May
oooh, la, la
Posted by Shannon in the shop, yarnWe’ve got something super exciting to share with you all - new SOCKS THAT ROCK!
Yeehawww!!
We received a partial order, and will be getting some more in the next week. We are so madly in love with what we have that we weren’t quite sure we’d share it with you all. But, we decided that we are, after all, in the business of selling yarn, even though we’d just love to enhance our personal stashes by a hundred (or thousand)-fold with this new STR infusion. As always with our Blue Moon yarns, it’s a first-come, first-served kind of thing, with no holds, no shipping, no special orders. And remember, doors open at 11am.
Today, also, is the Tigard Knitting Guild Shop Hop, and we hear these ladies and gents are CRAZY. They’ll be at Twisted from about 2:30 until 3:30 or so, and it may be a bit hectic, so think about coming before or after that for your fix.
May
get this monkey off my back! or, maybe not…
Posted by Shannon in yarn, socks, knittingi have a confession to make, folks. i have a monkey on my back - a BIG one. i blame a good friend and fiber-enabler-extraordinaire for this addiction. she got me started on this road. whether or not she knew how low my resistance is to this kind of thing is beyond the point, because she got me hooked.
what the heck am i talking about? a little pattern that has been making the rounds - the blog-land rounds, the ravelry rounds, and has definitely been making rounds on my size one addi lace needles these last 5 or 6 months. the MONKEY SOCK PATTERN by the insanely talented COOKIE A!! the girl wasn’t lying when she said, in the intro to the sock pattern on knitty, that “the true driving force behind these socks was ADDICTION. There was no other way to get them off my back than to knit them.” many of us have fallen into the monkey-sock-addiction-trap. i am 8 pairs in, and not sure it is over for me. i start to get a bit…shaky and nervous, fondling fingering-weight yarn and picturing it knitted up into monkeys if i haven’t had one on the needles in a while. geez, people! the monkey sock has become my vanilla sock pattern - if i am not sure what to do with a pair of socks, chances are they will end up as monkeys!
and the saddest part of this whole thing? i’m not even sure i want help for this addiction. in fact, i may just want to dive further in…
a smattering of monkeys socks:
from left to right: STR Lightweight in Algae, Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in African Greys, Dream in Color Smooshy in Deep Seaflower
Apr
Silk Mountain Madness
Posted by Emily in yarn, sale|
So, here’s the thing. We cannot resist a sale. We saw a good deal on some Noro Silk Mountain and, well, we bought it. A lot of it.
The fiber content is 65% Wool, 25% Silk, 10% Kid Mohair. It’s a bulky weight boucle - 3 stitches per inch on US 10 needles. A 55 yard ball usually sells for $11, but we’re putting it right out into the sale area for $8. So come get some while it lasts! |
  
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Apr
movie night haitus, and a dream or two
Posted by Shannon in yarn, eventswe have decided to suspend movie nights until the fall - the spring-almost-summer weather has been too seductive, and movie nights seem like a cool-weather kind of thing anyway. we do have a bunch of fun events coming up in the next few months, so check this blog frequently and/or sign up for the newsletter!
today, our trusty ups-guy jeff brought us a box o’ goodies - dream in color classy. oh, yeah, baby. i just made a little baby sweater out of this yarn, and it is tre-fabu to work with, the colors are amazing, and it’s made by wonderful folks. (we also have a TON of smooshy sock yarn and fatty chunky yarn, all superwash, and all dreamy)
Apr
joy, and taiyo
Posted by Shannon in yarn, books, eventsfirst, a reminder that tonight is open crafting night! come on in, craft the evening away, fondle yarns, drink tea, fix the world’s problems…
with spring rearing its sunny head once in a while, thoughts turn to lighter-weight knitting. tank-tops and tee-shirts have become popular knitted items in recent years. and, sure, socks are always a sure bet - even in a warm fiber, socks are small enough to work on year-round. but sometimes you want something else. something in the middle. that, i firmly believe, is why eisaku noro created taiyo. taiyo is a worsted-weight cotton-silk-wool-nylon blend that has the appearance of kureyon with a softness not often seen in noro’s yarns. it comes in a 100-gram ball, which gives you almost 220 yards of yarn to play around with.
there is also a new book to complement the taiyo. jane ellison has come up with a bunch of new patterns to highlight the new noro yarns (how does she do it?!?!!?). there are some uber-cute taiyo sweaters (that may just have to be knit by me at some point this spring), and patterns using the kureyon sock and the silk garden lite yarns.
Apr
Everyone loves a clown… I mean sale area
Posted by Emily in the shop, yarn, knittingIn fact, clowns kind of creep me out, but I digress.
The real point of this post is to make sure everyone knows that Twisted has a clearance area. It’s in the back, near the classroom. It’s chock full of yarns that we love but, for one reason or another, aren’t going to carry anymore. For example, Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK has been discontinued by the manufacturer (they’re keeping the aran weight only), so we have it marked down from $9 to $6 a ball.
