Final Week

25% off
Yarn
DMC floss
Batting/pillowforms
Books/magazines

40% off
Fabric
Crochet cotton
Notions (thread, needles, buttons, scissors, etc)
Knitting needles/notions
Crochet hooks

50% off
Dritz Care & Repair notions

Final Week's Hours
Tuesday ~ 12:30pm-6:00pm
Wednesday ~ 10:00am-4:30pm
Thursday ~ Closed
Friday ~ 10:00 am - 7:00 pm
Saturday ~ LAST DAY ~ 9:00 am - 6:00 pm

Store Closing

I've enjoyed meeting all of you, helping with your projects, and talking about handwork. As you may have noticed, the economy is not at its best right now, and that has affected this store. Perhaps if it had opened at a different time it might have been more successful, but the volume of sales is not high enough to support the shop.

All items in the store are marked 25% off. Classes will continue in January at regular cost. We plan to close our doors on Saturday, January 31, but will maintain an internet presence indefinitely. It is possible that we will reopen in Pontiac when the economy has recovered and the Pontiac Correctional Center issues have been resolved. We have thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity to be part of your lives.

Pictures - and a quilt!

Finally, a picture of the shawl that I crocheted in two days almost a month ago. This is an incredibly simple design. Simply chain 27 stitches, make 3 extra (for your double crochet base), turn, DC into the fourth loop from the hook, and DC across. Turn, chain 3, DC into the fourth loop from hook (you are skipping one, which you would normally NOT SKIP if working in hdc or sc), DC across. I continued until I'd finished my second ball of Encore Boucle Colorspun, which made it long enough to comfortably drape over my shoulders when it's chilly.

So there -- finally a picture of something other than socks! And even more shocking, here's something that's not even crocheting or knitting...

A quilt!

Yes, a genuine, bonified quilt. This is actually the first quilting project I have ever finished, and of which I am incredibly proud. The design came from "Quick Quilts" magazine (not sure which issue), and I modified the suggested colors. All items used were from the shop, and the fabric is all 100% cotton flannel. I used Mettler quilting thread in my regular sewing machine (I think it got rather upset with me, towards the end of this), dark purple for the top, light green for the bottom.

According to the instructions in the magazine, this quilt should take about 2 1/2 hours. Ha! Let's just say it took a lot, lot more than that, and not say anything more on how long it took me, all right? This is a self-binding backing, I believe it is called, so the backing comes around to be the binding on the front of the quilt.

I adore this quilt. It's soft and cuddly, and I love the way the colors go together. If you'd like to see it "in person," it will be at the shop on a permanent basis. And if you want to make one of your own, let us know! I have the fabric requirements and can make copies of the pattern, as well as my variations.

Thank you for reading, and if you didn't know, today at 10:44 AM CST the autumnal equinox took place...so we're closer to winter than summer now. Get your crafts ready for those cold winter months!

Finished projects

I have a couple of recently finished projects to show off! One is the pair of socks with the worsted weight Crystal Palace Merino 5 (they're as soft as they felt when I was knitting them!). These were a lot of fun, as they were my second attempt at color patterning, and my first attempt at doing it with socks. I think it turned out pretty well, don't you?


This second finished project is a prayer shawl of sorts, made with Plymouth Yarn Encore Boucle Colorspun and a size N-15 crochet hook. It was pretty quick, maybe 4 hours total. Very simple pattern -- basically just made a chain of about 27 (plus 3 for the dc) and double crochet in both loops until I finished off the second skein of yarn (two skeins made it that big). Very simple, easy, and fast!

Unfortunately, my computer has died on me, taking with it the picture of the shawl that I had. So you'll have to wait until next week when I'm back at the shop and can take another picture of it.

All right, this project is not finished--it's barely begun, really. There is a crocheted afghan at the shop that was a gift to my mother many years ago. I often have customers ask about it, and whether I have a pattern. I've been working on deciphering it, and I've come pretty close (turns out octagonal shapes are actually pretty common to make). Unfortunately, I was way off on the hook size and yarn thickness. This is with worsted weight yarn (Plymouth Yarn Encore Worsted) and a size H8 crochet hook (Crystal Palace Bamboo). I think, to match the one at the shop, it would need to be chunky weight and at least a size L-11 hook.

Well, that will be it for now. Keep those in the Gulf Coast in your thoughts and prayers!

Socks, socks, and more socks

<- So here are the finished chunky socks I first posted on Sunday! Aren’t they awesome? I love how quickly they knit up! For those who are curious, I will post the pattern in the next day or two.

