Knitters Mercantile Blog

This just in….Plymouth Yarns! We are restocked with Baby Alpaca Grande and we have new yarns too!

All of the Baby Alpaca Grande yarns are 100% alpaca and bulky weight. You absolutely must touch this stuff. It is incredibly soft!

We have Baby Alpaca Grande Tweed.

We have Baby Alpaca Grande Hand Dyes.

We have Baby Alpaca Grande Glow. It’s brand new!

Look at that sparkle!

And speaking of sparkle, check out Holiday Lights. It’s new too! It’s a machine wash and dry acrylic/wool blend. This worsted weight yarn would look great in a holiday accessory or featured in some holiday decorations.

Last we have Dolce Vita. Check out this crazy stuff! Its a super bulky wool blend. Instructions are included on the label for a super fast finger crochet scarf.

These are pictures of only just a few of the colors in each of these yarns. Come into the shop to see them all!

I’m starting a tradition. I just decided this. I am going to post a free pattern every Friday and call it “Free Pattern Friday.” There are so many fabulous free patterns out there on the interwebs, from yarn companies to indie designers to the person who created an awesome object and wanted to share the idea. And I like sharing, don’t you?

 So, for our inaugural Free Pattern Friday I give you the Mayfaire Camisole by Corrina Ferguson. 

It’s August which means its still summer and camisoles are great for summer (or you could even layer over it in Fall). Here is the blurb from the pattern.

This simple summer camisole is edged on the bottom by a lovely plantation lace pattern which scallops nicely all by itself. The waist shaping is full fashioned—perfect to show off an hourglass figure. The top is easily adjustable to your specific measurements, as each ten stitch repeat of the plantation lace adds two inches of width to the bottom edging. Worked up in Classic Silk, it is the perfect summer staple—lovely on its own or fancy enough to wear under a shawl or jacket on a cooler day.

So go to the pattern page on the Classic Elite website and download this pattern for free!

 Happy Friday and happy knitting!

Back in June some of us got together for a knit along. The pattern of choice was the Bermuda scarf/shawl. 

 Then back in July I promised to take and post pictures of all the lovely finished Bermudas that we finished. Well, I say “we” loosely. I, sigh, confess mine isn’t done yet. But take a  look at these beautiful examples that ARE finished!

 The lovely Carol’s Bermuda in Noro Taiyo Sock.

The delightful Regina’s Bermuda, also in Noro Taiyo Sock.

The engaging Susan and her Bermuda made out of Ruca.

 The effervescent Andrea’s Bermuda in Kudo.

And last but most certainly not least here is the ineffable Kay’s Bermuda, also in Noro Taiyo sock.

I ran across this today on the interwebs and it blew my socks off!

The artist Rachel Denny created this deer head out of a recycled cabled sweater. She has a whole series of them too! From her website:

These deer trophies are a playful take on traditional hunting and gathering for the hearth and home. Each deer mount is unique and hand made in my studio, so no two will ever be the same.

I love people that can take a item that has been discarded and breathe new life into it, especially when it is an old knitted item!

Felting wool sweaters is an awesome, easy, and economical way to reuse older sweaters. Simple square coasters are one of the easiest projects to make from a felted sweater. CraftyCrafty has great links to a cabled storage box and a picnic blanket, both crafted from felted sweaters!

According to the fabulous Pantone Fashion Color Report, Fall 2011 is all about ” Sensible and Spirited” colors for women.

 I’m totally loving bamboo, deep teal, and coffee liqueur. What do you like?

There is a fabulous article in Slate about Ravelry. It echoes something that I have heard more than a few times in the last few months - that one of the best (if not THE best) social media sites out there today is Ravelry. It’s tiny compared to Facebook but it is industry specific and its members are incredibly devoted to it. There is no other site quite like out there on the interwebs.

 I find it an absolutely invaluable tool in my daily knitting life. It is a gargantuan library of patterns, yarn, and designers and it is all cross referenced. If I need an idea of what to do with a particular yarn I can look it up on Rav and instantly see what other people have done with it. I can see individual reviews of the yarn, I can sort the finished projects by item (like baby blanket or socks), I can sort by yarn color, I can see all of the combinations of that yarn with a particular pattern. Seriously, the list goes on and on. In fact, I love Ravelry so much I could keep going on and on and on……

So check out the article, explore Ravelry more, and go out and spread some Ravelry love. It is an incredible site that we are so lucky to have!

 I just love Gebera Daisies, don’t you? They are so perky and playful looking and they come in a million different colors.

 I have a very brown thumb so unfortunately plants never live too long at my house. But knitted flowers never die! Check out this free pattern for a Gebera Daisy on ODDknit.

You could knit one as a gift for somebody or just have a couple in a vase on your kitchen table. And you wouldn’t have to worry about wilting or the cat eating it. Now that’s the kind of flower I’m talking about.

