Colors of summer

A lovely shipment arrived from Misti Alpaca this week. Take a look at these delicious summery colors.

"Alpaca for summer?" you say. "Yuck, that sounds hot!" But not all of Misti Alpaca's yarns are made from alpaca. What you see here is our warm weather favorite, Pima Silk.

Available in semi-solids and hand-paints, Pima Silk is a luxurious DK-weight blend of 83% cotton/ 17% silk. Each skein has a generous 327 yards for only $21.00.

Need pattern ideas for this gorgeous yarn? For the hand-painted colorways, we're huge fans of Tori Gurbisz's Amalthea. It only took one skein to make this lovely scarf, which many of you have seen on display in the shop.

For the semi-solids, how about one of these cool summer tops from c2knits? Clockwise from top left: Sophie, Gypsy, Miyoko, Daphne.

All of these patterns are available here at the shop through our Ravelry download program.

NEW: Pea Pods

Here's a lovely new yarn that arrived just in time for your summer knitting. This is Pea Pods, a 100% cotton yarn from Knit One Crochet Too. It has a thick-and-thin texture that resembles peas in a pod.

Pea Pods can be worked up at a variety of gauges to achieve different effects. K1C2 describes it as having "open texture at looser gauge, cobblestone texture at tighter gauge." The label recommends a size US 5-7 needle for 18-20 sts/4".

This yarn has great yardage--262 yds./100g ball for $14.50.

Need pattern inspiration? Check out this clever jacket Carrie made with Pea Pods.

It's the Warren 2-Way Jacket, which can be worn as a short jacket with a wide shawl collar (as shown), or turned upside-down to be worn as a longer garment with a fishtail hemline and a rolled lapel. Very cool!

Let us download this pattern for you, and you'll receive credit toward your Sheepish reward points.

Make way for fall SALE

Hard to believe, but school's starting back up and autumn is just around the corner. Our fall yarns will begin arriving soon, but we need to make room for them.

This weekend, Fri. Aug. 2 - Sun. Aug. 4, ALL (regularly priced) yarns are 20% off! Come grab some bargains and help us clear out space for our exciting new goodies.

On The Needles: Vertical Eyelet socks in St. Elias

Socks are such a great summer project, aren't they? They're portable, so they're perfect for taking on vacation. They're small, so you can work on them without being smothered under a big project in the summer heat. And when the weather finally cools off, BOOM, you've already got yourself a nice cozy new pair of socks to wear.

Carole is working on this pair, using the Vertical Eyelet stitch pattern from More Sensational Knitted Socks (one of our sock bibles--currently in stock).  The yarn is Pagewood Farm's St. Elias (80 % wool, 20% nylon) in the Bird of Paradise colorway.

Carole had originally chosen a different stitch pattern, but she found it too annoying because each needle started with a purl stitch and it was leaving ladders. We know a lot of people who have a hard time starting a needle with a purl stitch--how about you? Sometimes you can rearrange the needles to avoid that, but sometimes it's easier to do what Carole did and just pick a new stitch pattern!

Notice Carole is knitting both socks at the same time, using two parallel circular needles. For those of you who suffer from Second Sock Syndrome, this technique is a great way to beat that problem--when you're done, you're done. Don't know how to knit on two parallel circs? We can teach you! Give us a call at 404-377-6875 to book a lesson (one hour for $25) that fits your needs and schedule.

Where in the world is Milfred?

Back in March, we posted this photo of customer Betheda Gramling holding one of our famous pink bags in Antarctica. It got us thinking: wouldn't it be fun to see our bags and sheep (Milfred) logo wherever our customers travel? (What? You never knew our sheep's name was Milfred? Our bad! Readers...Milfred. Milfred...readers.)

As you head off on your summer vacations, take a picture of your Sheepish bag "on location" and email it to us at sheepishblog@yahoo.com. Whether you're trekking overseas or spending a long weekend at Grandma's, we want to see where you take your projects. Our favorite photo will win a $50 Sheepish gift certificate!

Photos must be received by Saturday, August 10; winner will be announced on Tuesday, August 13. DEADLINE extended! You now have through Saturday, Aug. 31, to submit your photos. Winner will be announced on Tuesday, Sept. 3. We look forward to seeing what you come up with. Get creative, folks!

