Vintage Knits Update

Just a quick note to let you know that the Manos distributor is discontinuing a few colors to make room for new colors. The colors that we stock that are being discontinued are:

A few weeks ago I attended the Needle Arts Market in Tukwila, Washington. My intention was just to go and look (no buying was the plan), to see what new products were out. Well, combined with my excitement at being at the market and one vendor serving nice snacks and wine, I succumbed and ordered something very interesting.

We sell so much sock yarn that when I saw a series of dvds by Knitting Korner, advertising that they could teach you how to knit socks on circular needles, it did get my attention. While having a nice glass of merlot, I had the opportunity to watch the first dvd, Sock I: How to Knit Socks on Two Circular Needles.

The second dvd is perfect for the person who happens to knit one sock and never finishes the second one. With this technique, both socks will be completed at the same time. No more orphaned socks!

We are almost sold out of these dvds. We will be reordering soon. More about these dvds can be found at our online shop. Quantities are limited. If you are interested in learning this innovative technique in the privacy of your own home, place your order soon.

I spend way too much time on the internet. I guess this malady goes with owning an online yarn shoppe. Anyway, I was surfing the web the other day, and found two projects that were very unusual. The first is a project for a pair of felted slippers, also known as the woven square slippers. You might ask, “what is so unusual about felting a pair of slippers?” I know that everyone is felting these days, but what makes this project stick out is the fact that the slippers are not knitted, they are woven on a small loom. This pattern is very simple, you just take a small loom, and weave a 12″ square, then sew up the sides, and felt it. Somehow this 12″ square felts into a nifty pair of slippers. If you do not weave, just knit or crochet up your square, and follow the directions, it should turn out fine.

The pattern and many more photos can be found on the Knitting Interrupted blog. That blog post has step by step directions for the slippers, along with many photos. Since I do not weave, I’m going to knit up a 12″ square to make my slippers.

The next project that caught my attention was for a very handy and economical way to make a yarn swift out of coat hangers. People’s imagination and creativity amaze me! I never would have thought of this. The project is called the Tilta Swift. Directions can be found at the
Webecca Says blog.

If you are interested in making homemade swifts, there is a great thread about this on Ravelry, in the yarn forum. Just search that forum for homemade swifts, and you should find the thread. I spent way too much time reading that Ravelry thread. It had many more ideas for homemade yarn swifts, some that needed the skills of the “dear husband.” It was such a fun read to see how people were adapting household items to make yarn swifts — from coat hangers to lamp shades or skilled woodwork, the possibilities are endless.

I received a very interesting package in the mail this week. It was from Colinette yarns, and contained this:

hullabaloo
a skein of their new yarn Hullabaloo. Hullabaloo is an aran weight yarn that is 100% wool, and very plump and soft. This yarn is colorful, with a twist. One of the three strands that make up Hullabaloo is made from locally (Colinette is from Europe) sourced Black Welsh. The twist is a black strand of yarn that is twisted around the other strands to make a very unique ply. Take a closer look at this yarn:

hullabaloo up close
These are not the best photo’s, but the twist is pure black. I think the photo has a tint to it. Hullabaloo comes in an astounding 125 colors, which is the entire Colinette palette.

Colinette’s offering a free pattern with this yarn. There’s also a nice accessory book with quick and easy small projects to make out of Hullabaloo. I’m going to knit up a sample and post the knitted fabric soon. We are thinking about stocking this yarn. We would love your feedback, and want to know if Hullabaloo is a yarn that you would like to knit with, and want us to stock.

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):

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.