I was going to blog about the wonderful weekend we had with Anne Hanson of Knitspot but I read her blog this morning and she has said it all! Except for how much we have enjoyed getting to know her better – AND we are talking about a do-over next year! After all having Anne for my birthday seems like something we should do again. What do you think?
So, go over to Anne’s blog and enjoy. Knitspot
This is one of those books that just makes you swoon! It came all the way from Estonia and timing couldn’t have been better with our classes with Anne Hanson this weekend. We were hoping to have one for a door prize but didn’t know if it would get here in time. It did!!!
Normally on Tuesdays (I know today isn’t Tuesday) we are telling you about different yarns and their properties and why we like them. This week I’m doing something a little different – classes. Because if you don’t know what to do with that awesome yarn you have – then we are very sad.
Classes are always great and I must say we have had a variety going on here.
2 weeks ago we had Joan Kass here. Joan is a sample knitter for a lot of different designers as well as being a proof knitter. If you can proof knit lace – you know your stuff!
So we did Charting Lace on the Saturday – for this she taught us how to turn written lace instructions into chart form. Mind blowing! This is a picture of Beth studiously taking notes. No wonder she is such a good teacher. It was great to understand this subject better. I knew how to do some of it but what if your lace has different stitch counts on some rows? Joan taught us the logical way to work it out – start with the longest row and work out from there – totally worked.
Then on Sunday we were working on Estonian knitting. Estonian lace uses a lot of nupps (rhymes with soup). I have a major aversion to bobbles from a sweater I knit my daughter years ago that was totally covered. It was very cute on her and she loved it but all that turning back and forth – not so much. And Nupps look a little like bobbles but are so much nicer to knit. You increase all the stitches on one side and decrease them on the return row. Joan showed us a few tips for simplifying doing these and then we played with different Estonian patterns. It was a great day – Joan will be teaching at the Knitters Frolic on May 9th. If you have a chance to register for her class – go for it.
Tonight Cari is introducing a couple of ladies to their first bit of knitting. This is a totally newbie class – basically “these are your needles and this is how you make them go”. As I’m typing I’m hearing a lot of laughter from the front room. I think we’ve got some new knitters. Yeah!!!
This weekend we are thrilled to have Kate Atherly coming from Toronto. She has published patterns in Knitty as well as being the technical editor – which comes in handy with her math background. We are doing 2 classes on Saturday with her. One of them is one that every knitter should take – how to fix our mistakes. And then in the afternoon just to mess with your head a little we are doing a class on Entrelac – one of those things where we’re not sure which direction we’re going in.
I find that even after knitting for a couple of decades (sigh) that I am always learning something new. Check out the newsletter and see if there is something that will help to turn that luscious yarn into an amazing knit piece.
Ahhhh, Koigu. Technicolour dreams made real. Out of a small Ontario farm comes the most lovely yarn, all handpainted with artisan skill, in so much variation it defies counting. Begun by artist Maie Landra and now joined by daughter Taiu Landra and “Happy Dyer” Rhichard Devrieze, Koigu Wool Designs is appreciated by knitters around the world.
Koigu (pronouned “coy-goo”) has always been a big feature at Shall We Knit? We stock both the KPM (Koigu Premium Merino) semi-solid colours and the KPPPM (Koigu Painter’s Palette Premium Merino) handpaints. Our whole staff took a trip up to Koigu this week to pick up a fresh collection of their gorgeous yarns. (Now is your chance to feel sorry for us, wandering around dazzled by hundreds of colourways, and having to choose among them! Tragic, isn’t it?)
Koigu looks like a feast of eye candy in our store display unit (at last count, we’ve got many hundreds of skeins in scores of colourways!). The photo below shows only about half of our present collection. Both KPM and KPPPM are 100% fine merino wool in a fingering weight that knits up to a suggested gauge of 7 stitches to the inch on 3.25 mm needles.
Maie Landra specializes in creating mitred knit designs that make the most of her painterly colours by using repeated geometric shapes that play the rich colours off each other. Some of her more popular designs are published all together in “Knits from a Painter’s Palette”, and we also stock many of their individual pattern leaflets.
Even if you’re not into knitting mitred shapes, Koigu is perfect for fine gauge garments, socks, and is especially wonderful knit into accessories like shawls, scarves, hats, gloves and mittens.
