Hello! We were so thrilled to announce our next KAL over the weekend, and it seems many of you are excited as well. After all of the excitement over last year's KAL, we knew we just HAD to follow up this year with another. We are glad you all are excited. :) This year's KAL has a little bit of a different format, with a twist. Starting with a basic shawl pattern, this year's KAL is based on the film drinking games of our college years with a “Choose your own Adventure” element. The difference is that in this case we’re taking a more productive approach: instead of drinking when something happens on Season 4 of Downton Abbey, we'll be knitting a specific stitch pattern into our shawl based on the directions given each week! (Of course, we wouldn’t blame you for pouring a glass of...

Welcome back to the Mystery Sew Red Sew-a-long! We know you've been chomping at the bit for the next block, so without further ado, here is the Fourth Block in the Sew Red Sew-a, designed by Marcia Harmening! All About Marcia Marcia Harmening is the talented designer behind Happy Stash Quilts and Queen of All Things Applique! Marcia says she fell in love with quilting many years ago as a means of staving off insanity during the long, dark Alaska winters. What better way to beat the long, snowy season than by surrounding yourself with colorful fabric! In 2010, after 23 years in Alaska, Marcia, her husband and their three children relocated to Reno, Nevada. We are lucky to have Marcia as a frequent visitor to our shop! She has commemorated our local are in The Tahoe Collection of “Flip...

I swore up and down that I wasn't going to knit any gifts this year. There is just not enough time, and unfortunately I am not one of those people who is disciplined enough to begin my holiday knitting in August or September. But, in the last few days, I've broken down and decided to knit a few gifts. I just can't help myself I guess. Searching Ravelry for the right hats and headbands to make, I stumbled upon some amazing and beautiful options and figured I would share them with you in case you were also in my predicament--needing some last minute gift ideas. Here are a few of may favorites: The Magnolia Hat by Maria Socha. This one is gorgeous AND it's a Freebie on Ravelry. I may have to make this one for myself when the holidays are over! Magnolia Windschief  by Stephen West...

We've been hard at work in our yarny-style Santa's Workshop creating all kinds of fun holiday gifts to give this year. If you haven't yet checked these out yet, be sure to do so for your favorite knitter, or add some of these items to your wishlist for Santa. Blue Sky Alpaca Gift Boxes: Rachel, showing off her shawl, and the Alpaca Silk Colors that inspired it. These have an exclusive free pattern to go with them, the Asymmetrical Stripped Shawl, designed by our very own Rachel of Unraveled Designs. Debbie Bliss Snowman: We just love these little guys! So cute! The snowman can be knit into the Frosty Slouch Hat (another exclusive free pattern designed by our very own Kristen of Marinade Designs) once the holidays are over. Cascade 220 Superwash Holiday Wreaths: Huck...

We caught up with Stacy Charles (of Tahki Stacy Charles) and asked him to tell us all about his holiday travel traditions for the collection. His contribution this year is through two collaborations one with TSCArtyarns and the other with Andi Javori of Javori designs. We can't wait to show you their contribution to the holiday collection (coming out tomorrow in a special edition of our Newsletter) but in the meantime, here are Stacy (and Andi's) holiday travel tradition stories for you to enjoy!  Stacy: I am fortunate enough to live in two places. It is not that uncommon for residents of NYC. We have a hectic-paced city life during the week - and retreat to a second home, either in the mountains upstate or on the ocean, for a weekend or holiday escape.  My weekend home is...

Saremy, the owner and designer behind Chicken Boots and creator of the two largest bags (the Double Double, and a specially created for JBW slightly larger version) we are featuring in our 2013 Holiday Collection shared with us her holiday traditions story below. She and her family try not to travel during the holidays so that they can spend the day in the comfort of their home. We love her traditions, and how cute are her chickens!?!?! "There is always something special about the time between November and January-whether you celebrate Christmas, another holiday or none. My family is quite small with only me, my husband and our daughter, Cricket, who is 11. We tend to stay at home during Christmas. Occasionally we have ventured to see our families but typically we always try and...

