Like a true crazy stitcher, I decided two days ago that I needed a gray scarf to match the coral dress that I intended to wear to the Smithsonian Craft Show Benefit Dinner. And, given that I am a crazy stitcher, I decided on a pattern that calls for laceweight yarn. So on Monday evening, I grabbed a hank of Skein Silky BFL lace (2 ply, 876 yards, 80% Bluefaced Leicester, 20% silk) in Graphite and downloaded the Bias ‘Before and After’ Scarf from Churchmouse Yarns. You won’t catch me knitting with lace yarns too often, so if I am going to jump into a lace weight project, it is going to have to be easy. This one fits the bill. The pattern is a bias scarf done entirely in stockinette stitch. If you can knit and purl, you would only need to know how to increase (a make 1 or perhaps a Kfb) and work a K2tog. That’s it. The pattern also has an option for adding beads to the beginning and end, which I thought would be a cute touch. I did manage to finish the project about 20 minutes before I had to run out the door to the benefit event. I steam blocked it on the fly, which worked amazingly well. It is my new favorite accessory for spring! So lightweight and slinky. And as my first neutral colored scarf, I am finding that it goes with a lot more in my closet than my typical brightly colored scarves do.

So about that Craft Show. The Smithsonian Craft Show is an annual show held at the National Building Museum. This year is the 30th anniversary of the event. Tickets for entry are $15 and it is open to the public today through April 22. The artists are amazing. You will find several fibre artists who are doing very interesting things with felting and wool. My favorite was Jeung-Hwa Park, who “combines knitting and felting to create textural scarves that bring a new aesthetic of knitting.”

Photo from Smithsonian and Park

I think my favorite booth was Ignatius Hats, whose hat boxes alone were worth the hat purchase.

Photo from Smithsonian and Ignatius Hats

Photo from Smithsonian and Tia Kramer

I may have also stumbled over the most interesting jewelry from Tia Kramer! The artist is from Seattle and boasts that the paper in her pieces are resistant to even Seattle weather. Her packaging is brilliant. She ties a wonderful wire and paper flower around each box and then sprinkles bits of the dyed paper into the inside of the box. I bought two necklaces, one for me and one for a friend who just had to have it after I sent her a text photo   I am an enabler.

So I would encourage you to check it out this weekend, particularly if you are already bouncing around the city for the Metro Yarn Crawl!

We have had two amazing Stitch in Space nights here in space. Last week, the DC Rollergirls were at the shop. Micah stayed late to help a few learn to knit and visit with those that are already amazing knitters and crocheters. (He seemed quite delighted to do so).

For the second year in a row, we are sponsoring the Rollergirls season. Check out their schedule here and get to a bout!

Last night, Wendy Johnson and Laura & Leslie of TheKnitGirllls video podcast joined us for our Stitch n Space and drew quite a crowd (as Wendy tends to do). They attacked the new Brooklyn Tweed LOFT, of course. Wendy seemed to enjoy herself as well. (this is Micah and his goofy hat with Wendy J.)

Bethany submitted this report from her first trip to Rhinebeck this year:

Culinary Institute

When I found my way back to knitting in 2010, whenever I was around knitters I kept hearing one word spoken with reverence:  Rhinebeck.  I soon learned that this was knitter speak for the annual New York Sheep & Wool Festival held at the Duchess County Fair Grounds in Rhinebeck, NY.  About the same time when I was cruising the 746.432 shelves of my local library (aka knitting wonderland) I stumbled on a book by Joanne Seif.  Her book, Fiber Gathering: Knit, Crochet, Spin, and Dye More than 25 Projects Inspired by America’s Festivals, is simply amazing.  The pictures and details about the festivals will make you want to attend each one.  When a friend mentioned she wanted to go to Rhinebeck too, a plan was born.

Many knitters are veteran attendees and have tried and true techniques for getting the most out of the festival.  We had no such plan of attack.  We secured a reservation at a hotel in Poughkeepsie in February and then counted down the months until it was finally October 14.  The six hour drive to  Rhinbeck, NY went smoothly.  Too early to check in to our hotel, we headed to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park.  I had read a post by Anne Hanson where she blogged about the Apple Café which does not require reservations.  We decided to go check it out.  We had a 45 minute wait in line before getting into the café to place our orders.  A staffer offered a tip that it was best to come early as the café is open from 11 a.m. – 5p.m, or later. Of course we had arrived in the middle of the rush.  Other than the food, the most incredible thing was the lavender growing at the four corners of the courtyard in front of the main building where butterflies fluttered lazily.  Even an i-phone got a National Geographic worthy picture.

