St Paddy's Day etsy Update!

We are super excited for our next etsy update!  Kristi has been dying up some new limited edition colors of Breathless which I can't wait to see.  She had some fantastic colors in the last update like:

Weathered

And Honeycomb

 

Join us starting at 6:00 am EST on March 17th to see what Kristi has created for our bit of St Paddy's Day fun update!

Sweater Fitness Workshop

Sweater Fitness Workshop We are delighted to be hosting the hugely talented and widely followed Anne Hanson of Knitspot fame! In Anne's popular Sweater Fitness Workshop, you will learn how to have the perfect sweater project every time! No more ill fitting sweaters, no guessing on what size to make or how to determine "ease". This 6-hour workshop will get you sweater ready and fit to knit the perfect sweater every time! Date: Friday, April 20 Time: 10am-5pm Location: Shalimar Yarns, 5917 Boyers Mill Road, New Market, MD Cost: $100, includes lunch and a skein of Shalimar Yarn Space is limited, so don't delay! For more information, including what you'll learn, materials needed, recommended skill level and directions, and a link to sign up please visit our website. About Anne and Knitspot: Anne is a lifelong knitter with a background in fashion and graphic design. In the early 70's, Anne began her love affair with knitwear design. She is the prolific design force behind Knitspot. Anne lives and works in Ohio with her husband and occasional knitwear model, David. Thanks for supporting small, independent fiber-arts businesses! Kristi Shalimar Yarns

It's Time for our Early Spring KAL!

Come in from the cold and join our Wishing for Spring February/Early March KAL! 

We have THREE great patterns to choose from.  We are so excited to introduce to you the Ashton Shawlette by Dee O'Keefe aka stevieland on Ravelry.

Ashton is a free pattern and is quickly growing in popularity.  Dee has included a tutorial on charts so if you have been hesitant to knit lace this is the perfect project to get you going.

Next we have the Multnomah Shawlette by Kate Ray aka hello-knitty on Ravelry:

This cute and quick to knit shawlette is an easy to follow pattern and looks great in semi-solid and variegated colorways.

Our paid pattern for this KAL is the Hitchhat by Martina Behm:

This super cute hat pattern is a match to the Hitchhiker Scarf.  There are several ways to wear this hat and it would be a great go to hat for those cold spring mornings!

Here are the details for the KAL:

Our cast on date is February 8 and the KAL will run through March 17. Please tag your project with ShalimarWishingForSpring  on Ravelry to be entered for our prizes! You can use either Zoe or Breathless for this KAL.

Prizes, we love prizes!

A skein of Breathless
A skein of Zoe
Your choice of a Shalimar Yarns Pattern!

Super Bowl Sunday is Super Coupon Day at Shalimar Yarns!

Super Bowl Sunday is Super Coupon Day in our etsy shop!

Our newest update on Sunday, Feb. 5th is going to have a Super Hot, Super Special limited edition colorway in Breathless. We love seeing your projects and we love it even more when you post them in our Finished Object Thread on Ravelry!

Post your FO in this limited edition colorway by April 30 and receive a coupon for 15% OFF

your next etsy shop purchase!

A Hat for your Honey - Worsted That is!

Have you been searching for the perfect hat pattern to use with Honey Worsted? The search is over!   Anne Hanson has designed a hat for everyone, the slofock.  The pattern has sizes to fit every family member and also includes a matching mitt pattern. 

Best yet it uses only one skein of our Honey Worsted!  Honey Worsted is our superwash worsted with a generous 250 yards.  It's machine washable with a soft and sqooshy hand, Honey Worsted is a versatile yarn for sweaters, accessories and afghans. Available in all 50 colorways.

 This versatile hat looks great knit up in both our variegated and Stonewash colorways.

Shown here in Black Truffle.

The brim can be folded up to keep ears extra warm when winter winds are blowing too.

I love all the ways this hat can be worn. Be sure to check out Anne's blog for pictures of David in his slofock.

Thank you to Anne for this fantastic design using Honey Worsted!

Cheers! ~ Lara

A New Tradition

Another year is upon us and once again we are handed another reason to reassess and regroup. I am a firm believer in stating and clarifying goals, particularly in writing. For me this is the first step in moving off the mark and giving myself the best chance of actually acheiving what I most desire. 

But this year I felt it was especially important for us as a family to make sure we were also accounting for what we were most grateful for. So Christmas morning when we took down our stockings and opened our presents, I suggested that before we opened each gift, we say one thing we were grateful for. It was totally spontaneous and of course Paul and Edie often suffer through my ideas, but it truly was nice to reflect for a moment or two before enjoying the loving exchange of gifts.

So, perhaps this little tradition will give root and someday my grandchildren will be tallying their blessings on Christmas morning.

