February Free Pattern of the Month. It's a two-fer!

Christmas '09 Project #2
The Firenze Cowl

What goes perfectly with a pair of Mohair Mittens? A warm and toasty Firenze Cowl, of course! This month, when you purchase 3 skeins of LaGran Mohair, at 10% off, you will get a free mohair mitten pattern. Purchase 2 skeins of Firenze, at 20% off, and get a free Firenze Cowl pattern.

The cowl is knit on a #15, 16 inch circular needle and was super quick. I finished it in two evenings.

Here are some combinations that we have put together.

Mohair Mitten/Firenze Cowl Color Selection

Here are all the colors of LaGran Mohair that we have in stock along with a coordinating color in the Firenze.

Indigo

Lavendar

Eggplant

Oatmeal

Truffle

French Lilac

Cherry Blossom

Moss

Christmas '09 Starts January 1

You know how some Christmas' leave you feeling like you could have done more. Every couple of years I seem to have an off year. Too little time, too little money and too many obligations leave too little time for knitting. Well, 2008 was a really off year. There were no hand knitted items under the tree, in the stockings or mailed to distant relatives. I didn't knit for my family, my staff, my hair stylist or my mailman. I lacked motivation, time and enthusiasm.

That all changed the minute Christmas '08 was over. I'm talking December 25th around 6:00 p.m., as I finished drying the last dish, the words "if I only had more time..." were replaced with "I've got twelve months...". I was suddenly filled with the desire to start knitting and I knew just where I would start. My old standby the Mohair Mitten. I had a class coming up and thought it would be great fun to pound out a pair, as a review, before the class. As it turns out, I was well into my second pair before the date of my class and have yarn set aside for at least one more pair.

I have decided to knit only things that I want to knit and with no one in mind to receive them. No pressure...My Goal is to have fun and possibly have a less stressful holiday season next year.

I have a few ideas up my sleeve for some other projects that I would like to do and I will be sharing them and my progress with you through out the coming year.

Happy Knitting
What I really need now is a snow day.

Knitting Hope and Dreams

It looked like my regular evening routine on Tuesday, Jan. 20. I was in flannel pajamas in my knitting chair working away.
But my ears were busier than my hands as I listened to the television (hard to watch TV and knit at the same time). On this night if it is possible to have your ears glued to the tube, mine were.

I was soaking up every word of any commentator talking about the inauguration of Barack Obama. Like so many in our country, indeed around the world, Tuesday was a banner day. And just as knitting calms me in times of trouble it also lifts me even higher in good times.

And this is an especially good time. Our new president offers hope in these times of chaos and trouble but not without hard work. He called this an new era of responsibility and we must all do our share to remake America in the image of our better selves.

At 57 years old, I guess I could say that I’m getting a little old to be on the front lines of change no matter how much I might hope for it. But as I watched him take his oath I knew that I would have to find a way of being useful; to deliver to our children and our children’s children a better country.

And so I continued to knit on a tiny sweater -- a first sweater for a grandchild who is scheduled to arrive in May. My first grandchild. A child born in an America that has an African-American president. Just think, this event, which took centuries to accomplish, will just be a matter of fact for her. It won’t seem like a dream come true; it will just be how things were when she was a baby.

And I knit away, stitch after stitch, putting in all my own hopes and dreams for her and her life. Will she have more open doors? Will she look like her mother, the beautiful Melissa? Will she call me grandma? Will she find a good place in the world to live her life? Will she work hard to make her own dreams come true?

Yarning over, knitting two together; knitting love and life itself into every stitch. Do you know your grandma loves you even now? Do you know your great-grandma loves you even now? Do you know that you will have the best grandfather in the world? Do you know that I have been saving knitting patterns for you since your mother was a little girl? When you wear this sweater will you feel my hands caressing your wee body?

All my love and knitting has nothing to do with the recent inaugural, I guess. But somehow I have woven the two together: hope, dreams, pride, excitement, a touch of fear of the unknown, love.

All I knew on Jan. 20 was that the country was changing in a good way and that in a few months my life will change in the best way.

I was close to tears all day and finally at day’s end, too tired to knit and listened-out, I put down my work, turned off the television and cried.

-- Lucia Herndon

Two of the funniest and most creative hats appeared in the store in the past week.

The first one, from customer Deb, is the Squidward Hat, for her nephew, was created out of her own mind and knit from Cascade 220. Here it is in all its tentacle-y glory:














She's a good aunt.

The second one, from customer Diana, is the Mohawk Hat from Domiknitrix, knit out of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky. I believe this is also for a nephew, who attends the University of Southern California.


















Thank you, ladies, for sharing!

Our January Free Pattern of the Month is our old favorite The Quicky Gift Hat. Look how classic:


Classic....and fast! It knits up on a #15 needle, so when we say Quicky we mean Quicky!! The sample on the right is knit with a double strand of Rowan Plaid, which happens to be on sale this month for 10% off.

Stop by the store and pick up your Quicky Gift Hat pattern, free with the purchase of yarn!