Saturday morning, naively thinking that all fiber festivals open at the same time (as we were seasoned Maryland Sheep and Wool attendees), we left Poughkeepskie at 7:30 a.m. and headed for the fair grounds.  There was no backed up traffic, the lights stayed green, and we got an amazing parking spot on a fairly empty hill. This is when we realized something was wrong.  As we stepped out of the car, we learned the festival opened at 9 a.m. At the same time, I heard my name called.  There was Cindy and her sister – a fibre space™ welcome in the middle of Rhinebeck, NY!

I bumped into Cindy, her sister and several others that I knew from Ravelry, once again standing in line to enter a particularly hot booth.  The line was already about 20 people deep waiting for the festival’s official opening.  At 9 a.m., a swarm of knitters invaded the small booth and then the truly crazy line began – the payment line.  One woman’s husband stood in line for two hours while she enjoyed the festival.  Talk about enabling a yarn addict love!

I saw my first fuzz ball angora rabbit and met Nike, the alpaca who was one of a group of alpacas who stood around for petting.  He was the alpha male of the group and had the coarsest fiber.  There were sheep being groomed for the judges, blue ribbon sheared sheep and Corriedale sheep who also had the best marketing (see below).

Angora Bunny

Nike the Alpaca

Corriedale has the best marketing

I’ve heard it’s a Rhinebeck tradition to wear a finished sweater but space in my suitcase was limited so I wore my Springtime Bandit instead (which I finished recently using one skein of Neighborhood Fiber Company Worsted). It did a great job of keeping the chill at bay and got a lot of compliments throughout the day.  I was just as busy giving out compliments as I was completely surrounded by mind boggling knit wear.  Mitts, sweaters, shawls, hats, and skirts like Knitty’s Lane Splitter. I saw five and they all looked fantastic even though their creators were different heights and sizes.

I lost count of all the vendors that I visited and the food I tried because there were so many choices.  The lamb vendors were located in a group downhill from the cider donuts.  The fried artichokes were across from the main food vendors where spaghetti on a stick was selling well.  On Sunday to counter some of the festival food indulgences I walked  across the longest elevated pedestrian bridge in the world known as the Walkway over the Hudson.  Check out some of the breathtaking views here.

Having survived my first Rhinebeck, I am looking forward to attending next May’s Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  If you’ve never been to a fiber festival before it would be a shame to miss it!

Teva answers questions after explaining the basics of the lace improvisation technique.

The divine Teva Durham visited fibre space on Sunday to sign her new book, Loop-d-Loop Lace, and teach a unique workshop: lace improvisation.

Ten lucky participants learned how to take elements from vintage lace patterns and use them as the basis for a lace bag pattern. The group worked together to develop a pattern for one such bag, and students left with the tools to create their own pattern based on vintage designs for doilies, shawls, or other garments worked in a circle.

Teva brought several of her own lace bags for the class to use as inspiration.

Those who have followed Teva’s designs know that her mind works in wondrous ways, and those in the workshop got to see that mind close-up, as Teva drew the chart for the bag on a white board and explained how different options for each row would change the shape and look of the bag. Participants knit from the chart as it was being developed, learning how lace designers create a new pattern from concept through to execution.

Of course, there was lots of chatter during the class, as knitters commiserated about losing one’s place in lace knitting, shared tips for keeping that from happening, debated the pros and cons of bobbles (for the record, Teva is in the “pro” camp), and – most importantly – compared the results coming off of their needles. The different yarns, from Malabrigo Rasta to Blue Sky Alpacas Bulky, showed off the lace in different (but gorgeous) ways.

Teva chats with a class member about the way the bag is knitting up.

It was particularly exciting to watch how the improvised pattern knit up in several different yarns, as Teva compared the results from different class members’ yarn selections. Teva also talked about other kinds of knitting improvisation, including Ilisha Helfman’s new book, Jazz Knitting.

Best of all, the workshop is already yielding results. We know that at least one class participant has started a bag of her own, based on an element she found in a pattern from Victorian Lace Today. We can’t wait to see all the bags that this amazing workshop produces!

Last Sunday, we hosted a special event at our shop in honor of one of our own. We had asked you all to donate blanket strips to make a healing blanket for a knitter in our community who is battling cancer. You wouldn’t believe the turn out. We have enough blanket strips for 2, almost 3 blankets! On Sunday, a good crowd showed up to piece the strips together. We seamed them in a staggered way so that the differing lengths worked well together. There is such a lovely variety of stitch patterns and colors. The blankets will most certainly bring a smile to her face and help her to know that we are all thinking of her and hope she gets better very soon.

volunteers seam strips together

more strips being seamed together

Thank you all for your huge support on this project and for making such absolutely lovely pieces!

