Update

Well!! It has been a while since I posted here!!

First off, I want to apologize for that. Many of the staff here are part time; we don't all work every day. Also, it has been very busy at the store. And of course, the customer always comes first. So we don't always have time to post to the blog.

But we do want to keep you up to date on happenings at the store, yarns that arrive daily, and even some other tips and suggestions.

For example: Right now we have our January Sale happening. We open the sale first for personal shopping only, as a way to say "thank you" to our loyal local customers. Then we open up our web store at http://www.ramwools.com/ to the world. Thirty percent off ALL items in the store. Books, notions, yarns, clearance yarns -- EVERYTHING!!

This is always a good time to stock up for your winter knitting; pick up those extra knitting needles; try a new design, book, or pattern; pick up those tools that you have been meaning to get.

Our web store sale is on for two days only - starting January 9 at 10:00 am central time, and ending January 10th at Midnight!!

Now for the update on the Arequipa socks. I did finish knitting the first sock, and made the mistake of telling my husband I was making them for him. Now he is anxiously awaiting the second sock! I will be proofreading my notes - making sure I didn't forget to write down anything about how I made the first sock, then I'll need to find time to type up the pattern so that I can share it with all of you. Yes, you read that right. I will be offering the sock pattern I have designed, using the Arequipa yarn (wonderful soft sock yarn, super wash wool with alpaca fibre content for extra warmth, as well as nylon for strength) as a free pattern.

While I was knitting the sock, I couldn't help but think how wonderful the colours (brown/green) would look in the Fibre Trends ( http://www.ramwools.com/index.cfm?mysearch=fiber+trends&pageID=28 ) shawl called "Pacific Northwest". That got me to thinking about the other colours that you can get with the Arequipa, http://www.ramwools.com/index.cfm?pageID=3&section=25&prodID=4488 and how they would look done up in a lace pattern. I know that it is often suggested to avoid wildly variegated yarns when doing lace, because often the lace pattern will be lost in the colour changes. Too much going on at once. But more subtle colour changes in the yarn can sometime enhance a design. I've seen many a lace shawl picture shared on the Internet by other knitters that were done in hand painted yarns, or with subtle colour variations. And it seems that I'm not the only one thinking along these lines. We had a customer in the other day who was planning to use the Arequipa to make a shawl! I've used other sock yarns in the past for shawl and lace knitting with success. And there are a lot of lace sock patterns, too. The alpaca content in the Arequipa would probably make a nice scarf, too. And with 400 meters in a skein, the resulting scarf should be long enough to wrap around a cold nose! In fact, once I finish the socks, I'm planning to start on a scarf. I'm just trying to decide between the free Traveling Vine Scarf pattern: http://www.ramwools.com/index.cfm?pageID=33 or having a look through a lace "stitchionary" to create a new design. What I have done, though, is to pick out a lovely autumn colourway of Arequipa (rust/olive) and I'm thinking about a leafy pattern. Traveling Vine would fit the bill, of course. I will be sure to keep you informed.