New Sweaters

We have a few new store samples made out of yummy yarns for you to knit.  Even though it was over 80 degrees on Saturday Debra still looked cute in her sundress and blue cardigan made out of Classic Silk from Classic Elite. The yarn is a silk/cotton blend which is perfect for our climate.

The openwork stitches on the fronts of this cardigan make it a good look for the Spring and Summer.

This pullover is made of Wool Bamboo- also from Classic Elite. The yarn makes a soft lightweight garment and the bamboo gives it a slight shine.

The ZigZag rib gives a slimming  look to the bottom of the sweater.

Today it is 58 degrees in our area. This Organic Wool from Nashua makes a cozy cardigan for a cool May day. The organically dyed wool is soft and really show off this cable pattern. This yarn has a gauge of 3.5 sts to the inch which makes this pattern work up quickly.

Stitches South

Hey y'all from Stitches South in Atlanta!!

Yarns etc... participated in the 1st Stitches South. We enjoyed seeing a lot of our customers from Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Greensboro and other towns in North Carolina.

Rosemary and I took turns in the booth and enjoyed looking at all the goodies in the other booths.
These flowers were the talk of the show. The Atlanta Knitting Guild was responsible for these beautiful giant handknit flowers. They looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

Many hours went into creating this multicolored garden. Each flower was more creative than the next with many types of yarn and embellishments used. 

The Guild grew a bountiful flower garden! They were busy knitters before the event. They were busy during the event taking classes, shopping and being great hostesses to their great city.

See you next year Atlanta!!!

Random Cute Things

Here are a few random cute things that our knitters have made and brought in to show us.

These handknit dolls are so cute and have so much detail. Some little girl will love these!

This is a darling Fair Isle hat that is finished off with i-cord tassels.

This fun knit Dinosaur is a puppet!

OH! This is a very random cute thing! Not knit but made by ME! This is 14 yr old Evan who comes by the store so I can show off my handiwork! Some days he is my proudest accomplishment and other I know he is still a work in progress!
This cute hat was made by a favorite customer. Her daughter looks cute in this flower hat!

Babies always look cute in pumpkin hats. They always make great baby gifts.

Barbie is 50 this year and she looks great in her handknits!

She is quite fetching in her cowl neck sweater dress. 

Happy Spring!! Happy Knitting!!!

Fun in Chicago

I recently attended the Yarn Market News conference in Chicago. There were yarn store owners from across the country learning more about their industry. We all came away with lots of great ideas for making our stores even better.

Linda Pratt- former owner of Great Yarns- was there representing Westminster Fibers. It was fun catching her up with Raleigh and store news. She says hello to all of her old customers. She is happy with her job as Marketing Director and she stays very busy traveling all over the country and Europe bringing all of us the best yarns and designs in the industry! Keep up the great work!

Sock Story

These are some funny looking socks. These socks were made by my mother-Anne for her father- William in the late '40's. My Grandfather was a great big man with a size 13 shoe. I am sure these socks took a long time for my mother to complete. My mother used to tell me stories about how she would start dating a young man and decide to knit him a pair or socks. She wouldn't make it through a sock before she started dating someone else. She would then tell her new beau that the socks she was working on were for him. She got a lot of mileage out of those socks. She still knits socks( and finishes them!) for my father. 

My Uncle Bill- whose initials are also WD- recently asked my mother to mend these socks. He loves them and wears them when he hunts in the Fall. They are not worn out and in need of darning- there are just a few loose edges and stitches. They are in remarkable shape for 50+ year old socks. I will carefully mend them as well as I can and send them back to Uncle Bill. They will keep his feet warm many more hunting seasons.

Maybe we can even keep them going for another generation or so- Uncle Bill has a son who has big feet and the same initials who like to hunt in the Fall.

THANK YOU FRANKLIN HABIT!

And Thank You all for attending!

We had a wonderful time hosting Franklin Habit at yarns etc... and Great Yarns!

Franklin is a great speaker, knitter and teacher and we are so happy to have had him visit us here in North Carolina.

His lecture was insightful, hilarious, and he thrilled us all with his knitting tales. 

It was quite fun to have the shop full to the brim with so many wonderful people! After the talk he signed our copies of "It Itches." A Stash of Knitting Cartoons by the way, his handwriting is as beautiful as his lacework!!

The next day Franklin taught a special "How to Photograph Your Fiber" class at Great Yarns.

Wow! He gave us all some terrific tips for getting the best photos with your knitting and your camera. He talked about how getting to know just a few simple things about your camera can really make a difference! 

I learned a lot and was so pleased to see the beautiful work that our customers had brought along with them to practice their picture taking skills! Check out that purple sweater in the foreground... I am partial to purple! There was also a lovely gentleman who knows who he is and was joining us for his birthday, I swear he had a magic bag full of gorgeous spinning and knitting, I know it was really filled hard work and dedication, but it looked like the best kind of magic to me! So many beautiful things, I can't wait to see some of the new photography skills in our group on Ravelry... post there please, I love it when you share pretty things with us!

Thank you all again, and 

Thank You Franklin, you are a true gentleman and a generous delight! 

So stay in touch with Franklin at his blog and tell him how much we love him and that he is welcome at yarns etc... and Great Yarns anytime!

Charity Knitting- Pocket Shawls

Here is a good idea from one of our generous and talented customers! Please let us know of any charity knitting you are involved in so we can let others know of volunteer opportunities.



Pocket Shawls


In April of 2008 the SECU Family House opened to provide accommodations for patients and family families of patients who are receiving treatment at UNC Hospitals. This facility was funded by the State Employees Credit Union, the State of North Carolina and many caring members of the Chapel Hill community who saw and responded to this tremendous need. Most of the guests at Family House are dealing with the worst imaginable medical crises and are many hours from their homes.

Staff members at Family House are attempting to establish programming to support the guests whose stays often last from weeks to months. This is a challenge because of the tremendous physical, emotional and psychological demands of their situations.

Many of you have probably heard of the powerful effects of the presentation of prayer shawls to those in crises. Prayer shawls are wonderful reminder reminders to receivers that they are not alone. While it is not feasible to gift each guest with a prayer shawl at Family House, the gift of a pocket shawl may be possible. A pocket shawl is a soft four inch square of knitted fabric with an attached message of hope and encouragement.

Most of our knitters have leftover yarn from many projects in many colors. It can be fun to see how creative we can be in just an hour or half hour. The key is to limit the size of the pocket shawl to 4 square inches and choose a yarn that is very soft to the touch. The simplest and softest is just a garter stitch, but it might be fun to try out a new stitch. Most knitters have yarn leftovers from past projects, but another possibility is to make a pocket shawl out of the gauge swatch for your next project. Worsted weight works well with 20 stitches cast on, but a lighter weight yarn will give more stitches to play with. A few garter stitches around the edge will prevent rolling. Add a small tassel and the pocket shawl is ready to be slipped into a pocket as a reminder that this community cares about the recipient.

Make as many or few as you like and drop them by the shop on your next visit. We will see that they reach the guests at Family House.

If you want to find out more about Family House and its mission, check out their website: www.secufamilyhouse.org or call 919.932.8000.