The SUMMER CLASS SCHEDULE is available at the shop and should be up on the website within a few days. Ditto the SATURDAY KNIT ALONG and SUNDAY IN THE SALON programs. We can’t wait to see you at WoolWinders!

We need your help. A lovely light blue sweater that was back from the finisher has gone missing. It was in a bag behind the counter along with other finishing, and we fear that someone may have walked off with the wrong (or additional!) finishing. Please, please, please. If you have been in the shop within the past few days, check your bags and purchases and see if a completed cabled sweater is among them. If so, please call us immediately. Our wonderful customer Anita will be very grateful. Thanks so much!!!

As difficult as it is to believe, June begins this weekend! Yikes! Where did the year go? But a new month means new programs at WoolWinders. First up, this SUNDAY in the SALON program is PERFECT for beginning knitters as well as knitters who don’t want to fret about something fitting properly. We are going to do PLACEMATS!! Participants will be given four pattern stitches and directions. We made miniature models from the wonderful cotton blend SIERRA. You can get all four placemats from three skeins—make a set for around $30!!! What a wonderful hostess gift, or addition to a beach house or summer table. As always, the program runs from 2-4 PM, is free of charge, and includes refreshments. Just give us a call at 240.632.9276 to sign up.

And to continue our summer spirit, the Saturday JUNE KAL is a BEACH BAG designed by our very own PAIGE WAFFLE. Be the envy of your friends when you show up at the pool or beach with this hand-knit, fully lined and washable beach bag. Again, the program runs each Saturday from 2-4 PM and is free of charge.

Watch for our summer class schedule, Salon program, and KAL list. They should be available at the shop this weekend and on the website by next week!

FYI, we plan on getting the summer class schedule up and running by SUNDAY, JUNE 1; it will be in the shop by that date and will appear on the website shortly afterwards. As for the newsletter, since we are going to TNNA the weekend of June 7-9 and like to share our views of the show’s highlights and trends with all of our customers, you can look for the summer newsletter about a week later. If there is anything you want us to pay attention to at the show (new vendors, pattern companies, books etc) shoot us an email at jacqui@woolwinders.com. Many of our best sellers have come from customer input and suggestions—we love them!!!!

As you can tell, we are back from our NYC weekend. Thanks to our fabulous staff for looking after things in our absence. Of course we visited a yarn shop—this time it was the classic shop SCHOOL PRODUCTS on Broadway. They have a relationship with KARABELLA YARNS, one of our favorites, and we scooped up two projects worth of yarn and patterns for NEXT SPRING!!!! Nothing like planning ahead.

First off, who doesn’t want a great travel/holiday weekend project? Well, we have the perfect one, the LACEY BAMBOO SHRUG. Many of our customers have made this; some even knitting outside the box and venturing to other yarns. We just finished one in the elegant MOUNTAIN COLORS MERINO RIBBON. This is a quick and easy knit on size 11 needles! The pattern is a four row repeat with simple increases and decreases. Virtually anyone can do this with just beginning knitting skills. You will need five skeins of ROWAN BAMBOO TAPE, two skeins of the MOUNTAIN COLORS, or about 380 yards of any worsted weight yarn. One of our teachers did it from LAUREL and it was gorgeous. The pattern is free with a purchase of yarn. The ultimate holiday weekend project.
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Second, please note that we will close at 3 PM tomorrow, FRIDAY. We are off to our annual girl’s weekend with our BFF and didn’t want to ask the staff to stay past their regular hours. Hope you understand. We will be open SATURDAY AND SUNDAY regular hours (11-6 and 12-5 respectively). The Saturday KAL continues but there is no program on Sunday. However, you can just come, hang out with the lovely JESSICA and ALISON and knit.

Finally, come check out the amazing AFGHAN that CASCADE YARNS sent us. We are getting the book in this week for it, but in the mean time, they sent us the GREAT AMERICAN ARAN AFGHAN which is very similar in concept, just in one color. These squares are also perfect vacation knits as they are done separately, and therefore quite portably. Hey, what about a SQUARE A MONTH program beginning this summer? Let us know if that appeals to you.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend. The weather promises to be lovely. Wouldn’t that be nice for a change?

OK, we goofed. We wound some SCHAEFER SUSAN in the wrong color for a customer. So if you are interested in making a lovely shell or shawl from two skeins of this light DK weight yarn in the RACHEL CARSON colorway, we will sell it to you for 15% off!!! How’s that for a deal? Saving money AND the yarn is already wound.

OK, we are blessed with an amazing staff. Not just in the knitting world, but we would put our staff up against ANY in the retail world, were there such a contest. They would win, hands down. Thanks to a lot of hard work yesterday, (KERRY and FLO are amazing!) with more to come today and tomorrow (get ready, ABBY), about 90% of the CASCADE order is priced and shelved. We now proudly feature “THE FELTING FRONT” because virtually the entire front of our store is comprised of FELTABLE YARN, among which are CASCADE 220, CASCADE 109, MANOS, and MOUNTAIN COLORS. Shoppers will be greeted with walls of neatly stacked (thanks, FLO!) color!! Just beautiful. Can you guess what our SUNDAY in the SALON programs will feature this summer and fall?????

