Yarn? Yeah, we got that.

As promised, I have finally gotten photos of tons of yarn, courtesy of Carrie the photographer extraordinaire. We spent most of Wednesday pulling yarn and photographing it and then I have spent the past 2 days resizing a bajillion photos. Not as fun as knitting with the new yarns but itames, color names and color numbers. Sometimes I wonder what I would fill that space in my brain with instead of, "That blue Kidsilk Haze is #592 Heavenly, 229 yards and $14 per ball. I happen to know that we have 5 skeins left, I sold 4 this morning to Anne and there is one on the shelf." Maybe I would be an astrophysicist. But then, I'm not even sure that's how you spell "astrophysicist."
I digress. On to the hot pics:

This is the new Misti Alpaca Chunky (108 yards, 100 grams per hank, 2 ply
Suggested needle size: 3.5 stitches per inch on U.S. #10), which is 100% baby alpaca and is soooo incredibly soft! It comes in 36 amazing colors, tweeds like this:

And solids like this:

The color above is the one Stacy is using to make this awesome Drops sweater that Kate covets. Andrea is making Juliet from Zephyr Knits and I think I may be a copycat and make it too out of this color
and Carrie made the scarf seen above out of one skein of the Chunky and the pattern is available free from the Misti Alpaca website here.
We also got the Misti Alpaca Super Chunky, in all of its 12 colors. It is a 50/50 Alpaca Wool blend in solids and heathered colorways. The two ply construction gives it a little extra strength and should keep it from pilling really badly.

Below is a steal from Berroco, Ultra Alpaca Light. A sport weight wool alpaca blend, 144 yds to 50g at, wait, are you ready? $5! rock on Berroco. And there are designs for this in the new Norah Gaughn book out from Berroco too.




And also from Berroco is the new yarn Peruvia, which I think is my favorite "yarn-like yarn" this season. A good price, $8/skein, and decent yardage (174 yds/100 g), knits up at a decent 4 stitches/1" and would be great for felting. Check out some patterns here, and stop in to see Norah Gaughn's new book from Berroco too! And the cover of the new Interweave features Norah's "Tilted Duster" which has a very loyal following.


















This yarn is one I couldn't resist. The colors spoke to me. Autunno, from Di Ve (distributed by Cascade Yarns) is 4 sts/1", $6.75 / ball and it comes in these crazy colors:






It is a single ply of 100% wool, but it is lofty, lustrous and incredibly soft to the touch, like wear-next-to-your-skin-soft. I really want to make a sweater out of it, but can't figure out which is the best color and then maybe it needs to be multiple colors and maybe I should just make a hat...Argh!
Stay tuned for more, there's new colors of Handmaiden Sea Silk, new books, tons of Anne on the way, and a new sock yarn from Schaefer called "Heather" which is a silk, merino, nylon blend (superwash, wow!) which promises to knock our socks off...and hopefully a new Sock Boutique will appear on the Rosie's site soon!

Weekend Hours

Hello all! I know it's been a long time since I've posted and this is going to be a quickie, so I'll owe you a good juicy post next week full of scandalous pictures of yarn and sweaters.
In the meantime our weekend hours are as follows:
Regular hours Saturday (10-6) and Sunday (12-5) and we will be closed on Monday. Frankly, I need to do laundry and go the grocery store. :)
Stop in this weekend to get your goodies for Monday, and we'll be here (well rested) on Tuesday at 10 to help you out.
Have a great and restful weekend!

Check it out!

We have finished the rough re-do of our Yarn Stash page on the website and you should check it out!
www.rosiesyarncellar.com/products/yarnstash.shtml
Some of the new features for easier browsing include the alphabetizing of yarn by manufacturer, and eventually you will be able to click on a link to the books for that particular manufacturer too (you can on the Adrienne Vittadini ones, I've gotten as far as "A", it's a slow process!), and there is a siderail (that looks kinda wonky if you are in firefox, I'm trying to figure out why), and you can see (almost!) all of our yarn on the yarnstash page, not just stuff we have online. That way you can see if we carry something and can always call to order it if we haven't put it up yet. And there are some things, like Koigu, that we'll never sell online but we want you to know we have it.
I'm am so stinkin' proud of my mad web skills, considering that a couple years ago I didnt know what a blog was.
Yay me!

