Advertiser Spotlight: Purlescence

We usually like to write our Advertiser Spotlight posts on Mondays, but seeing as our Summer 2010 issue will be going live that day, we thought we’d be ahead of schedule

Purlescence is a lovely online shop that focuses on luxury yarns, needles and other accessories. Robynn Weldon started the business back in 2006 wanting to be the first call for unusual, beautiful knitting and crochet supplies, supporting the finest craftspeople working in the knitting field, and to bring you exciting original patterns.

Purlescence brings you beautiful hand-dyed yarns, including Vinni’s Colors, which was featured in our Spring 2010 Crochet Corner pattern, Gecko. The shop also has beautiful wooden needles and hooks, top notch purses and storage bags, and among other things, a nice assortment of patterns.

Purlescence is definitely worth a look-see. Go check it out!

Advertiser Spotlight: Loop

We are very happy to have Loop as one of our advertisers for the Spring 2010 issue. Loop started off in 2004 as a web-only shop and expanded it’s community by opening their sweet shop in Philadelphia, PA in 2005.

Loop offers a beautiful selection of yarns, including Lorna’s Laces, Blue Sky Alpacas and Spud and Chloe (some Petite Purls faves!); Blue Sky Alpacas and Spud and Chloe patterns among others; a lovely assortment of needles and cute accessories and notions.

Loop has a nice rewards program, offering their customers discounts both in the store and online.

A Petite Purls favorite, Susan B. Anderson recently made a trip to Loop. You can check out pictures of the shop on her blog.

Loop is the sister shop to Spool (Loop spelled backwards!), the sewing component to your Philly crafting needs!

Advertiser Spotlight: Signature Needle Arts

We are happy to have Signature Needle Arts in the spotlight this week. Signature Needle Arts has been a lovely issue sponsor since our Fall 2009 Issue and we think that their needles are beautiful.

Signature Needle Arts’ website is sleek and smooth, and very easy to navigate. They carry circulars, single points, double points, as well as accessories and patterns. Each needle is constructed from aircraft quality aluminum and each point is precision turned and hand polished allowing stitches to glide effortlessly. Their needles are made 100% in the United States and meet all state and federal environmental regulations. Their commitment to having the product made here in the United States ensures you will receive a safe high quality product. It also eliminates the concern of lead poisoning and improper waste disposal. They are also concerned with the treatment of workers in foreign factories.

Signature Needle Arts is happy to announce the re-release of their circular needles! They offer three sizes of needles (4″, 5″, 6″) as well as two different points (Stiletto, Middy), in various lengths of smooth, durable cables.  Their FAQ page is incredibly helpful in helping you choose which needle would be the best for you.

Two things that I really love about Signature Needle Arts, besides their beautiful needles are the straight needle cap style options and their sock blockers. Classy and cute at the same time!

If you haven’t checked out their products, I highly suggest you do. Thank you Signature Needle Arts for your support.

Advertiser Spotlight: Bundles of Joy Club

We are happy to introduce to you one of our newest advertisers, the Bundles of Joy Club! Danielle Romanetti is the mastermind behind Knit-a-Gogo, Inc., which opened back in 2006, offering knitting classes, parties and events to coffee shops and bakeries in the Metro DC area. Danielle was the sole teacher and operator until 2008,when she expanded to six teachers and three locations. Knit-a-Gogo finally found it’s permanent home in 2009 at fibre space, which is a full service knitting and crochet community offering yarn, needles and notions as well as classes, parties and events.

fibre space offers yarn clubs, and they are very excited about their newest addition, the Bundles of Joy Club! We think that Petite Purls readers are going to go crazy for this club. We asked Daniella about the club, and this is what she had to say:

Several customers asked for a version of our fibre girl club that was focused on baby projects, as many of their friends and family are expecting. I have never seen a yarn club focused on baby projects and decided that this would be a great way to get new original patterns in the hands of my customers. I contacted five designers: Sally Rainey,  Kristen Rengren, Courtney Kelley, Kate Gagnon & Tanis Gray to create original patterns for our club.

The club details:

Our club features bundles of joy for your bundles of joy!  Spoil the little ones in your life with a colorful and luxurious sweater,  dress or blanket. Clothing items will be sized from newborn to 18  months. Projects will be intermediate level:

Baby blanket in a custom color, exclusive to the club

Girl’s dress

Gender neutral baby sweater and booties

Boy’s sweater

This club is for the babes who love bold and colorful garments! The  fibres featured in our club are all hand dyed or kettle dyed and do contain animal fibres. Each package will contain an original pattern and enough yarn to  complete the largest size of the pattern. Because the yarns are hand  dyed and unique, additional yarn will not be available.