And our new favorite? CASCADE BABY ALPACA CHUNKY in HANDPAINTED COLORS. The solids of this yarn flew off the shelves last year so this year we ordered a lot more, both in quantity and colors. And they brought out HANDPAINTED VARIEGATEDS, which will save us a lot of looking at the upcoming TNNA show. Think about scarves, hats, handwarmers….you will never find a cozier, quicker yarn.

We do! Our ENTIRE FALL ORDER was delivered today. Javier the UPS Guy earned his keep. We have 10 GINORMOUUS BOXES filled with all sorts of wonderful yarn from CASCADE. It’s going to take us a bit of time to get all this tagged, sorted and shelved (we’ve called in the big guns like KERRY and FLO to help out!) but come check out our stock in 220, 220 SUPERWASH, VENEZIA, VENEZIA WORSTED, ECO WOOL, RUSTIC, FIXATION, and SIERRA. We guarantee you will be inspired. And for those of you lucky enough to take the upcoming three session NONI BAG program, all of your yarn and patterns are here!!! We will be sending a separate email along later today.

Yep, it’s Thursday, and you all know what that means. You get to read about our upcoming weekend. First off, we continue our KAL on Saturday from 2-4 when everyone works very hard on their DIAGONAL TRIANGLE TANK. Since we were off last weekend, we can’t wait to see the progress everyone has made.

Join us SUNDAY for a quick and easy spring accessory: A RUFFLED COWL. This is a really fun knit-we made ours from the MANOS SILK, but you could use anything at a DK weight. The cowl sits beautifully on any spring or summer top and is done in the round SO THERE IS NO FINISHING!!!! We have a lovely sample at the shop. Come join us. You will need 150 yards of DK weight yarn and a circular needle size 5 or 6 depending on how you knit. As always, the program is free; just give us a call to reserve your spot at the table!

OK, we know we said we were going to go easy on reorders during the short spring/summer knitting season. We tried. We really did. But when we noticed that the BAMBOO TAPE cupboard was nearly bare and we had lovely customers clamoring to make the easy shrug or lovely short sleeve top shown below, we caved. So it’s back in stock. Fully stocked. If you mentioned to us that you wanted it, we will give you a call tomorrow to let you know your color is back in. But if you haven’t experienced this amazing yarn, come on in the shop and we will share two free patterns with you when you purchase the yarn!

Enjoy this lovely picture of SOPHIE and her beautiful niece, who is modeling the dress Aunt Sophie made for her. Hey, aunts are just like moms, right?????

Well, KARABELLA broke our resolve. We had vowed NOT to reorder spring yarns (with fall deliveries about to start) but we were left with three skeins of VINTAGE COTTON, their amazing sport/dk weight mercerized cotton. We called, they delivered and we now have 13 gorgeous colors. We love this yarn, and once you work with it, you will see why!

And we wish everyone a very happy MOTHER’S DAY!

Please note that we will be CLOSED ON MOTHER’S DAY in a time honored tradition of saluting moms, stepmoms, earth-moms, and moms-to-be! That leaves THREE DAYS to select the perfect gift for that knittin’ or crochetin’ mom. Stumped for ideas? We’ll help. We have beautiful BAGS and ACCESSORIES from BUTTERMILK ROAD DESIGNS, LANTERN MOON NEEDLES, NEEDLE CASES, and yarn galore. Still uncertain? We have gift certificates in any amount that never expire. Our hours up until the big day are TODAY 11-8, TOMORROW and SATURDAY 11-6.

And the DIAGONAL TRIANGLE TANK knitalong continues on SATURDAY from 2-4 PM. Couldn’t make it last week? There is still room. And the lovely HEATHER will be on hand to model and help with the pattern.

Finally, just to whet your appetite, we met with our CASCADE rep yesterday and wait until you see what is coming in from this terrific company!!! A sample? Well, we ordered over 60 colors of 220. Let the NONI BAGS begin!

What was missing from the fabulous 220 SUPERWASH palette? Why, variegated yarn, of course. Fear not. The lovely folks at CASCADE have come through once again. Come see these gorgeous PAINTED COLORWAYS of the popular machine wash/machine dry yarn that is both a great buy (220 yards for $13.99) and a great knit!

Also in, KIDSILK NIGHT (the sparkly mohair!) and WOOLY STRIPES from ROWAN and NASHUA respectively. It’s never too early to think about fall knitting!

How do we know? Because we received the SUMMER INTERWEAVE KNITS today. We love what EUNNY JANG has done with the magazine, and this issue promises to be a , ahem, hot one!