The Woolarium Blog

Looking Ahead...

Its time to turn time my attention to new colours and yarns for next season. Here are a few highlights 

 

   

...have introduced a few new yarns for the northern hemisphere winter. The one that grabbed my attention is

Angora Haze

Super soft to touch and beautiful in the knitted garment, made with angora, wool and polymide for strength. 14 fabulous colours -137 metres -  28sts x 36 rows to 10cms - 3.25mm needles

Angora Haze yarn and Angora Haze Collection will be arriving in store before Christmas!  

                       

Rowan Knitting and Crochet Magazine 54.

Also arriving before Christmas is Rowan Knitting and Crochet Magazine 54! offering 35 designs for men and women in both crochet and knitting

 

Rowan Tweed DK

Has just arrived in store!

This 100% wool 8 ply tweed is part of the Rowan Tweed Family.  Rowan Tweed is beautifully soft traditionally spun tweed yarn. 118 metres -  21sts x 30 rows to 10cms - 4mm needles.

We now have the full colour range in stock, 20 colours in total,  including 4 new brilliant colours - Tissington #600, Monsal Dale #598, Beresford # 601 and Dove Dale # 599

                                                             

 

    

 New Shibui yarns Arriving Soon

Shibui Yarns are causing a bit of excitement and proving to be very popular. Already I am seeing some beautiful projects. I made this sample using Shibui Linen. I was keen to try this yarn. It proved to be a real pleasure to knit with and produced such a great result.

The pattern is Shibui Mix No 15, it uses 4 skeins and there are 18 colours to choose from.

                                                            

I will be extending the Shibui range to include Shibui Merino Alpaca 50% baby alpaca and 50% merino wool 10ply and Shibui Staccato 70% super wash merino and 30% silk 4ply.

 

 

               

Blue Sky Alpacas and Spud and Chloe

Its official Blue Sky Alpacas and Spud and Chloe yarns and patterns are on the way.

 

Sit and Knit 

Sit and Knit is on every Sunday afternoon 2pm - 4pm, It is good fun and knitters and crocheters of all levels come along.

Just bring your project, chat, knit, crochet, share ideas, learn a few tips,

                                                      

What you are knitting

I love to see what's on your needles and the patterns you are using.

                                           

 

Shredded Scarf pattern by Linda Permann              Whit's Knits Little Baby Sweater 

from Inside Crochet Issue 13                                   Free pattern on Purl Bee

Pictured in Millamia Extra Soft Merino                      Suggested yarns Rowan Wool Cotton 4ply or Sienna 4ply

Thanks Laura                                                           Thanks Margaret

 

Other projects on the Needles

Textured Shawl Recipe, worked in 8ply                           Textured Shawl Recipe

Pomme de Pin Cardigan worked in 5 ply                         Pomme de Pin

Treyi Vest worked in Jo Sharp Mulberry Silk Georgette   Treyi Vest

 

 

What's on My Needles

 

I am well on my way with my Christmas list ............

The String Bag is finished. I found the Rowan Creative Linen just brilliant for this project. 

 

                                                             

I decided on the Candy Cane Christmas Stocking from Millamia and its knitting up a treat

                                                            

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's Coming on Christmas...

Christmas is coming! And there are some very organised knitters out there. 

Loads of people have been coming in to Woolarium to pick up supplies for their Christmas gift projects.

So it got me thinking..........

 

A String Bag

From Knitty - Amy Singer's Everlasting Bagstopper

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer07/PATTeverlasting.html

 

Rowan Creative Linen - 50% Linen and 50% Cotton 

With so many great colours to choose from it's hard to pick! Here are just a few.

 

Or perhaps Echo Recycled Cotton

 

Fingerless Mittens

This Hexagon Mittens pattern looks great.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hexagon-mitts-3

 

 

Knit in 4ply, there are so many choices -

Ella Rae Lace Merino, Misty Alpaca Sock, Shibui Sock.

 

Christmas Stockings

Millamia have the perfect free pattern,  

http://www.millamia.com/pat_size.php?name=Nordic%20Star%20Stocking&sort=&type=

 

Woolarium's library of books and patterns is slowly growing.

Here are a few gems that arrived this week.

 

200 Crochet Blocks - by Jan Eaton. The must have book of crochet squares to mix and match.

 

How Tea Cosies Changed the World - by Loani Prior 

 

100 Flowers to knit and crochet -by Lesley Stanfiled. A collection of beautiful blooms.

 

More Last Minute Knitted Gifts - by Joelle Hoverson

 

Sit and Knit

The sit and knit session have been loads of fun. Each Sunday from 2-4, bring your knitting, relax and share with other knitters or crocheters. It's so inspiring to see other peoples projects, new knitters gaining confidence to try new things and the pleasure it brings them. Here's a beautiful crochet top in progress from one of our Sit and Knitters, using Rowan Sienna 4ply

 

 

What's on my Needles

I have seen a lot of people knit the Blythe Rug from the Noro book Family. It uses Noro Silk Garden and a simple but effect slip stitch. I decided to play around with the idea. So using Silk Garden and Rowan Pure Wool Aran and the same slip stitch I made a cushion cover. It was fun, quick and very satisfying to knit.

Settling in to a Rhythm

Life at the Woolarium is starting to settle into a rhythm. All of the initial large yarn orders have arrived and are on the shelves. The last to arrive were Shibui and Jo Sharp. I was attracted to Shibui yarns because of their colours, varieties of yarn and their designs.  The designs are clever but simple and very stylish. The patterns are beautifully presented with good clear diagrams and descriptions. I had some fun this week working out colour and yarn combinations for one of Shibui's more popular designs -Trapezoid. This pattern calls for Shibui sock yarn which I have in store and the Shibui 10ply which hasn't arrived yet.  Rowan Kid Classic, Rowan Pure Wool Aran, and Jo Sharp Silk Road Aran Tweed were all candidates. So now all that's left is to choose the colour.

 

As part of the ebb and flow of a yarn store is the ordering and reordering. This week I reordered some more buttons. Some of you will have seen the fabulous hand made buttons from Incomparable Buttons that we sell. Each button has been hand painted and is unique. The main aim of Incomparable Buttons is to provide employment for women in South Africa. They have a very special team of women that between them speak 9 different languages and are often the sole provider for their large families. I think the back story to these buttons makes them even more wonderful. I hope the order arrives soon.

 

 

Lastly I wanted to mention the web site. I owe a huge thank you to Dave and Blythe for all their assistance and guidance in getting me this far. Their attention to detail and artistic design sense is very much appreciated. I think it looks fabulous. Unfortunately we are still having some problems with the photos. Apparently there is a glitch with the software and the photos are not attaching to their description. So if you select a vibrant Red and you see a pale yellow or you see no photo at all, I'm sorry. It will be fixed as soon as possible. The rest of the site is working fine. 

The Yarns

So this week has been spent establishing relationships with the yarn distributors.

Debbie Bliss, Ella Rae, Noro, Zara, Sublime and Millamia are just are few of the brands I will be stocking.

Also I will be definitely be stocking Rowan, however it looks like I won’t have any stock until a few weeks after we open.

It was great to talk with Millamia. They have the most beautiful 5ply 100% merino yarn. This yarn is such a delight to knit with, great stitch definition, lovely and soft and always produces a brilliant garment. Their designs for both children and adults are very modern and make bold use of colour, such fun to knit.