This fall the knitting will be tweedy. As I unpack boxes of yarn I am delighted to find bags and bags of tweedy yarn. Who doesn’t love the idea of knitting a tweedy looking vest. Something simple but with crisp lines and lovely buttons. Or what about a very comfortable throw this on over everything cardigan vest that travels well and adds the finishing touch to every outfit?

Berocco’s Blackstone Chunky is one of those tweeds that has a wonderful hand and is a delight to knit.

You can even come on in and try this vest on.

Adrienne spent many days last week unpacking and sorting and displaying the new tweeds. One of her favorites is the Tiara Tweed from Plymouth yarns- here are just 3 of the 10 great colors that are on the shelves:

If this doesn’t make your knitting needles sing- I don’t know what will…

or maybe you want something a little more English? here is the Rowan Tweed from the Purelife collection- yummy!

So come and get some Tweed on, before it’s all gone.

Diagonal knitting has always held a certain fascination for me. I’m not sure why, but whenever I knit on the diagonal I feel like it is going ten times faster then normal. The front or back of a sweater seems to be completed in half the time, and I am motivated to get the next piece on the needles and done very quickly.

It is a very impressive way to flaunt your knitting talents: the beginner knitter is astounded by your ability to turn knitting on its ear, the experienced knitter praises your ability to keep track of increases and decreases; and the non-knitter can’t believe you made that all by yourself .

This week I have added another level of simpleness to a slant-wise project. We just unpacked a new shipment of alp light and I spent the week end knitting up a diagonal vest. Alp Light does all the color work, you just have to do the knitting. The result is a piece that looks like you spent hours figuring out color, planning changes and working in ends, when all you really had to do was wind the yarn into a ball!

Here is what the final results look like!                                                                                                        

Simple summer project that is also easy and flattering to wear. Check out the new colors and ask for the pattern the next time you shop.

Keep knitting in front of the fan—Linda

How is it possible that my DH is turning 60 in a few more days? Neither one of us can believe it, but there it is. He still makes my heart go bump- and he cleans up pretty good, right?

This is too big a birthday to go unnoticed so we have decided to celebrate with all our friends by having the biggest sale ever in the history Northampton  Wools.

On Saturday, June 19th from 10am until 5pm we will mark specific yarns down by 60%. These special yarns will be in baskets on the floor and table in the store. These are not our regular sale baskets. These are yarns that we have decided to pull from the shelves and support with inventory from the cellar.

Mark your calendar and pull out those patterns you have been saving for just the right yarn. Bring them in on Saturday- ONE DAY ONLY- and get 60% off select yarns in baskets.

Because of the huge discounts on these yarns all sales are final and there are no returns allowed.

Plan on being at Northampton Wools early to get the best selection.

Happy Shopping,

Linda

It is that wedding time of year and this year became special to us as we celebrated the marriage of our son Jeff to Pamela Wilson. We had two long weeks of partying since Pam is a west coast girl. We traveled to Ca to witness their marriage on May 29th. Then everyone traveled back here to celebrate in our back yard with all the family and friends on the east coast.

It was reason enough to bring the wedding dress that Jill Montgomery and I hand knit 8 years ago, out of storage. I have had it on display in the window of the shop for the past three weeks and it is satisfying to see that it is still able to attract the attention that it deserves.                                                                              And it is really holding up well. The only bride to ever wear it was my sister Donna, who got married in it 4 years ago. The directions for making the dress and a picture of Donna in the dress has been published in “Planet Wedding” which came out this spring. It is available from Amazon and is a collection of wedding trivia from around the world.

So celebrate your wedding or anniversary this summer and enjoy these photos.

Linda

Several area knitters traveled to Cape Cod this past weekend for the third annual Cape Cod knitters retreat. They learned how to knit with beads as they knit in the round to make a beautiful hat.

After lunch we tackled a lace scarf triangle pattern that challenged everyone to learn to read a chart. Enjoy the photos and we hope to have you join us next year. Linda

Cape Cod Knitters Retreat

March 22, 23 and 24, 2010

Come play, learn and chat, knit and drink, soak in a hot tub, and visit with knitting friends.

