Tuesday, November 20, 2007

2007 Shop Hop Winners Announced!

The first Annual Atlanta Shop Hop was a lot of fun! Ten stores participated and it looks like it will become an annual event. Our hoppers were very enthusiastic and we loved seeing so many new faces! We received a lot of completed passports...many more than expected!

If you visited us for the first time during the hop, we look forward to seeing you again. Knitch is the center of a wonderful knitting community and we really hope you'll return time after time to sit and knit with us! And, if you're a Knitch Regular, just know that we appreciate you!

The winners of the Shop Hop Drawing are below. The grand prize will be mailed to the winner on Monday, November 27th. All other prizes should be picked up at the shop who donated the prize. Pleae note that prizes are not returnable, exchangeable or transferable.

Here are the winners of the 2007 Greater Atlanta Yarn Shop Hop!

Grand Prize - $1000 in Yarn Shop Gift Certificates
($100 from each paticipating shop) was won by Beth
Winter from Marietta, GA.

A $100 Knitch Gift Certificate was won by Colleen
Strickland from Duluth, GA.

a Bag of Rowan Pure Wool Aran valued at $129.50 donated
by Knitch was won by Bonnie Wright of Hampton, Georgia

A Knitch Dye Class was won by Amy Ratcliffe from
Atlanta, Georgia

A skein of Toasty Boo hand dyed sock yarn valued at
$25. donated by Needle Nook was won by Tina Fagan of
Roswell, Georgia

A Bag of Malabrigo Kettled Dyed Wool valued at $120.
donated by Needle Nook was won by Sally Winter of
Atlanta

A Berocco Kit including a Norah Gaughan Book and 5
skeins of Ultra Alpaca Light Yarn valued at $48.
donated by Needle Nook was won by Ann Yeary of Duluth

A Skein of Trendsetter Lanal Borgosesia valued at $35.
donated by Needle Nook was won by Nicole Grand of
Cumming, Georgia

A Pick Up Sticks Autumn Bouquet Felting Kit valued at
$40. donated by All That Yarn was won by Traci White
of Atlanta

A pair of Addi Turbo Knitting Needles donated by All
That Yarn was won by Kelly Meyer of Marietta, GA

A Sock Class valued at $65. donated by All That Yarn
was won by Nancy Burley of Brooks, Georgia

A Bag of Boho Colors Yarn valued at $105. donated by
Nease's Needle Work was won by Karen Morris

A Felted Crochet Hook Case valued at $25. donated by
Nease's Needlework was won by Rachel Morris of
Marietta

A Year of Afghans Book valued at $10.50 donated by
Nease's Needlework was won by Rachel Skinner of
Moreland, Georgia

4 Balls of Skye Tweed valued at $32. was won by Lynn
Pfaff from Atlanta, Georgia

A Kricket Knits felted bag valued at $8.50 donated by
Nease's Needlework was won by Heather Exum of
Watkinsville, Georgia

A Blooms Felted Bracelet Kit valued at $14. donated by
Why Knot Knit was won by Lisa Heerman of Suwanee

Sweater Soap valued at $12. donated by Why Knot Knit
was won by Mernie Williams from Atlanta

A beaded eyeglass chain valued at $21.80 donated by
Why Knot Knit was won by Elisa Herrera of Atlanta,
Georgia

A Lantern Moon Cow Tape Measure valued at $9.20
donated by Why Knot Knit was won by Kathleen Stamm
from Atlanta

1 lb hand dyed wool quarters valued at $64. donated by
Main Street Yarns and Fibers was won by Anne Luou of
Atlanta, Georgia

A Bagsmith Knitting Tote valued at $36. donated by
Main Street Yarns and Fibers was won by Melody Moran
of Fayetteville, Georgia

A Pink Denise Knitting Needle Set valued at $50
donated by Main Street Yarns and Fibers was won by
Angela Steed of Monroe, Georgia

3 books in the new Harmony Guides Series valued at
$66. donated by Main Street Yarns and Fibers was won
by Marietta Slemp of Tucker, Georgia


Three Skeins of Sheep Shop #3 valued at $78.00 donated
by Only Ewe and Cotton Too was won by Kathy Kilpatrick
of Atlanta, Georgia

Lantern Moon Needle Case valued at $36.00 donated by
Only Ewe and Cotton Too was won by Ginger gidden of
Decatur, Georgia

The Materials to Make the Only Ewe Shop Hop Pattern
valued at $48. (donated by Only Ewe and Cotton Too)
was won by Leslie Kelley of Roswell, Georgia

Gift Certificate for a Class valued at $40 donated by
The Whole Nine Yarns was won by Margaret Glenn of
Decatur, Georgia

Lovely Handmade Glass Knitting Needles valued at $60.
donated by The Whole Nine Yarns was won by Emily
Redwine of Atlanta, Georgia

Knitting Bag with a skein of Aslun Del Sur Yarn valued
at $40. donated by The Whole Nine Yarns was won by
Cinda Raines of Cumming, Georgia

A Rhinestone Knitting Pin valued at $45. donated by
Strings and Strands was won by Martha Taylor of
Atlanta, Georgia

A "Desperate Knitter" Knitting Tshirt valued at $26.
donated by Strings and Strands was won by Maie
Johansen of Alpharetta, Georgia

A Bagsmith Knitting Bag valued at $35. donated by
Strings and Strands was won by Sarah Baugh of
Watkinsville, Georgia

A Lantern Moon Fish Messenger Bag valued at $45
donated by Strings and Strands was won by Becky
Whitmire of Gainesville, Georgia

Three additional prizes from Cast On Cottage will be posted asap! so, check back!

