We’re reviewing new yarns here at A Yarn Tale.   We thought it might be fun to showcase new yarns for the season as they come in and talk about why we like them, why we picked them, and give you some ideas about what you might do with them.

Next up: Rowan British Sheep Breeds Boucle.  I am dreaming of what do with this yarn and having a hard time choosing which one because I keep thinking of ideas.

See super soft and cuddly

This yarn is a super soft cuddly yarn that is wonderfully sheepy, but not rough and scratchy because it’s made from wonderful Bluefaced Leicester wool.

I'm leaning toward this one. Super cozy right?

So many possibilities with this yarn that knits up at about 2-2.5 stitches per inch. However it only comes in one lovely creamy color, Ecru.  This is the natural wool color and it’s beautiful.

Even though its a boucle, it still works great for cables.

All of these patterns are found in a new book this season from Rowan called Purelife Autumn.

This would be a quick knit and a great wearable piece.

Also thinking of this for a great cuddly hat, leg warmers or how about a fabulous knit toy! Buy it here.

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.

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!

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!

Every issue at the beginning of the Debbie Bliss Magazine, Debbie give us little snip its of inspiration.  In the fall issue she showcased some vintage end papers from knitting books of the 20s, 30s, and 40s.  Well we got so excited.  Michele, one of our very own Seed Stitchers, has been collecting books from this era and Odhams Press Ltd. and had many of the same end papers featured in the magazine.  I can’t tell you how amazing it is to leaf through these old books and see the fashions, read the funny nuances of the text, laugh at some, and think “oh that one I could really make”.

My imagination is alive with the possibilities of how we might be able to leverage these end papers at Seed Stitch.

However the inspiration does stop there!  We loved these old patterns so much we’ve decided to create a vintage knit along from these oldies but goodies.  We are going to be working out the logisitcs of the knit along over the next few weeks and will chat with you all about it as Fall gets rolling.  Ooooohhhhh so exciting!

One of the things we’ll be introducing more into the Seed Stitch line up are products that are eco-friendly, local or sustainable.  However, we’re not willing to give up great design, lovely hand feel, and we don’t want to have to pay a fortune.

At TNNA I was lucky enough to meet the team from Imperial Stock Ranch.  These guys are truly doing it right.  Located in Shaniko Oregon, this 30,000 acre, family owned and operated ranch is a nationally recognized historic site.  “The Imperial Stock Ranch works closely with numerous public and private agencies on projects ranging from sustainable practices to wildlife restoration and preservation to help create an even healthier ranch environment.”

The fibers from the ranch come from their herd of Columbia sheep and all of the “wool is custom milled without harsh chemicals or extreme temperatures, leaving it comfortable, soft and pure.”  All the colors are inspired from the unbelievable landscape of the ranch and use low impact dyes.  Here is another really great thing about this company — the yarns are actually spun in North America, which a rarity in today’s industry and they are looking for outlets to spin and process the yarn right here in the good old USA in the near future.  As well, some of their new colors are actually all natural dyes from coffee grounds from the ranch and surrounding areas as well as other gorgeous colors from merlot grapes.

So what will you see from these guys at Seed Stitch?  We will have some amazing accessory kits in the store soon.

This not so great iPhone picture just doesn't do them justice. But you get the idea right? Super cool?

Imperial Stock Ranch teamed up with Leigh Radford (who we love from AlterKnits and now her new book, AlterKnits Felt) to create these amazing felfted bracelet designs.  We’ll also be getting in some knit and then felted hat and scarf kits.  They are not to be missed.  Another interesting product I picked up from Imperial while at TNNA is some super soft pencil roving.  We’re going to play with it in the shop and we’ll let you know what we think.

Spud and Chloe, the new line from Blue Sky Alpaca (BSA) is here.  Come in and check it out.  We hope it will be up on our online store soon for our out of town friends.

Spud and Chloe was by far one of the freshest and most exciting new products available at TNNA.  Not only is the yarn beautiful but BSA has done an unbelievable job in branding this yarn, creating a true knitting experience.  Their booth stood out from so many others at the show.

Spud and Chloe had an adorable camping theme

This adorable hat pattern is called hoot and we have it in the store

Spud and Chloe also have a fabulous new blog, moderated by Susan B. Anderson How wonderful is this cupcake pattern?

And of course the original Blue Sky line was not to disappoint.  Great new colors and patterns for Fall to be in the store soon.  This section of the booth was filled with style and elegance and showed us that yarn can truly inspire in so many ways.

It looks good enough to eat. Doesn't it?

