Village Wools - ScoutJ

Category Archives: Village Wools

Saturday Sky with Amy Singer!

June 16, 2007 – 7:43 am

Let me give you a Saturday Sky picture first. Two years ago we planted three trumpet vines and now they almost completely cover my back wall. They are amazing. They are also just about to bloom. Pretty huh?

Amy Singer’s in the hizzaouse! She arrived on Thursday and taught her Tuscany Shawl class yesterday at Village Wools. Have you seen this shawl? Um. Look.

She did this one in Hand Maiden Silken in the colorway Vintage. Isn’t it beautiful? If you want the pattern you have to get the book - No Sheep For You. Buy it now! She’s good people. We’ve been having such a good time. The only problem is that she’s a very bad influence. She likes to shop. She likes to show me cool stuff. She has cool stuff. Which made me BUY cool stuff. Damn her. Have you ever heard of Zulugrass?

Can you tell which one of us lives in Albuquerque and which one lives in Toronto? Ha! But seriously. I am completely in love. You need to go to the website to read all about it. If you buy Zulugrass you are helping support Maasai women. Plain and simple. My kids stole two of mine yesterday so I promised to let them each pick one out today. I love that they are hand dyed too. Just beautiful.

We are about to head out to the Farmer’s Market before she teaches her class today. Scout’s Swag is well stocked and I just got in a whole new shipment of tape measures and GoKnit Pouches! I hope you have a great weekend everyone because I sure plan on it!

By ScoutJ | Also posted in Knitting, Saturday Sky, Seriously | Comments (17)

Louisa, Amy & Drew - Oh MY!

May 31, 2007 – 6:44 am

Village Wools is the place to be this summer I’ll tell yah! Louisa Harding, Amy Singer and Drew “The Crochet Dude” Emborsky are all coming to Village Wools to teach this summer. There are limited spaces for their workshops, so if you live locally or think you might want to come, call VW and get your space. (505.883.2919)

Louisa Harding is coming on June 8th. A long time designer for Rowan Magazine, Louisa has developed her own line of yarns and design books and is coming to teach a sampling workshop of her delicious yarns. She will help students play with color and choose yarn combinations to create a lively swatch which will be turned into a small purse. The class will be from 10:00am-2:00pm.

sheep Then I’m the lucky one who gets to have Amy Singer as a house-guest while she’s here! She’s going to be teaching two different workshops. You know, Amy Singer of knitty.com, No Sheep For You, Knit Wit and Big Girl Knits?

Workshop 1
Tuscany Shawl Class – Learn to love lace without fear: Knit from a smooth worsted-weight silk yarn, which feels amazing against the skin. If you can confidently knit and purl, make yarn overs, cast on and bind off, you’re ready for this project. Lean all the tricks that make knitting lace a pleasure, and the easy way to block when you’re done.

Friday, June 15th 1:30 – 4pm

Workshop 2
No Sheep For You: All about Albuquerque-friendly fibers! Learn the ins and outs of fibers that aren’t’ wool and never had four lets. We’ll learn about cotton, linen, hemp, bamboo, lyocell, rayon, soy, and the new synthetics and more, plus the most delicious non-wool of all: Silk. Get to know the GeeKY [hint: it involves knitting]. It’s the tool that will help you to know how to substitute non-wool fibers when a pattern calls for wool and get a great result. Here’s a secret – it’s WAY more than matching the gauge. Swatching yarn provided.
Saturday, June 16th 10:30 – 1pm Fee $65 + tax

drew Drew aka “The Crochet Dude” and co-author of the new book Men Who Knit & the Dogs Who Love Them with Annie Modesitt is coming in August! Drew has designed many crochet patterns featured in Interweave Crochet and Knit.1 Magazines. He will be teaching how to do cables in crochet and fitting techniques using the twin-set pattern seen on page 5 of the Spring ’07 Interweave Crochet. (seen here) Students only need to know how to single and double crochet.

