Join lower mainland yarn enthusiasts for the first annual yarn crawl, sponsored by the Fraser Valley Knitting Guild. For a $5 registration fee you receive a Yarn Harvest ID button, map of participating stores and entry into a prize draw. Each store will offer participants 10% off. (You can also expect other goodies and special discounts when you visit Black Sheep Yarns!) At the end of the day, you are invited to join the Yarn Harvest dinner, where prizes will be drawn. Tickets are available at Black Sheep Yarns and see the Yarn Harvest group on Ravelry for further details.

Fall yarns are arriving almost daily and in order to make room we will be putting some of our present stock on sale. Items will be added to the sale list  when we need to clear out more bins. Presently on sale for 30% off are the following:

Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted

Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Bulky

Sirdar Flirt

Diamond Luxury Superfine Egyptian Cotton

Noro Shirakaba

3 huge boxes arrived from Texas this am, containing 20 colourways of Tosh DK and 12 colourways of Tosh Sock. Both are 100% superwash Merino in the Madelinetosh luscious glazed shades.  So squishy and soft!  Come early for the best selection of colours. Next we are expecting Madelinetosh Pasmina.

Our biggest problem is that we have no room on the shelves! So, in order to clear out some bins we will be putting a few things on sale starting this weekend – more details in the next few days.

Like most avid knitters, when I travel I try to visit a few of the local yarn shops. My 15 year old son tolerated visiting 3 stores while we were in Paris. I was most impressed by a delightful shop called “Lil Weasel”, which had opened 4 months previously. It is located in one of the grand passages – built in the early 1800’s they are precursors to the present day shopping mall. The “Passage du Grand Cerf” is one of the prettiest, with glass domed ceilings 3 floors high, decorated with wrought iron and wood. “Lil Weasel” is one of the shops lining this passage and as the owner Carine’s blog states “Lil Weasel c’est une petite boutique de laines. Et de tissus. Et aussi de boutons, de rubans, et d’articles de mercerie”. When you step inside the “petite boutique” you see a nice selection of yarn arranged by colour, and a cozy sitting area. Carine is very friendly (which is unfortunately not always the case with shopkeepers in Paris!) and speaks fluent English. If you visit Paris and can only visit one yarn shop, “Lil Weasel” should it.

I was interested to learn which yarns are popular in France. It seems that they prefer all the yarns which we have in North America. They love Cascade Yarns and are delighted if they can get Koigu or Lorna’s Laces. Lil Weasel was waiting for a shipment of Malabrigo. So, I didn’t buy any yarn in Paris as I have all that at Black Sheep Yarns! I did purchase some beautiful wooden knitting needles and gorgeous buttons.

Do you ever find that it is not until you have returned home from a holiday, that you fully realize the wonder of all the sites you have seen? Once home and back to your usual routine, it can be hard to believe that you were ever away. Was I really in Paris just two days ago? Well that’s my hand holding up my BFF sock in Koigu KPPPM in front of the Eiffel Tower! Judy and Lynn did a great job at the store while I was away, but I could hardly wait to get back to my little bit of heaven, that is Black Sheep Yarns. More about my trip and yarn shops in Paris later.

We have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of “Belle”, a 100% Organic blend of 50% Cotton and 50% Wool designed by Amy Butler for Rowan. If you are familiar with Amy Butler fabrics, then you will not be surprised with the beautiful palette of colours that we have in a DK weight, suitable for year round knitting. The dedicated pattern book, “Midwest Modern Knits” features over a dozen designs.

What else might be suitable for summer knitting?  How about newly arrived  Malabrigo Silky Merino in tempting shades such as London Sky, Plum Blossum, Spring Water, Teal Feather & Sand.  Malabrigo Booklet 2 has a small collection of patterns, many using Silky Merino and I just can’t decide which one to start!  We also finally received a nice selection of Malabrigo Lace perhaps for a light weight cardigan (Geodesic, Whisper or Featherweight) or shawl.

Here are the store hours for the months of July and August:

Sunday & Monday         CLOSED

Tuesday thru Friday      10:00 am to 4 pm

Saturday                      10:00 am to 5 pm

We are closed Thursday July 1st. Happy Canada Day!

Knit Night will not be held during July & Aug. It will resume Monday Sept 13th.

We have 32 shades of Harrisville Shetland, including some of the new colour line designed by Vivian Hoxboro. This selection, along with one of our stranded colourwork books, is perfect for designing your next stranded knitting project.

We now carry pattern leaflets for the ‘”Tea Leaves Cardigan”  (see Helen’s Tea Leaves in Tosh DK below) and “Tiny Tea Leaves Cardi “, and Alana Dakos’ new patterns “Cosette Wrap” and “Spring Garden Tee”

In this recent class, Dotty’s students made these adorable top-down baby cardigans, using one of the popular Cabin Fever Patterns. And the best part of all – no picking up for the collar, button band and no seams to sew!

The right buttons can really finish off your beautifully hand knit garments. I found these vintage German glass buttons for my Coraline by Ysolda Teague, and the faceted honey coloured glass were the perfect match. I found more vintage buttons, many “new old” ie never been used, and some on the original cards. These are unusual buttons made out of glass, mother-of-pearl, bakelite and metal.