A day late, true, but with extras!

Like, oh, KAUNI!

It just came in this afternoon. We're excited, you can tell. See? If I had managed to blog yesterday, you blog-readers out there wouldn't have known we had Kauni back in stock until next Tuesday.

In further stock updates, we tweeted yesterday that Tosh Sock is back in stock (look at all those pretty colors together!). If you've been coveting one (or more) of the colors that literally ran out of the store earlier this summer, I'd grab some soon if I was you. Personally, I am contemplating enhancing my stash with a skein in "Wash".

And, while we're on the subject of Madelinetosh, I'm going to try and make this next photo less of a non sequitor:

In lieu of actual customer and staff project photos (c'mon, peeps!), I finally pulled out my OTN mitt (and matching hat) that I'm making with Madelinetosh Merino in "Corsage". No making fun of the desk clutter will be permitted. But you can feel free to 'ooh' and 'ahh' over the pretty watercolor effect the yarn has - my coworkers definitely have. It's just scrumptious to handle, to boot. Definitely ideal for cool Fall and Winter weather (a scarf would be nice...), which probably means that even more Madelinetosh is going to end up in my stash.

Dangerous stuff, this.

Anyway. Have you seen that our Calendar of Events has been updated? We have all sorts of amazing and wonderful classes planned this Fall. From felting miniature Jack o'Lanterns to Kitchen-Safe Dyeing, we've got you covered (generally with wool). Check it out and register for a class or two, you'll be glad you did!

Moreover (while we discuss website updates), a Newsletter & eCard archive has been added to the website. It's small right now (limited to the last two months), but we're working on archiving the last year's worth of Newsletters and eCards there.

And, finally (is it really 5:30pm?), an eCard went out this afternoon with information about a two-week special offer and preordering Cat Bordhi's next book. See your inbox (or click here) for more details.

Until next Tuesday, have a great weekend!

You know how the saying goes...

"So much to do, so little time."? That seems to be our new mantra 'round here as we transition from the old website to the new, from summer to fall (big transition in the knitting business) and just generally try and keep from being buried in wool. Not that we're complaining... especially about that last bit.

Now, let's see, we've had a slue of recent happenings. The most noticeable will have been Lindsay's first blog post last week. Lindsay is our web fulfillment person and will be blogging (hopefully) once a week about customer and staff projects. If you're a web customer and want to share your current wip or recent fo, be sure to shoot Lindsay an email [info(at)knit-purl(dot)com] and she'll be glad to blog about it.

Next, we have some photographic leftovers (that I just found in the back of our fridge camera's media card), which I thought our blog readers might find amusing...

First, during Sock Summit, we had many sock-themed goodies at our various events. Including sock-shaped cookies...

and sock-shaped doughnuts, made for us specially by Voodoo Doughnuts:

Something you cannot but love, right? Socks and doughnuts... together in a non-sticky-wool way!

There was also a pic from last week's "No Mean Feet!" - which I can't recall why it was relevant now, but thought might still be interesting to our readers out in BlogLand:

During which I took a photo of Hannah's literally just-finished BeGyle Socks:

Cute, huh? That link up there, btw, goes to Hannah's ravelry journal if you want more information on the socks. You have to give her props, since she knit them (argyle socks!) in 18 days! That's just over two weeks. It kind of makes me dizzy, actually...

Moving on, we have this lovely (if slightly blurry and anonymous) photo of a knitter and her recently-finished Vintage Baby Cardigan:

I'm afraid I have no more information than that. Maybe the knitter (or the knitter's friends) read this blog and might help a poor, befuddled knit-blogger out?

Now, onto the more recent goings-on. First, very exciting, we have our Twitterific Sock Contest! Don't know about this? Check out our most recent Newsletter or the Twitterific Sock Contest page.

