It’s no surprise that KIM HARGREAVES is one of our favorite designers. We loved her work with ROWAN and continue to admire her now that she is on her own. Her collection NECTAR has sold out twice at the shop and now we are pleased to present HEARTFELT, an earlier collection. We think we’ll start with ERIN:

And then move on to the rest of the designs:

And by the way, stay tuned for some fun photos from the three-week NONI BAG WORKSHOP. Thanks to all who participated, and a very special thanks to NORA, our intrepid teacher. We had a blast making our BOBBLE BAG.

Javier the UPS Guy struggled in with two really heavy boxes today so we suspected that our books from UNICORN CRAFTS had arrived. And we were right! We now have the SIMPLY SHETLAND series in stock (to support the Shetland Yarn we have ordered!) as well as new and favorite CROCHET and KNITTING BOOKS from folks like SALLY MELVILLE, FIONA ELLIS, and CHARLENE SCHURCH. We love knitting books. Don’t you?

And also ready for sale, the new IOMO AFGHAN KITS from COLINETTE. These babies are so new that even COLINETTE doesn’t have a photo of them on her website. But trust us, they’re GORGEOUS. And quick. They are made from holding one strand of IONA with one strand of MOHAIR (IOMO, get it?) on a size 15 needle! The perfect vacation knit. We have four beautiful colorways in stock and can special order anything you want. And KAREN will be knitting a store model next week!

Wow! We are so thrilled to have the JOSEPH GALLER PERUVIAN TWEED back in stock. This DK weight alpaca comes in ENORMOUS 600 yard skeins for only $29.99 and is beyond luscious. We are going to make the 3 BUTTON WRAP from this holding two strands together—the finished product will STILL be way less expensive than the ones we saw at upscale stores which shall remain nameless so we don’t get sued. Although we have a small photo below, trust us; you have to see and feel this yarn to believe it.

Also in stock thanks to the lovely folks who distribute COLINETTE in the US (thanks, Kristie and Sharon) four NEW throw designs from their wonderful IONA and MOHAIR yarns. We drove up to Unique Kolours on our day off and they were nice enough to let us not only do our entire fall order with them, but they agreed to “cash and carry” and we brought back the throw kits.

Was a huge squeal of delight when our first order from TILLI TOMAS arrived!!! Poor Javier the UPS Guy—his eardrums will never be the same. The yarn is simply GORGEOUS and TRACY was a delight over the phone—she sent us samples of the yarns to swatch as well as patterns to copy for the shop! And as a bonus, many of her yarns are used in NONI BAGS. We can already tell we haven’t ordered enough. Whether you want to make a baby hat from FLURRIES or the fabulous LENTEN ROSES EVENING BAG (our next one now that our BOBBLE BAG is completed!), or the lovely MERMAID SHAWL shown below, we have the yarn and pattern for you. And check out the website at www.tillitomas.com. Her company story is something else.

And not to give the lovely KIM HARGREAVES short shrift…the reorder of NECTAR is here. We sold 11 copies in three days last week, including my personal one.

We’ll catch you up on some news. First, the SUMMER NEWSLETTER is written and is just waiting for LEW’S magic touch at formatting and adding pictures. It should be out late this weekend.

Second, our BEACH BAG KAL is a certified hit. We can’t wait to see everyone walk in with this finished product. Some folks are even going to use it as a knitting bag. Come join us! We have plenty of patterns (designed by the ultra-talented PAIGE ) and lots of CASCADE SIERRA for the project. The KAL is free of charge and runs each Saturday of the month from 2-4 PM.

Third, please don’t forget that we are once again closed on SUNDAY for the NONI BAG workshop. We will resume regular (12-5) Sunday hours on JULY 6.

Finally, we are just about caught up with TNNA orders since missing the show. So watch this space for arrivals of JOJOLAND, TILLI THOMAS, MOUNTAIN COLORS, LANTERN MOON, COLINETTE (their distributor, UNIQUE KOLOURS, was nice enough to let me come to the warehouse to select my stuff—thanks CHRISTIE AND SHARON!), KOIGU, ARTYARNS, and BLUE SKY ALPACA. We have plenty of surprises in store for all of you! We ordered MANOS, ROWAN, KARABELLA, and CASCADE prior to the show. So we think we’re in pretty good shape!

We missed TNNA last weekend and although our vendors have been amazingly wonderful about helping us with fall orders over the phone, internet, and fax, we came up empty regarding new shawl pins. JUL SILVER designs to the rescue. It turns out JUL is the amazingly talented LAURA BELLOWS, who came to the shop yesterday to help out with sister NORA’s bag hardware. And she came armed with gorgeous shawl pins. We couldn’t resist. We bought a variety of price points, materials and designs. Come see!

We now have all the colors of CASCADE 220 needed to make the GREAT AMERICAN AFGHAN. Come see our gorgeous model to get inspired! Multi-colored not your thing? We have the GREAT AMERICAN ARAN AFGHAN book and plenty of yarn as well!

