A Friend In Need! Please Help!

I received this email a week or so ago and thought I should forward this to our One Planet Knitters-

"I was diagnosed with cancer and I just joined a group in New York Montefiore-Einstein hospital that knit and crochet hats and blankets for cancer patients. There funds are limited and they need donations of yarn. This is basically why I am writting your site to respectfully ask for donations. Linda"

So I wrote to Linda and asked for more information and was it possible to also have the One Planet Knitters could knit hats as well as donate unused stash. Here is her answer back-

"Thank you for responding so quickly, I think they will welcome any help they get including your circle knitting or crochetting. Today was the first time I attended the event. They meet every Tuesday from 10am to 11am at the Center for Radiation Therapy (1625 Poplar Street). This is sponsored by The Psychosocial Oncology Program, Cancer prevention and Control Program Albert Einstein Cancer Center. The contact information is as follows: Ph:(718) 430-3613 Cancersupport@einstein.yu.edu. Thank you once again Karen Sadow. Thank you so much!"

I already have some hats made up and ready to go. You are more than welcome to mail your stash or finished hats to me and I will mail them off to Linda.

I am going to make this in to a contest.  For every finished hat or full skein of yarn that is donated, you will receive one entry into a prize drawing.  Prizes will be announced soon.  I will also accept donations to the prize giveaway if you would like to donate and have your name or company listed here.  There will be several prizes offered, more than one winner.  The contest will go until August 31, 2011.

Thank you for your help.

Regards,
Karen
OPYF

One Planet Yarn and Fiber One Day Birthday Sale!

One Planet Yarn and Fiber One Day Birthday Sale! Wednesday, May 25th ONLY!
My birthday is on May 26th.  I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate than to give you all a present.  25% off all yarns including Fleece Artist, Handmaiden and Philosopher's Wool kits and 50% off all undyed fibers.  The sale runs one day only and ends at midnight on May 25th.  Please allow me time to get the orders out as we all know I will be quite busy packing orders.  Yes, the sale started as soon as you received this email.


Yarns in the store are on sale for 25% off.  Use Coupon Code: MAY25.
Undyed fibers are on sale for 50% off.  Use Coupon Code: FIBER50
THERE IS NO FREE SHIPPING ON THESE ORDERS!

**Important-This coupon cannot be combined with ad coupons you might see. Discounts are not retroactive.  If you placed an order last week or the week before, we are sorry, we can't credit you now.  Discounts must be taken at the time of order.  Please do not write us after you placed an order and ask us to apply a discount.  We are sorry, but we just can't do it.  If you need help, please email us before you place your order.  In addition, these special offers are only valid for in-stock items.  They are not valid for special orders for new colors or yarns that we might not have in stock yet.  Excludes spinning wheels, OPYF Clubs and items already listed on the sale page.  Orders placed for unqualified merchandise will be refunded back to you.



What's new?
New patterns from c2knits, just in time for summer.

New drop spindles from Greensleeves Spindles.

New yarns from the Yarn Place.

    

Don't Forget!



Please sign up for the One Planet Yarn and Fiber Blog to receive news more than a few times a month.  I post there several times a week.

Blogs you may have missed-

I've Been Meaning To Do This, Thanks For The Idea!...

The Best Laid Plans - Mary Glendinning

New Patterns From c2knits

Yarn Place Yarns Now In Stock

Greensleeves Spindles Have Arrived!

Learning to Weave on a Four Harness Loom - Fiber F...

May's WIP

The Tale Of The Inhumane Plumbing

On My Way to Being a Master Knitter - Mary Glendin...

Dog Gone News

May's Hand Dyed Yarn For The Fiber Club

End of the Year Guild Meeting and Photo

Mother's Day - Gwen Bortner Class at Tempe Yarn

Other Important Things



Make sure to visit the "What's New" and the "On Sale" section of the site as I add items here regularly! Join the Facebook Fan Club and be able to chat with other OPYF fans.  Read The Blog about all of the new items that are being added to One Planet all the time -I have many new yarns, fibers, patterns and more from around the world.  Please join the Ravelry group!  If you haven't joined yet, please do and then post an introduction on the thread titled  "Introduce Your Self!".And please join the mailing list for monthly special offers and news!  I send out at least one monthly newsletter with different offers each month. I never share your name or private information. I use it only for the newsletter.
Best Regards,
Karen
OPYF

I've Been Meaning To Do This, Thanks For The Idea!

One of my customers said to me earlier this year "Karen, you do not have a category for yarns by weight.  I do not want to go through all the pages to look for the right size!"  She was right!  Patterns are shown by yarn weights, but yarns were not.  I have now corrected the situation.

My groupings are a little off from the Craft Councils guidelines, so please use your best judgement when you read the description of the yarn gauge.  Here is a link to the new page - Yarns by Weight.

Regards,
Karen
OPYF

The Best Laid Plans - Mary Glendinning

The other day I was at The Fiber Factory and Susan, one of the owners, told me that a student of mine had come in with a problem with a sweater she had been working on. This sweater has been the bane of her existence for some time. Originally she had come in and worked with Lori, a wonderful knitter and instructor in the store. Later she joined a class of mine and we continued to work on the sweater.  We did all the usual things before she started - we measured her, picked out yarn, knit a gauge swatch, figured out the cast on, all the usual "safeguards".

