River City Yarns… your place to unwind!
We have two locations!
River City Yarns Downtown
#107, 10106-111 Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5G 0B4
Phone: (780) 477-9276
Email: [email protected]
February 2011
River City Yarns Southside
3438-99 Street
Edmonton, AB T6E 5X5
Phone: (780) 450-9276
Email: [email protected]
Inside this issue:
Brittany Birch DPNs
2
Elsebeth Lavold Twice Tweed
2
Mad About Malabrigo
2
Ushya-Smooshya!
2
February Workshops &
Events
3
February Mitten o’ the Month
3
Kaffe Fassett Film Review
4
Vogue Knitting Live
4
Gallery Updates
4
Kaffe Talks Again!
Join us at our downtown store on
Family Day for an exclusive
Kaffe Fassett Video presentation.
Details on Page 3.
River City Yarns
Loyalty Club
Want discounts every
time you shop? Advance
notice of sales? Join our
Loyalty Club and get 10%
off all regular priced yarns,
books, needles & accessories. Your membership is
only $50 and is renewable
annually on October 31.
Join early to experience
the best savings.
February Features Warmth and Colour
Every so often we feature a
favourite yarn or
book at a discount.
These aren’t markdowns! These are
products that we love
and want to encourage you to try. We
hope you’ll enjoy
these items as much
as we do!
This month, we’re
featuring Kaffe Fassett’s book,
Kaffe Knits Again and three
fabulous Rowan yarns: Kidsilk
Haze, Colourscapes and
Felted Tweed.
From Valentine’s Day
(February 14) to Family Day (February 21)
you’ll receive 10% off
our February features
and RCY Loyalty
club members will get an
additional 10% off. This offer is not available on special
orders or holds.
Check out Kaffe Knits Again
and be inspired.
While the designs
are striking, they
need not intimidate beginning
knitters: several
designs use only
two colors per
row and largesized needles.
Helpful black &
white line drawings and easyto-follow directions will guide
you along the way.
Rowan Kidsilk Haze is one
of our most popular yarns.
Beautiful and versatile, this blend of
70% super kid mohair and 30% silk
has an incredible
210m on each 25g
ball.
Rowan Colourscape is a roving type yarn which is spun and
made in Britain from 100%
lambswool. Designed by renowned textile artist, Kaffe
Fassett, each 100g/160m hank
gives a single repeat rainbow
like effect.
And Rowan Felted Tweed is
Cynthia’s favourite yarn. Each
wonderful,
tweedy ball is a
beautiful blend
of merino
wool, alpaca
and viscose.
The rustic colour palette makes
this yarn perfect for fairisles,
striping and other colour work.
You’ll find 175m on each 50g
ball.
Cowl Girls Trunk Show
Cowl Girls is the latest title
from author and designer
Cathy Caron. Tagged as “the
neck’s big thing to knit”, cowls
are definitely replacing bulky
scarves as a functional fashion
coordinate.
of the designs in person and if
you want a copy of the book,
you can see us for that too!
The trunk show will be at the
southside from Feb 1-7 and at
our downtown store from Feb
8-15.
River City Yarns will be featuring a Cowl Girls Trunk Show
during the first 2 weeks of February. Come in and see some
Cathy Carron is a knitwear
designer, whose designs have
been published in many knitting magazines, including
Vogue Knitting, Knit.1, Knit
Simple, Interweave Knits and
knitscene. She is the author of
Hip Knit Hats, Knitting Sweaters
From the Top Down & Hattitude.
February 2011
Page 2
Brittany Birch DPNs
We have recently restocked our
supply of birch wood double
pointed knitting needles (dpns)
from Brittany. Use these
smooth dpns in any project
that requires you to knit in the
round: they’re perfect for mittens!
Why birch? While wood is
warm, smooth and soft, birch
has great tensile strength and
stability, maintaining size, resisting warping and allowing
for smoothness of finish.
Wood is our greatest renewable
natural
resource. It is environmentally friendly; it's
recyclable, biodegradable and durable;
when it is no longer needed it can be returned to the earth. All wood used by Brittany comes from strictly regulated forests
or small woodland owners in the United States.
