Happy 3rd Birthday Koigu Mini Skein Club!
A birthday rolls around in April - the Chiagu Mini Skein club is 3 years old!
In addition to the six mini skeins for April:
All April club members received two colors of Koigu KPM mini skeins , a semi-solid fingering weight yarn:
I was leaning toward a different birthday gift but as I was testing it out it stopped working! I'm planning on adding the KPM colors to the Chiagu website and I thought "Why not send out more yarn in April?". I fell in love with two colors that I never buy for myself - the curry yellow and the tomato red. Koigu tends to do that you know, make you look at colors with a fresh eye.
Enjoy club members, and let me know what you are doing with your mini skeins!
Vogue Knitting Live 2015 Recap
(Yes, this post would have been up a couple of days ago if not for the fact that I lost it while I was in final proofread mode. I gave myself a timeout before writing it again).
Vogue Knitting Live and I have a bit of history with one another. I was a volunteer for the first VKLive, working the Marketplace entrance. I worked for a vendor in 2012. The third year I injured my leg and missed all the classes I paid for. And last year I barely spent time in the Marketplace because I took machine knitting classes.
So when VKLive 2015 was announced I considered volunteering again. Then I thought about taking classes. But as New York Sheep and Wool (aka Rhinebeck) and the holidays rolled around I dragged my feet about doing something at VKLive. Well as fate would have it it was good that I hesitated: at the last minute my friend Marsha and I got a Marketplace booth.
Marsha sells stitch markers and jewelry at her Etsy store, One Geek to Craft Them All. I had just acquired Chiagu and I had the inventory from my Etsy store, Sooze In The City. We both had inventory and we had one month to make this work. Up until this point we had shared a table at various holiday fairs but this was our first time working a booth. We had to up our game and I'm glad we took the risk.
Here is the Chiagu side of the booth:
It was an exciting experience. I loved meeting and talking to all the current Chiagu customers (thank you for visiting!) And we enjoyed meeting all the new knitters and crocheters who found us. The Tramonto Shawl was a big hit and the Runners Watchcap and Eldridge Hat patterns sold well. I almost out of everything from my Etsy shop. And quite a bit of Koigu yarn found new homes.
I want to mention our lovely neighbors, MollyGirl yarns and Bar-Maids skincare. They helped us stay fed and sane. The Bar-Maids owner provided insight on doing these shows and MollyGirl provided a view of gorgeous yarn:
And even with short notice we managed to have guests visit us on Saturday. Many thanks to podcasters Maria (SubwayKnits) and Kristin (YarnGasm) for coming by the booth. Maria gave out buttons and Kristin gave out mini skeins of her yarn, Voolenvine.
We were busy most of the weekend. On Sunday Marsha and I took turns walking around the Marketplace and got some shopping done.
I picked up a pattern writing book by Kate Atherley (you can always pick up tips from one of the technical editors of knitty.com), an Orla Kiely print pouch from Splityarn and a couple of Hiya Hiya 11" circular needles for knitting sleeves, socks, and baby items:
But my absolutely favorite purchase is this wood yarn bowl from the Wools of Whimsy:
I love that the bowl is signed, numbered and that there are two holes to rest your needles. Wools of Whimsy provided the bowls for the Yarn Tasting area and they were able to sell the bowls when VKLive was closing on Sunday.
Well that's it. I've been following up on some of the contacts I made and I've updated the shop's Koigu inventory. In the next few days I will post new colors for the Loreley Kits and the Freemans Alley Kits. And I'm working on getting the February Koigu Mini Skein Club packages out. See you next week.
Vogue Knitting Live 2015 - Meet the Podcasters
As Marsha and I are setting up our booth (#118, 5th floor, Marriott Marquis Times Square) at Vogue Knitting Live we are happy to announce that two podcasters are visiting us on Saturday, January 17, Noon to 1pm.
Podcasters Maria MN from Subway Knits and Kristen Lehrer from YarnGasm are visiting us for a Meet n Greet. Stop by and get to know these talented ladies! Kristen hand dyes beautiful Voolenvine yarn and is bringing some mini skeins to give out. Maria's latest fiber endeavor is creating a "How to Read Japanese Knitting Patterns" class.
I'm stocking the booth with kits (Loreley Scarf, Freemans Alley Mitts, and the Runners Watchcap), samples, patterns, notebooks, and drawstring project bags from my Etsy shop, Sooze in the City. And I'm bringing skeins of Koigu! I hope to meet a few of you.
And whenever I can leave the booth I'll posted entries and photos onto the Chiagu Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as a recap blog post on Monday.
2015 - Time for a change
January 2015 marks a change in ownership at Chiagu.
Ivete Tecedor, founder of Chiagu, is currently concentrating on her new business venture Gotham Quilts. Operating two online businesses is quite time consuming, so much so that Ivete chose to sell Chiagu to me.
Ivete and I have many things in common: we both are long time knitters, we worked in popular NYC yarn stores and have taught hundreds of people how to knit. We also have two hobbies in common since I am a quilting novice. (Imagine the yarn and fabric stash!)
How much will Chiagu change? Not much - in fact I really hope to build upon Ivete's work. Many of the current patterns are Ivete's original designs and they will stay with Chiagu. We're also keeping Ivete's blog entries which are all the entries prior to Dec 31, 2014. I first got to know Ivete through her blog and I'm glad to keep her lively and informative posts.
As for me, I'm working on new patterns for Chiagu. And I look forward to curating beautiful handpainted and hand-dyed yarn for the Mini Skein Club. The January package is almost ready for the trip to their new homes.
And today you get two blog posts because Chiagu will be part of a fun event in mid-January. Read on....
November's featured pattern
It's a new month, so time for a new pattern to go on sale!
This month, I'm featuring my Leila Shawl and Shawlette pattern:
This is one of my favorite designs ever and also one of the best sellers. I've knit at least 6 of these to give away as presents! You can see them all on Ravelry if you're curious.
You probably already know that I have think of diamonds and zig-zag patterns, so it's no surprise that the motif is featured in this pattern as well. I love the symmetry in the lines and the way the pattern grows as the shawl grows.
This pattern looks great in handpainted yarns like Koigu KPPPM and works with either highly-variegated or subtly-shaded colors. It would also look great in a glowy almost-solid like one of Madelinetosh's colors, or if you want to go for a more classic look, knit this in a solid in a luxurious neutral like beige or silver.
This pattern includes instructions to make both a full-size shawl and a shawlette. I love the heft of the full-size shawl in this pattern. It's really cozy to wear a shawl that covers your back fully. I have gotten a ton of wear out of the blue one you see above.
The shawlette is a quick knit that adds the perfect splash of flare to your outfit:
The shawlette knits up so quickly, it makes for a perfect holiday gift. I can't imagine any woman who couldn't use one of these in her wardrobe!
So what're you waiting for? Get your copy of the Leila pattern now! It's on sale for just $2.50 until the end of November 2013.
