Knit Cafe and Sunday Tea

Knit Cafe is the weekly evening get-together for fiber folks at The Vermilion Bay Yarn Company, YOUR local yarn shop. If you haven't been frequenting the Knit Cafe evening in a while, be sure to pencil in the time in your date book under "weekly events". With the warm weather upon us, it's easy to forget things like this that happen with regularity. Re-connect with old friends and meet new ones at Knit Cafe. One of the things that makes our Tuesday evenings here in the shop so enjoyable is the extremely diverse mixture of folks who come, folks from all over Acadiana, folks who do interesting things, folks from all walks of life. VBYC is a place of inclusion, and Knit Cafe exemplifies that. Take advantage of the long shop day on Tuesdays! Start participating each week, or put Knit Cafe back on your schedule! Sunday Tea is our other special opening time: each Sunday from 1pm-5pm VBYC is open for you to come in, sit, visit, work your project, or receive assistance with anything you need. Tea is a perfect "lazy Sunday" afternoon activity to relax. It's so easy to take life's little treasures like these for granted, that these things will "always be there". VBYC is YOUR local yarn shop, and, as I say, YOU make VBYC what it is. Knit Cafe and Sunday Tea are activities designed for YOU, activities YOU enjoy! Come join us! Folks who come to Knit Cafe and/or Sunday Tea aren't yoked with an obligation to bring food or pay a fee. If you'd like to bring a snack to share, do it. If that's not your thing, bring your fabulous smile and friendly outlook and share those. It's always a great pleasure to see you at Vermilion Bay Yarn, YOUR local yarn shop!

Extra Class in the Schedule this Sunday 2pm!

If you missed the "Gauge Monster" class a couple weeks ago, there are a few knitters who are taking the class this Sunday, March 27th at 2pm during Sunday Tea! Gauge Monster is a classic VBYC technique class that will answer all your questions regarding yarn size, needle size, stitches per inch, garment sizing, and those infernal "gauge swatches" we need to make to ensure our garments fit. With more and more of us knitting and crocheting significant garment projects, the topic of gauge is very current -- and necessary for a successful finished garment. Sign up today for Gauge Monster! You don't have to bring anything for this class besides your cheerful attitude and friendly smile. The shop becomes our classroom and the yarn bins are our lab! This is the class to learn all about yarns and how to go about finding just the right yarn for any project! If you were wondering, yes, the picture in this post is of colorful ice cream cones.

Sophia Shrug this Saturday!

What an elegant garment, this "Sophia" shrug. The project class for this fantastic piece is tomorrow morning, Saturday, March 26 at 10:30am! There's still room in the class, so sign up today, get your yarn and join us in the morning! If you've never knitted a garment before (and it's high time you did!) this is a great start. The central panel is garter stitch (knitting every row) and on each end of the row is a simple bit of basic lace. There are tons of lessons to learn from this shrug, and the pattern is such that you won't have a dickens of a time learning them. Your yarn options are many. Make it for spring/summer, make it a bit cozier for winter wear, or select a fiber that will be comfortable year round. You can use worsted weight or DK, depending on the look you'd like, and the versatility you'd like for it in your wardrobe. If your schedule doesn't permit you to be here Saturday morning, don't worry. Sign up anyway and start the shrug on your own later in the week, or sign up today and start it today!

Ave Lux!

You know me, the constant Latinist. It's a little phrase a bear might say when he emerges from his cave after several months of winter sleep: "Howdy, Light!" And that's exactly what I said this morning, having returned from Lowe's with two boxes of flourescent light tubes to replace those burnt out in the shop fixtures. When I had moved in, there were already several tubes out, and recently, more of them bowed their heads and gave up the ghost. So, our options were two: 1) issue miner's lights to everyone so they can more easily see their stitches and pattern charts or 2) figure out how to change the dang bulbs. This morning, I loaded my 6' ladder into my car (yes, it fit), set it up under one of the defunct panels, managed to figure out how to open the thing, copied down every shred of information from one of the tubes, measured it every way, and headed out to the home improvement place, where there was an entire section dedicated to flourescent tube lights -- of all lengths and diameters, some with one prong, some with two, some rods like the ones I needed, some with squiggles and crooks. Who knew there were so many different types of these things -- then I remembered the folks who measure yarn by weight. Just like yarn isn't just yarn, I suppose these bulbs aren't just bulbs. The number letter code means something, I found out. So, judging from the similarities of the writing on my burnt out ones and what was written on the boxes of the new ones, I selected what seemed to be the proper sort. The moment of truth was to compare the old to the new. A match. For the next 30 or so minutes, I scaled the ladder, removed and replaced, careful not to break the things (one of the old tubes was broken in the fixture already). When I was all done, I cleared away the debris and took a look at the new bright and sunny knitting area. Nice. We're brighter now than we ever were! Fabulous! So hurry on in and enjoy the brightness! Howdy, Light!

