How The West Was Spun: Shop Stuff

It's been a while since I've done a shop update, so bear with me. There's a lot of information I wanted to send along.

First off, February 2008 will introduce a great new fingerless mitts kit. These beauties were designed by Janine, whose work you may have run into thru Ravelry or Magknits. If you are a fan of Cookie A's Monkey socks, you'll love these mitts.

The kit comes with a skein of our BFL (blue-faced Leicester wool) superwash fingering weight yarn in the "Wood Duck" colorway, plus a hard copy of the pattern, printed on card stock. You just add needles to obtain the appropriate gauge. These knit up fast and are a great take-along project. Once you've gotten the pattern set up, you can zip right along on these. This pattern would be suitable for an adventurous beginner, and intermediate knitters who have done a bit of lace (or already own a pair of Monkey socks) should find these an easy knit. If you find that this colorway doesn't quite suit you, please feel free to leave me a Comment when ordering and I am happy to replace the Wood Duck colorway with another of your choice from our yarn catalog.

Next, we are introducing two new sock yarns to our catalog. Both are spun from a very soft superwash merino and will be carried under the "Simply Superwash" designation in the storefront. The great thing about these yarns is that they are completely interchangeable with regards to gauge. The 2-ply is what I used to knit the Rattlesnake Creek Socks. It has a slightly less tight twist than the 3-ply. If you are a fan of Louet Gems sock yarn, the 2-ply is a good substitution. If you prefer something with more plies and a rounder silhouette (think Smooshy sock yarn), then the 3-ply is your best bet. Gauge will range from 7 to 9 stitches per inch, depending on the size needles you choose. We'll be expanding our color line for these two yarns, but here's a little example of the subtle differences in these yarns.

The 2-ply in Amethyst:

The 3-ply in Smoke:

For the month of February, if you order a skein of the Simply Superwash yarn, I will send along a free printed copy of the Rattlesnake Creek socks. Just request it through the Comments box when you check out.

Finally, as a footnote, in March (fingers crossed and planets in alignment) we'll be undergoing a site upgrade that will incorporate some of the suggestions you have made over the last year. Things like no more frames, so I can link into a specific product, and a slightly enhanced arrangement, where we will have a color samples page, and then each individual yarn can be ordered via a drop-down menu in any color you wish. We'll also be adding Jaggerspun's Zephyr (silk/merino) laceweight to our permanent list of yarns at that time, so you can order any of the colorways we carry for your lace projects in that lovely yarn. We'll be offering some anniversary specials through the new site once it opens next month, so be sure to look out for those. You'll still be able to reach us through the same site address, so you won't need to update your favorites or saved 'net address; it'll happen automatically.

All for now......