Sleeping through the night

Robby is over 6 months old now and he is finally sleeping through the night consistently. He was a very hungry boy until he was about 6 months old. He still is hungry all day long, but I guess he gets enough to eat during the day now that he is eating solids.

Here is a picture of one of his baby blankets.

I made it with Knit One Crochet Too PJs . I almost always put fringe on my baby blankets. Babies NEED fringe. It is comforting for them to squeeze it in their hands. Robby needs to squeeze something in his hand when he falls asleep. Some babies like to hold it and brush it against their cheeks. Some babies like to finger the ends of the fringe. Some babies like to suck on the fringe. Robby likes to squeeze the whole blanket and smoosh it into face. He rubs it into his face when he is tired and pulls it over his head.

Baby Blankets make the best baby gift. You don't have to worry about them not fitting. You can never have too many blankets. They can use them for years. My daughter Chelsea is still using her baby blanket at 4. My nephews at 4 and 6 still use their baby blankets.

If I were sure it wouldn't wake him, I would take a picture of him actually sleeping with his blanket.

Felted Bags

I'm always amazed by the creativity of our customers. One of our customers sent me an email today with a link to her site: www.maddyandmedesigns.com These felted bags are beautiful, bright and fun. Check it out!

Rainy Day

Check out this beautiful entrelac bag made by one of customers Kathleen. She made a bunch of these for a craft show in Maplewood. We had it for sale in our shop for a while, but no nibbles. She ended up giving it away. She may still have more if anyone is interesed in buying one. It's made with Brown Sheep Lambs Pride Worsted.

It was raining pretty hard today. I thought we wouldn't be busy today but I think we ended up getting more people than we do on a beautiful sunny spring day. Still all this news coverage of the big nor'easter is terrible for retail. It's just raining! You won't melt! I did have time today to update our class schedule for the store today. Please join us!

Happy Easter

I finished my Ruffle bag today. I ended up doing the I-cord. It goes all the way around the bottom of the bag to help it keep its shape. One of our customers came in to the store with this bag, and I had to copy it. I put my own little twist on it with the i-cord.
If anyone is interested in the free pattern, let me know and I will put it online. I still need to put in a lining and one of those magnetic closures.


Big changes on our website over the weekend. We are now listing our stock levels for yarn on the website. I hope this will result in fewer surprises for our customers when they order something and then find out later that it wasn't in stock. I am excited about the change and I think it will improve our customers experience when placing their orders on line.

Happy Easter everyone!

Happy Passover

The store has been pretty slow the last few days. We spent some time today straightening up and the shop looks really neat! Come check it out!

Last night I stayed up late making Chicken soup and a carrot casserole for Passover. My daughter and husband made the matzah balls. We went to a friends house for a seder tonight. The matzah balls were definitely sinkers, but everyone said they liked them. On the way over to their house, I managed to cast off the ruffle for the ruffle bag and it looks pretty nice. I just have to decide whether I want to make an i-cord handle or do something else.

Tomorrow we are going to my parents house for the second seder. I'm bringing my mom the carrot casserole, a desert and some Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece because she has decided to make that adorable tank top from knitty. I can't wait to see her in it!

Ruffle Bag

A customer returned some Indiecita Baby Alpaca Grande yarn, so I thought I would try to make something with it. It was already frogged, so the yarn is a little fuzzy. This doesn't look like much. So far it is just a rectangle. I plan to pick up the stitches around the top and add a ruffle.

Do you ever return yarn to your LYS? I'm surprised how many returns we get. I find it is easier to sell the yarn if people know they can bring it back. You don't want to run out, but you don't want to have too much left over either. I draw the line at 60 days from time of purchase and the yarn must be in its original condition. What are the return policies at your yarn stores?

Kathleen's Birthday

I apologize for the long break between posts, but I've been very busy!