Saturday August 11th 10 – 1pm

If anyone is thinking of traveling here to take any of these courses there are a number of places in which to stay that are almost within walking distance of Village Wools. I wish I could house you, but my house is full! (we have our Israeli counselor coming today for the next two weeks plus Amy when she comes!)

Which kind of brings me to the other thing I wanted to talk about. Summer is here in full force and I’m about to have house-guests for the next month straight. I’m going to kind of take a break from the blog. I’m thinking it might be reverse psychology on myself. If I tell everyone I am going to take a break, maybe I’ll all of the sudden find more time to actually blog? Who knows. Just know I’m busy dyeing/shipping/being a chauffeur, and a number of other mom/business related jobs but I’m okay! I’m still here taking yarn orders but just swamped with life in general. It’s a good thing. I promise to still stop by your blogs when I can. I’m not going to totally disappear. I just kind of wanted to let you all know what was going on. And as everyone knows, summer for me means very little knitting. I mean look, wouldn’t you rather be out and about doing this kind of stuff?

Some of you may remember that over the past few years we have housed one of the Israeli counselors who comes for the summer to work at the JCC. Today our 3rd schlichim comes. She’ll be with us for 2 weeks. Get this, she was sniper instructor in the Israeli Army. How cool is that? I can’t wait to learn more about what she did in the army. I’ve emailed with her a few times and she seems really sweet. I can’t wait to meet her later today.

So I’ve rambled enough. Local people? Get thee arses to Village Wools and sign up for these Workshops! I’m also teaching a few dye classes this summer too. The dates are up on the website. Time to get the kids ready for camp and then I have to get my house ready for our company.

By ScoutJ | Also posted in Cool Stuff, Scout's Swag | Comments (17)

Eye Candy Friday

October 27, 2006 – 10:38 am

Look what Domesticat and Duck brought from the famed Chocolate Maven when they came for dinner on Sunday. Go read about their brush there with Giada De Laurentiis! And yes, those are chiles on the cupcakes and in them too. They were fantasic. Supergirl ate one of the yellow ones all by herself. We are so sad that Domesticat and and Duck are going back to Boston next week. We keep joking that we’re going to kidnap them and force them live in New Mexico forever. I wonder how long it would be until someone noticed they were missing?

One more piece of eye candy for today. Do you know what this is?

That my friends is the new dyeing/spinning room at Village Wools. And those floors? PURPLE! Yes. Actually the counters all around the shop are purple too. I can’t wait to teach my dye classes in there. Speaking of VW I’m off for work. Have a good one everyone!

By ScoutJ | Also posted in Eye Candy Friday | Comments (15)

It’s Been A While…

October 25, 2006 – 9:26 pm

since I shared one of these. I thought you’d like this one.

Isn’t it amazing I can walk out my back door and see something like this

almost every single day? I think so.

Also, if you want to see a short little video of what the shop looks like click here.

If you have dial-up skip it. And no, that’s not my voice.

It’s one of the owners of the store.

By ScoutJ | Also posted in Albuquerque/New Mexico | Comments (8)

Check it OUT!

October 22, 2006 – 5:15 pm

We re-open tomorrow at 10:00am. Here’s a little taste of what it looks like. This does it absolutely no justice but I sure tried. Click to see the bigger view from the front door.

Oh wait. What is THAT!?

cascade 220

Oh yeah baybee! Cascade 220, the Heathers AND Quatro. Uh huh. And soooooo much more beautiful stuff I can’t even list it all here. You just have to see it all for yourself. This is one of my most favorite spots in the store.

Click that picture to see all the rest. It’s just simply amazing.

Who will be there tomorrow?!?

By ScoutJ | Comments (30)

Eye Candy

October 20, 2006 – 7:20 am

See you next year Balloon Fiesta.

This was one of the last balloons T. and the kids saw on Sunday.

