MILLICENT’S NEWS

 

November/December 2010

Millicent’s Yarns & More  -  27 N. Centre Street Cumberland, MD                             301-722-8100  *  www.millicentsyarns.com  *                                                                Shop Hours: T – S 10 – 6:00, Sun 12 – 5                                   Open late on Wednesday until 7

CLOSED THANKSGIVING DAY, NOV. 25

                      

 

NINE YEARS AGO, DURING THE WEEK BEFORE THANKSGIVING,

MILLICENT'S YARNS AND MORE OPENED ITS DOORS.

TO CELEBRATE WE ARE HAVING OUR ANNUAL

ANNIVERSARY SALE!

20% OFF ALL SHOP ITEMS

TUESDAY, NOV. 23 thru SUNDAY, NOV. 28

 (YES, THIS IS THE LAST SUNDAY OF THE MONTH AND YES, WE WILL BE OPEN FROM 12 – 5 PM)

 

AND NOW FOR THE MUNDANE . . . .

 

HAT OF THE MONTH CLUB  

Our upcoming meeting will be the last of our Hat of the Month Club.  It has been a fun challenge for our more advanced knitters.  We’ve all come away from it with a much greater familiarity with stranded color work (or Fair Isle) and have learned lots about casting-on, trims, and how big (or small) some hats can be! Our Hat of the Month Club is based on the book Hats On!  31 Warm and Winsome Caps for Knitters by Charlene Schurch and is geared toward adventurous knitters.  Our December Hat of the Month Club meeting will be on Wednesday, Dec 1, 2-4 pm and (but not 5-7 pm this month), and on Sunday, Dec. 5, 1 – 3 pm.  We will be knitting the Ullared Cap on pp.48-49.  You’ll find a photograph of the Ullared Cap on pp. 22 and 23.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF HAT 

Judith just finished the greatest hat that we paired with our Feza chevron scarf (which is pretty great too and a free pattern!)  Called Windward by Wooly Wormhead, it offers you a new experience in knitting sideways, using basic lace, knitting short rows to shape the crown, and finishing with a picot edge.  The pattern, Judith tells us, is easy to read.  It is knit in one of our soft new winter yarns, Zara.

COWLS FOR ADDED WARMTH 

We are all bracing for the cold winter weather to come (the paper this week is predicting an Arctic blast out of Canada before Thanksgiving!  Oh no —too soon!)  Scarves have traditionally been used to keep us warm, but this year cowls have become an “IN” item.  Pulled over the head to surround the neck, cowls take various shapes and sizes.  We have put together a pattern notebook of cowls for you to browse.

We have several knitted and crocheted cowls on view made in various depths and made of different yarn weights.  One model is made of Sublime Organic Merino in a pattern called Marvel Cowl  by Knit and Tonic.  A deep (or long) cowl, made of Araucania Chaiten (100% silk) and a lace weight mohair Kid Seta from Madil using the Churchmouse Classic pattern Annabelle’s Cowl, is gaining a lot of attention. The long tube fits onto your shoulders in soft tiers and pulls up over your head when it gets really cold.

A third cowl is made of Luana (a soft super-bulky weight yarn) combined with a subtle novelty yarn called Charm – CO 45 on a US 15,  join in the round, knit in seed stitch for approximately 12”.  BO loosely.  What could be simpler?  I knit the model in 2 hours! This cowl has become very popular with the Knitter’s Anonymous lunchtime group, many of whom are whipping up several for Christmas gifts.

Our final SUNDAY SOCIAL

(soon to be replaced by Knitting 101 – see below) will meet on Sunday, December 12, 1 – 3 pm, when we’ll be knitting a Quickie Cowl.  Cowls have become an IN item for this winter. Our Sunday Social pattern can be found on Ravelry.com, under “Quickie Cowl” by Fawn Pea.  Click on “This pattern is available for free” to get access to the pattern itself.   You will need US 10.5 needles and a bulky yarn.  Our model is made from Cascade 128, our new washable merino bulky.  You might also use Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky, Brush Baby Alpaca, Natura or some other bulky yarn. 

DECEMBER CLASSES

Our December classes are tailored just for your last minute gift making.  Short, one and two week classes will give you enough know-how to be able to whip up a pair of fingerless mitts, a tea cozy, or a short neck scarf with a pocket to slip a loose end through.  Our December classes end early in December.  We will devote the rest of the month to helping you finish your projects.  Please see our listing of classes for  details.

GIFT ENCLOSURES 

Did I spread the news about our hilarious gift enclosures for knitted items?  They say things like  “I made this. I expect to see you wearing it,”  OR  “Your toes looked cold”  OR   “I made this. You better love it,”  OR  “HO HO HO” with the last “O” as a ball of yarn.    Pretty cute and very funny!   

AND SPEAKING OF GIFTS . . .    

Now is the time for you to think about what gifts you might like to receive from your elf. 

What could be better than a gift certificate to Millicent’s Yarns & More?  “It’s a gift that always fits.”  Have your own personal shopping spree with free funds!  (We’ve had several people point out that, although they drop big hints that what they’d like is a gift certificate to Millicent’s, their significant other is reluctant to come in.  So let these recalcitrant men know that we can do gift certificates over the phone or by email and it will be painless.)

We also have the capacity for you to list what favorite yarns, kits or books you’d like on your customer page.  So, for the significant Santa who wants to surprise you with something more than an envelope, it becomes as easy as looking up your wish list. 

Take some time to let your Santa know about yarns and more you’ve always lusted after but wouldn’t get for yourself.  

