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!

lots of updates!

We’d like to wish Krista English well, she’s moving back home to Texas. We’ll miss seeing her at The Needle Lady. She sent us these fabulous pictures of the Mason-Dixon Mitred Square blanket she’s been working on for a friend. Krista, thanks for the pictures and thanks for bringing in the actual blanket so I could see it before it was gifted!





I’m trying to restrain myself from starting one immediately. We just had a customer see the pictures and the next thing she was walking out of the shop with Mason Dixon knitting under her arm and 20 skeins of Cotton Classic—heading to the beach for a week of sun, fun and mitres!

I'm just back from TNNA (the National Needlework Association) for my semi-annual “yarn and everything related to it” buying trip. It’s always energizing, exhausting and a lot of fun. I also get a chance to take some classes with the superstars of the knitting/crochet world. This time around I took a finishing class with Leslye Solomon, and a class with my favorite teacher of all, Sally Melville—she’s teaching “Stripes that are and Stripes that Aren’t”. As always I tried to lure her to The Needle Lady at some point in the future. I also met Margaret Fisher who will be doing a very exciting weekend of classes at The Needle Lady October 4 and 5. Check the website for details on that weekend. The Yarn Harlot was the luncheon speaker on Friday.

I went straight from TNNA to a week in Hatteras on the Outer Banks—my favorite vacation place. Vacation always requires the necessary packing of several knitting projects—the memories always are knit into the project so this requires careful consideration. One week at the beach produced the ever popular Touch Me shawl—18 skeins of incredible softness and color—I can still remember lining up the stripe sequence out on the deck, only to have everyone else tweak the choices. There was also the red Noro Hana silk top vacation, the entrelac market bag vacation knit out of Classic Elite Montera, the Hempathy crocheted top….still unfinished.

What should I do next? Please vote on the sidebar...

1) the Prism Dots and Dashes jacket in the Orchard colorway (much more beautiful than even the photo shows)



2) the ivory Absolutely Fabulous Throw that is a belated wedding present for friends



30 the Minnow knits ruffled baby vest out of the new Corntastic.



Here are our 2 versions of the Spring cover of Vogue Knitting, modeled by Kim Lo and Debby Ware---apparently the instructions were lacking, so much so, that there were 50+ pages of explanations on Ravelry. Debby threw up her hands and finished the top with her favorite seed stitch making it her own. The end result for both versions is stunning—it was knit side to side so the cabling goes on the horizontal. Great looking ladies and the sweaters too!



So while Elizabeth is busy at Monticello for the 4th (have you heard who's coming?!!), we'll all be chipping in on this blog. Happy knitting and come see us soon!

Mimi

Fun-day (get it?) at the NL

Funny quote of the day

"You better have projects in mind for that yarn." -Nice guy to his girlfriend.

"Shut-up." -Girlfriend

Ha! I told them that I was putting that on the blog, so I hope they see it.

Here are some great pictures of the Prism garments we have hanging around the shop. Mimi is doing a free class on Wednesday night to work with Prism yarns with anyone who is interested. Just remember to call ahead or send an email to sign up.



What a pretty day on the downtown mall...











And other fun shots:

Marilyn and her Colinette Ab Fab Afghan...



Taylor (doesn't she look like a model?!) trying on the Rowan Bamboo Tape sample...and her friend is going to make it for her. How nice!



Me and Marilyn pricing yarn...



A mystery needlepoint...can you tell what it is? Leave a comment if you can!



Victoria's table runner out of Hempathy...her design and all:)



And check out this Corntastic yarn...yes, made of corn. What nice colors!



We'd love to have you for the Prism class on Wednesday and remember to comment if you know what the needlepoint is. Good Luck!

Happy Mother's Day! and lots of new things at the NL

We've had lots of moms in today with their kids...and a good amount of kids buying yarn for their moms! Why? Because:





A good story for mothers day from the Needle Lady...While we are all still on the high of the Bruce Springsteen concert last week; here is our E-Street Band---Needle Lady story.

About a year ago, this charming older woman came into the shop and was entranced by the Manos del Uruguay yarn. She picked out several of the brightest colors and said that she wanted to knit her son a sweater, and what did I think of those colors? I told her that I loved them but they were fairly bright and many men prefer darker more muted colors. She then told me that her son was a musician and loved bright colors; she said he was the drummer for a band. Maybe I had heard of them, the E-Street Band…It is a small world! And this means that the Needle Lady is officially connected to Bruce.

In honor of Max Weinberg and his mom, here is a picture of the Manos del Uruguay



See our new poll at the right side of the page...What colors do you like most?

In other fun news, our lovely in house celebrity knit wear designer (the FAB Debbie Ware) is holding a workshop on May 31st and June 1st. Here is a photo collage of the Debbie Ware items in the shop. A montage if you will...











To register for Debbie's class, call the shop at 434-296-4625 or send an email. If you comment on this blog I will forward that to Mimi. I think it will be a blast.

I will end this post with a lovely picture of our new UVA window display. Go Hoos!