behind the times

It has, certifiably, been ages since our last update. Let’s jump right in!

New kits! Natalie Selles’ Grand Central Cowl with 2 skeins of Indigodragonfly MCN Worsted, and our own thrummed mittens pattern with a skein of Tanis Fiber Arts Green Label Aran and 60 grams of tonal-dyed corriedale roving…

New double-pointed needle sleeves…

Handmade, fully lined, and insanely adorable project bags…

 

Made-in-Canada wool blankets, made from sheeps fleece sourced locally in Northumberland County!…

 

New book, Coastal Knits by Alana Dakos and Hannah Fettig, and a sassy new issue of Knitscene (I’m seriously psyched for some of the patterns in this one)…

And last but not least, come visit next weekend! No really, I’ll make it worth your while…

Just to let you know…

We have new Tanis Fiber Arts in stock!

At some point…

… last week, this:

magically transformed into this:

SOOOOO MUCH CHUNKY YARN! (featuring new colourways in Malabrigo Rasta and Berroco Vintage Chunky, as well as two new lines: Berroco Peruvia Quick and Berroco Campus!)

 

Splitbark Brown

So… remember that time that you tried to take photos of your new mittens… while wearing the mittens… and taking the photos…?

As it turns out, this is not the easiest thing to do!

These are the Splitbark Mittens by Stephen West, who you may know by now is one of my favourite designers… The yarn is Fibra Natura’s Shepherd’s Own, which is a line of yarns all in natural, undyed sheepy colours. Add some adorable moose buttons and you’re all set:

In other news, we have some awesome new books (new Starmore! Colourwork! Holy cats!)

As well as new colours in Debbie Bliss Como,

and Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino:

Also, a reminder that this month’s installment of Kniterary Night at the Peterborough Public Library is going to be this coming Monday, October 24th, seeing as the last Monday of October is Halloween. Kniterary is in the basement auditorium from 7 til 9 – hope to see you there!

Long weekend reads…

 

Just arrived: a new Piecework special issue, “Knitting Traditions”, and a new special issue from Interweave Knits, “knit wear”… I think a copy of both of these will be coming with me on *my* weekend.

(Please note: the store will be closed this Sunday October 9th, as well as Monday October 10th, for Thanksgiving! Yarn shop owners need pumpkin pie too! Have a beautifully autumnal weekend everyone, I’ll have more updates for you next week!)

A little late…

Or maybe a lot – I’m a month behind! At least in the blogging, not actually in the knitting.

In August, for PINK, I made this:

It’s a Wham Bam Thank You Lamb cowl! In that lovely Malabrigo Rasta… Which of course was so lovely, I needed a neckwarmer for myself too:

This is the Rasta Neckwarmer, also in Malabrigo Rasta, with knitted-and-duplicate-stitched buttons made with the Merit Badge pattern:

Super sweet! I’m almost done September’s project with mere hours to spare, hopefully I won’t take forever to take photos of it!

Oh, and P.S. We have lots of new stuff in the store, with more arriving every week. Recent additions include Tanis Fiber Arts (with our last run of Fiddlehead Mitten kits!), Indigodragonfly, Louet Gems Sock yarn and new colours in Noro and Debbie Bliss’ Baby Cashmerino. More updates next week!

Indigodragonfly

So, clearly my whole post-vacation post is waaaaay overdue, and is still yet to come because I have much, much more important news:

Kim from Indigodragonfly is going to be delivering more yarn TODAY. But even more than that, she’s coming for our Purlez-Vous Knitting Social TONIGHT. There will be YARN. There will be KNITTING. There will be HILARIOUS POP CULTURE REFERENCES. Y’all should come.

Peterborough Folk Festival

Just some last-minute workshop prep going on here at Needles in the Hay on a Friday afternoon… I will be teaching a Learn to Knit workshop at the Peterborough Folk Festival tomorrow at 1 p.m., so the shop will be closed from noon to just after 2 p.m., but all y’all should be at the Folk Festival anyways, so I don’t think you’ll miss me much!  Also part of the Folk Fest is a Stitcher’s Circle for needlecrafters of all stripes in Millenium Park on Sunday from 12 to 2 p.m., so check that out if you’re in the neighbourhood…

And keep in mind that this Sunday will be your last chance to stock up on knittables before the shop closes for a week-long summer holiday… Just sayin’…

Tuesday news

The fall issues of Interweave Knits and Piecework have just arrived!

As well as the new Elizabeth Zimmerman book, a collection of her garter stitch patterns!

And the booklet-form of her Surprise Jacket series, with sizing for the Baby, Child, and Adult!

And if you’re looking for something awesome to listen to, check out The Weather Station… 

You can stream their new album here: http://theweatherstation.bandcamp.com/album/all-of-it-was-mine, which I have been listening to non-stop. They are playing a show tonight here in Peterborough (at the Attic, at Simcoe and Water), and seeing as today is perfect weather for a short-sleeved sweater, I’ve got my OWLS on in celebration…

Looking ahead…

First, the big news: Needles in the Hay will be closed for a week, from Monday August 29th to Monday September 5th, so that I can have a little summer vacation! This is the first real time off I’ve taken since opening the store, and I’m pleased to have the chance to have a little time before the fall knitting frenzy takes hold. We will reopen on Tuesday September 6th, and please be aware that our Purlez-Vous Knitting Social will be cancelled on August 30th.

But can you believe September is so close? There’s been a couple chilly mornings already that have me hankering after some hardcore sweater knitting. Plus, the fall issue of Twist Collective just came out – twistcollective.com – and the fall issue of Interweave Knits will be in stock early next week. AND, I’ve just posted the fall class schedule for the shop over at needlesinthehay.ca!

One more little item for inspiration: I’ve already posted this to the Needles in the Hay facebook page (did you know you can “like” Needles in the Hay on facebook? True story! Find us here), but I can’t help posting it again. This is “Holocene” by a band called Bon Iver, whose newest album has been in very regular rotation around the shop. They just posted this video shot in Iceland (stunning!) featuring a really awesome zip-up stranded-yoke hoodie in Icelandic lopi yarn. Seriously, ever since I saw this I’ve been plotting a version for myself… Just take a look…