Crochet Madness in Chapel Hill !

Marcy Smith-Rice came over from Raleigh on Sunday afternoon to share ideas from her new book "Complete Idiots Guide to Crochet Projects". She Brought lots of great projects with her to Market Street Books in Southern Village.






Anyone want to try to make this clever dress?

Marcy's Daughter helps model some of the garments. Look for Marcy's Notions column in the News and Observer for other great ideas.

This Christmas I got a gift that I would never have dreamed about getting or giving.

It all started when……

Sometime in the late fall when the Lorna’s Laces sock yarn arrived I started having a daily chat with the Black Purl. It would kindly but firmly tell me that it needed to be in my stash. I would pick it up and hold it lovingly and dream of a flawless pair of socks. On one occasion, the two perfect skeins ended up sitting in my knitting bag all day only to return to the shelf with the other sock yarn that night. You see they were too beautiful to just be abandoned stash yarn, and I was too busy to make them into the monumental socks they were destined to be. So they would continue to chant their mantra and I would leave them on the shelf night after night hoping the next day the ideal buyer would walk in to the store.

One Saturday, Carl (Greensboro’s sock knitter extraordinaire) was in the store and observed the now all too familiar ritual. This time there was an alternate ending. As I returned the sock yarn to the shelf, Carl asked if I was going to buy the yarn. I replied that although I really loved the skeins, I had neither the time or the $$’s to knit the socks. Before I could end the ritual with the usual sigh of resignation, Carl had scooped up the two skeins and they disappeared into his project bag. I clearly remember the feelings of remorse for letting them get away conflicting with the elation that they would become wonderful socks from the best sock knitter I know. I comforted myself for the next few days knowing that they would one day become spectacular socks, better socks than they would have if they had gone home with me, and even though I would miss them, it really was for the best.

Days passed and I thought of the skeins less and less as the time before the holidays got increasingly busy. Then one night (precisely, December 19 at 5:27 pm), Carl handed me a brown REI bag with tissue paper stuffed in the top. A Christmas present!! I pulled out the tissue paper to find the most beautiful pair of socks that I have ever seen. The Black Purl Lorna’s knitted from our Cheryl’s sock pattern. A double sentiment! I knew just how the misty-eyed Dobby felt!

I have never considered knitting an item for a fellow knitter. I have given yarn, gadgets, or gift certificates, but it never occurred to me to knit for other knitters. I mean, isn’t part of the fun of knitting the process of how the stripe pattern changes as you turn the heel of the a sock, the feel of the yarn as it moves along your needle, the time that it takes form each stitch, giving this random pile of fiber an identity? I can now tell you that there is another articulation of knitting. The part where you notice the feel of the drape of the fabric, how the stripe pattern changes on the heel that someone else turned, and that they took the TIME just for me, how they considered fit and if I would like the gift. I finally get it ….the reason for prayer shawls, legacy knitting, and why we knit. There is great love in the pieces that we knit, but the ones we get are magickal! So get out your needles and do not fear knitting for your fiber friends because I PROMISE it will be the most valuable and cherished knitting that you will ever do.

Tina of Spinners Ridge and the Greensboro Store

We Love to Knit in Greensboro!!!

Love is in the air in Greensboro...The love of Yarn that is!!!!!!



It's not like me to argue with Marilyn Monroe but when she said "Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend" she wasn't talking about a knitter. So I know what I want my special someone to get me for Valentines day....Any guesses....LOL...Ok A diamond as well wouldn't hurt!!!

YARN CONTEST!!

OK folks, here it is; 

For Christmas this year my sweet man decided to create something quite original for me. He was building it down in the garage for weeks, though I was very tempted, I promise I never peeked. Then he says to me "Is it OK if I don't wrap your present this year? I think it's too big for wrapping paper." So I say sure, all the while thinking how big can it really be? He has already assured me at this point that we do have room in our home, and he knows just the place.

So he leads me into the living room eyes covered, and what do I see but eight feet of the coolest shelving that ever existed! The openings are many different sizes, this is no bookshelf folks, this is a YARN shelf!  A home for all of my tastiest skeins. A place to look at yarn and motivate me to knit the next beautiful thing on the list. This shelf is a piece of art on my wall, and it is quite fun to arrange all of the yarn! I LOVE THIS SHELF!

So enough about me, here's where you all come in. 

Exactly how much yarn can I fit on my new shelf? 

That's the shelf fully loaded with yarn, over the handsome creator!

Contest Details-

Send your guesses for total number of skeins OR total weight in Pounds (US) by email to:

JEWELLKNITS (at) gmail (dot) com

(replace "at" and "dot" with symbols for email)

Please include your name in your email.

Best guesses without going over will win.

All skeins are full weight, there are no partial skeins. (Weight of yarn, not the shelf, folks.)

Multiple correct answers will be entered in a random drawing to determine prizes.

Yarns etc. and Great Yarns employees are encouraged to participate for a separate prize. 

Please identify yourself by name and store location in your email.

Contest deadline is February 24th, all email guesses must be in before that date.

As some of you know who I am and where I work, I encourage you to come visit me at the shop, hang out and try to get the answers out of me! I dare you! Oh, and by the way, people who attempt to tickle me will NOT be allowed to participate... so don't even try that!

Good Luck!! 

See you at Knit Night this thursday 6:30- 9:00 in Carrboro!

WINTER FUN AT GREAT YARNS

This Holiday season was too busy for the Great Yarns gals to get together to celebrate during the rush. So we all gathered for a little winter party.

There was a yarn stash reduction, plenty of food and drink, lots of laughter and of course everyone was knitting!

Great times were had by all!

Coming this week...

There will be a CONTEST right here on this very blog, keep checking in. Yay! Free stuff!

Wonderful New Yarn

We have a wonderful new item that has hit our stores and it has finally made it to the online store as well. Make sure you stop by and check it out. Plymouth Yarn's Buckingham. It's 80% Baby Alpaca, 20% silk and 218 yards per skein.

Guess who had warm feet today with the really cold weather?

Hey there...I am Carl...for those of you who may not know me, I work and teach classes in the Greensboro store and socks are my favorite item to knit. Look at what I finished Tuesday night! What a fun way to ring in 2008! These are my Colortweed socks by Meilenweit, and the yarn comes in many different colorways here at Yarns, etc...


Here I am modeling them!
Jealous yet? Wanna make your own but not quite ready to take on socks on your own? If so, join me at the Greensboro store for Socks on Double Pointed Needles on Tuesday evenings, January 8, January 22 and February 5 from 7-9pm. Have you already made socks on DPN's and are ready for the next level in your sock knitting career? Why not learn how to use 2 circular needles? We will have Socks on 2 Circulars starting on February 26, March 11 and March 25 from 7-9pm.

Join me and I will do my best to share my sock knitting addiction with you!

Oh, and by the way...here is a picture of me, just in case we have not had the pleasure of meeting before. If you are on Ravelry, look me up. My screenname is jcbinnc1977.

Happy Knitting and Best Wishes for a safe 2008!

Carl

New Year, New Hat

 Hey guys, its Nick @ the Greensboro store. I finished my purple hat. It took me a while to do it cause I wasn't happy with any of the patterns that I found, none were big enough for my big head or long enough, so I decided to write one myself. It is made with Cascade 220 Quatro #9437. Approx 2 hanks. Everyone who has seen it loves it. It covers my ears and keeps my head warm.

By the way Happy New Year!!!

 

Nick Weaver

 Yarns Etc
 Greensboro Store
 231 South Elm Street
 Greensboro, North Carolina
 (336) 370-1233
 1(800) 335-5011