Vintage Knits Update

July 30, 2010

Noro Update & Project Ideas

Filed under: Vintage Meanderings — sadie @ 10:00 am

We are making a diligent effort to get pictures of all our yarns online. This is a small “mom and pop” business, so everyone here pitches in where needed. There isn’t a hired webmaster or picture taker, so sometimes things take longer than we anticipated to get done. Many times we will put the inventory online, and have the “best intentions” to get the photos up later. You know how that works, something always comes up.

Anyway, we are going through our manufacturers one at a time, and putting the photos up for any missing yarn colors. First up was Noro. Mission accomplished – we now have pictures of all our Noro yarns/colors online.

Noro is all about color, and here are some inspiring projects using Noro Yarns (click the images for a larger view):

Noro Striped Scarf
Silk Garden Scarf
by Jared Flood

This is a very easy, but stylish scarf pattern that uses Noro Silk Garden yarn. The pattern is designed by Jared Flood, and can be found on Ravelry. It is a free site, but you need to register to access it. If you are like most people, Ravelry can be quite addictive, as there is so much to see and discuss on that site.

Here is another nice scarf pattern:


Danica Scarf

While not designed in Noro, the entrelac pattern in this scarf is perfect for the long color repeats. I would suggest substituting Silk Garden for this pattern. You can find the pattern on Knitty.

Do you think that sock yarns are just for making socks? Certainly Not! Look at this beautiful shawl that is made from Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn.


Simple Yet Effective Shawl
by Laura Chau

You can purchase the pattern for this shawl on Ravelry.

What about a comfortable pair of slipper socks? Go ahead, indulge yourself. The Ahimsa slipper socks pattern is free to download, and uses Noro Iro yarn.


If you are interested in making a spectacular afghan, check out the Lizard Ridge Afghan pattern. We told you about this a few years ago, and it deserves a second look. Here is a link to the post about the Lizard Ridge Afghan, where you will find pictures and links to the pattern.

July 25, 2010

Checking In

Filed under: The Fur Kids — sadie @ 8:00 am

When you don’t see any posts, we probably have our hands full with our four legged friends. As many of you know, we breed and show our dogs, hoping for the next Westminster champion. Sasha, our tricolor cavalier king charles spaniel had her first litter. It was a nice size litter of five puppies. All healthy and beautiful, but not one looked like her. I’m going to keep a girl out of this litter. I’ve named her Katrina for a reason, but since it’s not politically correct, I’ll skip putting it in print. Here are a few pictures of the puppies (click the images for a larger view):

the girls
Vintage Cavalier Girls

The Boys
Vintage Cavalier Boys

The girls were about five weeks old, and the boys were about eight weeks old when their pictures were taken. It’s hard to believe that they started out so small, between 5 and 7 ounces each. Other than the necessities, such as shipping out our orders, everything pretty much stops when we have a litter. The puppies are so small and fragile, all of our attention goes to making sure they are kept warm, and are gaining weight. For more information about our dogs, check out the Vintage Cavalier website.

January 24, 2010

Yes, I do knit! — The “Blizzard Blanket”

Filed under: On My Needles — sadie @ 7:00 pm

After looking at my blog, and the five years of posts, I realized that not one of them is about something that I am knitting. Actually, with the yarn shop, the dogs, and other obligations, my knitting has been on the back burner. But sometimes I get the urge to knit, and I knit for a couple of weeks. Then, as usual, the project gets put in a drawer and languishes for weeks, if not months.

After the very cold winter last year, I knew I wanted to knit a blanket, just in case the power went out again. The warmest sweater that I have is something that I knit years ago in Lopi yarn. It was that sweater that kept me warm while we were out of power for seven days a few years ago.

I’m going to call this project the “Blizzard Blanket,” for it’s sure to keep you warm during a snow storm. It’s hard to take a photo of a blanket while it’s still on the knitting needles. The blanket is folded in half, and I have attached two photos to give you an idea of what it looks like. Click on the photos for a larger view of the blanket.

blizzard blanket blizzard blanket

You can use any weight yarn, all you need to do is do a little math calculation. Figure out your stitches per inch times the total width of the blanket, and that is your cast on number. If you come up with an even number add one stitch to make it odd. The hard part is gauging how much yarn to buy. What I do is find a blanket pattern in the same weight of yarn that I am using, and use that pattern’s yarn requirements as a guide for how much yarn is needed.

The blanket is knit in the “waffle stitch.” Here is a knitted sample in the waffle stitch (click the photo for a larger view):

waffle stitchI saw this pattern in Vogue Knitting American Knits . It’s on page 118 if you have the book. They used much finer yarn, and knit a suit out of this stitch pattern and it looked so sophisticated. It of course looks different in a heavier weight yarn, but still very nice.

