| |
YARNMARKET.COM NEWS ISSUE #30
Survive the Rest of Summer and Spruce Up Your Wardrobe for Fall | Choose Terrific New Year-Round Beauties from Lorna's Laces, Kollage & Prism Now in Stock | More New Yarns & Colors Also Available from Crystal Palace & Debbie Bliss | Enjoy New Kits, Books, Patterns & Magazines for Your Knitting & Crocheting Pleasure | Knitting for a Better World, Part 2: More Great Ways to Get Involved & Help Others | Knitting in the News | Customer Service & Yarndex Reminder
With seven more toasty hot weeks of summer officially left to survive, many of us are stuck trying to stay cool & comfortable yet be ready for the fall fashions. And that's not counting those Indian summer days that always seem to return in late September and early October! As we learned in an earlier newsletter issue from Franco Rocchi, senior sales & marketing VP for a Canadian department store chain, "seasonless dressing" and "transition dressing" are the actual trade terms for our dilemma. (Now doesn't it make you feel better to have a name for it???) But better yet, here's great advice from the fashion gurus: The two keys to your survival over the next two to three months are:
(1) Filling your wardrobe with a wide range of versatile tops & then
(2) Knowing the right ways to layer these lovelies with your favorite wraps, shawls, cardigans & jackets as the weather gets cooler.
We recommend that you take a careful look at three of our favorite areas in the Project Ideas department: Tops, Shawls, Stoles & Wraps and Women's Cardigans. In just these three areas, you'll find over 250 projects to keep you cool, calm & collected all season long! But you know we can't resist featuring our own favorites out of all these lovely choices, so here are just a few of the newest & what we like to call "the best of the best" for all ages:
Tops, tops & more tops are the way to go, and there's still plenty of warm weather ahead of us here in the U.S. for those sleeveless shells & tanks you've been planning to create. Two of our latest additions to the Women's Tops department are sleeveless, but each offers a very different style. First, take a look at the Twisting Cables Top from the designers at GGH/Rebecca. Built around the classic, chunky-weight, cotton/acrylic blend Goa from GGH, this traditional sleeveless pullover is transformed into a spectacular wardrobe addition with its terrific cabling for the front and the back. Then for a less challenging but equally beautiful project, consider the Eliza Swirl DK Top from Lorna's Laces. With its face-framing cowl collar and a lacy bottom border, this attractive pullover is hard to beat.
Or if you prefer short sleeves for your summer & fall pullovers, we have several spectacular new projects for you too. The Regal Silk T-Shirt from lace & knitwear guru Iris Schreier of Artyarns is so much more than what we ever thought a T-shirt could be that we're tempted to change its name! Beautifully crafted of softly draping, all-temperature Regal Silk, this fabulous top is a terrific all-seasons option. But if you like your short sleeves just a bit shorter but still slenderizing, choose the Cap Sleeved Top designed exclusively for Pure Silk from Debbie Bliss. We know you'll love its scoop neckline and delicate eyelet pattern plus subtle cabling.
But we also promised you some of our top picks for "best of the best," right? Well, we continue to love the Anna Scoop Neck Pullover and the Pop Art Crop Top, both made of the lovely woven Kim yarn by Needful. We also recommend several styles featuring Knit One Crochet Too yarns: Julia's Hot Knit Top spectacularly crafted of seasonless Tartelette and the versatile Cable Tee designed exclusively for scrumptious Souffle.
As for layering options, we have room this month to highlight just a few, so in terms of wraps, take a look at the Soft Kid Frilly Shawl, the Cashcott & Windsong Stole, the In Love with Lace Triangle Shawl, the Mariposa Bamboo Shawl, and for dressier occasions, the Gossamer Shawl with Ruffle and the Ruffled Lava Wrap. We also enjoy layering our favorite tops with cardigans & jackets, and we recommend the new Estivo Lacy Cardigan from the design wizards of Lana Grossa, the beautiful Amelie Crop Jacket available from GGH/Rebecca, Berroco's seasonless Carole Glace & Chinchilla Cardigan, Tahki's dressy Flower Star Cardigan, and the ever-popular twinset, the Kim Sleeveless Shell and its coordinating Kim Classic Cardigan, both from Needful Yarns.
