Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Wow, where does time go??? With the opening of the Quilt Shop in the back of the Yarn Basket, we have been busy with new fabrics, projects and then back to knitting and retreats and you know how it goes..... Anyway, I felt it was time to add to my blog and tell you what is in the future and what we are doing now.
Now: really fun and easy to make is the Christmas Creep scarf. Uses one skein of Twinkly Soft Chunky or Burly Spun yarn and #19 needle (called the Christmas Creep because you can still get it done before Christmas even as it creeps up on you!) Cast on 10 stitches and every row is as follows: K1 * YO, K2tog* K1. That is it. We fringed ours long with 10 inch fringes and love it.

Also now: great hats, mittens and other scarf patterns from warm to frilly.

New in yarn: If you haven't seen the Plymouth pattern for the easy shrug, then stop in. Uses bulky yarn and goes fast. You only have to knit and purl. We have one made with the new Manos Rittenhouse yarn that we doubled.
Also new: My Secret shrug (so easy that the secret is in the sewing the seams together and that is even easy) yet it looks like a very hard pattern. We have made it mostly in Alpaca with a twist's Highlander but the pattern can be used on any yarns.
Also new: big needle hats, a new kimino from plymouth and and a easy shawl from Aslantrends.

In the quilting, we are going to have classes every Sat starting the middle of January. We have mystery quilts, t-shirt, tote bag and others so stop in and check out what is happening each week.

THEN: our block of the month is Carroll County barn quilts. We have gone around the county taking pictures of quilts in Carroll county and are busy making the blocks to go with the barns. We will start in January and each month will feature a different barn block with the colors of that barn. The cost is $8 per month with includes the patten and material to make that block plus some information on the location of the barn. Then if you do all 12, you get 2 yards of 45 inch fabric free to do your choice of sashing, borders, etc. We would love to have any and everyone join us in this fun project.

We will be closing the Okoboji shop the 24th of December, open for the winter games, Fri and Sat the last weekend of January and then close until Memorial Day.
Carroll is taking the 25th and 26th of December off but open the rest of the time.


Til next time, Merry Christmas and happy New Year.

Then for the