June: it’s a sock thing
Socks for every member of the family
This month we’re all about
socks. Why? Socks are a perfect summer knit: small and
portable, you can take your
socks on the plane and work
on them between marshmallows at the campfire!
We’ve got sock ideas for every
member of your family—from
babes to dads (Father’s Day is
June 17).
And we have a pair of RCY
project kits to tell you about:
for the wee ones, try our Baby
Socks. Our RCY pattern gives
you instructions for baby socks
in three sizes: newborn, 6
months and one year. We’re
packaging up our kits with
tried and true baby sock favourites.
Or, go big! If you’re new to
the joy of making socks, we
Sock Books
We love our sock books! This month, we’ve
brought in four new titles to inspire you:
Sock Knitter’s Handbook: Love knitting socks
but sometimes hit a snag? Carry this handy answer book in your knitting bag! Well-known
experts Charlene Schurch
and Beth Parrott demystify
all aspects of sock knitting.
You’ll find clear instructions for both toe-up and
cuff-down sock knitting,
multiple techniques for
casting on and off, working heels and toes and
making size adjustments.
Use the built-in stitch dictionary to create your own
unique socks.
recommend that you try our
Fuzzy Foot Socks (felted slippers) as an intro project. Just
like socks, only knit on BIG
needles with fat yarn, these
giant socks are made foot
sized by felting (shrinking)
them in your washing machine.
Baby Socks in three sizes
See page 2 for details on both
of these exclusive River City
Yarns project kits.
Fuzzy Foot Socks: Cozy!
Knitting Circles Around Socks: Why knit one sock and then start
all over again to make a match? Instead, knit two socks at the
same time on two circular needles! Author Antje Gillingham gets
you off to a great start with one basic sock pattern. You can hone
your skills with seven more designs. Discover how easy it is to
convert any sock pattern for double-pointed needles to this ingenious method.
Knitting More Circles Around Socks: Continue the two-at-a-time
adventure with Gillingham’s new collection of fun sock patterns! Now learn to knit two at a time on two circular needles,
from the toe up! This book features 12 all-new sock patterns in
a range of skill levels (both toe-up and cuff-down designs).
Provides patterns in men's, women's, and children's sizes.
Crocheted Socks! by Janet Rehfeldt and Mary Jane Wood: If
you thought handmade socks were just for knitters, think again!
This wonderful collection of sixteen crocheted socks range in
style from fun to fashionable and are given in a variety of sizes
for both women and men. Try ribbed, cabled, or lacy designs,
or give your socks a blast of color and learn how to crochet
socks that mimic the luxurious look and feel of knitted socks.
These titles are available at both RCY locations.
June 2012
Page 2
Pick up a pair… of RCY project kits!
Each month, we feature an RCY kit that you
can purchase online through our website.
This month, because socks come in pairs,
so too do our project kit
offerings.
“house slipper”. But we were totally captivated by the colour combination you see
pictured here. We call them our Canadiana version. Our online kit
will feature the Canadiana
colourway for the month of
June.
First up, Fuzzy Foot
Socks (aka Felted Slippers). Made just like
And who can resist little
socks, only on bigger
feet? We have a neat little
needles with 100% wool,
Baby Sock pattern that
these slippers knit up fast
gives you three different
and are custom sized by
cuff styles for three baby
shrinking them in the
foot sizes: newborn, 6
months and one year.
washing machine.
These miniature socks are
We’ve made several
Fuzzy Foot Socks: the
pairs, combining wool
just
like their adult counter“Canadiana” version
with mohair for an even
parts in technique and confuzzier look, wool with
struction but require much
less stitches (and time)! You’ll have a pair
novelty yarn for a fun, playful take on the
knit up in
no time at
all and be
the hit at
your next
baby
shower.
We’ve
Oh-so-cute baby socks!
paired up
our pattern with our current favourites for
baby sock yarns: Koigu Painter’s Palette
Premium Merino (100% merino wool) and
SMC Egypto Cotton (100% cotton). A DK
weight yarn will work too; we used Debbie
Bliss Baby Cashmerino (55% merino
wool, 33% microfiber, 12% cashmere);
you'll just get a slightly bigger sock.