Oooh, it's gonna be exciting (we hope). We're going to give away one membership in our Sock Club to the lucky winner. In the spirit of inspiration and leading the way and Good Old-Fashioned Silliness*, we posted the first image:

Lindsay and I had fun with entertaining the masses at Pioneer Courthouse Square. If you're thinking about participating, do! The prizes are amazing (one year's membership in the Sock Club or a KnitPod or ShibuiKnits Sock yarn) and it's not hard to enter. Seriously. If the Sandies can tweet, anyone can.

And finally, we have from last night's The Yarnover's (Lace Knitters Night), an extremely blurry photo in which at least two of the victims subjects are visibly trying to escape**:

But, it's worth mentioning (aside from the ha!-we-caught-you factor), as three of the knitters last night were working on their Girasole Shawls from our recent KAL. It was a nice big group, too, with ten knitters on the first night! Maybe lace knitting is bigger than we think, but just really really quiet.

It could happen.

Anyway. Until next time, you might want to check out our lovely Twitterific Sock Contest page, our recently updated Calendar of Events page and, quite possibly, stalk #twitterificsock on twitter. It's gonna be great!

* We're good at that, we know.
**Nice try, Marj & Leslie.

Hello blog fans!

This post is coming to you from Lindsay, the resident web girl. We are all so excited about the new website, but the beauty does not come without hard work; which has unfortunately cut into valuable blogging time lately. So, from now on I'll be contributing to hopefully bring all of you a more-often updated blog.

So first we have a round up of some staff and customer WIP's:

This is my Soft Kid Bubble from Boutique Knits by Laura Irwin. I'm using the Isager Alpaca 2 in color 18 and I am absolutely loving working with this yarn. I'm 7 inches in and already planning my next project with it.


Next we have a blanket Brook is making with her own pattern out of Handmaiden's Big Blue in color Moss which is turning out lovely.


Now onto Sandy Kay's Sea Tangles inspired scarf done in a brand new color (coming soon to Knit Purl! ) of Habu Silk Stainless Steel pictured with one of the brand new SplitYarn bags we are carrying. I don't think these bags have quite made it onto the website yet but they are available in the store for purchase.

and a detail shot:

Now onto a finished project from Roz. This is her first crochet project, a cat from the book Kyuuto! Amigurumi. This adorable kitty is a gift for her two-year-old granddaughter and it's made with Sublime's Superfine Merino DK and Joseph Galler's Belangor angora.

(Sara M. says "squee!")

Until next time, I hope everyone has a great weekend, and look for a newsletter tomorrow featuring our Twitterific Sock Contest!

Did that just happen?

The last week has been more than a little crazy. If you follow us on twitter, you'll know that we were bombarded at both our booth and in the store during the Sock Summit. Moreover, the website transition could have gone a lot smoother (a fact that we lament this ourselves, quite a bit). But it's done and mostly working, so we're grateful for our small victories.

If you were left wondering where the heck the promised Newsletter was, over the past weekend, well that's a good question. In fact, due to some of the wrinkles in the transition, we couldn't get it out until Wednesday. In the future, however, it looks like sending our Newsletters will be easier than ever (I may have just cursed us, oh... dear). Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Also, while on the topic of Newsletters (and eCards), it seems that the color PDX (in happiest girl! Sock) sold out within a half hour of the latest mailing (check your inbox). But we do have the KnitPods (some) and a few other treats.

Now, moving on to blog-worthiness, we have some really sweet goodies this time. First, Farrah brought in her finished Hidcote Shawl last night and I even managed to corner her into modeling it:

The pattern? Miriam Felton's Hidcote Garden Shawl. Knit with Suri Blue in "Smoke", by FarrahW (on ravelry). Isn't it just gorgeous? And the yarn is magnificent (we have it on order!). Yum, yum. Go on, go to ravelry and fav it. (You know you want to!)

And while I had Farrah cornered, I made her model the Cherry Blossom Shawl she knit for us as a store sample:

The one you can see on Anne Hanson's blog (knitspot). Made with 3 skeins of ShibuiKnits Silk Cloud, this thing is just plain dangerous. The sheer number of people I've seen petting it does not bode well for it's safety! Of course, if you want to participate in the Cherry Blossom KAL, we've been helping people out with their questions and getting started.

