If you’re looking for a fantastic, yarn-filled way to spend a weekend, hop in the car with your fiber-loving friends and take part in this year’s I-91 Shop Hop. June 27-30 (Thursday-Sunday), we are joining 10 other yarn shops in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut for a weekend of fun.

The theme of this year’s Shop Hop is “A Kaleidoscope of Color.” Each shop will showcase a particular color and will develop an interesting display around it, so you want to make sure you hit every shop to see what they display.

All of the participating shops will have goodies and special giveaways. Two lucky grand prize winners will receive $550 in gift certificates as well as yarns, books, tools, and more from our favorite suppliers. How do you win? Simply have your passport stamped at each shop. At the last shop, leave your completed, stamped entry form. The winners will be chosen on July 1, 2013.

Passports are $5 and are available at participating shops and on our website. Grab them now so you’re ready to go on Thursday morning!

Click on the poster to view all of the shops.

Are you planning on joining us?

Today marks the first day of our 39th Annivesary Sale! Many of our customers count down the days until this incredible sale begins. It’s the only sale where we have regularly priced yarns on sale, and this year, we’ve got some incredible savings.

Each year, we have a few yarns that are on sale during both the months of April and May. This year, during those two months, you’ll save on Cascade 220, Cascade 220 Superwash, and Plymouth Encore. In April we have a selection of yarns on sale, and then, once May 1st hits, we have another group of yarns on sale, so if you see something you like, make sure you grab it at the sale price now.

This year, for the first time, we’ve added Knitter’s Pride sets to the sale. This month, we have the Knitter’s Pride Nova Deluxe Set (only $55.99. regularly $69.99), Knitter’s Pride Dreamz Special Set (only $50.99, regularly $62.99), and Knitter’s Pride Dreamz 6” DPN Set (only $31.99, regularly $39.99). I’m personally excited about the Dreamz Special Set. I’ve been knitting a lot of hats recently and I think having these 16” interchangeables on hand will be helpful. You’ll have to wait until May to see what we have in store from Knitter’s Pride for next month!

What else do we have on sale this month? You’ll want to head over to the sale page on our site to see everything!

What are you most excited to see on sale this month?

 

Did you bind off your Burning Branch Shawl? One of my favorite parts of any project with lace is the blocking.

Because of the unusual shape of this shawl, it can be a little tricky to block  I laid it out on m blocking board and pinned out the SSKs then smoothed the rest of the shape and pinned it.

 

I love taking a dried lace project off the blocking board. It is so satisfying when you remove the pins, pick it up, and the beautiful shape stays.

Now you can wear your finished shawl. Check out the different ways Katie is wearing our sample.

  

Do you love your shawl? Any questions we didn’t answer?

Now that we have completed our three leaf repeats, it is time to work the last leaf and twig border. You’ll work the first part until there are 9 stitches between each marker.

The twig pattern is formed in the next section and is repeated until you have 2 stitches before marker B. This will be your k1 and ssk like before.

Tip: As you’re working, you’ll being to be able to read your knitting. There were a couple times I was purling back on the wrong side row and I realized I missed a yarnover. This is super easy to fix without undoing what you’ve already done. When you get to the point where there should be a yarnover, simply pick up the bar between the two stitches and purl it – instant fix.

Kirsten designed this pattern to use all of the BFL skein, so you may run out before you finish the pattern repeats, but the great thing about how she designed it is that it’s okay! I ran out (with enough to bind off) when there were five stitches between the markers and it still looks amazing. You could also do the last section in a coordinating color for a different look.

Next week, we’ll wrap up the Burning Branch Shawl KAL and block our shawls!

This week, we move on to knitting the leaves of the Burning Branch Shawl. I love the leaf pattern of this shawl and the way it develops. It has me thinking spring, and I’m definitely ready to see leaves on the trees again.

In the first row of each leaf section you’ll be placing your ‘B’ markers. this is why it is important to have two different colors of markers.

Tip: If you don’t have different color markers, you can use scraps of yarn. I often just grab a short length of yarn from a nearby scrap ball and tie it and use it as a marker. Then I don’t have to worry if it falls off and rolls under a chair since it is just scrap.

For each repeat you’ll work until there are two stitches before your ‘B’ markers. These will be your k1 and ssk.

After working the first leaf you’ll repeat it two more times.

The wrong side purl rows are starting to get long! Purling is not my favorite thing to do, but I’ve been catching up on old TV shows on Netflix as I knit this.

How is your shawl coming?

We’re kicking off our latest KAL (knit-a-long) here on the blog today! When Kirsten finished 514 Burning Branch Shawl, we loved the unique shape and the BFL Fingering dyed by Gail is amazing to work with and wear.

 

For the KAL, you’ll need a skein of Valley Yarns BFL Fingering Hand Dyed, size US4 needles (I used 32″ Addi Lace circulars), and stitch markers*- 6 each of 2 different colors, and the pattern.

