The End . . . but with links!

Since the Yarn Shoppe is defunct, dead, deceased, closed and gone, this blog will be deleted eventually, and not posted to again.

However, you can still see what Briony and Chrisanne are working on. Both are on ravelry.com and Briony has a new blog. Just click the links below!! And bookmark 'em, if you please. :)

Briony's Blog
Briony on Ravelry.com

Chrisanne on Ravelry.com

Hope to see everyone there!

Oh, and the Knit Togethers are, at the moment and the foreseeable future, at Scoops (on 2005 Bird St, Oroville) on Saturdays from 2-5pm.

Happy Knitting, Crocheting and Spinning Everyone!

~Briony

Closing the Shop

It's been a sad, difficult, very stressful few weeks. The Yarn Shoppe is closing and the last day will be the 29th of December. Naturally, no one wants us to close. We don't want to close. But I need a paycheck. Sad, but there ya go. And this recession is hitting us hard with sales being incredibly low these last 6 months. Even the Fall/Winter months did not pickup this year.

On the bright side, we'll still be doing knit togethers on Saturdays from 2-5pm at Mugshots which is right next door to the Yarn Shoppe.


I've been working on the Dickinson sweater lately from the Fall 2007 Interweave Knits. Well, mostly the sleeves most recently. I haven't been able to do much since the end of November because people are being very lovely and buying up our yarn at the 40% off closing-sale prices. But isn't it lovely? That's the model, obviously, but I can't wait. I actually am kinda making it up in a very similar color for a change. And I'm using Cascade's 220 Superwash. Mmmmm. I'm knitting this in the round, and the body is on hold at the point where I need to start the raglan and I've got about 16" of the total 18" of the sleeves done. Yummy. I'm trying to match the sleeves with the body on the pattern, but we'll see. :)




Someone asked if I'll continue blogging. Surprising, really, since I don't post as much as I should. I probably will.

I've also been asked what I'm going to do now. Well, as I said, I'm going to job hunt. And I'm not even seriously dealing with that until after the 29th. I can't leave the shop until then. Heck, I'm having trouble having lunch right now at the shop. So while I appreciate the care behind the suggestions, I can't DO anything about them until later.

So hugs to all . . . and I hope your holiday knitting is either done or at the last stages!

Mine's wrapped. (Ducking the rotten fruit)

~Happy Knitting all!!
Briony

Raptors, oven mitts and feathers

This afternoon felted oven mitts were used to help catch this beauty -- apparently a Peregrine Gyr Falcon who has escaped his falconer. The dark bands on his legs are his jess. He has a band too.











The falcon was eventually rescued by other falconers who can get his infected toes cared for and get him back home.



Isn't he a beauty? That's Pam Alley in the last two pictures holding our visitor above a rather large box in the back room of the shop. He spent some little time inside the Yarn Shoppe waiting to be still working on the pigeon he caught outside and was loathe to give it up. And we were loath to do anything to make him any more stressed out than he already was. Pam has this expression because she was recently buffeted by wings. Actually we were both really stoked about the whole thing.

It was quite a nice addition to the day. Pam rescued a bird, and we were able to help. And hand knit felted oven mitts were able to substitute as falconer's gloves -- in a real pinch.

Sadly said mitts are not in any of the above pics.

More on actual KNIT stuff later.

Happy Knitting!
~Briony

We got a new camera battery!

Whee! We got a new camera battery! Yes, I know I am overexcited, but I get excited easily and I am very happy about finally being able to take pictures.

So, first, some of you know I fell in love with the cover sweater of Interweave knits summer issue:
So I am making it out of Cascade Yarns Sierra which is a cotton wool blend. Which for me means summer tops only because it won't keep me warm enough in the winter. By the by -- it is lovely and smooth to knit with. I am not noticing much splitting even with my cable needle-less cables. I love how it shows up pattern.
Of course I am making changes. Mostly, I am shortening the sleeves to begin just before the cables.

Ok, so last Saturday I was here. The color is Pewter by the way. I love it! Like a lovely grey sage green.






And today I am here





And here is a close up of the cable pattern. I was told that this is similar to what was probably called Wheat Cable. I don't know. But I love it!!




So I did finish the Debbie New square. I am NOT happy with my seaming job at the end. But I pulled it out 4 times and this is as good as I can do it. Somehow I was where I should not have been to match up with the tutorial picture and I simply could not reverse things in my head enough to fix my trouble.

I may make it again, though. FUN square!


Here is something I started probably around early fall/late summer of 2005. I got the ribbing done then. And the first bit of colorwork. This is my very first color work. And I reworked the chart off XRX's Hats: A Knitter's Dozen. I changed things off of it of course. I think my gauge shifted too,

fairly massively because this is NOT workable as a tam. I see myself wearing it in the winter when I walk my dog in the mornings though. Anyway, I picked this back up earlier this summer (2 years later, ahem). And I finished it Friday night! It is now washed and oh so soft!! Oh, I made this out of a collection of sock yarns -- mostly Lorna's Laces, but I must admit I raided (with permission) Chrisanne's Mighty Stash for Wildefoote for the white.

For a few days it will be on the front head in the shop, and then it is coming home with me again.

