Visit us at the Great Lakes Fiber Show!

Looking for something to do over Memorial Day weekend?  Come to the Great Lakes Fiber Show in Wooster, Ohio, on May 25 & 26 and stop by the Knitters Mercantile booth!

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In its 18 years of existence, the Great Lakes Fiber Show has grown from a one-building craft show to an event at the Wayne County Fairgrounds. This year, more than 80 vendor booths will feature spinning, weaving, and knitting supplies. There will be a wool fleece show and sale and a skein competition. Workshops will be presented with pre-registration required.

The show will take place at the Wayne County Fairgrounds, 199 Vanover St., Wooster, Ohio. Show hours are from 10am-5pm on Saturday and 10am-4pm on Sunday. Admission is free and food will be available on the fairgrounds.
 
The Knitters Mercantile booth will be in Industrial Building 13, booths 23 & 24.

Don’t feel like driving to Wooster? Our store here in Columbus will be open Memorial Day weekend, Friday and Saturday from 10am – 6pm, Sunday and Monday from 12pm – 5pm.

Spring Yarn Tasting A Success!

Thanks to all who attended our first-ever spring yarn tasting!  The evening featured five yarns presented by the Knitters Mercantile staff.

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Rebekah shows off the array of colors available in the yarn she presented.

 

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A happy bunch of knitters! One lucky gal took home a ball of yarn made from Australian opossum for her door prize.

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A common sight from the evening–knitters swapping impressions of the yarns they’re busy sampling.

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In addition to food and friendship, the knitters enjoyed a packet of free patterns tailored to the evening’s yarns.

 

Words of the Week: Madelinetosh and Malabrigo

The moment you’ve all been waiting for…Madelinetosh Pashmina has arrived!

Madelinetosh

Madelinetosh produces yarns in small, hand-dyed batches. As they explain on their website, “Enthused with a love of painting and influenced by the rich history of art in textiles, Madelinetosh sought to create a color palette guided by the subtle nuances and layered depth of colors found in the natural world.” Indeed, Madelinetosh is popular because of its stunning–truly stunning–colors. The name Madelinetosh comes from the founder’s great-grandmother, Madeline Tosh.  You can read about her and about Madelinetosh yarn here.

Malabrigo is also a small yarn producer that focuses on rich, hand-dyed color. Based in Uruguay, Malabrigo recently sent us new shipments in several of their popular yarns: Sock (Fingering/Sock-weight), Rastita (DK), Silkpaca (Lace weight).  You can see a sampling of colors in each on our website, and stay tuned to tomorrow’s e-newsletter for more on Malabrigo.  (Don’t get the newsletter? Subscribe by submitting your email address here.)

Free Pattern Friday: Pole Dance Socks (rated G)

Two promises up front: 1) the pattern is not as adult as it sounds, and 2) these socks are so cool that they warrant being featured, even in close proximity to the Longitudinal Socks of two weeks ago.

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I know, they look difficult, but the customers who showed me this pattern had made them and were raring to make more pairs!  The socks are knit flat and then spiralled by picking up stitches and working increases and decreases.  There is no seaming or intarsia involved.  If you can make a regular sock, you can make these.

We have two yarns in our store that are perfect fits for this pattern. The first is Schoppel Zauberball, which you can read more about in the longitudinal sock post.  The other is Malabrigo Sock, which, as the knitting gods would have it, just arrived this week! 

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Malabrigo Sock is 100% superwash merino wool, machine-washable, and available in hanks of 440 yards. We’re well stocked with color choices (17!), so come in today, or check out our website next week when all the new colors will be up.

 Until then, you can get the free pattern for Pole Dance Socks here.

Happy Friday!  Happy knitting!

Word of the Week: Trapping

The word “trapping” may not sound as exotic as our previous words of the week–mercerized and viscose–but what does it mean when applied to knitting? 

I found myself wondering this when one of our regular customers was in the shop talking about trapping. The lack of pelts around her belt and her clean hands suggested to me she wasn’t wandering around creation checking for her latest prey.

Fur trapper

Trapping in knitting refers to a technique used in fair isle knitting to carry the color of yarn not currently in use along the back of the work. For those of you who may not be familiar with fair isle, it looks like this:

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Let’s call color A the color you want to have showing; we’ll call color B the color that is not in use. The idea with trapping is that color B gets tacked in the back of the stitch worked in color A. Trapping is important, especially over several stitches of A, because it helps color B maintain its tension.  If you didn’t trap color B, it could get pulled too tight, causing the knitting to pucker, or it might become too loose, causing the knitting to have holes and gaps.