Have I told everyone that Village Wools has been closed all week to move into the new space. It’s unbelievable. Seriously. We have gone to a space more than twice the size of the old space. We have a whole corner of the shop for the books. There are four classrooms. The dye room has a PURPLE floor! There are 16 skylights. We open up on Monday at 10:00am. I’ve been there everyday since Sunday whenever I can to help. Yesterday I opened up the first box and put the first ball of yarn on the shelf. Pretty cool stuff. Here are the details of where the store is if you don’t know already. All of our new yarns will be on the shelves. It’s just absolutely amazing. Just wait until you see for yourselves. Maybe I’ll get some pictures today. Who’s going to be there on Monday when we open back up?

And Flat Scout says, “See y’all at Rhinebeck! Come find me and take a picture with me!”

By ScoutJ | Also posted in Albuquerque/New Mexico, Balloon Fiesta, Eye Candy Friday, Flat Scout | Comments (15)

The Online Commuknitty

October 9, 2006 – 2:18 pm

Look who I met today. KnitFit! She and her mom are in New Mexico for a vacation and came by the shop today. Not only that, but she was sporting her Beebalm socks I custom dyed for her and they got to meet my sock. And, for anyone who has never met either one of us in person? She’s wicked tall. I’m almost 5′8″ and she’s taller than me! Ohhh did she buy some pretty yarn too. I’ll let her show you though. I’ll just say Fiesta, Ironstone and Silky Wool. Yum. Oh and I invited her to come to SnB tomorrow night too.

I just left her a message and I’m hoping she and her mom take me up on my offer to cook them dinner on Wednesday. Dave? Can you hop on a plane and come join us? Cocktails, Mexican food….maybe even some knitting?

I love being able to meet my online knitty friends in person. I’m hoping to meet Caroline soon as she’s driving through on her way to Utah. And this weekend I might get to meet Domesticat. I told her she’s more than welcome to come down for Balloon Fiesta and she said, “You’d invite total strangers into your home?” Which made me laugh because it’s how I’ve met some of my best friends. I usually have a pretty good feel for a person simply based on the writing in their blog and e-mails. I have met so many amazing people online and I wouldn’t be where I am today without the internet. And Chris? Start making plans to get your heiny back out here next year okay?

Alrighty. Time to make some caramel apples and then dye some yarn.

By ScoutJ | Also posted in Albuquerque/New Mexico, Balloon Fiesta | Comments (11)

Memelicious.

October 5, 2006 – 8:22 am

Why not.

10 Knitterly Things You Don’t Know About Me

1. I have never knit a sweater for myself. The One Skein Wonder is about as close as I’ve ever gotten to making myself a garment. I used Noelle’s handspun and it’s gorgeous.

I started the Ribby Cardi but stopped after knitting the whole back. Maybe one day I’ll pick it back up again….

2. I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in learning how to knit socks toe-up. Don’t even go there. Don’t try and convince me why I need to learn. I’m stubborn too? Did you know that?

3. When you are a ski racer growing up in Vermont, you grow up making ski hats doing intarsia and fair isle. I only found out a few years ago that these skills are considered challenging and scary for a lot of people. It just seems funny to me since I was eight years old when I started doing it.

4. It wasn’t until I was about 20 years old that I realized there was a whole world of yarn out there other than Lopi. I honestly thought that Lopi was the only yarn there was. Oh, and angora for intarsia/fair isle accents. I always just thought the world was destined for a lifetime of scratchy foreheads.

5. I also have no interest in making a lace shawl or anything lace for that matter. Ever. I’m just not a lace girl. And Lauren? Give it up sister. Not going to happen. And it’s okay.

6. When I cast on, I do not use a slip knot. It’s how my mom taught me forever ago. I simply hold the yarn over the needle and cast on. Again, when you learn something as a child you think that’s the only way. I didn’t know until about 7 years ago that there were numerous ways of casting on.