A Happy and Peaceful New Year to all!



2012 is fast approaching and it seems as though 2011 has gone by in a flash.  It amazes me at how quickly time can go by when we aren't paying attention to it and how incredibly slowly it can move when we are in a hurry.  The passing of time can be measured in many ways.  It can be marked off day by day on a calendar, measured by the changing of the seasons, or the growth of a newly planted tree in the yard of your first house.  Knitting is a fantastic way to measure periods of time. The sock Im currently working on was started while waiting for an appointment, the heel while watching a movie and most the foot was completed at our knit group.  Knitting makes time pass more smoothly when we are waiting and brings us comfort at the same time. 

As 2011 comes to a close I am reminded of New Years past and looking forward to see what 2012 holds for us.  Have a Happy and Healthy Knit Filled 2012!



Come Join our Sock KAL!

We have an extended Sock Knit A Long running from December 7 thru January 25 on Ravelry.  The Holidays can be a busy time for all of us with gift knitting, baking, visiting family and friends and sometimes just having to wait in line.  We thought the perfect take a long knitting project would be socks and we have two great patterns to choose from. 

Capitola by IrishGirlieKnits is our paid pattern and Carrie has generously given us a coupon code for 20% off good until December 11.  She has a great blog by the way.  If you have a chance be sure to check it out!

Since we haven't really done any manly items for our KAL's we chose Manly Socks by Hannah Six for our free pattern.  Hannah has designed several patterns using Shalimar Yarns and we love her designs!

The Anti Black Friday

This fall we've been pretty busy. Not necessarily more busy than in other years past, but busy in such a way that we have been able to acheive more balance in all areas of our life.

For instance, since Paul and I closed our retail yarn shop, Eleganza Yarns, we have been combining our weekends with a fun activity (these have ranged from biking day trips, to local hiking, to sightseeing in DC and Alexandria, VA.) to a home activity (these have ranged from organizing our files, papers and whatnot, to mucking the run-in and raking leaves). Now not every weekend is structured and we certainly are able and willing to rearrange our priorities as each weekend presents itself. But every weekend is now viewed as time that we can't get back, which makes it more precious indeed.

So this fall the media hype surrounding Black Friday sounded louder, more jangling and certainly more of an infringement into family and holiday time. Maybe it's me. And certainly it is easy for us to bypass the excellent prices on big screen TV's when we have so many other and more pressing ways to spend our money.

This seemed a good way to start a new family tradition...the Anti Black Friday. So Paul, Edie and I decided to spend the day at the National Zoo in Washington, DC. The weather was expected to be stellar (high 60's and sunny) so it was not to be wasted on anything but an excellent adventure.

It has been years since any of us had been to the zoo. It was a warm, sunny, totally atypical day for late November, but we were loving it.

We couldn't tear ourselves away from the year-old lion cubs rolling, pouncing, and lolling in their enclosure. There were 7 lion cubs born to two different lionesses last year and they are a lovely family unit.

And a trip to the National Zoo is never complete without a visit to see the Pandas.

And how often in your lifetime are you going to be able to go to an Elephant birthday party? Kandula was born at the National Zoo 10 years ago, and his handlers had the perfect party for him, complete with watermelon, carrots, squash and fruit flavored frozen dessert!

So, if you are ever in DC visiting, be sure to visit your National Zoo. Admission is FREE since it is part of the Smithsonian.

Cyber Monday Sale-a-paloza!

We have some awesome Cyber Monday deals on our

Etsy Shop

through midnight tonight!

Take advantage of Zoe Sock at 20% OFF and our

DYE TO ORDER luxury base

-so new it hasn't even been named yet-

an incredible 60% Merino/20% Alpaca/20% Silk single ply,

DK weight, also 20% OFF

And check out our growing list of retailers on our website!

Knitting

Each year as Thanksgiving approaches, thoughts of what I am most thankful for fill my mind.  Knitting, which is a major part of each day in our house was one of the first things I thought of.   The feel of soft fiber sliding through my fingers, the rhythm of the needles and watching a project grow provide a constant comfort and soothing feeling.  I have met many of wonderful people through knitting - quite a few are now close friends.  Knitting fills the gaps in time where I would otherwise be waiting for appointments or sitting and watching traffic go by on road trips where I am a passenger. It gives me a sense of purpose and feeling of accomplishment.

What are you thankful for?

Sale!

It doesn't happen often that we have a sale and we are really excited about it!  Homage is on sale in our etsy shop for a limited time at just $22.00 which is $4.00 off of the regular price.  Homage a luxurious 3-ply sock yarn with a wonderful soft hand and drapiness.  With 80% Super Wash  Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Silk it's soft enough to wear next to your skin.  Each skein generous 400 yards.  Be sure to get yours before it's gone!

