Posted in Special Events, tagged black friday, sale on November 25, 2009| Leave a Comment »
We are having a great sale for Black Friday and Saturday —- the entire store will be 20 % OFF!
With a donation of a hand knit item for Crossroads Safehouse yarn can be purchased at 40 % OFF! 2 DAYS ONLY. Please remember Crossroads is really in need of hats and gloves/fingerless mitts for adult women.
No customer appreciation cards will be punched durning this SALE. No yarn will be wound durning these 2 busy days.
Have a great Thanksgiving!
Posted in New Arrivals, Yarn on November 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »
The long anticipated Madelinetosh yarn arrived late last week. We have both worsted and sock yarns in a smattering of colors. The yarn is fantastic with a wonderful hand and great depth of colors. The put ups of both weights is generous making it an economic choice for handdyed yarn. The semi-solid colors have just enough value contrast to make them fun to knit, but not so much that they compete with stitch patterns.
Check out some of the great patterns you can use this yarn for on Ravelry – sock and worsted.
Posted in Artist Profiles, tagged Artist Profiles on November 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Another Fort Collins-based designer we are proud to profile is Amanda Berka. She is a former assistant editor of Spin-Off Magazine and has had patterns published in several Interweave Press publications, including her Big Thaw men’s pullover in the current Holiday Knits magazine that was photographed here in the shop and house. You may also have knit or at least seen Amanda’s Squatty Sidekick or Feminine Mittens, both popular free patterns on Knitting Daily’s web site.
Like many, Amanda learned to knit from one of her grandmothers as a young girl. She took on knitting a long hat whose extra length also served as a scarf for her first project, but then knitting slipped from her interests until at the age of 16 she wanted a sweater in a department store. Her mother felt it would be better to invest in classes and yarn than in the pre-made sweater so Amanda would take better care of the garment. After the teacher insisted she work her way up to a sweater by knitting a scarf and mittens she finally got to knit her sweater which she still has – moms always know best, don’t they?
Whether choosing patterns to knit or designing her own, Amanda prefers simplicity with interesting details. This is evident not only in the pattern mentioned earlier but in this month’s free pattern – No Fuss Mitts. She chose to let the rustic luxury of Manos del Uraguay’s Silk Blend take center stage in a simple gusseted stockinette stitch fingerless mitt with all edges finished with a picot hem. As a wife, mom of two boys, 1 and 3 years old, and an engineer by day Amanda has slowed her knit design and teaching pace but still enjoys knitting when life allows.
Posted in Free Patterns, Knitting, tagged Amanda Berka, downloadable knitting pattern, fingerless mitts, free pattern, Knitting on November 6, 2009| 3 Comments »
The free pattern for the month of November is a great pair of fingerless mitts by Fort Colins designer, Amanda Berka.
These DK weight fingerless mitts are a less than one skein project using Manos del Urugay’s Silk Blend kettle dyed singles yarn. Amanda chose to highlight the rustic luxury of the yarn by keeping things simple. The mitts have a gusseted thumb for a comfortable fit and all edges are neatly and decoratively finished with picot edges.
This pattern is within the abilities of any knitter who has knit in the round. It is written for DPNs, but those who are comfortable with the 2-circ or magic loop methods should have no trouble converting to those methods. For more experienced knitters it is a quick and mindless knit perfect for KIP-ing or fast turn around gifting.
Download the knitting pattern, No Fuss Mitts by Amanda Berka (PDF file) by following the link.
Posted in Classes, Knitting, tagged Classes, colorwork, fair isle, hats, Knitting on November 4, 2009| Leave a Comment »
This Saturday you can learn everything you need to know about knitting stranded colorwork while carrying yarn in each hand. In the morning you will cast on for the crown of your A la Carte Hat (Rav link) and increase until the hat is the required circumference – no swatching required with this method! After a lunch break you will dive into two-handed stranded colorwork using any combination of the 8 colorwork patterns included in the hat pattern. By the end of the workshop you should be nearly done with the colorwork band and have only to finish off the hat with your preferred band/brim treatment.
You will also get to examine a variety of colorwork samples up close. They are knit in a wide variety of yarns and gauges so you can see how yarn selection impacts the final knit fabric and visibility of the colorwork. There will also be samples of different ways to cast-on at the crown and orient the increases for different visual effects.
The A la Carte Hat pattern is a multi-size and multi-gauge pattern that accommodates head sizes from newborn to XL adult in guages from 7-3 sts per inch. To ensure progress in the workshop I ask that you knit in worsted or aran weight yarn. The samples shown in this post were all knit with Cascade 220 on US 7s and US 5s for the ribbing. You will need approximately 120-150 yds of your main color and 50-75 yds of your contrast color for an average adult size hat in worsted weight yarn depending upon pattern combination you choose. Using stash yarn is fine. For class I recommend that both colors be the same yarn, though with experience you can mix yarn brands. Also please bring with you a few sizes of needles in either direction of that you prefer to knit your chosen yarn with.
You will need DPNs (or 2-circs or 1 40-in or longer circ if you prefer those methods of knitting in the round on smaller circumferences) in your chosen needles size. You will also need 16-in circs in your chosen needle size, plus 1-2 sizes larger and 2 sizes smaller.
See the complete supply list at http://blog.designedlykristi.com/?page_id=691
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