As you may have already seen in our weekly email newsletter or on the display we have at the shop, we are conducting a calendar contest! On the Road with Knitters Mercantile (our 2012 calendar title) is travel themed. Check out our inspiration board below.

Here is the basic deal - we are looking for knitters and crocheters of all experience levels to submit original designs relating to different categories of travel. Twelve winning designs will be selected with one design featured in the calendar and in the store for every month of the year. All patterns will be sold exclusively by Knitters Mercantile in 2012. All profits from the calendar and pattern sales will be donated to the Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research. Cool, right?

You can find all the rules and the entry form on our website through the calendar contest link. Or just click here.

Now for the contest categories. Winning designs will be chosen based in part on how the design relates to a category. The full list is:

Holiday! Celebrate! (seasonal and holiday travel)

Hug a Tree (eco travel)

Are We There Yet? (traveling with children)

One If By Land, Two If By Sea (different modes of transportation)

When in Rome (location appropriate attire or accessories)

A Night on the Town (small projects to add pizzazz)

Away Games (for the sports and games enthusiast)

Can You Hear Me Now? (staying connected when on the road)

Keeping It Simple (beginner or “no think” projects)

In an effort to get people thinking about the contest categories and get those creative juices flowing, I’m featuring some of the contest categories in the email newsletter and here.

Holiday! Celebrate! is the seasonal and holiday travel category. The holiday seasons of November through the beginning of January is a time of year when we tend to travel a lot. Do you take gifts for the holiday you are celebrating to the people you are visiting? Do you take a host/hostess gift when you are staying at someone’s house? Seasonal and holiday travel doesn’t just mean the last few months of the year. Do you travel for the 4th of July? For Memorial Day? How could a hand knit or crocheted item enhance your trip? Or is there a particular item that would be a great souvenir of your trip?

Our eco travel category is Hug a Tree. Eco could mean a hand knit or crocheted item that can replace an item that is usually thrown away, like a coffee cup cozy or a mop cover. Eco could also mean an item that is made with recycled and/or renewable fibers. Rowan’s Purelife Renew is made with 93% recycled wool. Berroco’s Remix is made with 100% recycled fibers!

Are We There Yet? is all about traveling with children. Traveling with kids can be both fun and challenging. They can bring a sense of joy and excitement to a trip but they can also intensify the impatience and frustration we often feel with a lot of the hurry-up-and-wait part of traveling. Is there a project you could design that could help keep children occupied while on the road? Perhaps a game or a knitted toy? Is there a simple project that you could teach kids to keep them occupied. How about an extra hat or mitten to throw in your suitcase in case the weather turns cold?

One If By Land, Two If By Sea relates to different modes of transportation. Almost all of our travel involves planes, trains, and automobiles. How can a knit or crocheted project be geared toward a particular mode of transportation? Do your feet always get cold on airplanes? How about a lap blanket for that train trip in the winter? A cup holder for taking your soda in the car? Or a mask for your eyes when you want to take a nap?

Remember that these suggestions are just that - suggestions. Let your imagination go with these contest categories.

Happy designing and good luck! We can’t wait to see your entries!

We here at Knitters Mercantile love sharing. We love it when our customers bring in their projects to share with us. We love it when people email us pictures of their knitterly adventures. People sharing with us makes us want to share with others! See? It’s like a whole circle kind of thing.*

 In that vein, we just received some great pictures from Lorilee Beltman’s Felted Loafer Slippers class at Knitters Connection.

All of these pictures are from Pat Bates and were passed on to us from Lorilee. Check out Pat’s great before and after pictures of her own felted slippers!

Lorilee’s pattern uses two strands of chunky weight yarn held together. They are knit seamlessly in the round and use Judy’s Magic Cast On and the magic loop method. They would make a fabulous gift for somebody, don’t you think?

*I was about to go all Care Bear on everybody and say something like “Sharing is Caring” but I felt that was entirely too cheesy so I left it out. Or did I?

 As you may already know, we currently have two KALs happening. Ruth is doing a Rock Island Shawl KAL on Thursday evening from 6 - 8 p.m. I (Kathryn) am doing a Bermuda KAL on Tuesday afternoons from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. The last meet up for the Rock Island Shawl will be July 7 and the last date for Bermuda will be July 12.

Now, we love KALs around here and want to do more. In fact we are tenatively planning to do one a month every month through the end of the year (and beyond that too, but we’re only planning things out so far ahead right now, you know what I mean?).

My question to you is this - what would you like to do as a KAL? Is there some awesome new pattern that you would like to tackle with other people? An old classic perhaps? Keep in mind that we are planning on doing a different one every month so an epic project like a full cabled blanket might not be the best choice. But hey, if enough people want to do it then we’re open to it too!

And we don’t want to leave those crocheters out either. Got a crochet pattern you want to do?

So, what would you like to see as a knit along? Leave a comment here, on the thread on Ravelry, or just stop by the shop and let us know!