We have sent the FALL CLASS SCHEDULE to our lovely webmistress STACY, but here’s what you need to know. We are really shaking things up around here. Beginning SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, we are offering LEARN TO CROCHET and LEARN TO KNIT classes at impossibly low prices and ridiculously flexible schedules. Anyone can learn to CROCHET on SATURDAYS from 12-1 PM for $10 a session! And KNITTING will be taught on SUNDAYS from 12-1 and MONDAYS from 6:30-7:30 PM. Again, each session will cost just $10.00. You can take as many as you want or need to get proficient. Once you’ve achieved the basics, you can either take one of our numerous SAFARIS, a SOCK class, or participate in our FREE weekend programs. How easy is that? Tell your friends, ok? We are really excited about this.

In order to maintain our small class size, we do ask that you call about a week in advance of the session and let us know you will be attending. We’ll take your $10 at that time (either by credit card over the phone or in person with a check or cash) to save your spot at the table. We are going to limit class size each session to FIVE PARTICIPANTS so everyone can get individual attention.

We are so excited about this, and hope you are as well. We heard your suggestions about offering such flexible sessions so people can really learn at their own pace and stop when they’ve mastered the basics. So give us a call at 240.632.9276 to begin these sessions next weekend!

And were they worth waiting for!!!! Just gorgeous. We have her sock yarn, alpaca/silk, and worsted merino in stock. They won’t last long! Thanks, Shelby. We love supporting your gorgeous hand dyed yarn.

Not that we don’t love it when customers line up at the door to get some knitting help, but we are committed to fostering indepedence among our newest knitters. So this week’s www.amazon.com selection is just perfect for them:

Everyone should have one or two comprehensive guides in their knitting bag; we like this one. A lot. Just click on the link and you will magically end up at amazon. Purchase the book from them and you will both get a great price and support us as well!

As for this weekend, we will be working on our lace coat on Saturday ( yes, folks, Gale has finished hers. We expected nothing less, right?). And on Sunday we present AIBHLINN, a fabulous fall cowl. If you don’t know how to bobble, this is the project for you. It’s so much fun!!!!! As always, the program is free of charge and runs from 2-4 PM. Just give us a call at 240.632.9276 to reserve a spot at the table. Please note that this free pattern comes from www.knitty.com. We ask that you download the pattern and bring it to the workshop so that the designer can be adequately paid for her talents.

You will need about 440 yards of worsted weight yarn (we used a yummy alpaca) and 24”circs size 7.

In honor of the arrival of the gorgeous yarns from JOJOLAND, we offer a book of the week through our www.amazon.com link that makes use of laceweight and other fine yarns:

Shawls are HUGE this year, and we have lovely yarns to use. Check out the KARABELLA CASHMERE, the CASCADE ALPACA LACE, JOJOLAND CONSONANCE and MELODY….and others. Shawls are really easy to knit (no shaping for the most part) and you can quickly be fashion forward using our yarns and this book!
Simply click on the link and you will be at our favorite book vendor, www.amazon.com. You will receive a great price on the book and will be supporting your LYS at the same time. Enjoy.

We were greeted at the door by the lovely VACATION UPS GUY who delivered a ginormous box from CASCADE (inside all our replacement colors of SIERRA) and a smaller one from SKACEL. So we are now well stocked with afghan yarn and circular needles.

We had to share this with all of you. Our very own JESSICA devoted her summer (when she was not at the shop) to training for a TRIATHLON. And her lovely daughter, ALLISON (a.k.a. the “Disaster Avoidance Fairy”) was a key part of the event. Jess finished triumphantly and we are so very proud of both of them:

The email is going out tomorrow, but our website readers can get a jump on the SAMPLE SALE we are running. Lots of close-out hand knit items including SCARVES, BAGS, and SWEATERS. We are even selling TWO COLINETTE AFGHANS!!! We’ll tempt you with the pictures below:

Now’s your chance to own hand knit items even if you don’t have the time to knit them!!!!

With all the excitement of the SCHAEFER YARN arrival yesterday we simply forgot to do our weekly link to www.amazon.com. We hope this makes it up to you.