Spring Fiber Projects Go Mobile

Fiber art isn't so much a stay-at-home activity any more, since most fiber artisans these days are typically on the go. That said, it's necessary to carry your projects with you so you have what you need wherever you are. Enter Namaste with fabulous bags in terrific colors and styles that are as fabulous as you are and the garments you create! Stylish and colorful combined with practical design for you, the modern, fashionable knitter and crocheter!

The Amy Butler Starburst

You may have seen this stunning project in progress, Amy Butler's new design with the retro look. It's the "Starburst" from her River Camp Knits collection. This garment consists of 83 seperately crocheted lace motifs joined into one lace panel. 56 bundles of 20cm fringe finish the edges. I made this garment for a client in Amy Butler Belle Organic Cotton DK. The cotton fabric is not heavy and stiff like some cottons, but rather light-weight and amazingly soft. The River Camp Knits line of spring and summer garments and accents is a superior collection of knitted and crocheted designs in cotton. Stop in and select your next Amy Butler project!

Rowan Cotton Classics

It's high time NOW for spring and summer fiber work! The Vermilion Bay Yarn Company is ready to help you with project ideas to augment your fabulous wardrobe for the season. The Rowan Cotton Classics Collection is a valuable resource for your warm weather projects. You'll find page after page of designs quite wearable (really year round) here in our climate. Every piece is made in cotton: sweater tops, shells, shrugs. Each with the classic, fashionable styling Rowan is known for. It's hard to consider it in March, but if you have several gift projects to prepare, it's really time now to start thinking about Christmas -- and you know this year you'll want to gift a significant fiber garment, not just a scarfnhat. Items included in this collection make exquisite gifts

for the special people in your life -- including YOU! If you're still making a transition between scarfnhat knitting and garment work, items in this collection are perfect for you! Remember: at Vermilion Bay Yarn, you're never on your own! We're always ready to help you with your projects so that your final product is a success! When you're in today, be sure to take a look at this terrific collection, select the ones you know they'll like, and get started! The Vermilion Bay Yarn Company is YOUR local yarn shop!

Rowan shrug class this Saturday!

You've all taken notice of the fantastic shrug in Kidsilk Haze featured in this season's Rowan Magazine. This Saturday morning, we'll start making the shrug together. Take the class and get step by step coaching along the way. Learn to read and follow garment patterns, learn to seam and finish, learn basic lace operations, all in one single project! Enjoy the company of others working on the same the project. It's true that there's always apprehension with starting a "first garment". Here's your chance: make this your first garment, knit it in community with others, get loads of help, advice, and useful tips along the way! In the end, you'll add this terrific piece to your wardrobe and collect many many new knitting tools and experience that will make your next garment project a snap! Sign up today!

Where's the tree?

That tree was notorious. It first appeared at our Christmas party 2.5 years ago (which was also the celebration of the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce yarn cutting ceremony, you'll remember). The thing was all decked out in the festive finery of the season. After 12th night that year, it became a Mardi Gras tree. Then, the general idea was to make it a "holiday tree", a way to decorate the knitting area seasonally. So, in keeping with that notion, the Mardi Gras tree was transformed into an "Easter tree". After Easter, the "patriotic holiday tree" appeared, but thereafter, the blazing zeal for maintaining and transforming it for each particular major holiday or season slowly started to cool. The "arbor horribilis" got some notable attention by several persons who injected some arboreal botox into the sagging artificial eyesore: a fabulous autumn tree last fall, this past groovy and ecclectic Christmas tree, and then the final designer touch for Mardi Gras. It had become a traditional fixture of the knitting area, lauded in its glory, scorned in the post-season -- a rock star evergreen people loved to hate. There was also the issue of the table skirt. It's nice and all, but it was rather like a Bermuda Triangle sort of affair. If you sat near it, it tended to make things disappear: the other knitting needle, your pack of markers, your pattern, your scissors. All seemed to vanish, swallowed up by the billowing table cloth to be hidden somewhere below. Added to that, the persons sitting on the love seat in the corner had to lean forward to chat with people sitting in the circle on the other side of the tree. So, yesterday, we bid adieu to the tree. Gone pecan. The fabulous Mardi Gras decorations that marked its final hurrah have been carefully stored and the tree was removed forever. In its place, we now have a bookshelf with pattern and reference books for everyone to use. You'll notice that the knitting circle seems more open now, and that there's more space -- because there is. This is just the start of the general shop makeover that will take place for the next few weeks. YOUR local yarn shop is growing, thanks to all of YOU!

This project is cool....and very fun!

