What's new from Mary Lou?

Two new patterns.

The first is this easy lace stole/scarf pattern featuring the Horseshoe stitch pattern or 'Print of the Hoof'.

Mary Lou designed this specifically with handpainted yarns in mind and said:

'While variegated and handpainted lace weight yarns are beautiful, it can be challenging to find the right pattern. Too often either the lace gets lost in the variegated color. This pattern, a beginner lace, has enough stockinette to show off the beauty of the yarn, and enough lace to keep it open and interesting to work.'

In the model shown above she used only a single skein of the Misti Handpaint Lace.


Mary Lou's second pattern is this adorable baby sweater pattern.


It is made even more adorable with baby Maya modeling it (Maya's mom, Martha, can be seen working in the store on Monday evenings and an occasional week-end).

More from Mary Lou:

'I wanted to design a simple to work pullover that would allow room for a baby's head without seams, or lots of binding off and picking up of stitches. This seamless pattern uses short rows to mimic the overlap shoulders on infant t-shirts. The Koigu used in the model is soft and washable, but it would also work well in a 7 sts to the inch sock yarn, like Pagewood Farms or Fleece Artist Sea Silk.'

Personally, I was very taken with the simplicity of this pattern and LOVE the fact it can slip over baby's head so easily. Also, I like that it is gender neutral and yet something different than the basic raglan.

In Mary Lou's spare time (ha) she has also designed a pattern and assisted with the shaping of another pattern in the new book, Shear Spirit, featuring ten independent fiber farms around the nation.

Mary Lou's hat pattern, Wolk Pack hat, used yarn from the Thirteen Mile Farms in Belgrade, Montana. It was designed to feature the 'predator friendly' nature of the farm. The book is in the store now and the yarn is expected in mid summer.

A Year in Review

Whew....inventory is complete! Every skein, button, pattern and accessory was counted and another year ended. And what a year it was! Let's review....

The store celebrated 35 years of business and this blog celebrated it's first birthday last month.



Our on-line store was born and we shipped items near and far to over 700 customers.

We hosted a Harlot,


a Panopticon,



a Crazy Aunt,


a colorful Kristin



and an Itty Bitty Susan.



We increased our community efforts by introducing the Mitten Fairy and collecting mittens for the St Paul public schools.



And let's not forget the year of the socks. We saw a lot of sock yarn come and go through the doors and even had to rearranged our sock area to make more room. Some of those yarns included Yarni, hand-dyed by our own Virgina,



the Fleece Artist from Nova Scotia


and Misti Alpaca's new Handpaint sock yarn.



And last but not least, we started our own KAL, Socks in the Cities which is still going strong.


What's next ?!?!?!

The first event we are planning for the summer is a silent auction. We have been the lucky recipients of a stack of hard to find knitting books. We thought the best way to find these books a good home is to auction them off with the proceeds going to Knitter's Without Borders. This event is still in the planning phases so stay tuned for further details. You never know what else we may include in the auction or hand out.

In addition, you can bet we'll be hosting a variety of knitting personalities. We have already started to rearrange the store to make room for more gorgeous yarn. And in the midst of it all, we might have to 'retreat' for a week-end of knitting.

Oh yeah.....an encore performance of the Yarnery Family singers? Perhaps.

So stay tuned and as always, thanks for clicking in, stopping by and supporting us for 35 years.

Yarnery Family Singers

Thanks for your patience. I have finally resolved the technical difficulties ('ripping' video from dvd, learning how to edit video, making video compatible for YouTube, internet problems, etc) and now have the full video (including Oh Canada) on YouTube. So.......without further ado, I present to you the Yarnery Family Singers; Angie, Jess, Eric and Scott



And the lyrics:

The Harlot

How do you host a knitter like The Harlot?
How does she keep on knitting all those socks?
What is there left to say about The Harlot?
“She’s terribly clever.” “She’s witty and funny.” “She rocks!”

Many a heel you’d like to turn just like her,
Many a toe-up sock without a tear.
But how do you make her stay to write all the words she’d say?
- Pack her up to the cabin with some beer!

Oh, how do you host a knitter like The Harlot?
How can we get her to come back next year?

bridge:
When she’s with us we’re bemused, often laughing and amused,
While she’s telling us about her latest book:

“When your Hoodie seems a wreck, reinforce the sweater’s neck
Not with knitting needles, but a crochet hook.”

She’ll out-Kitchner anyone, make the grafting seem like fun;
She can work the toe in twenty seconds flat.

When the Harlot comes to town, people come from miles around.
And The Yarn’ry is the yarn shop where she’s at!


Our Favorite Things

Argyle and Fair Isle and felting your stitches,
Swap meets and blog greets and loud stitch-and-bitches,
Intricate lace made with needles and strings –
These are a few of our favorite things.

“Jaywalker”, “Vintage”, and Cookie A’s “Monkey”:
All sorts of knitted socks, plain or quite funky,
Shawls like the “Icarus”, giving us wings –
These are a few of our favorite things.

Cream-colored Arans and warm Malabrigo,
Hunting down yarn shops to visit where we go,
Sweaters we knit that turn men into kings –
These are a few of our favorite things.

refrain:
When the yarn splits, when the stitch drops,
When we’re out of wine,
We simply remember our favorite things –
And then all the world seems fine!

Ebony needles, so polished and pretty,
Della Q project bags featured on Knitty,
Lovely stitch markers with gems on their rings,
These are a few of our favorite things...

