The Knitting Experience Café

Time to get started on our summertime fun! We have a couple exciting  adventures to kick-off in July: our KAL and the Boob-A-Thon.

Announcing the TKE Summer 2008 Knit-a-long!

For our summer knitting, we wanted something light and airy, something that we could wear before the season was over, and something that might help us learn a few new skills together.  Along came Knitty and the perfect project: The Seascape Shawl.  This gorgeous lace shawl makes the perfect KAL.  The lace is challenging enough to keep the experienced knitters interested, and a great first step for the lace newbies. 

As always, there really aren't any rules to our KAL, and there is absolutely no cost. It is a wonderful chance to knit a great pattern with really incredible people. 

To sign up, simply let me know that you are in, and what yarn you'll be using. To accommodate summer schedules, we're having a rolling start.  Some are casting on this week - perhaps at Knit at Night.  Others, including myself will start next Saturday, July 5. And the official kick-off will be Saturday, July 12 from 2 - 4pm at the shop.  At that time, those of us who got a head start will be available to help you out if you have any questions. 

Remember, you can join at any time, and you don't have to be in Brunswick to participate. We have a couple distance knitters already signed up for the fun!

The roll call thus far:

Adrienne - Spunky Eclectic Summer

Amy

Anna

Cheryl

Chesley - not sure yet

Diana - Helen's Lace

Emily - Alpaca Cloud

Jen - Friends Folly 50/50

Lesley

Patti - Spunky Lace in green

Peggy - Café Au Lait

Pam - Hempathy

Sandy - Kid Seta

Sara - Spunky Lace in Shark

Wendy

Come on and join us!

Now, I know you're wondering what this Boob-A-Thon is all about.  Well, remember my plea a while back for more knitted knockers? See here for story and details. Turns out that the need is even greater than I thought.  Kim, the coordinator for the Breast Health Center at MidCoast Hospital has told me they are in desperate need for more boobies for their patients. The women love them and greatly appreciate receiving something that looks and feels so much better than the silicone ones. 

They are easy and fun to make - not to mention the perfect travel project for summer. 

I want to see how many we can make this summer, so I'm organizing a little incentive to make it interesting.  For every booby you make to donate to the shop (most will be sent to the local hospital, but we will keep some in the shop for women who come to us directly - and they do!), your name will be entered into a drawing to win really cool prizes, including: a gift certificate to The Knitting Experience Café, a skein of Spunky Eclectic yarn and a skein of Spunky Handspun generously donated by Amy King, a gift certificate donated by the MidCoast Breast Health Center, and other cool knitterly prizes that I will throw in as the summer progresses.  (If you know of anyone who might like to donate a prize, please ask them to contact me. )

Details: The pattern can be found here. We are in most need of sizes A, B, and C.  Recommended yarns are those that are soft to the skin, washable, and breathe.  My favorites are Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino, and Cascade's pima tencel. We will provide the filling, so please leave an opening of 2 " and a long tail. 

You can start anytime. I'll keep you updated on our progress.  We'll have a drawing for prizes at the end of July, and perhaps another at the end of August.

Thanks everyone!

Patti is leaving us for the sake of education. Tomorrow, she begins the long drive to Canada to start her graduate program in neuroscience. (Yes, she's a smartie.)

We will miss you terribly, but look forward to hearing of your discoveries. 

To send Patti off in proper TKE style, we had cake!

Scott's parents were in town and here for the party:

Scott brought his wheel. The motion actually created a breeze across the room!

Alec grabbed my camera and documented the night from the 5 year old perspective:

I got the camera back and caught a few shots of the action:

Alva shared her Tuscany shawl in Classic Elite's Miracle:

It feels heavenly!

David is working on Hedera socks by Cookie A.  He is using Ranco Multi, and is making the socks for Becka.  Lucky! (She did say that I get to borrow them as a store sample until the weather gets cold. Score!)

I've made some really good progress on the Phyllo Yoke.  I'm a few inches past the turned hem and onto the waist shaping. Probably because I didn't put it down all day yesterday.

The baby fisherman T-shirt out of Mirasol Hacho has buttons and is ready for its debut in the shop.