Congratulations to Sandy Gold!

Congratulations to Sandy Gold whose hairpin lace original design won

second place in the Accessories Division of the 2011 Crochet Guild of America’s Design Contest.

Sandy used Shalimar Yarn's Breathless in Oyster for this fantastic design.  Sandy can be found on Ravelry as SandyG1001

This stunning shawl is being modeled by  Edie Eckman.

It's Fall KAL Time!

It's time for our official Fall KAL! These two patterns would be perfect for Holiday gifting or to keep for yourself (shhhh we won't tell if you don't!).

Our paid pattern is Clarus by Laura Nelkin. Find Clarus here to purchase on Ravelry or buy directly from Laura's web site here

Our free patten is Fallberry Mitts by Anne Hanson. Find Fallberry as a free pattern on the new fall Knitty.com here.

Choose one of the many colors of Breathless or Zoe Sock and please tag your project with "ShalimarFall2011"

The KAL will run from October 19 thru November 20. Great prizes, fun and support await you now!
Join now on our Shalimar Yarns Group on Ravelry!

Knitspot's Fall in Full Color's Club

We are so honored to be a part of the Knitspot Fall in Full Color Club.  Anne Hanson designer extraordinaire and author of the Knitspot blog collaborated with Kristi to create this exclusive colorway in Breathless for the club called Hazel Leaf. 

Anne designed a fabulous shawl pattern that can be knitted in two sizes.  The pattern is reminiscent of the Hazelnut tree near her home. The the yarn colors reflect the color of the Hazelnut leaves in early fall.  The Hazeline pattern is exclusive to the Fall in Full Colors Club for one year.  If you aren't in the club, you may want to add it to your que.  It's fantastic and would be worth the wait.

teresat2t's Hazeline

Smaller version of Hazeline

photo courtesy of Knitspot

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Evelyn on winning First Place and Best in Show at the Great Frederick Fair with her Jaali Shaw in Breathless Sequoia!

The stitch detail in this pattern is beautiful.  Kitman Figueroa designed the pattern and it can be found on Ravelry.

Evelyn also won Second place with her Anjou in Zoe Cayenne

Be sure to visit Evelyn's blog and see her other entries in the Great Frederick Fair. 

Our Etsy Shop is Live!

We are having our Grand Opening Celebration!

Welcome to our new Etsy shop where you will find new and unique yarns, new colorways before they are released, and the occasional one-of-a-kinds.

Get 20% OFF your order for our Grand Opening. Use coupon code: WELCOMERAVS and the coupon is good for all orders today through midnight Sunday, September 11th.

 Happy Shopping!

PLY Party!

If you are in the Baltimore area this weekend be sure to stop by the PLY Party (Peace Love Yarn) at Lovely Yarns on Sunday.  We will have a booth set up with our yarns including all new lace weight Pastille and fingering weight Homage. 

Clarus

Laura Nelkin has designed a fantastic shawl using Shalimar's Breathless.  If you leave a comment on Laura's blog by September 3rd at high noon you will have a chance to win the pattern and Breathless to knit it!

  Breathless has a generous 420 yards per skein and is a blend of super wash merino, cashmere and silk.

Our Newest Member: Lara!

We're giddy here at Shalimar because we are finally able to announce our new Director of Social Media, our good friend and ally, Lara Smoot!


This is terribly exciting time for us since we are still a relatively small company...namely myself, Paul and my daughter Edie as occasional assistant. But since 2007 we have continued to grow our retail shops and our yarn line. With all we have on our plate, having Lara spearhead the social media will allow us to focus on our core business...developing new colorways, new yarn bases and partnering with designers for new pattern support.

Lara will work on keeping our Twitter, Facebook, and Ravelry group updated. She will also be writing an occasional Blog post, which will be lots of fun. And she has has great ideas for KAL's on the Shalimar Rav group, so stay tuned.

Paul and I first met Lara, and her husband Andy, at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival several years ago. I admired a hand knit shrug she had on and from that point forward, it was instant friendship! Maybe it's that slight southern drawl, or maybe it's because there is absolutely nothing contrived or insincere about Lara, but she immediately became someone I knew that I would like to call my friend. And now I have the great honor of partnering up with her on all things Shalimar!


Besides being an extraordinarily talented (and prolific) knitter, Lara has a wonderful eye for color, style and a keen sense of "the knitting now". Lara is also a talented spinner, having won the Leslie Woodward and Alice Lohr Awards. With a background in marketing and equestrian clothing design, we know Lara will be a huge asset to the Shalimar Yarns team. Lara and her husband Andy (a great guy and yarn enabler extraordinaire) live in Lynchburg, Virginia.