Shipments will begin in May and end in August, shipped by the 25th of each month.

The cost of the club is $225 and shipping is $20. In store pick up is an option as well.

So what are you waiting for? Shipments begin May 24, 2010, so go sign up!

A New Winner AND a New Giveaway!

We have chosen a new winner (via Random Number Generator) to receive Amanda Soule’s book set! Thank you to all that commented and follow us!

Drumroll please!

The winner is….. PATRICIA!!

Her comment, left on April 5th, 6:31am:

I am making a quilt with repurposed baby clothes, green, gorgeous and so sentimental!

Patricia, you have until TUESDAY APRIL 27th to contact us at infoATpetitepurlsDOTcom to redeem your winnings. I do hope we hear from you soon!

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The lovely people at Interweave Press have generously given us a copy of Ann Budd’s new book, Knitting Green to give away to one of our readers.

So here’s what you have to do (we like to make you work!):

We want you to spread the Petite Purls love! Tell a friend about our magazine, tweet about it, Facebook about it, better yet, write a blog post about us! We are coming up on our first anniversary with the magazine and are so happy with how many readers we have.  Our readership has at least tripled since we launched the magazine back in June 2009. But we want more!

Once you have shared your love for Petite Purls, leave a comment on this blog post telling us where we can find the love! You have until Monday May 3rd to leave a comment.

Show and Tell: Knitting Green

Knitting Green: Conversations and Planet-Friendly Projects

By Ann Budd

Interweave Press

$24.95 USD

We had hoped to include our review of Ann Budd’s new book, Knitting Green: Conversations and Planet-Friendly Projects in our Spring 2010 issue, as it fit perfectly, but due to the book’s release date we had to postpone our review until now. We are so happy to give this book it’s own special blog post!

Knitting Green is another wonderful book dedicated to educating knitters about using green materials to make beautiful, contemporary projects. This book covers it all: wearable garments, accessories, gifts and items for the home.

Ann Budd has put together a wonderful collection of top designers including Cecily Glowick MacDonald, Vicki Square, Veronik Avery, Nancy Bush and Pam Allen for this book.  There are also wonderful articles written by knitting “greats” such as Clara Parkes, Kristeen Griffin-Grimes, Kristin Nicholas and Amy R. Singer, among others.

This book is refreshing, offering a ton of information to help knitters make educated decisions about how they can make their craft more “green.” Clara Parkes’ article, “The Gray of Green: Context, Conflict and Condundrums in Green Yarns”  helps clear up some very common assumptions when it comes to understanding what is “green”, what is “eco-friendly”, and what makes a natural fiber “natural.”

Of course, the projects in this book are wonderful and there are definitely some that stand out: Eco Vest by Katie Himmelberg uses Eco-Wool. This unstructured vest would be a beautiful addition to anyone’s wardrobe as a transitional piece. I love that the shaping is achieved through cable stitches rather than traditional increases and decreases.

Katie has another great contribution to the book: the Better Baby Rattle. Katie used organic cotton for this adorable toy. One of the features I love about this rattle is that the handle is thin enough for even the tiniest of hands to be able to grasp. As a sweet touch, Katie added a little jingle bell inside (along with organic roving, of course) to peak the baby’s interest even more.

The Commuter Knapsack by Deborah Newton calls for naturally dyed cotton and uses such a beautiful combination of stitch patterns. Deborah added knitted straps, a drawstring opening and a flap with a button closure. A nice touch would be to add a cotton lining to the inside of the knapsack to keep your small items safe.

Another adorable project is the On-The-Go Bike Basket-Purse. Kim Hamlin has created a beautiful jute basket that is fully functional. You can attach it to your bicycle with the heavy duty snaps or you can use it as a purse. It is a perfect farmers market companion! Kim has added a beautiful piece of oilcloth to line the basket and to protect it from the elements. Jute is available at craft and hardware stores.