However, when she came back and talked to Susan the sweater was way too big.  They rechecked the gauge and found that her gauge had changed significantly during knitting.  So how can this be?  Well, unfortunately it can be....  One of my favorite quotes from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's book "At Knit's End" is as follows:

I know this will come as a shock to some of you, knitting is a bit of a gamble.  it is possible that you can knit a swatch, wash and measure it, carefully calculate your gauge, absolutely study a pattern, execute it with patience and perfection...and still end up with something unexpected.  This element of risk is what keeps the more adventurous of us knitting.    -- I will try to stay connected to my cheerful  sense of adventure the next time an absolutely perfect sweater grows by 3 ft the first time I wear it.


It is difficult for many knitters to understand that knitting is not a precision sport.  Sometimes things happen that we least expect or cannot predict.  No matter how experienced or talented a knitter, these things happen.  Yarn is a funny thing.  It can grow while we are knitting, or after the garment is complete.  Different yarns have different properties, and, try as we might, we may not have all of them figured out.  So, along with our students or customers, we are surprised when something like this happens.   It is frustrating for the knitter to be sure.  None of us want to see this happen and we do everything we can to make sure it doesn't.  But even after we have taken all the steps, knit a gauge swatch, wash it, block it, let it hang to see if it will stretch, we cannot totally predict results.  So many other factors like tension and the  way you knit have a direct impact on the finished product.

Yes, we hope we figured out our knitters problem with her ever growing sweater.  But as Stephanie says
"knitting is a bit of a gamble".

Do you have any growing or shrinking sweater stories?  We'd love to hear them.

Regards,
Mary Glendinning
OPYF

New Patterns From c2knits

It was time to restock again form c2knits, but wait!  There are some new patterns.  Just in time for summer.  Ahhh.....

Regards,

Karen

OPYF

Yarn Place Yarns Now In Stock

I added in a new company to the store.  Yarn Place is based here in Phoenix.  It is owned by Lynn Lam.  I asked Lynn how she got started in the yarn business-

Lynn learned to knit when she was about 7 years old in Beijing, China.  The whole community knitted.  Lynn was just handed a pair a needles and told to go knit, so she did.  Everyone in her family knits.  There were no patterns, they just would look at the yarn and start knitting.  I find that incredible.  

Lynn moved to the United States many years ago.  She was living in Sunnyvale, California.  Her kids were in school, she had no job, but something sparked her interest.  Lynn found out about recycled silk. Silk fabric that is left over from Sari production in India was being sent to Nepal.  The women in Nepal needed an industry for those that were single moms or out of work.  They are spinners.  They take the Sari silk and spin it into yarn.

Lynn was so intrigued by this that she went through trouble of finding out how to purchase from the co-op in Nepal.  She received the shipment just in time to set up at the very first Stitches West.  She sold out in 2 days!

She was hooked, but she needed more variety of product.  She went home to her neighborhood in Beijing.  There is a small yarn making factory there that her friends work in.  She arranged with them what she thought she wanted to sell and the rest, as they say, is history.  She opened a knitting store in Sunnyvale, but last few years she closed it down and moved to Phoenix.

Yarn Place is a small scale company.  The only employee is Lynn.  She supports her community in Beijing with the sale of the yarns from the factory.  No bleach is used in the production of any of her yarns.  All of the Merino used in Yarn Place yarns is Australian Merino.

Vivace

Graceful

Adagio

These patterns are here at OPYF, but not listed on the site yet.  Please email to order the patterns.

Heartbeat Sweater

Damselfly using Adagio

Regards,

Karen

OPYF

Greensleeves Spindles Have Arrived!

I have been looking to add new artists to the spinning part of OPYF.  It has taken me the longest time to find the type of woodwork I was seeking.  I eventually found Elizabeth Dailey of Greensleeves Spindles.  She makes wonderful spindles using beautiful woods.  As Elizabeth and her husband Bart have said -

Breathtakingly beautiful drop spindles made from the finest exotic hard woods available. For every spinner, from novice to expert.

Need I say anymore?  Just look at these spindles!

Happy Spinning!

Regards,

Karen

OPYF

MINE!

Learning to Weave on a Four Harness Loom - Fiber Factory

This is the tale of my learning to weave on a four harness loom in less than a week at my LYS, The Fiber Factory and my very good teacher, Susan Clark.  I must apologize first that I forgot to pull out my camera while I was warping my board.  I took a picture anyway.  

Here is the warping board with the guide string still attached.  We followed the course of the string to warp on  3 yards of threads.  It took many trips.  We also learned to use crochet loops to hold groups of thread together and be able to count how many yards had already been wrapped.

Warping the actual loom.  One person holds the threads so they can be wrapped on the back beam with more even tension.

This is the other student's loom with the purple.

Threading the heddles.

Heddle eyes.

Sticks to help keep threads from feeding too fast.

Threading through the reed.

Pattern chart for treadling.

Front beam.

The patterns are emerging.  We were learning to do simple twills.

Removing the fabric from the loom.

Threaded shuttle.

Almost off!

Finished cloth.

I am now just waiting to wash this so it fulls and then I will cut off the loose ends and make a table runner with it.  Finished measurements are 10.5" x 63".

Happy Weaving!

Regards,

Karen

OPYF