Rowan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

South West Trading Company not only supplies

us with yarns, but also spinning fiber. You have probably been

reading about their new soy and bamboo fibers. You have to

feel this one to believe it, and therethe added a plus of great

colors. We have Oasis, the sport weight, and Phoenix, the

worsted weight,  of the soy silk. We also have Bamboo in both

solid and variegated colors. These new yarns are causing a

sensation in the yarn world. They also are supported with good patterns. South West Trading also has spinning fibers that include 100% Soy 
Silk, 100% Bamboo, Ingeo- a fiber made from corn and Silk Latte- a fiber made from

milk. They have a nice Spinner’s sample pack with some of each fiber. Their web site is www.soysilk.com.

Misti International Alpaca Yarns! We can’t begin to tell you how wonderful this yarn is! You have to feel it for yourself to know. We love this yarn! I have been working on a Shetland shawl using the lace weight and after knitting and pulling it out repeatedly for a week before I found a pattern that I was satisfied with and then after having knit a goodly portion had to pull it out because of a glaring mistake, the yarn knit up as if it had never been knit before. Adrianne knit a wonderful child’s sweater using a Country Child pattern in the bulky. Last Spring 
when we first brought it in, it came in only lace, sport and bulky weight but they have added many new colors and worsted weight yarn. The price is terrific too. Expect to see more of this yarn around in the future and look for magazine patterns using it. I expect my shawl to price out at under $30 and the center section is about a yard square. I really need to get going on the border.

You need to look at the wonderful yarns from 
Karabella Yarns. In 1993 Berta Karapetyan founded 
her company in NY, which top designers quickly

made a yarn resource for their designs. In 1999 with her 
son she moved into the wholesale yarn area. Their yarns and patterns are often classic 
with a high design flare.  Look for silks, silk/cashmere blends, super boucle alpacas,
 merino wool/camel blends, merino/silk boucles, and kid mohair with their label. Carly knit 
a wonderful shawl with their Gossamer kid mohair/nylon/poly blend that has a metallic 
thread interspersed that takes only 3 balls.

Both Anny Blatt & Bouton d’or are inactive in the U S right now but we still have a good selection of many of their yarns.

have pushed the natural fiber envelope to new heights. Not only 
do they have 100% machine washable wool but they are machine dryable too. We have 
this in sport, worsted and bulky weights. Adrianne has knit a cute funnel-neck top 
from the Hip To Knit book and the bulky weight yarn. And! they have introduced a machine 
washable 100% angora yarn. I have knit the sweetest little booties in mint green and white.
 What grandmother wouldn’t want to see her grandbaby’s feet in these booties? We have a 
number of Anny Blatt patterns books in stock for adults and for children. Don’t forget to 
look at the new angora, Muguet, ribbon scarf and Juliette cap kit designed by Lily Chin for 
both crocheters and knitters. Oh, and I mustn’t forget, There are now machine washable 
wool/camel and wool/alpaca blends from Anny Blatt.

Take a look at the new Fleece yarn from Knit One/Crochet 
Too. Adrianne has knit a darling baby cardigan from our 
house pattern in this soft chenille-like 100% polyester yarn. 
The colors are strong and wonderful and the yarn is soft as 
fleece. K1C2 has long offered some of the nicest yarns 
around and we are very proud to be carrying them. Among 
the better known of their yarns that we carry are Tartellette  
and Truffles. We are also carrying their kits and patterns.

 

Classic Elite Yarns-There are a number of new Yarns from Classic Elite and some great new patterns. For those who have been disappointed in Classic Elites patterns for the last few years, there is a return to the classic style that the company was known for.  There are nice new colors in Bazic Wool, Inca Alpaca, Lush and Beatrice. We have also added some of their new yarns. Paintbox is variegated wool that felts wonderfully. Skye Tweed joins Beatrice for their Tweed patterns. Lou Lou and Parade are great fun for scarves and hats.

