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 IT'S THE SALE THAT CUSTOMERS WAIT FOR ALL YEAR. WEEK 1: Tues. June 1st to Sat. June 5th
ANIMAL FIBRES ON SALE - 20% OFF
Wool, alpaca, silk, llama, mohair, angora...
MANOS DEL URUGUAY, NORO, CADENZA, ECO WOOL, MOHAIR, CASCADE 220, MISSION FALLS WOOL, LOPI, ALPACA PERU, SUPERFINE ALPACA, "BUTTONS" DK, SILKY WOOL, BRIGGS & LITTLE, TOPSY FARMS, SOCK YARNS AND and many more.
WEEK 2: Mon. June 7th to Sat June 12th.
VEGETABLE YARNS ON SALE - 20% OFF
 Cotton, linen, bamboo, hemp, viscose...:BABY BAMBOO, CANTATA, COTTON BAMBOO, COTTON SUPREME, PUNTA COTTON, EGYPTIAN LUXURY COTTON, MISSION FALLS COTTON, LUNA, CLOUD COTTON, FIXATION, ON YOUR TOES BAMBOO SOCK YARN, all dish cloth and crochet cottons..
WEEK 3: Mon. June 14th to Sat June 19th
"MAN-UFACTURED" and fancy YARNS ON SALE - 20% OFF Acrylics, nylons, polyesters.
DECOR, SHETLAND CHUNKY, FUNNY EYELASH,  SNUGGLY, MARBLE, BABY COMFORT, CLICK DK, COUNTRY STYLE, DONNA, DIVINE, FAMILY WORSTED, ACCENT WORSTED, NORTHERN CHUNKY, DIVINE, TINY TOTS, SOFTEE CHUNKY, and MANY others.
WEEK 4: Mon. Jun 21st to Wed. June 30th
BUY THE BAG SALE: 20% off any yarn in the store when you buy the bag (usually 10 balls of the same colour - great for adult sweaters or afghans)
DON'T MISS THIS ONCE A YEAR EVENT THAT SAVES YOU BIG $$$$ ON ALL OF YOUR FAVOURITE YARNS. |
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THE MOST AMAZING SOCK BOOK!  With hundreds on entries from seven countries competing for thousands of dollars in prizes, the Think Outside the Sox contest became an unprecedented talent search-a source of major excitement and stellar design.
Now Think Outside the Sox, the Book, features the best of the best: over 60 winning designs, including the $6000 Grand Prize pair; knitter profile and design processes; innovative constructions; updates on traditional techniques; and just plain beautiful socks. |
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 Anne has RETURNED!
I've just spent a glorious month of adventure, taking the train to the west coast, rediscovering many aspects of the yarn world there and meeting with a couple of the ladies who organize the Cowichan knitters on Vancouver Island.
(If you'd like learn more about the trip, link here)
On this trip I actually brought my own Cowichan sweater, a real beauty that I rescued from a second hand store in Montreal earlier this year. The Cowichan ladies were intrigued by the  unusual design of the wale and the distinctive argyle borders.
Then I was thrilled to be able to show them just how far their designs had gone from home: I had a copy of this book titled COWICHAN SWEATER HAT AND SMALL GOODS written entirely in Japanese. I had heard about this book on Ravelry and was able to order it from the Needle Arts Book Shop in Toronto. I don't normally provide links to retailers who carry some of the same products that we do at WOOL-TYME Kingston, but these folks have really developed an amazing market for books of all craft media that generally aren't available to us. Link here to see what other knitting books they offer in Japanese, and why they have taken the pains to import these beautiful books. An excellent resource guide to reading Japanese patterns is also available at this site. Anyway, I left my copy of the book with the Cowichan ladies to share among their knitters. It certainly looked as if they would all get a real kick out of what the Japanese have done with their lovely bold designs and it was certainly worth it to me to see how delighted they were. |
KNITTING IN THE SUMMER  Isn't this a great group shot with Martha Villa (in the middle) who turned her knitting passion into a profession in 1962, and had a few celebrity clients along the way. I found it on a site dedicated to beach lovers. They have definitely proved that you can really knit anywhere, during any season of the year.
 Here a couple of magazines that we have in stock to inspire you with some great summer ideas. KnitScene Easy is full of small projects both for the beginner knitter and for those of us who aren't really into lugging a full sweater or afghan around with us during the summer. Link here to see a selection of the patterns offered in this special issue.
Interweave KNITS is one of my favourite knitting magazines and the  summer 2010 edition is a great one. Articles on Barb Hunt, Newfoundland-based artist who has been knitting pink replicas of land mines for more than a decade, and with Leah Sutton who uses her knitting skills to make retro vehicles such as camper vans, a beetle, and Vespa scooter. Excellent tips on creating the perfect button hole and in addition to all that, pages and pages of wearable patterns that I just love to browse. |
 AND
are pleased to offer
THE ULTIMATE KNIT AND CHAT WEEKEND on Amherst Island.
You deserve this wonderful retreat: 2 nights, 6 gourmet meals, a beautiful setting, knitting workshops, yoga for knitters and all the Knitting and Chatting that you can handle.
Fri. Sept 24th (for supper) to Sunday Sept. 26th (after lunch)
all for $350.
