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YARNMARKET.COM NEWS ISSUE #24
Colorful, Stylish Accessories: How to Survive the Rest of Winter | A Special Yarnmarket Welcome to Classic Elite's Luxury Fibers | New Yarns & Books from Berroco Give Great Preview of Spring Fashions | Even More New Books, Patterns & Spring Yarn Colors Now In Stock | Update on the Development of Yarndex, Your Resource for Yarn Information | Customer Service and Special Gift Options
With the winter chills & winds back to stay for a while, we’re all looking for comfy yet stylish ways to update our winter wardrobe and stay warm. Our best advice is to create some lovely accessories that will cheer you up on those gloomy, overcast days & enliven your look for weeks to come. Hats, scarves, shawls, shrugs & ponchos are sure to do the trick!
Make your favorite jacket or coat look brand new when you accent it with a chic hat or scarf like the:
Fun & funky Caldo Hat with Ear Flaps;
Crocheted Noro Hat with a lovely, face-framing brim;
Warm & stylish Candy Cloche Hat;
Terrifically designed Mosaic Cashmerino Hat;
Iceland & Fizz Stardust Felted Cloche that starts with a Crystal Palace free pattern;
Colore Collar with Shawl, lovely and knit on large needles;
Suede Scarf designed exclusively for Berroco’s Suede;
Cashmere Lacy Scarf for sensuous, luxurious softness;
Easy, quick-to-knit Bigga Multi Scarf; and
Delicate & beautiful Leafy Glitter Alpaca Scarf from Cherry Tree Hill.
Or create a matching set to wow your friends and relatives such as the Easy Hat & Scarf with Vogue-quality details & designed exclusively for Big Wool and Biggy Print from Rowan; the Cabled Hat & Scarf classically styled for women & men; the soft & colorful Labyrinth Hat, Scarf & Mittens from Karabella; and the Merino Boucle Hat & Scarf Set using a free pattern from Cherry Tree Hill. Then indulge yourself or someone who’s extra special with the Wine Red Hat & Scarf sensationally crafted of GGH’s luxurious Cashmere.
As for shawls, shrugs & ponchos, you know you can count on the cutting-edge, European designs of Bouton d’Or, Lang, GGH/Rebecca and the S. Charles Collezione for the latest innovations. Just check out the easy yet spectacular Textural Shrug combining three yarns from Stacy Charles -- Cabaret, Galaxy & Micio. Also from Stacy Charles, marvel at the Hooded Shawl for an even more spectacular way to accent your favorite outerwear year round. Then from the fall/winter collection of Bouton d'Or come two outstanding poncho designs that aren't the shapeless garments you may first think of. The Dalem Poncho has superb styling, flattering fit and terrific use of supersoft Ksar, while the Dancy Crocheted Poncho brings this same sense of French chic to an open-weave design beautifully crafted of Norma. We also love the knitter-friendly yet stylish fashions found in Lang Book #153, especially the Pearl Zigzag Shawl designed exclusively for Pearl, the acrylic-mohair blend with incredible softness & sheen.
And you can't forget those fashion-conscious little girls in your life who want to stay up to date too, so we have great projects you can create for them also. Just take a look at the fun Funky Fur Girl’s Hat & Scarf, the easy & cute Baby’s Beanie Hat, the adorable & fluffy Bolero Jacket with Ribbing, the absolutely precious Penny Hooded Poncho and the Fringed Suede Poncho. Of course, for more ideas, check out the variety of baby and kids’ projects for accessories available under Baby & Kid’s Ponchos & Jackets and Baby & Kid’s Hats, Scarves & Gloves.
We are so excited to have available for your knitting & crocheting pleasure three absolutely superb luxury yarns from Classic Elite. Known for high-quality fibers, superior composition and enjoyable workability, luxury yarns from Classic Elite will perform outstandingly for you. Start off with marvelous Blithe, crafted of 100% baby camel. With its wonderful natural color palette of creams, grays, blacks & browns, this supersoft creation is the ideal choice for all your DK-weight projects for both women and men. Just imagine what lovely scarves, hats, sweaters & tops you can create for yourself or for your favorite someone!
