Happy Friday everyone!  I hope you've all had a great week!  While some of us are away at Stitches West this weekend, I've prepared a fun FO post for you all!  Here are some of our most recent finished projects around the shop:

Monika recently finished this adorable Huck's Earflap Hat from Battle Born Knits in Misti Alpaca Alpaca Hand Paint Chunky.  Super cute!


Lastly, Rachel just finished and seamed her Cassidy Sweater!  She knit it in Miss Babs' Yowza Whata Skein but said that it's very similar to Tosh Vintage.  Didn't it turn out gorgeous?!?!


So that's it for FO's this week!  If you are going to be in Santa Clara this weekend, stop by our Stitch Red booth at Stitches!  We are booth #'s 117 & 119!  Hope to see you there!

Happy knitting,
Kristen

PS.  Check out our new and exciting project-- Stitch Red!

As some of you may know, Sandy and I are really good friends. We tend to see something the other one is doing and go "ooohhh I wanna do that too." Sandy has started a Trail Jacket by Knitbot, and I want to cast mine on too. Okay, so I admit I am the monkey who just has to get into the middle of things.

In the mist all the sewing, knitting and work, I am getting ready to give this fantastic pattern a go! Sandy is using Noro Kochoran from her stash, and I just can't say how lovely it is so far. As a matter of fact, I have six hanks of the very same color in my small yarn store and I think I will monkey on and maybe we can be twins! Ha Ha:) We just got some Kochoran in stock (on sale no less) and I am also considering color 75 for this project.

I really like the simple shape of this jacket and the potential for modifications. Sandy is adding some pockets to hers and is considering a slightly different collar.

Sorry for the short post, but I am off to look at other yarn for this pattern....hmmm...possibly the Taria Tweed, or Lana Grossa's Everybody...decisions, decisions...sigh...what a hard life I have, hee hee!

What would you use?

Ok, and now for the winners of the Jade Sapphire giveaway!  Our 3 winners (thanks to Random.org and only using the entries that made it in before midnight last night) were:

1) Autumn's Mom, who said, "I would wear it out to dinner to celebrate my 22nd wedding anniversary this year."

2) Sarah, who said, "The Ponchette would be a staple in my work wardrobe. My office is freezing year-round, and this would be great for days when an extra layer is needed!"

3)  Flossie Knits, who said, "I would wear it on my annual Montreal trip!  It would be perfect for the cooler weather!

Thanks to everyone who entered, and winners, don't forget to e-mail kristen@jimmybeanswool.com right away to claim your kits!  Be sure to let her know your 1st choice preference between Deep Plum and Hydrangea and she'll do her best to accommodate based on who responds the quickest!

As always, happy knitting, crocheting and sewing!!
Jeanne

PS Have you heard about our fabulous Stitch Red campaign? Heart disease is the #1 killer of women, so Stitch Red was created in an effort to help create more awareness. You will want to check out out Stitch Red blog for all kinds of great information and guest bloggers, healthy tips and even heart healthy recipes!!

Tons of pretty little cashmere skeinlets!

Silk Cashmere 2-ply

Mongolian Cashmere 4-ply

Moonlight

Purl- the Jade Sapphire Inventory Manager. :)

Purl waits for the UPS driver. :)

PS.  Jade Sapphire is one of the companies that has joined us in the Stitch Red campaign to help create heart disease awareness in women!  Learn more about Stitch Red here.

Hi everyone!

I hope you all are having a happy Wednesday!  I thought I would share with you this fun little video that Jeanne did recently about how to do a Kitchener Stitch.  Many of us, including me, and intimidated by this technique, but as Jeanne shows, it's quite easy once you try it!  I'll be giving this a shot later tonight!  I hope you find this as helpful as I did!



Good luck and happy knitting!
Kristen

Laura's quilt top is beautiful!

So much (as usual) has been going on around here that I am not quite sure where to start...so I guess I will dive right in.

Of course there is sewing and that is very exciting!! Laura's quilt top is hanging in the shop and I have squared mine up, while Sandy has pinned and squared her batting and pinned it all together with her back piece; nice work Sandy! Laura is on another trip, so I will update you on the sewing again soon!

Dr. Ocean was GREAT!

February is Heart Health month and I have mentioned that our Stitch Red campaign is taking off. We had our first Stitch Red knit night...yipppeeee!!! It was well attended and we had a fabulous guest speaker, Dr. Zeny N. Ocean DDS!! He came to help us all understand how important our oral health is to our heart health. It was so much fun!

Jeffrey was attentive!!

My honey Geoff loved him (note the name)

Cheryl brought Jeffrey who is a guide dog in training and let me tell you he was a BIG hit with everyone!!


 Of course there was knitting at a knit night (imagine??) and I forgot my knitting (imagine??), so I was doing a little pining :(

As some of you might know, I have been working towards a healthier lifestyle through a raw food diet and I really enjoyed Dr. Ocean's approach to whole-body healing practices (as well as personal awareness). Quick update as to my progress with my lifestyle change: I feel great!! I am not going to say it isn't a challenge, but I have tons of support both in my home family and my JBW family!! Thanks gang for all your support. I have more energy and am starting to lose weight again

So, with all of that I will wish you a happy, healthy day! Do something good for yourself today, take the stairs, run around the house after you finish that row, or whatever you can to treat yourself the way you deserve!

As always, happy knitting, crocheting and sewing!

Jeanne

PS Have you heard about our fabulous Stitch Red campaign? Heart disease is the #1 killer of women, so Stitch Red was created in an effort to help create more awareness. You will want to check out out Stitch Red blog for all kinds of great information and guest bloggers, healthy tips and even heart healthy recipes!!