Here are some suggestions for your family and friends to give YOU at the holidays: 

*  A Classic Elite Lace Shawl kit that comes with a beautiful shawl pin

*  A Colinette Afghan kit

*  An Addi Turbo interchangeable needle set

 *  A Cascade  Yarn Afghan kit

*  Your very own swift and ball winder

*  That neat looking yarn wrapped like a baseball that makes a great winter scarf.

*  Sock Yarn: One Skein Wonders is chock full of fun and surprising patterns.

*  Knitting 24/7 sold out immediately when we brought it in earlier this fall and a second shipment arrived just this week.  

*  Brave New Knits which was reviewed in our last newsletter.   

*  A “Judith Can Do It” Carry-All Knitting Bag with many large pockets inside and out, a matching case for double pointed needles, and three cute matching cases for your knitting odds and ends made by hand by our very own Judith Robertson who works with us.  As a knitter herself, Judith knows just what knitters need in a bag and included it all!

We had one customer call recently to purchased a heavy-duty ball winder that she’ll wrap for her family to give her as a gift!  Now there’s a woman who knows what she wants!  Follow suit, knitters and crocheters!! 

A GOOD BOOK: 

MORE LAST MINUTE KNITTED GIFTS, by Joelle Hoverson  

This is Joelle Hoverson’s second “Last Minute Knitter Gifts” book.  The first was published in 2004 and was a small hit.  More Last Minute Knitted Gifts is filled with fresh, new ideas for beautiful gifts.  The collection has over 30 projects organized according to the time it takes to complete them, from less than two hours to more than eight.  Among the projects featured are sachets, bracelets, ornaments, mittens, gloves, hats, sweaters, baby blankets, and throws.  Joelle Hoverson owns the yarn and fabric store Purl Soho in Manhattan, has a website purlsoho.com, and a blog (purlbee.com).                                                  

IDEAS FOR 2011 CLASSES, CLUBS AND WORKSHOPS   

We had great fun at our last staff meeting planning 2011 activities for you.  Here is an outline of some of what is coming up in the new year:

Because many knitters got involved in the Fair Isle Hat of the Month activity and are keen Fair Islers now, we will be setting up a Fair Isle sweater class that will meet once a month for several months.  We will meet in January to talk about what we want to knit, then begin knitting in earnest in February.  Please let us know if you are interested.  We may be able to get kits from Philosopher’s Wool for each of us.

Our new “Something” of the Month Club for advanced knitters will be called “Your Hands Looked Cold” where we will tackle wrist warmers, fingerless gloves, fingered gloves and mittens in lace, texture stitch, and Fair Isle.  We will put together a booklet of patterns for you to purchase when you come into the activity.  Like the Hat of the Month Club, you will have many items to give as gifts to friends and family throughout the year.  This will begin in January.

Our Sunday Social is going to morph into a program called Knitting 101. This will be for newer knitters who want to learn new skills.  We’ll be taking patterns from our vast resources of over 2000 pattern titles.  Like the Sunday Social, there will be no tuition fee, but you will be expected to pay for the pattern and the yarn.  And again like the Sunday Social, we will try to keep the costs under $25 (which is getting harder and harder with the price of everything going up!)  This will also begin in January.

We will have a Seasonal Sunday Social which will meet every three months (February, May, August, November) to guide you toward a small seasonally appropriate knitted item.  We will also be highlighting a different designer every season.  So there will be a lot to learn.  Participants will be expected to purchase pattern and yarn from Millicent’s.

Finally, because of the interest in socks, we will have a weekly Sock Knitting Workshop.  We’ve yet to settle on a night – how about Mondays evening?  Friday morning?  Maybe both?  We’ll tackle a different sock pattern a month, learn new skills in toe up, knitting one sock on two circulars, two socks on two circulars, even try the magic loop if we are all game.  We’ll also try lace patterns, texture patterns, entralac and modular patterns.  Oh the fun we will have!

And then there are our other classes: felting, hats, scarves, knit your first sweater, bags, etc.  Our January newsletter will give you details.

JOLA   Jola’s father passed away this month.  We send our condolences to all her family. Won’t it be wonderful to see her friendly face around Millicent’s again?

JUST A THOUGHT 

No matter how diverse the knitters in a group – in age, gender, income, politics, or religion – the members of that group always part with each knitter believing those other knitters are the only people they have ever met who really, really understand them.  It’s a knitting miracle, and one reason all politicians should knit.

ANOTHER THOUGHT  A person who works with their hands is a laborer.  A person who works with their hands and head is a craftsman.  A person who works with their hands, head, and heart is an artist.                                                                                                                                           

OUR NEW WEBSITE: an update   

Well, this week I put in our 2000th pattern into our website database (who would have thought?).  We are nearly finished with photographing and editing our yarns.  And then there are the finishing touches (what surprises will await us here?).   When we launch, which we hope will be in January 2011, we will have a great celebration and splash so that you can rejoice with us. 

AND FINALLY, A BIT OF A GIGGLE:  Three Swiss women, ages 78 – 90, took on the mother of all knitting projects when they knit a sweater for the Smart Car (that wee little car that has room for the driver but no one else?)  The finished project, called “Knit ‘n’ Roll” resembles a giant roller skate.  It was initiated by the Senior Design Factor, a Zurich-based organization that pairs young designers and older craft workers.  The women had help – a machine partly knitted the cover while they focused on details like the shoelaces!  A newspaper clip and photo is tacked to our bathroom mirror for all to see.

       

Knitting like mad for the holidays! 

Mel, Dick, Judith, Joanna, Jola, Geni

at 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