Here is the pattern for my “Blizzard Blanket”:

**The pattern is sized to fit on top of a queen-sized bed at 60 inches wide. The amount of yarn needed is estimated since I am only ½ way finished with the blanket.

Gauge: 3.5 stitches to the inch on size 10 needles
Yarn: 14 Skeins Reynolds Lopi (color #0166)
Needles: Size 10 and 10.5, 40″ or 60″ circular needles

Pattern: Waffle Stitch (over an odd number of stitches)
Row 1 (ws) p1 *k1, pl (repeat from * to end of row)
Row 2 (rs) k1 *p1, k1 (repeat from * to end of row)
Rows 3 and 4 Knit
repeat rows 1-4 to complete the pattern.

Cast on 211 stitches with size 10.5 needles. Change to size 10 needles, and begin the Waffle Stitch pattern. Continue until the blanket is the desired length and cast off with size 10.5 needle.
_______________________________

That’s it. There is no shaping or border needed with this pattern. The natural broken rib that is created keeps the fabric from curling. I used my Denise Interchangeable Needles to knit this blanket. I like these needles for blankets because they sell a long cord, and you can simply replace the tips when changing needles. I also like to use the long cord so I can lay the project down flat on the bed and see how it looks and know when the blanket is long enough.

This is a project that is best worked alternating between other projects, as I found doing rows one and two can be somewhat tedious. I found myself having to put this blanket down if knitting it for more than a few days at a time. I mean how much knit one, purl one can someone do?

You may be wondering why I am using a yarn that is not found on my website. We always planned to add Lopi to our stock, and frankly never got around to it. You will see it online with us hopefully sometime this year. In the meantime, if you want to order Lopi, contact us, and we can special order this yarn for you.

December 30, 2009

Orders From France

Filed under: Vintage Meanderings — sadie @ 2:34 pm

Our international orders are going through without issue, except for orders from France. We are looking into the problem and hope to find a solution soon. In the meantime, if you live in France and want to place an order, we can process the order through paypal. We will need your paypal email address, each item that you want to order, along with your name and address. We will then send you a paypal invoice.

We’ve looked into accepting paypal at our online-store, but the fees are quite a bit higher than our normal processor. So, for now, paypal orders are only accepted for orders from France. To place an order from France, contact us.

November 2, 2009

Last Week of Sale!

Filed under: Vintage Meanderings — sadie @ 6:43 pm

Just a quick note, our 20% off sale ends on Saturday. If you are looking for a Christmas gift, or are going to be doing any holiday knitting, now is the time to stock up on these yarns:

* Noro
* Sublime
* Araucania
* Debbie Bliss
* Jo Sharp
* Manos
* Ella Rae
* Crystal Palace

They are all 20% off, and qualify for additional discounts depending on the order total. Prices will go back to our normal retail price on Sunday.

September 27, 2009

Three Busy Weeks!

Filed under: The Fur Kids — sadie @ 8:00 am

Okay, this is not a knitting post. We’ve been very busy at Vintage Knits, and have welcomed some new fur friends to our store. On September 6th, these beautiful puppies were born:

Nadia's Litter

Nadia's Litter
(click for larger view)


There are three boys and two girls. We have been so busy with the puppies that we did little more than getting our packages out. Of course, updates to products and additions to the online-store took the back seat. We hope to get everything back to normal by next week.

August 19, 2009

Good To Go

Filed under: Vintage Meanderings — sadie @ 11:22 pm

Thanks to Kim, our computer genius, our on-line store is up and running. Switching web hosting companies turned out to be almost as much of a chore as moving from one house to another. But, we survived, and are here ready to take your orders.

August 18, 2009

A Slight Delay

Filed under: Vintage Meanderings — sadie @ 12:27 pm

We ran into a few unexpected complications in moving to a new web host. Our store is still off-line, but we hope to have everything back to normal as soon as possible. In the meantime, if you would like to purchase something, contact us, and we will take your order.

August 15, 2009

We’re Moving!

Filed under: Vintage Meanderings — sadie @ 4:30 pm

We are moving to a new hosting company. Our store will be off-line until the move is finished. We expect everything to be back to normal tomorrow.

July 31, 2009

NORO Sale!

Filed under: Vintage Meanderings — sadie @ 12:16 pm

Vintage Knits Wool Shoppe LLC is having a clearance sale on most products distributed by KFI, and a few other lines that we may not stock in the future. Yarns from the Following companies are now marked 20% off: Noro, Sublime Araucania, Ella Rae, Jo Sharp, Manos, and Panda Cotton sock yarn.

In addition to the 20% off, you can get additional discounts for purchases over 100.00. The coupon codes at our online store

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