While Farrah was been subjected to the Nikon, everyone at JoAnn's birthday party last night was shouting advice to her (how to stand, how to hold her arms, etc); so I returned the favor and took a couple of shots of the group:

Which they didn't much like, but fair's fair. Some of the quicker knitters managed to dash out of the frame before the shutter clicked (which is why you can see abandoned projects in chairs). I'll get them next time, mwahaha.

And, finally, just because, I managed to get a shot of the Birthday Girl:

Who tried (and almost succeeded) to hide behind her sock in progress. The sock, it should be mentioned, is being knit with our fantastically popular limited edition colorway "City of Roses" (which has sold out, sorry!). So pretty.

Let's see... Other news? We-ell, Franklin Habit of the Panopticon has agreed to visit the store and teach/ lecture in late September. Mark it in your calendars! We'll post registration information on the website/ blog/ calendar sometime in the next fortnight or so.

Also, the Fall 2008 issues of Marianne Isager and Amimono are back in stock. Grab 'em while you can!

And, last but not least, the Habu Trunkshow is up and will continue to be on display through the end of August. Drop by (or give us a call) to find out what unusual yarns and fibers we have in stock!

Can't blog.

Drowning it html.

Look in your inbox tomorrow for an awesome Newsletter using our brand-new, super-shiny template.

P.S. provided the html doesn't drive us all mad in the meantime.

P.P.S. I promise we'll do better than this next Thursday - lately the Newsletters have been more complicated than usual.

A promise kept.

I'm so proud of us - managing to blog on a day like today (in the midst of Sock Summit preparations, launching a new website and general day-to-day chaos) as promised. First, we have a lovely FO, knit by Leslie:

The "Amber" Vest from Amimono. Made with two strands of Isager Wool 1 and two strands of Alpaca 2 held together:

And knit on size 11 needles. It looks amazing when modeled (hint, hint, my coworkers!) in a very rustic Bohemian sort of way. Helga Isager has the most funky and earthy styling. Maybe someday, if we're lucky, we'll catch Leslie wearing it and I'll snap off a "live" shot.

Next, we have some silliness beauty to share. Katie (also known as nonsie) brought in the Summer Shawl she's working on:

And decided to pretend to be a mermaid. 'Kay. I missed this one, so I have no explanation. Moving on...

We've had several customers call about our ad in this issue of Interweave Knits (now available, btw), wanting to know what the yarn is - and what color. The yarn is ShibuiKnits Sock in their new-ish color Zinnia. Which is, err, out of stock - so... sorry!

Next on the list of updates, we received a HUJE shipment from Fleece Artist:

That included a new yarn (Silk Bamboo), several new colors of Great Big Sea and Sea Silk, as well as favorites that were backordered until, well, yesterday! So, if you're in need of some lovely Canadian hand-dyed goodies, we've got 'em. And be sure to check your inbox for a Newsletter on Friday that will have a special offer and information on the new yarn line and colors.

And last, but not least, you're invited to our upcoming Portland Designers Showcase:

See the original (full-sized) version here.

This Friday night, one of our Sock Summit Special Events, we'll be hosting a collection of designers not to be found elsewhere; including, but not limited to:

• Leigh Radford
• Kristin Spurkland
• Chrissy Gardiner
• Marnie MacLean
• Star Athena
• Judy Becker
• Lee Meredith
• Larissa Brown
• Sarah Pope
  
• and more!
  

The event in free. Take this rare opportunity to socialize with many of the designers who have appeared in Interweave Knits, Vogue Knitting, Twist Collective and Knitty over the years. We'll hope to see you here!

The blog has moved!

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busy, busy, busy

The crew of Leverage have descended on The Governor Hotel (which is located kitty-corner from us), so all parking has been blockaded in a 1-block radius around the hotel. It's kind of interesting to watch, even if we don't have any parking spaces today!

P.S. You probably noticed, but the new website is UP! We'll have a 'real' blog post later this afternoon, honest. Just have to color-correct the photos...