If you want to learn how to trap, try clicking here for Knitting Daily’s tutorial on trapping.

Not into fair isle knitting?  That’s okay!  Trapping is a useful technique for any knitter to have in her bag of tricks–if you hate to weave in ends, trap them instead as you go along. Knitting Daily’s tutorial explains how in the section marked “Here’s an extra special tip for you.”

Let’s face it–using the word “trapping” may not have the same conversation-stopping effect as when you drop “mercerized” or “viscose,” (“Mercerized? Oh, you must really be a fiber artist…”), but you won’t have to go far to weave it into your vocabulary.  Or to weave your ends, for that matter.

Free Pattern Friday: Clem, A Spring Cardigan

If you keep current with our newsletters, you’re already familiar with the fantastic new Berroco yarn Karma, which was featured this past Tuesday.  Well, guess what?  Here’s a free pattern specifically for Karma

“Clem” is an easy-to-knit cardigan worked in a simple ribbed stitch.

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I don’t know about you, but I spend more of the spring and summer with goosebumps prickling my arms than I do the winter. After all, in winter, I know to wear my warmest wools, but in summer, all it takes is a restaurant’s or store’s hyperactive AC for me to horripilate. Since Karma is a cotton tape with a mesh construction, the Clem cardigan was designed for precisely such moments.  It’s light enough to feel right for spring and summer, but the sleeves and the layering potential make it a good line of defense against those unexpectedly cool evenings.

Karma‘s colors also make Clem a good choice for a spring/summer cardi.  Take a peek:

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You can see all the colors we offer in Karma by clicking here.

That’s all the knitting info in this post, but before I bid you a good Friday, I can’t help a few musings on Clem.  Do you ever wonder how the designers and yarn vendors name their patterns?  I do.  Why Clem?  Why something so clammy sounding?  In moments like these, I turn to the Internet (always a trustworthy source, right?!). 

Perhaps this cardigan was named in tribute to Clem Jones, the longest-serving Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Australia.  Or perhaps it honors the minor character Clem from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Or it could be English dialect for “to be hungry or to cause to be hungry.” Or a nickname for Clementine.

Or maybe it’s just a name meant to stick in your mind. Clem. Cardigan. Karma.

Get the free pattern for Clem here.

Happy Friday, and happy knitting!

Word of the Week: Viscose

Earlier this week, I found myself asking my coworker Andrea whether viscose is a synthetic material. I had seen it on several yarn labels, usually blended with other fibers like cotton or wool.

No, Andrea said. It comes from a plant. prima_logo

Andrea was right, but I understood why I might have guessed synthetic: viscose comes from processing wood pulp into cellulose that can then be made into a spinnable fiber. So, while the base is natural (wood), it is heavily processed.

We can hardly talk about viscose without talking about rayon. Rayon is an aritificial silk. Since real silk comes from silkworms, it is not easy to gather in large amounts and therefore costly. So, for centuries the search was on to figure out a way to create something like silk that wasn’t actually from worms.

Enter the viscose process.  The breaking down of wood pulp into a liquid and re-coagulating it into fiber creates rayon, or artificial silk. Because the viscose process makes rayon, you will sometimes see labels that say “viscose rayon,” or just “viscose” for short.

Okay, so that’s the technical answer of what viscose is.  But how does it affect the yarn that’s made with it?

Silk is known for its lovely drape; likewise, viscose lends beautiful drape to items made from it.  Also like silk, viscose has a sheen that gives yarn a lustrous finish. Take, for example, Debbie Bliss Prima. The label reads 80% Viscose (Bamboo), which of course means the wood pulp used in this particular viscose comes from bamboo. The viscose gives Prima its lovely sheen and a cool, comfortable feel. The other 20% in Prima is Merino Wool, which adds a touch of elasticity that viscose, like other plant-based fiber, lacks. The blend allows the best of both worlds.

Viscose may not be the prettiest word in our knitting vocabulary with its sticky sound. But if you stop by and pet our stock of Debbie Bliss Primaor look at it on our website–you’ll find the end product is far more sleek and beautiful than its viscous name.

