Happy Halloween

Have a good one!

Louet Mooi

For a luxurious little treat, pick up a skein or two of Louet Mooi:


It's a sumptuous lace weight blend of bamboo, bison and cashmere with stunning colour combos. The bamboo will add a lovely drape and sheen to your finished project. There are 320 metres per 100g skein, enough for a beautiful lacy scarf that would make a very special gift.

Clara Parkes loves this yarn, read her review right here.

And if you're a lace knitter, you'll also want to have a look at the Diamond Luxury Collection Baby Alpaca Lace that we recently put out on our shelves. This one's 100% Baby Alpaca, with 400 metres on a 50g skein for only $7.95.

Use Mooi or Baby Alpaca Lace to knit some of the stunning designs from this new book:


It's a must-have book for lace-knitters with stunning photography, interesting historical tidbits and loads of gorgeous lace patterns.

If you prefer knitting socks to lace, you'll want to know that we recently re-stocked Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in ten beautiful new colourways.

And our special yarn this week is Online Punta at 40% off. It's a wonderful novelty yarn that combines a strand of soft fluffy yarn with a strand of shimmery boucle in a contrasting colour. Jazz up a scarf or shawl with the great colours and texture of this yarn.

Happy Knitting!

Designer Divas

Thanks for all the positive feedback on the Cheryl/Jane event last weekend. We're glad you enjoyed yourselves, we had tons of fun.

These are just a few of the stacks of beautiful samples we fondled and admired:


All of Jane's samples from Mirasol Books 3 and 4 are now on display in our stores.

This is Julia modelling a beautful cardigan from Book 4:


And here are some of the UY Girls posing with the Mirasol Ambassador:


Thanks again Cheryl and Jane!

Mirasol Samples

We have a trunkful of Mirasol samples in Point Grey this week, including all the garments from Mirasol Book 3:


And the new Book 4:



We left one beautiful sweater sample in Edgemont on Sunday and we'll send over a few more later this week.

The Mirasol yarns are extraordinarily luscious, just touch these garments and you'll want to knit them!

Jane Ellison in Edgemont Today

If you missed our Jane Ellison event yesterday, you have a second chance to meet her today. She'll drop by our Edgemont store this afternoon from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. She'll sign some books, show some samples and chat about her experiences as a designer. Hope to see you there!

Araucania

We have a fabulous new sock yarn from Araucania called Ranco Multi:

It's 75% wool, 25% nylon and a great price at $15.95 per 100g, 344 metre skein. This one's going to be popular with all you sock knitters...

We also have Araucania Azapa:


A beautiful new yarn that's a mix of merino wool, alpaca and silk, with a touch of donegal tweed.

And we love the Araucania Nature Wools, Aran and Chunky, both 100% hand-dyed wool . There's a great colour range with some beautiful rich hues that are perfect for this time of year.

NW Aran would be great for the February Lady Sweater. Or if you're knitting hats these days, try Foliage, Thorpe or Stella's Hat with NW Chunky.

There are two new Araucania books for Fall. The Araucania Collection, Book 1:

And In the Mood, by Jean Moss:


This one has some fantastic designs using Ranco Multi and Nature Wool Aran and Chunky.

And we have a special bonus today for all you loyal UY blog readers. We're giving away 5 free tickets to the Cheryl Niamath/Jane Ellison event this Saturday, noon to 3:00 p.m., UBC Golf Club. The first 5 people to phone us at 604-228-1122 or send an email will receive a ticket gratis. If you've already bought a ticket, grab another and bring a friend with you. See you on Saturday!

365 Patterns

We have the 2009 Knitting Calendars:

A pattern a day for a whole year! It's an excellent bargain at only $16.95. A great gift for yourself or a knitterly friend...

We're getting excited about the Cheryl Niamath/Jane Ellison event this Saturday. Still a few tix left if you'd like to join us...

And in keeping with the Mirasol theme, our special this week is Mirasol Cotanani at 40% off. This is a beautiful mix of 60% pima cotton and 40% merino wool. A classic DK weight, it knits up to 22 stitches on 4mm needles. And there are some great designs for this yarn in Mirasol Books 2 and 3.

Hope to see you on Saturday!

More New Stuff

There's another great new Noro book, Collection 3, by Jenny Watson:

With some fabulous designs for Kureyon and Silk Garden.

We also have a scrumptious new Noro yarn, Yuzen:

Just wouldn't feel like Fall without a new Noro. This one's 50% wool, 34% silk and 10% mohair with the trademark Noro striping.