Son of Sidewalk Sale

Just a reminder, there is still a lot of sale yarn here in case you thought we were out of stock!
Stuff on sale:
Noro: Aurora, Kujaku, Sakura, Daria, Blossom
Classic Elite Lush
Sock yarn: Regia 50g balls, supersocke, assorted trekking
Rowan Ribbon Twist
Adrienne Vittadini Nicole
Some books and kits
Karabella Boise
Berroco Suede
Cascade 220 Superwash
and more...


And stay tuned for another exciting weekend event as the Knitty.com-ers descend into the Philadelphia area for the weekend, you know who you are!

Staff Picks

We got a lovely shipment of yarn from the wonderful ladies at Conjoined Creations. I really should take a picture at their booth if I can next time we see them. They really are amazing. They do knitting yarn and roving in soysilk and Optim roving (which is a process which makes merino wool softer, yes! it's possible!) and they do a fair amount of work with needlepointers. So, since needlepointers need soooo many colors they have about hmmm...100? 200? colors and then each color is available in 4 gradations, light to dark. So color #100 is available as #100a, #100b, etc. It's crazy. And they will make multis for you out of any of the 5 million colors. We couldn't resist colors that would reflect the tastes of our staff, and they come with our names on the ball band! How cool is that?
This is "Wendy," who has probably already blogged about it. She was in on her lunch break today to take a look and pick up a couple skeins. She's thinking of knitting Bee Fields.

This is the "Courtney" colorway. See how it matches all the clothes I own? Clever.

You can always count on Lisa for the neutrals, and I think we did pretty good here because when she came in to look at the colors this was the first one she picked up. Am I good or what?

And of course, for Kate, all pinks.

"Jocelyn" is very similar to "Kate" but deeper and more jewel-toned. Jocelyn will be in on Sunday so we'll see what she thinks. Kate had to handle this one, I didn't know what colors Jocelyn liked.This is "Stacy," Stacy calls it her Green Goblin color. Wow!
This is the "Judy" colorway. I hope she likes it, she's hard to please in the color department. I only know she was knitting something purple while we were flying to TNNA in the spring so I went with purple and, as Lisa points out, it's probably the color that will work best in a lace pattern.
And here are just some good ol' colors of Optim Roving that you may recognize from our previous order. The colors were so popular we did them again!

The British Invasion

I returned today from horribly hot travels to a Rowan Explosion!

mmm... Cocoon...

And we got a ton of new books for fall!
Longer and prettier updates will follow in a couple days, once we figure out where to put everything. In the meantime, come in and take a look!

It keeps on a-coming!

More than usual (he is quite charming) we have been looking forward to the arrival of the UPS guy this week. Every day has brought little packages with yarny goodness. Some is right in time for fall (although we can't believe it will ever be cold again!) and some perfect for the end of summer. No doubt we have exactly what you are need for your beachgoing/vacationing/last minute baby shower gift needs.

Some Highlights:

Trekking XXL in really pretty subtle stripey colorways. The 3-ply has a different color in each ply, so the stripes are really interesting and flow quite nicely. Always a favorite, this yarn works for simple socks, but doesn't overwhelm lace or cabeling either.

Colors 110 and 108:

Colors 145 and 100:

and a close up of 110 so you can see the subtle striping in the plied yarn:

We also got a great new yarn called Maizy from Crystal Palace Yarns. Made out of 82% corn fiber and 18% elastic nylon, each 50 gram ball is only $6.50 and would be perfect for sidewinders, or lightweight baby garments for spring and summer. We got a sample pack of 2 skeins of each of the 31 colors they offer in both variegated and solids, so you will be sure to find something you love.

