Knitters Mercantile Blog

Are you in Pittsburgh or will you be in Pittsburgh on February 10, 11, and 12? Come visit our booth at the 8th Annual Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival!

We will be in booth 52 (which is in the sponsor area).

We will be featuring Artyarns in our booth. We have Supermerino, Cashmere Glitter, Cashmere 5, Rhapsody Glitter, Ensemble and more!

Iris Schreier of Artyarns will be teaching several classes at the festival, including the beautiful Diamond Lace Wrap from her new book One + One: Scarves/Shawls/Wraps.

This shawl has a completely unique construction and uses short rows to give you the ability to work with 2 or more colors in a seamless manner. The wrap would be stunning in Artyarns Ensemble, Silk Rhapsody, or Silk Rhapsody Light.

So if you are in Pittsburgh next weekend stop by and see us!

This just in - the new Addi Lace Click set! This snazzy new set was all the rage at Vogue Knitting Live and TNNA.

The original Lace set featured short needles, which is cool because with the shorter tips you had the option to make a 16″ needle. That’s a real bonus with an interchangeable set.

However, a lot of people who love the Addi Lace tips wanted longer tips in an interchangeable set. And ta dah! Skacel produced it. 

But wait, there’s more! A brand new feature to this set is the Addi Lifeline Cords. Here is how Addi describes them.

The addi-Lifeline Cords were created to allow knitters to work a lifeline in to their projects, quickly and easily. Each cord features two threadable eyelets on each end, near the tip connections, through which a waste yarn can be run. When not in use, the eyelets remain closed so as not to interfere with one’s knitting.

Last but not least, the case is a positively delightful color of pink. It would look lovely in a knitting bag.

Stop by the shop to check out the new sets! Or you can also check them out here on our website.

This week’s free pattern is an oldie but a goody.

Saartje’s Bootees are the sweetest booties that I have come across. Simple garter stitch and mary jane styling - does it get any better? I think not.

The pattern calls for a fingering weight yarn, so something like Cascade Heritage would work very well. Janet made a pair in Mirasol Hacho (which is DK weight) and they are THE sweetest things you ever did see. Stop by the shop and take a look at the Hacho shelf to see one of the booties in person.

Get the Saartje’s Bootees pattern here.

Happy Friday and happy knitting!

Despite grey skies above, Spring is on its way. And to brighten us up even further, Pantone’s Spring 2012 colors are here!

Pretty vibrant palatte, dont’ you think? Pastels are IN. There are some alluring neutrals but the color of the year (as designated by Pantone) is Tangerine Tango.

Tangerine Tango is described on the Pantone website as “an enticing, juicy orange, a vivacious and appealing refresher to enliven anyone’s outlook this Spring.”

I don’t know about you but when I read that description all I can think of is Diana Rigg’s voice moderating the fashion show in The Great Muppet Caper. (Holy wow! I didn’t realize it until I found the clip - I think Diana Rigg is actually wearing Tangerine Tango in that scene!)

I think my favorite color of the season is Driftwood. What’s yours?

Now that we are back and fully recovered from the trip, it is time to share some more pictures with you.

Day 2

There are not a lot of pictures from Day 2.  The reason is that for much of the day our booth looked like this.

As a result, at the end of the day I felt like this.

Day 3

Both Saturday and Sunday had great fashion shows taking place at the runway next to our booth. Here is one of the garments featured in the Vogue Knitting show.

There were also some really great other events on the stage, including a fabulous panel discussion on Sunday afternoon about turning knitting into a career featuring among others Norah Gaughan, Melanie Falick, and my personal hero Debbie Stoller. I learned to knit from Debbie’s Stitch ‘N Bitch books so to get to hear her speak about turning knitting into a career was an amazing treat for me.

We had some great people hanging out in our booth with us on Sunday. Iris from ArtYarns stopped by to sign her new book One + One: Scarves, Shawls, & Shrugs.

Pam from Louet hung out in our both so that she could share two of her beautiful yarns, Euroflax and KidLin, with our customers. Pam also had on this amazing skirt, Ashley, made with Euroflax. I am SO making this. Who is in with me?

And sadly, at the end of Sunday we had to pack everything up again so we could head home.

Thanks New York and Vogue Knitting Live for an amazing time!

Whew! We are having quite a time of it in New York. Here are some pictures from day 1.

I would like to begin by saying that I am by no means a decent photographer. I’m getting better all the time but a lot of what you’ll see here is me going “hey I should take a picture of that!” while hastily pulling out whatever photographic type device is most handy (sometimes its the camera and sometimes its my phone).

So, here is day 1 from start to finish.

The first picture is actually from last night but I found it odd enough to include here. Really? A “Fresh Remote?” Heavens forbid we get a stale one.

Here is a very blurry picture of the city skyline from our van before we got in the Lincoln Tunnel.

Yay a horse!

This is how our booth looked when we first got there.

Look how close we are to the stage!

Awesome Vogue Knitting Live sign.

Booth set up in progress.

Booth is done!

The marketplace was open from 5 - 8 p.m. I didn’t take any pictures, which is why you don’t see any pictures of that there.

After market, we went to dinner.

We ate at Bill’s Restaurant and Piano Bar and Janet’s awesome friend Carol joined us. We ate upstairs which wasn’t the piano bar area but it did have an extended Frank Sinatra playlist. We were pleased.

They had all kinds of really rad original turn of the 20th century boxer pictures. I joined in with fisticuffs.

After dinner it was absolutely required that we go get the best cupcakes in the world. We went to Magnolia Bakery. I believe we succeeded in our quest.

More tomorrow!

It is a little chaotic around here. Ok, I am full of it. It is a LOT chaotic around here. We are packing for New York!

Bins are being piled.

Kits are being assembled. Oh, bonus shot! Check out Janet’s finished Knit Swirl Jacket out of Noro Silk Garden Lite.

If you just happen to be in New York this weekend and just happen to be at Vogue Knitting Live stop by and see us! We are in booths 2814 & 2816.

Hey there! We just extended the deadline to sign up for Sock Club 2012. It is now January 31st.

 Be sure to sign up for this awesome club! Get The Knitters Book of Socks, 6 awesome sock yarns, and be a part of the Members Only Sock Club knit along. Check out this blog post for more info. Give us a call or stop by the shop to sign up!

Edit 1/11: Want to sign up but haven’t been able to make it down to the shop yet? But a membership on our website!

Clicky here to see Sock Club 2012 on our website.

This week’s free pattern is entirely silly. I have made two of these and they always get a great response so I figured sharing was in order.

Here is the Bearded Toque.

This hat and beard combo has a series of interchangeable mustaches. That’s right! I said interchangeable mustaches.

It’s all knit in one piece, top down. It is a great way to stop face freeze on those super cold and windy days. It’s always a great way to get your male friends or nephews really interested in your knitting. Wait until you see their eyes light up when you tell them that you will makes one of these amazing hats for them.

Plymouth Encore is the perfect yarn for this. Just make sure you hold it doubled to get gauge.

Get the Bearded Toque pattern here.

Happy Friday and happy knitting!