3rd Annual Lakeside Yarn Crawl

The 3rd Annual Lakeside Yarn Crawl kicks off today with an unveiling of our exclusive yarns! Two limited edition, hand-dyed colourways from Hannah at Palindrome Knits – Oh Canada! and True North. These are available in Kisa Fingering – a cashmere blend sock yarn, Three Sisters Sock – a superwash BFL blend, and Edith Fingering – 100% BFL.

 

Oh Canada! and True North.

The Lakeside Yarn Crawl runs from Saturday, June 3rd – Monday, September 4th. There are eleven local yarn shops located all over the Bruce-Grey-Simcoe region participating this year. Please check websites or call for shop hours.

Pick up your passport at the first shop you go to and try to visit as many shops as possible. Each shop will stamp your passport. There are draws to enter at each shop, featured yarns & patterns, and a Grand Prize drawing at the end of the crawl for the passports with the most stamps.

Alliston Yarns – Alliston
Eliza’s Buttons & Yarn – Barrie
True North Yarn Co. – Barrie
The Purple Sock – Coldwater
Creemore House of Stitches – Creemore
Purrsonally Yours Fabric & Wool Shop – Meaford
Purl 3 – Orillia
Riverside Yarns – Owen Sound
Docknits – Port Elgin
The Knitting Basket – Rosemont
The Wool & Silk Co. – Shelburne

While you’re planning your visits you might want to keep the many great events in our region in mind – lots of different WWKIP Day events, the Alliston Potato Festival, Barrie’s Craft Beer & BBQ Festival, the Coldwater Steampunk Festival, Creemore’s Childrens Festival, the Meaford International Film Festival, the Mariposa Folk Festival in Orillia, Summertime Blues in Owen Sound, Celebrate Canada Day in Port Elgin, or visit Shelburne’s Street Festival.

Pack a picnic, grab your knitting, and get exploring!

Juniper Moon Farms Zooey

One of the newest arrivals to our shop is Juniper Moon Farms Zooey, soft blend of cotton and linen with a slight thick & thin texture. Linen blends can be knit on larger needles for a light, breezy fabric, or on smaller needles creating a more dense, stable fabric. Zooey is a great yarn for warmer weather, as cotton and linen are both cool fibers; the cotton adds softness to the yarn, while the linen adds strength.

60% Cotton, 40% Linen

20 – 24sts = 4″ / 10cm

3.25 – 3.75mm / US 3 – 5 needles

260m / 284yds per 100g

We’ve picked a few projects and colour combinations that would be perfect for Zooey…

Hideaway Cowl by Noriko Ho

© norichan knits
 

The Hideaway Cowl is an eye pleasing one ball project designed for Zooey. The lace pattern is written & charted, great for beginners looking to tackle something a little more interesting. Easy to memorize and fun to knit, you’ll have a new spring accessory in no time!

One ball of Zooey, 4.0 – 4.5mm / US 6 – 7 24″ circular needles, a stitch marker, and the free Ravelry pattern are all you need to complete this project.

Hideaway Cowl swatch – one lace repeat.

 

Pretty Basic by Janina Kallio

© Janina Kallio

This triangle shawl designed by Janina Kallio is a fun, easy project to knit! A great choice if you are looking to knit your 1st or 50th shawl. Wear it at the beach, a wedding, or just running errands around town.

Pretty Basic is also a free Ravelry pattern. You’ll need two balls of Zooey, a 4.5mm / US 7 32 – 40″ circular needle, two stitch markers and blocking supplies (t-pins, blocking mats and Soak). The blocking that you do after knitting will make a huge difference in how your shawl looks, feels and drapes.

 

Otherside by Melanie Berg

© Melanie Berg

Otherside by Melanie Berg is an airy sleeveless summer top. This project is knit flat in one piece starting at the front hem, binding off and casting on stitches for the neckline, and then working the back. Seaming can seem like a pain, but don’t let that stop you from choosing a pattern like this. Side seams add stability to garments, (a good thing!), and mattress stitch is fun to do, (seriously!)

This pattern is designed for bust sizes 36 – 54″. Knit it in one solid colour, or add in some playful stripes.

Otherside is available for purchase on Ravelry, or available in-store at True North Yarn Co. You’ll need 2 – 3 balls of the main colour, and one ball of the contrasting colour for the striped version, and 2 – 4 balls for a top in one solid colour. The pattern calls for 4.5mm / US 7 needles. We recommend doing a gauge swatch first and blocking the swatch to get an accurate fit for your garment.

 

These are just a few of our favourite patterns & colour combos, there are many more available on the Pattern Ideas page on Ravelry. You can see all of the colours we have available at our online store – True North Yarn Co. – Juniper Moon Farms Zooey.

~Happy Crafting!

Christmas Countdown

You can feel the change in the LYS air after the recent squalls – everyone is feeling the Christmas crush, with yarn lovers rushing to get gifts finished, and lovers of yarn lovers coming in droves for gift cards and stocking stuffers. Darning needles, gauges, book,s oh my!  They’re all flying out the door. But I don’t want to ruin your Christmas stocking for you, yarn lover. Let’s look at our latest yarn arrivals!

I won’t bury the lede – Marble Chunky Glamour is here, and it is so sparkly!

In the same 200g balls as the regular Marble Chunky, Glamour still self-stripes in tonal colours threaded through with a matching sparkly thread. 270m/300yds makes it the perfect quantity for a scarf, or a mitts/beanie set.

From Ella Rae, we have Merino Aran in a fantastic array of variegated colours. It is a pure superwash merino, great for perhaps a pair of tincanknits World’s Simplest Mittens, or a toque. You can see that a couldn’t help but cast on a toque in the forest green colour.

 

 

And what’s that you see? A shimmer in the light, a twinkle in the air? It’s the shop’s latest rainbow unicorn yarn, an eye-catching ready-to-frame skein that seems to grab everyone who walks in the door. A photo doesn’t do this beauty justice. You’ll see, when you come in. Who can resist a rainbow unicorn?

“Chloe,” you say, “I don’t have time for aran weight or chunky weight.  Super bulky is what fits my schedule.” You’re not the only one! We have Borgo de’ Pazzi’s new jumbo Elisa, and a restock of James C. Brett’s Rustic Mega Chunky, perfect for those lightning fast projects like Mary Thompson’s Super Chunky Hat.

PLUS the giant crochet hooks to match! ChiaoGoo’s oversized patina bamboo hooks really surprised me with how light they were. Each hook has its own unique character in terms of shading/knots etc that make them feel special. They go up to a 25mm, so you will have your project done in no time.

 

If fuzz is what you seek, we brought in the James C. Brett Faux Fur (top left) and the King Cole Cuddles (top right), for blankets and accessories and edgings to please all ages.

Due to the popularity of Estelle Chunky, we now have the Estelle DK, which features the same acrylic/wool/nylon blend. The nylon makes it especially hard-wearing, and in a variety of brilliant colours it is great for socks, slippers, blankets and children’s sweaters.

 

 

And I can’t have a yarn update without a little something-something for my sock knitters. We have new shades in the classic Lang Jawoll (bottom left) and a new line – Lang Super Soxx Alpaca (bottom right) which has some  especially groovy colour choices!

Our winter (January-April) class dates have mostly already been added to the class calendar on our website, with more classes being added all the time as we settle the dates. Hooray!

Now back to finishing these Christmas projects~
Chloe