Call us wimps, but we will be closed today, Monday, February 28. We are expecting 6-8 inches of snow, all the schools are closed, and we don't expect that many of you will venture out, particularly since we saw TONS of you over the weekend buying projects in anticipation of the storm!!!! So stay inside, knit your projects, and stay safe.

Tonight's class will be rescheduled. Thanks for your cooperation.

We just sent the spring class schedule to our webmistress this morning. If you are local, we have hard copies at the store awaiting your review. We have some terrific new classes as well as old favorites beginning in April. Come see our offerings!

And we received restocks of perfect project yarns: Himalayan Recycled Silk and Schaefer Laurel yarn in the Judy Garland colorway. Woo hoo!

We will be closing at 4 PM today because of the snow and icy conditions of the road. We will reopen at 11 AM tomorrow. Everyone stay safe!

We were speechless when we unpacked our notions order from Bryson today. Its contents revealed something more valuable than gold: SIZE 11 SHORT STRAIGHT NEEDLES!!! Yes! We now have them in stock. 48 pairs of them. So don't put off those novelty scarves any longer.

And we received two favorites today: Martingale Press' Little Box of Scarves and the 365 Knitting Stitches perennial calendar. Both of these are indispensable to our knitting library, and in fact we are knitting some store samples from LBOS! Come see the finished results! They are fast, fun, and fabulous!

And we can't forget our monthly shipment of notions. We order these in quantities of 48 now so we don't run out, and are fully stocked with scissors, markers, crochet hooks and the like. And thanks to our pal Lenni, we now carry the Susan Bates Peg-It Knitting Counter. We admit to being intrigued by this gadget which allows you to keep track of multiple rows, increases and decreases. Hmmm. What will this do to the yellow post-it business?????

And the lovely Missy from Wool in the Woods must have DRIVEN down with the Americana Afghan kits that arrived today! We called her just yesterday to see if she had any in stock! Come see these works of art in pale greens, ivory, and lavendars. They knit on SIZE 17 needles holding three yarns together! Could anything be quicker?

Seven gorgeous colors of hand-dyed 100% Pima Cotton! We couldn't keep this yarn in stock last year...Schaefer Laurel is a dream to work with, wear, and care for. It knits at a 4.5-5 stitches to the inch, so the pattern possibilities are endless. As with most hand-dyes, the put up is enormous-400 yards per skein, so the cost of $36.99 per skein is not unrealistic (two skeins make a sweater!). Cheryl Schaefer names all of her yarn colors after famous women. So whether you want to knit Frida Kahlo, Emily Dickinson, Shari Lewis, Elizabeth Blackwell, Empress Wu Zhao, Billie Holiday, or Sonja Henie, you will be working with beautiful yarns and beautiful colors.

We are expecting the rest of the colors within two weeks.

Liana was nice enough to email this picture of the shawl she made for her sister's birthday. It is from Nancy Wiseman's Shawls, Stoles and Scarves and Liana just raved about the ease of the pattern and the drape of the shawl. Want to move on from scarves? This is the perfect project!

And we confess to being skeptical about the Big Bad Baby Blanket in Stitch and Bitch. Who in their right mind would make a baby blanket out of Koigu! Well, have we changed our tune!!! Why? Because Koigu is machine washable AND dryable! And because you are using it double on size 9 needles, the blanket is a quick knit. And at around $80, reasonable for a finished project that will last as an heirloom. We made this for our friends Samantha and Greg who had a beautiful little boy last November. But we wouldn't appear in the photo because Lew took it first thing this morning...not our prettiest time of day.

We love Federal Holidays at WoolWinders because so many friends have the day off and drop by to keep us company! And to make the day even better, Ted the UPS Guy (whom we HAVE fixed up, ladies!) brought us two wonderful packages. First we received the natural colored Bagsmith Project bag (we are expecting the Black next week). If you need a practical knitting bag to add to your arsenal, come see this one-it is our current favorite. It is sturdy, lightweight, and possesses TONS of pockets for everything ranging from needles to an IPod!

And a new book from XRX arrived-Ponchos and Wraps, A Knitters Dozen. Perfect for spring/summer wraps.

We have been busy at work today finalizing the spring class schedule, so stay tuned. Lots of new stuff on the horizon! We expect to have the class schedule out March 1, along with our spring newsletter. Remember that our classes follow the seasons; these classes will be held during April, May and June.

For those of you who registered, don't forget the Absolute Beginners Knitting class this Sunday, Feb. 22 at 10 AM! We have lots of yummy yarns to play with!

We learned from Rowan today that our spring order will ship next week. That will be cause for much excitement-we LOVE Rowan's cottons, silks and blends. In fact, we are knitting a Summer Tweed top right now and are enjoying every stitch!

Walter the UPS Guy brought us a box of more Maggie Knits Linen. He joined us in ooohing and aaahing over the lovely colors: mint, lilac, stone and sage. Not really, he was far more concerned with the lack of legibility on our signature..... but the colors are wonderful and they join the three bins of this fabulous yarn we already had. A preview? We are scheduling a class this spring called "Maggie's Shawl Three Ways" during which students can make a lovely lightweight shawl using one of three EASY lace patterns.

Be aware that this yarn gauge is a bit misleading. Although the ball band says 4.5 stitches to the inch on a size 8, that will create a very open stitch that may require a cami or shell underneath. If you want to knit a tighter shell or top, you will more likely want to knit on size 6 needles and aim for 5 stitches to the inch. Of course for the shawl we will be working on larger needles for open stitches!

We returned from our day and a half off (thank you, marvelous staff)to some new spring yarns, favorite patterns, and the new Spring Knitters Magazine.

Manos is a perennial favorite, and we received backorders of some rich, warm variegateds. Along with the yarn came Judith's new brilliant pattern book, Cotton Collection 2. Her designs for Stria, the Spring cotton yarn, is amazing. If you have not knit with this hand-spun kettle-dyed 100% cotton, look no further than Cotton Collection 1 or 2 for inspiration.

From Crystal Palace we received new spring colors of Little Flowers and Fizz, novelty yarns that seem to fly out of here. They are perfect for Spring scarves!

And the Spring Knitters? Chock full of sweaters, ponchos, scarves and the like. Lynne declares it full of "high yield color work." Our magazines never last long around here, so hurry in!