January 23, 2008

and the procession begins

My suppliers recover from market much more quickly than I do, it seems. Already boxes have started rolling in. Here’s what we have today:

Acquerello — a hand painted wool/nylon sock yarn from Aurora Yarns. This is a limited edition yarn, one that’s dyed in very small batches once or twice a year. I was fortunate to find the few skeins that I did — I was late to the party. These colors are different than any we have from anyone else, which is what makes them so precious. When they’re gone, they’re gone, till next year. 436 yards, $22.
Euroflax Linen — a nice restock of eight shades. I resisted this yarn for years because of the feel of it before washing, but you spoke and told me you wanted it at Yarn Expressions. There are a few new shades in the bunch, like violet, neptune and sage.
Cotton Bamboo — from Classic Elite comes the summer version of their bamboo blend, and lovely and summery it is. We also have new shades and restocks on Premiere, and a little bit of Classic Silk, with more to come later.
Curvy Knits — Also from Classic Elite, a nifty little booklet of patterns by Jillian Moreno (of Big Girl Knits fame). They’re all designed to use Bam Boo, Classic Silk or Premiere, and flatter every figure. Veronica, I saw these pictures on your wish list — come get your copy of the book!

Donna and Jill are unpacking a box of books from Unicorn as I type. I have no idea what’s in there, but I’ll let you know tomorrow.

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Filed Under: What's New?

January 18, 2008

Market Update part 2

Socks and lace still hold the focus of many knitters, and there were many choices available in these categories at market last week. Today I’ll tell you about the sock yarn I found, Monday we’ll detail the lace.

From Aurora Yarns, we’ll have 14 skeins of limited edition hand painted fingering weight merino. Every season the owner of Aurora gets out her dyes and has a color party. They’re up for grabs at TNNA on a first come, first served basis. I was a little late to the booth this year, but still managed to snag quite a few beautiful skeins just for you. They’ll retail for $21.00.

We’ve had Melody from Jojoland, International for a year now, and it continues to fly off the shelf. I reordered all your favorite colors of this self-striping superwash wool, and a few patterns too.

Eight new colors of Soxx Appeal from K1C2 will be winging their way to us in February — two variegated shades and six solids, including black. This yarn has been incredibly popular and has become a staple at Yarn Expressions. Go see the free sock pattern they’ve designed; it’s a beauty!

Lorna’s Laces has new multicolors for Spring. Huron, Edgewater and Pilsen are named for Chicago neighborhoods and will be coming South as Shepherd Sock (to find warmer weather we think) some time in March. Don’t forget our exclusive Auburn University Shepherd Sock — you’ll only find it at Yarn Expressions. We have a supply of it now, but it’s going fast.

We discovered Pagewood Farm last year in Columbus, and the yarn they sent us disappeared from our shelves almost immediately. (Click on “hand dyed yarn” and then “hand-dyed gallery” to see the wide range of colors they have to offer.) I placed a much larger order this time around, so we’ll have plenty of sock yarn for everyone. In addition to the traditional wool/nylon blend we’ll have a 3 ply merino (nice for brightly colored baby things as well as socks) and fingering weight Blue Faced Leicester. Though the BFL isn’t superwash, it’s one of my favorite wools, and will be lovely for many things other than socks. The merino/bamboo blend we had last year is coming back as well. Look for these yarns toward the end of February.

Dream in Color has been one of the great success stories at Yarn Expressions. We’ve carried it for just about a year now, and have trouble keeping up with the demand for Classy and Smooshy. They’ve introduced a new series of colors, and I ordered some in both weights. When our order arrives in March we’ll have a full re-stock of this incredibly soft and, ok, smooshy, sock yarn.

(I told you there was a lot of sock yarn!)

From our friends at Skacel comes Ecco Aquarell. I first came in contact with this sport weight merino during the class I took from Cat Bordhi on the first day of market. You can see a picture of the sample sock I made out of it over at Manning Knits. I enjoyed working with it so much that I ordered five different colors, which are on their way to us as I type.

Of course, if you have a ton of new sock yarn to work with, you should have at least a few new sock patterns too, right? Two new patterns from Fiber Trends were ordered — Lupine Lace Socks and Chain of Hearts Socks, both designed by Evelyn Clark. I also had a chance to meet Chrissy Gardiner, of Gardiner Yarn Works, and ordered a bunch of sock patterns (and other things) from her.

Chrissy is one of the numerous people who stopped me and said “Oh, I recognize you from Ravelry!” What was even funnier was the day I saw Ravelry creators Jess and Casey. Jess said “Look, it’s Meg from Yarn Expressions!” Casey said “Look, it’s Meg, Liz’s mom!” Elizabeth joined Ravelry the moment it was announced, and was a volunteer editor in those early days, which is why Casey made that connection.

One of the great joys of going to market is catching up with industry friends, old and new. I was all by myself on this particular trip, but had no chance to be lonely. On Friday I met up with friends Rob and Matt from Threadbear in Lansing, MI and we were the Three Musketeers for the rest of the weekend. See?

Have a good weekend, everyone, and stay warm, wherever you are! Next week, we’ll continue the market update, starting with lace.

Thoughts of Spring

I am home from market, refreshed and energized. Although this is considered the smaller of the two trade shows, I didn’t have any trouble coming up with some spectacular new yarn and toys for us all to play with in the coming months. I also had a great time reconnecting with people I only get to see once or twice a year. Like Karida.

Karida is the owner of Neighborhood Fibers, a small hand dye company that we discovered in Columbus last year. I was fortunate to be her first order then, and we arranged an early morning meeting this time, making my order numero uno once again.

Very soon we should be receiving more of her Studio Sock, several colors of Watershed, a new merino/seacell blend sock yarn, Maisonette, which is Karida’s take on lace yarn and roving. Two kinds of roving! We’ll be handling both Corriedale and a Merino/Silk blend in several of Karida’s gorgeous colors, named for Washington, D.C. neighborhoods. I can’t wait!

I also visited with Taiu of Koigu Wool Design, who says our order is in the dye room now, so we should have it by the end of the month. Another 30 shades of your favorite yarn to fill the empty spaces in our display.

I think my favorite find of the show was this.

It’s a gorgeous lace shrug, designed by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer, for a collaborative effort between Mountain Colors and Lorna’s Laces called Mixed Media. This is a limited edition kit, using a skein of Lorna’s Helen’s Lace and Mountain Colors’ Wool Crepe in a lace-y slipped stitch design. Look — it even looks good on me!

I should note here that photography is strictly forbidden on the show floor. All of the photos seen here were taken before the show opened, by owners of the booths.

There’s much more to tell — come to Knit Night tonight and I’ll give you the complete rundown. I’ll also continue the story here tomorrow.

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Filed Under: Market News

January 8, 2008

Happy New Year!

I had planned a nice leisurely update today, telling you about new yarn at the store, complete with pictures. Instead, thanks to the airlines, I’m packing to go to market a day early. Don’t ask, it isn’t pretty.

Because I’ll be out of town, we’ll be closing at 4:00 on Thursday. No Knit Night. I’ll miss it, but I’ll take lots of pictures to share when I get back.

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Filed Under: Store Hours, General