Love this sweater coat knit in Yuzen:


The pattern's in Jane Ellison's new book, Noro Family:

We've also put out on our shelves several delicious new colours of Silk Garden and Iro. Yum.

And we just received a cute new Louisa Harding book, Kindred Spirits:

With some great designs for kids and their moms.

And there's lots, lots more. Details to follow...

Elsebeth Lavold

We have some gorgeous yarns and books by Elsebeth Lavold.

Baby Llama is new this season:

It's 100% baby llama, super-soft and cozy.

Silky Flamme has been walking out the door faster than we can bring it in:


It's another uber-soft yarn with a stunning colour palette. A luscious mix of 50% wool, 30% alpaca and 20% silk. Endless possibilities...

We have several more EL yarns, including the classic Silky Tweed and Silky Wool. Also Chunky Al and Classic Al, both a sumptuous mix of merino wool and alpaca....

Try knitting Branching Out with Silky Wool. Always wanted to knit this one but haven't yet gotten around to it. There are almost 3,000 of these beautiful scarves shown on Ravelry.

We also have a few fabulous books by Elsebeth Lavold, including the most recent editions, Book 15 and 16.

Book 15 features a bunch of beautiful designs for Baby Llama and Silky Flamme:

And Book 16 has some fantastic designs for aran weight yarns, with a touch of romance:

There's even romance for Rover:


And our special this week is the lovely soft and fluffy Elsebeth Lavold Angora, a beautiful mix of 60% angora, 20% wool and 20% nylon:


It's 30% off the regular price, only $7.66 per skein. Use it to knit these beautifully soft Christmas Eve Cabled Mitts. Or try Elinor Brown's Ridged Lace Cowl. Two very tempting projects...

Becky and Jess have been bustling around this week, unpacking boxes at warp speed. We have soooooo much fabulous new stuff, there's too much to write about. Drop by and have a look sometime soon...

And one more thing, we've added a couple of new classes due to popular demand. There's a Beginner Knitting class in Edgemont and a Beginner Crochet class in Point Grey, both starting on Monday, November 10. And watch for a Christmas Gift Ideas class, coming soon. For more information on these and other classes, phone Kathleen at 604-228-1122, send her an email or check out our class schedule.

Late Breaking News

We're pleased to announce that Cheryl Niamath will join Jane Ellison for our special event on Saturday, October 25, noon to 3:00 p.m. at the UBC Golf Club.

Remember Cheryl? She's the amazing Vancouver woman who learned to knit about four years ago, then very quickly moved on to publishing her own designs. This is Fetching, Cheryl's first published pattern:

The truly amazing part of Cheryl's story is that Fetching has rapidly become the second most popular pattern on Ravelry, with a remarkable 7511 knitters who have either finished or are working on their own fetching fingerless gloves. 7511!!! Imagine learning a new craft one day, then calmly progressing to publishing a stratospherically popular design in just a couple of years!

Cheryl went on to publish a bunch of terrific designs like Dashing, Wisp, False Modesty and Glowbal Warming. You can see them all on Cheryl's site. We think her Sprout baby hat is one of the cutest ever:


Becky and Anina couldn't resist knitting a Sprout. Just one ball of Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran and you're done. Betcha can't knit just one.

Cheryl will kick off the event at noon so don't be late. She'll give a short talk and show some of her hats, mitts and other samples.

Then Jane Ellison will take the stage at around 12:30 p.m. Talk about hot new designers, Jane has published thirty design books in the last five years! She started with Simply Noro:


One of our all-time favourites. Alison recently knit the cover shawl:

Love it. We'll be showing the shawl at our event. Thanks for sharing, Alison!

Following Simply Noro, Jane produced another six Noro books in rapid succession, including Noro Knits, Naturally Noro, Noro Unlimited, Pure Noro, Noro Joy and Noro Family. If you have any of these books on your shelves, feel free to bring them along for the author's signature.

Jane's gone on to publish three fantastic books for the Mirasol line of yarns. Mirasol Book 3 was released this Fall:


And Mirasol Book 4 will be launched at our event. It's a brand new book with designs for children and babies, using the wonderful Mirasol line of yarns.


Jane has become a dedicated Ambassador for the Mirasol Project. She's passionate about the work being done to help the shepherds' children in the Puno region of Peru, where the Mirasol Centre is located. She's seen firsthand what's been accomplished in a short period of time and she's excited about the project's potential. A portion of all sales of Mirasol books and yarns is contributed to the Mirasol Project.

