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James Cox Knits for the Man in your life

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James Cox Knits for the Man in your life, was today’s HOT TOPIC on the Yarn Thing podcast with Marly Bird. This was his first visit to a podcast, we’re so tickled about this First Date!

James Cox called into the Yarn Thing podcast from Palm Springs, California, which is a ways away from where he James Portrait LoResgrew up in Kansas. His family was very crafty, he says, his mom taught them everything from knitting and crochet to quilting. One day as an adult in the line at Woolworths he saw a booklet to Learn to Knit, stepped out of line and collected what he needed to start. That first project was a Fair Isle sweater that he still wears.

The mention of Woolworths kind of dates this story, he admits that was more than 30 years ago. He’s always been a fan of fashion and understands construction or how things are put together. He sees knitting as 3-dimensional grid in rows and columns of stitches, admires how things are finished. He found a local yarn shop that was helpful and nice, continued to design things for himself, and they led him into mosaic. During this time, he worked in the advertising industry which approached as an art director. It’s apparent that he has that detail orientation that successful designers and knitters have from his background and formal training.

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From Modeknit yarns, Annie Modesitt

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From Modeknit Yarns, Annie Modesitt visited Yarn Thing with Marly Bird today!

Annie says she learned to crochet as a child, at about age 7. Women who worked for her dad in his coat factory, would give her crochet lessons on Annie ModesittSaturday mornings. She learned to knit as an adult. She lived in New York, making decent money, and transferred to Dallas, and learned to knit at the going away party before that move. She continued to knit while at work in a very cold, windowless room waiting to process. That time (she likens to prison) was practice to perfect her skills.

When she left that job, she found work knitting for designers, eventually working for a bit of time at Vogue Knitting. The pay was not as good as when she lived in New York earlier but realized the truth that if you’re happy with your life, you don’t have to earn a lot of money. She said she went everywhere and did a lot of knitting, including for Broadway shows, and designers like Marc Jacobs. Annie continued to design, write books, and contribute to magazines and now she is has a yarn company, Modeknit, which is indie-dyer business. She says she’s pretty much the luckiest person she knows. [Read more…]

The Yarn Guys, Jeffrey & Dennis have a Wall of Yarn

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The Yarn Guys, Jeffrey & Dennis have a Wall of Yarn and came to share what it’s all about with us on the Yarn Thing podcast with Marly Bird.

Yarn guys and Franklin HabitJeffrey Wall and Dennis Rinkenberger own the LYS Wall of Yarn, in Freeport, IL. Their yarn shop just hit it’s 5 year anniversary this May and they are also the North American Distributors for Rauma Yarns from Norway.  Rauma has been producing high quality yarns for about 90 years.  Their shop can also order pewter buttons and clasps from Norway and have an Amish family make wonderful wooden yarn bowls for us as well.

Jeffrey started knitting at age 9 and stopped in high school but picked it up after graduating from college in 2000.  Dennis started knitting in 2011 when they were in the planning stages of opening the shop. He says the mechanics of how yarn works attracted him, weaving initially as many guys who take up crafting. Jeffrey’s mom is the one that thought they should open a yarn store. Their customer’s call Jeffrey ‘the Yarn Whisperer’ because he can recall what they’ve been working on, fix what they’ve been working on, can find and identify patterns.

In the shop, The Yarn Guys try to carry a little something for everyone though they do specialize in Scandinavian/stranded knitting.  Because the shop is in a small town, they try to find other ways to keep the business viable, first becoming the distributors of Rauma yarns and patterns. They have a large variety of colors and yarn, perfect for fans of color work. Jeffrey translates all of Rauma’s patterns from Norwegian into English and teaches knitting classes throughout the midwest.  Dennis is also a yarn rep so he travels around the country trying to find good homes for our yarns. They both travel to large events to share the yarns, like Stitches (where they are news sponsors of the events), Interweave Yarn Fest, Vogue Knitting Live and KnitLab so that they can share this yarn to people who don’t know about it!

YG KAL shawl
Beitha shawl by Anne Podlesak

For the fifth year anniversary, they worked with Anne Poldesak of Wooly Wonka Fibers. The conversation began with realizing the traditional anniversary gift is wood, which made them recall that Birch is the first letter of the druid alphabet which uses tree with a lot of meanings and interpretations in fairy tales. For the shop’s knit-a-long (they’ve had one every month) Anne created The Beitha Shawl pattern and two yarns to represent the leaves and the bark. The next is blackberry (which is a luscious purple), and later will be holly, further out is apple… So much inspiration but a huge project!

