Stitch Night!

Once a month, usually the second Monday night of the month, we open the door wide to welcome all stitchers in crochet and knit to sit around the table, using us what one is working on, show of finished projects and encourage you to continue on. Last night was no exception!

Pam had two of her knitted characters with her, a great Santa and a wizard who was was standing patiently watching over us when all of a sudden his hat would just pop off his head and drop to the table. This happened a couple of times. We deemed him magical!

Barbara showed off her gorgeous cowl made with Iron Horse Farm's hand dyed Merino/cashmere/nylon fingering weight yarn out of the 60 Quick Knits Project book by Cascade Yarns. Jessica was wearing one of her creations as well as another sweater completed in hand.

The sock yarn swap happened again on the floor for those knitting the miter sock blanket and the Beekeeper's quilt afghan.

Overall there was a lot of good cheer, great stitching and wonderful company. Til next month!

It's Thursday!

Another Thursday has passed. Thursday mornings are a great time in the store. It is a complimentary meet time for stitchers. Whether you crochet, knit, are a beginner or advance, it doesn't matter when all come together for the love of fiber.

We are all enablers! We ooh and ahh over everyone's projects. Someone usually has a great new pattern or book for us to wet our appetite and have to purchase for the store.

Our latest "craze" is Frog Tree's Origami pullover sweater made out of delicious sport alpaca. It is a beginner sweater of two rectangles of a K1, P2 ribbing! Mindless knitting. We have actually decided to make this our KAL starting January 20, Friday from one to five. We will continue this casual meeting of hands and needles (yes, crocheters, we have the crochet version also)until most sweaters are being worn by their creators. Stop in for the whole four hours or just a few.

The leaves of the table have been tucked back into their storage space, the stitchers have left for their lives outside the store and all are inspired and ready to tackle the world!

What should it be - Long or Short?

When looking at the list of projects one wants to create, the debate becomes does one pick a short or long project?

If you are a producer, whether it is a detailed project or not, you will finish it from beginning to end with little distractions. Then, if you are like me, I am a productionist who has many projects on the needles or hooks at the same time.

So again, long or short? For long the project will be an afghan designed by Lion Brand called the Slipped Stitch Afghan that will be made out of Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride yarn. Mr. UPS should deliver the yarn in the colors wanted this week.

For the short, it will come out of the new Knit Noro Accessories book. We already carry the book and all the Noro yarn in this book. So for the moment, the short wins over the long.

2012 - New Year's resolution

As we head into 2012, many reflect on things that they should have, could have done, thus many of us make resoultions to only break them a few weeks or months later. Let's change that!

Our store in Natick embraced the holiday season with the shelves loaded with hand crafted items from favorite artisans and a few new ones in the local area. We have been well received by the community in Natick. We ahve been in the center of Natick over two years since moving from our small sotre on our farm. Knitters and crochet artisans are still finding us which s wonderful! New weavers and hand spinners are realizing those dreams of being a artisan of years ago by weaving and spinning beautiful yarns are right at their finger tips with workshops and classes we offer.

The decision was made to keep the store closed today to give everyone a much deserved break from the holiday hub bub... It was a busy day at the farm, dyeing our Merino, Cashmere, nylon fingering yarn as well as dyeing new roving colors. The fun part is coming up with different color combinations and that watching them appear as we hand paint or kettle dye.

The farm will be represented at the Farm Wool Days at Russell's Garden Center, http://www.russellsgardencenter.com/wayland_winter_mkt.html in Wayland, Saturday, January 21, 2012 10 am to 2 pm. We are excited about this venture! We have not done any shows in 4 years and this is so close for us to attend. We have to thank Peggy Mallet for insisting we needed to participate. We will have roving, yarn, both natural color and hand dyed, wool felting sample kits and more!

What is one of my New Year's resolutions? To write more on our blog!