Pashmina Worsted.

I love it when I don't need to come up with a clever title for the post. Nope, this one is easy. Pashmina Worsted. As in the latest yarn base from the ever-so-popular Madelinetosh. It's a worsted weight version of the lovely Pashmina, a merino, silk and cashmere blend and comes in all your favorite colors, including the newest ones for Fall 2012.

L-R: rain water, foxglove, stephen loves tosh, mansfield garden party and grey gardens

Our shipment arrived last week and it's filled up* the right side of the back wall.  What a pretty sight!

And it's just in time for more gift knitting ideas (of course we won't tell if you decide to make this "gift" for yourself!)

Each skein is 210 yards, which is plenty for a hat or a pair of mitts and even a short cowl. Two skeins would give you enough for a long cowl or a hat and mitts. Here are some of our favorite patterns - all free on Ravelry!

Cowls
Honey Cowl - this is a pattern from Madelinetosh and it's our go-to choice for a variegated yarn. The texture and the slipped stitches really make the colors pop!
Gaptastic Cowl - another pattern with texture, this time a seed stitch. The pattern calls for bulky yarn and a size 13 needle; suggest doubling the Pashmina Worsted to use a size 13 needle (or a size 8 or 9 needle and more stitches - maybe 200 total - if you want to use a single strand)
Infinitude Scarf - with ribbing on one edge and rounds of stockinette and reverse stockinette, this pattern would work well for any of the colors.

Hats
Hermoine's Cable and Eyelet - love for a girl and this is a great project to learn cabling without a cable needle!
Knotty but Nice - and this for a guy (or a girl...love that!).

Mitts
One Cable Mitts - super easy (especially if you can cable without a cable needle!). This one works well for any of the colors.
Diamond Texture Mitts - also quick and easy...and no cables, but the texture stitch requires a little attention. And that texture might be lost in some of the variegated colors; this one works best with the semi-solids.

If you have any other pattern suggestions, please share them here, on Facebook or in our Ravelry forum. We can't wait to see what you knit!

*These photos are from Saturday.... the wall is a bit sparser now!

How Many?

As in "how many girls does it take to get 228* skeins of Madelinetosh Tosh DK ready for you?"

It took two on Monday (Kathy and Diane) to check in and sticker (and of course I wasn't there, so there's no photographic proof, but you can trust me!)

Then yesterday it took two more.  Marci cleared out space,

while Jessica sorted it all into piles.

Marci hung it on the wall...in color order of course.

So now we're up to four.

Plus one to take photos. Did you guess? it takes FIVE!

And now I'm thinking we need to rename that back wall the Madelinetosh Wall.

*12 skeins each of 19 colorways = a LOT of yarn!

What the UPS Man Brings.

I've posted before about my love for the UPS man who services the Cast-on Cottage route. Truly, a yarn store must deserve a special rating. Remember the day we had 29-ish boxes delivered? yeah. we're a tough crowd.

I always get a little twinge of excitement in my stomach when I pull up to the shop and see the truck.

and then I read the labels on the boxes sitting in the foyer. yesterday was a home run!

Yes, two boxes (50+ pounds if you're weighing, but really, ladies don't weigh do they?!) of madelinetosh. our latest shipment of vintage, tosh dk, pashmina and the new "sport" are now checked in, stocked and ready to knit.

dusk, well water, magnolia leaf, byzantine and antique lace

cousteau, well water and smokey orchid

We have new colorways - magnolia leaf and antique lace! - and tried and true oldies - byzantine, well water, dusk composition book gray. (and more) And of course, it's madelinetosh - it's all lovely!

Even More Madelinetosh!

...as in 108 POUNDS of it! By the way, that is two UPS boxes that are about four feet by four feet by four feet - we're glad our UPS delivery person is a strong guy (cute too!) because we can't lift a box that big!

This latest order, which arrived just this past week, includes Vintage, Merino DK, Merino Light and more colors of Pashmina.

First up, the Vintage, 200 yards of 100% superwash merino in a worsted weight (18-20 stitches over 4 inches).

a few colorways of Vintage up close

This yarn is great for accessory projects - our very own Kathy knit up these Susie's Reading Mitts in just one day! - because you can get a hat or a pair of mitts out of one skein. And it's washable!

But of course I love it for sweaters. It would be perfect for the February Lady Sweater, or Cassis (next up in my queue, in the Composition Book Gray colorway), or the Creature Comforts Cardigan.

Creature Comforts Cardi - seriously LOVE the back of this!

...and a few more colors up close

Then the Merino DK, another 100% superwash merino, single ply, 225 yards per skein that knits up to 20-22 stitches over 4 inches. The colors are - as you'd expect - simply gorgeous; and the single ply makes it super soft. Again...great for accessories - one skein would make a lucious cowl - and sweaters. I just added this one (Hooray Cardigan-> ) to my queue!

Merino DK

The Merino Light is also 100% superwash merino, single ply, but it's 440 yards of fingering weight. Yes, it screams "make me into a shawl" :-) and with that generous yardage, it would be perfect for just about any of those super-popular lace projects.

Merino Light

I've written about Pashmina before (and again!) but now we have more colors. Pretty isn't it?

Pashmina

I'm knitting the Fall Away Cardigan with the Cove colorway and I am loving it. The yarn is just yummy and the colors. oh my. (you can read more about my love affair with this project here).

Happy Knitting! ...and Happy Friday - a cold wet day like today seems perfect for knitting, doesn't it?

More Madelinetosh.

In my last post, I showed you the recently arrived Madelinetosh Sock. But I later learned I'd showed you only half the colors - yep, Theresa ordered 24 colors of Sock, not "just" 12!! Here's the other half. and a close-up of the gorgeous gray and pinky purple on the bottom row:

One of the great things about getting Madelinetosh at the shop, where you can see (and touch!) the yarn is that our shipments are all dyed at once. And Theresa always orders project quantities of the yarns. So if you want to make a sweater, say out of Pashmina

next up in my queue - the fall away cardigan in cove

or maybe out of DK

february lady sweater knit in kale

or Merino

tea leaves almost done knitting in olivia

or maybe even out of the Sock, you can buy skeins that match. And you probably won't have to alternate skeins (I hate alternating skeins!)

More Madelinetosh!

Thursday was an especially good UPS day - our long-awaited order of madelinetosh sock and DK arrived!

We have eight colorways of sock (celadon, composition book gray, fathom, fig, glazed pecan, olivia, tart and wisteria) and five of the DK (fathom,kale, nostalgia, tart, wisteria). These colors are truly gorgeous and a photo can't begin to capture their depth, but at least the sun came out...and I didn't get too many strange looks when I posed these skeins in our front yard!

a sampling of DK (left to right: kale, tart, wisteria, fathom)

and a sampling of sock (left to right: tart, glazed pecan, celadon, composition book gray, olivia, wisteria and fathom)

These yarns are incredibly popular - for good reason - they're soft, beautiful and washable! Check out the thousands of projects on Ravelry (sock and DK) if you're looking for inspiration. I haven't been able to decide where to start. Socks or a shawlette in the sock, or a February Lady Sweater in the DK?

Please share your projects with us on Ravelry. I've started a thread in our group to encourage a virtual conversation - photos, ideas, questions are welcome!