Or if you can only spare a day, take the ferry and join us from 10:00am to 4pm for workshops, a delicious lunch, lots of fun for $50.
You don't want to miss out on this special chance. Call soon to reserve your spot. |
 Things for knitters to do in Kingston in June
June 5th from 10am-2pm: The 2nd Annual Birthfest at McBurney Park in Kingston is a community festival celebrating pregnancy, birth and families. In addition to this day of fun for families, the organizers are asking for help from the community in general: "We are partnering with Circle of Health International (www.cohintl.org) to raise awareness about maternal and newborn health world-wide. Our idea is to ask YOU, community members, ...to make hats that fit newborns, by sewing or knitting them, to be sent to a country or program where a small, low cost intervention of keeping a baby warm could make all the difference in the world. We know we can mobilize a huge number of people in the community to do this! " Link here to find out more.
Did you ever want to set a world record? Here's your chance to do just that while you
 CELEBRATE WORLD-WIDE KNIT IN PUBLIC WEEK.
Cambridge Ontario. Centre for the Arts Artist-in-Residence, Sue Sturdy invites you to join hundreds of other knitters in an attempt to set a new world record for the largest number of people knitting simultaneously on Saturday, June 19th 8am-noon. Link here to find out more about what this knitting friendly community has planned. |
These are the sheep from lovely Snowdonia in rural Wales who provide the necessary ingredient to make authentic Sheep Poo Paper. Don't you just love the name: Snowdonia? It's like they went looking for a place whose name would compensate for the distaste that some people might find in using Sheep Poo Paper.
 Alan Dart Aids Haiti with Ada Ada is a Hispaniolan solenenodon, a shrew-like creature that is unique to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and is wearing a dress inspired by the Haitian national flag. Six months after the earthquake, it's just too easy to forget the needs of this struggling nation. Alan Dart, Britain's great knitted toy designer, is still encouraging people to keep up awareness: Ada's pattern is available exclusively on line for FREE, but the suggestion is that knitters will donate to the relief and reconstruction effort either through Alan's website or through some other reputable organization working in Haiti.
Here's a great site to check out. MEN WHO KNIT is designed to promote and inspire the art of knitting among men. These guys really know what they're doing.
The Gallery is lots of fun and it's just interesting to see how something so familiar to us as knitting can be seen from a completely different perspective. Very cool! |
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 FROM OUR STAFF.
 What's What's on Jan's hook?
All of the staff at the store are very comfortable knitters, but after reading the article in the last newsletter about the benefits of the knitted sampler afghan (60 Easy-To-Knit Pattern Stitches, Leisure Arts book #932) Jan decided to take on the same type of challenge to improve her crochet skills, using the companion book 63 Easy-to-Crochet Pattern Stitches. (Leisure Arts #555)
Below are some of the first few squares that she produced and Jan has said that after completing just 6 of the squares that she has learned an amazing amount and already feels so much more at ease reading the patterns.
While looking for a picture on line of the Leisure Arts book, I came across a group of women who are doing a crochet along using the same pattern. 
You can link to this group and see how they are progressing. It really is a wonderful way for anyone who has basic skills to improve them and gain a bucket of confidence about tackling other projects. |
June 12th -20th
KNIT IN PUBLIC
WEEK
See the article to the lower left for the Guiness world record attempt in Cambridge Ont.
Typically, Knit In Public Day/Week is seen as an opportunity to get together with friends in a public place and show off how much fun we have knitting and chatting.
This year I plan to do something quite different. I'm hoping to spend 1/2 hour each day, knitting by myself at some different location in the city. The idea is that I'm hoping that people will come up and ask about what I'm doing, or will share a bit about their knitting history
or memories. It should be fun...and who among us would not want to have a reason for sitting down to knit for 1/2 hour each day, no matter where or what the circumstances?
I plan on keeping a record with pictures and will keep you up to date about the results.
Do you have any plans? Let me know and we can share them with each other. |
It seems a bit odd to be sharing a piece about knitted mittens in the June issue of this Newsletter, but look at the gorgeous warm summer colours of these wonderful creations.
 This is Jette Uzane, (1924 2007) one of the most creative knitters I've come across.
Disabled from childhood, and confined to a wheelchair, she was taught basic needlework skills and soon took on the task for her farming family of knitting socks, mittens and repairing their clothes.
Coming from a strict tradition of monochromatic and geometric knitting, Jette's intuitive use of colour and innovative knitting stitches (no embroidery was used in the mittens above) made her rise from the ranks of crafters to an accomplished artist. Several of her mittens are on display in Latvian and Russian museums, including the Latvian National History Museum in Riga Castle.
Link here to find out more about the life of this amazing woman. |
TRUCKERS WHO KNIT
Kevin Abraham-Banks, a 37-year-old trucker with a shaved head and dragon tattoos, passes time at truck stops with his cocoa and knitting.
Mr. Banks, who lives in Sioux Falls, S.D., and hauls romaine lettuce between California and the Midwest, learned to knit last year after load-volumes slowed.
"The fact that you can take strands of thread and basically make something out of it, that's awesome I think," he said. "It's pretty cool stuff, man."
Link here to read the full article from The Wall Street Journal. |
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Kingston Newsletter
