What Happened to Burda Verena?

Since VBYC opened its doors, I've offered Burda Verena, the top-notch magazine featuring the best in European knitwear and crochet designs. Sadly, I have decided to stop carrying the magazine due to the recent change in their format. Those of you who have joined the Verena group on Ravelry know exactly what sort of hot-button topic this has become. With one issue, Verena successfully upset (understatement) a major chunk of the English speaking knitting and crochet community by publishing the same fabulous spread of design photos, yet withholding at least half of their patterns for online download -- for a $5 fee. Even without the abacus, we can do the math that turns an 8 clam knitting mag into a minor investment. Knitters worldwide screamed foul, and well they should. As a result, VBYC joins many shops around the English speaking world in discontinuing Verena on its seasonal periodical stacks. There are still a few back issues (with patterns) on the rack, so if you missed out on a few of those over the seasons, they're now collector's items, so stock up! Will VBYC ever carry Verena again? I tell you what I told my distributor: If Verena cleans up its act and returns to the old format with loads of excellent photography accompanied by a complete pattern section, I will be among the first to offer the publication again.

Unique Design, Practical Tool, Work of Art

The Vermilion Bay Yarn Company is your exclusive dealer in these fine, Asian-inspired yarn bowls. Smooth contours, elegant shapes, peaceful and calming hues and one-of-a-kind shading cradle your fiber as you transform it into beautiful fabric. Just like the creative people who use them, no two of these works of art are the same. Passionate blues and greens, playful teals, earthy taupes, fresh and energetic corals. Setting your yarn in one of these vessels adds an extra meditative dimension to your calming work. Let one adopt you.

A Lana Grossa Classic!

Those of you who've worked with it know what I'm talking about: Chiara, a luxurious mohair blend in DK weight. It's a yarn that, when finished, provides a stunning metalic sheen to your fabric -- and looks fantastic both in knitting and crochet. Chiara is a yarn ideal for wraps and shells. The texture? Awesomely soft. And, if that weren't enough, each ball of Chiara offers great yardage, making it suited especially for garments -- fewer yarn joins, and fewer balls required to complete the project. Come see the Chiara for yourself. Need a pattern for it? Stop in and pick up all you need!

Interweave

and

Knit Scene

Now at VBYC!

(No need to find parking at box stores!)

Sunday's the big day!

You've all been reading about the Stella & Dot trunk show here on the blog, in the newsletter, you've heard buzz in the shop, and examined the look book to preview the upcoming fabulousness! This Sunday, May 22nd is day! We'll start off the afternoon at 1pm with mix and mingle (light refreshements will be provided), and then settle in to experience the splendidness of Stella & Dot. Hilary, our expert S & D stylist will be on hand to offer tips and suggestions to help you decide which designs are the best for you. Personalized service! This is a unique chance for you to compose an entire fashionable look, and select top notch accents to accompany your top notch knitwear projects. Yarn purchases of 600 yards or more will receive a 15% discount this Sunday. Mark your calendars if you've not done that already! You won't want to miss out on this event!

Sacred Vessels

Fiber work is connected to the earth. Anyone who's ever spun fiber knows that, and anyone who's ever shorn and prepared wool really knows it. There're not many activities less humbling than preparing and washing a fleece that's just been shorn from the beast. From time to time, we encounter little brambles and bits of grass in our finished yarns, reminders of our material's rude beginnings. For most of us, this is our only encounter with the earthiness of our work. Modern convenience has afforded us the luxury of skipping the mucky steps and moving straight to the garment making steps -- and there's nothing wrong with that. Howevever, it's a good excercise, I think, to maintain to some extent, the connection our work has (like it or not) to the soil. Some prefer using needles and hooks in natural materials: wood or bamboo. Some -- actually many -- avoid man-made fibers in their work, opting only for natural plant and animal fibers. Those who prefer these beautiful reminders of the source of our art will enjoy using a yarn bowl. Most of us have some sort of project bag to hold our yarn supplies. A yarn bowl is a stable cradle for your yarn and features a side opening that feeds the strand smoothly from the ball to your hook or needles. The local potter who created these terrific yarn bowls was influenced by Asian styling and has included two openings for your needles to rest. The yarn bowls are individual and unique works of art, sacred vessels made from the earth for our creative use of fiber.

Hat tips to Pearl Buck!