And we can't leave out all of those precious babies and children in the family now can we? We've gotten many requests for baby sweaters, so we've recently added the Simple Baby Sweater. One of the reasons we like this Lorna's Laces design so well is that it includes both a knitted version in the garter stitch (all knit rows) and a crocheted version (all single crochet) in the same pattern. Also check out the cute twinset from Sirdar of the Fresco Crop Top and its matching Girl's Fresco Cardigan. For even more layering options, we recommend the Funky Tank Top designed exclusively for Handknit DK Cotton from Rowan Yarns. And for a terrific, matching set for your favorite mother & daughter duo, create the Posh Toddler Hoodie and the Posh Cabled Hoodie designed exclusively for silk/cashmere Posh Print from Classic Elite Luxury Fibers. (Also superb in solid-colored Posh.)
You know that we're frequently adding sensational new yarns every week or so, and from several of our current vendors we now have in stock half a dozen new beauties just since the July Bulletin two weeks ago. In this section we're featuring yarns to fit with the "seasonless" or "transition" approach from our feature article on summer/fall projects. Or in other words, these yarns from Lorna's Laces, Kollage and Prism are definitely year-round winners!
To start off the month, we've added two great yarns with a terrific, hand-dyeing innovation from Lorna's Laces. By taking two strands of superwashed merino and combining them with a strand of merino/silk blend, these yarn gurus have developed a superb candycane, tone-on-tone effect because the silk fiber absorbs the dye more slowly than the merino. Available as Swirl DK Solid and Swirl DK Multi, these two lovelies are lightweight & supersoft for year-round outfits. Just take a look at the seven new Lorna's Laces patterns designed exclusively for these new yarns (all titles begin with "Swirl DK" to make them easy to pick out), and you'll get a better sense of how versatile these two yarns really are.
Then for several years we've enjoyed the fun, funky, always exciting and new "Family of Stuff" from Prism Yarns. Based on how quickly such yarns as Wild Stuff, Light Stuff and Cool Stuff fly off our shelves, we know you agree with us wholeheartedly! Now for all you Prism aficionados out there, we have added the very latest "Stuff" creation -- Neat Stuff. Most similar to Wild Stuff but minus the metallic and the eyelash, Neat Stuff has all of the special Stuff features including luxury hand-dyed yarns that are hand tied & gauge coordinated. But of course, we have a new color palette to take advantage of Neat Stuff's extraordinary qualities ranging from classic Creme to rich Mocha to colorful Mozambique.
Last but never least, we have added one special new yarn and expanded the color selections in our current yarn collection from Kollage. Just one touch of lusciously soft Cornucopia, and you may find it hard to believe it's sensationally crafted of 100% corn! We love the exotic & the eco-friendly, and this lovely light-worsted creation gives us both. Add that it's machine washable and dryable, and it's a great year-round fiber choice for all ages. We especially like that the range of solid colors gives you lots of spring, summer & fall choices ranging from pastel Cool Melon to neutral Gobi Sand to rich Thai Spice to royal Radicchio.
Then just check out how versatile Cornucopia is for terrific designs no matter what the season. Try the long-sleeved Cornucopia Arctic Ice Sweater for fall & winter, the short-sleeved Cornucopia Denise's Sweater for spring & summer, and the sleeveless Cornucopia Purple Corn Flower Shell year round worn alone or under your favorite jacket or cardigan.
We've also expanded our color palettes in all other Kollage Yarns we carry including Radiance, Illumination and Passion. To complement these new colors, we've added lovely new patterns from Kollage for each of these yarns, so look over the entire collection for your latest favorites year round including tops, jackets, sweaters, vests and wraps.
