One of our favorite and best selling books this year has been 60 Quick Knits, which features some fabulous projects for the whole family using Cascade 220, another perennial favorite!  It’s so hard to pick a favorite project from this book and it’s even harder with Rhonda, one of our fab teachers, keeps bringing in projects from the book.

20 of the 60 projects

Rhonda is quickly working her way through this book.  She’s worked up 20 projects so far and at this rate she might make it through the whole book by year end!

Trysh Lynch, one of our talented teachers, brought in some show and tell last night during our community knit night.

Look at this amazing cashmere twin set!

Trysh is what I call a no boundaries knitter/crocheter.  She often works without a pattern, is a fearless experimenter, and is always adorned in some really interesting and beautiful hand made garment.

She whipped up this AMAZING twin set out of our Jade Sapphire 2ply cashmere. It’s a stunning color, not well shown here because of the shop lights. The shell underneath is made with her leaning hearts crochet about which she was a featured lecturer at the Topsfield fair.

Here is a close up where you can see the detail

The leaning hearts crochet runs horizontally and is a beautiful compliment to the knit short sleeve cardi that is over top and has a vertical line to it.

I wish we could have “squoosh-a-vision” here because the hand on this garment is so scrumptious after it’s been worked and blocked.  Trysh is now working on a linen skirt to accompany this outfit.  Simply stunning!

Our very own Laurie Bellin!  So many state and county fairs have amazing hand craft exhibits.  Unfortunately, ours (Topsfield Fair) has in years past been a bit lack luster.  HOWEVER, last year the Fair decided to really step things up last year and the quality and interesting things submitted have been wonderful.

Some of the top talents from around our area have participated, including Laurie Bellin.  If you haven’t met Laurie yet, she’s a wonderful part of our team.  She is an amazing teacher and is also some of the stitchery behind our finishing and fixes services at Seed Stitch.

This year Laurie submitted a garment in the pattern design exhibit at the Fair and won a Blue Ribbon!

Isn't it wonderful!

If you’re in the shop and see Laurie, please make sure to congratulate her.  We may even be lucky enough to have it on display following the close of the Fair.

One of my favorite yarns from last season was Rowan’s Alpaca Cotton.  Its such a beautiful yarn and unlike anything else on the market. The construction is really interesting.  The core is a like a tiny fishnet stocking made of cotton and the alpaca is blown into it, making this really soft fuzzy yarn.  Oh and did I mention it’s machine washable?!!

Last season it came in a beautiful array of naturals and this season it’s back with COLORS!

6 Beautiful New Colors in this Favorite Yarn

Rowan featured a beautiful book called Winter Solace, which has been admired by so many who walk in the shop as we have a gorgeous shop model of the poncho below.

A favorite garment in our shop

We love Winter Solace and Rowan has come out with another new and amazing book this year, featuring all of their alpaca yarns called Homestead Classics. I have my eye on this one:

Cute huh?

This book features not only Rowan Alpaca Cotton but also Lima, another favorite yarn.

I’m so excited to tell you about one of our customers, Katie Long from the UK.  Katie came to us through the online shop to order some glow in the dark yarn - , one of our online favorites!  After processing the order, I emailed Katie to connect about her order and that’s when Katie told me her story and we embarked on a pen pal relationship as her projects evolved.

Katie was finishing her degree at University and was working on her final collection — a group of designs for children using fibers and dyes with low impact and a design sense to help combat a child’s fear of the dark.  Enter Seed Stitch and our glow in the dark yarn!

Here is a quick look at some of Katie's collection

Katie told us a bit about what inspired her collection.  Here’s what she had to say:

“I am fascinated by progressive and innovative textiles and design. In my opinion there is great potential for knitted textiles in interiors and they can equally rival the position of woven textiles. For me, knit should be visually exciting and tactile with a well considered colour palette. As opposed to buying pre-dyed yarns, I have created a soft and calming colour palette by hand dying all my yarn with homemade natural dyes. Because of my very keen interest in textiles, I like to embellish my work with hand and machine stitch, so creating very tactile surface qualities in my work. I have exploited these qualities of knitted objects to appeal to a wide range of markets. I have also found a way of providing a soft alternative to the traditional night light by using glow in the dark yarn to combat a child’s fear of the dark.”

These building blocks are stitched with glow in the dark yarn around the edges.

Another lovely design from Katie. Don’t you love the mix of traditional knit coupled with embellishments and sewing?

Glow in the dark yarn is also used throughout this blanket.

I think Katie has a very bright future and we were quite excited to have been part of it’s start, even if from afar.

If there is one thing we love to do at Seed Stitch is inspire new folks to pick up needles or a hook and knit and crochet.  It’s so great to see students work through questions and technique and create a craft of their own.  We’ve had the privileged of teaching so many students at Seed Stitch and we thought that those you thinking about taking a class or pondering whether you can knit or crochet yourself might want to hear from some students just like you.

