Crayon Box class

What a day! This was such a great class - everyone had a great time, learned a lot, and got on track with when to decrease, when to change yarns, and how to let go and have fun - and boy did we - just take a look:

Catherine and Ann hard at work

Sara in a glory of purple

Martha helps Liz count rows

Amanda takes careful notes - hers is a beautiful red palette

Linda decided to take Chris Bylsma's advice and go with the color that makes you swoon - Blue for Linda, of course

Susan takes a moment to help explain the rules to Amanda

Everyone had a great collection of colors. Most began with a coordinated starter kit and added stash from home.

Catherine's beautiful green and lavender

Duffy's exotic jewel-tone mix

And Susan's blue-green selection

Ann has warm orange and complementary red-purple - a very exciting mix.

Even I started a new Crayon Box Jacket too. You'll be very surprised at my palette!

Baroque Pearls

Silk, metallic, fabulous hand-dyed colors - that's Baroque Pearls. Just in from Ellyn Cooper. Not nearly as fine as it looks, Baroque Pearls knits at a heavy worsted gauge on an 8 or a 9 for a small, decadent shell. Two skeins worked on a size 15 needle will make a lustrous self-fringing shawl. Lots of gorgeous colors - Ivory Rose (pictured) just happens to be my favorite.

TNNA's first arrivals

When I got to the shop today, my wonderful neighbors at Heritage Printing had received all kinds of goodies for me.
Some of the boxes are old favorites, like Touch Me, in fab new colors, and some are books, new and old, but one of these boxes holds a special treat-- Cherry Tree Hill's hand-dyed Louet Gems.

Fiber artist, Cheryl Potter, applied brilliant colors using a deft hand to paint each skein with a very short color repeat. This technique give the finished fabric an wonderfully colorful effect without a hint of striping or pooling. Each skein of this stuff is a tiny treasure. My favorite colorway:


The yarn itself is 100% superwash lustrous merino, spun to be highly elastic, keeping your knitted garments in perfect shape wear after wear. This yarn is perfect for socks, but it's perfect for lots of other things too - like Sally Melville's brand new Crossover Rib Top, which takes only 5 skeins - and Sally herself she says is the most flattering garment you will ever wear.

Or, you could knit socks.

Encore ! Encore! Plymouth Encore, that is

Yes, it's finally here. This is a really lovely addition to the Crazy for Ewe basics - a quality blend of 25% wool, machine washable, and gorgeous colors. Want a hat and scarf set for your favorite sports fanatic? We've got the colors! Looking for Great Mills green and gold? Leonardtown Blue and White? How about VA Tech Orange and Maroon? We've got 'em all.

We also ordered soft baby shades so you can whip up a cozy cuddly for your favorite little one. There's a fabulous 4-hour baby afghan book with tons of great designs.

We also chose a great selection of decorator shades so you can make a gorgeous, washable afghan that you'll be proud to have in your living room. And the best news is that you can knit up a full sized afghan with two strands of Encore Worsted on big needles in about 8 hours (for about $50) You're going to love this stuff.

Chris Bylsma - Solo and more

We received lots more copies of Chris Bylsma's Solo Tank, since so many of you liked the shop model we just finished.

We spent a long time at Chris Bylsma's booth at TNNA admiring her two new designs and setting up her next visit to Crazy for Ewe in April. She'll be sending out her new patterns as soon as the rush of TNNA is over. They'll be at both shops, so come take a look. This first striped one is called Spirit.

This one is called Take Two. It uses two strands of dk weight yarn held double. Very quick to knit on size 10 needles and very flattering.

Amy's Alchemy Scarves

The very lovely Amy has knitted several of these little confections now, and has been gracious enough to share them with us in the shop. They're really wonderful little accessories, and since they only take one skein (yup, just one!) they make perfect gifts. The pattern is self-fringing, and adding the beads is really easy. Yes, I said beads. The addition of beads gives the scarves just a little weight making them drape even more beautifully. I had pulled a skein of the black and a skein of the gold, and then I went shopping for beads. What fun!



I found these beautiful multicolored beads that would work with either the black or the gold. But then there were these others with a kind of pink and gold cast that I loved. I'd originally intended them to go on the fringe of my Lady Eleanor, but I think they need to be on the gold Silken Straw.

Oh yeah!

Warning - handsome knitter photo ahead...

Lew and his VERY FIRST SWEATER! Can you believe it!

Cottage Pullover from the Purl Stitch in Noro Tidori.

Trunk Show from Blue Sky

Just in yesterday are several gorgeous garments in the super soft Organic Cotton. They’ll be at the Leonardtown store through next Tuesday and then at the La Plata store through the following Wednesday. We have all the patterns (shown below) for the items that are in the shop. Click on the picture for more info about the pattern, but be sure to come take a look at how gorgeous they are in person.

Mulberry Silk

I love this yarn. Just finished a beautiful Chris Bylsma pattern shell in the pink (of course), and the shop sample arrived last week. Such a beautiful, easy fitting style, and a really lovely hand - silky and smooth. Couldn't you just see this with a pair of white slacks for the summer!

New sock yarn colors!

New gorgeous colors of Araucania Ranco arrived this week. This is a beautiful hand dyed sock yarn from South America. Its subtle color variations make it perfect to show off complicated stitch patterns or for folks who just want their socks mostly one color. We also have lots of the darker, and more conservative colors like grey, dark green and several shades of blue for those who like their socks wild (like men, and their ever-conservative juvenile form, boys).




New gorgeous colors of Araucania Ranco arrived this week. This is a beautiful hand dyed sock yarn from South America. Its subtle color variations make it perfect for to show of a complicated stitch pattern, or for folks who just want their socks a little less wild (like men, and their ever-conservative juvenile form, boys).

WWKIP day coming up

The World-Wide Knit In Public (WWKIP) day is coming up Saturday, June 14th. Folks who frequent the La Plata Crazy are gathering at the shop to set up out front, out back, on the side. Bring lawn chairs, umbrellas, a picnic lunch, and your knitting, of course, and join the fun. Let's see if we can get something similar going in Leonardtown on the square! Doesn't that sound fun!

I was down at the new wharf in Leonardtown today and was absolutely amazed. That dead end street that used to be a bunch of broken up asphalt and trash has been completely transformed into a beautiful park area with a huge lookout point, benches, green space, and more. Here's a photo of happy kayaks in the new wharf. I'm so excited for this town!

New stuff

We just received a new shipment of the amazingly popular Elsebeth Lavold Books 8 and 14. Fabulous designs on every page! This is the book with the pattern for the sample that currently graces our mannequin in the Leonardtown shop.

The lovely and talented Amy brought in the spectacular scarf she knitted in the Silken Straw! Come by and take a look - it's really smart and makes a great birthday gift ;-)

We also have new colors of Pima Tencel for the Krista Tee we're making today in Leonardtown.
We're doing it again in La Plata on the 31st of this month - join us!

Sale on hand-painted yarns!

Not going to Maryland Sheep and Wool? Don’t fret, come to Crazy for Ewe Saturday and take 10% off all hand painted yarns: Colinette, Fiesta, Ellyn Cooper, Artyarns, and Alchemy. That’s less that you’ll find those same yarns at the festival ‘cause they’re full price there for sure! If you’ve ever been tempted by the Lady Eleanor or any of the fabulous designs from Lacy Little Knits or Destination Alchemy, now’s the time to indulge yourself.

So if either the weather or your schedule keeps you away from MS&W this weekend, don’t despair – you can still score some great deals. Hey - you can do both! Get some great stuff on sale Saturday and then head up to the festival.

Sale is on in-stock yarns only. No returns will be processed Saturday.

Destination Alchemy Promotion

Oops - I forgot to mention this fabulous promotion we're having at both the Leonardtown and La Plata shops:

Spend $100 or more on Alchemy Yarn and receive the gorgeous book, Destination Alchemy for half price!

be sure to come to both shops to see the full show. Here are two trunk show items you'll see this week in Leonardtown:

Alchemy Trunk Show

The gorgeous creations from Destination Alchemy arrived at the Leonardtown shop Tuesday. All I can say is WOW. The photos in the book are gorgeous, but they don't really do justice to the actual garments. Two that I totally covet are the Connoisseur and Femme Fatale.

Here's Katherine modeling them both:

Simple, elegant, and decadent.

Eleanor finished her Colinette wrap - so she's going to get started on the gorgeous Illusionist Shawl Norma's doing the Cabled Cardigan, and Amy's doing a Moonlight Sonata Wrap in every color of Silken Straw. The Moonlight Sonata has been the biggest surprise for most people I think. Seems no one believed how soft it is knitted up, until they felt wonderfulness for themselves. I'm seeing this one twice as large with a beaded fringe of Silk Purse, or a coordinating color of Artyarns Beaded Silk.

Speaking of Artyarns, yes, the Alchemy Math Geek Scarf is the same pattern as the Skacel Not a Celebrity Scarf, as the Artyarns Multidirectional Scarf taught to us by the lovely Iris Schreier. It's a great pattern, and as Iris points out, it's a terrific way to make variegated yarns really shine. If you enjoy this kind of knitting, I encourage you to sign up for the ArtYarns Short Row Tutorials. It's just like having Iris sit down with you and show you the ropes for this interesting and beautiful knitting technique.

The joy...

of a new baby - what more can we say?

Tanya and Alex