June Classes

Announcing our June classes!  To reserve your spot, call us at 614-888-8551.

Beginners Hat: This class is designed to give students a chance to knit in the round with circular needles and double point needles. Students will learn to cast on, connect stitches in the round, decrease to shape the crown, and finish the top of the hat. Cost: $30.00 plus supplies. Instructor: Jan    Mondays, June 3 & 10 from 6-8 PM

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Beginning Knitting: In four week class you will learn all the basics of knitting – the knit stitch, cast on, bind off, increasing, decreasing and more. Cost: $50.00 plus supplies. Instructor: Andrea  Tuesdays, June 4, 11, 18, & 25 from 6-8 PM

Crochet Bootcamp: If you want to fast track learning how to crochet, this is the workshop for you. During this workshop, you will learn basic crochet stitches, increasing and decreasing, gauge and crochet, crochet motifs, and how to read patterns and crochet symbols. You will leave this class knowing how to negotiate the world of crochet. Cost $30.00 plus supplies. Instructor: Rebekah Saturdays, June 8 & 15 from 12-2 PM

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 Great American Aran Afghan:  The Great American Aran Afghan class teaches chart reading, how to cable, make bobbles, and techniques needed to make the various squares.  This class is offered once a month.  You can come every month or pick one or two months. The upcoming June square is Susan Rainey’s on pgs 50-51 (June). Cost $15.00 per class plus supplies. Instructor: Jan  Wednesday, June 12 from 6-8 PM

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Intermediate Lace: Did you take the beginner lace class and are now ready to move forward to create a triangular shawl? In this class, students will create Ishbel by Ysolda Teague, which is the perfect start to more complicated lace patterns. Cost $40.00 plus supplies. Instructor: Andrea Mondays, June 3, 10, & 17 from 6-8 PM

Preventing and Fixing Mistakes for Beginners: Ever get to the end of a row and find you are short a stitch or two, or that you have too many stitches, or that holes have inexplicably appeared in your knitting? Maybe your stitches are looking a little wonky and you just don’t know how to fix them. Then this class is perfect for the beginner knitter.  Learn what common mistakes we all make while knitting and, more importantly, how to fix them. Cost $20 .00 plus supplies. Instructor: Andrea  Thursday, June 27 from 6-8 PM

 

Word of the Week: Mercerized

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John Mercer, inventor of mercerization

If you’ve been reading this blog and your weekly e-newsletter, you know by now that I am a reader and a writer, which of course means I’m a lover of words. One perk of hanging around Knitters Mercantile is learning all the wonderful jargon of knitting!

The first word I found myself looking up after a week of work was “mercerized.”  I noticed that some of our cotton yarn labels say 100% cotton, while others say 100% mercerized cotton (or mercerised, if the yarn is British). So just what is mercerized cotton? 

You can see the difference right away: mercerized cottons have more luster than the typical matte finish of cotton.   It turns out that the sheen is the result of a particular chemical process, invented by John Mercer in 1844, which gives cotton yarn “luster, strength, and receptiveness to dyes” (so says Merriam Webster).  Vogue Knitting adds that mercerized cotton is less likely to shrink than untreated cottons.  Another fun fact: the French call mercerized cotton “Scottish thread” or fil d’ecosse in tribute to Mercer’s British roots.

If you’d like to see the difference for yourself, come by the Merc and ask to see our Fantasy Naturale, which is 100% mercerized cotton, and compare it to the feel of Cascade Luna, a 100% Peruvian cotton that has not been mercerized.  Be aware that Cascade Luna is spun in a unique way, so when comparing, look to the matte finish more than the overall texture.

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Cascade Luna, a non-mercerized Peruvian cotton

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Fantasy Naturale, a mercerized cotton

Both mercerized and non-mercerized cottons are great for knitting. The choice depends on your project, how much wear you imagine your piece will get, and your personal preference for look and feel.

Who Are You?

By now it’s no secret that Kathryn is out being a mommy, so who, you might ask, is this new voice on the Knitters Mercantile blog?

It’s me, Elizabeth, the newest addition to the Merc staff.

 Portrait, Spring 2013

In addition to being a knitter, I am a writer of novels and a lover of good literary fiction.

So next time you’re in the Merc, say hi, tell me what you’ve been reading lately and knitting lately, and we’ll get along just fine!