Jimmy Beans Wool is the first-ever official yarn, knitting, and crochet supplier to U.S. Snowboarding and U.S. Freeskiing! This partnership has helped to create our newest adventure, Stitch Mountain!

What is Stitch Mountain you may ask? It's a marketing and promotional campaign created by Jimmy Beans Wool and the wonderful people at Red Heart® yarns. It encourages people to be creative on and off the slopes by building awareness of the yarn industry and exposing people to different crafts, fibers and companies.

Stitch Mountain unites two of Jimmy's biggest passions, yarn and skiing! It is also a great way to give back to the skiing and snowboarding community that was a big part of Jimmy Beans Wool's success. When the shop first opened in Truckee, CA in 2002, skiers and snowboarders consistently came into the shop asking for yarn to make beanies and other winter accessories. They helped drive the success of Jimmy Beans Wool in the early years, and we love them for it!

As a part of Stitch Mountain, we also are sponsoring Olympic Pro Snowboarder, Lindsey Jacobellis! Lindsey is not only an awesome athlete, but she is also an avid knitter, crocheter and knitwear designer! She designs and knits hats for her charity, HATS4HOUNDS, and will be designing some cool hats for us down the road!

To kickoff Stitch Mountain, the amazing Red Heart® team, designed some fun patterns to help you accessorize on and off the slopes.

Stitch Mountain is also making its debut this weekend at the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix at Canyons! Check out some of the pictures Jimmy sent so far from Canyons below.



Go Stitch Mountain!
Piet

P.S. Have you heard about our fabulous Stitch Red campaign? Heart disease is the #1 killer of women, so Stitch Red was created in an effort to help create more awareness. You will want to check out out Stitch Red blog for all kinds of great information and guest bloggers, healthy tips and even heart healthy recipes!!

Welcome, everyone, to the final Swans Island Anna's Cowl KAL blog post!  I hope you have all been successful in this process and are either finished, or close-to finished with your cowls. I don't know about you, but I have really LOVED knitting this pattern and using this yarn.  It's a really simple and beautiful knit.  Thank you to the designer, Breean Miller, for designing such a lovely cowl!

 After removing my provisional cast on, it was simple to pick up those stitches and continue with the lace pattern on the second side.  After the bind-off, I soaked my cowl in lukewarm water and some gentle soap and laid my cowl out on a towel to block.  Never tried blocking before?  Well here is an informative video that I did a few months back that illustrates different ways to block items.  It's a bit long, but worth watching if you'd never blocked before or are still new to it.  I hope it helps!





Now, I'd like to know where you all stand on the issue of points.  To point, or not to point?  That is the question.  I really like the look of the original cowl, so I chose to block out my points, but the shell lace pattern really lends itself to a softer more rounded edge as well.  Which one did you or would you choose?


So, that is pretty much it for the Swans Island KAL.  I will keep the Ravelry Thread going for a few more weeks in case there are a few folks still finishing up.  I would LOVE to see your finished pieces, so please post photos, or a link to your photos on the thread!


Thank you so much to all of you who participated in this fun KAL!  If you have feedback or suggestions for the next KAL, please drop me a line and let me know: kristen@jimmybeanswool.com.  I'd really love to hear from you!



As always, Happy Knitting!
Kristen

So much has been going on around here that I am sure that you all thought we had forgotten about our quilting. Not true! Here, in my first quilting post, you see the start of the project and the interesting choosing-of-the-fabric process. While we have been posting about all the recent travels to all the fantastic events, the quilt project has been moving forward in the background. So, I am going to give you a quick update on our sewing adventures. Since Laura is the novice seamstress (hasn't sewn a stitch yet) I thought it might be fun to 'interview' her about the process:

[Jeanne] How hard was it to choose your fabric combination for your quilt?
[Laura] Not as hard as I thought! once I figured out which birds to use, the rest just started to “appear”
The most important thing was to make a safe place to cut (remember we had Huck around), so we chose her kitchen island and it was great! The foreground pile is my fabric waiting for its turn under the knife. You see Laura making her first cut with Sandy helping out.

She got almost all of her quilt cut while we were there (Huck wanted to be tucked in :), so Sandy left her cutting mat and rotary cutter, as well as her rulers and Laura finished up like a pro!

Great job Laura!!

I do have enough sewing and cutting experience that I cut most of mine at home later, but it was super helpful to have Sandy's fantastic skills and advice to get me started.

KO- Geometry and Nature inspire me.  I especially love the geometry of nature.  I LOVE creating textiles from things I see in other mediums.  For example: beautiful tile work, seashell shaping, water movement, or even the texture of a snake's skin or alligator's scales.

Thank you so much Kristin for the inside scoop on the new book and your other projects!

Hope you all have a great weekend and happy crocheting!

Kristen 

Well folks, we made it through the halfway mark of the Anna Cowl KAL!  Give yourselves a big pat on the back!  Now it's just smooth sailing since the rest is just a repeat of the first half.  I just bound off on the first side on Monday night and I was really pleased to see how the pattern is shaping up.  What a fun and easy knit this is!

I used a US size 10 needle for the bind off so that it will be nice and loose when I go to block it and pin out the points.  I have a funny feeling that this cowl is going to grow quite a bit when I block it.  The Swans Island Worsted is so scrumptious and squishy, but it seems to have a lot of give.

 

Also, you may have noticed that I made my middle section a bit bigger. I added about a 1/2" to the middle garter stitch section.  I am a pretty tall person so I wanted a little bit more width.


We've had a lot of lovely pictures and conversations happening over on the Ravelry group, so if you haven't checked that out yet, please feel free to do so!

If you have finished photos you would like to share for the blog next week, please e-mail them to me at: kristen@jimmybeanswool.com.  As always, please let me know if you have any pattern questions or concerns!

Happy knitting!
Kristen