Welcome back sweet sunshine, growing grass, blooming flowers and the sound of birdsong in the morning. I am always so happy to finally have the door open in the shop all day. it feels like an open invitation to the world to come in and browse.

That is exactly what happens on a warm spring day in Northampton. Many out of towners come to the town to stroll the sidewalks, grab a snack and a beer in one of the outdoor venues, window shop and listen to street musicians. Everyone is out in full force, guitars and steel drums, flutes and bongos; if you visit Northampton you will experience a fully active downtown like no other. I am very grateful to be a part of this wonderful place and encourage you to come to town to have your own Noho experience.

When you visit Northampton Wools you may see a new face. Kim has joined the crew here and is doing more than her share to keep the store looking and feeling great. When the shelves are stocked to their fullest, the patterns are all in order and everyone is smiling, then we know Kim has been at work. Kim is ready to help you choose your next project, answer your knitting questions or help you select a gift for your favorite knitter. I am very pleased to have Kim as part of Northampton Wools and I think you will be too.

Classes are still going strong. Look for our spring/summer schedule on the classes page of this site. We will be offering several different short classes this year and I think they will be a lot of fun. The Thursday night advanced class spent the last session measuring and comparing and learning how to make a sweater fit. We had a lot of fun with tape measures, and learned a big lesson in reality when it came to writing those measurements down. The big bonus is that everyone will now make sweaters that will fit them perfectly- even down to the wrists. The Wednesday morning knitaholics are sharpening their “read the knitting” skills. Several of them are working on the Perfect Stranger sweater and are discovering the joy of being able to read the stitch on the needle rather than being locked into every row on the chart. This is a very freeing lesson and one that I always encourage our students to learn.

Roberta Evans brought one of the new lambs-Mable- to the shop just three days after the lamb was born. Mabel needed to be bottle fed and that meant a feeding every few hours so into Noho came the baby. The Friday morning class got to enjoy seeing Mable bounce around and even got to hold her. The Gazette came and took a photo- I hope you saw it. For the rest of the week people called to see if Mabel was still in attendance. Mable stays at home with her cousins now and is enjoying the spring sunshine up in Ashfield. Roberta has been a very busy spinner even in the middle of lambing season. We now boast a big basket of handspun yarn from Brooksong Fibers (Roberta’s farm name). This is a true local yarn; grown and raised, harvested and handspun right here in the valley. Roberta even puts the name of the sheep on the label. Next time you are looking for a gift from the valley think about this yarn.

Now for the best part of the weekly blog; introducing the Northampton Wools Make Me a Better Knitter Advice.

If you don’t always carry a knitting tool kit with you when you take your knitting on the road, be sure to throw a small crochet hook into your knitting bag. This simple tool can serve many purposes; use it to pick up sts, use it as a cable needle, use it as a stitch holder(put rubber bands on the ends to keep the sts from falling off). You can even use it as an emergency tape measure. Did you know that the average crochet hook is 5 1/2″ long? Store that little bit of important info away in the brain and you will be able to estiamate lengths with the crochet hook. The lowly crochet hook can also be used as a coffee or tea stirrer, or two of them double as short chop sticks in case you are on a very long car trip.

Have fun with your knitting and keep in mind that spring and summer are great knitting times just because the light is do much better!

See you in the shop-

Linda Daniels

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