Happy Thanksgiving

Hello Everyone,

My staff and I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!! Knit Pickings will close @ 5 pm on Wednesday 11/25 and reopen on Friday 11/27 Normal business hours. There is NO Friday night knit Club on 11/27.

Happy Turkey and Football!!!

Sue

Happy October

Well, fall weather has finally arrived. I love this time of Year! Beautiful crisp air, fabulous leaf colors and warm apple cider. Don't turn on the heat, put a great fire on in the fireplace and cozy up with a love one!!! Read a great book or knit to your hearts content.

Doesn't that sound great? So, on Friday October 9th (tomorrow) we are going to have some Halloween fun. Come by the shop between the bewitching hours of 6-8 pm and make some ghosties, pumpkins and bats.

Barbara and I were finishing the ghosties sample yesterday. Boy, did we have some laughs. Come see Barbara "Easter egg" shape ghost. I did tell her it was Halloween not Easter! But all in good fun!

So,come have some fun with us tomorrow night.

News of the Day

Whew!!! What a week. As some of you might know already, my Mom and Dad have been staying with me since July. My Mom has Alzheimer's Disease and my Dad needed to have his hip replaced. Since Mom could not be left alone, they came up here for Dad to have surgery.

Well, he has finally had his hip replaced on Sept 8th. After, 2 (very short) weeks in rehab, he is back in my home with Mom. What a three ring circus!!! I have never seen so many orthopedic devices in my life under one roof!!! Well, hopefully on the road to recovery and home to Florida soon!!!

Because, of all of this, I am behind in work and communications on the blog. I do apologize for that!!

So, here is the news of the day!!!! We have 2 trunk shows currently in the shop.
The first in Norah Gaughan Men. Norah is the design director for Berroco Yarns and has put out quite a few pattern books over the last few years. This book is her first, just for men.

The sweaters are so soft and lush. I have to admit that I have had my eye on the "Beagle" Sweater to make for my son for Christmas. Mind you, my son is 23, and this is the first time he has ever agreed from me to make him a sweater. This is an amazing feat. So, I truly believe the designs in this book are wonderful and youthful!

They are worth the trip to the shop to see and feel the great yarns we have available to knit them up. The show is here until Oct 6th

The Second trunk show is from Universal Yarns which is the Bella Baby Show. We have several garments out of the Bella Baby book for you to see. Unfortunately, Universal has had some printing problems so, the pattern book has not been released. We are taking pre orders for the pattern book while the show is with us. This show is here until Oct 11th.

Here is some exciting news on the customer front:

Berroco sock contest is in its final stages I am happy to announce that Knit Pickings has a customer in the finals! Vanessa Schmidt has the cropped cardigan sweater with capped sleeves in the finals. Vanessa made this beautiful sweater out of Berroco Sock. So, go on the berroco website @ www.berroco.com and vote for Vanessa's Sweater Many Many times. Good Luck Vanessa!!!

Event for this Evening Sept 18th Postponed Until September 25th

I am very sorry to have to postpone this evening Fun Friday Event until next week Sept 25th. My Dad had his hip replaced and is in the hospital. We are having a bit of difficulty today, so, I need to be with him.

I hope to see you all next week.

Sue

Charity Knitting Group

Our charity knitting group started today! We had 6 people come to the first group!! I am so pleased. Each person chose a group they are knitting for. Several of the ladies are knitting blankets for the Project Linus and 2 are knitting helmet liners for Operation Helmet liners for soldiers.

Come join the group!!!

Charity Knitting Group

Beginning this Thursday September 3rd @ 10 am, we will have a charity knitting group here @ Knit Pickings. The ladies will be working on projects for the military, prayer shawls and the Linus Project. Our charity group will be coordinated by Ruth Paul.

This group is for the pleasure of providing for those in need. There is no instruction or cost to join the group. Information will be provided for the various project groups. If you can not attend you are free to drop off finished items for the group to send to the charities.

Please join us in our efforts to support those in need.

Call Knit Pickings for further info.

Felt Friday August 7th

Hi Everyone,

I am sorry to announce that Felt Friday for tomorrow Aug 7th is canceled. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Sue

Hot Summer Days!!!

Our fall yarns are slowly lining the shelves of Knit Pickings. Vintage Wool is doing very well. But,so is Lustra another new yarn from Berroco. Check out the patterns on our store website or @ Berroco.com

Lustra is a 50/50 blend of Peruvian wool and tencel. The yarn has a beautiful sheen and soft drape. It comes in beautiful bright colors. Put up is in hanks of 197 yards with a stitch gauge of 4.5 st/inch making it a perfect weight for sweaters, vests, hats and mittens. Lustra retails @ $9.00/hank. Berroco also has an accompanying pattern book with some wonderful patterns.

