Demonic Progress

Signs of Summer & Yarn of the Month

Wooohooo! Yesterday they put the floats into the harbor:

That is a sure sign of summer around the corner! If the floats are there..... they will come...... and boy, they can't get here soon enough! I need customers!! :: grins rather desperately ::

Also, I got a newish product at Unique One, a tourist product, but if I had kids, I would want one. Years ago we sold wooden lobster pull-toys made by a very nice man in Sangerville, Maine, and they were a very popular item, not to mention a fun toy to play with when things were slow. Then for several years we couldn't get them anymore, but this year he called me and said they were available again, and would I like them? Yes, yes I would. :) So I got this box of 24 Larry the Lobster pull toys the other day, hand made wooden toys made right here in Maine! Only $25.95! No batteries required! Click here to see how fun they are (but you have to imagine you're only 3 years old, ok?).

Oh, and by the way, La Gran Mohair is May's Yarn of the Month! 20% off La Gran that I have in stock, all month long! Get fuzzy with it :)

Have a good day & happy knitting :)

New Sock Yarn :)

Hi! this is just a short post so I can get back to some knitting! woohoo!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I just got in a couple new sock yarns from Berroco! I literally just unpacked the boxes today, so they are not yet on my website, but until they are, you can stop by the store or call me toll free (1-888-691-8358) if you want to order any.

Due to the increased hue and cry for more more more more self-patterning sock yarns, I picked up Berroco Sox, a great wool/nylon self-patterning sock yarn. It is also great for fingerless mittens or hats, too. You can click here to look at the great colors that are available, but here is a little peek:

Berroco Sox sells for $12.95/100 gram ball. You can click here to get a Berroco Sox free pattern for a for a simple, easy to knit baby pullover!

The other new Berroco sock yarn that came is called Comfort Socks. Here is a sneak peek at what Comfort Sock looks like:

Now you KNOW that I am a natural fiber fiberholic. I love love love wool and alpaca and cotton and all that. But!! I am not the only knitter in the world (yeah, I know, hard to believe, eh?) and I actually get asked relatively often about sock yarn that doesn't contain any wool. Either the knitter can't or doesn't want to use wool, or the sock recipient can't or doesn't want to wear wool. Comfort Sock solves that problem! It is a sock weight/fingering weight yarn that is 50% nylon and 50% acrylic, and it is as soft as the proverbial baby's bottom (or any other baby's bottom, for that matter). It will be great for socks of course, but it is also fabulous for baby and kid things or anything that you want to be in a fingering weight, very very very soft, machine wash and dry, did I mention how freaking SOFT it is??? and cheap, too: only $7.95 per 100 gram ball. I'm not usually a big fan of synthetic yarns but wow, is this stuff nice. Hmmm it would feel quite lovely as a knit 2 purl 2 ribbed scarf around my delicate neck, hmmmmmmm..... and the colors are great too! I got 4 solid colors (white, navy, red, black, grey) and 5 variegated colors which are muted like a soft spring morning on the water.

You can look at Comfort Sock by clicking HERE and you can get a free doll pattern that uses Comfort Sock by clicking HERE. But be careful, you will probably want to knit Victor a whole wardrobe of doll clothes to go with him, too! And he could become Victoria instead of Victor pretty easily, really.

Have fun knitting and I will let you know about my project creep problems soon!!!

:)

Spindle Porn & Glass Lust

[edit] For some reason Typepad insists quite obstinately on putting in a football-field parcel of white space above each of my tables that I want to display my pictures in, in this post. Sorry. Just scroll down a bunch... pictures will eventually be found!

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Wow, new stuff keeps showing up at Unique One all the time, lately!!

Today was a very very very good day to be a yarn shop lady. I got to play with some of my favorite things in the whole world: fiber implements of creation, made of lovely, sexy glasssssssss..... :-)

First of all, I got glass hand spindles, works of art; Sheila & Michael Ernst, the creators of these lovely items, call them "Don't Drop" Spindles. They are made of Pyrex, so they are relatively durable, but you wanna bet I would have a nice thick pillow ready to catch these incredibly beautiful spindles. They are gorgeous, and when I set eyes upon them, for the first time in my life I really understood what my friend Kristin meant when she said that feeling the beautiful softness of cashmere makes her cry.... these spindles are so perfectly lovely, it bends my mind to look at them. And yet I cannot stop looking at them...

I only got 4 of them, two .75 ounce spindles, one the most delicate of pink and one a lovely, earthy blue. These retail for about $65 each (dang, I forgot to write down the prices of the spindles for my blogging later); two are 1.25 ounces, one clear with green and purple, and one clear with a gorgeous, deep, dark red. The heavier spindles sell for around $85. Here are the promised spindle porn pictures for you to grow weak in the knees:

Note this last picture .... the charming small glass balls on the rim of the spindle not only create weight, but they also keep the spindle from rolling around when you set it down. Great design!

In addition to glass spindles, I also received MORE glass implements to make my heart beat faster.... I have had glass circular needles for a while now; today I not only received a full shipment of more glass circular needles (they retail for $30.95), but I also got a brand new product: glass double pointed needles! The double pointed sets retail for $48.95. Here is more visual imagery to make you gasp:

In addition to the glass shipment, I am happy to tell you that we have the new Spring 2008 Interweave Knits magazine in stock:

Also, I got a shipment of the absolute newest Heartstrings Fiberarts patterns from Jackie E-S!!! Heartstrings fans, you have something to be thrilled with: here is a sneak peek at what new items Jackie has designed for you:

Lacy Wraps:

Beaded Socks:

That's it for now! Have a great day, and happy knitting! Oh, and by the way, if you are going to see me at the NETA Spa Knit & Spin in Freeport in a couple of weeks, I do plan to bring my glass collection with me! However, if you see anything in my pictures that you absolutely MUST HAVE, and are afraid someone else might snap it up before you can get to it, call me toll free 1-888-691-8358 and you can purchase it ahead of time. I will bring it to you at the Spa!

Hugs and wooly kisses :)

I Love Gadgets!

When I go to a yarn shop, I always look at what they have for knitting gadgets: stitch holders, row counters, tape measures, pins, and on and on. I love that stuff. I love to see the new, pretty colors of plastic; I love the funny little shapes or new kinds of materials that the gadget makers come up with. Knitting gadgets are like the pickles and olives of the dinner table.

Sooo..... we got in a shipment of needles yesterday, and it included some new -- to me -- gadgets, most of them from the KA company. You may have seen these in other shops, and they are probably widely available. But I never had seen them before, so they excite me!

Just in time for Valentine's.... heart-shaped stitch markers!

Sewing up your sweater might just be more fun with these bamboo needles!

And in the same bamboo vein.... bamboo marking pins! You could use these to pin your sweater together before you sew it up. :-) They also could make wicked cunnin' miniature yarn ball & needles Christmas ornaments.

You may have seen that bright green locking row counter? Well this is like if you mated it with the traditional red Katcha Katcha (non-locking) row counter. It is shaped like the Katcha Katcha but it locks like the green machine, and best of all it is pink pink pink pink PINK!!!

It's the little things in life that make me happy :)

Happy Knitting!