Patterns and books, not to mention new yarn stash.
You can use MasterCard, Visa, checks, or cash.
Spring inventory – what bargains it brings! –
These are a few of our favorite things.

(repeat refrain)


Stephanie

Stephanie, Stephanie, all your fans sit before you.
Talent reigns in your veins; may it ever continue.

Knitter of socks, we shall read your blog and your books forever.
Stephanie, Stephanie, hail your DPN’s ever!


© 2008 Angela Paulson. All rights reserved.
Please do not photocopy, electronically post,
or redistribute lyrics without prior written permission from the author

Franklin

I know I said the next post would have the Yarnery Family Singers and lyrics but I seem to be having technical difficulties. The video is about 20 seconds too long for YouTube. I'm working with my support team to see what can be done.

In the mean time let me update you on Franklin, The Panopticon, and his 1,000 Knitter's Project. We met Franklin on Friday when he stopped by the store to say 'hi' and chat with the Men's Knit Night group.

All I have to say is he is one of the nicest people I've met in a long time. Friendly, gracious, complementary and easy to chat with. I believe this was the general consensus of everyone who sat for his shoot and a key element to the success of his project. We kept him busy all morning at Yarnover. We finally gave him a break in the action in the early afternoon to allow him to cruise the marketplace.


At the end of the day, I believe he was able to add at least 70 new photos to his project, running the total to over 600. There also was rumor that Delores and Harry had made it to the metro area but no actual sightings at Yarnover were made.

In addition to the 1,000 Knitter's Project, Franklin will also have a book coming out this fall with Interweave Press. We cannot wait to have him back for a shearing, I mean signing. Perhaps another singing signing is in our future together.

Hmmmm....now what rhymes with Panopticon?

THANKS!

Thank you to.......

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka The Yarn Harlot, for making us one of the stops on her tour and entertaining us with her wit and charm.

Our guests, Stephanie's fans, who braved the elements to attend last night's event. And let me tell you, these were NOT normal elements, snow and thunder and lightning. (Seriously, what kind of cruel weather joke is this?!?!!)

Our staff who put in overtime and worked hard to help pull this off.

The University of Saint Thomas staff who helped us tremendously during the planning and executing of this event.

The Yarnery family singers; Angie, Jess, Eric and Scott. You guys ROCKED!! For anyone who missed it, there will be a YouTube post in a few days along with the lyrics here.

And finally, to the following vendors who very generously donated the door prizes.

Accessories Unlimited
Berroco
Brown Sheep
Bryson Distributing
Cascade Yarn
Claudia Handpaints
Crystal Palace
Frog Tree
Malabrigo
Misti Alpaca
Rowan
Skacel Collections
Unicorn Books and Crafts
Axel’s Bonfire Grill
Bead Monkey
Bibelot
Café Latte
Chipotle
Mary Wynne Salons
Treadle Yard Goods
Blue Lace Designs
Jean Christensen
Mary Lou Egan
Theresa Gaffey
Marie Mayhew
Shelly Kang
Virginia Sattler Reimer
Sarah Walker

1,000 Knitters

It's Harlot Eve and everything is falling into place. As long as our friends at the airlines get Miss Stephanie to us tomorrow the evening is set to be full of knitterly fun. And......I can't even tell you how EXCITED I am for our pre-show surprise!!!!

Once we say good-bye to the Harlot and have a day to recoup, we will rise bright and early to greet our next knitting personality, Franklin Habit of the Panopticon. We are hosting Franklin and his 1,000 Knitters Project this year at Yarnover. The goal of which is to celebrate through portraiture a creative community whose members have historically been either overlooked or sentimentalized, and whose work is often undervalued. In the series, self-identified knitters are photographed individually while working on the same wool scarf.

Franklin is reported on all accounts to be a nice and fun-loving guy who is not only a great knitter and extremely creative but has a few imaginary friends as well. So if you want a chance to meet him and be a part of his unique project, stop by the store or visit us at Yarnover and get yourself a timeslot.

The Year of the Sock

In the past 12 months, we have highlighted socks as seen in the following:

• Socks in the Cities, our own sock knit along and blog, was created.
• We hosted one of the best known sock knitters, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, last April and are doing it again in a mere few days.
• Our upcoming spring/summer schedule is loaded with various sock classes.
• The sock yarn selection in the store has increased to the point we had to rearrange and create more room.

On that note let me introduce the latest......

Misti Alpaca Handpainted Socks

Oh the wonderful things Misti can do. It can make a fine alpaca. It can make you go 'oooh, oooh' (Sorry, too much Dr. Suess)

Seriously, the folks at Misti must be working overtime because this is the 3rd new yarn to arrive from them in a few weeks. It is just as lovely as the others. Take a look at a group shot.


And now a few close ups.



Each skein contains 445 yards of 50% superfine alpaca, 30% merino, 10% silk and 10% nylon. The label does recommend hand washing but we gave the sock below a little test through the delicate cycle of a washer. We were quite pleased with the results.


Hand Maiden Casbah Sock

Hand Maiden is a line from the Fleece Artist featuring 'sumptuous fibres'. Their Casbah Sock yarn definitely lives up to the description. It contains just enough cashmere to make everyone swoon and the colors are true Fleece Artist.

The Casbah has already gone home with many, including our own staff members. (Additional photos and comments from Sarah W.) So if you want a chance to enhance your stash with this new arrival, RUN don't walk.

That's our latest but don't think we are stopping here. There are plans after our annual inventory sale (April 15-30) for even more sock treats and rearranging again for an even larger sock area.