The Hacho is seriously lovely stuff to knit. It has so much spring, you just want to keep squishing the skein!

And looky what I just finished!!!!!!

Doing a little dance of joy here. I love, love, love it!! It is my drop stitch tank done in Spunky Eclectic Summer. I need to weave in the ends and then I am wearing it tomorrow. Yay!

Doesn't knitting bring out all kinds of happy moments?

Seeing friends (new and old) for Knit at Night. Welcome Rob and Kevin, and it was fabulous to see you Beth and Sara!

Completing your first zippered cardigan.  David put the finishing touches on his Cambridge Jacket knit in Cascade Sierra, including a turned hem, and hand sewed zipper, and allowed us to do a little photo shoot. Looks fantastic!

Discovering a yummy new yarn. Carmen brought in these completed socks out of Mirasol Hacho and promptly inspired a number of other knitters around the room to knit a pair for themselves. 

And it is always an incredible feeling to finish a project for someone close to your heart. Cheryl made this gorgeous laceweight shawl for her mom.  Beautiful.

What a weekend!  I had the most fabulous time on Saturday KIPing around Brunswick. Knitters came from all over to join in the fun. We knitted, made new friends, had great food at 111 Maine and The Frontier Café, and proudly represented the knitterly ways. 

Our day started early at the Crystal Springs Farmer's Market.  A huge thank you to Karen of Bowdoin Baking Company for providing the tent and the most delicious strawberry scone!

Doesn't Peggy look relaxed? That is exactly how I felt all day. 

Somehow I missed getting a picture of Lesley, but I managed a shot of the sweater she is making.

More pics from the market:

From there it was onto the town mall.

These are Bridget's awesome sneakers, and because I covet them, I had to take the picture.

(They swore the hats weren't planned.) 

We were visited by a street performing goat.

Had lunch at 111 Maine:

The wonderful meal was prepared by the talented Anna.

Sprouts were everywhere in the pictures above and here:

(No, the snake isn't a Sprout. It is just really cute.  Mandy is making it for her son, Max.)

The day concluded with a 3 hour knit-in at The Frontier Café. 

And we managed to surprise Patti with a little going-away to grad school party. 

We love you Patti!

This was all on the heels of a lively celebration held on Thursday night in honor of Scott's return from deployment.

As you can see, he didn't waste a free moment. Check out all that knitting! Those mittens are to die for. The Kureyon blanket is beautiful. But, nothing compares to the hand spun, hand knit items, such as this lace scarf:

We're so glad you're back!

A fun time was had by all - helped along by another incredible cake creation by Karen.

We were treated to a visit by a lovely little knitter-to-be:

And over the course of the past few days, 5 different, yet completely gorgeous projects in Spunky Eclectic Summer yarn, have been spotted. I captured pictures of 3. 

A lace stole by Jeri, who is making it for her daughter's wedding. ( I queued the pattern.)

Amy's fabulous lace top.

And Anna's silvery lace tunic.

Thanks everyone for such an amazing time!

Ok, show of hands... who reads the Yarn Harlot? 

Whoa! Just felt the air shift from all the hands shooting up.  (For those who still haven't discovered her, a serious treat awaits. Go get a drink, snack, anything you may need to remain comfortable at your computer for days. Then click on the link above and enjoy!)

You may have noticed the Harlot's rave review (scroll down to the May 2 and 8 entries) of this fantastic yarn from the Unwind Yarn Comapny. Dana, the brilliant artist and indie dyer, creates the most gorgeous colorways on incredibly squishy soft yarn. Luckily for us, Dana is friends with the fabulous Wendy, a dear friend and KANer.  Wendy hooked us up with Dana and here's what happened:

Unwind Yarn is now available at our shop! I am soooo excited.  And Dana even made a special colorway just for us - The Big Red Couch.

I don't usually claim new inventory for myself - honest.  Unless it is for a store sample. But, this was different.  A skein of Big Red Couch came home with me.  It had to.  Thanks Dana!

While we're talking socks, I should mention that our supply of Alpaca Sox from Classic Elite has been replenished.

And more colors in Cascade's Heritage Sock yarn:

Thanks to the Tuesday knitters, a bunch of the Heritage flew out of the shop this morning.  I'm afraid it is a rather dangerous yarn.  You touch it, and you must have it. Joannie said it was like petting a kitten.