7. I like to knit in public so people will leave me alone. Really. Whispering Pine wrote about not KIP because she thinks it’s an instant conversation piece but I feel the total opposite. If I want to be left alone I’ll bring it, keep my eyes on my knitting and throw out the “leave me the hell alone I’m busy” vibe. If you don’t look up, they can’t talk to you…

8. Because I’ve knit for almost 30 years, it really iritates me when people talk about knitting being trendy and popular right now. If I’ve done it for 30 years it’s always been cool. Ha!

9. I have been a yarn snob from day one. My mother was the type of knitter to knit the amazingly beautiful sweaters out of Vogue Knitting Magazine. She wouldn’t substitute yarn due to cost. My mama had some serious taste. So I guess I did know there were other yarns but never really put it together until I was an adult.

10. I’m a figure-outer. (like that word? feel free to borrow it) I either look things up online OR in the books I have in order to figure something out in my knitting rather than go and get help.

Remember the other day when I told everyone to go out and buy this book?

I got my signed copy yesterday from Lisa and holy crap y’all. Go today. Go buy this book. I can honestly say it’s one of the prettiest knitting books I’ve ever seen. And, I could see making almost everything in the book. It actually might get me to make a garment. I even showed T. the men’s sweater and he said, “Yeah, that’s really cool. I’d wear that for sure.” This is from the man who wants me to knit him nothing. I wish I could show you all of the things I want to make. Just trust me. Get the book and you’ll see. We will have them at Village Wools soon so the locals can check it out.

By ScoutJ | Also posted in Cool Stuff, Holy Crap!, Memelicious | Comments (15)

Cool Swag & More Yarn

September 1, 2006 – 6:29 pm

Anyone who lives locally can now go grab a pair of these cool needles at Village Wools. We just put them out for sale. They are The Knit Lite by Clover - Lighted Knitting Needles. I know people have been talking about them and now we have them. I love the colors and can’t wait to play with a pair even if they are a little bit longer than I’m used to. I want to take my kids to a movie just to be able to sit and knit in the dark. I think it would also be a fun thing to add to a swap package. Hummmmmm……

I love when we get new swag in at the shop. I’ve also updated the shop webpage with the moving information and some new classes too. I know some Abq people have been looking for spinning classes so hurry up and call the shop if you want to get into any of the classes.

(You can also call and order the needles directly from the shop too and we’ll ship them to you.)

I started a new group over on Stumble - Yarn P*rn. Come join!

By ScoutJ | Also posted in Cool Stuff, Knitty Goodness, Yarn Pr0n | Comments (12)

Hedgehogs!

August 29, 2006 – 3:31 pm

My kids are the luckiest kids in the whole wide world as they are the recipients of the cutest knitted items ever. These are the Fiber Trends Pattern I posted about a while ago and they are now the biggest craze at our shop. Everyone is making them. (Well, not me of course since I don’t knit right?) Franzi made a few and I loved them so much she just gave them to the kids. The shop added a class for them too and it immediately filled up. My kids now go to bed with their hedgehogs and Ugly Dolls. Thank you again Franzi for making my kids so happy!

I also dyed a new colorway last night. It was one of those I got from seeing some yarn in the shop and I literally had to do it last night at a really inconvenient time before it excaped my brain. Over the past few months I’ve become friends with Tina & Kaci of Blue Moon Fiber Arts. They make me laugh on a daily basis and I can’t wait until I meet them in person. Although Kaci might kill me when I try and waker her up at 6:30am….. I hereby name this colorway - Color Queen after the master-dyer Tina. If you want some you know the drill.

And this was what I saw when I woke up this morning. I know you all love my sky pictures so I’ll keep posting them. I figure It’s like having my morning espresso with you when I take a picture knowing you’ll all get to see it.

By ScoutJ | Also posted in Albuquerque/New Mexico, Hand Painted Yarn, Knitty Goodness, Scout's Swag | Comments (16)

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