Hello everyone!  I hope you all have had a really wonderful and productive week.  My week has been so jam packed I've hardly had any time to knit!  I was really hoping to have my Mara shawl to share with you all (I am only 3 rows away from the finish line), I'm trying to make it to the gym every evening to train for that run I signed up for this spring so my knitting has taken a bit of a backseat this week.  I am hoping to get caught up over the weekend...

In any case, I do have a couple of semi-recent FO's as well a few exciting WIP's to share this week.

Lovely Cables Galore!

First up, we have a Gretel Tam by Ysolda Teague that I knit last summer out of Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed.  It was such a fun pattern to knit that I couldn't put it down while I was working on it.  Even now, I am so tempted to make another one!  We just started to carry Ysolda's patterns and books in the shop but this one can be found in the new Debbie Stoller book "Superstar Knitting."  If you haven't seen her books Whimsical Little Knits 1&2, the designs are absolutely to die for!  I hope you will take a peek and knit some of the charming designs for yourself!

Babies! :)

I also have a darling little Presto Chango sweater that I made out of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran a bit back.  It turned out so cute and was a really fast knit.  This particular sweater was knit a couple years ago in hopes that one of my few friends who were having babies would have a girl!  To no avail! All boys!  Finally, some good friends in Wisconsin recently had an adorable little girl so I will be shipping this off to them next week!  This design is really so fun to make and quite easy so I'll most definitely be making it again and again.

Watch out for the Sandy Bandit!

On to some new WIP's!  We've had just a couple this week as folks are still working on many of the projects I've already shared in this space.  Sharon loved her 1st Springtime Bandit out of Berroco Remix (which is just a few rows away from finishing) that she decided to start another!  It was love at first sight for Sharon with the "Plaid Blanket" color of Tosh Merino DK so she snagged two hanks and is now using them to make this fun version of the Bandit.  Sandy saw Sharon's project sitting on the customer service desk yesterday and wanted her photo taken with it.  Silly Sandy!

Yummy.

Lastly, I've started a 2nd Potato Chip Scarf out of Lorna's Laces Green Line DK in Catalpa.  The jury is still out for me on the one I started a few weeks back.  I love that color of Lorna's Laces (Robin's Eggs- April 2009 Limited Edition) but I just don't love the way those colors are pooling in that particular pattern.  C'est la vie!  I'll just have to find something else to knit with that colorway!  This Catalpa color is so subtle in it's color changes that it is really knitting up beautifully.  I am absolutely loving the result this time around and I can't wait to have this scarf's ruffly goodness hugging my neck!  It's the perfect springtime scarf!

If you haven't tried the Lorna's Green Line yet, make sure to do before it's gone!  Lorna's has discontinued this line of their yarns and Jimmy Beans has bought the last of it.  Lorna's will be dyeing pre-requested colors over the next 6-8 months for us.  We get about 1 new color a week so keep checking the site for your favorites!  We don't know what colors we are going to get from week to week as it is based on their dyeing schedule, so each new shipment is a fun surprise!
  
Well, that is it for this weeks FO's and WIP's!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend filled with sunshine (or a warm cozy fire depending on what part of the country you reside in) and knitting!

Hugs!
Kristen

February has been dubbed Heart Month by the American Heart Association and I think it's important to remember that heart disease is one of the number one killers of women today. With that said we are going to be participating in the 'wear red' day on Friday February 4th at the shop and I think I will be wearing a hank of February's Lorna's Laces Limited Edition color around my neck!

The shipment was delivered today and it is a real festival of color (hint, hint)!! Okay with the picture here it isn't much of a hint, but it's beautiful don't you think? Shevawn inspired this months color and boy did it turn out to be amazing!! Of course if you are a member of the LLE Fan Club you have already seen this great color and are probably ready to add it to your cart as soon as it is live on the site right? If you are not a member then check out the Facebook Fan Club, or if you aren't part of Facebook just sign up here and once you are a member you can even win yarn, so what are you waiting for?

I hope you will participate in 'wear red' day on Friday and we would LOVE to see pictures of you wearing your red to remind everyone how important the fight against Heart Disease is! I have been personally affected by heart disease and miss my mother very, very much! I will also be knitting with my Festival of Love knitting up my little hearts from the book Gifted. I plan on working up a BIG bowl of these adorable hearts for Valentines Day!

This pattern is a fantastic short row knit and after stuffing the little darlings they get felted. This picture is before felting, so stay tuned for more! I am going to use the Festival of Love in the Greenline Worsted which will felt up great! I used Classic Elite Fresco for these hearts here (I doubled the yarn), but have been using anything I can find including Cascade Pastaza.

And we have some other really exciting news to share!

It's that time again! We are now accepting applications for the 2nd annual Beans for Brains Scholarship! We've partnered up with The Yarn Group, Interweave, Denise Needles, Lorna's Laces, Tahki Stacy Charles and tons of other folks across the industry to offer one of the largest Knitting and Crocheting scholarships out there! As you may or may not know, the Beans for Brains scholarship is a merit-based scholarship open to all students attending an accredited institution in the fall of 2011. Applicants must know how to knit or crochet. The scholarship is open to undergraduate, graduate, and professional school students in any course of study. For the 2011-2012 award year, there are five $3,000 scholarships up for grabs!! Deadline to apply is April 1st, 2011 so just hop over to our website to apply today!

As always happy knitting and crocheting!!

Jeanne

And the winners are....Peppermint Mocha and Blueberry Snowcone!!

It was a close race and I can't tell how much your votes mean to us!! You are all amazing and it was a fun race. I can see that you are all fond of some of the older colors, as are we!

The 'new' permanent colors will be available by August 15th!! I can tell you I will be getting both colors into my stash in different weights...my poor family, ha ha!

We are currently offering our Limited Edition colors in Shepherd Sock, Shepherd Sport, Shepherd Worsted, Lion and Lamb, Helen's Lace, Honor and now Pearl! We are also offering the Greenline this month in both DK and Worsted weight. The Greenline is on sale at 50% off in this month's color Capital City! Wow!

Phew that was exciting! As always happy knitting and crocheting! Jeanne