We asked Felicia Lo from Sweet Georgia yarns to share with us her travel story and the inspiration for her yarn for our 2013 Holiday Collection and here is what she had to say:   "While Vancouver inspires my deepest devotion during the sunny and green spring and summer seasons, when November rolls around, I am desperately clamoring for some more sunshine. Before our honeymoon two years ago, I had never actually been to Hawaii but I had always thought vacationing in Hawaii was a bit cheesy. It was probably the distorted image I got from watching too much television, but it just seemed to me to be all cliché surf themes, flowers in drinks, and of course the large print Hawaiian shirts. But our trip to the smaller, quieter island of Kaua’i was simply beautiful. The...

We spoke with Jane Saffir of Jade Sapphire yarns about her color inspiration for the 2013 Holiday Collection, and here is what she had to say: "Truthfully, I was agonizing about it.  We already had the colorway "Rockaway Beach," the name of the beach vacation place of my childhood.  We already had "Tahitian Garden" (although I've never been to Tahiti, just fantasized about it!).  We already had "Caribbean Mist," which covers a lot of territory for fantasy vacations.  My family kept teasing me, saying that my favorite vacation destination is my own house, if I could be "allowed" to just stay home and play with all my toys (all fiber related)! Anyway, we just got back a few days ago from...

We asked Taiu what her holiday travel traditions were and how they inspired her 2013 Holiday Collection color. Here is what she told us:  "Where do you go on holidays? That's a good question, and to that I ask ‘whats a holiday’? When you run your own business and have a daughter that has a crazy extracurricular life (that would be me), holidays are very rare. I dance right through the year and by the time a holiday comes all I want to do is sleep. When we do travel it’s for business, and I'm grateful for being able to travel with my mother across most of the United States, and most recently I was able to travel to Koln (aka. Cologne), Germany for a trade show. Going to Koln was my first trip overseas, and out of everywhere in Europe I'm glad it was Germany. ...

Beth Casey from Lorna's Laces recently shared with us her inspiration for the color she created for our 2013 Holiday Collection. Her's is the first of many stories we'll be sharing with you over the next couple of weeks. Here is what Beth had to say about her holiday travel traditions: “How do I celebrate the holidays? Well, my husband's birthday is December 25th. My birthday has always been special to me and I wanted to make sure his didn't get lost in the holiday craziness. So we decided early on that we'd spend Thanksgiving with family and travel as often as we could for Christmas. Sometimes it's been exotic like Paris or Istanbul. Other times it's been simpler, like Portland or Door County. One year we just got a hotel room...

Beers, brats, badgers and basements? It’s Christmas in Wisconsin! For the last 15 years, Doug and I have spent every other Christmas at Doug’s parents’ house in Middleton, Wisconsin. And for the last 15 years, I’ve had to remember to pack a bundle of rubber bands in my suitcase. You see, after a few days of drinking beer, eating brats, and watching the Badgers play hockey on the basement TV, I have to call upon these rubber bands to help keep my pants up. (Remember the pregnancy trick? Yeah, well, only in this case, my “expanding belly” isn’t the result of a growing baby… it’s the result of blissful gluttony!) Oh – and did I mention that Doug’s mom is famous for her Christmas baking? She makes hundreds (yes hundreds!) of cookies each season. Sigh. I’m drooling (and happily expanding!) already!!...

Over the weekend, Laura decided to take a stab at sewing the Gumdrop Pillow by Amy Butler for the Huckster. She had been eyeing the Rebekah Ginda Robotic Fabric from Birch Organics, so she grabbed enough on her way out the door and got started. Luckily, with Huck being the super-helper that he is, this turned out to be a pretty fun project for everyone! Laura looked to Amy Butler's Creativebug.com class to make the Gumdrop Pillow for easy step by step instructions with videos. You can download the PDF of the pattern from the Amy Butler website and print out all of the pattern pieces you need at home, or if you prefer a pre-printed version, you can order it from us here. Be sure to check out all of our great sale fabric while you are at it. (Never said I wasn't an enabler.) Next...