The Save-the-Stream Slippers by Kim Hamlin are perfect for those who do not like to wear outdoor shoes in the house. These great house slippers were knit out of naturally dyed wool but would also be a fantastic stash-busting project. Kim has offered a size chart ranging from a small child’s foot to men’s adult extra large. I love that she has added this right along with the pattern, so you don’t have to flip to another part of the book or use another reference entirely. These slippers would even be safe enough from slipping on hardwood floors, because garter stitch is used throughout, adding just enough grip. Kim includes optional embellishments such as embroidery and needle felting, if you so desire.

I could go on and list each pattern as a “stand out” pattern. I am always impressed with Interweave Press publications. They are always beautiful, and classy. Knitting Green is no different. I would definitely add this to the list of “must haves!”

We would like to thank Interweave Press and Joe Hancock, photographer for the use of these photos (copyright, Interweave Press).

Advertiser Spotlight: Elann.com

We are happy to welcome Elann.com to our list of sponsors for the Spring 2010 Issue. Elann.com has been the online knitting community’s standard for excellence in quality, value, and service since 1995. If you are not familiar with Elann.com, they strive to you offer you yarns you’ll love at prices you’ll adore!

Elann.com offers you the best of all possible worlds by offering you two distinct yarn collections:

The Market Collection: Elann.com offers name brand yarns at amazing discounts. From a host of internationally loved and trusted yarn companies, you’ll find the very best the knitting yarn market has to offer at Elann.com at greatly reduced prices. Often these are discontinued lines and colors, and occasionally, they are special volume purchases of current market favorites.

The Elann.com Collection: quality yarns, spun especially for Elann.com at fabulous savings. From renowned and trusted mills all over the world, we purchase top quality yarns in large volume, and then we pass the savings on to you. Through our own mill-direct collection, we strive to offer you the weights, colors and fiber mixes you want most, at the lowest possible prices.

Elann.com offers samples “snip” and sample skein subscriptions for their closeout and special purchase yarns each Tuesday. Customers love these subscriptions as the full purchase price of the subscription is available to them as electronic vouchers ($2.50 each) that can be applied to future yarn purchases (one $2.50 voucher can be used for every $25.00 of yarn).

This Baby Pinwheel Jacket was knit in Elann.com Peruvian Highland Wool.

Elann.com has launched a new, very beautiful version of their website and one of the areas that they’ve really been able to improve is the Project Gallery. The new project gallery supports multiple images per project and also allows their customers to submit their projects for contests and to vote on submitted projects for contests. They are currently running a contest until the end of April that we would like to encourage Petite Purls readers to join. Contest entries can be submitted to their Project Gallery, the only caveat is that the finished project needs to be made from Elann.com  Peruvian Highland Wool. They are offering 5 prizes of $100 elann dollar credits.

We Have Winners!!

Ahem! We are happy to announce our FOUR winners (via Random Number Generator) for our great giveaways!

By Megan Hall, March 20, 2010 @ 3:41 pm

Hi! Love this issue- I’m so ready for Spring.
I’d like to share my “green thing” with you. My son, who is 10 years old and an awesome knitter, uses yarn he finds at thrift stores and yard sales to make small blankets for the doggie beds at our local animal shelter. Rarely does the yarn ever cost more than 25 cents and he can make in entire blanket with just a skein or two.

Does it count if I already follow your blog? Hope so! Thanks!

Congratulations Meghan! You will be receiving Amanda Soule’s two books: The Creative Family and Handmade Home!

By Erika, March 22, 2010 @ 6:03 am

I just found you guys recently on Spud and Chloe, and I just joined you on Facebook, Ravelry, and signed up for the newsletter. I just can’t decide what I want to knit first! Thanks for the wonderful website!

By Jackie, March 31, 2010 @ 1:06 pm

I follow you on twitter, in the group on Ravelry and your blog  I hope I win!

Congratulations to Erika and Jackie! Each of you will receive three skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Multi Cotton. Now you two just have to duke it out for who gets the bold colors and who gets the pastels (tell me your preference and I’ll try to make it happen)

By Nadine B, March 26, 2010 @ 8:13 am

Great Issue!

1. Name 2 of the 4 ingredients Vickie Howell uses to render the color in her guilt-free dye. Alum and Beets

2. In Betz White’s book “Sewing Green”, what additional section has she added to the book, that will be of help in the search for green crafting materials? She has added sections highlighting eco-friendly companies selling new items.

3.What is “Gecko” and what was the name inspiration? It is a crocheted baby blanket inspired by the Lizard Ridge Blanket. But it is smaller so it is a Gecko.