They have also recently worked with Alasdair Post-Quinn who was on the program recently, who created a pattern with their yarns for Yarn Box.

Our distribution website is www.TheYarnGuys.com.  Our website for the shop is currently under construction but will be www.WallofYarn.com.  People can follow us on Facebook as the Yarn Guys (the shop) Facebook for Wall of Yarn. They have a Ravelry page for the shop and one for that fantastic Knit-A-Long Ogham, and Instagram.

As a couple, working together they are finding a lot of adventure within the industry. They also look for more of their other interests as they have to travel, breweries that serve vegan food tops the list. We can’t wait to see what their inspirations will come from and what their followers will want to knit.
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Glisten Holiday Throw

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The Glisten Holiday Throw is a made up of lace motifs joined together to make a stunning piece that is the perfect accent for your living room any holiday season.

Glisten-Throw-1-800x600

Holiday season?!? Marly, have you lost your mind? It’s only July! Well, it is the time of year when knitters and crocheters pick up their yarn and tools and make projects for #ChristmasinJuly. That’s right, Christmas is less than 6 months away so you better get started on those hand made gifts.

I used  the same stitch motif I used for the Pineapple Shawl (Free Pineapple Shawl Pattern Available Here) but this is in a square instead of in a triangle. How cool is that?

Because I love to work with crochet charts I have had the chart made up for both the initial square and the subsequent joining squares. When I get a chance I will add written instructions, but for now, here are the details and the charts

Details

Yarn

RED HEART® Holiday®: 6 balls 9040 Red/Silver

Hook

Susan Bates® Crochet Hook: 5 mm [US H-8]

Notions

Yarn Needle

Gauge

One block measures about 9 x 9” (23 x 23 cm) square. CHECK YOUR GAUGE. Use any size hook to obtain the gauge.


Shop Red Heart, America's Favorite Yarn

Pattern

25 total motifs. The blanket is 5 motifs across and 5 motifs long.

Using Chart 1, make one full square. Then make each following square using the join as you go method; Chart 2 illustrates this.

Optional Border

I did not add a border to my blanket but I think it would look lovely with a border. So, I am writing one for you. The instructions are at the tech editor now and once I get them I will add the border to the original blanket and show you how it looks. So, All of that is to say that I will update optional border instructions and this is a place holder.

ETA: Here is a border that my TE and I worked on in case you want to add a border:

With RS facing, join yarn with sl st in top right corner of blanket.

Round 1 (RS): Ch 1, * [sc in ch-3 corner sp, ch 5, sc in next ch-3 sp, ch 5, sl st in next ch-3 sp, ch 5, sc in next ch-5 sp, ch 5, sl st in next ch-5 sp, ch 5, sc in next ch-5 sp, ch 5, sl st in next ch-3 sp, ch 5, sc in next ch-3 sp, ch 5, sc in ch-3 corner sp] for each Motif across, rotate work 90 degrees, ch 3, rep from * 3 more times (for each side of blanket), join with a sl st in first sc, turn.

Round 2 (WS):  Sl st in each of next 2 ch, ch 1, * sc in same ch-3 corner sp, [ch 5, sc in next ch-5 sp] to next ch-3 corner sp, ch 5, sc in ch-3 corner sp, ch 5; rep from * 3 more times (for each side of blanket), join with a sl st in first sc, turn.

Rounds 3-5: Sl st in each of next 3 ch, ch 1, * sc in same ch-5 corner sp, [ch 5, sc in next ch-5 sp] to next ch-5 corner sp, ch 5, sc in ch-5 corner sp, ch 5; rep from * 3 more times (for each side of blanket), join with a sl st in first sc, turn.

 

Key for Charts

Pineapple Square Symbol Key-1

Chart 1

Pineapple Square Chart-1

Chart 2

Pineapple Square Join-1

Note

It occurs to me as I write this that I don’t have a picture of the full blanket flat! I will be sure to take a picture when I get home and add it to this post.

Glisten-Throw-2-800x600 Glisten-Throw-3-800x600

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