We have been carrying RaumaGarn from Norway since we opened. Some of you know about this wonderful Norwegian yarn and its large color selection, but it still remains a yarn little known in The U.S. Its tight twist makes it a perfect color pattern yarn. It has a rough hand at first touch but it softens while being knit. Not as well known in the U.S. as Dale of Norway but known equally as well in Scandinavia, RaumaGarn has a long history of making quality yarn and exciting patterns. Among their many patterns are the traditional sweaters of different regions of Norway. They produce a machine-wash baby yarn, and non-machine-wash yarns in fingering, sport, DK and bulky weights. It is the yarn most used in the book, A Garden Stroll, by Minnesota designer Lori Ihnen.

 

Elsebeth Lavold has added an angora/ wool blend and a tweed to her yarn line and 2 new pattern books.

Maggie Knits has also added new yarns and patterns that should arrive soon.

Vivian Høxbro  says, “MY KIT-COLLECTION  This collection is created using Domino-Knitting as well as Shadow-Knitting.  I have worked especially with these 2 techniques and love working with them - but I will of course work with other techniques too.  I love techniques that are fun to knit and I want the garments to be interesting to look at and flattering to wear. With the color journey these techniques have brought to my life, who knows what the future might bring! It is important to me that knitting is amusing and great fun, as well as being truly knittable.  I cannot say that my designs are for beginners, but the instructions are very detailed and instructive, so - if you can keep a gauge - just get started.”. I can’t say it any better then she can. Both design and yarn make these exceptional kits.

It is with great pleasure that we add Vivian’s kits to those of her fellow Danish designer, Hanne Falkenberg and Australian designer Jane E. Slicer-Smith.  All three designers have boutique quality garments. Hanne’s and Jane’s patterns are not available except in their kits. Vivian’s new book is due out shortly and I don’t know if her kit patterns will be available in the book but her yarn is being spun by Harrisville Designs just for her kits and will not be available to buy separately.

Garnstudio’s Eskimo is now available in many more colors. This bulky, single spun yarn is wonderfully soft and easy to work with. It is perfect for Icelandic style patterns and great for felting.

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Marks & Kattens has added a wool twill this year in tweeds called Natura. It joins Feeling, the wool acrylic heather yarn from last year, as excellent sweaters for traditional knits. Again the pattern support is wonderful.

 

Needful is not longer in business but we have a good selection of many of their yarns.

Among the great yarns from Needful Yarns is Orsetto, a wool chenille that has great colors. Adrian knit an adorable baby sweater using the solid white and a variegated pink/peach.

Plassard is also no longer in business but we have a good supply of many of their yarns

Pichenette from Plassard  has joined other great Plassard yarns on our shelves. This is a super fine kid mohair blend and perfect for our Magic Mitten pattern. It is one of the finest mohair yarns of the many mohair yarns that we carry. .

I know that there are many other yarns that I think that you would like to hear about but these should give you an idea of what is out there.

For those of you who like to knit with thin yarns or to blend yarns to create a new color, you need to see the 2 new lines that we have added in Shetland wool fingering weight yarn. We have carried Jamieson’s 2 Ply Shetland Spindrift for some time now. We have added Jamieson & Smith 2 Ply Jumper Yarn and Digit, from Nancy’s Knit Knacks. Digit is a JaggerSpun yarn that has been washed. We have all of the colors of Digit in stock and a good selection of the other two.

NEW TOOLS AND GADGETS

We have 2 swifts to choose from now. Besides our lovely little table swift, we have the Oregon Wood Worker’s Swift. Although they are both table swifts, they are very different.

Besides the Digit yarn, we carry the Knit Knack Sacks, Knit Kards, Nancy’s Niddy- Noddy and the NKK Yarn Meter. All are from Nancy’s Knit Knacks.

From our old friends at Circular Solutions comes the Knitter’s License plate. You can attach it to your car or hang it on your front door. A fun gift for the knitter who has everything!

And for the sheep lovers! How about our sheep needle gauge or the sheep tape measure?