Next came a ten colors of Naturewool in hand-dyed variegated colorways that compliment the semi-solids beautifully. Some highlights of this set include:

401:

402:

and 407:

And since that wasn't enough, we also received more of Claudia Handpaint in the sport-weight. Perfect for baby garments, warm comfy socks, accessories or a gorgeous sweater.

Some of the gorgeous new colors we just receive include, from left to right:

Limeade, Walk in the Woods, Desert Dusk, Last Night's Wine, Chocolate and Paprika.

We also have Moss, a beautiful semi-solid green, Passion Fruit, a bright red, purple and khaki combo, Eat Your Veggies, a kelly green, chartreuse, slate blue and grey combo, Teal (self-explanatory), Purple Earth, a royal purple, moss green, eggplant and taupe combo Donna's Favorite, evergreen, khaki, taupe and gold and Boot Camp, a darker more saturated version of Donna's Favorite.

We also have new Austermann Step in great self-striping colors, Crystal Palace Panda Cotton in a few select variegated colorways and new colors of Baby Ull and Misti Alpaca Laceweight. More yarns are coming too (hint: Rowan, Berocco and Classic Elite) -- so make sure to stop by and see what next week brings.

And if you missed last weeks super-huge-mega blowout sidewalk sale last week, if you come by Sat and Sunday this weekend, you will definitely find some deep discounts on great yarns both inside and outside the store: Lush, Aurora, Hempathy and Candy to name a few!

-Kate

New Fall Workshop Schedule and I have Rowanitis

I have finally forced myself to sit down and figure out the workshop schedule for fall. There will be lots of good classes and I hope you guys will find some of them useful, such as knitting 2 socks on 1 circular or Fair Isle so we can all cast on the amazing Felted Tweed vest that took every ounce of my will power not to pull yarn for and cast on last night while I was supposed to be teaching crochet. I went home and spent some quality time with the magazine and the wonderful quiche Max made. And I want to make this: which is called "Neaty" (why?) and is knit out of Cocoon, the new yarn from Rowan for fall. It is a lofty single ply that knits at 14 sts/4" (3.5 sts/1") on 10-10.5 needles. I feel immediately in love with it when we saw it. It comes in only natural undyed colors and I hope it will stick around for a while. It's going to be a classic. A great sweater yarn.

So when I'm done knitting that I'm going to make this: Called Oslo (which is a place I'd always wanted to go) and also knit in Cocoon. And it uses snaps, not buttons. Remember: British="press fastener" American="snaps".

I may be interrupted in my Rowan knitting adventures by the release of Kaffe's new book, Kaffe Knits Again, due to be released on October 2nd. There is a great interview in the new Rowan with Kaffe all about his new book and what he's been up to.

Here is a sneak peek of some of the designs we'll see in the new book:

Called Criss Cross Sweater and Jack's Back Sweater, these show a much more subdued Kaffe, I think, but I don't believe that the sweater on the left can really be black and white and grey. It probably has more colors sneaking around in there!

But once I'm back on track I'll be casting this on, which I think would make a great nursing shawl to shlep around the shop in.

Called "Affric" it is knit in Wool Cotton, which is a great basic yarn that is also machine washable. It's hard to tell in the picture but the moss stitch edging is knit in a different color from the body. Main color is Gypsy and the contrast is Coffee Rich, hands down the best selling color we stock (wait, we stock all the colors!).

And please, someone make this. It is so amazing and so lovely. You know you want to knit this. Let me live vicariously through your knitting! Cologne is knit in 4 Ply Soft color Victoria, Kidsilk Haze colors Liqueur and Hurricane and Kidsilk Night color Bronze. Wow. It's awfully nice.

Rowan Magazine 42

It's finally here! And it's really lovely. There are 60 designs in this one from all the best, Kaffe, Brandon, Sarah Dallas, Erika Knight and more. Lots of the designs are featuring their new yarn Cocoon, which should be here soon. I'm off to read!