Super Sock Yarn – Hedgehog Fibre is here!

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Happy Easter weekend! We are open and you should come in and see the goodies, like these beautiful skeins of Hedgehog Fibre. We have long admired Hedgehog’s uniquely poppy way of dyeing and now we have some in the shop. Hooray!

Hedgehog Fiber’s Sock is comprised of 90% superwash merino, 10% nylon, but it is not just for socks. Make shawls and sweaters too, perfect for kid’s duds!

We also received Turtlepurl this week. Happy, self striping sock weight yarn from Turtlepurl has been a mainstay in the Knit Café for years. We are sorry to say that this will be our last order for a while as Turtlepurl is taking a break from wholesaling. I am glad to say we have a lovely collection that will hopefully keep us busy for a while  Here are some of my favourites ↓

“Live Long and Prosper” is a limited edition colour that we are lucky to have.  The colours are inspired by Spock’s uniform from Star Trek of course!

“The Artist” is oh so artistic!

“Zebra Diva” – greys and blacks and hints of coloured hues – so pretty!

“What Does It Mean” I don’t know why this colour is called this. maybe someone can help me out and tell me what does it mean? Regardless it is terrifico,  featuring a grey-blue background and rainbow stripes between.

Craftily yours
Kristin

Chunkerific Yarn Update

Some knitters like to maximize their knitting time with fat yarns. To them, I say look no further then Brown Sheep Burly Spun. We adore this yarn for how speedy it is to knit but also how glamorously chunky it looks in simple stitches like garter stitch.
We just got our first shipment (of many no doubt) of this indispensable yarn.

This oatmeal colour is the one we picked to knit our sample of The Mondo Cowl.

We have many other colours of Brown Sheep Burly Spun in the shop to admire, and there are a few available in our webshop too, so even if you live far away you can order some of this yarn to try.

More news from the webshop!

Turtlepurl Self Striping Turtletoes yarn is one of our featured yarns this month. You can see all the colours HERE.

With the arrival of Madelinetosh Merino Light we are able to offer some of our favourite colour combinations for the Soho Scarf Knit Kit. You can see them HERE.

Fall is in the air everyone!

Craftily yours
Kristin

Self-Striping Yarn Heaven

It is a terrific day for those of us who love stripes. You know who you are.

We have fantastical Turtlepurl Yarn nestled right where it should be in The Knit Café shelves. Striped Turtletoes yarn is a sock weight yarn that is hand dyed to be self patterning in happy go lucky stripes. Did I mention it is hand dyed, and in Canada no less! Amazing! This soft merino wool with a bit of nylon makes terrific socks. It comes bundle into two matching skeins so you can have your socks match stripe for stripe.

We also have Noro.
Noro yarn is one of my first yarn loves. Noro yarn is a wonderful yarn company from Japan that has been making very original, blended striping yarns for ages and still does it better than anyone.
I recently made this ⇓ with Noro yarn.

I almost died of hunger and thirst as I was glued to my chair in a knit frenzy unable to tear myself away from knitting with self striping Noro knit with self striping Noro in STRIPES! It was amazing.
We are teaching this project in a Beginner Class coming up in September.

We call it “The Magical Striped Scarf Workshop” after the seemingly magical qualities of Noro. The focus of this class is:
Learning to Purl!
Learning how to knit stripe patterns.
Adding elegant details to your projects like smooth selvedges and prettier cast ons and bind offs.
Reading knitting patterns.

Find out more about The Magical Striped Scarf Workshop HERE

Craftily yours
Kristin

Attention Sockaholics! Prepare to get excited!

Turtlepurl Self Striping Sock Yarn is Back!

There are currently 21 seriously fun colour patterns to choose from in this yarn, but they won’t last long so come in soon to get your first pick.
What’s so great about this yarn? – you might ask. Firstly, it is made in Canada, hand dyed yarn, which is always special.  Secondly, the yarn is cleverly dyed so that it will knit into stripe patterns with no extra effort from the knitter.  In addition the skeins are bundles into couplets, dyed to match each other so that sock knitters can match up the stripes in their socks.

These socks were knit by Ellen in the Turtlepurl colour called Rock, Paper, Scissor, Lizard, Spock! Ellen’s socks are so dreamily soft because they are a special blend of sock yarn called Softshell Turtle Toes composed of 70% Superwash Merino, 20% Cashmere, 10% Nylon. This super soft sock yarn makes for very happy feet.  We have a few colours in this decadent blend.  Colours like:

Rock, Paper, Scissor, Lizard, Spock

Origins of Purple

Miss K’s Big Day

Gothic Plum

Old Glory

Most of the Turtlepurl sock yarn in the shop is the hard wearing Striped Turtletoes yarn which is a blend of superwash merino and nylon. Many old and friendly colours are making a reappearance and a few new ones too!  Colours like:

Superman
I just couldn’t resist the name of this one! Who doesn’t want super hero socks?