Looking ahead to fall & winter fashions and your favorite year-round activity -- felting, once again we've expanded our collection of yarns from one of your favorite yarn companies: Crystal Palace. Two terrific felting yarns are now in stock, and each one offers you a stupendous new look for your 100% wool projects. To start you off, we are carrying all available colors of Taos, a wonderful combination of striped & tweedy effects. As a worsted-weight option, Taos will bring pizzazz to all your sweaters, jackets, bags, ponchos, hats, scarves & more this fall & winter. We also now carry the new heavy-worsted, 100% wool, Crystal Palace option Aran Marl. By combining three strands of complementary yet contrasting hues, you get a lovely "marbled" or "marled" effect. Add to that a variety of terrific masculine, feminine & unisex color combos, and we know all the men, women, girls & boys on your gift list will enjoy a special surprise crafted of Aran Marl!
Besides these brand new yarns, we've been busy expanding the color options in several of the yarns from your other favorite yarn companies. Just look over some of the outstanding fiber choices from Debbie Bliss, and you'll see exactly what we mean. We now carry 39 colors of Cashmerino Aran, nine of which are brand new for the fall & winter. We're also one of the first stores to have in stock the new colors in Cashmerino Astrakhan that coordinates so beautifully with the Aran and the Cashmerino DK, just introduced this past spring and already adding eight new colors now for a total of 20 choices. Then for those of you who enjoy variegated, thick & thin fibers, we've expanded Soho from Debbie Bliss also. We know you'll love the fun, bright color options now available in this terrific yarn for the young & young at heart!
Besides all of these terrific projects & yarns we've been adding, of course, we've expanded many of our other departments especially Kits, Books & Patterns and Knitting & Crochet Magazines. Starting off with new kits for felting devotees, we recommend the Mad for Plaid Felted Bag Kit from K1C2. With the move back to classics this fall & winter, plaid is predicted to be oh so stylish, and this lovely handbag is a classic with a modern twist for sure. Built upon the wonderful feltability of Paint Box, this purse gives you effortless plaid & self-striping all in the same project!
Also from Knit One Crochet Too, we have terrific new patterns in stock for some of your favorite yarns including light & airy Douceur et Soie, feathery soft Sprinkles and wonderfully variegated Tartelette for your all-seasons wardrobe. After taking a quick look through the greatly expanded collection, we know you'll make a list of your own favorites, but some of ours include the Douceur Magic Mobius, the Douceur Filigree Lace Jacket, the Tartelette Lacy Sleeve Pullover, the Sprinkles Soft Cloud T-Shirt, the Douceur Lap Throw, and the Sprinkles Color Splash Shell.
In addition, we're excited to have in stock the latest Debbie Bliss pattern collections for the fall. Pure Cashmere contains 24 spectacular knits designed specifically for the luxurious yet affordable Debbie Bliss yarn Pure Cashmere. In addition, Debbie Bliss now has a yarn-specific collection for her popular Cashmerino DK, the book appropriately titled Cashmerino DK too. With that distinctive Debbie Bliss flair for innovation, this pattern collection will inspire you with its sweaters, jackets, tops, even capes to get started right away on your fall & winter projects.
We know you also enjoy getting insights from a wide range of designers & yarn companies and collect the many magazines we offer in our Knitting & Crochet Magazines area. So that you can be one of the first to get your copies, check out the newly arrived:
September issue of Creative Knitting,
October edition of Knit 'N Style,
Fall issue of Knit Simple,
September volume of Crochet!, and
Fall edition of Knitscene.
As we explained last month, we're glad to do our small part to encourage knitters & crocheters to get involved in such a worthwhile initiative as the Afghans for Afghans not-for-profit organization. We're also inspired every day by the news articles we read about individual & group efforts to help others. Two recent articles are Girl's knitting skills help raise money for a cause from the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Gown project eases grief concerning a national group with local support in Durango, Colorado. Just goes to show what knitters & crocheters of all ages can do when they put their minds to it, doesn't it?
But we also want to promote the charitable groups and organizations for which you knit and crochet and have asked you to make suggestions. Here are several of the not-for-profits you have suggested since the last newsletter:
From Cindy C. of Arkansas comes information about a statewide project to benefit the little ones of the Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock. The program -- Knitting for Noggins -- has as its goal to collect 10,000 children's caps (enough for every child in the hospital during the winter months) by November 27, 2006. There is also a design contest in conjunction with this effort but the deadline for it is much sooner: August 15, 2006. For more information about this program, visit the ACH website.