Then from the marvelous cashmere collection of Classic Elite, we’ve added two cashmere & silk blends for warm-weather cashmere lovers. Posh is certainly well named because we bet you’ll definitely feel “posh” wrapped up luxuriously in one of the 12 lovely solid colors available in this upscale fiber blend. Since it’s worsted weight and suitable for year-round comfort, “Posh” is the perfect choice for transitional fashions during those awkward, between-season weeks.
We also have it available in multi-colors, so check out Posh Print for even more variety. Combining three of the most popular solids (blue, green & pink) with touches of white gives “Posh Print” an airy lightness just perfect for winter-into-spring fashions designed for adults, children & babies.
Looking ahead to warmer, sunnier days in a few months, we’re glad to be one of the first yarn stores to receive the new Berroco yarns & Berroco booklets ready for spring & summer. Berroco is known for making fashion trends comfortable & fun, and the latest collection certainly lives up to our expectations with seven new yarns & eight new booklets.
Starting off with the new yarns, two of our absolute faves are Boho Colors and its solid-colored sister Boho. Clever new ribbon creations from Berroco’s Italian mill, these lovelies alternate multiple fibers in long repeats for shiny & matte self-stripes & multi-textures. Well named for the “bohemian” look of the 1960s & ’70s, “Boho” & “Boho Colors” will remind you of intricate color changes & terrific textural mixes of those fashions, but the yarn does all the work for you! Great worked alone or together, get that romantic, bohemian look with “Boho” & “Boho Colors.”
Several of the other 5 spring introductions from Berroco also have innovative yarn constructions you’ll enjoy. First off, Ultra Silk combines tubular weave with silky softness because it has a delicate tube of woven silk & rayon enclosing a pliable core of airy nylon. The benefit for knitters & crocheters is that Ultra Silk is the ultimate in stitch definition because of each strand’s touch, elasticity & stability. Then Calico is a beautiful cotton blend with three chainette strands in harmoniously contrasting shades running parallel to each other and held together invisibly with a clear nylon thread. Both of these beauties are heavy worsted creations for all your quick-to-knit projects on size 10 U.S. knitting needles. One other new Berroco yarn for lovely stitch definition is Touche, Berroco’s lovely redefinition of classic cotton. Use terrific “Touche” in all your cable patterns and for superb drape in open-weave designs.
Last but never least, check out the other two chunky-weight yarn innovations from Berroco to add a touch of glitz to your spring wardrobe but still give you quick-to-knit or crocheted styles. With colors named after some of the most popular fashion idols of the past 50 years, Idol gives you spectacular hues & textures combined into one yarn. Its interesting, chunky-weight construction takes three strands of different fibers (interlacing netting, metallic chainette & matte-finish cotton tricot) and loosely joins them. Then take a look at Yoga, and we bet that from your first glimpse, you’ll be reminded of India & Indian culture. With its marvelous sheen and subtle touches of metallic striping, this lovely ribbon yarn is ideal for shimmering sweaters, tops, scarves, shawls & more this spring and summer.
Then for Spring 2006, Berroco has a new approach to pattern design & packaging. Newly developed are 8 “booklets” instead of the more expensive books they’ve developed in the past. Each booklet focuses either on specific spring/summer yarns as listed on the cover or on a particular style of pattern. For example, Berroco #239 features patterns for Boho & Boho Colors, and Berroco #240 focuses on Ultra Silk designs. On the other hand, Berroco #245 provides numerous cute patterns for babies & children, and Berroco #246 is exclusively for crochet projects. Of course, some of your spring favorites from past seasons are also included such as Cotton Twist, Suede, Suede Tri-Color, Suede Deluxe and Zodiac.