We also received a portion of our Cascade order which included Lana Bambu. Lana Bambu is a heavy worsted weight multicolored beauty! It is 78% wool and 21% Bamboo blend. Put up is in hanks of 100 grms or 196 yards and st gauge of 4.5 st/inch on # 9needle. Soft and luscious it retails for $14 and can be used for sweaters, hats, mittens and scarves. Treat yourself to a new garment!

Can you tell I am into soft this Year?

We have also received square knitting needles in from Kollage. We are carry them for socks right now. We have DP in size 0-4 and 40" circulars in 0-4 for those of you who love magic loop.

Well back to unpacking fall goodies!

Sue

New Arrivals

Well, the fall knitting season is upon us! Very exciting!!! Over the next few weeks, many of our fall orders will be arriving.

The first to arrive, are some of the new Berroco Yarns. The MOST exciting thus far in 2009 is Vintage Wool. I am in love with this yarn!!! This should be a Best Seller for us. Why you ask? Well, first of all, it is so soft and luxurious. Second. it comes in the beautiful heather Berroco colorways. Third, it is machine washable. Fourth, it is 50% merino wool, 40% acrylic and 10% nylon. But, you can't feel the acrylic (HONEST). Now the best part, the price is $6.00 for a hank of 217 yards. You have to feel it to believe it. We now have 15 colors in stock!!! So stop by the shop and feel the excitement!!!!!

Be on the lookout for our August Newsletter with details of our sock contest.This is the conclusion of our Sockstacular Summer Event!

See you all soon.

Sue

Clearance Sale and other news!

Our Big Summer Clearance Sale is still going strong here at Knit Pickings!

We currently have a wide selection of yarn and other merchandise (like needles and cool bags) at 50% off. Purchase a FULL bag (10 ct.) of select yarn, and receive 55% off!

This clearance will continue until we've got enough room for new fall merchandise.

Speaking of *new merchandise*...keep watching our blog for info on what's coming to the store in the months ahead. Yarn, kits, books-all kinds of exciting fall offerings are in store for all you knitters!

One more update:

We'll be taking a bit of a break to enjoy some summer weather (that is, if the weather cooperates!) and Independence Day.

Knit Pickings will be closed June 29 - July 5. We will re-open on July 6th with our new summer hours.

Summer Hours:

Mon., Fri., Sat., 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Tues., Wed., Thurs., 12 noon - 8:00 p.m.

Thank you & Happy Knitting,

The Knit Pickings Staff

Slideshow of our Hand Dyeing Workshop

On June 5, Knit Pickings had our Hand Dyeing Workshop, and wow- what a creative group of students we had! These ladies made some gorgeous color and pattern choices, don't you think? It was wonderful to see the transformation from blank yarn canvas to stunning, one-of-a-kind works of art!

You won't believe it until you feel it.

Sue has been very busy choosing new fall yarns lately, and with good reason- there's so much out there to pick from! One standout has got us all very excited here at the shop. We all oohed and ahhed over it.

Two words:Vintage Wool.

It's from Berroco. It's not just soft, it's sooooffft. You'll be convinced it's fine merino wool- (we were) but it's not. It's 217 yds. of a blend of 50% acrylic, 40% wool, and 10% nylon. It's machine wash gentle, dry flat. And did we mention it's soft? We don't know how Berroco did it but we know we love it, and we know you all will too. We're expecting delivery of 15 colors of Vintage Wool the week of July 7th.!

Happy Knitting,
The Knit Pickings Staff

A quick reminder!

Free class: "How To Use Ravelry.com"

Saturday, May 30 from 10 a.m. - 12 noon

This class will be held here at Knit Pickings (18 Plaistow Rd.) Ravelry is a wonderful online community dedicated to the love of all things fiber. Whether your thing is knitting, weaving, dyeing, or general gabbery, the Ravelry world is one that takes a little help navigating. We'll help guide you through all the loops and spins, and soon you'll be a pro!

Hand Dyeing Workshop- spots still available!!

Come join us Friday, June 5th 2009 for a fun evening of creativity. We are going to dye our own sock yarn to Launch Sockstacular Summer. From 7-9 ish we will take blank un-dyed Happy Choices, and with the magic of jacquard dye, create our very own colorway of sock yarn! Cost is $35.00 per person, which includes all materials. You can dye additional blanks for $17.99 per skein.