Me, with an armfull of yarn

I guess the small incident of food poisoning has kept me from blogging about the GIANT yarn festival that happened the weekend before last. i just realized that I never posted anything about it. We had so few staff able to work that weekend, that I headed up there first thing Saturday morning and spent about an hour before turning around and coming home. Of course I bought some Socks that Rock mediumweight…my favorite sport weight sock yarn.  I always buy a couple of hanks that I later have serious doubts about. In some ways, I think they are prettier in the hank and should just be put in a shadowbox and left alone. Yarn art anyone?

Given the amount of painted sock yarn in my stash that seems to look better in the skein…Veronica sent over this sock pattern idea from the Yarn Harlot Blog. It does seem to break up the pooling rather well. Something to consider…She did actually knit them in a colorway that I have in my stash somewhere.

Veronica working at the Miss Babs booth

So anyways, I was quite happy standing in the pack of folks searching for hand dyed sock yarn that I don’t need. I also stopped by the Miss Babs booth to see Veronica and Babs. Then I decided to eat fried dough and lamb kebabs at 9:30 am. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone. It took three days to recover.

I did a fairly good job of resisting much of the yarn that I used to be tempted to buy. Having access to a great deal of yarn right here outside my office door has made it much easier to say “no” and be well behaved. I realize that not all of you have this luxury. I didn’t get much time to visit the sheeps…I ate some sheeps…but not a lot of visiting with the sheeps…What was everyone’s favorite sight at the festival?

**All photos by Suni Edson

Jackson Baa-ollock - Photo by Miriam Rosenthal

Baa-merica! Icons Revisited is a show by artist Leslie Blackmon, which is now on display at the Art League Gallery in the Torpedo Factory. The show features a flock of crocheted sheep that each depict an American icon. As a Pittsburgher, I am particularly fond of Baa-Andy Warhol. Li-baa-race with his candelabra headpiece is rather exciting too.

Leslie Blackmon’s Solo Show The Art League Gallery – Room 21
from May 5 – June 6, 2011

Reception and Meet the Artist: 2nd Thursday Art Night, May 12, 6:30-8pm
Artist Talk and Crochet Demonstration: Saturday, May 14, 1-4pm

Karida, the artist behind Neighborhood Fiber Co

Maisonette DK

Last night Neighborhood Fiber Company celebrated the birth of their newest yarn – Penthouse Silk Fingering. It is a 100% silk yarn that comes in 500 yard hanks. It is gorgeous! The company also brought one of their other new additions -  Maisonette DK. This is a DK weight silk and merino blend that makes stunning lightweight garments for spring and summer.

Both yarns will be available at Stitch n Pitch tonight in the NFC booth. Our booth will feature some other NFC yarns as well as team colors from Miss Babs! (and a few other surprises including a prize drawing).

Penthouse Silk Fingering

Amy Herzog was here this weekend for her “Knit to Fit” workshop. She brought lots and lots of sweaters for folks to try on and see how they all fit on different body types. She also had amazing hand outs. Everyone left with a photograph of themselves labeled with sizing so that they have their measurements for future projects. It was a really neat workshop. If you missed it, we are hoping to bring Amy back in November! You can also purchase her tutorials on her website.

Amy and her sketches

Lots of calculating

but we are after the yarn, not the beer. Starting this Saturday, ten of our area yarn shops are joining forces for the first annual Metro Yarn Crawl (MYC) around the beltway.  The MYC will offer 20% off at all participating stores and a $100 prize for one lucky shopper at each store. If you haven’t already grabbed a MYC tote (which is your pass to the sale), do so quickly! The supplies are getting low by the minute. You can pick one up for $13 at any of the ten participating shops. What better way to forget about tax season than to roll around the beltway and visit its many wonderful yarn shops! Also, if the government happens to shut down tonight at midnight, you might not have anything better to do for the next ten days!

Read more here.

So here a possible path for those of you on the southern end of the beltway. (also one that I recently took to these shops while dropping off the totes to all of the participants). Head down to In Stitches (#4) and then head north to fibre space (#3). From their, head north on the GW parkway to downtown DC. While you are headed that way, stop at Pitango Gelato! In the city, you will hit Looped (#6). From there, take Rhode Island Ave all the way to Hyattsville (only six more miles) and you will hit Tangled Skein (#7). The diner across the street has their own brewed beer and an amazing Pittsburgh theme sandwich! From Tangled Skein, head north to the Beltway and then west around the beltway to Yarn Spot (#10). Then further west to Knit & Stitch = Bliss in Bethesda (#5). Both are just a stones throw off of the beltway. Then head north up 270 to Woolwinders (#9) and Eleganza yarns (#2). Once back down 270 to the beltway again, you can hit the west side of the circle, heading to Uniquities (#8) and Aylin’s Woolgather (#1). Aylin’s is on Route 50, so that will put you headed back into Alexandria again!

I have had some strange jobs so far in my life:  I ran IMAX movies for a Science museum, I was an assistant Organ Tuner (the musical instrument), I worked with a non-profit that helps kids build robots.  I never really dreamed I would work in a yarn store, but it has been an amazing experience nonetheless.

