addthis_pub = 'laurazander'; addthis_brand = 'Jimmy Beans Wool'; addthis_logo = 'http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/images/headerlogoSmall.gif'; addthis_options = 'favorites, digg, delicious, email, google, myspace, facebook, reddit, newsvine, live, more'; I am one lucky little bean! I got to tag along to TNNA and help spread the word about Stitch Red!! I can't tell you how exciting it was to be at the event and then to have such a wonderful, enthusiastic response to the project. Well, just knock me over with a feather! Graphic Tunic  by Daniela Johannsenova I was, unfortunately, star-struck and didn't think to start taking pictures until late into Saturday. Sorry! I met Iris Schreier (Artyarns) and her husband Elliot! Super, super neat people! I met Sharon the owner of Lantern...

Brett in her sewing room. Recently our fearless leader, Laura, attended the International Quilt Market in Houston, TX where she ran into none other than Brett Bara who was there promoting her new book "Sewing in a Straight Line". Brett is one of the hosts of "Knit and Crochet Now" on PBS, former editor of Crochet Today magazine, and writer of a wonderful blog: Manhattan Craft Room.  We asked her to do a blog interview with us and she agreed!  Here is what she had to say about her projects:  JBW: Can you give us a super quick description of Knit and Crochet Now and how you get started in television? Brett:  Knit and Crochet Now is a TV series all about (you guessed it!) knitting and crocheting. It airs on PBS and is produced by the yarn maven Candi Jensen. ...

Well, here we are folks!  Week One of the Swans Island Knit-a-long!  We've experienced a huge response to this KAL! I am trying to get an idea of how many people we have participating this time around, so if you wouldn't mind leaving a comment letting me know that you are here (or on Ravelry if you are participating there) just so I can get a head count, that would be awesome!  You can leave an anonymous comment if you'd like.  I don't mind! :) I am so excited to have all of you join us! First, I want to give you all an update on the shipping status of the Anna Cowl patterns and kits. We underestimated the number of folks who would be interested in the KAL, so we've ordered more patterns and should be receiving enough copies to fill your backorders by 1/30/12.  If...

addthis_pub = 'laurazander';addthis_brand = 'Jimmy Beans Wool'; addthis_logo = 'http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/images/headerlogoSmall.gif';addthis_options = 'favorites, digg, delicious, email, google, myspace, facebook, reddit, newsvine, live, more'WowSoI Ji   Jimmy, aka Laura, just came back from Vogue Knitting Live in New York and I am in awe of the time that was had by Laura and Kaity!!! They went to get the word out on our Stitch Red campaign! There were events, charity auctions and so much more! The book, titled Knit Red, will be coming out in June and so many wonderful people were excited to hear about it at the event that they wanted to be on board.There are a couple of things in the book that are near and dear to us here at JBW as Kristen, Sandy and I are all in the book!!! Kristen...

addthis_pub = 'laurazander';addthis_brand = 'Jimmy Beans Wool'; addthis_logo = 'http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/images/headerlogoSmall.gif';addthis_options = 'favorites, digg, delicious, email, google, myspace, facebook, reddit, newsvine, live, more'; Happy Friday! We made it through another week! It's been a bit crazy this week as we attended Vogue Knitting Live in NYC, where we introduced our new project--Stitch Red. Some of the Beans, including Jimmy herself, are currently in Phoenix, AZ for TNNA today! So many exciting things happening around here! We are all just trying to keep up! Speaking of keeping up, we have so many new Beans around here and almost all of them are knitters! Even our newest knitters have been making their needles click at the speed of light, producing some amazing...

addthis_pub = 'laurazander';addthis_brand = 'Jimmy Beans Wool'; addthis_logo = 'http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/images/headerlogoSmall.gif';addthis_options = 'favorites, digg, delicious, email, google, myspace, facebook, reddit, newsvine, live, more'; Yesterday we lost a loyal, hard working bean. Since you are all part of our family, we had to share it with you. Wiley, one of the dog mascots you see around the site, passed away suddenly. We are all devastated by the loss. Of course our head Beans, Laura and Doug, are the most affected, as is Buddy, Wiley's pal for his whole life. Thankfully, Huck is a bit small (2 1/2) to truly grasp the loss, but is still confused. Wiley will be missed, but will be remembered fondly for his terrific personality, beauty and true loving nature. No wo...

