We were so excited to host Stephen West at Seed Stitch.  What an inspiration he is to so many knitters and he was even more charming and inspiring in person!

As usual, we had a great group of students for Stephen’s workshop where he walked through some of the basics of shawl making as well as some of his best tips and tricks.  Everyone learned something whether they were relatively new knitters or long time experts and EVERYONE walked away inspired.

Look at all these amazing pieces from Stephen

Stephen started by giving us an overview of his approach to shawl making — one of his signature shapes. Hear what he had to say:

Stephen West at Seed Stitch from Seed Stitch Fine Yarn on Vimeo.

Stephen was so inspired by a Boneyard Shawl that Michele had knit in the shop using Rowan Denim that he was inspired to make his own! And started a Summer Boneyard KAL on Ravelry. Here’s Stephen’s finished Denim Summer Boneyard!

Seriously great huh?

Stephen used 6 skeins of colorway 225, Nashville

How about casting on one of these babies this summer!

Thanks so much for joining us Stephen. We all had a blast!

Thanks so much to the folks that joined us for Amy Singer’s, of Knitty.com fame,  Plug and Play shawl workshop.  We had to much fun.  Amy is loads of fun and of course an amazing wealth of knowledge.  She walked us through the basics of how to become the designer of a shawl that we each love!

What a group!

We had such a fun group of folks join us at the class.  As I watched the group I could really see the student’s creativity come loose and their brains working hard to think about the possibilities and which option they might choose for their project.  And Oh the yarns! It was so cool to see the different yarn choices by folks for these shawls.  I can’t wait to see some finished projects.

Amy talked about many great tips around lace knitting.  Below she talks about the virtues of a lifeline.  If you haven’t used a life line before you may just want to start.

Amy Singer Talks about a “Life Line” at Seed Stitch from Seed Stitch Fine Yarn on Vimeo.

Hard at work

If you haven’t visited the Knitty.com website you really must.  It’s an amazing online publication with loads of amazing patterns and information.

Thanks again Amy!

We are so lucky to have so many amazing designers visit Seed Stitch and the fun’s not over.  Stephen West of WestKnits will be visiting us for a workshop and trunkshow on Saturday May 29th.

Stephen is one of today most promising young knitwear designers. He has a rapidly growing and loyal Ravelry following, with many of his designs having over 700 completed Ravelry projects. One hallmark of Stephen’s design is his ability to showcase the full potential of the yarn by combining simple stitch patterns with clever, functional, and versatile shaping.

Stephen will showcase his original designs to discuss construction, shape, increases, bind offs, and blocking. The skills discussed in this session will be highly transferable to other types of projects and designs and is a great workshop for knitters looking to learn shaping techniques and move past the basics. The class will highlight some knitting fundamental skills such as M1R/M1L (make 1 right, make 1 left) increases, yarn overs, Stephen’s favorite cast ons, bind offs, and blocking tips.

We were so fortunate to host Cameron Taylor-Brown, a noted artist and the West Coast rep for Westminster Fibers, for a workshop in Color Play.  Those who attended, learned so much and had fun with color in a totally new way.

First we started off by sorting seemingly unrelated yarns into an amazing color wheel.

Isn't this amazingly beautiful?!!!

From there, each of us choose an inspiration photo from nature and then created little “window” with which we could isolate a small portion of that photo to help focus out color selection.

Choosing a smaller section of the photo helps to make color selection easier.

Next up, pick out yarns from the color wheel that were found in the section of the inspiration photo.

Perfect huh?

Now onto the fun stuff. Cameron has a great technique she calls yarn wraps.  It’s a way of sketching with yarn.  You grab a strip of cardboard and wrap your various color selections around, each wrap representing a line of knitting.  This technique allows you to better understand how one color will relate to another or the proportion or one color to another.

Here you can see how a pile of yarns turns into a "yarn sketch" or a yarn wrapping

Hear directly from Cameron about how to color wrap.

Cameron Taylor-Brown Color Play Workshop — Color Wrappings from Seed Stitch Fine Yarn on Vimeo.

Each of us applied this color technique to a project.  Some made a bag, some made cowls, and one made a hot water bottle.

You can see the start of one lovely here:

This will be a stunning cabled cowl!

To see more photos and inspiration from this amazing workshop check out the gallery on our Facebook page. If you’re interested in learning this amazing technique, stay tuned.  We have some fun events in mind for the coming season where we leverage this, a sense of community, and your stash.

We’re so excited to announce an exciting new event.  We’ve teamed up with Alanna Nelson from Tactile Travel to offer this fabulous Craft and Cuisine Vacation package to Vermont — July 5th through July 9th 2010.

Take some time for yourself on this amazing Vermont Craft and Cuisine Vacation

The five day journey begins in Boston, where a coach picks up the group bound for Burlington. Along the way, share your favorite ways to create with the group. During Vermont Craft and Cuisine, all types of pursuits are celebrated: quilting, knitting, spinning, crochet, weaving, etc. The creative home during the trip will be The Essex, which is a AAA four diamond culinary resort and spa. This area of southern Vermont is home to more than 30 weavers, spinners, drummers, cheesemakers, glass blowers, painters and sculptors. Several artists will open their studios to welcome interested Tactile Travelers.