Another great part of the Blue Sky booth was meeting the folks on the other end of the phone at Blue Sky.  It’s such an amazingly friendly talented bunch of folks there and it was fantastic to get to meet them all in person.   I know that walking around this booth really got my creative juices going and hopefully these pictures will give you a little taste of that same feeling, adding inspiration to your day.

Photography was restricted at TNNA to protect the designers and manufacturers.  These photos were taken with the gracious permission of the amazing team at Blue Sky.

I’m so excited about the new line from Blue Sky Alpaca called Spud and Chloe!

Spud and Chloe Color Kit

I received our color kit from them this week and had to place an order right away.  The branding for the new line is fresh and adorable, the colors are fantastic with names straight out of the Crayola name play book, and the hand feel of the yarn is just what you’d expect from Blue Sky.

How cute is the branding on this?

We’ll be carrying all three of the weights available, super bulky, worsted and sock in a variety of colors.  One of the new dimensions we’ll be bringing into the store are some more eco-friendly yarns and products.  But don’t worry, we are not going to sacrifice anything when it comes to color and quality of the yarns.  The super bulky is 65% wool and 35% organic cotton, worsted is 55% wool and 45% organic cotton, and the sock weight is 80% wool and 20% silk.  Oh and did I tell you that they are all superwash!

Super Bulky 65% wool 35% organic cotton

Worsted Weight 55% wool 45% organic cotton

Sock Weight 80% wool 20% silk

I expect these lovely to arrive in the store shortly, so stay tuned and we’ll let you know when they’re here!

Here’s a little more in follow up to our last post regarding our recent trip to Westminster Fiber for the 30 Years of Rowan exhibit.

The show was a great look back at the depth and breadth of design at Rowan.  The exhibit was organized into sets of garment and accompanying images which were grouped time capsules.  Many of the finished garments were original from the year of its design and were coupled with the magazine of publication.  The biographies of the designers were scattered throughout, giving an unbelievable picture of Rowan’s influence on the crafts of knitting and crochet.

Kaffe Fasset’s influence on Rowan was obvious with his Long Leaf sweater (shown blow) at the entrance.  This design was from book 12 and is an amazing example of hand knit at its finest.  Easily taking hundreds of hours to knit with many rows having at least 30 color changes, this garment contains over 70,000 stitches!

We love Rowan at Seed Stitch and are one of the biggest Rowan sellers in the area.  You can see more images from the show on our Flickr page.

We ventured up to Nashua, NH on Saturday May 23rd to peruse an exhibit showcasing 30 years of Rowan’s history held at Westminster Fibers.

What a treat!  Not only did we get to meet Ken and June Bridgewater and many other members of the team, we saw some of the original pieces from the Rowan collection as well as some of the new Fall fibers coming from Westminster this year.

Where are we Mummy?

Where it all started

A quick history:
Many of you may know the history of Rowan, but I didn’t know the details until recently so I thought I’d share.  Rowan was founded by Stephen Sheard and business partner Simon Cockin.  Originally known as Rowan Weavers, the team started producing yarns for rug making kits in the late 70’s - early 80’s, until they realized their stunning yarns (96 shades at the time) could also be used to create hand knit designs.  Enter Kaffe Fasset where the trio met up at an event showcasing textile artists at Bretton Hall University.

The group produced a mail order kit from Woman & Home magazine — the Super Triangles Jacket designed by Kaffe was featured on the magazine’s front cover.  Only anticipating sale of about 400 kits, expectations were blown away when 400 turned into 7000 kits sold.  Rowan Weavers officially became Rowan Yarns.

Rowan then launched its first magazine in 1986, featuring designers Kaffe Fasset, Sasha Kagan, Annabel Fox, and Sandy Black.

Perhaps the most famous Rowan issue was Magazine 10 launched in 1990 and featured the now famous Kate Moss at the then age of 16 on the cover.  I’m told this is a highly collectible issue fetching a pricey sum.

Almost 10 years ago (1998), Rowan launched its line of fabrics with the Rowan Quilting & Patchwork Book No. 1, now publishing it’s 10th book in the series.  Last year Rowan released Magazine 44, which was a montage of classic and studio designs to celebrate the 30th anniversary.  The traveling show we visited was a part of this 30 year celebration.  Stay tuned for Part 2 of this post, showcasing more detail on our visit to the exhibit.

All text and information on the history of Rowan is courtesy of the materials distributed at the exhibit and were created by the Rowan team.  Thanks to them for pulling it all together for us to see and for me to be able to share with you.