We are proud to present NINA sleepily modeling the gorgeous baby blanket Lew knit out of ROWAN WOOL COTTON. Nina is the daughter of our wonderful friends SARAH and JOHN and the sister of LOLA. We love this family. This summer we made Lola a dress out of LAUREL. Upon seeing her, we were stricken to discover that she was WAY taller than we anticipated. As she opened the package, she exclaimed "Oh, this is going to be my favorite shirt!" and promptly wore it every day during our stay. We guess that NINA will share the same enthusiasm and appreciation for hand knit gifts. Heck, even the dog POPPY liked the PEDICURE SOCKS we knit for Sarah. OK, she chewed them. But we took that as approval!

Looking for a spring challenge? Check out the SLIPSTITCH shell we are making from a VERMONT FIBER DESIGNS pattern. We used Schaeffer Yarns LAUREL in colorway RACHEL CARSON along with Cascade SIERRA in white. If this doesn't motivate us to fit into our white jeans next season, nothing will!

Any of you who know us probably think that we spent the day knitting and drinking wine. How wrong you would be! We made use of our snow day by FINALLY learning how to put pictures on our website. The incredibly patient Lew walked us through each step as we made careful notes in outline form on a pad (hey, we used to sell our notes in college!). So we proudly present our work. Now we can go drink wine and knit:

Amanda proudly displayed the baby gifts she knit--an adorable blanket and felted booties.The blanket was made from Laines Du Nord BABY COVER; the booties from BLUE SKY ALPACA, which actually felts in the ivory shade. They are trimmed with ROWAN KID CLASSIC.:

The best part of our weekend at Ben's college was watching him wear an old hat we made him. So we made him a new one in his school colors! We are still not crazy about doing Fair Isle, but we adore him, so it was worth it. By the way, the model is one of our "theater heads" lovingly donated by the wonderful Marietta.

And for those of you sad about missing today's SUNDAY in the SALON, join us NEXT WEEK from 12-2 (note different time) when we make this fabulous MOSAIC HAT:

Sometimes we are forced to make an executive decision early in the day. Hey, it's why we get the big bucks. We woke this morning around 6 to discover a thin sheet of ice on our deck and sleet falling; we fear it will only get worse throughout the day. So we are closing the store. Our morning MOSAIC KNITTING class and afternoon SUNDAY IN THE SALON are cancelled. We will get in touch with the morning participants to reschedule; as for the MOSAIC HAT program scheduled from 2-4, please come NEXT SUNDAY from 12-2! We will hold the program directly before our KNITTING BACKWARDS program from 2-4.

Stay Safe. Happy Knitting!

Frightful tomorrow. We hope not. But if there is the "wintery mix" they are predicting, please CALL THE SHOP before heading out either to our morning class, to shop from 12-5, or to our SUNDAY IN THE SALON from 2-4 PM. We are diligent about putting a voicemail on the phone around 7 AM if we are going to be closed. We also will put something on the blog as well. Hopefully the frightful weather (i.e. ICE) will pass us by.

Love the look of Fair Isle but hate the stranding? Us too!!! So we have taken to MOSAIC KNITTING with a vengeance. Come join us on Sunday from 2-4 as we work through a MOSAIC HAT. You will be awestruck at the ease and results of Mosaic, or SLIP STITCH, knitting. You will need three colors of worsted weight yarn, size 7 or 8 16" circular needles and DPNs in the same size. And guess what? This hat is so cute you can make it in cotton or silk blend for a stylish spring toque!! We have a sample at the shop and if Lew has time you will see it on the website.

Want to join us? The program is free but please call 240.632.9276 to register-we have four spots left. Thanks!

and we came back from a brief trip South to check up on the folks to some fabulous stuff!!!! New colors of our absolutely favorite solid DK cotton, PATRICIA ROBERTS COTTON 2: Lavender, Denim, White, and Navy. We have just about a full palette with the exception of Lipstick, which is due any day. And then we checked out all the MANOS we got in--our bins are full! We sell this 100% wool all year long because it is just that gorgeous.

New books? We were thinking, on the plane, that we need to make a TOP DOWN SWEATER for a new challenge. And guess what greeted us at the store? TOP DOWN SWEATERS: KNIT IT TO FIT. How is that for karma? So we are eagerly perusing that new item.

Finally, we received FOUR new spring books from ROWAN: NASHUA SEASHORE, BLOOM, FAMILY, ZOO. The books are so lovely that they prompted us to call the lovely folks at ROWAN to say "SEND THE SPRING YARNS! NOW!"

So as nice as it was to return to the shining sun and melting ice, it was even nicer to come back to the promise of spring yarns and books.

Take a break from the kids and the house and come out to the shop over the weekend. The streets are cleared-you can park right in front of the shop-and we have plenty of stuff to peruse! Whether you want to knit a warm hat (we did a Fair Isle one for our stepson in a day!), cozy scarf, or begin a spring project, we have plenty of yarn, needles, patterns and accessories.

And don't forget about our SUNDAY IN THE SALON tomorrow, when the unique and wonderful LYNNE will lead you on an INTARSIA journey that will culminate in a cute coin purse. You will need two different colors of worsted weight yarn and size 8 needles. We have both. Just please call the shop today and let us know that you will be attending so everyone has a place to sit. As always, the program is free of charge and will run from 2-4 PM.

Today we received our first shipment of PATRICIA ROBERTS COTTON 2, a gorgeous DK weight cotton. How much do we love her cotton? So much so that we are working on our SECOND project on her 4 ply cotton, which means we are knitting an adult garment on size 2 (yes, size 2) needles. The DK weight cotton would virtually fly off our size 6 needles, and yes, we already have our project lined up. But we will wait patiently and give our lovely customers first crack at this yarn. We are one of only a handful of shops in the U.S. that carries Patricia's yarns. These are truly "knitters' yarns"--the quality cannot be duplicated. So get out that shell pattern you have been meaning to knit and hustle over for a peek at this stuff. We have plum, citron, sky blue, light pink and shocking pink in stock now and are expecting white, navy, lavender, lipstick, and denim before too long.

We are trying to organize our ordering by making sure that we do a needle inventory every month and ordering reinforcements on the first. Our Sundays in the Salon, however, have proven to be a challenge to our needle stock. But our friends at SKACEL came through for us and we have a somewhat good supply of most sizes--more on the way. But for those of you waiting for the elusive size 9s (we just finished an adult sweater on short straights!), they are in stock!

And one of our favorite spring yarns, CATHAY, came in in a lovely light blue. Sold a bag out of the box, pre-priced. Want to guess how long this yarn will last on the shelves?