You may have seen the Amy Butler Collection with this fantastic crocheted poncho on the front. One of my custom clients saw it in an ad long before the garment was available for distribution. As soon as we could get it, we got it, and I got to work on it. I'm using the prescribed Amy Butler Belle Organic Cotton DK (of course!) and a Chiaogoo G hook. It's been a while since I've made a large scale crocheted garment. Lately, when it's come to crochet, it's usually for repairs or smaller items, so this is a fun challenge. Some 48 larger motifs and some smaller motifs will complete the garment. Motifs usually strike fear into anyone: the terror of having to create a zillion drink coasters that get neatly stacked on a coffee table, hang out there for about 6 months, then get shoved into a bag in the closet to be rediscovered a few decades later: "Oh, that's that afghan I started back when you were a kid." This poncho isn't like that at all. It's fun to work, and you join the motifs as you go. It's like crocheting lace, but on DK yarn with a G hook. Pretty groovy. I'm almost done with all the large motifs, then I'll start to insert the smaller motifs into the open gaps. When you stop in, take a look at the Amy Butler Starburst poncho in progress. You may need to make it when you see it.

Alert: Pointy Objects Area!

If you have some of this stuff growing in your garden, you know that it's a renewable resource. It takes little time for bamboo to take over. In fact, it tends to renew even before you've taken some out. And If you've engaged in the taking out part, you know the stuff is tough as nails. That's more than likely why it makes such good tools for knitters and crocheters. It's strong, and keeps a long-lasting, sharp point. Chiaogoo bamboo needles are top notch: double points, single point straights, circulars, crochet hooks. Great stuff. The deciding point on circular knitting needles is how the cable behaves. Remember those nasty aluminum circs everyone used to use? Nightmarish, ghoulish, unruly cables that twisted the needle tips around in the knitting. Chiaogoo cables do what you need them to do without fuss. They're supple and have a good disposition. Overall, a good knitting needle must a good point. A blunt, stubby point translates into yarn splits, sloppy stitches, and lots of cussing. The Chiaogoo tip? Sharp. Perfect for high quality, precise knitting. In fact, Chiaogoo needles are highly sought after by local lace knitters for their detail work that demands a fine, sharp, high quality point. Crochet hooks? Fabulous. The shape of the hook is such that guarantees accuracy and avoids those terrible yarn splits. Besides being a precision tool, the Chiaogoo crochet hook is light weight and comfortable to hold, reglardless whether you're a "penciler" or a "forker". Vermilion Bay Yarn has what you need in precision bamboo knitting and crochet tools. Chiagoo!

Knitting in the warmer months

There's a common misconception that practicing the fiber arts is an activity reserved for fall and winter. "I can't work with hot yarns in the summer," I've heard it said. Way back when decent yarn was availble only in certain regions, and most of us were doomed to using scratchy and uncomfortable box store acrylics, such a statement might have been true. But really, it's not true any more. Nowadays, we have options that allow us to engage in our craft and art year round. As the seasons change, so do our fibers. As the temperatures rise, we tend less to grab the wooly tweeds, the llama, or the alpaca, and opt for cotton, linen, silk, and the various blends available that make handmade fiber garments wearable when high summer holds the earth. These spring and summer fibers are cool to work and cool to wear. That ancient excuse of not knitting in the summer doesn't hold up any more. And that's a good thing, because knitters and crocheters are passionate about what they do, and the availability of good fibers for hot weather creativity help keep that passion alive. If you've never worked in linen, try it. Branch out and make a garment in a fiber that you've never worked. It's amazing, really, the experimentation you can engage in! Stop by VBYC and start a cool summertime top in one of the perfect fibers of the season.

Mardi Gras Schedule

The weekend schedule remains the same: Open today, Saturday March 5 10am-4pm, and Sunday Tea on March 6, 1pm-5pm. Come sit, visit, knit, and crochet, enjoy the company of friends (and a chance to browse the new spring summer yarns). The Vermilion Bay Yarn Company will be closed on Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras, Monday March 7 & 8. This means that Men's Club and Knit Cafe will not meet on those days, but will resume next week. VBYC will re-open on Wednesday, March 9th at 10am.

Spring and Summer from Classic Elite!

Choices abound at VBYC for all your spring and summer garment projects! New this weekend are some fabulous yarns and pattern booklets from Classic Elite. New colors of Silky Alpaca Lace for your fine textured projects, Sprout, the worsted weight vibrant cotton, and Firefly, a terrific DK weight linen blend with a soft hand and brilliant sheen. Not only do we have these fine yarns in multiple colors in stock NOW, there is also great pattern support for them. Tops, wraps, cover-up's, all waiting to jump onto your needles. Frightful to start a garment? There's no other way overcome that phobia than to start a garment. But no fear: at VBYC we offer complete customer support on all your projects. Come discover these awesome new yarns from Classic Elite!