Happy Wednesday everyone! I am so excited today I can hardly stand it! We are starting a new Knit-A-Long next week (on 1/25/2012) with Swans Island yarns! We started carrying Swans Island's beautiful yarns back in October of last year, and I have been wanting to host a KAL ever since I saw the Anna Cowl pattern. Delicate and lovely, yet practical and warm, this cowl has everything I look for in a knit-- simplicity, with a little something interesting. I just love it and I hope you all will join me! Swan's Island in "Garnet" Swans Island yarns is a small, all natural hand-dye company based in Swan's Island in Maine. All of their yarns are made of 100% Organic Merino Wool and dyed with natural dyes and processes. The colors are truly stunning. So stunning, in fact, that I have already...

addthis_pub = 'laurazander';addthis_brand = 'Jimmy Beans Wool'; addthis_logo = 'http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/images/headerlogoSmall.gif';addthis_options = 'favorites, digg, delicious, email, google, myspace, facebook, reddit, newsvine, live, more Here we are well into 2012...okay maybe only 16 days in, but there are already so many new yarns and projects to consider that my head is spinning for 2012. However, I think you might agree with me that there are always a few favorites which we turn to as much as we can and I thought I would share some of mine from 2011. Tosh Vintage "Crumble" 1. Madelinetosh (any weight and almost ALL the colors) and I just can't say enough about the quality of this yarn. I would remind everyone that this wonderful line of yarns does NOT have dye lots and...

Happy Friday everyone! I hope this Friday the 13th finds you all well and free of any superstition or strange happenings. I know I am looking forward to the weekend and planning my knitting time out. I am hoping to finish a few fun items for an upcoming baby shower... I'm in the home stretch now!As for FO's this week, we've got my Springtime Bandit Shawl from the KAL we hosted back in November. I knit it out of The Fibre Co. Terra yarn in the Mint color and I managed to finish it in time to give it to my Mother-in-Law as a Christmas gift. She literally squealed when she opened the package. I think she liked it. :) Anyway, here are some photos of me modeling it just before I wrapped it up for her. (Please never mind the blurry photos and the fact that I look exhausted. These photos were...

Hi everyone and happy Wednesday! This week, as I have been knitting away on my Tea Leaves Cardigan in Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage, I have been contemplating hand dyed yarns and how they can be a bit tricky to work with as a novice knitter. I am not what you would consider a novice, but I am a staunchly lazy knitter in that I rarely (until recently) give much thought to how a garment will turn out when working with hand-dyed yarns. I often find myself blissfully knitting along without a care in the world and paying no mind to how the colors look from one skein to the next. Some knitters might find this appalling, but not me--I am pretty laid back about the whole thing.I realize though, that this isn't the case for many knitters and I completely understand why. You put all of those hours...

addthis_pub = 'laurazander';addthis_brand = 'Jimmy Beans Wool'; addthis_logo = 'http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/images/headerlogoSmall.gif';addthis_options = 'favorites, digg, delicious, email, google, myspace, facebook, reddit, newsvine, live, mAs you may have noticed, we have added tons of lovely fabric to our inventory and, being who we are, we've been oohhing and aahhing all over the place! Fun projects have been dancing around in all of our heads and thanks to Sandy's encouragement, Laura and I decided to make our first quilts. Of course I right away thought of you all out there and decided to share this fun process. Sandy is a super experienced quilter and I am a pretty experienced seamstress, BUT Laura has never sewn a stitch, so you will get the entire spectrum of experiences from these...