Jane will talk about the design process and her experiences as a designer, then she'll show off a bunch of samples from the Mirasol books. We've had a sneak peek and they're fabulous! She'll also talk about the progress of the Mirasol Project.

After their talks, Jane and Cheryl will sign patterns and books and chat with guests. The designers' books, patterns and Mirasol yarns will be 10% off the regular price at this event and we'll take special orders for any books or yarn colours that we don't have in stock.

Then we'll head down the street to Urban Yarns for some casual chitchat with wine and nibbles on hand. Should be fun!

We've sold a lot of tickets for this event and space is limited so if you'd like to attend, don't delay! To purchase a ticket, either send an email or phone us at 604-228-1122. And if we're sold out when you call sometime next week, don't say we didn't warn you...

Rowan Books Part 2

As promised, here's the trio of gorgeous Rowan Classic books for Fall, all designs by Martin Storey.

Winter Gifts has a delightful collection of gift ideas:

It's a fantastic collection of fresh takes on typical gift items like hats, scarves, socks, gloves and mitts. There's also a cute cardi, a vest, a shrug, legwarmers, as well as a tea cosy and hot water bottle cover. Our friend Jen's knitting the hot water bottle cover for someone special - it's going to be a very snuggly and treasured gift. Get inspired ideas for your Christmas gift knitting with this book. Yup, it's that time of year again...

Vintage has a tempting collection of cardis and pullovers in beautiful contemporary classic styles:

All knit in luxurious RYC DK weight yarns.

And the third book is Alpine, with a cozy collection of cardis, coats and pullovers that will keep you warm in the chilly winter weather that's around the corner:

These designs are knit in beautiful RYC aran and chunky weight yarns.

They're coffee table quality books, with stunning photographs and designs that are second to none. Definitely worth a look...

Happy Thanksgiving

We'll be open in both stores this weekend on Saturday and Sunday but closed on Thanksgiving Monday.

If you're looking for some Thanksgiving knitting inspiration, check out the November 22, 2007 post at Habetrot Knitting. LOL.

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Remarkable Rowan

Every season Rowan publishes stacks of design books that are incredibly inspiring. When the new books arrive, we gather around, flip through the pages and drool over the fantastic new designs. There are always way too many choices...

This season is no exception. Rowan kicked off the Fall knitting season in July with Magazine 44, a special anniversary issue. Fabulous as ever.

The Cocoon Collection is another new Rowan book for Fall:

With sixteen enticing designs using the luscious Cocoon yarn, an uber-soft merino and kid mohair mix with a 14 stitch gauge for quick results. There are many tempting projects in this one.

And check out The Colourscape Chunky Collection:


This collection has fourteen terrific new designs by Sarah Hatton using the fantastic new Colourscape Chunky yarn by Kaffe Fassett. This 100% lambswool yarn is created by a unique process - only 300 kils per machine can be produced in a week. The colours of this yarn are absolutely amazing, from deep mysterious tones of purples, maroons and turquoise to the softness of dusty pastels. Drop by sometime and have a look at this beautiful new yarn.

The British Sheep Breeds Collection is another great new Rowan book for Fall. Classic designs, classic yarn, Rowan's gone back to its roots with this one.

Next up are the Rowan Studio books featuring up to the minute contemporary designs published every two months. The cutting edge of fashion... This is Issue Seven, Twists and Turns:


Featuring seven elegant classics with a twist. The designs feature a sampling of Rowan's yarns including Wool Cotton, Kid Classic, Scottish Tweed DK, Big Wool and Kid Silk Haze. We have 'em all...

And to top it all off, there's Kim Hargreaves' fabulous series of books for Rowan yarns. Her latest, Thrown Together, has sixteen terrific designs:

We adore this book and the luscious yarns that go with it. Big Wool, Calmer, Felted Tweed, Kid Classic, Kid Silk Haze, Kid Silk Aura, all on our shelves.

We also have Kim Hargreaves' popular books Nectar and Heartfelt. This is Heartfelt, The Dark House Collection:

With another twenty-one fantastic designs for a variety of Rowan yarns including Big Wool, Biggy Print, Calmer, Cocoon, Felted Tweed, Handknit Cotton, Kid Classic, Kid Silk Haze, Kid Silk Aura and Summer Tweed, they're all out on our shelves.