Nikki and Susan learn to knit at Seed Stitch from Seed Stitch Fine Yarn on Vimeo.

We have so many amazing teachers and Nikki and Susan learned to knit in Andrea’s beginning knit class.

If you’ve been around our shop at all this season or taken a look at the class list, you’ll notice that our Latvian Mitten class, taught by Laurie Bellin, has been all the rage. We’ve run this class numerous times. Student’s have felt like they’ve climbed a mountain but ended up triumphant and like they can tackle anything. One key discussion we’ve noticed during each of the classes is about color dominance and I thought I’d share a little bit more info about it here and a great example.

In stranded knitting,often referred to as fair isles knitting, you carry the multiple colors of yarn in the back of your work.  As the yarns travel along behind the work, one strand will be carried below the other. This bottom strand of yarn will become slightly more prominent in the finished object. This is because its stitches will be just a fraction larger than the stitches of the other strand.

It might not seem like this could all make a big difference, but it really can. One student in the latest class gave us a terrific example of what can happen when one yarn becomes dominant over the other and how it can affect a finished object.

Can you see it? No it's not an optical illusion.

Here you can see just how one color can be more dominant over the other and what happens if you don’t keep the dominant yarn consistent.

Many experienced knitters suggest the contrasting color should ride below the main color when being stranded behind the work. Therefore the main color would be the top yarn and the contrast would be the bottom yarn.

To help you remember which yarn goes in which hand or rides above or below you may want to write it on your pattern just as you do when you jot down which symbol on you chart matches each color use. For example:
Black = background color / right hand or top yarn
White = contrast color / left hand or bottom yarn

Thanks to Jenny for lending us her pics of the gorgeous mitts and showing us a fabulous example of color dominance.

We’ve had such a great class line up this winter. Not just because of the large number of classes we’ve been able to offer but because of our amazing line up of teacher and the energy and excitement of the students who’ve signed up.

This Sunday was no different. I caught the tale end of our Dorset button class, taught by a new addition to our teaching staff, Jules Means. I walked in to a bunch of smiling faces and lots of jubilation!

See don't they look excited?

Jules really got the ladies’ creative juices flowing.  The table was heaped with yarn in all colors and weights as well as some finished buttons to showcase what can be done.

A seriously inspirational table

The students ended up with some fantastic finished projects.  Also make sure to check out a blog post from fellow SSFY teacher and (on Sunday) student, Rhonda Culbert, about her experience in the class.

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Isn't this beautiful

We hope to run this class again in the coming weeks.  If you’re interested in joining the next session.  Give the shop a call and ask to be put on the list.  Once we have the date secured we’ll give you a call and try to get you registered.  As a reminder, check out our class policy and pre-payment is required to secure your spot in any class as the demand for them is so high.

As you know we are big fans of the Debbie Bliss Knitting Magazine (NOW AVAILABLE) and we’re lucky enough to be able to give you guys a sneak peak of the upcoming Fall Winter 2009 issue due out in September.

I was able to see some of the model garments at TNNA.  There are some fantastic patterns and projects including “The Brit Home” which give the issue some English elegance with six  patterns including Union Jack cushions, a Welsh blanket and an Argyle dog bean bag.  There is a whole section on tweeds, some patterns from the Bears, Blankets, and Booties book, and patterns for toddlers showcased including hats, gloves and scarves in playful animal themes.

Some glamorous knits for a night out on the town using elegant and luxury fibers.  As well there is a feature called the “Big Softie” using bulky yarns — four patterns, including two for men.

The Fall Winter 2009 issue will feature Donegal Tweed, Alpaca Silk Aran, Rialto, Cashmerino Aran (one of our shop favorites), Baby Cashmerino, Como, and others.

Debbie Bliss doesn’t disappoint in this issue and I think they just keep getting better and better.  We’ll let you know when it arrives and will surely have samples knit up to inspire.

Updated August 24th 2009: This is now available at our online store. Buy it Now

When Seed Stitch customer, Maxine Hartley called from her home in Avila Beach, California she said she just had to pick up Debbie Bliss’ Spring/Summer magazine and make this adorable sweater and hat set for her co-worker’s new daughter, Parker. Happy to oblige, we sent this Debbie Bliss Prima in pink right to her vacation spot in Florida over the winter so she could work on it there.

Isn't Parker adorable in this sweater set?

Waa Laa…Here is the finished project from the West Coast. Maxine thanks for sharing this with us and with Parker, too!!

We just recieved some more copies of Debbie’s summer magazine in the store if you didn’t get a chance to pick one up yet.  The next issue is due on the shelves in September.