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!

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

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 and hard work into your knitted garments and you want them to turn out as close to perfect as possible. Hand-dyed yarns, although beautiful, can sometimes foil this plan. They don't have to though, and these videos: Hand Dyed Yarn 101 and 102 starring our very own Jeanne Giles of Battle Born Knits are super helpful in preventing a project meltdown. Take a look:



I hope you found these videos as useful as I did. I may actually decide to stop being so lazy with my next hand-dyed yarn project and try some of these out! Also, if you have a second, leave us a comment and let us know what you think about working with hand-dyed yarns! Do you have any helpful tips and tricks to share?

Hope you all have a great rest of your week!
Kristen

PS. Have you seen our latest catalog yet? It’s 48 pages of pure, 100% Rowan.
Visit jimmybeanswool.com/catalog to sign up for your free copy!

Here we are the day a week before the 2nd day of the New Year...wow!! I don't know about you, but I love the New Year for many reasons! Of course, I try hard NOT to make resolutions, but there is always one or two that sneak up on me. So, with a week to think about it, I thought I would see if you all have anything that you would like to commit to this coming year? I would love to hear about the things you would like to change in your life in the next year. To get the ball rolling, here are just a few of the things I am considering making a real commitment too:

1. Exercise (I have already started walking at least 4 days a week)

2. Commit 70% of my diet to raw food (always working on this one)

3. Finish my projects (again, always working on this one)

4. Add 3 designs to my Battle Born Knits line (sadly, I have several ready to be test knitted and just have to follow-up, sigh)

5. Learn something really new once a month

Okay, so that's as long as I want any list to be, but again I would LOVE to hear from you about your ideas for the coming year. Maybe we could work on something together this year and talk about it here on the blog...what do you think?

I can't wait to hear from you all and you can email me at jeanne@jimmybeanswool.com with your ideas, or just to say hi!

As always, happy knitting, crocheting and sewing!

Jeanne