In the first section, you cast on, place you ‘A’ markers and work 12 rows to set up the pattern.

If you’re going to be at Stitches West this weekend, make sure you come visit us in booth 604-612 and 703-711. We’ll have the sample, pattern, and yarn so you can start right away. You definitely want to check it out in person. It is gorgeous!

We’ll continue next week. Hope you’ll join us!

*My stitch markers were purchased from Knitifacts etsy store.

As you flip through the pages of the Spring 2013 issue of Interweave Knits, you’ll find many gorgeous garments and accessories to add to your knitting queue. Included in this is a stunning shawl knit in our own Valley Yarns Charlemont.

This triangular shawl is worked from the top down, so your stitches increase as you go. It is a gorgeous blend of cables and lace that really stand out in the superwash merino/mulberry silk/polyamide blend of Charlemont.

Have you checked out Interweave Knits Spring 2013 yet?

Are you headed to Stitches West this weekend? If you are, make sure you print out this coupon for half off admission! It does not apply to online ticket purchases, and you must have the coupon with you.

Come visit us in booths 604-612, 703-711! And we’ll have lots of yarn packed into that 10 booth space. We’re bringing favorites from Malabrigo, Madelinetosh, and Berroco. We’ll also have closeouts like Noro Kureyon Discontinued Colors, Noro Silk Garden Discontinued Colors and more!

If you’ve had a chance to view our spring catalog, you saw the new Valley Yarns garments. We’ll have many with us at Stitches, so stop by the booth and see them in person. We’ll also have 514 Burning Branch Shawl knit in Valley Yarns BFL Fingering which will be our next KAL starting here on the blog on Thursday.

Looking for needles and crochet hooks? We’ll have Knitter’s Pride and Addis, so you’ll find one to suit your preference.

We hope to see you in Santa Clara!

In this post, J, one of our store associates, shares his experience with the world of apps for knitting.

I received an iPad mini for Christmas, hints were dropped and I can’t tell you how excited I was to open it up, my old laptop is now collecting dust. To the App Store I went. One of the first things I typed into the search bar was “knit” and then came the choices. We’ve all heard “There’s an app for that.”, I found myself asking, but what am I actually going to use this for. Should I download every app just because it has the word knit in the title?

Let’s get started with The Basics

WEBS
From your favorite page(s) on yarn.com you can make a bookmark. Now getting to the website is just a click away from your tablet. You start from the page of your choosing this way. Always Searching by Fiber? Perusing PDFs? Checking out the Yarn Closeouts? Keep Your Wishlist handy for when you come make the trip to the store!

YouTube
Of course, watch that tutorial over and over again, Russian join, Norwegian Purl? Please refresh my memory, purl off, knit, knit off, purl, but where do I start? In the searchbar on Youtube you can type in knitspeak (ssk, sk2p, p2togTBL, etc.) As with anything on YouTube, check a few out. You want instruction that you can actually follow, sight, sound, and all. As I mentioned, we have some great instructional videos at yarn.com. There is a real knitting instruction app that I’ll talk about later, but I mainly wanted to point out that you can type knitting abbreviations into YouTube, because it’s good to know.

Ravelry
I am amazed at the number of knitter’s who have not found this resource yet. It’s a thing, and if you love anything yarn related you should check it out, Ravelry.com. Create a bookmark so that you don’t have to type it in to your browser anymore. (Pro-tip: create the bookmark from your favorite page, ie. pattern search, your projects page, favorite forum and you’ll always start out in your favorite place) May we suggest the AllThingsWEBS group (http://www.ravelry.com/groups/all-things-webs)? Show off your FOs, chat with other fiber lovers, Queue up projects that are perfect for those beautiful skeins you just bought.

Calculator HD for iPad by CrowdCafe
Of course you should have a calculator at your fingertips. While there are many free options out there. This one in particular has one feature that the rest do not, a notepad alongside the calculator. No need to go back and forth. Whether you need to adjust a pattern, calculate how many skeins you need, the list goes on. Well worth 99 cents to have two apps in one. My favorite mode however, is the Tape mode. It doesn’t make the distinctive tape calculator sound when its “printing”, but seeing your work as you go is wonderful.

Units from Homegrown Software Ltd
Convert anything. How many ounces is 50 grams? If I have 228 meters of yarn, how many yards is that? Did you know that Cascade 220 is 1/8th of a mile and 2.2 Soccer Fields? Even shoe sizes in five different countries, which could come in very handy. FYI: a pinch is equal to 2 dashes or 1/8th tsp.

KnitHandy from Interweave 
Based on the work of Ann Budd, this is as handy as the name suggests. The app includes a quick reference for Standard Yarn Gauges and a wide range of project types with yardage estimates in a variety of sizes and gauges. I love the color of this fingering weight yarn, is there enough to make a hat? My WiFi is not connecting and I just want to know if I need one more skein. Yardage estimates are always just that, estimates. There may not be enough for that pattern you fall in love with, but there are more patterns in the sea, your sure to find something out there.

