07.26.08
Posted in General Info at 10:31 pm by Sue
I’ve been quietly working on my Wrap Me Up Shawl, and I’ve made enough progress to share some photos! This is such a great pattern. It’s a modular shawl pattern knitted in self-striping yarn, so each section looks totally different – think of a sampler done in related colors.
I’m using Noro Silk Garden in color 241 – nice mix of purples, greens, magenta, and a bit of rust (looks much better than that sounds!). The second photo is much closer to the actual yarn colors. I’ve just finished the first beaded section – the beads I chose are a bit iridescent, so they catch the light very nicely. I’m very pleased with the effect!
This modular knitting is very addictive!
Take care,
Sue
Permalink
07.15.08
Posted in Tuesday Tips, What's New at 2:40 pm by Sue
I recently finished the Branching Out scarf, from Knitty, in Silky Wool from Elsebeth Lavold, the yarn the pattern called for. It’s a gorgeous scarf, and I am totally in love with Silky Wool – I love the soft/crisp feel on the needles, and I especially love how it softens up as you handle it. My scarf’s color is Verdigris, which we’ll have in stock very soon!
Here’s my Silky Wool scarf, still awaiting blocking (What can I say? I love knitting very much, but I love blocking somewhat less…) Do you ever get stuck at this point? You knit it, you love it, but you can’t quite work up the energy to block it?
What do you do? Just wear it as is? That’s my favorite “solution”, and that works beautifully with socks, which don’t really need blocking to look good. But maybe I could be a wee bit more disciplined about blocking things like scarves, don’t ya think? How do you motivate yourself to block your finished items?
We’ve also added Hempathy, another Elsebeth Lavold yarn. It’s a summery blend of hemp (no, not THAT kind of hemp), cotton, and Modal – and it’s available in a pretty range of summer colors.
And ON SALE now: Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome and Lily Chin Chelsea yarns – check them out!
Tuesday Tips — knitting tips you can USE!
Tired of chasing yarn balls across the floor? I love this tip! Use a clean plastic container, maybe an empty food storage container or plastic box, large enough to hold one (or several) balls of yarn, several inches tall, with a fairly wide mouth, so it’s easy to reach your hand inside, and large enough to not tip over easily.
Drop in your ball of yarn, set it on the floor at your feet, and you can knit without worrying about the yarn running away. The yarn stays put and stays clean. Here are two of my containers – nothing fancy, but they work.
If you’re feeling ambitious, you could cut a small hole in the lid, feed your working yarn up thru the hole, and put the lid back on the container to restrain that wayward ball even more, but I’ve never needed to use the lid, the open containers work fine for me.
Trying not to think about how many finished projects still need blocking…
Sue
Permalink
07.06.08
Posted in General Info at 11:33 pm by Sue
It’s well after 11 PM, and I still can’t drag myself away from Ravelry! Are you on Ravelry yet? If you’re not, go here to sign up, and if you are, come join our new Great Yarn Company Ravelry group!
And while reading other people’s blogs (I know, it’s an addition… but at least it’s not as bad as my yarn addition), I came across a cool website that creates a painting just for you. Here’s mine – what’s really amazing is that it looks like it’s got a yarn ball in it, yet nothing in the questions I answered to create the painting had anything to do with hobbies!
Click here to create your own painting.
Permalink
07.05.08
Posted in General Info at 8:04 am by Sue
Just a quick post to let you know who our contest winners are! The winner of the random drawing from all who commented is Kimberly S., whose blog is bruisinraincloud.wordpress.com..
And the winner of the most mentions in comments is Darcy W., who blogs at darcyknottyknitter.blogspot.com. It was hard-fought, and there were several tough competitors 
, but Darcy won out, with 17 mentions!
Congratulations to both winners! I’ve emailed both to let them know how to collect their riches!
Permalink
07.01.08
Posted in Sock Club, Tuesday Tips at 3:21 pm by Sue
Wow, you guys really like contests! Competition’s hot and heavy to be mentioned in the most comments and win a $15 store credit at Great Yarn Company! Don’t forget – everyone who comments by midnight on July 4th will be entered in the random drawing for a second $15 store credit!
Looks like most of you are sock-knitters (YEA for socks!!) – me too! And guess what’s coming soon? The very first GYC Sock Club. It’ll be a quarterly club – four sock kits per year, in seasonal colors. Once every three months, you’ll receive a new sock kit. We’re matching up the patterns and yarns, so all you gotta do is knit ‘em! And we’ll tuck some fun goodies into every package. More details and registration coming soon!
Tuesday Tip: How to prevent scissors from poking holes in your knitting bag. 
This one’s so simple! I use a needle point protector as my “scissors-point protector.” Since I usually knit on circulars, I don’t get much use out of my rubbery point protectors, which keep stitches from slipping off the ends of straight needles. So I “re-purposed” one of them, and it now lives on the end of my little knitting/embroidery scissors in my knitting bag.
With visions of sock yarns in my head,
Sue
Permalink