On The Needles: Madison in Seedling Handpaint

It's no secret that we're big fans of c2knits designs around here. But did you know that in addition to their easy-to-knit garments and accessories for women, they also offer a design for an adorable baby dress?

Madison is a cute jumper, sized for girls from 6-24 months old. Its A-line shape extends its wearing life--as your little one grows, she can wear Madison as a tunic or tank! There are three hem design options--ruffle, lace, or colorwork--so you could knit several Madisons and never make the same one twice.

This design calls for a worsted weight yarn and a size US 7 needle, so we thought it would be the perfect way to showcase one of our lovely new organic cottons. This is Seedling Handpaint in colorway 4526, Lava.

Stacy says, "This is my first time knitting with Seedling, and it's really nice. Soft and comfortable, and not at all limp or stringy like some cottons. Madison is a very simple, fast knit. It would be a great option for a quick baby shower gift, or a first garment project for a beginning knitter who's ready to move beyond scarves."

By the way, could we just take a moment to marvel at how perfectly the stripes on those little straps match?

The kicker is, this wasn't even intentional. That just happened to be how the handpainted colors landed.

Hard copies of Madison are in stock now, as are many wonderful colors (both handpaints and solids) of Seedling.

Organic cottons from Classic Elite

Yesterday the UPS man brought us two big boxes from Classic Elite Yarns. In addition to about a million skeins of Liberty Wool, we're now stocked up on some of our favorite cottons for summer--Seedling and Sprout.

Seedling is a soft, worsted weight, organic* cotton with a slightly nubby texture. It's machine washable, so it's a great choice for hot weather garments and baby items--anything that will need to be washed frequently. We have a wonderful range of colors in stock right now:

Left to right, top to bottom: Summer Cloud, Lime Juice, New Navy, Deep Saffron, Evening Primrose, Baby Blue Eyes, Persian Rose, Natural, Horizon, Persimmon, Mint, Steel Blue.

We're also really excited because we now have Seedling Handpaints, which is new for us. It comes in these vivid tropical colors:

Left to right: Bora Bora, Lava, Hula, Paradise, Lei.

Both Seedling solids and handpaints come in a 110-yd hank. Solids are $7.00 and handpaints are $9.00

Sprout is kind of like Seedling's big sister. It's a type of yarn that's somewhat hard to find--a bulky cotton. Like Seedling, it's a nubby-textured, machine-washable, organic cotton. Here are the wonderful colors we have:

Left to right, top to bottom: Lime Juice, Deep Saffron, Chicory, Summer Cloud, Garden Sage, Flamingo Pink, Evening Primrose, Salvia Red, Mint.

Sprout comes in a 109-yard hank for $12.50. It knits on about a size US 10 needle, making it perfect for a quick sweater or baby blanket. If you need some garment ideas for Sprout, we have the new Fun In The Sun pattern booklet in stock as well.

These patterns provide a wide range of sizes, from bust measurement 30" to 51".

*Not sure what exactly constitutes "organic cotton?" Learn all about it here!

On The Needles: Amalthea in Pima Silk Hand Paint

This Pima Silk we got in recently was just begging to be knit into a shop sample. To refresh your memory, these are the colors we got, just to try out this lovely cotton/silk blend from Misti Alpaca:

Three of the four are dyed with subtle tone-on-tone shading, but the one on the left is a Pima Silk Hand Paint in a colorway called April Showers. How would the colors knit up? Would it stripe? We had to find out! So, Stacy's started knitting this little fringed shawlette called Amalthea, designed by Tori Gurbisz.

Wow, aren't those colors gorgeous? Mostly shades of blue, but with little shots of green, red, purple, and gold throughout.

Stacy says, "This yarn is a dream to knit with! It feels so soft and smooth in my hands, and the drape is perfect for a summery wrap like this."

Amalthea is available for download from us via the Ravelry in-store pattern program. You can get her as an individual pattern for $6.00, or as part of a larger eBook (six shawl patterns) called Myths and Fairytales for $16.50.

Cotton Rich strikes again!

Here's Tuesday night regular Sara with Mariele, who is modeling the adorable dress Sara made for her.  Sara used two colors of summer favorite Cotton Rich DK and the Rainbow Dress pattern by Georgie Hallam.  Super cute!

We have lots of beautiful colors of Cotton Rich in stock for your summer knitting.  The Rainbow Dress pattern is available for download from Ravelry here.