A Great Class--Little Beaded Bags

This is an inspirational class with a great teacher. Jan Arkava is a weaver and a lover of beaded bags. She has a collection of beautiful bags she will show you as you learn how to make these lovelies.

I took Jan's class years ago--my bag is the top one in the photo--and it was a wonderful experience. You do have to know how to knit and purl, and how to count. Eyesight may help, but the counting is critical. My son Joe, called this bag "Sexy". That was before he had twin girls and an attorney as his spouse. Maybe he wouldn't call it "Sexy" now, but it does have a great hand and, of course, it is a pleasure to make it.

We put up Jan's class schedule right when America was financing Wall Street so we didn't get too many takers. (It's hard for knitters to worry about saving our economic system when we are trying to get perfect gauge.) So now Jan is back and she is flexible. Once we get three of you to sign up, she will patiently teach. Thursdays from 6-9 pm at $80 (which includes all materials including the needles) this is a bargain.

Waiting for the Monorail

Last fall the grandkids went on the Monorail with me. The boys are hard to sweater, but the girls popped into their ponchos without hesitation. The goal this year is to get something the boys will wear. Any suggestions?

New Newsletter

The new newsletter is up and available for download. Just click here to see what we've got planned for the rest of fall.


And be sure and mark your calendars for our Day of the Dead celebration on Saturday, November 1. More details in the newsletter!

The Wedding Shawl

What does a yarn lady give her daughter for her wedding? A shawl for sure.

This is not the bride--this is the proud father who happened to be home when the shawl was finally finished--about three days before the wedding. The poor shawl barely goes over his shoulders. LeRoy worries that Ruthie probably doesn't need a muffler for her wedding, but I assure him that it will be alright--just trust me.

First thing I did was wash the shawl, then I draped it wet over my blocking board.

Then I pinned it using rustproof brass pins. The blocking board has been in service for about twelve years and is made of standard size ceiling tile with contact paper--as you can see, I could only find one roll of the blue and white check paper so I added another country print to finish the board--very effective, but not too pretty.

After drying overnight, LeRoy once again models. He can now drape the shawl around his shoulders and over his hands with lots of ease--and you can see the pattern, too.

And finally, this is the happy bride with her shawl, her pearls and her husband.

Istanbul Knitter

A photo sent to me by my daughter, who's visiting Turkey right now. This knitter is plying her wares in one of Istanbul's back streets. Note the feral cat in the corner--the city is full of cats who belong to no one yet are taken care of by everyone.

We Stitched and They Pitched

On Thursday we celebrated the Fourth year of Stitch N Pitch in Seattle. There are Stitch N Pitches all over the country now, but we in the Northwest had the first one and the rest of the country is trying to live up to our original model. This year's event had 27 stores and knitting organizations participating in this great meet and greet. This has become an almost family event with most of us knowing something about most and some of us knowing too much about a few. The evening was beautiful, we had a great time and the Mariners won! Beer, hot dogs and chocolate dipped strawberries made for a memorable event.

Seattle Yarn took Art Felt to the ball game. We've been enjoying this new art form this past year. It was a great hit at our annual trek to the Sewing Expo in Puyallup in March. So we invited the experts to help us present this art to the greater Seattle area.

Karin Skacel, owner of Skacel, and Joanne Ellis, sales rep for Skacel, joined us at the table. Skacel worked to create Artfelt and worked with vendors in Europe to create the supplies for this new felting method and finally imported this great product to America. Joanne has been selling and working with this art since day one. She teaches a great class and has made some incredible pieces.

If you didn't get a chance to see all the great samples at the Stitch N Pitch, be sure to come by Seattle Yarn to see the in house samples and pick up a starter kit, or sign up for a class with Lia, our in-store expert.

We Made Best of Seattle 2008!

Seattle Yarn scored a Best of Seattle 2008 profile in the Seattle Weekly's annual roundup of the very best Seattle has to offer.

You can find it on newsstands today, or click here to read the profile.

Thank you for your support!