Crazy for Ewe

Blocking is an often overlooked, but important step in finishing any garment. Broadly stated, it’s the process of wetting your knit fabric, either with steam or with warm water.  Wool is quite relaxed when it’s wet, so you can smooth those pesky curling edges, adjust the size of your fabric, and create a particular shape. Not only are blocked sweater pieces much easier to seam, they look

While many yarns can be used to make socks, and sock yarn can be used to make many things, sock yarn typically refers to a fingering weight blend of superwash wool and nylon or silk. 

Sock yarn is often hand-dyed to create socks with a fun and colorful appearance.  Some sock yarns is machine engineered to create designs

A few years ago we hosted Willow Tree Yarns at the shop for a hand-dye class. Everyone had a great time, dyed a skein of their own yarn, and never thought about it again.  Everyone except Nicole Van Kuiken, that is.  I had no idea she'd been bitten by the hand-dye bug, and then the next thing you know, 

Gauge in knitting is nothing more than the size of the stitches we are creating. The size of the stitches is measured by how many stitches fit into a given linear measurement, typically one inch or four inches. So we get gauge terms like 4 stitches per inch or 16 stitches per 4”. I did a fun blog post explaining this

This textured cowl, Mara, is a stunning piece. Ginni, Mary, and I saw Mara at H+H and knew it would be a perfect knitalong.  Worked in beautiful Truva, it looks much more complicated that it is. Isn't it amazing all the things  you can do with just two simple knit and purl stitches?!?!.  A terrific project for adventurous beginners and experienced knitters alike.  You'll enjoy the process and have a

It’s okay to be a beginner. In fact, it can be awesome. When you go back and approach things as a beginner, you will learn so much - you’ll likely learn things you didn’t even know you didn’t know. Here’s why - when you’re an actual beginner, you’re taking in information at a very rapid pace. Everything is new and fast, your brain hasn’t yet created the neural pathways that are what learning is. All the new information comes in and there’s literally no place for

Joji Locatelli is one of my favorite top-down designers. My latest Joji project is the Staple Linen Top, which is a go-to wardrobe staple - especially in Queen City Coleman, a gorgeous year-round blend of silk and linen.  

The Staple Linen top looks great on a variety of body shapes and sizes, and is

What are the yarn weights and meanings? Yarn weights can be very confusing.  Even for experienced knitters, sorting out the terms, gauge, and needle size for each weight is a lot.  The Craft Yarn council of America has created a standard yarn weight system with eight categories, from 0 to 7, and organized the yarn into those categories.  It's a good idea, but still confusing since most yarn store yarn is not labeled with the Craft Yarn Numbers. 

How do I substitute yarns in knitting projects? How do I figure out many skeins to buy? This question is one we get in the shop many times a day. Let’s say you have a pattern you want to knit, but you want to use a different yarn. How do you know how much of the substitute yarn to purchase? This is a simple math question that I’ll break up into a few steps.

Gauge is confusing. It doesn’t work the way we think it should. Large needles and thick yarn should have a large gauge, right? Seems logical, but it’s wrong. Gauge is counter-intuitive. It has what’s called an inverse relationship with the size of the stitches. The larger the yarn and needles, the smaller the gauge. The smaller the yarn and needles, the larger the gauge.

Here’s a visual that often helps. Picture a gumball machine. Just one of those old-fashioned round jobs with a red base and a clear globe on the top. Okay? Right, So we can put any size gumballs we want in our machine.