Goodies, goodies, everywhere! I’m so happy (and fortunate!) to be getting out a little more this season to explore some of the great resources available to knitters in my region. We love to knit here in south eastern Ontario and, when you peruse some of our nearby yarn shops, it’s exciting to see how shop owners and buyers have made carefully curated collections of yarn available to us. They’re listening and it shows! Look at the pretty sweater length I got from the discount section at Knit Traders…perfect for a classic, four-season cardigan, I think.
I’ve been checking in at Knit Traders in Kingston quite a lot lately and have had the pleasure of spending some really high-quality “tea” time with owner Anne 🙂 It’s been a true pleasure tucking in to her shop as if it was a big slice of cake, exploring the shelves and discovering, skein by skein, what goodies are there. For example, I had no idea that Knit Traders stocked such a nice selection of Cascade yarns. We’re probably all familiar with the joys of Cascade 220, that wonderful worsted-weight workhorse of a yarn that comes in sooooo many lovely shades. The shop has Cascade in a wide variety of weights, from Heritage Sock to Eco and Eco+ and in many trending colors. This is a yarn that forms the basis of many an enviable stash.
How ’bout my latest obsession, Nordic yarns? I was surprised to find several Nordic offerings, including Sandnesgarn Perfect and, on inspecting the ball band, found it would be “perfect” for boot socks! Yup, it’s a lovely wooly-wool with a bit of nylon for durability. In fact, I’ll be using Sandnesgarn Perfect for my Tandem Toe-Up Sock Class that will take place at Knit Traders on Saturday, June 11. You can register and pay right here on the blog. (See the sidebar). Here’s the work-in-progess sample of what we’ll be working on in class. This pattern, Poppa Socks, is a multi-sized toe up sock pattern and will be included in the price of the class.
And speaking of socks, Knit Traders has sock yarn in so many colors, solids, self-patterning and striping. Cotton! And cotton blends for those who can’t wear wool. You’ll find lines like Trekking and Regia and, if you’re lucky, you’ll score a sock blank like the one I picked up a couple of weeks ago. These are so much fun to knit AND, they’re on sale! Get ’em while you can because I’ve not seen these anywhere else. The cream of the sock crop at Knit Traders has to be Turtle Purl, the magnificent hand-dyed self striping sock yarns from Hillsborough, New Brunswick. What incredible color!
The Yarns of Rhichard Devrieze will appeal to the color-freak in anyone. Once a dyer at legendary Koigu, Richard is the king of stippling, that’s those pretty, delicate dots one sometimes finds on hand painted yarns. The twist is heavenly and Knit Traders has dozens of colors to drool over.
In the brief moments when I was not poring over the yarns, I noticed that Knit Traders also carries fleece for spinning, dyeing and felting as well as felting and knitting kits. There is a well-stocked wall of tools, literally thousands of patterns and lots of sparkly stitch markers. I guess I’d better go back soon to take a closer look!
Happy Knitting!