Thanks to all who hopped! We look forward to seeing
you again in the shop soon!

How 'bout some Toasty with your morning coffee?

In our ever present mission to introduce daily fiber into your diet, we're pleased to introduce Toasty, ToastyBOO and Saucy!



These "Things You'd put on Toast" and "Sauce" inspired colors are A-mazing!

Here are the stats for those of you taking the test....

Toasty...100% Super smooshy superwash merino wool available in 10 lovely toast inspired colors. 475 yards per skein

ToastyBoo...A yummy blend of Merino, Bamboo and Nylon available in 6 colors. 370 yards per skein.

And...drum roll please...

Saucy...100% super smooshy superwash merino in 10 EXCLUSIVE KNITCH COLORS! 550 yards per skein!

We're getting hungry just thinking about it!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

We're on a Chicken Mission!

The Chicken Mission began with Cat Bordhi. While at dinner on Cat's recent visit to Knitch, we were lamenting over a certain sock yarn company and their highly selective distribution practices.

Cat suggested (brilliant!) that the owner of said sock yarn company has an affinity for chickens...

So, the chicken mission was born! You can read more about the mission here on our friend Debbie's blog.

This morning Jay (we like him...he makes the web work!)and I wrapped a Napa Cabbage with packing tape, applied roving, a plastic bag and put it in the fabulous felting machine...in an atttempt to make a felted egg (well, really a chicken mothership for our pending chicken shipment to Oregon).

Attempt #1 was thwarted by the fact that we (ok, I) forgot to check the label...well, the roving was superwash...



We quickly got smart (coffee is an amazing thing in the early morning hours!) and applied corriedale which felts like a charm...



Egg-cept (sorry!) that the egg wanted to float..oops...



eventually we got it right...notice the opening for chicken insertion!



EGGSELLENT, Aint it? We think so...

Next step, The Thursday Night Knitters are knitting chickens tomorrow night to go inside the incredible egg and off it goes to Oregon to convince Tina that we MUST HAVE YARN! Join in if you can!

We'll keep you posted on our progress!

Kureyon Sock Yarn

This morning we received a really nice surprise...



Sample balls of Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn!

Needless to say, we were pretty excited! All twelve colors are really beautiful...just what you'd expect from Noro. And, with a generous 462 yards off lovely colorful wool and 30% nylon for longevity, there's plenty to love about this yarn.

Pre-order yours now...and, if you reserve a box of all twelve fabulous colors (a year of noro socks!), you'll receive a 10% discount.

Here's the link to order yours online! Hurry and get yours while they last!

http://www.shopknitch.com/yarn3.php?p=3249&m=51


Yum!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Whew . . . We've been having fun!

Yes, I'm a bad blogger. Someone actually reminded me that I've been remiss in posting so, now that I know that one person is actually reading the Knitch blog, I'm making up for lost time with this one.

We've been quite busy here are Knitch...

First, we took a very fun group to SAFF on the Knitch bus...this trip will be repeated next year but in a bigger, better, more fun for all way so stay tuned! Nell was too busy being the perfect hostess for the bus so, this is our only photo from SAFF... guess you'll have to go with us next year to see it for yourself! Note the cool Noro Mitered Bag in the background... more on that later!

Then, we hosted Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably for a really fun booksigning. Kaffe was kind enough to demonstrate his over the top fast intarsia techniques and tried his best to free our minds from any possible fear of colorwork!

Brandon commented that it was strange that some of our attendees for an event related to colorwork came dressed all in one color (sorry guys!) At least their knitting is colorful!

Then, we hosted Takako Ukei from Habu Textiles for an amazing Japanese Pattern Reading Workshop...and, I'm such a bad blogger that I didn't take a photo... but, Here's a picture of the lovely Dana in one of Habu Textiles gorgeous garments! We've added lots and lots of Habu Kits to our website so don't miss out on them! The Knitch staff is eager to help you unravel the secrets of reading japanese charted designs so, just ask!

Then, Iris Schreier from Artyarns (we love her!) visited us for a modular knitting workshop...but alas (again), I'm a bad blogger and was too enamored with Iris to take the necessary blog photos so, I'll show you just a bit of Iris' over the top lovely yarn.

yum...or how about this....

If you're having a bad day...just think cashmere and silk and lovely litttle beads! It makes you feel better! But that's not all...

Next, Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton inspired us in her Master's Class where she showed us the evolution of a stitch pattern and tantalized us with her gorgeous designs. We still have 3 copies left of her newest book, not yet available in the US but available at Knitch (thanks Cornelia!). Hurry to get them...we love the cover design! but alas, no pictures...we were too busy trying on her gorgeous clothes!

And then, our friend Claudia McClean from Claudia Handpainted Yarns joined us for dye day...

It started with this...

and then moved to this...

and then this...


and finally this (sorry about the shadow)! Everyone dyed really beautiful yarn and we can't wait to see it knit!

And, if that's not enough, we hosted the amazing Cat Bordhi for 2 full days of over the top classes where we dove deep into the new sock architectures introduced in her latest book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters. Cat is delightful, high energy and we can't wait to have her back when her next two books are published.

Look at all these happy socks!

Whew...It's been so much fun and we can't wait for more. Don't miss our two day design your own felted bag class next weekend with Noni designer Nora Bellows! This design intensive 2 day workshop will get your creative juices flowing. There are only a few seats left!

We promise to keep the fun coming if you promise to join us!