And I believe I also mentioned that I had started another pair already, so this is that project. ->

Knitting socks is so much fun. I used to think I liked making scarves, but socks are much more addicting! Particularly since I have trouble losing socks, I feel like I can never have enough. And perhaps if there were a story behind each pair, I wouldn’t be so likely to misplace them!

I have knit socks now in fingering weight yarn, worsted weight, and bulky weight. I am definitely tempted to try super bulky (Encore Mega comes to mind), as I think those socks would be finished very, very quickly (though I’m not sure how turning the heel would work out with so few stitches).

Below is the most recent pair of worsted weight socks I’ve knitted, using Crystal Palace Merino 5 (100% superwash Merino wool). This is the softest wool I’ve ever knitted with, and although rather expensive, it is well worth the luxury. The socks I’m making here are also my first attempt at using two different colors. I think it would require two skeins of yarn usually, but because I’m doing the color patterning I will end up needing two skeins of the main color and one of the contrast color.


With Halloween less than two months away I had the thought that I could do this same idea using black and orange, but alas, the only orange at the shop is Wildflower DK (51% cotton, 49% acrylic) and Panda Silk (52% bamboo, 43% superwash Merino wool, 5% combed silk). I’ve never tried socks with DK-weight yarn (not sure how the cotton would work, either), and I’ve already used the Panda Silk a couple times (beautiful yarn, knits into the softest socks), so I want to try a different yarn. I suppose I can wait until next year for Halloween socks… By then I might even feel brave enough to attempt putting a jack-o-lantern (or something) on them!

I swear to you, I DO knit more than socks. In the next post I will aim to expand upon something else. :)

Christmastime is near!

And here we are into September! Only a little less than four months left before Christmas, so it's definitely time to start working on those gifts! Or perhaps picking up something for some else...?

But enough of that!

I know I'll be focusing a bit more on Christmas gifts now, though I've had lots of fun the last few months learning new techniques and skills. Anyone who says they can't knit anything but scarves, I have news for you: until four months ago, scarves were all I had ever done as well. And in the last four months I have learned how to:

• knit socks using double-pointed needles
  
• knit hats on 16" circular needles
• knit pieces to be "sewn" together (this terrified me for a long time)
  
• crochet (yes, just to crochet)
• hand quilt
• sew (okay, I had done a teensy bit of sewing, but this was at least seven years ago, so it hardly counts)

There is so much we can learn to do if we just put our minds to it! If you've ever wanted to learn how to do something, I urge you to go out and learn it NOW. There is no time like the present, and only you are standing in the way. Saying, "Oh, I could never do that," is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You'll never do it if you never try. THAT is a fact of life.

So go sign up for a class (hint, hint!), buy a book, join a club/craft circle, or just search online "how to..." - there is so much free online now it's a wonder anyone buys anything!

And in the land of socks... I have finished the first pair of chunky-weight socks and started a second pair. I didn't devote much time to knitting today (too much physics homework), but did finish the cuff and get most of the way down the heel flap. This yarn is Encore Chunky Colorspun (a variegated yarn), and I'll post a picture soon!

Crocheted hat

This is a hat that I started back around the beginning of August. I was bedridden for a few days after receiving four dog bites (you can head over to the Antiquity Oaks blog if you're interested in what happened; in short, I was trying to get him to do something he didn't want to do when he wasn't feeling very well - it is now forgiven and mostly forgotten). One of the bites was on the pointer finger of my left hand, so I only crocheted (no knitting or sewing or anything) for about the first week after the incident.

This is a Boye crochet hook that I was using, and I would like to make a comment about those. They are the brand sold at Wal-Mart and probably a few other places (I think JoAnn's sells Susan Bates). I do not like Boye crochet hooks for two reasons: 1) they are metal, so they're very slippery, and 2) the actual hook part (the head) is a lot larger than the shank (the part that determines the hook size) and I have trouble pulling stitches through the work without catching other yarn. (Check out crochetmonkey.com for the anatomy of a crochet hook.) But it was the only hook I had at home, so that's what I used.

The yarn is handspun Antiquity Oaks yarn from Minerva the sheep. (Both the roving and yarn is sold in the shop.) It's a beautiful steel gray spun to about bulky/chunky weight (2-ply). I used a size L-11 hook and started at the brim. As you can see, I don't have much yarn left and still need to close up the top of the hat. I worked it in half-double crochet.

I much prefer crocheting hats to knitting hats. It seems to go SO much faster, and they're still very pretty! I still knit hats, though, because you just can't create the same look with each craft.