Counter Man from Riccardo Sabattoli
Count Rows and repeats at the same time. With the free version, you can have 5 counters going. Counters can be named and the items to count can be named as well, you can associate any color for each counter. This is one of those instances where I really only need the free version so far, but I appreciate how well it’s done so I’m willing to give this guy 99 cents. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll have six projects going at once.

KnitEvenly from JKnit
Have you ever needed to increase by just a few stitches, but wanted to make sure you spread the increases out rather than adding 1 in the middle and 2 on the ends or whatever sort of fudging you were thinking of to get you the number of stitches you need. Knit evenly, shows you two ways of doing it and even has a follow along guide to walk you through so you can keep track. It’s pretty amazing.

PDFs

Now that you’ve gotten started, maybe you have some PDFs and a little stand so that you can set the instructions in front of you while you work on your latest project. That’s pretty cool. The piles of paper aren’t piling up around you and ruining your recent re-organization. Nice work by the way, we love what you’ve done with your stash.

There is that free iBooks “library” and you can make collections to get things sorted the way you like. I like to have a little more control over the pattern. I miss being able to highlight, make notes, somehow pin the page down so that I’m only looking at the row I’m currently working on. I also, admit I miss the little creases in pages from folding them up and stuffing them in my knitting bag.

GoodNotes by Time Base Technology Limited
I stumbled upon this while trying to find something to manage my pattern PDFs. Originally, I was just hoping for a bit more organization than the standard PDF reader. Little did I know that this app would have so many features that are perfect for knitting pattern reading.

Highlighter function – I’m a lace knitter, mostly, the ability to highlight repeats and specific parts of a chart is fantastic.
Palm Rest – They call it a palm rest, I call it a chart follower. The palm rest is a handy tool with a little pull tab at the bottom of the screen. After sizing the pattern so you can read it, you can move the palm rest to follow your work row by row.
Notes – Add notes anywhere on the PDF.
Two ways of organizing PDFs, separate notebooks or separate folders.
I have separate folders for Lace, Hats and Scarves, Socks, and Sweaters. You can rename PDFs and Notebooks once they are in a Goodnotes folder and move them to any folder you choose. As for separate notebooks, I recently completed Gail(aka Nightsongs) a wonderful free pattern on Ravelry. I downloaded the pattern, I had the perfect yarn, and then I got to row 38. I had to go back to the pattern page in order to find the rest of the story. Note to self, really look at project pages and additional notes when you find a pattern. It turns out that just about everyone ran into the same problem. Ravellers, being the great community they are, had taken charge and created additional charts to help the rest of us get through those pattern repeats so that the shawl would come out as spectacular as I had envisioned. Instead of keeping all of the PDFs separate, I have them in their own notebook. The beauty is that next time I work with this pattern, my highlights and notes will be there and all of the PDF charts are together.

KnittingHelp Video Reference from Outer Limits Media
It’s becoming more common for knitter’s to be self-taught. While there is nothing quite like having a teacher to ask questions or help you better see what’s happening with your stitches, knittinghelp.com has done a great job of creating instructional videos and tutorials for just about everything knitting related. The app is basically an extension of her website. I know I mentioned YouTube previously, but with free there is always a cost or so said my grandfather. With YouTube you have to find an instructional video that is done well. You want to see the stitches, have it slow enough so that you can follow along, understand what the instructor is saying. Amy Sheldon of KnittingHelp.com does that well, the videos are clear, and there are instructions for just about everything you encounter while knitting, even tips and tricks for going back a few rows and fixing mistakes. While this is an iPhone App, important to note if you search for it in the App Store, you can double the size to make it easier to use on your iPad. The $4.99 for this app is well worth it.

Do you have a favorite app for knitting or crochet?

When we start working on a catalog, it is sometimes hard to imagine it all coming together. The first hurdle is getting used to the timing. The majority of our Spring catalog was put together before and right around the holidays, and Kathy and Steve do the buying for Spring in the Fall. So, it can be difficult to get into the “feeling” of the season when you’re already going through one that is completely different.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t fun! It is an exciting process and it is great to be able to get a preview of all the wonderful yarns and patterns that are headed to the store.

This year’s Spring catalog is now online and on its way to your mailbox. We think you’ll enjoy this one. Not only will you find a selection of incredible new yarns and fantastic projects, we’ve also included some amazing editorial content. Sara Delaney has a piece on crocheted socks, Kirsten Hipsky writes about substituting yarns, and we continue our WEBS Loves series with a feature on the talented Norah Gaughan.

We hope you enjoy perusing the pages of our latest catalog whether you look through the online or the paper version.

What yarn and/or project are you most excited about this Spring?