NOT FOR SINGLES ONLY DIY NIGHT

Learn to crochet ...

Paint your own pot ...



Nosh ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Come play and socialize with us at Noella Brew Bar, Stitch Therapy and the Painted Pot for an evening of food and crafty fun. You chose -- pottery painting or crochet -- and we supply the rest! Bring a friend or come solo. You'll receive lessons and everything you need to leave with a project in progress. The evening includes a light meal and non-alcoholic drink of your choosing. Want a glass of wine? BYOB.

The cost for a night of fun and friends, old and new - $30.00

 

You can book your space by using PayPal to your left. Or, stop by and pay in person at either location at 72 Seventh Avenue between Lincoln and Berkeley.

 

PAINT! CROCHET! EAT! DRINK! What a great way to start the weekend

 

Date: Friday, October 12th 7-9 pm

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

With all the amazing fibers and colors available in the yarn world today the opportunity for creating your own cloth offers a wealth of freedom for expression. I knit these hats and swatches about six years ago when I was working in another yarn shop that offered a great variety so I had the chance to experiment with fibers and stitches.

The blue, white and red hat are a single ply -- practically roving -- and the multicolored swatch uses remnants of a light blue yarn for weaving, and hand dyed merino wool. Playing with my Harmony Guide, I picked a two color cable with the idea to knit ear flaps for a hat, add stitches for the back of the hat, and keep the two color cable going.

Well, they do somewhat resemble mutton chops, and the chevron stitch in the red and blue are a bit subtle, but this hat was a hit on the runway last year at the Brooklyn Conservatory where my friend Raphael used it in a fashion show. In muscles and swim trunks the model walked the runway with confidence and my hat covered the beautiful locks of an Adonis. This hat is one of a kind and what initially looked like a odd pairing of yarn worked in the end. Trying something out of the norm can create a fresh new twist on a classic stitch.

Crocheted Hat of the Month

The first crochet Hat of the Month is fashioned after an African wedding hat - and is the first of many crocheted hats to come from Stitch Therapy. I learned to crochet in shop class at Nathanial Horthorne JHS 74 in Bayside, Queens when I was in the sixth grade. This was about two years before they allowed girls to take wood shop and the boys had to learn how to cook and sew.

This hat is an any gauge any yarn hat - I have given the formula to this hat to many crocheters over the past four years, and have added a few stitch embellishments to make it entertaining. This pattern is in single crochet, but it can also be made with half double or double crochet stitching. Download the pattern in the sidebar.

I got schooled by a little green beret

You would think that owning a yarn shop would afford me the time to knit all day, but you would be wrong - the shop keeps me busy so I have to squeeze the knitting in where I can, but every day I find some time to knit, usually after the shop is closed. This summer a little beret named Portia by Louisa Harding caught my eye. I thought it would be a fun project for my customers to make, and that it would challenge their knitting skills.

I didn't love the fact that it was a flat knit but the beauty of the lace drew me in. I thought that with my 40 years of knitting experience this would be a quick, down-and-dirty knit. Wrong again. At first, I was going to knit it in a combination of yarns, and I got through the rib of the hat with no problem using a merino, silk, and cashmere blend with a mohair strand. The fabric had great body and the rib stood up on its own.

Beyond the rib was a row of increases and then it moved on to the lace. I began knitting two stitches together and yarning over in the sequence that was presented in the instructions -- okay, one row of the repeat down. Row two, not so fast - I didn't have enough stitches to complete the last repeat! I must have missed something on the last row. So, one stitch at a time I backed out of row two, reviewing the stitches from the previous row. No problem...or so I thought.

I ripped it out again and saw that row one again ended, but row two not so much. Reviewing row two with the pattern, I backed it out and knit it again. Okay, this time it worked. How that happened is a mystery. After ripping the hat five times I decided to Google to see if any one had completed this sweet little beret, and there they were -- pictures of two completed hats. It was definitely me having the problem, not the pattern.

Did I mention that I had emailed the Louisa Harding website to see if there were errata on Portia? The next day I came in to an email from Louisa Harding herself, letting me know that the pattern was indeed correct, and giving me instructions on how to read the [ ]'s *'s and ( )"s.

Two sentences into the email and here comes my ego. I have been knitting for over 40 years and trust me, I know how to read stitch instructions. The name of the shop is Stitch Therapy - this is where the name stems from -- being comfortable with your knit and purl combinations to execute a stitch pattern and not being afraid to attempt a beautifully challenging garment pattern. So I was ripping the beret out for the seventh time.

Okay - back to Louisa -- her email included a lace chart to use with instructions on how to read the stitch repeat -- and to not repeat the first knit one. Well, my friends, I was rusty, rusty, rusty in the art of translating the legend on a knitting instruction. Thanks, Louisa Harding, for taking the time to explain.

Three berets later (two for friends and one for the shop) I still love this knit and would do it again, now that I have mastered it.