Bayside Resorts

West Yarmouth

Mon: Arrive by 6:oo pm on the 22nd.

Visit, eat and shop at Frog Tree Yarns.

Knit until sleepy.

Tues: Beaded Hat Class (learn several ways of knitting with beads).

Taught by Bonnie Otto

9am-1pm

1pm-2pm lunch

Lace Explorations- Learn some basic lace techniques as you create a sampler scarf

2-5pm

Taught by Linda Daniels

Wed: finish up with lace

9am-12noon

$55 for a double room $110 for a single

$95 fee for the classes (some materials included)

Call Linda at Northampton Wools to register and for hotel reservation information.

413-58-4331 

Ahh June. Beautiful weddings, flowers in every garden, late nights on the deck, star gazing, cookouts and the first swim in the pond. Not this year.

Instead there are puddles all over the yard, the grass is nearly a foot high and my husband is seriously talking about sheep as lawn mowers since he has to dodge rain to use his lawn mower.  I’ve never seen so many mushrooms growing around our yard!

At the end of May we put up the backyard screen house and the umbrella on the deck. These are two of my favorite places to be all summer long.

I sit in the screen house and indulge in a good book on tape while I knit away a few afternoon hours. I enjoy the heat and really appreciate being outside after all the indoor hours of winter. I am pretty unhappy this year. At least give me some heat so that I can loosen up the knots in my back!

For the very first time in spring we have the opportunity to knit our way into summer. It’s been cold enough to keep an afghan project in your lap, and chilly enough to warrant a sweater almost every day. There are no excuses for not prolonging the knitting season this year.

These soggy days are the perfect time to dive into the stash bins. Look for the little projects that can be done over a cloudy weekend. How about using up that odd skein to make a quick hat? Wrist warmers and even mittens will always be useful this coming winter, or even as a gift for that special person.

Take advantage of the weather to clean out the yarn bins and keep a little knitting handy to get you through to the sunny days. I sure hope they come soon!

See you in a nice clean store,

Linda

I am a huge proponent of taking your knitting everywhere. I can’t imagine traveling without the comfort of a new project; the soft feel of my favorite rosewood needles against my fingers, the faint shush of wood against wood, and the wonder of a wool strand creating fabric. I travel with knitting even when we are just doing the errands. I count myself lucky that my husband likes to drive- everywhere- and I get to knit while we pay some bills, visit the library and pick up whatever stuff we dropped off last week. My husband never complains and the truth is that the older we get the more the knitting helps keep my mind off the traffic and his driving.

It almost goes without saying that I take my knitting on the plane. We have all faced the hours of travel time with a certain joy, knowing that our time will be well spent with needles and yarn. Those long, dull flights turn into precious, uninterrupted moments of pure knitting pleasure. We can be forgiven if we exude a certain smugness as we disembark the plane; we have something to show for our air time and many others do not. This is knitting time that we take seriously and woe to the one that interferes with this time; unless that person is a representative of a government or an airline. Here comes the needle nightmare story. For the last few years domestic air travel has been relatively knitting needle friendly. So we knitters have continued to take our knitting with us on vacations and business flights. Traveling overseas, however has presented another whole set of issues, mostly occurring when one is trying to reenter the country. I have been told stories of the removal of needles from knitting when the knitter was trying to board a flight in Mexico, I had stitch holders removed from my knitting kit in Frankfurt; but nothing hurts like the story I heard on Thursday.

One of the students in the Thursday night class was returning from a two week vacation in Ireland with a knitting friend. The two couples had a wonderful time touring Ireland and seeing all the sights, but were ready to come home. The friendly knitter had her knitting in her carry on and was looking forward to finishing the sock that she had on two addi circular needles. However, the Irish authorities were concerned about their sharpness and were ready to confiscate them. She begged them not to take the stitches off the needles and then watched in horror as they calmly cut the tips off both sets! Oh the pain! Oh the waste! Oh the cost!!! Let’s share a moment of silence.

So the lesson is to use some caution and bamboo needles when you travel, even if you have been told that it is alright to bring knitting on the plane. We don’t need to lose any more addi’s in such a horrible way.

See you in the Shop-

Linda

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