As some of you may know, before I started working at fibre space my husband and I were in the (long and tedious) process of applying for the Peace Corps–a lifelong dream of mine.  On February 23rd we fly to Atlanta to begin our service in the Peace Corps.  We will be flying to Honduras the following day for three months of training and two years of service.  My last day in the store will be February 4th.  I am honored to have met so many of you and seen your incredible talent!  Watching you all become amazing fibre artists has been a very rewarding experience, and I can think of no happier way to have spent the last five months.  I want to thank you all, and all my colleagues for making this a fun and awesome place to work–it isn’t easy to leave.

What inspired you to begin knitting?

For many of us it started when we were children,  seeing our grandmothers (or grandfathers) creating beautiful items, carrying on the hand crafting traditions they learned from their parents or grandparents. Some of us came to knitting later, rather by accident – maybe it was catching a glimpse of someone walking down the street wearing an amazing knitted scarf or hat and asking them where they got it, only to discover that they made it themselves. Perhaps we needed stress relief from our busy lives and turned to knitting on a whim, finding that once we picked it up we couldn’t put it down. Many of our younger knitters are lucky enough to be learning knitting in school as our grandparents or great-grandparents did in their day, bringing the knitting tradition full circle.

photo Interweave LLC

For designers Kate Gagnon Osborn and Courtney Kelley, inspiration comes from traditional knitting techniques like Fair Isle, lace, and cables. Their new book Vintage Modern Knits: Contemporary Designs Using Classic Techniques takes these traditions and updates them with a modern style sensibility to create design stories ranging from Vintage Feminine to Rustic Weekend to Winter Harbor, featuring tailored lines, modern fit, and easy to wear style.

With projects from mittens, hats, and shawls to cardigans and pullovers, using knitting techniques from Faroese style lace to Aran cables to Estonian wrapped roositud inlay, each pattern adds an updated twist to favorite traditions to create pieces you’ll treasure for years to come.

So what’s your knitting tradition? What inspired you to start?

Tell us your story for a chance to win a signed copy of Vintage Modern Knits and enough luxurious Canopy Worsted yarn by The Fibre Company to create the Bramble Beret pattern! Then check out our amazing day of events on February 6th. Meet the authors, view the trunk show of garments from the book and attend our workshop. The book will arrive to fibre space™ the first week of February. You can reserve a copy by calling the shop at 703-664-0344.

photo Interweave LLC

Leave a comment below with your story – a winner will be chosen at random and will receive their book and yarn on February 6th at the Vintage Modern Knits book signing.

Update: We have selected a winner at random from your great comments! The winner will be notified by e-mail. Thank you for sharing your stories with us!

I am a classic Black Friday Shopper. The day after Thanksgiving became one of my favorite shopping days of the year way back when I was in college. I loved going to the mall and watching the crowds of people fight over the hot new toy that season, or lined up outside an electronics store waiting for the free DVD player. It was a way to get away from the family spectacle at my parent’s house and be anonymous in a crowd of people. (granted, there were just as many heated moments at the mall but I didn’t have to be sucked into them)

When I first opened a retail store in Old Town, I knew that we would be open at 6 am for a big sale. I love Black Friday too much to not have my own Black Friday sale. When my staff and I arrived at the shop at 5:30 am to start opening up, there were a line of knitters down the block already. I can’t tell you how exciting it was to be on the other side of the Black Friday shopping frenzy for once!

This year, we are joined by an amazing number of shops in Old Town! I am so excited to see small independently owned businesses compete with the big deals at the mall. Some stores are giving as high as 30-40% off !! Many are open at 6 am and Nickell’s and Scheffler will even be opening hours early to provide shoppers with coffee and breakfast at their location on King Street and S. Henry (route 1). Misha’s opens up at 6 am, for those who don’t plan to be in lines already at 5:30.

The magic of Black Friday in Old Town is how different I imagine this experience will be. There weren’t any fights over deals or hot items at our shop. Knitters & crocheters swapped yarns with each other while in line and helped each other reach items on the shelves. Shoppers in Old Town won’t find disgruntled employees with scowls on their faces. You won’t have a hard time finding someone to help you or answer a question. But best of all, you won’t find your average gifts. If you want something unique and extraordinary, skip the mall this year. Join us in Old Town. If Black Friday isn’t your thing because big crowds and angry mobs aren’t for you, try Old Town this year. Your local shops are waiting for you, and we promise a Black Friday like none you have ever had.

On Tuesday, November 2nd, we’re giving everyone a 10% discount in celebration of national voting day! Just stop in all day for our sale.

Discount valid on any product purchases. Discount not valid on services, classes, events, private lessons, etc.