Fall yarns from Manos del Uruguay

This is our favorite time of year at Sheepish--new yarns are arriving faster than we can tell you about them!  Here are two more recent arrivals for fall, both from Manos del Uruguay.

This beautiful stuff is Wool Clasica, a handspun, kettle-dyed, 100% wool yarn.  If you've never knit with handspun yarn before, you're in for a treat.  This yarn gives wonderful texture to your stitches, and knits up at about 3.5-4.5 sts/in. on a US 8-10 needle.  Wool Clasica retails at $17.50/skein for the solid colors and $18.50/skein for the multi colors.  The solids and multis both have the same yardage, 138 yds/skein.

Wool Clasica yarn from Manos del Uruguay

And here we have Maxima, a luxuriously soft kettle-dyed merino.  This yarn is so wonderfully bouncy and squishy!  It's a worsted weight, knitting at 4.5-5 sts/in. on a US 7-8 needle.  Maxima retails at $14.00 per 218-yd. skein, so it's a great value, too.  (The solids and multis are priced the same.)

Maxima yarn from Manos del Uruguay

Stacy knit up a quick sample of the Maxima, using the free Malabrigo Neck Thingie pattern from Ravelry (yes, Maxima is an ideal choice for any pattern that suggests Malabrigo Worsted!).  This is the Arctic Shadow colorway.

Maxima Neck Thingie

If you're not familiar with Manos del Uruguay and their yarns, you can read more about this certified Fair Trade company here. We're proud to carry these products, and can't wait to see what you all will make with them!

Dream Club: September

We're very excited to announce that Sheepish is now a member of Dream in Color's Dream Club.  Each month, Dream in Color will send us 10 skeins of a new, exclusive colorway--a different base yarn every month.  When you purchase a skein of this special yarn, we'll email you a PDF of that month's Dream Club pattern. Each pattern will be designed specifically to showcase that month's yarn.  Each month the base yarn, colorway, and pattern will be a surprise for everyone--including us!

September 2012 Dream Club yarn

Our first installment of the Dream Club is available now.  The yarn is Baby, a wonderfully soft superwash merino laceweight, dyed in a lovely periwinkle blue with streaks of gray.  It's a 700-yard skein for $24.00.  The photo really doesn't do justice to this colorway. 

Twilight Accessories Set, exclusive pattern with purchase of September 2012 Dream Club yarn

With the purchase of the Dream Club yarn, you get the PDF of the pattern for the Twilight Accessories Set.  This set includes a hat, cowl, and fingerless mitts, designed by Andrea Jurgrau of Bad Cat Designs, and you can make all three out of one skein of the Dream Club yarn.

Remember, we only have 10 skeins of this yarn available (correction, nine skeins--someone's already bought one!) and you must buy the yarn to get the pattern.  We expect these to sell out pretty fast, so be sure to get yours before they're gone!

Holiday Knits 2012

We know many of you always look forward to the release of Interweave's annual Holiday Knits edition.  Well, the 2012 issue is here, and it's a good one!  Let's take a look at some of the highlights:

This little ornament, called Dansk Hjerte, features the simple palette typical of Scandavian colorwork.  You could make a bunch of these pretty quickly for last-minute gifts.  Their sample is shown in Nature Spun Worsted (one of our classic workhorse wools), but it would also be great in Cascade 220 or our new Perfection Worsted.

Dansk Hjerte by Ann McDonald Kelly

Those of you who knit for babies and kids will be very excited to see all the cute patterns for little ones in this issue, like the Little Mary Anning Set.  This is another worsted weight project that would be perfect in easy-care Perfection yarn.  (The set also includes an adorable hat, not shown in this photo.)

Little Mary Anning Set by Mary Ann Cunningham-Kim

For the men on your list, how about a luxurious scarf like the Lyle Muffler?  The reversible stitch pattern and size 9 needle make this a great choice for a special gift.

Lyle Muffler by Andrea Babb

Did we say gifts?  How about keeping some of these beautiful projects for yourself?  The Wobble Scarf looks like it would be fun and interesting to knit and would be the perfect way to knit up a skein of sock yarn, in case you're tired of making socks. :)

Wobble by Michaela Moores

If you're feeling more ambitious, maybe you'd like to knit some of the bigger projects in the issue, like the Road Trip Vest.  The vest is shown in Cascade Eco+ (our fall shipment of which will be here soon!), but we're thinking it would also be wonderfully warm and cozy in Lamb's Pride Bulky or Baby Alpaca Chunky.

Road Trip Vest by Deborah Newton

These are just a few of the dozens of inspiring patterns in this year's Holiday Knits. Also included in the issue are instructional articles on steeking, mosaic knitting, and double knitting.  There's enough in this magazine to keep you busy through the holiday season and beyond!

Done Roving yarns

Now in stock: two beautiful yarns by Done Roving, a small company based in Maine.  We'd never heard of Done Roving until a few months ago, but we instantly fell in love when our sales rep showed us her amazing samples.  We immediately placed an order for fall, and it has arrived!

First up, for all you sock lovers, we have Frolicking Feet.  It's a 100% superwash merino with a wonderful tight twist.  We currently have it in 15 colorways (we started out with more, but a few have sold out already!).  Frolicking Feet retails at $21.00 per 480-yard skein.

Frolicking Feet

Next, we have Natural Ewe.  It's a brand new yarn for Done Roving, and Sheepish is one of the first shops in the country to have it.  Natural Ewe comes in 15 colorways and we have all of them in stock right now. This is a super soft fingering weight yarn that will be perfect for lace projects or whatever else you can dream up.  It's a 100% organic merino (What makes a wool organic? Learn here!) and retails at $14.00 per 300-yard skein.

Natural Ewe

Stop by and treat yourself to these exciting new yarns soon!  We have a feeling they're going to be very popular.

Perfection is here!

We're so excited to introduce you to one of the wonderful new yarns we're starting to carry this fall, Perfection Worsted.  Perfection comes from Kraemer Yarns in Pennsylvania and we are thrilled to have it here at Sheepish!

 

Our gorgeous wall of Perfection

Here are a few of the things we love about this yarn:

• Amazing color range
• Soft (merino wool!)
• Great stitch definition
• Washes and dries like a dream
• Made in the U.S.A.
• Fantastic service from Kraemer Yarns

Perfection is 30% domestic merino, 70% acrylic.  We plan on phasing out most of our stock of Plymouth Encore because we simply believe Perfection is a better, more versatile product*.  We're so confident our customers will LOVE this yarn that we've invested in getting every color in the Perfection line.  That's 56 gorgeous colors--naturals, brights, pastels, muted heathers, rich jewel tones...are you drooling yet?  With this range of colors, there's something for everyone!



Carrie's knitted and crocheted sample of Perfection, in color 1547, Fairy Ring

Perfection has a 4+ star rating from Ravelry users, including one person who commented, "Oh my. Why don’t more people know about this yarn?"  Our thoughts exactly!  

Perfection comes in 200 yard skeins and retails at $6.50/skein.  Gauge is listed at 5 sts/in. on a US 8 needle.  It's machine washable and dryable. 

*Don't fret, Encore fans!  We aren't getting rid of Encore completely.  We'll still carry the Encore Colorspun (Perfection doesn't come in multis), as well as the pure white, which is a brighter white than Perfection offers.

Sheepish Summer Games Challenge

You may have heard of this idea before:  pick a project, begin it during opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics, then finish by the end of closing ceremonies.  We're putting our own twist on it: purchase your yarn (and hopefully your pattern too!) at Sheepish, simply finish before the deadline and you'll be entered to win prizes! 

We've come up with three categories:

• Small projects:  hats, scarves, baby sweaters, etc
• Socks
• Big projects: adult sweaters, blankets, etc

There is no judging--just stick to the rules and finish and you'll qualify for a drawing where we'll be giving away shop gift certificates and other goodies.  If you're not sure what category your project would fit in, just ask!  I'm sure we'll figure it out. 

As an extra incentive, all cotton yarns are on sale 20% off, starting today!  If it's got cotton in it, it's on sale!

You must purchase your yarn at Sheepish to qualify for our prize drawing.

The Olympic games start Friday the 27th of July and end Sunday August 12th.  You've got a week to pick a project and then 2+ weeks to work on it.  Everyone likes to watch the games, now you can keep your hands occupied while you cheer on Team USA!