A Few of My Favorite Things–Knit Noro Accessories and Debbie Macomber Gerbera Print Yarn

Debbie Macomber Blossom Street Gerbera Print Yarn from Universal Yarn has to be one of my favorite variegated yarns.  It is 100% wool, single plied, worsted yarn, but the colors are what make it stand out.  Each colorway has several rich colors that complement each other and give a beautiful effect when knitted.

The Knit Noro Accessories book is full of beautiful patterns originally knit in Noro yarn.  However, they work up beautifully in many other brands of variegated yarn, particularly Gerbera Print yarn.  There are a variety of types of accessories in the book and the patterns are well-written and easy to follow.

I chose to use Gerbera Print yarn in color 204 – Lazy River – and the pattern Riverbed Rib Hat.  I’m immensely pleased at how it looks.  The colors are bright and beautiful and the hat fits very well.

The next time you are looking for a book of patterns for accessories, particularly for variegated yarn, you really can’t go wrong with the Knit Noro Accessories yarn.  And I really love the Debbie Macomber Blossom Street Gerbera Print yarn and I think you will too.

Come check out both items at The Knitting Nest!!  We’d love to see you!!

More Than Just Selling Yarn

Saturday at The Knitting Nest was a great day.  Not because I was there – I was actually at home with a migraine.  Not even because of the tractor pull on Main Street, although Patrick tells me that I missed some great small-town Wisconsin fun.  It wasn’t even great because we sold yarn, although Patrick did have several customers, which is always nice for a retail shop.

Saturday was great at The Knitting Nest because we got to be part of something bigger and more important than selling yarn (or even the tractor pull).  It started when Brandy, a friend and customer of The Knitting Nest, posted on Facebook that she needed a bunch of red embroidery floss for a project that one of the Girl Scouts in one of her troops is doing to help prevent bullying.  Girls are going to make friendship bracelets to give away while encouraging other girls to “be friends, not bullies”. 

Patrick thought this was a great project, so he offered to purchase the embroidery floss at our wholesale cost and donate a couple of boxes to the project.  He then posted on our Facebook page that people could purchase the embroidery floss from us at our cost and we would get it to Brandy for her project.  By the end of Saturday, The Knitting Nest had purchased 13 boxes of red embroidery floss for this project.

Thirteen boxes of 24 skeins of floss is only 312 skeins out of 1600 skeins needed, so we only donated 20% of the total for this project.  But, that is 312 skeins that weren’t donated before Saturday morning. 

Why am I telling you this?  To shout about how great The Knitting Nest is?  No.  You already know that!  My reason for sharing this story is to point out the importance of community brick-and-mortar retail shops.  The people who participated in this event are part of our community, just like the people who made chemo caps last month for our knit-a-long.

Community retail shops are invaluable parts of the local economy, but they are also part of the volunteer and charity work of the community.  The next time you stop in at your local coffee shop or other small business, look around; you’ll probably find that they are promoting one or more community and/or charity events or projects.  Supporting local businesses means more to your town or city than just a skein of yarn or cup of coffee – it’s being part of your community’s life.

 

A Few of My Favorite Things–My Kind of Saturday in Kollage Riveting

 

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have knitted items with that same comfortable well-worn feeling as an old pair of jeans?  You can!  Kollage Riveting yarn is made from recycled blue jeans (80% post-consumer content) and it feels amazing!!  Right now, we carry the DK weight in night denim, lava denim, forest denim, sand denim, and pebble denim.  You have to see and feel this yarn to believe it!

Kollage also sells the pattern “My Kind of Saturday” which is a one skein lacy cowl.  So, of course, I had to make one.  And it is just luscious.  We have had customers pick up the cowl and ask if it is silk!  No, it’s not silk.  In fact, after I was done with it, I machine washed and dried it!  The pattern is well written with the lace pattern both written and charted.  (And, it doesn’t use the whole skein, although it does use more than half, so you can’t quite get two cowls from one skein.)

 

Kollage is very clear that you need to swatch and block your swatch before you start your project.  Riveting is easy to care for once it’s knit up, but the row gauge tends to shrink on blocking so you have to take that into account before you start your project.

Stop in and check out this yarn soon!  We also have several more patterns from Kollage written specifically for this yarn.  We look forward to seeing you!!