Elsebeth Lavold: Twice Tweed
Elsebeth Lavold Twice
Tweed is created from 100%
recycled materials that are
processed in such a way that
reduces environmental impact.
It’s perfect for projects for
both men and women. Imagine
a beautifully patterned garment
in this blend of wool, polyamide and cotton. It’s made in
Holland.
Twice Tweed contains 42%
wool, 32% nylon and 26%
cotton (all recycled fibers).
This chunky yarn has 75 meters to a 50g ball and knits up
at a gauge of 16 sts on a 5.5
needle. At only $7.99/ball you
should think about this yarn
for your next sweater and feel
good about recycled fibers.
Mad about Malabrigo
Give yourself a very special
Valentine’s Day treat! We’ve
brought in two fabulous yarns
from Malabrigo just for you.
Pick up one of these lovely
skeins and you’ll find yourself
saying, “please be mine”.
Rasta is a super bulky, 100%
merino wool, with 90 yards per
150 gram skein. Slightly felted.
Use one skein to make a super
cozy neckwarmer or hat; use
two skeins for a big scarf with
lots of wrap-around.
Rios is a superwash merino
wool with 210 yards in each
hand painted 100g skein. Rios
is bouncy and soft, stretchy
and colourful; use it for mittens, hats, or just put it in a
bowl and squeeze it every now
and then!
With hand painted yarns, be
sure to get enough yarn to
complete your project since
each dye lot is different. To
ensure random color distribution, work from two balls of
yarn at once, alternating a few
rows from each ball.
A Mirasol Miracle: Ushya
Ushya is a new yarn from the
fair trade Mirasol Yarn company.
Made from 100% merino wool,
this super-bulky yarn gets 8 sts to
the inch on 10mm needles.
Each 100g skein has an amazing
104m (that means it’s very light
weight).
Ushya is a knitted tube, which
gives it bulk without weight (see
close up on right).
Malabrigo Rasta
Malabrigo Rio
And we have great patterning in
Jane Ellison’s “Ushya Book 19”.
Jane’s book includes home décor,
accessories,
sweater jackets and cozy
garments.
February 2011
Page 3
February Workshops and Events
You can knit a sweater. From
scratch. Yes you can! Denise
will show you how to knit a
Gorgeous Gansey starting
Saturday, February 5th. You’ll
learn all the traditions and
work-arounds in this four-part
class.
Beginner knitter? Need a refresher? Try our popular Knitting 101 class. Running every
Saturday at both stores, this
class begins anew every month.
No prerequisites, materials
provided. Just do it!
Join us for some social knitting
at our Knitting Circle (first
Sunday of each month) on
February 6 from 1:00—3:00
PM. This event is free; an
RSVP is appreciated.
Thrummed Mittens have
remained such a popular class
that we have two of them
scheduled. You can start on
Sunday, February 13 and be
finished in three sessions. By
the way, “Snug” (the
thrummed mittens pictured
right) is our March Mitten o’
the Month.
hands will never be cold again!
If you’ve been wanting to learn
how to crochet, now is your
chance! If you already know
how to crochet, put a new take
on it. We’re offering a twopart, Tunisian Crochet workshop starting February 17th.
Absolute beginners welcome.
If you’re new to mittens and
want to “get the hang of it”,
take our Marvelous Mittens
class, starting February 17th.
You’ll
learn
how to
make a
basic
mitten
and
Mmm-arvelous Mittens! your
No prerequisites! Try
our Twisted Cord
Bracelet workshop on
February 19 and ply
fancy yarns to create a
stunning bangle for
your wrist. With the
techniques learned in
class, you’ll be “plying”
your way through a
necklace, purse handles, and cords. No
knitting required.
Our Thrummed
Mittens class
takes you from
kit (above) to
finished product
(right).
Twisted Cord
Bracelet
River City Yarns will be
closing early (at 5:00 PM)
on Tuesday, February 1
for a staff meeting.
February Mitten o’ the Month
This month we’ll be tackling
“Chevalier” the furry cuffed mitten
from Robin Melanson’s book, Knitting New Mittens and Gloves. We have
kits available at both stores and if
you need help knitting mittens,
check out our “Marvelous Mitten”
workshop happening at our downtown store on two Thursday eve-
nings.