Just arrived yesterday from Tahki: Good Earth Cotton! If you're a lover of natural fiber (and we all are!), this yarn stands at the head of the line. Here's what Tahki has to say about it: "This cotton is harvested from plants grown without fertilizers or pesticides, in naturally-ocurring colors that require no dyeing. You can be assured that you have purchased a 100% natural product. Thank you for contributing towards protecting this wonderful world we live in." You might think that natural cotton comes in one color: fluffy white. It's amazing when you see the balls of Good Earth Cotton and experience the natural shading of undyed cotton: from light brown, to tan, to green. Awesome yarn. Come use it!

Classes in May! Time to sign up!

The Vermilion Bay Yarn Company schedules classes regularly so that you have plenty of opportunity to learn new techniques to make your fiber work easier. Sure, we can look up many of the operations our patterns call on us to do, but the two-dimensional experience of an illustration or a video doesn't always clear things up adequately enough: you can't ask questions of the person in the video, and an illustration doesn't move, so it's rather hard to watch the target action in a still picture -- and all that is supposing some sort of explanation can even be found (often things aren't really explained anywhere. Have you ever tried to look up how to seam knitwear and actually gotten instructions that make sense?). When you take a class, you see things demonstrated in real time, you can try things out for yourself, receive hints and tips, and get your questions answered. This month, VBYC is offering Tool Box and Tool Box II. When we learn to knit, we learn the very basics -- a standard cast-on, a bind-off, and the two basic stitches. These basics are fine as long as you're just working up a simple panel. Tool Box and Tool Box II give you the next steps in knitting patterns: how to shape garments, create cable textures, and much more. Folks have been raving about our technique classes here at VBYC. Sign up and see what all the buzz is about. Want to learn how to make socks? This month on the 28th, you can learn by whichever needle method you prefer. "Socks Your Way" will give you the information to get you on track with sock making (one of the most popular knitting projects). The afternoon of the 28th marks the start time for the "Jeweled Cowl". What a stunner, this fine garment made in lace weight yarn on size 8 needles, and accented with almost 750 beads. The stitching pattern here is not difficult, but the beading is what really bumps this simple design up several notches. If you've beaded before, more than likey you have experience stringing all your beads onto your yarn, but this project is different. You'll learn how to set the bead into the fabric at precisely the correct spot without pre-stringing. This will save you the tedious prep work and will preserve your working yarn from fraying under the weight of those shifting beads. Insert each bead when it's time. So much more practical! Our friends at Bella Beads in Youngsville are as excited about this project as we are, and we have a few folks from the beading realm who will be participating. Rae over at Bella's has a fabulousicous selection of terrific beads for this project. Select which yarn you'd like to use, then bring it with you to Bella's to match your beads. Bella Beads is located on the Youngsville Highway (that's Hwy 89) on the left as you're driving into Youngsville (if you pass Nunu's, you've gone too far). Sign up for classes the next time you come visit!

From the May edition of The Vermilion Bay Light

A word from Jason about re-claiming the calm… The overture to Franz von Suppe’s operetta Dichter und Bauer contains one of the most beautiful cello solos in the repertoire. Some time in the 1930’s the operetta was staged in Stassfurt, Germany, and my grandmother was in the orchestra. She was a cellist, and for this performance the job of rendering the famous solo fell to her. Oma took her musicianship as seriously as she did her lace-making. My Opa too was a musician, not a cellist, but a clarinetist, saxophonist, and perfectionist. Mathematical, precise. Although he knew little about cello technique, he had appointed himself my grandmother’s music coach for the Suppe. He had an idea how it should be played, what the proper phrasing should be. He was such a relentless and demanding music teacher he often reduced my grandmother to tears throughout her study of the work. But, as the story goes, despite the hard road, and perhaps even thanks to it, my Oma’s cello sang out with unparalleled passion that night as the orchestra quieted and she began the solo. The end result was well worth the tedious and turbulent work. Have you experienced a crazy knitting or crochet pattern that seems to defy reason? That chart that warps the plain and throws what’s logical out of kilter? What’s supposed to be calming and relaxing suddenly raises our ire and tempts us to crumple the whole fabric into a ball and pitch it out onto the lawn. I’ve been there too. When it comes to that, the best strategy is to let your misbehaving child sit quietly in the knitting bag. Get up, stretch, pour some coffee, eat chocolate. Do something else: knit on a sock, fold the laundry. Trust me, the dragon chart will still be there when you return to it, but its breath will be a bit less fiery later on. When the going gets tough (and sometimes it does) we have a tendency to go into fiber overdrive to find a far flung solution to a problem that seems even more complicated than the lace pattern we’re fussing with. No doubt our emotions have much to do with this. Art in any medium is a deeply personal expression. Instead of thinking the matter to pieces, do three things: Stop. Breathe. Relax. Like music, fiber art is supposed to be calming — and it actually is. After some fiber time-out, take up the problem child again and start fresh. It’s like seeing with a new set of eyes, and it’s then we come to realize that these challenges are precious gifts. These little troublesome spots are what make us grow in our fiber artistry. Not only do they teach us patience — both with our projects as well as with ourselves — but they also force us to take a more analytical approach to our work and teach us how to surmount future similar difficulties with an ease we couldn’t have imagined before. I wonder how my grandmother would have played the Suppe, were my grandfather not involved in her project like he was, had he not pushed and challenged her like he did, although he had elicited an emotional response that very well could have defeated a weary cellist. Take difficult projects one step at a time. Focus on the little picture and work bit by bit. After all, it’s a collection of little pictures that comprise the big one. Before you realize it, you’ll be done — and with your sanity intact, but your patience bolstered. Best of all, you'll have a terrific, new finished project of which you can say, “Yes, I made this.”

