply gorgeous, and the winner will be announced on Wednesday morning.  You have until midnight of the 22nd to respond (June 22nd, 2010).

Look forward to seeing you here!

I will start with a bit of quick news: did you know that we have started Ravelry Coupon Mondays?  Just join Little Knits’ group at Ravelry and watch for coupon announcements.  Every Monday it will be something new.  When you join us on Ravelry please share your projects with us and let me know what you would like to see at Little Knits next.

For tomorrow we have a new yarn that will be posted on the site that was requested by our Ravelry members, Berrroco’s Blackstone Tweed.  And even better the colors listed will be on sale at 45-50% off.  This is a surprisingly soft tweed by Berroco with a wool, superkid mohair and angora fiber blend.   Here are the two colors we have in stock that will be on sale:

And a personal find on etsy, Grey Drizzle Fibers.  This is a fairly new dyer with a great feel for subtle color combinations and color-on-color variation.  I do know the dyer but we have no financial affiliation, meaning there is no profit motive for this post and I will not benefit from it.  Simply put I love the colors created by this small indie dyer.  I got two hanks of her 4-ply DK weight merino just to play in colors that are not really characteristic of my favorites including a beautiful green called Leaf and in a warm honey amber called Doubloon.   The merino is soft and smooth with a tight-but-not-too-tight ply but what makes this yarn so special is the dyers’ colors with their subtle color-on-color variations and rich hue saturation.

I also asked Ms. Grey Drizzle to do a special project for me and she was kind enough to agree.  We have been testing a super fine single ply merino from Italy at Little Knits.  So I asked her to dye the lace weight of this lovely merino in a deep deep blue-red for me and she did!  I call this red Drop-dead Red and it is goooorgeous!  I have about 2700 yards of this super soft merino in Drop-dead Red and I cannot decide on a project…I do need help so your suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

That is it for this post.  I am off to bed so that I can get up early tomorrow and start photographing some new yarn.

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.

The lovely people at Malabrigo Yarn was nice enough to send me a hank of their new yarn, Twist, a super soft baby merino that is loosely plied.  I tried to get a closeup of the ply to show you the difference in the thicknesses of the baby merino

that is plied together, which makes the yarn feel more organic/natural.   Twist is a pleasure to work with and makes a rather solid knitted fiber and I know I said it before but it is very soft and feels wonderful next to skin.

I looked for a project for my single skein and found Prismatic Scraf on Ravelry, a free pattern that works

beautifully with this hand-dyed yarn.  I am using my favorite needles (HiyaHiya circulars), in U.S. size 9 for this pattern but I think I could have gone up to size 10 as the yarn makes for a pretty substantial knitted fiber.  I think I will be able to soften the drape of the scarf if I block it with some vigor.  We have ordered all the colors Malabrigo had ready for shipment for the Twist and I cannot wait to get my hands on it.

As to the pattern, Prismatic Scarf is a great (free!) pattern for hand-dyed yarns as it shows their beauty by allowing the colors distribute evenly on the knitted fiber.

I know that I will be knitting a few as gifts – it is a quick and easy knit and it is addictive like your favorite snack that you cannot put down.

We also got a new yarn in from Fleece Artist.  Nyoni is a merino, mohair and silk blend yarn that can be used for sock and lace projects and has a subtle sheen.  Nyoni is very similar to Fleece Artist’s Somoko with a slight difference in gauge and comes in 125 gram hanks at a great price point.  One hank is sufficient for a pair of socks for most sizes, two hanks is sufficient for a mid-sized shawl, and three hanks would make a large shawl or stole.  Another great project idea for this yarn is Tempest by Weaver Designs, which you can find on Knitty as a free pattern.  And here are a few of my favorite colors:

Pewter   Wine 

Boreal 

I am looking for a shawl pattern for Nyoni as I have put away a few skeins for self.  This shawl will be knitted for myself.  I say I am allowed to give myself a Christmas gift and so should you!

Hope you are all well and knitting and crocheting with a smile.

We will reopen on Sunday, the 22nd at 11 AM for the first day of our sale.  New and old inventory from lines such as Debbie Bliss, Mondial, Katia, Cherry Three, Louisa Harding and Rowan will be reduced from 50-75% including books and magazines.

We hope to see you at Little Knits in West Seattle this Sunday and during the rest of the year when you can make it over.

I cannot leave you without a little eye candy.  We have new and beautiful color lines in for Handmaiden’s Sea Silk.  Here is Boreal and The Ozarks in all their beauty: