Punk sweater

Sandy D'Onofrio from Shepherdstown, WV is a prolific knitter and precise pattern tester (we use her often, so if you work a Y2Knit pattern without errors, you may have Sandy to thank for that!). Sandy has a college-age granddaughter that is the lucky recipient of this sweater. Too cool!

Helmet liners head to Iraq

John, the army guy who inspired our local helmet liner project came by on Thursday with his wife Melissa. They took away 150 helmet liners that he will take to Iraq. More hats have been delivered (like probably another 100), so if anyone knows a direct contact we can ship to, that would be great. Thanks to everyone who contributed!

Back from TNNA!

Jill and I had a great time at TNNA, as usual. We didn't get out to enjoy the lovely southern CA weather, as many have asked about. It was nice, but we only were outside in the morning and evening on our walk to or from the convention center.

In addition to setting up and manning our booth for three days (we are on our feet from 10-6!), we scout the hall (walking on our feet) looking for new and interesting yarn or related products. Not as much this time as others, though this show is smaller as the yarns being shown are mostly spring/summer yarns, not wool.

We're excited about the organic cotton from Malabrigo. Grown and spun in Peru, it is dyed in the same manner as their merino and the colors are great. We chose an earthy palette and some spring colors. Yummy!
Speaking of Yummy, Universal Yarn has a new sock yarn called Yummy and the colors are just that. We've already designed in their Sea Song (cotton and sea cell) and have worked up several of our patterns in other Fibra Natura yarns distributed by Universal. The design, Sea Song, was in the fashion show and the pattern will be available soon. I don't have a picture yet, though you can glimpse it at the far left of the picture here--a salmon color.

Also in the fashion show was a new design by Jill, MustHave Lace Top. I'll get a picture up soon! It's in Kraemer's Sterling Silk & Silver.

We bought some yarn from a new company, Chameleon Colorworks. We're trying their hand dyed Optim, a stretched merino. More to come on that when we have it on hand.

Other orders included some handmade stitch markers, new sock yarns from Skacel and some cotton from Farmhouse Yarn to support one of our new patterns.

Great to go--great to be home!

Helmet Liner Update

Right now, I have about 40 helmet liners that local knitters have dropped off at the shop. Melissa was in yesterday for Charity Knitting, very excited because John will be home on leave from Iraq next week. When he goes back, he will take whatever helmet liners we have collected and distribute them.

Another customer, Jennifer Marble, has been knitting liners and sent one to her son, who is in Iraq with the MD National Guard. She brought me copies of emails he sent; the relevant parts follow:

"THESE HATS ARE AMAZING!!!! Did you knit them yourself? They're wonderful, I can't even describe how cool they are. Hopefully they are either very durable, or can be found/recreated again because I promise we'll wear them constantly. "

"The hats are so amazing, all I think about are these hats. Eventually, I would like one a little smaller to see how that fits, but these are already amazing how they are. They're probably the best gift I can remember getting in a long time. "

Once again, the power of knitting!

Thanks to everyone who has worked on this project.