Happy Knitting,
The Knit Pickings Staff.

Fall Preview

Well, I have been super busy previewing all the new fall lines from many yarn companies. May is so fun because all the yarn company reps are all visiting shops with the new fall yarns and patterns for 09/10.

I have had a great time looking at and feeling all the beautiful fibers and textures. Most of the patterns this year are emphasizing clean lines and bright colors. I am having difficulty choosing the patterns I want to knit and display in the shop. There are so many great ones to choose from. 

Tweed this year is big with great patterns of classic designs and of course bright colors. I know everyone thinks tweed is scratchy, but guess what? I have found a new aran weight tweed which is soft and beautiful. I can't wait for you all to see it!!!

In the next few weeks watch for the announcement of our Summer Clearance and "full Bag" sale

as we will need to make room for fall. We will again have some great bargains to share.

Most of the new yarns will be starting to arrive in late June and July.

Well, I am off to Paris tomorrow to visit my husband who is on a month long business trip in Europe. I will see you all when I get back.

Don't forget our free Ravelry class on May 30th and our hand dye workshop on June 5th

Happy Knitting!

Sue

We've been very busy here at Knit Pickings! Where to even start? We had our second "Fun Friday Event"- a fashion show starring our students, customers and shop family. We asked everyone to bring their knit and crochet items to model for us, and they did not disappoint! So many gorgeous, beautifully made items graced our catwalk. We also had some fantastic raffle prizes: gorgeous sock yarn, wool wash, and two wonderful knitting bags. As you can see by the pictures, we had a great time!

We'd like to thank everyone for their enthusiasm and participation!


In stock now: Sereknity Yarn in sock and DK weights. Amazingly hand painted skeins with names like "Rock Lobster", "Blue Hawaii", "Sweet Baby James", "Watermelon", and "After Dinner Mint"...colors you will absolutely fall in love with!

In other news, all J-Knits yarn is now 50% off!

wouldn't now be a great time to add to your stash?

We're also celebrating the arrival of warmer weather and summer sock knitting with 2 sock yarns on sale for the month of May:

Schaeffer's Anne 20% off

Anne is a beautiful hand dyed yarn which is a merino nylon mix. It is 560 yards which is the most of any sock yarn we carry.

Schoeller & Stahl Sockina Cotton 20% off

This sock yarn is a beautiful cotton blend that knits up in shading and fair-isle colorways.

Our next Fun Friday event will be a hand dyeing workshop on Friday, June 5.

some details:

• time: 7-9 ish P.M.
• cost is $35.00 per person (includes all materials)
• using jacquard dyes, we'll create our own colorways using blank Happy Choices.
• you can dye additional blanks for $17.99 per skein.
• workshop is limited to 12 people- call us here at the shop (603-382-5110) soon to sign up!!

As always, we're looking forward to seeing you here at Knit Pickings!!

We had a wonderful time on Friday night with Joe Raffino from Southwest Trading Co. He brought along his 70 lb. bag of garments for us to see and even try on! Joe even brought us some yarn samples to take home and knit up. We had around 25 guests, food , and fun conversation. We learned about SWTC, and some of the science and product development that goes into getting great yarn to us, the customer! Our models; Kerri, Ashley, Kim and Nicole were lovely in all the beautiful fashions that Joe brought along.

We saw the beautiful new Maraposa shawl made out of 100% bamboo. This is actually made out of the bamboo fibers unlike other bamboo yarns which are made out of extruded bamboo pulp. This gives this yarn a wonderful drape and softness while still maintaining it's shape. Joe also showed us Amaizing, which is a corn fiber and Therapi, which is 50% merino, 30% Jade and 20% silk.


Check out some of Southwest Trading Company's amazing fashions on http://www.soysilk.com/.

We'd like to thank Joe, our models, and especially all our guests who came to our event! Your support means the world to us here at Knit Pickings, and we are looking forward to our next event- our Spring Fashion Show, on May 1st at 7 p.m., here at the shop. See you all then!

Knit Pickings

Hi Everyone, 

I decided to start a blog so we could post things a little easier for a customers and friends to access Knit Pickings information.

We are a LYS(Local yarn shop) located in Plaistow New Hampshire which is just above the Massachusetts border. We are in our third year of business.

This is my first business as a was a RN for 25 years. I love every minute of my new career!

I have a staff of 3 plus 2 additional knitting instructors. I also have a crochet instructor. I am working diligently with staff to get our website store up and running this year. As you can imagine this is a huge undertaking.

I hope to blog each week on new info and fun things happening in the shop.

Sue