Washington Beanies In Stock!! 🌲🌲🌲
If you follow Yarn Folk on Instagram or Facebook, you may have already encountered something new we've been trying for the last few weeks, which is a video recap of the week's email/blog post. These are getting posted mid-week, and are an informal review of what we're highlighting for the week.
Related: did you know that Yarn Folk has a YouTube Channel? 🙃
Subscribe, and you'll be notified when a video is added, and we'll continue to post the links on our other social media channels!
…mark your calendars
Social Stitching
Every Saturday, 2-4pm
Bring your current project, and spend some time with others who really vibe on yarn!
Olive Knits 4 Day KAL
July 3 - 31
Choose your own level of challenge--knit it in four days, or at a pace that works with YOUR July. Either way, join us for the fun! You can find more info at Olive Knits here. And take a look at our kit options here (there's fun surprise swag with your kit purchase, too).
Also Coming in July: Christmas Stocking KAL 🧑🏻🎄❄️🎄🧦🧧🎁
Choose your own adventure, and use the hashtag #YarnFolkChristmasInJuly on social media, or send finished or progress pics to me (ann@yarnfolk.com) and we'll do a photo round up at the end of July!
Special Hours for July
July 4
Open 9a - 3:30p
July 17 (July Ellensburg Night Market)
Open 7a - 8p
…new in the shop
When we saw Nancy Bates (of Knitting the National Parks and Knitting California fame) had a new design highlighting the beauty of our Evergreen State, we immediately 1) bought the pattern and 2) fired off an email to Aimee at Polka Dot Sheep asking how fast we could get some kits.
Pretty fast, it turns out.
Our Washington Beanie Kits contain Polka Dot Sheep Whitefish Worsted in four colors--a deep green, two medium greens, and a natural. Nancy's design highlights the layered look of the forest. The complex (and true to life!!) effect is brought to life by using 2-4 colors per row, and on the rows with more than two colors, the knitter has the option of either wrangling the extra colors (doable, sometimes annoying) or using duplicate stitch after the fact to fill in the extra colors. The chart identifies which colors you might duplicate stitch, so you're not left wondering!
And--we've added a few extras to the kits for Yarn Folk customers. The pattern offers the option of adding an embroidered Sasquatch to the design, so we're giving you small amounts of two different colors of brown if you'd like to include a cryptid, and we're also including a set of six tree-themed stitch markers. (The full chart repeats three times around the hat, but we found it useful to divide the chart in half, as there are no rhythmic repeats as you would find in traditional Fair Isle motifs.
…to inspire
As mentioned above, the Washington Beanie has optional duplicate stitching, and quite a bit of it! Also called Swiss darning, duplicate stitch has a variety of uses, and we think it's a great technique to get comfy with! The way it is used here--to accommodate more than two colors per round in colorwork is one reason to employ it, but it's also useful for reinforcing worn areas of a fabric (the easiest mending is the mending you do before the fabric fails!), for adding embellishment, and, a favorite around here, weaving in ends on the reverse side of the fabric. (Duplicate stitch on the purl side of stockinette, or in garter stitch, looks a bit different, but the principles are the same.)
Very Pink Knits has a great basic duplicate stitch tutorial here, and in slow motion here. And for weaving in ends on the non-public side, I like Elizabeth Smith's photo tutorial here.
The photo above shows the main knitting completed. The white yarn running vertically through the colorwork is sock yarn I used to visually divide the colorwork into 16 stitch sections--this made it easier to keep my place when completing the duplicate stitch. There are a few additional notes on my Ravelry project page!
...currently stitching
Olga Putano's Distance Scarf DK is a quick project, even though it has lots and lots of cables. The twelve-row pattern repeat has cables on six of those rows (with the wrong side rows being knit-the-knits and purl-the-purls, as is most usual with cabled patterns). One ball of Fortuna was (just) enough for the small size scarf, and two would make either the medium or large.
