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 

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

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

3 & 11 Pleasant st

Northampton ma 01060

413 586 4331

info@northamptonwools.com

Spring and summer bring lots of knitting time. Watching the kids at the pool, cheering at the baseball games, sitting on the beach or warming up around the campfire all; offer unique moments of true knitting time. Increase your skills this season with one of our quickie workshops. These classes are designed to give you a little break away form the kids, a little time to visit with other knitters and a little time to make a fun and different project. Keep your summer knitting portable and easy and you’ll find yourself taking your knitting everywhere you go.

Learn To Knit in Three Hours

$25 3hrs

Even if you have never held needle before you will know how to knit when you leve this workshop. In three short hours we will teach you how to cast on, how to knit, purl and how to cast off. Everything you need to make you very first scarf or potholder. Join us for a night of fun and leave knitting on your own! Students will need a pair of size 10

or 10 ½ needles and 1 sk of bulky weight yarn.

Choose one: June 8; July 6; July 20 5:30 – 8:30 pm

Introduction to Lace

$25 2 hrs

Learn the keys to decoding lace charts, symbols and written directions as you create holes in your knitting. This little scarf pattern will soon be the most popular thing you own and will teach you the basic skills of lace knitting,

Students should bring size 7 straight needles and a smooth light colored dk weight yarn. Students should know how to increase and decrease.

June 3 5-7pm

Felted Moebius Baskets

$35 3 hrs

Learn to do the Moebius cast on developed by Cat Borhdi. This is the perfect Moebius for first time Moebius makers. The process teaches you how to make the Moebius cast on and then to open it up into the handles for the basket. Once you know the cast on technique you will be ready to try Moebius scarves, bags and even cat beds. The felted basket that you learn in class can be enhanced with beads, or novelty yarns and are beautiful pieces of functional art. These baskets knit up quickly and are a breeze to felt.

Students should bring scissors, tapestry needle, markers and will need one skein of Manos del Uruguay wool and a 47” size 11 needle.

July 17 3-6pm

Lace Sampler

$40 8hrs

This four session class will help even the most timid of knitters learn how to put holes in her knitting on purpose. After all, this is normally something we avoid. Several different stitch patterns will combine to teach how to read charts and patterns as well as reading your knitting. Solve problems and learn to un-knit without loosing your place. Take a bold leap into the wonderful world of lace, but do it at your own pace.

June 17, 24, July 8, 15 1pm-3pm

Learn To Crochet

$40 8hrs

Believe it or not, crochet is finally growing up. You can learn the four basic stitches and start a bag, a t-top and a grannie square blanket (because everyone needs to know how to do a grannie square) by the time the four classes are over. Even if you have never even seen a crochet hook, you will be able to succeed in this class.

July 8, 15, 22, 29 10am-12pm

Socks in a Day

$25 3hrs

It can’t be done you say? We beg to differ… learn the steps in knitting a basic sock on big needles with bulky yarn and you will end up with snuggly, cuddly, warm and welcome socks for winter. We use an LWDesign; which is included in the class fee. All you need is needles and yarn and a readiness to tackle four needles at a time.

July 11 12pm-3pm

Moebius Smoke Ring

$25 3hrs

Learn the famous and mysterious Moebius cast on, learn to follow a simpole chart, learn a few lace techniques and dazzle yourself with your creativity. This class covers all of that as you work your way through some of Cat Borhdi’s wonderful techniques.

June 18 6-9pm

Learn To Cable- Needle or Not

$25 2hrs

What a way to make your first cabled project. Learn to knit in the round and how to follow the directions for making several basic cables. Charts will be discussed and various cable designs will be demonstrated. We will also learn to make cable without using a cable needle!

June 25 6pm-8pm

Self Fringe Shawl

$10 2hrs

Tired of guessing how much yarn to leave for the fringe? Want to make a shawl for those summer nights up at Tanglewood? This quickie workshop will teach you the trick to making fringe at the same time as the knitting. You will create a one of a kind piece that you will be proud to show off anywhere.