Check out the Cherish Cardigan, a fabulous fitted cropped cardi with garter stitch edging, slightly flared sleeves and single button fastening. A quick knit with just 4 - 5 balls of Big Wool on 12mm needles. If you're a Big Wool fan, you'll be happy to know that we've just added three colours to our Big Wool special at 40% off:


They're a great bargain at only $9.57 per ball. These colours aren't yet in Edgemont but they'll arrive sometime next week.

Remarkably, there are even more Rowan books this season. We haven't yet shown the three fabulous Rowan Classic books that were recently published. Stay tuned for more details...

Beautiful Babies

Have a look at these adorable babes:

This is Baby Bamboo Too, the new pattern book for Sirdar's popular Baby Bamboo yarn. Made from 100% natural bamboo and wool, it's gorgeously soft for wearing next to a baby's skin. This book features sixteen wonderful designs for babies and children to age 7 years.

We also have some sweet new leaflet patterns for Baby Bamboo, like this little cardigan:

So cute. Knit it with a collar or add a snuggly hood.

And check out the fantastic new book for Snuggly DK, Little Speckled Chicks:

With 12 cozy, speckled knits for babies and children to age 7 years. Snuggly DK is a great easy-care machine washable yarn and we have lots of it.

There's also the charming Little Sweet Peas book for Snuggly DK:

It's crammed full of twenty-two beautiful designs for little ones up to 7 years of age. And the Sirdar books are great value at only $14.95.

Last but not least, it's a Sirdar special this week: Snowflake Chunky at 40% off. We have two colours on sale, a sparkly white and a pastel rainbow shade. These are big fluffy 50g balls with 125 metres of yarn. Perfect for knitting some cozy garments or blankets for your own beautiful babies...

Heavenly Handmaiden

We have loads of lovely new Handmaiden in both stores. These colours give us an almost irresistible urge to grab a skein and start knitting:

More hand-dyed splendour:

Stunning Samira Silk:


There are scrumptious new colours of 2 and 4 ply cashmere, heaps of kits like Devin's toques, Casbah Socks, Bias Shawls, Storm Water Scarves and Shawls and more. We have several skeins of the luscious new Maiden Hair in Point Grey with lots more to arrive in both stores sometime soon.

Want more details? Check out the Handmaiden site or come in for a visit and see for yourself...

New Lessons

Take a knitting or crochet lesson and learn a new skill this Fall!

These ladies had fun learning how to crochet the beautiful Babette Blanket this summer:

We've just added two new lessons to our Point Grey Class Schedule. Sivia Harding will teach a Toe Up Sock Class starting Wednesday, October 22, from 7 - 9 p.m. Get a perfect fit for your socks with the toe-up technique. And Sandra Dunkin will teach another Beginner Knitting Class starting Thursday, November 13, from 7 - 9 p.m.

There are several other lessons starting in Point Grey over the next few weeks. Deanna will teach a Beginners Crochet class, starting next Monday, October 6, from 7 - 9 p.m. Sock Boot Camps are scheduled for Tuesday, October 14 or 28, 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. You'll learn to knit a sock in just one day! And Sivia Harding will give a Jewelry Knitting Clinic on Wednesday, October 15, 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. Take one look at Sivia's stunning sample necklace that's on display in Point Grey and you'll want to take this class.

We also have some excellent lessons starting soon in Edgemont. Donna will teach a Felted Bag class starting next Tuesday, October 7, from 7 - 9 p.m. She'll also teach a Beginners Knitting class, starting on Tuesday, October 14, from 7 - 9 p.m. Nick will take you beyond the basics in Intermediate Knitting, starting this Thursday, October 2, from 7 - 9 p.m. Or learn to knit Fingerless Gloves starting on Thursday October 6, from 7 - 9 p.m.

For more information, check out our entire class schedule.

Drop by Point Grey this Sunday, October 6 to learn the hairpin lace technique. Astor Tsang will demonstrate the technique all afternoon, there's no charge and no need to register. You'll quickly learn to easily create some unique hairpin lace pieces, like this elegant shawl or a fabulous scarf.

Astor will also teach a Yarn 101 Class on the second Sunday of each month in Point Grey, starting October 12, from 11 a.m. - noon. She'll give a tour of the yarn in the shop, discussing materials, gauge and yarn substitutions. Bring a pattern you love and challenge Astor to find the perfect yarn for the pattern! You must pre-register by the preceding Thursday for this class. There's a $5. charge which you may apply towards any yarn purchased that day.

And don't forget about our Jane Ellison event at UBC on Saturday, October 25, from 12 noon - 3:00 p.m. Tickets are selling fast and seating is limited so register early to avoid disappointment. Should be tons of fun!