Of course, we've been busy getting in lots of other new things including new books, patterns & spring colors in established Crystal Palace yarns. To support our new project area Beyond Scarves, we've added several books taking the same approach to help the beginner tackle more challenging patterns. Take a look at The Yarn Girls' Guide to Beyond the Basics; Family Circle Easy Accessories; and Saturday Sweaters, a great guide to making the leap to sweaters! Then we have two new reference books for every knitter's library: The Knitting Answer Book, formatted as the detailed, illustrated answers to literally 100s of questions, and Vogue Knitting: Stitchionary, a compendium of more than 250 stitch patterns from the Vogue archives.
We've also added terrific patterns to support recently introduced yarns such as Cherry Tree Hill's Alpine Lace and Alpaca Seta from Skacel -- the Evening Shrug, the Alpine Stole, the Alpaca Seta Plus Size Jacket & Scarf, the Alpaca Seta Woman's Ribbed Pullover & the Alpaca Seta Woman's Cabled Rib Jacket. And you won't believe how many new pattern leaflets designed exclusively for GGH's luxuriously soft Cashmere we now have in stock. Besides the two already featured as projects in this issue, take a look at the other nine designs, some requiring just 1 ball to complete:
Cashmere Cape with Lace
Cashmere Black Hat
Cashmere Wrist Warmers
Cashmere Anthracite Bolero
Cashmere Sweat Band
Cashmere Roll Neck Insert
Cashmere Scarf in Fisherman's Rib
Cashmere Hat with Crochet Band
As an additional spring fashion preview, this time from Crystal Palace, we have in stock some of your favorite, established yarns in yummy new spring colors. Be sure to take a look at what we predict will be springtime favorites such as "Spring Picnic," "Strawberry-Limes," "Fruit Salad" & "Chocolate-Almonds." Much of the new spring color palette is available in:
Deco Ribbon,
Waikiki,
Little Flowers,
Choo-Choo and
Party Print.
For those of you who haven't checked out our sister site, www.yarndex.com, please take a look at your best free resource for yarn information. We made Yarndex available to the public just a little over a year ago, and we're proud to say that we currently have information on over 2900 yarns from 114 yarn companies. So how can Yarndex benefit you? Here's just a quick review of the basic features.
Yarndex is your ultimate Yarn Reference Library with all information provided directly by the manufacturers. For each yarn, you'll find the brand, distributor, country of origin, yardage, ball weight, yarn weight, fiber content, texture, gauge, needle size, availability, manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP), and specific care instructions. You'll also find the most recently available color information including a shade card and details about any discontinued colors when provided by the manufacturer. The shade card can be particularly helpful when you're selecting or combining colors for a project.
With this detailed information, you can decide if the specific yarn is right for your project. Or if you want to look for a substitution, you can do a quick or an advanced search for other yarn possibilities. Sometimes you'll start with the Quick Yarn Search, especially when you're looking for a specific yarn by name, texture or yarn weight. Or you may want to use the Advanced Yarn Search for more detailed searches. But however you use it, we bet that Yarndex.com will quickly become one of your favorite reference sites.
As you’ve come to expect at www.yarnmarket.com, we pride ourselves on our customer service and low error rate. Each order is carefully packed by Phyllis, Alma, Tina, Joni, Suzi or Kim. We have an occasional glitch, but if something does go wrong, we’ll do everything we can to make it right for you . . . right away! Just send us an e-mail at orders@yarnmarket.com or call us at 1-888-996-9276, and we’ll take care of it for you. Our customer service hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, or you can leave us a message and we’ll get back to you by e-mail or by phone.
We also have available gift wrapping for those upcoming birthdays, anniversaries, even Valentine's Day next week, so be sure to let us know if you'd like us to wrap your gift for that special someone & include a gift card with your customized note, all for just $5.50. Or if there isn't enough time to ship the order to your friend or relative, then select a convenient gift certificate that can reach her or him immediately by e-mail. That way your special someone can get exactly the right thing without your having to debate the choice.
Thanks for reading, and let us be the first to wish you Happy Valentine's Day!
And as always,
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