‘Tis a soggy, soggy day here in CT! Luckily, to keep those toes nice & cozy, we just got a whole bunch of new sock yarns in!

Firstly, we’re trying out a few colors of Claudia’s Handpainted:

That middle one is sport weight and the rest is fingering. We noticed how well the fingering weight goes with the Koigu we have in stock that could certainly inspire some new color ideas for projects like Charlotte’s Web!

We’ve also received new stock of the much-beloved TREKKING XXL! Get it while it lasts…it always flies out the door!

And, as I’m sure that many of us are feeling the dryness of the season in our hands and feet, we have the cure! Austermann Step!

This yarn contains Aloe Vera and Jojoba Oil that you will feel as you work with the yarn and as you wear your finished items. The effect is purported to last through 40 washings (note that the label says not to use fabric softener, though!)! Plus, there’s a free general sock pattern on Austermann’s site made just for their yarns. NOTE: If the Austermann pattern comes up in German, fear not! Just look to the upper right and click the British flag, which will bring you to the English home page. From there, hit the “Back” button and the pattern will magically be in English!

Today’s deliveries brought us a new big box of Ozark Handspun in a bunch of new colors! This is a thick-thin-curly-random kind of yarn that makes the funkiest hats and scarves (or whatever else strikes your fancy!)!!!

And in honor of this new arrival, I present our blog’s first FREE PATTERN! Using one skein of Ozark Handspun and one skein if Bulky Lopi (or equivalent), you can make this fun hat, designed by one of our own:

Click here to download the Ozark Hat Pattern (.doc)

As the holidays approach, we get more and more cool giftie items in stock. Such as these Zecca scissor fobs:

Also just in, are Zecca point protectors and scarf/hair pins!

Coming up in classes, we have Spinning on a Wheel on Wednesday November 15th - if you’re interested, sign up quick! Students will learn how a spinning wheel works and the basics on getting started with spinning your own yarns.

In other news, today’s actvities included building a new glass display case where you will find such gems as the aforementioned Zecca items as well as other shawl pins, knitting-related jewelry and more! Also, cool new gift items are being added to the online store today including a drop spindle kit, a dyeing kit, and several felting and needle felting kits. Fun to make…fun to give!

Come on in - it’s better than being out in the pouring rain we have going on today. Yick!

So, anyone else going to be thrilled when Election Day 2006 is over? *raises hands* We’re all pretty tired of hearing campaign ads in general. Luckily, we have new yarns to make us happy:

The yarn hasn’t been released to us yet, but we were lucky enough to get a 10g sample of this new machine-washable sock yarn from Colinette yarns! It’s called Jitterbug and is a fingering-weight yarn that will come in 289yd-skeins (100g). It’s 100% “easy care” merino - machine wash cold, and they recommend line dry - and it’s quite soft and cushy. I made up this random sock as a sample for the store - no pattern as it was entirely improvised and I’d be surprised if it actually fit a baby, but it’s about that size and serves its purpose to show of the yarn!

We already have some of Colinette’s DK weight easy care merino, Cadenza, in stock, for which there is also a pattern book. As always, both yarns are dyed up in Colinette’s own beautiful hand-painted colorways.

Oh, and that giant mitt? It’s been felted:

Cute Lantern Moon Bee tape measure used for scale again, of course. Now, I admit I was a little confused in the previous post - in fact this is meant to be a decorative mitten, like a stocking, for the holidays, but it would certainly work as an oven mitt as well and we ARE offering the felted oven mitt class!

We also just got some new skeins of Schaeffer Elaine - perfect for making this cute little jacket:

The pattern is free with purchase of yarn and will be offered in our online store shortly…like in an hour or so. Check out the new colors we just got: