Millicent’s News

September 2007

 

Millicent’s Yarns & More

27 N. Centre Street, Cumberland, MD 21502

Summer Shop Hours:  Tues – Sat, 10 –5 Wed 10 – 8
Sundays 1-4 (Except for the last Sunday in the month)

 

Emily and I are so glad that the knitting season has arrived!  We’ve been cleaning closets, shelving new winter yarns, and setting up our new computerized sales/inventory system.  We’ve cleaned the house, in other words, and are ready for the party to begin!  Here’s what’s in store for you:

 

THE BLOCK OF THE MONTH AFGHAN – THE FINAL HURRAH!

This is it!  Bring your squares, your knitted strips, completed or not.  We will learn how to assemble the pieces and have a chance to see what everyone has been up to.  Haven’t completed much?  Don’t worry – I’m just over half done with mine, and I’ll be there!  See you on Wednesday, Sept 5 at 5:00 and/or Sunday, Sept 9, at 2:00.

 

THE SOCK OF THE MONTH CLUB – BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING

The annual project for 2007-2008 is the Sock of the Month Club, emphasis on sock singular – not socks plural.  Silly feet, darned if there aren’t two of them to make a knitter’s life hard!  So, to allay pressure on us all, we will shoot for 6 pairs of socks by next September.  I will be knitting a different sock pattern each month and those of you who would like to join in are welcome.  Otherwise, it is a general free-for-all – choose  pattern and a yarn that matches your skill and then g—r—o—w!  Stretch your skills each month.  These small projects are fun to carry with you to appointments or on travels.

 

I’m looking forward to trying Toe-Up socks, lace socks, patterned socks, socks knit of self-striping yarns, socks where I get to select colors for stripes, intarsia socks with designs on the heel flap, two socks knitted at once on two-circular needles, two socks knitted at once on one long circular needle.  The challenges are endless – and I, for one, am looking forward to a drawer full of hand-knit socks, because the store-bought socks just don’t cut it any longer.  We have lots of wonderful new sock yarns coming in and some terrific new sock patterns and books.  Come in to browse. 

 

Once again, our meeting times will be on the first Wednesday evening (5:00 to 7:00) of every month and the first Sunday of every month (2:00 to 4:00), working around holiday schedules.  Our fall dates are as follows:

September:  Wed, Sept 5  and/or  Sun, Sept 9

October:  Wed, Oct 3 and/or Sun, Oct 7

November:  Please Note, our Wednesday meeting will be on Oct. 31, and/or Sun, Nov 4

December: one meeting only on Sunday, Dec. 2

 

NEW FALL YARNS

The new yarns are just beginning to come in.  We are really excited about an English yarn called Sublime from the Sirdar Company.  It is a sport weight yarn that is spun of merino wool.  The Baby version of this is even nicer, as it is a blend of merino, silk and cashmere in dusky pastel shades.  Both these yarns are hand wash and how British are they:  “Reshape garment whilst wet” it says on the label!

Sirdar also brings us Baby Bamboo – and a terrific supply of patterns for babies, kids and adults.

From Japan, we are bringing in more in the Noro Line.  This year we introduce Silk Mountain, a bumpy boucle wool in chunky weight in irresistible colors.  We have also increased the color selection in our tried and true Noro yarns:  Silk Garden, Kureyon, and Iro.

 

From the Trendsetter Company, we are bringing back in many new colors Tonalita, an extremely soft self-striping yarn that is shows itself off well in modular scarves, hats, mittens, whatever!  We are also bringing back an extreme thick-and-thin yarn called Yosemite which is great to use in scribble-scarves (ask me what those are and I’ll know you’ve read the newsletter).

 

From the Skacel Company, we are increasing our color selection of the cashmere blend yarn

Tweed Lux which, because of its earthy colors, is great for knitting men’s accessories.  We are introducing a luxury yarn from Skacel called Adagio, made of baby llama and silk.  Skacel also brings us much of our sock yarn, but not all!

 

We have new sock yarn from Mountain Colors in rich fall tones.  Bearfoot – great name, no? – is a wool, mohair, nylon blend that is machine washable and, because of the nylon content, doesn’t need additional reinforcing yarn in the heel and toes.

 

And there’s more to come . . . I’ll keep you updated in future newsletters.

 

KIDS KNIT AND TEENS KNIT

Our Kids Knit program has been wonderfully successful.  A group of six and seven year olds came regularly last year and turned into marvelous knitters.  We hope to build a strong Teens Knit program this year as well.  Details about both programs can be found on our Classes Page.

 

FELTING IS FOREVER WITH US.

It is not going away. While even just a few years ago it was new and trendy in the knitting world, felting has become a mainstay.   But because of its newness (well, really it is an ancient form) felting remains ever inventive.  We are going to felt up a storm this fall!  Each month (Sept through Dec) we will hold an Experiment in Felting Class.  These are terrific classes for the many of you who learned to knit in the last year, taking your skills in new directions.  For those of you who have tried felting, this is the opportunity to felt other items, use new decorative techniques, try various color work patterns, and knit up a storm for holiday gifts!   Please see more information on our Classes Page.

 

We also have received wonderful new kits to do a non-knitted kind of felting.  I’ll be experimenting with it in September and fit in a one-day workshop later in the fall.  It looks likes lots of fun!

 

OTHER NEWS:

You’ll note that it is a lot brighter in Millicent’s – we put in new bulbs into our spots (most of which had burned out) and lo! What a lot of wonderful color you can see.  Thanks to John Brode from Frostburg.

 

Our Point of Sale system has been eating up most of my time this summer as I push to get all of our yarns, all our needles and accessories, all our books and patterns into the data base, ready for September.  We’ve had a lot of extra help:  I want to thank Natalie Maslow and Dana Alt for the many many hours they put in reading to me – most tedious but they were so important. Tracy Groves has put in hours with us, helping to sort out and label patterns. And, much humble thanks to Emily who puts up with my bad moods as I growl at the computer and who has done so much to make Millicent’s beautiful and well-run.

 

HOPE TO SEE MANY OF YOU THIS FALL
WELCOME BACK TO MILLICENT’S!!  Mel

 
        Happy Knitting and Crocheting

and Tatting and Weaving and Spinning

and Embroidery

from

Millicent’s Yarns & More!

 

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Millicent's Knits and Yarns • 49 North Centre Street • Cumberland, Maryland 21502
phone 301-722-8100 • mel@millicentsyarns.com