With many vacations looming, customers grow concerned about what to do for help when they are away from the shop. So we present our favorite resource for all sorts of knitting mistakes: KNIT FIX. We find this an indispensable resource and we always have it in our knitting bag. Dropped a stitch? Can’t attach yarn correctly? Get off pattern in lace? Reversed your cable? It’s all here.

Simply click on the link provided and you will be taken to www.amazon.com where you can get a great price for this book and benefit your local LYS (hey, that’s us!) as well.

We love CHERYL SCHAEFER and all the rest of the SCHAEFER gang. Why? They produce GORGEOUS yarns, great patterns, and they are a complete pleasure to deal with. We called Cheryl this week to let her know that we sold EVERY DAMN KIT in the shop and requested that she put together some of the men’s sweater kits in more neutral, mid-atlantic appropriate colors and did she comply! And quickly. So now we have more SWEATER KITS, AFGHAN KITS, and yarn. Yarn everywhere! MISS PRISS, NANCY, ESPERANZA, BLOSSOM, KATHLEEN, ANDREA….we have it all!

With our SUNDAY IN THE SALON program this weekend—an uber-easy FELTED PENCIL CASE. OK, you can also use it for knitting notions. But it is super easy—we predict everyone will be finished by the end of the two hours. And you will learn how to do a KNITTED I-CORD edging—tres cool.

If you have ever been nervous about felting, this is the program for you. Impossible to screw this up! You will need a skein of worsted weight feltable wool (think CASCADE 220 or ALPACA), and size 10.5 needles. That’s it. The program is free and runs from 2-4 on Sunday. Just give us a call to save your spot at the table.

Today we eagerly awaited the arrival of new books and yarn from NASHUA and CRYSTAL PALACE. So now in stock, thanks to Albert the UPS Guy are the following:

MINI MOCHI—popular self-striping sockweight yarn that can do a bunch of stuff including these handwarmers that are offered as a free pattern on the www.straw.com website. We only got three of the eight colors we ordered at TNNA, so be patient, ok?:

And new books from NASHUA:

A gigantic thank you to all who participated in our CASH FOR CLUNKERS program. Thanks to your generosity we filled KERRY’S truck and our car TWICE!!! So you can stop now. Thanks. And we were delighted at the number of folks who took advantage of our 15% discount on yarn when they brough stash in. Isn’t it nice to do well and “do good” at the same time?

And clean we did, after we got all the new yarns in. So what’s in it for you? Well, we put ALL DALE OF NORWAY YARNS ON SALE AT 40% off. RYC CASHSOFT ARAN? 30% OFF (35% if you buy a full bag). ALL COLINETTE, MOUNTAIN COLORS, TWISTED SISTERS and LANTERN MOON NEEDLES also on sale at 30% off. COLINETTE BOOKS are 50% off. As are our ODDBALLS.

How’s that for incentive to come to the shop this weekend? And you can check out the new stuff as well!

We worked like the proverbial dogs to get everything shelved and….we are done!!! And we are happy!!! Happy with our purchases, happy that the store looks chock-full, and really happy that so many wonderful folks have brought in their “clunkers” and picked out new yarn.

We’ve had some questions about the Sunday program—here are the details. MIDORI is a great way to learn lace; the scarf is an easy repeat and you can make it as long or short as you want. The pattern calls for LACEWEIGHT YARN HELD DOUBLED on a size 6 needle. If you don’t want to hold two strands, you can use three skeins of any sport/dk yarn in the shop. Check out the beautiful colors of the BLUE SKY ALPACA SILK, for example. Or treat yourself, really, and go for the KARABELLA CASHMERE.

We are taking a brief break to blog about this. TWENTY BOXES OF YARN AND BOOKS arrived at the store over the past three days!!!!! We are now WAY FULLY STOCKED with goodies from ROWAN, NASHUA, CASCADE, and BLUE SKY ALPACA. OK, not all of it is out yet, but thanks to our amazing staff we are nearly there. BOOKS galore including all the new fall ones, gorgeous yarns at all gauges including SUPER BULKY, and the store is awash in color. Come check it out!