Snow White
All the colours of this leading ladies dress! These would make such sweet socks! Non?

Turtlepurl Striped Turtletoes would be terrific yarn to use an After Thought Heel Sock Pattern with.  That way the delightful stripes will not be interrupted by the heel knitting.  Check out the blog post for things to knit for Christmas for links to two different after thought heel patterns.  One in toe-up and the other is top-down!

Craftily yours
Kristin

Stripes in your socks put spring in your steps!

We are so happy to have some more Striped Turtletoes by Turtlepurl in the shelves.  This self-striping yarn is more fun than it has a right to be.

Just look at these colours!

from right to left: 1992, Bruised, and Nano

from right to left: Absinthe, Bah Humbug, Poison Apple

from right to left: Mystic Topaz, Cannonball, Derby

from right to left: Angry Bird, Bee Keeper, Trench Coat

Striped Turtle Toes is sold in two matching 50 gram skeins, dyed to match.  One skein will make a mitten, an arm warmer, or more typically a sock. The other skein will make it’s mate.  This is excellent sock yarn with 25% nylon in concert with the merino, for extra strength.

Turtlepurl was kind to send us some swatches that show off the stripes!

…and here is a finished sock, knit by Aurelie.  She wisely used some scrap black yarn as her heel and toe so as not to interrupt the self-striping pattern.  Another forward thinking knitter I know used an after thought heel technique on her Turtlepurl socks for the very same reason.

Striped Turtletoes would be an excellent yarn choice if you plan to join our upcoming advanced sock class.

Sock Master Class
Saturday June 7, 14, 21, 10;30am-12:30pm
$76, materials not included.
register by calling us at 416 533 5648.

Remember to make your swatch before class.  See details HERE.

You can read the full sock master class description HERE
Beginner Sock Class starts July 3rd

Craftily yours
Kristin

Turtlepurl is Back!

Seeing as we are neck deep in deepest, darkest winter, isn’t it time we injected a little sunshine?  I think it is timely this arrival of yarn from Turtlepurl for just this reason.  Now feast your eyes on the colour-happy colours!

Striped Turtle Toes yarn is a hand-dyed, self-striping yarn from Quebec.
This 75% merino, 25% nylon, fingering weight yarn was carefully dyed to make a pair of socks where the stripes match foot to foot. Sold as two 50 gram skeins couple together, one skein per sock.  Imagine how happy your toes will be with all these sunny colours to keep them snugly.

One outstanding colour-way is Burberry ↑.  You can see how the stripes manifest in the sample behind the skeins.  Most of the colours from our last shipment (including Burberry) are now back in stock and you can see just how they look right here.

Here are the brand new colour ways ↓. Unfortunately Genvieve was not able to send us knit samples so we will have to use our imagination when it comes to the stripe pattern, but I think we all can manage that!

Angry Birds

Nano

Mystic Topaz

Bruised

Dream Room

Iris

Pow!

We received a batch of Striped Turtle Toes in November and it sold out before Christmas, so if you see something you like I would scoop it up now. The set of two skeins, with a total yardage of 450yds is $27.

Craftily yours
Kristin

self striping socks by Turtlepurl.

Remember those striped arm warmers I featured back when it was 3 weeks till Christmas.  I mentioned I had a new yarn in stock that would do the work of striping for you.  Well here is the goods!
Self-striping sock weight yarn! and hand dyed no less! It comes from Quebec and a hand dyer that goes by Turtlepurl. Thank you goes to them for the beautiful yarn and the knit swatches that show just how the yarn knits up in all it’s striped glory.
Check it out!

Bah Humbug (that’s the name of the colour)

Bee Keeper.

Poison Apple

Burberry

Absinthe

Autumn

Twilight

Dawn.
Somehow this swatch took a runner, so we’ll just have to use our imagination now to visualize the pattern. Sigh!
The skeins are bundled in twos so you can make two socks (or arm warmers, or mittens…) with matching stripes.  How great is that. The 2 skein bundle goes for $27.  The yarn is composed of 75% merino and 25% nylon, so they should make strong socks.

Craftily yours
Kristin