Your tour includes:

• 4 nights lodging
• Breakfasts and dinners
• Ground transportation for group activities
• Secured group workshop space
• Entrance to museums, tastings and attractions included in itinerary

$895 per person, double occupancy,
$230 single supplement

This package is available to Seed Stitch customers and fan from far and wide.   Find out more information via the Tactile Travel website here

When booking here, please enter promotional code SSVT

Reservations must be booked by June 1st 2010.

Oooooh isn’t this exciting!

If you participated in the first first annual North Shore Yarn Crawl, you know just how much fun it was.  Everyone who walked in the door was having an absolute blast exploring all the North Shore fiber goodness.  As you know, it poured rain the entire time but it didn’t slow folks down or spoil their fun.

Each shop had something different to offer and I think the shop owners had as much fun as the Crawlers.  And boy did we have Crawlers! Just about 600 of you joined us over the four days.  A few who completed all 12 shops looked like they might actually be crawling by the time they were done, but they still had a smile on their face and some fabulous fiber finds in their hands.

So many folks have been asking for a wrap up and info about the winners.  It’s been so hectic this month and we’ve all been working hard to notify winners so apologies for the slow update.  The crawl had at least 50 winners and probably more than I even know about because each shop offered different prizes and promotions of their choosing.  I know that someone won something in our shop every hour!

So congrats to:

Nancy, Rachel, Sally, Kelly, Aaron, Nancy, Karen, Deb, Nancy, Lisa, Cindy, Elaine, Diane, Linda, Christina, Jess, Carol, Teresa, Tricia, Lauren, Karen, Mary, Abby, Mary Jo, Louise, Gail, Allison, Jean, Kelly, Kelly, Sheila, Janette, and sooo many more!

Many have also asked if there will be a repeat next year and never fear we’re all working on plans for Yarn Crawl 2011!  If you’re interested in staying up to date as we get closer to a 2nd annual event, sign up at www.ayarncrawl.com for updates specifically about a crawl next year.

We had an amazing time last Friday night, March 5th, with Jane and Ken from Jade Sapphire for our Cashmere and Cocktails event.  If you haven’t squished Jade Sapphire yarn yet, you simply must.  It’s amazingly beautiful.

Jane and Ken only embarked on this expedition with Jade Sapphire seven years ago because of a lack of access to cashmere yarns for knitting and now are the leading distributor of cashmere yarns for hand knitting in the U.S.

This is Jane, talking to some of our customers about yummy cashmere

We asked Jane why the yarns are labeled by the ply of the yarn, e.g. 2ply, 4ply, 8 ply, etc., rather than by gauge.  she explained to us that she didn’t want to limit knitters and “knit them into a box” so speak by dictating the needle size.  Above she was showing off a long swatch where she knit with the 4 ply from a size 3 needle all the way up to a 10 and the fabric performed beautifully on all.

This is Ken, talking to us about where the cashmere comes from.

Ken and Jade recently visited the region where the cashmere yarn comes from and visited the facilities where it’s process to understand not only the process and quality, but to make sure the goats were happy and healthy as well as the workers in the plants.  What a great company huh?  Squishly yarns that are also socially conscious.

Just a glimps of garments on display during the event

Can you imagine having this many cashmere scarves?

It was a full house that night.  Thanks to everyone who attended the event.  You walked away with some fabulous cashmere, some new info, and hopefully it a great time.

Thanks everyone!

Two updates: We were so excited about squishing cashmere and talking to folks we forgot about door prizes!  So I’ll be drawing from the list of folks who attended and will call you if you win a prize!  Seriously isn’t that awesome!

Also, many customers have since asked where I purchased those AMAZING cupcakes. They were from Kiss Ass cupcakes in Somverville and were all gluten free because I’m a Celiac!

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.

I’m so excited to announce that we are organizing a yarn crawl this spring to some of Boston’s North Shore’s amazing yarn shops.

As many of you already know, Boston’s North Shore is an amazing place and we have a wealth of awesome fiber shops, each with their own personality and something special to offer. As the new kid on the block, I decided it would be fun to get us all together and organize a crawl just when we are fighting the last doldrums of winter and need something to really look forward to.

Enter A Yarn Crawl 2010!

Sign up for more info on the website

We have nine amazing stores participating. Stay tuned for more info in the coming days.

See participating stores

Before I left for vacation, we were so lucky to host Sharon Brant from Rowan for an amazing workshop on how to “Suit a Garment to You”. It was a fabulous experience for all who were able to attend.

Sharon started us off with a discussion about how we should approach a pattern and think about how it might fit around areas of “focus” for each one of us.

Sharon then helped each one of us create our own custom template to use to modify any pattern to our own individual shape.  We figured out how to look at the width of our shoulders, length of our torso, etc and tweak the pattern measurements to best fit each frame.  It was fantastic!

Seed Stitch was a busy place that Tuesday night.  We not only hosted Sharon, but we had two of our regular session classes running, beginning knit with Cindy and My First Sweater with Sumner.  So we were all a bit squeezed but it made for a fun, festive, and inspiring night.

After a fantastic workshop, but one filled with quite a bit of math as we measured and modified, we ended the night with a celebratory sip of champagne!

Also check out Sharon’s project journal from her trip to Seed Stitch on KnitRowan.com