June 27 2pm-4pm

Finishing Day

Free As long as you need

If you dare to look in the back of your closet will you find that bag that contains the unfinished sweater? The one that just needs to have the sleeves sewn on and the side seams done? You put it away and it has been haunting you every time you go to start a new project. This is the day for you to bring those scary horrors to the shop. We will help you to get going with putting them all together. We’ll help you figure out the next step and show you some of the newest, easiest techniques to make your sweater look like a professionally done piece. Dig out those paper bags full of knitted pieces and grab a cup of coffee and start sew3ing.

June 27 all day

Learn to Knit Basics

$35 6hrs

This is a class for the real beginner who needs a little more time and a few more hands on then the learn t o knit in three hours. Adrienne will take you through the basics of knitting, the best way to cast on, counting sts, knitting, purling, fixing mistakes and working on an even tension. Come prepared to have some fun as you learn a new skill and enter the knitting world.

June 16, 23, 30 10:30-12:30pm.

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

This cabled sweater is done in Bristol Yarns King George; a worsted weight wool/alpaca blend that is so soft you will want to curl up in it.

This is just a sample of the sweaters in the collection. They will be on display until Nov 1, then off they go to another store. It is fun to think of my knitting visiting all the other yarn stores all across the country.

The best time of year is fall in New England. Everyone is looking for a new knitting project now tha the garden is put to bed. This year I think knitter’s will try even harder to knit gifts for the ones they love. Who wouldn’t covet a warm pair of wool socks in bright and fun colors, or a set of fingerless mitts to help keep the chill away as we all lower the thermostats? Everyone on my list is getting fingerless mitts, even the boys. I know they will appreciate them in the long run.

We are now open on Sundays from 1-5pm. Tell your knitting buddies that they will now be able to get their knitting fix even on Sunday afternoon. Check out the workshop schedule too, because we have a lot of classes planned for these beautiful autumn Sundays.

Keep those needles clicking, Linda

When you stroll by Northampton Wools take a look at all the socks in the window. Knitter’s magazine and several yarn companies have joined together with Local Yarn Stores to celebrate knitters love of socks by sponsoring a sock design contest. If you have ever created a sock then you should think about entering the contest, you could win $6000! That’a a lot of moola for a little pair of socks. Northampton Wools is the official site for Colinette Yarns sock entries. We carry every color of  JITTERBUG, the Colinette sock yarn. The type of socks that you can enter using the Jitterbug are children’s socks and adult fair isle patterns. Think of the fun you can have working with different colors of one of the most colorful sock yarns our there. You can pick up contest details at the shop or find them online at www.knittinguniverse.com. Some of the Thursday night Knotty Knitters gang are already planning their entries, don’ t let them be the only ones from the Northampton area to do so.
Okay, so the reality is that very few of you will actually design and knit a pair of socks to enter in the Knitter’s contest. In  recognition of that Northampton Wools is sponsoring our own sock contest. ONE-OF-A-SOCK is the name of this little happy stab at getting you to knit socks. All you have to do is knit one sock, don’t worry about making the dreaded OTHER SOCK, just have fun making one. We will collect and display the entries in September and the winners will be chosen by popular vote. So come on and join in the fun of sock knitting and you just might be a big winner is our little contest.

Just a quick reminder- this year’s fashion show will be on September 21st. Mark your calendars and check the events page for more info starting next week. Here is a baby sock done in Jelly Beenz. Surely you can knit socks more exciting than this!

There is plenty of time to get some done before the end of this cold, wet winter. Check out the classes page for a listing of the sock workshops that are scheduled for the next 2 months.

Once you have decided on a class, be sure to run to the store before the end of Feb. Right now we are having our annual 20% off yarn end of winter sale. That’s right, all the yarn in the store is on sale for 10% off the original price. Some of the yarns we have even marked down 30- 40% off. The new cottons are starting to arrive and we need room of the shelves. This sale runs through the end of Feb, but don’t wait too long or that yarn you have been eyeing won’t be left in the bin.

In celebration of this truly American annual event we are looking forward to the excitement of our 6th Super Bowl Sale. From 1pm-5pm on Sunday, Feb. 3rd all the in stock yarn will be 30% off. Yes, I said 30% off. This sale applies to all the yarn in the store, no special orders or layaways. This is the day to buy that beautiful cashmere or silk yarn that you have been eying for several months. Be sure to get here early so that you will have first pick. See you in the yarn bins, Linda