Another great deal over there right now is the Zealana Yarn. Zealana is machine washable and comes DK and chunky weights in four blends: 100% merino, alpaca/merino, cashmere/merino, and delaka/merino. I’m doing Euny Jang’s Tangled Yoke Cardigan from the Fall 2007 Interweave Knits magazine in the red cashmere/merino blend. I’m done with the body and ready to start the sleeves. Let me tell you, this yarn is heaven to work with.
We’ve had people snagging sweater quantities of all the blends like there is no tomorrow. After all, how often can you get an superwash cashmere blend for $8 a ball? My personal favorite might be the delaka blend, but we didn’t have enough of that in the color I wanted so I “settled” for cashmere. Ah, I know, it’s a rough life.
Although, we just realized last weekend that 8 balls of the chunky blend would be perfect for the new Zephyr Style pattern Juliet that we just got in… maybe I’ll have to get some of that delaka blend after all…
Other things in the clearance area at the moment are Nature Wool worsted and chunky, Ella Rae Classic, Debbie Bliss Stella, Debbie Bliss Soho, Feza Baby, Skacel Supercotton, and Araucania Magallanes. Supplies, of course, are limited to stock on hand and there are no returns on sale purchases. Come take a look!
Apr
Bergere Magic
Posted by Emily in yarn, knittingNo, that isn’t an overly dramatic blog post title - it’s actually the name of this yarn!
Bergere Magic (yes, if you follow the links you’ll notice that the Bergere website is in French, but I’m amazed how much of it still makes sense) is a 50/50 wool/acrylic blend. It’s machine washable and dryable and knits up at 4 stitch per inch. It’s a wonderful yarn and a good price at $9.25 a 50g/80m ball.
The sweater pattern we have to go with this yarn, though, is beyond wonderful and into the realm of absolutely out of this world.
The “Trapeze Swing Jacket” uses between 10 and 13 balls of Magic, depending on size. It has great details, a stylish fit and seems to flatter everyone who tries it on. The acrylic keeps the bell sleeves and flared body light and flow-y, whereas all wool could get pendulous in the same style.
We currently have 10 colors of Bergere Magic with one more on the way. We’d love to have you stop by to check out this new yarn and try on the model. Several folks have already fallen madly in love at first sight!
Mar
mmmmmmmmmalabrigo, and new patterns
Posted by Shannon in the shop, yarn, patternsthe dhl guy is our new best friend, because he brought us FOUR BOXES OF MALABRIGO TODAY!!!
yeah, you read that right - 4 boxes filled with mostly worsted malabrigo. come on in, fondle, stare, cast on something soft and lovely, like one of the new zephyr patterns we received today
juliet in bulky or 28thirty in the worsted. or, use some of the new smooshy we have recently stocked up on to make cookie a’s mingus or marlinda, her newest (we also have all of her published patterns, including some of the ones she wrote for blue moon fiber arts)
so much knitting, so little time…
Mar
craft with us tonight
Posted by Shannon in yarn, eventstonight is twisted’s open crafting night - please come on by, sip on some tea, get some crafting done with cool, like-minded folk. we’ve also got a lot of fun new yarns and re-stocking of some of our more popular yarns coming to us in the next week or so. and, our class schedule is soooo close to being finalized, so if you aren’t on our email list, hop on over here to sign up, and if you are, keep your eyes peeled in the next week or so.
Mar
SUMMERTIME! (well, almost)
Posted by Shannon in the shop, yarnalright, so we’ll be the first to admit that the weather in portland has been decidedly UN-summery, but you can feel it in the air, can’t you? warmer weather is on its way. the flowers are popping up all over town, the cherry trees are in full blossom, and the knitterly mind wanders to more light-weight dreams. in honor of these dreams, twisted has received some fabulous summer-knitting yarns. two of our new favorites are Debbie Bliss’ Prima, and Sublime’s Soya.
Prima is an 80% Bamboo, 20% Merino Wool blend with an amazing sheen. it’s a dk-weight yarn, and, as is usual with miss debbie bliss, the pattern support is pretty phenomenal. we’ve got 16 bright and happy colors, so come on in, pet some prima, and cast on your first summery sweater today - remember, the warm-weather season here is super-duper short, so make sure to start now, or you’ll have to wait till next summer to wear it :0) heehee!
Soya is Sublime’s newest yarn - it’s a 50/50 soy/cotton blend, with Sublime’s typical classically-understated yet elegant palate. soya is a dk-weight yarn as well, and the pattern book has the cutest lil sweaters for woman, man, and child. we’ve got all 10 colors of this new yarn - with names like ‘pomegranate,’ ‘nettle,’ and ‘noodle,’ you really can’t go wrong.