Want to order a kit? Just click here:
www.rivercityyarns.com/kits
Brand new from Regia: pairs of pairs
Regia Twin Color Sock yarn comes in
matching "his and her" colourways - one
with narrow stripes and one with wide
stripes. Made in Italy, each 100g/400m ball
of sock yarn will make one adult pair of
socks. Machine washable, this 75% superwash wool, 25% nylon combination is very
durable. Suggested gauge is 30 sts/10cm
on 2.0—3.0mm needles.
Regia Nautica Sock yarn has a semi-solid,
tweedy effect in its colour line. With the
same wool-nylon
composition, you’ll
get durability and
machine wash ease
but with a heavier
gauge. These 6-ply,
150g/375m balls
give you 22sts/10cm
on a 3.0—4.0mm
needle. This yarn is
perfect for Sock Boot Camp (see page 3).
Regia Twin
“His & Hers”
Sock Yarn
Just a little different...
Lang Jawoll Color Aktion. These fun, bright
100g/420m balls include 10g of reinforcement yarn in
same colourway. Beautiful wide stripes in compelling
colours, this yarn knits up on
2.0-3.0mm needles.
Lang Jawoll Aktion
Mille Colori "Socks and
Lace" can be used for any
fine-weight project. The softly
changing colourways are always in big demand. Each
100g ball has 400m of 75%
superwash wool, 25% nylon,
Mille Colori “Socks and Lace”
Above: Noro Taiyo Sock Yarn;
Below: Noro Sekku Lace Yarn
working up to 28 sts on 2.5-3.5mm needles.
Taiyo and Sekku by Noro. Both of these fingering
weight blends of 50% cotton, 17% wool, 17% nylon,
16% silk are incredibly soft and can be used for
socks, shawls, gloves—you name it. Choose a color
palette and go!
June 2012
Page 3
June Workshops & Events
Drop-in Knitting Circle: you’ll find us sittin’, knittin’ and chattin’ at RCY South on Sunday, June 3 from 1:00—3:00 pm.
Please call ahead at 780-450-9276 to RSVP (we’ll set out
chairs!). This is a free, social event.
Knitting 101: we have four, fabulous sessions of Knitting 101 in
the month of June! Our most popular workshop runs once a
week for four weeks and you can start on Sat, June 2
(downtown) or Sat, June 9 (southside) or take our evening class
starting Thu, June 7. Sign up now… these sessions fill up fast.
Registration: $95.
2-Hour Project Tutorials: are available for booking at our
Southside location starting Fri, June 8. If you prefer to stay
north of the river, check out the Monday One-on-One Tutorials with Jane-Anne. We’ll help you with your project questions
and teach you the techniques you need to be a self-starter and
finisher! Registration: $15 - $25.
Baby Hat: want to learn how to knit in the round? Take our
short & sweet baby hat class and we’ll have you working comfortably on dpns in no time. Registration: $35.
Attention! Sock Boot Camps: another
very popular class, so sign up asap!
We’ll teach you how to master the ins
and outs of cuffs, legs, heels, feet and
toes in this two part workshop. Registration: $45.
We’re holding three Blockbuster
workshops at our southside store this
month. Blockbusters are short, onetechnique, workshops. You learn a lot,
practice on one block to hone your
skills and move on to tackle bigger
Jayne’s sock-in-progress, a
projects on your own. This month
gift for her dad, made from
we’ve got Domino (modular knitting)
Regia Highlander
and Fair Isle 1 (knitting with both
hands) and Fair Isle 2 (both hands, stranded colourwork). Registration: $0 - $25.
For all the details, visit our website at www.rivercityyarns.com and
click on the workshops button.
New Free RCY Patterns
Check out our new free patterns at www.rivercityyarns.com.
You’ll find two for the month of June: make a pair of thicker
“boot” socks with our Boot Camp Army Ankle Socks pattern.
This pattern gives you several sizes to try out and uses bigger
double pointed needles (3.75—4.5mm). If you like the sock pictured right, try Adriafil Knit Col—it comes in several different selfstriping colours.
Make a pair of thicker socks
using our free Boot Camp
Army Ankle Socks pattern
Or try a pair of sporty socks in a
cotton yarn with our free Sport
Socks pattern
Or try your hand at using a cotton yarn with a built in elastic for
summer weight sport socks. Our Sporty Summer Socks are one size only (ladies) and use smaller, 3.0mm needles. The foot pictured
above belongs to Robbi and she’s sporting socks made with Needful Yarns Dubai. Cynthia’s working on a pair in Katia Cotton Comfort.
You’ll find the free patterns for both of these fun socks on our website at www.rivercityyarns.com. Just click on the patterns button.