Dale was one of the knitters enjoying the overflowing sock displays.  And she brought in the sweater that she is working on for Pete. The design is from The Best of Knitters: Arans and Celtics. As always, her work is beautiful - Pete is very lucky!

We also have 3 of the latest pattern books from Classic Elite.

This is totally not related to any of the above, but I just gotta share my morning adventure. It proved that emergency knitting is REALLY important. 

As I got ready to head out the door to start my day, I reached for my keys. Found the set for the car, but no sign of the keys to the shop. Looked everywhere. Called Peter. Yup. He had them.  In his bag. In Portland. 

I was locked out.

Thankfully, Becka was nearby and could let me in. 

I channelled my inner zen-knitter, camped out in the back of the car, and made the most of my situation.

Peter will be making an emergency set of keys tonight. 

A much anticipated yarn line has arrived! Becka and I had spotted these yarns when looking for something new and interesting to bring into the shop. The yarns themselves produced instant must-have, must-stash, must-knit, lusting.  And that was before we knew the story behind the entire line. 

The Mirasol yarns are extraordinarily soft, luscious fibers in beautiful colors, all produced in the highlands of Peru. Through the Mirasol Project, a portion of the sale of each Mirasol yarn contributes to the building and supporting of community centers for the farmers and their families who tend the fiber animals. The project is named after a young Quechua girl who works with her brother to tend 350 alpacas. The project is currently focused on building a boarding house for the children of the farmers so that they will not have to travel to receive an education.  They will provide an infant and child-care program, after school care, and health services. 

Knitwear designer Jane Ellison (many of you will recognize her for her gorgeous Noro sweaters), has committed herself and her work to the project. She has designed the pattern books that accompany the yarn line, and has traveled to Peru to see the progress of the project. 

To quote from the Mirasol website:

"The designer, Jane Ellison, has recently made a visit to the Mallkini ranch to see for herself what the project is all about. "It was the first time I had been to a developing country so the poverty I saw when I arrived in Lima was a bit of a shock," she explains," but even more so when we travelled into the mountains where the ranch is situated. You are in the middle of nowhere with no radio signals and the nearest phone being an hour away." She also suffered from altitude sickness but saw this as a positive thing, forcing her to slow down and see life as it is for the indigenous people. She comments, "Although the poverty is extreme, you get a sense of community and peacefulness. There was none of that anger you associate with city life. It is also very humbling, things I would normally worry about at home seemed unimportant." She found that seeing the foundations of the boarding-house already in place and imagining the future for the children was very exciting. She explains, "Education is a basic right that some of us take for granted. I feel it is very important that families should grow and learn together. Every society needs to educate its members for its historical continuity and cultural development." She looks back to her own education and remembers a time when her best friend at school was a girl from Guatemala who had been sent to England to get a good education, even though it meant she was away from her immediate family for many years. She comments, "That was how important education was to my friend and her mother. This is why I feel this project is so important.' "

The story is inspiring. But what of the yarns?

Short of inventing a way for you to reach through the computer to touch them yourself, the best I can do to tell you how truly incredible they are, is to say that we were so impressed with the quality, feel, and colors, that we decided to bring in ALL the colors in each of four of the main yarns.

Hacho and Miski are now in-stock, and the other two (stay tuned!) will be arriving in time for fall.

Even though Mirasol is sending us some sample garments, Becka and I couldn't wait.  I cast on for a baby top out of Hacho, a hand painted, 100% merino wool. 

It is fabulous to work with because it is so springing. It is almost like it has elastic in it! I'm on the lookout for a good sock pattern to try with it next.

Becka cast on for a sweater with Miski, the 100% baby lama. Yum. 

I can't wait till I get to play with it too.

Both projects will be traveling with us to the Fiber Frolic this weekend. For those who have never been, check out the website - you won't regret it. 

I know we'll see many of the KAN group there.  By the way, to everyone who was at KAN last night - thank you! It was a BLAST.  Awesome conversation. Good times. =)

Even the boys made it for a little while, and the ever-enterprising Connor negotiated for a job:

Have a great weekend!