Join us this SATURDAY for the second session of the popular KAL—BEACH BAG! You will be the envy of all your friends when you pull your towel, knitting, suntan lotion and book out of this roomy handknit wonder. The program is free of charge and runs from 2-4 PM.

We are CLOSED ON SUNDAY for the NONI BAG program. Please note that we are also closed on the 22nd and 29th. We will resume Sunday hours and SUNDAYS IN THE SALON on SUNDAY JULY 6.

And us? We will be busy this weekend working on the TNNA orders we couldn’t place at the show and hustling to get the summer newsletter out by next weekend.

To pique your interest in new products, check out VERENA KNITTING MAGAZINE. We have the first English Language issue in the shop and it looks great-classy, European, and, well…interesting:

Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans. We never made it to the TNNA show due to a family illness at the last minute. So here’s how we are putting a positive spin on it. Thank goodness for the internet; we have been in touch with most of our existing vendors and are making arrangements to do our fall orders via fax. We are driving up to the COLINETTE distributor next week; we have already ordered JOJOLAND yarn via email, and with the help of the wonderful and amazing PAIGE we WILL, as promised, stock JAMIESON SHETLAND this fall. And while some of these yarns may arrive later than if we had gone to the show, what that means to you, our lovely customers, is that EXISTING PRICES WILL REMAIN FOR A LONGER PERIOD OF TIME. As you may expect given gas prices and economic conditions, our vendors are raising prices this fall. Shop now and take advantage of the lower prices.

Before the show we had put in a few orders and we are now stocked with CRYSTAL PALACE NEEDLES, WINDERS and SWIFTS, and SKACEL NEEDLES including the amazing ADDI LACE. So hang in there. We’ve plenty of stock and much more will be arriving within the next few months! KOIGU, MOUNTAIN COLORS, SCHAEFER, KOIGU, BLUE SKY ALPACA…it will all be here!

After our cousin admired our BUTTERMILK ROAD bag in New York, we sent it to her, which would have been a lovely yet practical gesture had we checked beforehand to see if we had others in stock. What kind of knitter walks around with a regular purse for God’s sake? So our pal SUSAN came through in record time and we are now restocked with not only the wonderful LARGE TOTES with shoulder straps, but ACCESSORY and CIRCULAR NEEDLE CASES as well. And don’t worry. We ordered TWO of the one we wanted, so there is another one here!

And in another “learn from our mistake” moments, our customers can enjoy the beautiful KIM HARGREAVES book NECTAR without paying a ridiculous price for it that includes not only the devaluation of the dollar against the pound but shipping from England as well. This book is amazing. 21 GORGEOUS designs; we are already working on two.You may remember Kim from her ROWAN days; this book is bound to be a classic.

Hurray! The errant sweater was stuck in a bag of finishing! We are delighted as we know ANITA will be as well. Thanks to all who called, checked, and gave us a lot of support during a trying time.

Quite the storm in Maryland; we are happy to report that we are fully operational as of 6:40 PM tonight, thanks in large part to our pal CAROL, who figured out that part of the reason our internet wasn’t working was our forgetfulness in plugging the modem back in. Thanks Carol.

We missed our usual WEEKEND @ WOOLWINDERS entry, so here it is. We begin our SATURDAY KAL with the fabulous BEACH BAG designed by our very own PAIGE. It’s a wonderful project sure to become the envy of all of your summer pals. Come join us. And on SUNDAY we repeat the popular LACE ANKLETS, perfect for summer walks and activities. Join HEATHER in this program; ability to make a pair of socks is helpful, but knowing how to knit lace or read a chart is not necessary. Both programs run from 2-4 PM and are free of charge.

We are off to the annual TNNA (The National Needlearts Association) show in Columbus, OH this weekend and will be back will all sorts of fabulous orders and news on Monday. So stay tuned.

Our website is now updated with SUMMER CLASS, SATURDAY KAL and SUNDAYS IN THE SALON information. Just check over on the left side of the page. You can call us mid-month to sign up for the next month’s Saturday KALs; note that they are drop-in and you DON’T have to commit to every week. And call us one week prior to the Sunday programs. Both programs are free, but we limit them to 12 participants so everyone has a comfortable place to sit!

We have a new pattern line in the shop: FIGHEADH DESIGNS. We are cautious about single patterns these days as there is so much stuff available on the internet, but we fell in love with these. Most support CASCADE yarns, of which we have an abundant supply. And check out our new policy which will be discussed in the SUMMER NEWSLETTER—ALL SINGLE PATTERNS ARE FREE WITH PURCHASE OF YARN!! That’s right, not a typo. Pick out your pattern and yarn for your project and the pattern is FREE. This applies to single patterns only, not leaflets, and it needs to be part of the same project, ok?