VITA and others!

You read about it in this month's Vermilion Bay Light -- and it's here now (at least for the time being)! Vita is a cashmere and cotton blend that's just deliciously lucious! It's made for folks like us in mind who live in a climate that's relatively warm year round. This stuff is pleading with you to be made into a fantastic summer top or shrug! Other mid-season possibilities for you (and MOM this weekend!) are Plymouth Grass (hemp and cotton), Rowan Revive (the green's my favorite in the Revive: olivy and subtile), and the new wonderful shades of Cascade Ultra Pima (pima cotton, folks, top drawer stuff!). The yarns are waiting for you at YOUR local yarn shop! Stop in and start your next garment today!

The Beaded Cowl.

Make yours

Saturday, May 28!

Stella and Dot Trunk Show!

Accent your fine knitwear and crochet with Stella & Dot to create your one-of-a-kind signature look for the season! Be sure you’re at VBYC on Sunday May 22nd at 2pm. Our very own Stella & Dot stylist will be on hand with the new, exciting jewelry designs to make you exquisitely fabulous for spring! You’ll be amazed by the awesome Stella & Dot line, and you’ll have plenty of opportunity to try all the pieces, receive styling tips, and to coordinate your favorite Stella & Dot creations with the yarns you’re using in your new spring/summer garments. You will not want to miss out on the top-notch Stella & Dot experience. It’s a personal jewelry showing especially for you. You’ll feel confident that the beautiful articles you select from Stella & Dot are perfect for your look, express your own uniqueness, and demonstrate your sensational flair for fashion! The show gets started at 2pm on May 22, but come early! Mix and Mingle starts at 1pm with complimentary light refreshments. As an extra bonus for attending this special event, trunk show participants will receive a 15% discount on yarn supplies for garment projects requiring 600yards or more!

New Yarns arriving this week!

Mid season spring and summer yarns have started to arrive! Four new colors of Rowan Revive are in the bins now -- the awesome recycled silk/cotton blend that folks have been raving about. What to use it for? Anything you like. Revive has become spring/summer shells, shrugs, wraps, all-seasons cowels, tanks, you name it! Recycled silk and cotton make for a unique tweed effect in the fabric, creating a garment that's unbelievably easy to match with other items in your wardrobe. It's all about the texture and the color interest, and Revive has both! Linen fans love Rowan Lenpur Linen. Three new colors in the bin now! This yarn has the feel of worked linen, but with a brilliant sheen. It's a classy yarn and makes up into ultra classy garments. It's a breathable, soft fabric you'll love to have next to your skin in our Louisiana humidity. Coming in this week from Plymouth: Grass and Vita. More colors are now available in these two wonderful yarns recently introduced by the Plymouth company. Grass is a cotton/hemp blend that produces and lightweight tweedy/heathered fabric that you'll need to be wearing this season! Grass has a rugged look, but attractive colorways and amazing softness. And then there's Vita. It's a recycled fiber yarn -- cotton and cashmere. The look of cotton, the deliciousness of cashmere. More colors are now available in this fine yarn as well. Both were introduced pre-season and both found homes quite quickly. These yarns are so lucious, it's almost a shame to use them just for a hat. Indulge yourself or someone you love this season and make a significant garment. There are plenty of simple designs available at VBYC that will showcase these tremendous fabrics, yet are quick and easy to create. Stop in and let us help you find just the right pattern and fiber for a garment you'll love to make and love to wear! Remember: Mother's Day is May 8th. A garment supply of any of these yarns makes a fantastic gift!