Beth D. from Pittsburgh wrote us about what she decided years ago to do with the leftovers in her yarn stash. She found Newborns in Need and knew just how she wanted to use up the "tiny balls of funky yarns from embellished scarves." Always in need of knitted & crocheted baby blankets, hats & clothing for premature infants in hospitals around the U.S., NIN is ever grateful for the handmade items they receive each month. We know that Beth's tiny hats enhanced with eyelash, squiggle & popcorn yarns are real hits with the appreciative families in particular.
Then from Jeanne A., we received word of a group her two daughters started in memory of their sister Kendall who died at the age of 20 from Fanconi Anemia. Kendall knew that the loss of her hair was inevitable, and so she learned to knit and made hats for herself. Now her sisters are collecting knitted & crocheted hats for hospital patients across the nation. In their very first campaign, Kaps for Kendall donated over 400 hats to The Children's Hospital in Denver and to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. For more information, check the website or e-mail Allison & Whitney, the co-founders of the organization.
Because we believe so strongly in this type of charitable giving, we'll be featuring other such groups and organizations especially over the next few months to remind us that those in need benefit greatly from our handmade items too. To suggest a non-profit, charitable group for us to feature, please e-mail the newsletter editor and share your suggestions. Please provide any details that you can including website address, contact person's name, e-mail address, etc. Then watch future issues of this newsletter for updates through the upcoming holiday months.
As always, we've been checking the news services around the world for the best crafts-related tidbits to keep you entertained, and we've found a real potpourri of items this month:
We continue to find fascinating the various ways artists use knitting, crochet & other fiber arts to express themselves, so check out two terrific articles along these lines:
From the Los Angeles Times comes Close-knit 'Sweater' teamwork about the collaborative effort of six artists to create what some have called "a very loosely woven sweater" out of all things -- cream-colored industrial spray foam!
Then for a little more conventional exhibition, check out Avenue 9 Gallery celebrates fiber arts for the kind of presentation you might find in your own community.
We've also enjoyed following up on those U.S. baseball teams catering to crafty fans as we discovered last month in Saints' yarn idea could be a ball. But a recent article from the Seattle Times reminded us that actually the Mariners were the first team to launch such an event as we featured in the August 2005 column of "Knitting in the News." But we knitters and crocheters don't have to sit back and wait for one of our local teams to get the idea! Take a close look at Knitters, hitters sew up a Monday I-Cubs outing from the Des Moines Register for details about how Central Iowa Knitters Inc. organized "Knit It Out of the Park."
We've noticed lately that even more celebrities are getting in the knitwear spotlight with the resurgence of knitting & crochet in recent years. Consider what an impact even newborns can have on the fashion industry in Suri and Shiloh Sweaters. Or follow up on an idea from singer Rod Stewart's daughter and have your own crafty get-together as explained in Kimberly Stewart's Knitting Parties.
And as the piece de resistance for those of you adventurous souls looking for eye-opening items, we recommend Alpaca ranches multiply in Florida for an update on what some Baby Boomers are finding to do with their spare time -- and cash -- after retirement. Then from a recent issue of a Sheraton Hotel travel magazine, read an even more tantalizing news item and learn about what happens when Polish Grannies Crochet up a Storm once they discover a more opportunistic use of their lacemaking talents. After reading through these interesting accounts, we doubt that you'll ever think of Palm Beach real estate or Polish grandmothers in quite the same way as you may have before!
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 for you by Alma, Phyllis, Tina 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.
| |
 | |
| |
Also if you haven't already done so, be sure to try out Yarndex.com, your yarn reference resource, and give us your feedback. Yarndex is a great tool for finding all kinds of yarn information whether you’re looking for the best substitution for a discontinued or hard-to-find yarn or general information to choose your new favorite for the season before going shopping. We've heard from many of you and appreciate your comments & suggestions. With almost 3000 yarns on the site now though, even if you have checked out Yarndex in the past, it's time to take another look & get updated on all its valuable information.
Thanks for reading, and please enjoy these remaining weeks of summer with your family & friends before the children are back in school or off to college!
And as always,
| |
