Weekend Update

For those of you who are SNL fans, I hope you appreciate this post's title. I watched the Best of Chris Farley last night so I had to reference it somehow...

This weekend we had loads of fun. As Mimi is on Peaks Island, my favorite place on earth (and where I've spent summers since I was five), we are here baking in the july sun. BUT, when you have air conditioning, you don't mind knitting wool socks or afghans!


Here is one koigu sock, knit on size 1 dpns. It's harder than you think to take a picture of a sock when you're wearing it. I'm sure I looked really nuts on the mall on Sunday doing that...


Kayla with her almost finished Show off Ruffle Skirt. Isn't this awesome!??!!


A close up...


Here is Debbie with her newly finished afghan square. The Needle Lady is donating an afghan to the Charlottesville Women's Four Miler and several of our loyal customers are knitting up squares for us to sew together. They are pouring in like hotcakes! I love this little cat square. It's in honor of Tiger Lilly. This makes me want to knit up a cat afghan, even though I'm really a dog person. How hard would it be to make this a doggie square? Hmmmm...

You know you're a hard core knitter when...

You go on a picnic in July and knit on a koigu sock:



and a Camellia in black Bam Boo:



Here are a few other Sunday photos from the shop. I think we're all getting ready for fall! Socks, sweaters, and wool afghans...









And for those of you knitting socks, or have the urge to knit socks, here is some eye candy...



If you are getting ready for fall, leave a comment on the blog with what you're working on! I can't wait for the Fall Interweave Knits!

more pictures and updates for your viewing pleasure...

Here's an adorable felted entrelac bag (notice the one on the counter in the back too!)



an almost complete needlepointed Rotunda...beautiful!



Susan's fabulous Ene's Scarf from Scarf Style knit in Hempathy...



and her Manos Clapotis!



Doggie collars are in!





a gorgeous lady Elenor Entrelac stole (from Scarf Style) in Noro Kochoran...





Part of the afghan for breast cancer awareness...



Here is Vilde, an incredible knitter and local celebrity knit-blogger, with her Classic Elite Princess that will soon be a cowl neck vest. Her blog is awesome and now on our sidebar.



And one more update: The new Rowan magazine (30th anniversary addition, volume number 44) is officially in the shop!! Let the fall knitting begin.

I've never wanted to knit so much...

New project number 1, here modeled by Melissa Johnson (Monticello employee and former waldorf school knitter...)

ArtYarns has hit another home run with their newest luxury silk yarn Silk Pearl. I have not seen anything else like it on the market. It is made from lots of thin strands of silk spun together, making it a gorgeous silk that will not pill or look worn. Each of those twisted strands twisted together give it an unbelievable shine. The day the silk arrived in the shop, I chose a skein (not an easy choice with the color variety) and ran to Studio Baboo to get beads to make the Scalloped Beads Silk Scarf pattern, designed by Sharon Sorkin. The color that I chose had light greens and blues and I found glass beads that really complemented the colors. All other projects were bumped from the list so I could try out this yarn. It is gorgeous! You have to see it in person and feel it; it has a wonderful weight with all those beads on the bottom. It took one skein of Silk Pearl (170 yards/skein), and a size 6 needle and about 1500 size 6 beads.

Every once in a while a garment comes into the store and becomes a runaway hit. The hit of this summer has been Norah Gaughan’s summer top called Flow.

The pattern is in The Norah Gaughan Collection, Volume 2 which is packed with lots of other great patterns as well. Flow is unbelievably easy to knit—stockinette stitch and a size 8 needle, and no sleeves.

It is knit in Berroco’s new yarn Seduce that has a really great hand—rayon, linen, silk and nylon. One customer is making it in 3 different colors, another customer is on her second one, and I am ¾ of the way through mine, which will double as a store model. We had 2 models of this garment in the shop over the last two weeks, and we not only wiped our supply of Seduce, but we have about 6 people waiting for the new shipment to come in. It’s one of those magic garments that looks good whether you are tall, short, big, small, busty or flat chested—and it is very cool for the c’ville humidity.

A few other recent pictures from the shop...

a Norah Gaughan top on my list of things to do...

Stephanie and her baby, Caroline...



and more to come as soon as we get pictures of the crochet class (that was a HUGE hit!). If you're suddenly teaching yourself how to crochet, write a comment on the blog. I've got the urge and I know Bobby and Angela have been crocheting too...and CHECK OUT Victoria's new market bag...



For those of you who took the class, email us a photo at ecareyincville@gmail.com and I'll put it up on the blog!