Tonight in our Thursday night knitting circle, we celebrated Kathleen's birthday. Kathleen is a regular on Thursday nights, and she is a fixture in our store. She comes in several times a week, and is one of our most prolific knitters. She has made several beautiful entrelac bags, baby blankets, scarves, sweaters and more. Kathleen is a true yarn-aholic. We got a chocolate birthday cake for her and here she is about to make a wish ( I bet she wished for more yarn!)


Yesterday we received some new Louisa Hardings in the store. The Glisten and Coquette is unpacked and on the shelves already. Kathleen bought Glisten in Silver for her birthday which I think is the best color.
Dianne started swatching the Coquette and it is beautiful. I'm thinking I might use the Glisten to make the Stitch Diva Sahara sweater.

Looks like it might be a snow day tomorrow. I hope everyone gets lots of quality knitting time while they are snowed in!

New Spring Yarns

It's hard to think about Spring when it is 9 degrees outside. But we are getting some new yarns in the store that is a taste of what's to come. It's always exciting when we get new yarns in the store. We have already started knitting with the Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton. It is the softest pure cotton yarn I have felt. Holding a ball of yarn in your hand is like holding is like a cotton ball. We also received the Berroco Love It today. It's going to be a great all purpose yarn.

I'm thinking of making the Stitch Diva Sahara sweater for the spring. It looks like a fun project!

More later...

Oscar night

We had alot of people come in to the store today to get projects to do while watching the Oscars. It's a perfect night for knitting - the snow is falling outside. My husband made a fire, and we are watching the show. Isn't Brad Pitt there? I haven't seen him yet. I wonder if he would appreciate it if I knit him a pair of socks or something?

Also one of our customers just finished this gorgeous baby sweater for her granddaughter made with Plymouth Dreambaby DK. She is a great knitter!

Good Knitting Weather

We had our first big winter storm of the season today. It is on its way out... Lots of people got to stay home from work or school today and catch up on knitting! We had the store open today, and a few brave souls wandered in. One had a scarf wrapped around her neck made with Noro Silk Garden, and it was still on the needle! She needed help casting off. You don't want to be impaled by a needle if you slip and fall on the ice. Hopefully by tomorrow, our parking lot will be plowed!

Happy Valentines Day!

Pink Feather and Fan Afghan

Leslie made this beautiful afghan for her granddaughters bed. It is done with a feather and fan pattern. All the yarns she used are different shades of pink. When she was almost finished, right before she was about to surprise her grandaughter with this gorgeous blanket, her granddaughter said her favorite color is now purple. It's impossible for a 4-year old to truly appreciate the work that goes into a project like this, but if she doesn't appreciate it, at least I hope she likes it -even though it's pink! The yarn in front is Artful Yarns Circus. She also used Trendsetter Dolcino, Trendsetter Delicious, Berroco Plush, Berroco Zen Colors, and Berroco Softy.

Happy Superbowl!

I went to a Superbowl party tonight and forgot to bring my knitting! Doh! I am working on the flouncy scarf using the Online Linie 194 Solo yarn


It's a new technique for me. I'm not even sure if there is a name for it. The yarn is a wide knitted tape. The ball band indicates a gauge of 1.5 sts / inch on size 19 needles, but to make this scarf , you use a much smaller needle, and you actually poke the needle through the yarn and pick up a few strands of the knitted tape, and you knit with those few strands rather than the whole yarn. It's hard to describe. You can find the free pattern here. I am always amazed by the creativity of people in this world. And I was wondering was the yarn created for this specific technique, or did someone create this technique while playing with the yarn.

Hello World

I started this blog because I thought it would be a great way to share what's happening in the store with our internet customers. We are inspired by the creativity of our customers every day and would love to share all the interesting things going on here with our customers online and the rest of the knitting community.

The store opened in May of 2005. Yarnware has been online since 2000.

We are excited to share our passion for knitting, our current knitting projects and news of

events from our West Orange, NJ store.