4. According to Stefanie Japel, the designer of the “Tshirt Yarn Bib”, what does the term ”Upcycle” mean? Turning an old item into something better.

Congratulations Nadine B!!!! You are the winner of the Yarn Julep Swag!!

Ok! So all winners must email us at infoATpetitepurlsDOTcom with their addresses to receive their lovely prizes.  If we don’t hear from a winner (or more), we will choose another winner later next week.

Thanks everyone for playing!

Advertiser Spotlight: WEBS

We are thrilled to have WEBS: America’s Yarn Store as one of our lovely sponsors. If you have never visited their site, go immediately after reading this post. You will not be disappointed. The yarn selection is unbelieveable and it’s usually offered at fantastic prices.

WEBS, owned by Steve and Kathy Elkins, is a online store as well as a retail shop (and 21,000 sq. ft warehouse of yarny goodness!) in Northhampton, MA. Kathy and Steve host a weekly podcast, READY, SET, KNIT! where they discuss new yarns, sale yarns, other shop news as well as interviews and knitalongs.

Every year in April and May, WEBS celebrates its anniversary with a huge sale! This year marks the 36th year in business, and there will be loads of fantastic non-closeout yarns on sale! Staples like Cascade 220 ($4.89 per skein), Plymouth Encore ($3.69 per ball), and more will be on sale throughout April and May. WEBS will also have other great yarns that are on sale only for the month of April and only for the month of May!

The Anniversary Sale will run from April 1st – May 31st and it’s a great time to stock up on favorite yarns for the rest of the year!

The anniversary sale leads up to the biggest in-store event of the year – the Tent Sale! This year’s Tent Sale will take place on Saturday and Sunday, May 15th and 16th, and is definitely worth the trip if you’re within driving distance. Not only will they have the anniversary sale yarns available for purchase, they set up a huge tent in front of the store and you’ll find incredible deals on closeout yarns. On Saturday, May 15th WEBS also hosts the Fleece Market. Local shepherds set up around the perimeter of the parking lot and offer fleeces, yarns, and other goodies from their flocks!

Valley Yarns is WEBS own brand of yarn that is sourced from all over the world. These beautiful yarns are available at great prices. The newest addition to the Valley Yarns line is Greenfield – a 100% unmercerized Egyptian cotton available in a wonderful palette. This cotton yarn is perfect for warmer weather. Be sure to check out Valley Yarns exclusive line of patterns as well, including 301 Oriel Cardigan knit in Greenfield. This top-down cardigan is perfect for spring and summer, and since it’s top-down, you can customize it by making it longer, shorter, or adjusting the sleeve length!

The next WEBS catalog, out this summer is the annual Valley Yarns catalog and will be jam-packed with Valley Yarns, and exclusive designs. Sign up for a catalog here, or view WEBS’ catalogs online.

A Yarn Julep Giveaway!!

Yarn Julep is celebrating the Spring Issue of Petite Purls and still keeping it green…

We’re giving away a huge green inspired prize package for some lucky reader of the Spring 2010 issue. Included in the prize package is a complete set of Etimo crochet hooks and because we have just started carrying the steel sets, we will give the winner a choice of getting either the regular or steel set. Also included in the package is a handy Speed gauge tool manufactured by the Tulip company, those wonderful folks who make the Etimo hooks.

In keeping with the green theme we are adding a pre-owned, gently used Liz Claiborne bag to be used as a project bag. Yarn Julep is always on the lookout to repurpose handbags and totes into the ultimate crochet or knitting bag and this one just “screamed” project bag with its ample bottom gusset and organizer pockets. And lastly, the remaining unraveled and repurposed yarn from the Maggie Bean doll is included along with an assortment of Kool-aid packets so you can try your hand at dying with Kool-aid.

All you have to do is read the Spring Issue of Petite Purls, which you’ve probably already done. Then come back to the Petite Purls blog and answer the following four simple questions to be eligible for the drawing:

1. Name 2 of the 4 ingredients Vickie Howell uses to render the color in her guilt-free dye.

2. In Betz White’s book “Sewing Green”, what additional section has she added to the book, that will be of help in the search for green crafting materials?

3.What is “Gecko” and what was the name inspiration?

4. According to Stefanie Japel,  the designer of the “Tshirt Yarn Bib”, what does the term ”Upcycle” mean?