Is there a long summer stretching out ahead of you? Why not brush up on some knitting or crocheting skills while meeting a few new knitters? There are some fun new classes coming up this summer at UY, for beginners and intermediate, crochet or knit. We even have a kids class on Thursdays with the lovely Amanda, here are the details:

MONDAYS:
BEGINNER CROCHET CLASS
(With Deanna Krushinsky)
Learn the basics of crochet in this mini summer class. Some of you may want to use these techniques to start the ever so popular “Babette Blanket”.

TUESDAYS:
BEGINNER LACE
SAMPLER SCARF
(With Alison H)
Alison, an avid lace knitter, will teach you a number of beginner lace stitches, of progressive difficulty in this class. This is your opportunity to learn how to read charts if you wish, and walk away with a beautiful piece of wearable art, in the form of a Sampler Lace Scarf.

“THE KING KONG” OF SOCK
MONKEY’S CLASS
(Alexa Ludeman)
This super fun class will guide you through the making of the “King Kong” of Sock Monkey’s. In three sessions’ you will construct a larger than life sock monkey.

THURSDAY’S
KID’S CLASS
(With Amanda Kaffka)
This is a great class for kids ages 6 – 14 who have never knit before and want to learn and those who want to learn new skills! Amanda will teach either a simple garter stitch scarf, or more advanced fingerless gloves.

If your goal is to finish up a project or resurrect one that is a little stalled (and we all have a couple of those in the closet!) you can sign up for a Friday QnA or just give us a ring and Kathleen will be happy to schedule a private lesson.

Happy Canada Day!

The Country's Biggest Canadian Flag

Knitters are a pretty amazing community. As part of this community you probably already know this, but it never hurts to throw out a reminder. I’m thinking of two pretty fabulous knitters in particular here: Anina and Jan. You’ve seen them around the shop I’m sure, maybe even at a few of the Friday night soirees we’ve had lately. They are always cheery and happy to help. Starting new projects and ordering up the yarn we love. This past year they’ve been up to  more than that though, they have been working their little buns off to raise money for the Ride to Conquer Cancer, and they have done a really amazing job!

There are some moments in life that are worth noting because they seem small at first, but then they grow. This moment belongs to Anina, and it’s the moment she decided to join the Ride. Anina is the kind of person that goes all in. There is no halfway with Anina and it’s what we love about her. She wasn’t just going to do the ride, she was going to raise a lot of money! Jan embraced this idea whole heartedly and the two of them were off. They gathered their families, friends, aquaintances, anyone they thought might like to hop on a bike or give some money to the cause. They worked their contacts, manned the phones, fundraised in their community, and held a really fun silent auction. All said and done these two devoted women (with a little help from their friends) raised over $90,000. This number to me is amazing. I’m so impressed by their hard work and dedication, these two are ones to follow!

There wasn’t just fun and games though (laugh) there was riding too. The ladies had to get their already in shape selves into even better shape for the ride! They rode all around our fair town getting ready for the big day. It was a 2 day ride through the Pacific Northwest and the 23 members of the Urban Yarns team had a blast. So, let this be a reminder, knitters are amazing and you can really do anything you put your mind to.

–Alexa–

Working in a knitting shop has inspired/forced me to learn the answers to all kinds of random knitting questions and since I’m feeling kind of random this Monday I thought I would answer one I hear a fair bit: What is colour pooling and how can I avoid it?

When you hear those in the knitting know speak of colour pooling you may be picturing a swimming pool full of paint but this is not quite what they are talking about. Colour pooling is something that happens sometimes when you knit with hand painted yarns. Let’s say you have a skein of hand dyed yarn that is purple, blue, and yellow. This yarn might do a number of things depending on the width or circumference of your knitted piece. If the width or circumference of this knitted piece changes, so too might the pooling pattern. Sometimes the yarn appears to stripe a bit. Usually short repeats of colour will have this kind of effect. Pooling is what happens when these stripes of colour start to line up. This can create a patch or pool of one colour. You might have a purple and blue sock with a yellow pool at the back. This is colour pooling.

This piece has no pooling, just flashes of each colour.

I have sometimes heard people saying things like ‘oh, that yarn pools terribly!’ but I say not so! The colour pooling is dependent on the length of colour repeats in the yarn and the width or circumference of your knitted item. If the yarn pools terribly in one project, it does not mean it will pool in a different project. Colour pooling is not a feature inherent in the yarn, it depends. If you have a yarn with 4 inch colour repeats and your sock is 4 inches around, you won’t have pooling, you’ll have more of a stripe. If you are  using a yarn and you don’t like the way the colours are lining up, it might be wise to adjust the size of your project or to pick one with different dimensions.

Sometimes, as in the case of a sweater for example, different parts will have different widths so colours might pool in some areas and blend or stripe in others. For me, this is part of the beauty of knitting. I embrace these shifts in colours and move on. I don’t think this is a particularly common notion though so many of you are probably looking to avoid colour pooling! The best way I know of is to either use 2 balls or wind one ball into two and alternate every other row. You are much less likely to get colour pooling this way because you are mixing up the 2 balls. It can be a real pain but if you hate colour pooling it’s totally worth it. Some people cut their yarn every once in a while and start up at a different point. This seems like a lot of ends and no gaurantees so I don’t particularly recommend it.

The other options is to love colour pooling! Sometimes it works beautifully in a project. So beautifully in fact, it’s nearly impossible to replicate… like the Simple Yet Effective cowl featured above. I don’t think I’ll ever have anything colour so idealy again. That’s just the beauty of knitting though!

–Alexa–