One of Maie’s patterns, called “Charlotte’s Web” is now enjoying it’s 10th anniversary. Charlotte’s Web is a simple lace repeat knit into a triangle shawl that uses 5 colours of KPPPM in a way that shades or blends one colour easily into the next so that it looks as seamless as a watercolour. You can see Karen in the picture below wearing her Charlotte, knit last summer, and hanging out with Lucy Neatby at Sock Summit. (As always, click to embiggen photos.) 
We are hosting a Charlotte’s Web class this Saturday, January 30th (with a follow-up class session on February 20th). Students will get a chance to come to the store before we open Saturday morning, and will have the first opportunity to see all the new colours and get guidance from staff in choosing materials for their very own Charlotte. Because of the multitude of choices, and the variation inherent in handpainted yarns, each Charlotte is truly a unique work of art.
While my personal Koigu “collection” doesn’t even come close to the banquet that’s in the store, I have to ‘fess up to owning an embarrassing quantity of this yarn. On a down day, just visiting my wall of colour (I keep all my Koigu sorted at the front of my yarn shelves in my yarn closet at home. What? Doesn’t everyone have a “yarn closet”?) lifts my mood and puts me in a dreaming-of-possibilities frame of mind.
Drop in to see all the wonder for yourself (new colours on the shelves on Saturday!), and call the store at 519-662-3636 to register for the class.
Wow, I feel like I fell down Alice’s rabbit hole! We have had a busy couple of weeks with a lot going on and a lot of changes in the next little bit. First our hours have changed both at the shop in New Hamburg as well as at the market in St. Jacobs. Starting the first Monday in July the shop will be open on Mondays – just for July and August to see how it goes. And starting 2 weeks ago the booth at the St. Jacobs market is open on Tuesdays for the summer. All the times are posted on the website and will be in the newsletter coming out shortly.
Newsletter & Blog – you will be seeing some changes there too. The newsletter will have notes written by all 3 of us – Lynne, Cari & I. And the blog is going to see some changes as we all add our thoughts and news of what is coming and doing.
Now to the overwhelming response to World Wide Knit in Public Day – you all totally rock! I was hoping to double our fundraising for Breast Cancer Research and we TRIPLED it!!
The Drawing-a-Blank was fully booked and from what I saw everyone had a hoot – it really felt like being in kindergarten again. Buffy Taylor from Shelridge Farms came down and kept us painting our hearts out. Thank you to Buffy – you are a special lady. And a big Thank you to Lynne, Cari and Sue for all your work and your fun spirit. And I couldn’t do this kind of thing without the help of my guys – Tom & Kyle – they set up the tent and dragged the BBQ down and then did the opposite at the end of the day. And Tom hung out all day and did anything that was needed but don’t ask him a knitting question – thats when I would get that whistle that the kids knew growing up. It means “I need you here now!”
Now for some pictures – click to embiggen
say ”Hi to Buffy” 
this Birthday card turned into
this turns into this
and can you tell who was victorious?
I should be working on the April newsletter (and I am) but I thought I would show you a couple of pictures of 2 of our upcoming classes.
Thursday, April 2nd we are doing a Crochet class for Enthusiastic Beginners. Basically you know how to do some of the crochet stitches but don’t understand a pattern – whether it’s in chart form or written out. Well this is the class for you!
Linda will introduce you to the wonders of the crochet stitches. We are going to do a few different stitches in dishcloth cotton. Not only will you be learning how to read your stitches and how to follow a pattern but you will also have the prettiest dishcloths around.
And then on Saturday, April 4th Katherine is going to get more of us hooked on the beaded cuffs. These are such a fun little project and they just finish off an outfit – especially with so many jackets this year having 3/4 sleeves. If you haven’t seen these up close you have to come into the shop and see them. But warning – they are addictive!
Oh, and did I tell you I got more beads in?
How cute is this? This is the February Baby Sweater that we are doing as a class this weekend. Can you believe this pattern was first published in 1974. It is from Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitter’s Almanac
This is the class from last night – Backyard Leaves by Annie Modesitt. This is a truly beautiful piece of leafy lace and a bit of a challenge that these ladies are well on their way to conquering.
This is the chart – pretty funky eh?
Today was Tabi’s spinning demo – as you can tell by the picture I think she has gotten a couple hooked. I know at least one and maybe two now have the dilemma of which wheel to buy and can I find it before the classes on the 13th.
Tonight is the first of our Enthusiastic Crocheter classes. We are doing another one next month. In this class you know the basics but those patterns…but Linda has gotten a couple more ladies more comfortable with those confusing little charts. I heard regularly from the classroom “I like these charts!” – at first it was said with surprise but as the evening went on I think they really preferred to read the charts then all the words.