So that's me! I have exactly 3 projects (that I have found) at home. One pair of socks that lives in the car, one pair of socks that live in the house for house knitting and finally that tablecloth I am making in modules which is also in the car. The car projects live in a sack from Nancy's Knit Knacks --http://www.nancysknitknacks.com/knit_knack_sack.htm -- which in turn lives in a large zippered bag that lives in the trunk. I have a small zippered pouch in the glovebox for knitting tools, although what I immediatly need lives in the sack -- clover yarn cutter (no outward blades), tape measure, notes for project, crochet hook (I drop more stitches away from home . . . ) and stitch markers.

This way I can grab the sack, click it around my waist and knit while walking around or waiting for a seat at a restaurant. KIP (Knit In Public)on!!
~Briony

Spirals

Edit: This is an afghan square by Debbie New in the Great North American Afghan book by XRX. This is my square for August. Yarns used include Cascade 22o superwash, Plymouth Encore AND Cleckheaton country 8ply. That's right. 100% wools with an acrylic wool blend. Heresy to some. Cool colors and different textures to me. Anyway. So top pic: the First completed coil. The next -- what the whole mess looks like. And yes, I do mean mess. Looks like a headache, right?
Really, it's not. It's controlled chaos. :) I started with that sage green border. That was irritating. Lots of casting on (hard to do with constant interruptions) and the first set up rows (those sage green triangle things) were tricky for the counting (again because of interuptions). The coils are pure fun after the picking up (yeah, a trend -- I can't count past 3 well with interuptions. I mess up). Really fun! And plus, how cool is it that it spirals!? Don't get me wrong -- I love the source of said interruptions -- someone walking in the shop, questions or pleas for aid, etc. It's just why I get less knitting done now than I did pre-shop. I love helping people, I love hearing comments, answering questions, finding that pattern or yarn that speaks to someone. It's fun -- sometimes a whole lot of work -- but usually fun. I started this square a bit back . . . and tend to do between 1- 1/2 coil a day now. Fun. I'm on the third. And I've have a blasted picture if my camera's battery would charge. It charges for 6 secs (literally) and then stops. Argh! But still, I had the older pics. I get points, right? Happy Knitting Everyone!! ~Briony

Cat Bordhi's New Book!

Well, I have to tell you Cat Bordhi's new book New Pathways for Sock Knitters is so cool! I LOVE the different ways she creates room for the arch expansion. I made the two baby socks yesterday and they are adorable! Chrisanne is throwing herself into the adult size right off the bat and I'm eyeing at least one pattern in there for my DH's next pair of socks and perhaps mine too.

We got the book in the day before yesterday and copies are looking slim here -- partly because one was preordered and one other was immediately marked Shop Copy! This book took quite some time to get to bookshelves and I wouldn't be surprised if they don't last on the shelves.

By the way, it clearly states it is Book One of three. I can't wait to see the next two and I haven't completely finished reading Book One! My fave so far? The Coriolis. I simply adore the way the increases slowly rotate and spiral around the foot and that you can easily do opposite spiraling socks.

Happy Sock Knitting!

~Briony

Summer Knitting

Well, I've finished a few things. I know I should put pics up of things in progress and beginning but I tend to launch into new things and then don't think of taking a picture until it is nearly done and then I wait until it IS done usually. I'll try to beat this bad habit.

Anyhoo -- I finished another summer top. I really like it. The top half is knit and the bottom is crochet granny squares.

Now I started this ages ago and I was a slightly larger size then so the granny squares are a tad loose and since they are so structured it may not be the absolute height of flattery but I still really like the overall look.

I was fighting a top down seamless saddle shoulder idea from Barbara Walker's book Knitting From the Top for a sweater for my DH and it wasn't really entirely sunk in my brain so I did it again for this top. I think I have it now. I rewrote the directions in my own private language and put it into my knitting notebook. Fun to do really, once I finally understood. Since I had saddle shoulders I put cables down those and continued them down the short sleeves -- and I was playing so I didn't border the cables with purl stitches. I like the more subtle effect for this top.

I finished the sleeves with small 1.5" granny squares to pick up the bottom half.

The neck is a V and instead of ribbing I did more small cables.

As usual with my incredibly poor photography skills this looks better in person. Well, I think it does. There is a stretch in the stitches which this pic oh so cleverly picks up in a lovely spot light kind of way. I'm not exactly sure how I managed to get that . . . I seemed to be picking up evenly and when I worked that cable nothing seemed tight. Ah well.

Oh! The yarn!! I made it out of GGH's Safari. It's a very unusual yarn really. It's kind of tubular and knits up a tad open. Very airy and soft. Linen is coated by acrylic. A bit different to knit with too. No life or spring of course and that throws me for a bit until I get into the groove. After that it all flowed nicely. It is one reason why I didn't purl much though. I hate to rib and my ribbing usually shows off that dislike. :) The sample swatch I made for the shop shows that the yarn really shows up texture pattern well. The color I choose hides rather a bit, but then I don't like paler shades in general so I force the dark shades to have pattern anyway. :)

Overall it is a lightweight top. The crochet bottom is heavier -- partly because it is crochet granny squares and partly because I wanted it dense so I used a C hook and made them, well, dense. The top was done to the 5spi gauge -- and the sleeves a bit looser since I am playing with doing sleeves on one needle larger for a lighter, cooler feel.

Off I go back to work and I promise to take more pics (IF the camera and I are still on speaking terms).

Happy Knitting and keep cool if possible!

~Briony