Now that the colder weather is finally here, you may want to make a bunch of HATS as gifts. We have the perfect one, especially for beginning knitters: THE ALPACA HAT IN THE ROUND. What a concept! A simple watch cap style, quickly done in bulky, but ultra soft alpaca yarn! Come join us SUNDAY from 2-4 PM (we have four spots left). As always, the program is free of charge. This is a great way to learn to knit in the round and learn to work double pointed needles for the crown of the hat.

Hannah is one of our favorite models; we have literally watched her grow up on the website, thanks to her mom, FLO and her amazing knitting ability. FLO’S latest creation, a hoodie made from the exquisitely dyed NANCY from SCHAEFER YARNS. We can vouch for this yarn; we have made a top down sweater for ourself as well as TWO HAIKU sweaters for kids:

Our good friend Stephanie modeled this gorgeous lace cardigan for us; she created the cover model from LACE STYLE from the washable ICELANDIC yarn and we thought it was just fabulous! Quite frankly, we were also gleeful about the fact that it is FINALLY cool enough to show it off!

See what you can do in one of our SAFARI classes????

We have a slight change to this Sunday’s program: LACY HAT IN THE ROUND. The one from Lace Style is simply too complex to attempt within two hours, so we will be making a lovely substitute that requires less than 200 yards of worsted weight yarn (either cotton or wool), double pointed needles and 16” circs appropriate for your yarn. We will still teach you how to knit in the round, read a chart (though we love this pattern because it offers charted and written directions) and how to do lace, but we think this is a better bet for a quick holiday gift!

We have only four spots remaining for the program, so just give us a call to sign up. As always, the program is free of charge, runs from 2-4 PM on Sunday, and we ask that you work with yarn purchased from WoolWinders!

First off, if you are a lace knitter, we encourage you to check out the new yarn from PRISM ARTS. Reknowned for their colors and innovative yarns (remember all the fluffy “stuff” we carried in years prior?), the company has produced LACEWEIGHT MERINO YARN for the first time. These enormous (1460 yds) skeins are dyed in extraordinary colorways and knit like a dream. If the thought of tiny needles intimidates you, try holding the yarn double and knitting it on 5s or 6s for sport weight patterns. We did buy one pattern from Prism—you can find it below. As for the yarn, we took some pictures today and will post them on the site tonight!

And our needles are back in stock, as are WINDERS and SWIFTS. If you love the ADDI TURBOS and NATURAS, please note that the prices are going up with our next order. Come and get ‘em now!

This Sunday’s program is one of our favorites: TWO NEEDLE GLOVES. The program is filled. If you have signed up, please note that this is a rare program that requires some homework prior to Sunday. Please come in and get your yarn (about 300 yards of sock yarn), needles (straight size 2 and 3) and the patterns. You will need to cast on and do 22 rows of ribbing so that we don’t spend the two hours producing a cuff. We will begin on Sunday with fashioning the thumb and the rest of the hand will follow! We promise this pattern will become addictive! How great to knit gloves that don’t require dpns for the fingers!!! And oh, yes, bring a tapestry needle and pair of scissors as well. See you then! As always, the program is from 2-4 and is free of charge.

Want to feel good about your knitting purchase? We have back in stock the PINK DENISE INTERCHANGEABLE NEEDLES. Five dollars from every purchase goes to the SUSAN KOMEN FOUNDATION for breast cancer research. The needles are terrific-they range in size from 5-15, with three cord lengths and little gizmos that enable you to use them as straight needles as well. Just think how much money you will save!

Forget Springsteen at Verizon; we had FIONA ELLIS at WoolWinders last night! Her session on CABLES sold out in the first 40 minutes of the email announcement, and 12 lucky participants took part in the three hour program. FIONA is not only an exquisite designer, but a gifted teacher:

After some basic instruction, everyone got down to some serious cabling:

But we couldn’t let her leave without showing off a sample of her new work from INSPIRED FAIR ISLE KNITS:

Fiona is the best thing to come out of STITCHES EAST. It brings her to our area, and we look forward to having her at the shop again next year!

Then it’s gotta be the annual WOOLWINDERS YARN TASTING! We had a full house for the event, including this year’s GRAND PRIZE WINNER from last week’s drawing, JO CIMINO:

And then we settled down to play with some serious yarn:

Many thanks to our wonderful staff who assisted at the event. HEATHER and RAISA were kept busy all night serving the “courses” and “pairings” and helping with the shopping that followed the tasting. We hope everyone enjoyed the tasting as much as we did!

By the way, someone (we think it may have been DIANE) left a package near the table. We have it safe and sound at the shop, so just give us a call if you are missing something.

This is going to be a busy weekend at WoolWinders. First up-our annual YARN TASTING on Friday night from 6:30-8:30 PM. The program is filled; if you have signed up please bring an assortment of needles from sizes 4-11. It will make it easier to play with the yarn! Second, our SUNDAY IN THE SALON promises to be a winner. We will be focusing on knitting BLANKET SQUARES that you can put together into a wonderful sampler afghan. The amazing KATHY has selected three pattern stitches and even knit them up for you. And we will have pictures of 57 others. Really! If you like knitting without worrying about shaping, and/or if you love to knit while commuting or traveling, this is the program for you—squares are very portable! We have four slots left, so give us a call at 240.632.9276 if you want to join us from 2-4 PM on SUNDAY. You will need straight or circular needles size 8.

Finally, we welcome FIONA ELLIS back to the shop on Monday night from 6-9 PM. The program has been filled since the day of its announcement (do we know how to treat a rock star?), but if you have signed up and NOT received an email from us, please give us a call regarding materials.