We interrupt our morning knitting routine (8-9 am each day!) to bring you the weekly update from WoolWinders. First, our book of the week-RUNWAY KNITS

We feel particularly drawn to this book since we are currently working on the CRAVAT SWEATER. The designs in this wonderful book are fashionable and fitted. And they work beautifully with KARABELLA YARNS, one of our favorite vendors. So have at it! Just click on the amazon link and you will get the book at a great price and help out your LYS at the same time.

And speaking of KARABELLA, this SUNDAY in the SALON PROGRAM, the MIDORI SCARF, would be exquisite in the new pure CASHMERE we have at the shop. The scarf uses laceweight yarn and is a delicate accessory that will dress up any outfit. We’ll teach you how. The program, as always, is free of charge and runs from 2-4 PM on Sunday. Just give us a call to sign up.

And on Saturday we continue our LACE COAT. If you missed last week, don’t worry. Just show up and you will benefit from the fact that we worked out our math kinks of last week with the markers and repeats. Again, free of charge and runs from 2-4 PM.

Unlike the government, we aren’t running out of money for the CASH FOR CLUNKERS program. However, we did run out of ROOM!!!! Thanks for all your donations of unused yarn. We dropped off a carload AND truckload to St. Raphael Church in Potomac for their Sophia House Shelter! The next batch will go to MONTGOMERY HOSPICE and ABILITIES. So bring in your “clunker” yarn and take 15% off your purchase of NEW yarn at the shop while you do so.* The program runs through Sunday.

• There are some rules, and we appreciate your support of them. Thanks.

Our fall order arrived from CASCADE yesterday and it is, in a word, YUMMY!!!! Lots of BABY ALPACA, the softest alpaca of them all, in both LIGHT WORSTED and CHUNKY WEIGHTS, as well as our favorite WOOL/SILK blend in both the weights as well. We have the uber-popular RUSTIC back in stock—it was one of our best sellers last year and is a gorgeous wool/linen blend in an array of colors. Also in, ECO WOOL in the natural tones; this chunky yarn is perfect for many of the patterns shown in the fall INTERWEAVE KNITS, which emphasizes natural designs and tones. We strive to offer our customers a blend of trends and classics—so look to us for a wide selection of the jewel tones, brignts, AND muted naturals this season. And you can always look to CASCADE for great value. Their yarns provide excellent yardage at a modest price. We have perused the www.cascadeyarn.com website for free patterns and encourage you to do the same to make use of these wonderful yarns:

Also in, FINALLY, a WASHABLE CHUNKY WEIGHT YARN. We looked for this literally for years. GEDIFRA brought out a pure MERINO that knits at 3.5 stitches to the inch. We bought lots. And we selected both primary colors great for kidswear as well as more sophisticated tones for grown-ups.

As always, Eunny did a great job. This is our favorite from the issue. We love the new wraps that look more like sweaters yet are knit (and fit) with the ease of a shawl:

Not every small business needs a government handout! In the spirit of ending this recession, WoolWinders: A Knitting Salon is offering “CASH FOR CLUNKERS” beginning Monday, August 3 through close of business Sunday, August 9.

GOT STASH?
Here’s how it works. Bring your “clunker” yarn to the shop. We’ll donate it to a worthy cause like HOSPICE OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, or ABILITIES, ORG. These organizations will get your unused yarn to people who love to knit but can’t get their own great stuff.

Then, shop for some BRAND NEW STUFF at the shop. We’ll give you 15% off ALL non-sale yarn. That includes our new fall stuff that’s arriving daily.

So do your part to uplift the economy! What do you think, Detroit has the monopoly on CASH FOR CLUNKERS??

It is always such a treat to have JACOB at the shop—we taught him to knit about six years ago, and he went on to become a terrific employee as well as friend. He showed up at our knitting night last Thursday determined to finish his hat. He had to rip back some (Jacob is always willing to do this to get a good finished product!) and worked diligently through the evening. Evidently, he worked through the next few days as well, because today he sent us this pic. Fabulous, huh?