Special Days: Celebrate Dad and WWKIP
There are a couple of important events
coming up in June. The first is WWKIP
(World Wide Knit In Public) days from
June 9—17. To get in the spirit of WWKIP
(and enjoy our local public places) we’d
like to get photos of you knitting in public
up on our Facebook page at
www.facebook.com/RiverCityYarns.
We think it would be so cool to see you,
your knitting and your favorite public
places! And who knows? Maybe the curi-
ous bystanders
who come to see
what you’re doing? You can post
your pictures up
on our facebook
page or send
them in to us and
we’ll do it for
you. Barb and Cynthia will be travelling
during this time and they’ve promised to
post pics up as
well.
Sunday, June
17th is Father’s Day
and we don’t
want you to
forget the man
in your life! Start now and give him the gift
of handmade love. We think he’d like a
pair of slippers or socks, don’t you?
Want to learn how to knit socks on 2 circular needles? Cynthia thinks it’s the only
way to knit socks! If it’s something you’re curious about and you’d like to watch an
entertaining and educational video, we recommend watching Cat Bordhi’s Youtube
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RybPvCNfrT8
Learn the tricks of casting on to 2 circular needles, joining, and
knitting around. You'll learn about the "udder needle," napping
and resting, that it doesn't matter whether the inside or outside
of the knitting shows, how to find your way if you put your knitting down, and more. Cat is the author of three sock books: New
Pathways for Sock Knitters, Personal Footprints for Insouciant Sock Knitters, and her
original book which started the entire 2circular needle knitting craze, Socks Soar
on Two Circular Needles. For more of Cat’s
videos (there are several and you should
have a look), visit her website at:
http://catbordhi.com/videos
We have two locations!
River City Yarns Downtown
#107, 10106-111 Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5G 0B4
Phone: (780) 477-9276
Email: [email protected]
River City Yarns Southside
3438-99 Street
Edmonton, AB T6E 5X5
Phone: (780) 450-9276
Email: [email protected]
rivercityyarns.com
Check out another great (and free) online pattern, courtesy of local
Edmonton designer, Liz Pankratz. Liz designed these Simple Summer Socks to use only one skein of Koigu (50g). You’ll find a copy of
the pattern on Ravelry:
www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/simple-summer-socks
RCY Gallery Updates
You may recognize Sue T.
(pictured above)
from our southside store. Sue
recently completed this beautiful black &
white poncho
using Baby Alpaca Sport (a
chunky, 100%
Sue’s Poncho is made
from Baby Alpaca Sport alpaca yarn) and
a pattern from
Cabin Fever called the 50 x 50 Poncho. The
pattern is available online at
www.patternfish.com/patterns/90 and we
have more yarn for your particular design.
Cathy J. found a unique and intriguing way
to use up little bits of leftover sock yarn.
She knit it into a shawl utilizing short rows.
It’s being called the Quinterra Shawl. We
believe this is a pattern of Cathy’s design.
Cathy is away on vacation right now—
when she gets back we’ll share the pattern
story. We couldn’t resist the opportunity to
show you her beautiful work, even without
full details.
Cathy’s Quinterra
Shawl uses leftover
sock yarn
Friend and
kntter, Ruth S.
recently finished
a stunning
beaded shawl in
a lace weight
yarn. When she
came in to the
downtown store
to show us, we
asked part-time
employee, Liz, to
model it. It’s hard to
see the beads in the
close up photo, but Ruth
painstakingly added
small sparkly beads to
the shawl. She may not
make another one for quite some
time… but we think she did a wonderful job!
Our friend Donna L. has been busy
knitting for her grandchildren. This
latest project showed her ingenuity.
Donna used Cascade Pacific yarn in
seven colours and
a pattern called
the “Buttons”
cardigan to make
this beautiful
sweater for her
grandson. The
pattern required
some
Donna’s striped
“reinventing” as
“Buttons” Cardigan
it needed to fit a
bigger boy (than the largest size on the
pattern) so Donna used a bigger yarn, bigger needles and knit a bit longer in the
shoulders on this neckdown pattern. We think
it’s smashing! Donna
says her grandson
loves to wear his
sweater and we can see
why!
Have you got projects
you’d like to share with
us? Send a photo and a
short note to [email protected] and
Ruth’s lacey beaded
we’ll add your pic to
shawl is modeled by Liz
our gallery.