Bring in your completed pair for
the monthly show and tell on Friday, February 25th and if you’ve
used one of our kits, don’t forget to
drop off your completed mittens by
Monday, February 28th to be included in the kit draw.
“… they make me think
of fur-trimmed hats and
the trappings of cavalry.
These mittens are also a
good example of how a
knitted item can be
embellished with
findings originally
intended for sewn
items.” - Robin Melanson
Kaffe Fassett Film Review
Come out and see the presentation, “Simple Shapes, Spectacular Colour” given by Kaffe
Fassett at the Royal Alberta
Museum this past fall.
We’ll have a copy of our DVD
running for you to see on
Monday, February 21 at our
downtown store. The DVD
show will begin at 12:00 (noon)
and again at 2:00 PM. Due to
space restrictions, we need you
to RSVP (call 780-477-9276) so
that we have enough chairs.
Thank you!
We’d love to have you bring in
your Kaffe-inspired designs on
Family Day as well. We’re
hosting a “show and tell” at
both of our RCY locations and
we’ll have some yarn-tasting
opportunities for you as well.
Take a day off and come out!
River City Yarns (both
locations) will be open on
Family Day from 12:00 - 4:00
PM.
River City Yarns… your place to unwind!
for Art Yarns’
sparkle and
Big Apple
glitter to hit
RCY shelves
this spring!
Barb and Cynthia attended
Vogue Knitting’s first ever
knitting conference in New
York City last month. Vogue
Knitting Live! was a great success combining 55 teachers of
brand name fame and 3000
participants.
In addition to taking classes
with Nancy Bush, Nicki Epstein, Iris Scheier, and Beth
Brown-Reinsel, Barb and Cyn-
We also met
up with event
sponsor, Taiu
Barb & Iris (Art Yarns) take a look at outgoing orders
from Koigu
Yarns. We’ve
placed an order for Koigu
from this Canadian supplier.
Barb & Cynthia & Lady Liberty
thia also went to see Art Yarns.
And, we’re bringing a little
NYC to Edmonton—watch
And, of course, we squeezed in
a little time for sightseeing!
Look for new workshops this
spring as we bring our professional development home to
the city of Champions.
Mosiac Memorial for John Lennon
Gallery Update
Tracie’s Sock Monkey
Suzanne’s Amalia Shawl
Zoe’s Sweater & Skirt by
Eileen
Tracie M. knit the “Sally The
Secretary” pattern from the
Patons sock monkey book
(with a few modifications).
Sally was a gift for her sock
monkey collecting niece, and
Tracie tells us, “she LOVED it!
Thanks so much for all of
your encouragement, and guidance, ladies.”
Suzanne R. sent us a picture
of her finished shawl of which
she said, “I LOVE IT!!!! Wearing it everywhere! This yarn
looks gorgeous and feels even
better. Gotta love a no purl
pattern.” The Amalia Shawl
pattern is by Katherine Matthews and the yarn is Mirasol
Nuna.
Cacias Dress by Eileen
Eileen S., a new knitter, sent
us pictures of these adorable
outfits she knit for Christmas
presents. We were very impressed with the fancy little
outfits and the patient detailing
(see all the trim?) Just goes to
show, doesn’t it, that you don’t
have to be an expert to tackle a
garment? True, it’s good to
start with a small size.
Jeanne W. took our Cowichan
sweater workshop and made a
beautiful (self-designed)
sweater that’s been a hit with
her family. Using a softly spun
singles yarn and lots of graph
paper, Jeanne used traditional
methods with updated images.
We’re very proud of you,
Jeanne’s Cowichan Sweater
Jeanne!
And we
teased Sue
T. recently
Sue’s Striped Socks
because we
hadn’t seen any knitting projects since
Christmas, so she sent us some lovely
pictures to show us she hasn’t been
idle! Sue knit up Christmas hats for
her two beautiful daughters and a
lovely Neckerchief (pattern available
on our website) out of Shirley’s Alpaca
and a lovely pair of striped socks, supplemented with a solid heel.
For more pictures and details on these
featured projects, visit our Gallery
page at www.rivercityyarns.com.
Sue’s Christmas Hats
Sue’s Neckerchief