She can be found on Ravelry as SpinningLara and on her blog: Sock Knitting Lara

You'll find Lara super warm and friendly and very accessible. Give her a shout out any time!

Welcome Lara to Team Shalimar Yarns!

Chance of Showers

Now that it is officially spring and well on the way to summer, we have some lovely things happening. This double rainbow photo was taken by Paul from the back porch last week. The thundershowers were quick and left us with some awesome and ominous clouds overhead. But the loveliest was this, with my neighbors barn sandwiched in between the rainbow arcs...



And this was what was on the other end, just over the treetops of the back yard...



Clouds like this have been our regular afternoon view for the last week or more! So much rain and everything is green beyond belief and way overgrown...



Enjoy your spring weather!

My Own Little Romi Trunk Show

I really love Rosemary Hill's designs, so it was a great treat to be able to have my friend Evelyn work up a few of Romi's very lovely patterns in Shalimar.

This is the very popular, very fast knit, Brandywine Shawl. We had it done up in a bright spring color-Corfu-in Zoe Sock. How wonderful is this with a crisp white blouse? Evelyn said she really loved this knit...so much she started one for herself in the same color!



This is Celaeno worked in Breathless, in the new Wisteria colorway. I love the little beads in this one and the flower motif. It is stunning and Breathless, with it's cashmere and silk, is the perfect luxury yarn for it.



I'm actually almost done with Elektra, which I've thoroughly enjoyed. I'll post pics as soon as I have it blocked. And I'm about halfway through with Taygete, another really fun knit.

I'll tell you a secret about Romi's patterns...they have both text and graphs (which completely satisfies my written preference) and they really go fast! Definitely check out her designs and consider joining one of her KAL's on her Ravelry group. You'll have a blast!

Harvest Moon Over Corfu

I really love designer Heidi Kirrmaier's work, so when Harvest Moon came out, I knew that I would make it eventually.



So a few days ago I dyed up a batch of Honey Worsted in Corfu, a deep Mediteranean blue with overtones of black. If I knit fast, this could be the perfect late spring sweater to throw on when the mornings and evenings are still a bit nippy.

One of the mods I am making is to put a zipper in place of the one button at the bottom of the garter ridge yoke. It is totally more my style and functionality. Anyway...I'm loving all this delicious stockinette stitch on US #8's. Just the break I needed from the two shawls I am 'almost' done with.

Next week I have a surprise to announce. It involves new yarns, that's all I can tempt you with...but it's very fun. :) Please check back!

Vite Cowl

While we are on the cusp on spring, it is still wintery in some parts of the country (and world), so with that in mind, I released Vite Cowl, a free one-skein pattern that is at least worthy of a couple of Lifetime movie's knitting.

And if it is a balmy 75o in your neck of the woods, check out your stash and start working on some holiday gifts. We used one skein of Cascade's super bulky Magnum with 123 yards.

You can download Vite here for free on Ravelry. Enjoy!



And because this is such a lofty yarn worked in a lacy pattern, you can wear it doubled around your face without feeling sufficated. Or wear it long and swingy, which is an adorable fashion now.

Welcome New Web Site!

Our new long awaited Shalimar web site is live! We're really tickled with it and hope you are too.

Here you will find descriptions of our yarn bases, photos of our colorways (a few more coming), pattern support, retail locations, and more.

It has all of our new colorways...several of my favorites...

Oyster...


and Shamrock...

Safe to say that I'm in a springy mood today and just happy I have something to cross off my TO DO list! These great lyrics by Sara Bareilles seem appropriate...

Sing it Sara

There's too many things I haven't done yet
There's too many sunsets I haven't seen
You can't waste the day wishing it'd slow down
You would have thought by now, I'd have learned something

Sara Bareilles
Many the Miles

Welcome Late Winter!

So it's time to quickly work up those little cowls, fingerless gloves and last minute scarves, folks. Punxsutawney Phil did NOT see his shadow. I think this may be the first time in a few years! Relief may be in sight...

So inbetween all the late winter projects, consider what your first spring project will be! I jumped the gun a bit and already finished mine. This is Folded, by the talented Veera Välimäki. My Folded was worked in Zoe Sock, in a new Stonewash colorway called Thistle.

Folded is knit bottom up and has a clever little gathering at the middle bust. It's adorable and a fun and quick knit. Satisfies the spring knitting beast for sure!



Thistle:



And we've been working on some new Stonewash colors, bringing our new total to over 50! These will all be available to view when the new website launches in a few days.

Glacier...








...Sequoia










And Lumberjack...






to name a few!

So watch for the new site soon and in a few days I will be releasing a new fingerless mitts pattern that is perfect for one of those last Late Winter Projects!

Happy Knitting!