One of the things I pride myself on is my eco-sensibility.  In our house we recycle every bit we can, we use eco friendly cleaners, buy locally, eat organic and we try to uphold the same principles in the shop. We use eco-friendly cleaners, we try to carry as many eco-friendly yarns as possible and we also compost our shredded paper.

Now you can get involved too.  I’ve caught wind that folks are also composting their yarn scraps! Makes sense right? It’s natural, it’s biodegradable, why not?!

Cut up the scraps before putting them in.  It helps to speed up the biodegrading process and doesn’t get tangled when you have to turn it. Make sure you only put in natural fibers like cottons and wools.

PS: If you have open-topped container in the backyard–the birds will take the scraps to build their nests.  You’ll see bits of yarns in the trees.

I wanted to share this great idea from one of our teachers at Seed Stitch, Margie.

Margie uses these little spiral bound notebooks to help make her pattern reading easier and more transportable and I thought you all might like to learn from her.  Such a great idea.

First she grabs one of these little spiral notebooks and then attaches a locking key ring.  A shower curtain ring or other ring that allows you to easily open and close it like a carabiner might also work.

Then she photocopies the pattern from her book (of course purchased so she’s not violating copywrite laws) and cuts it up into manageable steps or pieces, pasting each step on individual pages of the little notebook.

Here you can see one of the pattern rows easily accessible and in the bottom snip it of the photo (yes I know this is a kind of crappy photo) you can see that Margie ticks off the rows as she does them so you always know where you are in the pattern.

Margie has found this to be a great way to take a pattern on the road, especially on the plane. She can attach this little book to the seat in front of her and easily flip the pages as she goes, never having to worry that it will fall under the seat in front of you.

Thanks so much Margie for this great trick!

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!

I’ve been drawn to wind my entire life.  Perhaps it was growing up on Cape Cod, on the tip of a peninsula jutting out into the ocean.  Perhaps it was the thought of where that wind has traveled from and where it will go.  Perhaps it was the sheer energy of it all, but regardless…I have always loved wind.  I was a sailor growing up and knew that wherever we settled it wouldn’t be home unless we were near the water to feel the energy of the wind and ocean.

So you can imagine how I feel when I saw this video combing two of my loves: wind and knitting!

This is a beautiful art project from Merel Karhof displayed in the Royal College of Art. Ooh those British knitters are so ingenious!

Find more on this project from Fast Company.

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.

The National Needle Arts Association is the group that helps shop owners, manufacturers, publishers, and designers, get together, share information and help foster needle arts broadly, including knitting and crochet, needlepoint, cross stitch, etc

They have engaged Hart Research to help us better understand the market in which we operate and help best tailor products to the customers we serve.  In the coming weeks you’ll have the opportunity to partake in a Seed Stitch survey to help us tailor our offering to our customers, but I ask all of you to also participate in this larger industry wide survey on your likes, dislikes, and needs.

We hope that this will help manufacturers and product makers create the best products for you and LYS’s like Seed Stitch to bring them to you with help, support, and community!

Take the Survey Now!

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 have many customers who come in and say I want to knit this pattern but don’t know what yarn to use.  Of course we are always more then willing to help, but we want to be able to educate as well so you can continually improve in your craft.

Matching up gauge between a yarn and a pattern is very important to get a good fit and help set you on the best foot forward to finishing a garment or object you’ll love.  Gauge is simply a measurement of the number of stitches and rows per inch of knitting. We need to understand how many stitches or rows per inch so we can understand how large or small our finished object will be.  An inch or two difference in the breast of a sweater or across the shoulder can really make a difference in how your project will look and wear when complete.

So what do you need to know when you’re looking at a skein of yarn?

You might see something like the below image on the tag such as this one from Blue Sky Alpaca Worsted Alpaca

Or you might see something like this as on the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran

Continue reading »

We received some of the new Amy Butler bags in the store recently and I decided I needed one to be my new summer purse.  It’s perfect for a momma who is constantly hauling around stuff for herself and for her tot and of course it has plenty of room for any knitting project I might want to toss in along the way.

These are now up on our online store, but I thought the pictures just didn’t do them justice.  You can’t get a sense of just how well made these bags are as well as see the functionality inside.  So wallah here you go A Yarn Tale’s first video product review!

Seed Stitch Fine Yarn: Amy Butler Crafting Bags from Seed Stitch Fine Yarn on Vimeo.

PS. When I hear myself talking on video I think I sound goofy.

One of my most anticipated new additions to the store is this scrumptious new yarn from Rowan called Lima.

It’s a worsted weight 84% alpaca 8% merino and 8% nylon that knits up 5 stitches per inch on a size 9. The construction of the yarn is one of the interesting things about it. It’s a woven construction, which looks like an I-cord, allowing it to feel lighter and loftier than a similar gauge and fiber content yarn. It comes in beautifully heathered colors and I think is sure to be one of the big yarns for the season.

Brea

As you can see there is also great pattern support for this yarn right out of the starting gate.

Deirdre

Rafferty

Again some nice men’s garments in this collection as well.

If you can’t fly to Peru, stop in to Seed Stitch in Mid July to bring a little Lima into your life.