As many of you already know, we don’t tend to close for silly things like federal holidays, so we will see you all weekend! Our hours are completely unchanged from the norm:

Friday: 10 am – 7 pm

Saturday: 10 am – 7 pm

Sunday: 11 am – 6 pm

Monday: 10 am – 7 pm

We even hear tale that designer extraordinaire Wendy Johnson will be here on Monday along with the Knit Girllls, who are visiting from out of town.

It is also the last weekend to see our amazing coral reef window display before it heads off to the Smithsonian!

We will post the finalists for our summer travel after this weekend’s holiday travels. You will then be able to vote for the best and the winner will get a gift certificate for the shop! Here are some more that have been sent in:

This guy (St John's statue in San Juan) stole Susan's bag in Puerto Rico

Marsha’s bag went on a trip to Martha’s Vineyard and saw many sights. Check out the full slideshow here.

Susan's bag gets down to earth in Lake Michigan

Susan's bag visits Lake Michigan

The fibre space tote visits a wild game farm!

We received lots of amazing goodies this weekend to add to our coral reef window, including this amazing octopus from Ginny (seen here eating Cynthia’s face). Even the adorable little sucker things are crocheted. Is there a word for those? We can’t come up with one…

The window display will be up until at least September 5th. If you still have coral that you need to add, please bring it by before the 5th. You can check out the new creatures in the window and add a few of your own!

This weekend, despite the heat, folks were picking up the new bulky yarns for winter. Jane grabbed a hank of the new Malabrigo Rasta and whipped up the Marian Cowl while sipping her Misha’s coffee on Sunday. I think it took maybe an hour of knitting time. We love that the cowl (in colorway Laguna Negra) matches her Misha’s cup nicely.

I am still stuck on my balloon sleeve jacket and pretty close to putting it back into hibernation for year two. The Austin Hoodie calls to me…

from a fibre space instructor who shall remain nameless….

Last night I had an incredibly bizarre dream starring you and the staff of Fibre Space.

You came to my house and kidnapped me. Like a real kidnapping…bag over the head, ropes around my feet and hands and drove me to Rock Creek Park. I was fairly certain you were going to kill me.
Instead you said you brought me there “just to hang out and chat and knit.”
After about 24 hours of me being completely sure you were going to murder me, you drove us both to Fibre Space.
The bridal place next door was going to close and you had bought the space. You were going to expand that into a super duper classroom.
Then the place on the other side of you closed down and you wanted me to go negotiate with the people who have their staircase next to the classroom and try to get them to build an escalator from the street into their front window so you could knock down the staircase to make room for a huge stockroom.
There was this creepy lady who was walking around your store measuring everything and Lesley told me you decided Fiber Space wasn’t what you really wanted to be doing-you wanted to open a Vespa dealership and you were selling it to her. You had agreed to stay on during all the renovations to make sure she kept the proper aesthetic.
I tried to help but Veronica made me go sit outside after telling me I’m annoying because she had to handwrite my class list yesterday (which was actually true-the handwriting of the class list) and there were dozens of peacocks wandering around Fayette. Kel told me to capture 1 or 2 for a window display and think about ways to felt them.
I couldn’t get the staircase people to agree to the escalator and you got furious at me and threw the crocheted coral reef at me and told me to leave.

Odd.

I love the smell of wet wool. It means one of two things:

1. I have completed a project

2. I am swatching for the next project
In either case, there is excitement. Today it is both. My Metro cardigan has been in the classroom blocking for two days now and is finally dry enough to photograph.  The swatch for the Austin hoodie is finished and also wet and blocking. The Tosh merino light is delectable! I can not wait for our next order to arrive.

This pattern was pretty straightforward.

read more >>

It has not photos…go ahead, ask me what happened to my camera. Well….over the weekend I went to the Montgomery County Fair to watch the Demolition Derby with some “scooter friends.” Yes, I have friends who are classified as “scooter.” Why? Because once upon a time, I was as obsessed with riding vintage vespas as I am now obsessed with yarn. So anyway, went to the fair and took lots of photos of animals, like a sheep with five legs and cute bunnies. You know, things that would make a great blog post. Then I promptly left my camera in my friend’s car. She lives in Silver Spring. This is a problem. Silver Spring is in MD, for those from VA who also don’t know where Maryland is…I plan to meet her on Friday to get the new shop mascot (more on that soon) and to also pick up my camera. Until then, you may get ugly iphone photos this week. It is sad really, to not have my camera.

I continue to try to finish the paprika colored Connie Chang Chinchio sweater (Metro from Twist Collective.) I desperately want to start the Austin Hoodie but won’t let myself even swatch for it until I have finished this other sweater. I just discovered that I knit the entire sweater on US#7s instead of #8s, as it calls for. I believe that my swatch was also done on the wrong needles, so it should fit just fine, since my gauge was right on my swatch. I made this discovery after I finished a sleeve on #8s, so my sleeves are on a different needle size. I think that my knitting is trying to make me crazy.

Lets focus again on the awesome sweater that I am going to start after the Metro disaster is done…with its large sleeves. So many folks came in and grabbed up the Tosh Merino Light last week for their own Austin hoodies or other cardigans, so I propose that we have a bit of a Connie-a-long. What other Connie designs are folks hoping to get done this fall? Shall we start them all in September? How are the Pi Shawls coming along?

In other news, have you heard about Brave New Knits?! We have a book signing in September (23rd, 6-8 pm). the book has the most amazing collection of designers I have ever seen in one book. It focuses on designers made famous by their blog presence, and Connie is one of the designers in the book, along with Jared Flood, Kirsten Kapur and many many others. You can call the shop to reserve a book for the signing.

With my leftover Neighborhood Fiber Company Studio Worsted, I made the Poet Society Tam pattern from Madelinetosh, since I am teaching the class and needed a shop sample (pattern also available at the store). I shortened it a bit since my tiny pin head can’t wear a full sized slouchy beret. I do love it! I wish it weren’t so darn hot out…now to plot what I will do with the rest of my leftovers. It seems like there is no end to this yarn. i had three 400 yard hanks and it still isn’t gone.. (by the way, our next shipment of 125 pounds of this yarn will arrive in early September)

I visited our friends at Looped today to welcome them to their first day in the wild and wonderful DC metro area yarn shop ownership circle. They have the most adorable space ever…they carry some lines that you won’t find here, like Classic Elite, Rowan, Debbie Bliss, Tili Tomas and Blue Heron. You will also see some familiar faces over there. Tanis Gray, an instructor here, is also working and teaching at the shop. Go in and say hello!

I had a little boost in the my knitting time this weekend at my grandmother’s house. Thank goodness that I took as many balls of yarn as I did. I think I was going through a ball every 2-3 hours. I was able to get the entire body of the Metro sweater by Connie Chang Chinchio done. It was in the latest issue of Twist Collective. I worked this in the Berroco Pure Merino, which is on sale right now (so I figured I might as well take a bit of it:)

I am really a big fan of the cable detail on the left side, and this yarn has such great stitch definition, that it really shows it off. I brought home some yarn last night to make the sleeves, only to find out that the sleeves are worked by picking up stitches around the armholes, which means that I have to block and seam the shoulder before I can start the sleeves. I should really start reading through patterns before I knit them. Today the sweater will block at the shop and hopefully I can start the sleeves tomorrow and get this one done in under a week – which might be a new record for me.

I finished the Lauren sweater by Ann Weaver! Veronica was kind enough to do the finishing for me. I used glass buttons from the antique shop next door to finish it off. Veronica says it is a dorky sweater but in a good way…I dig it. I love the off-center cable and the color is amazing, although I couldn’t get my camera to capture it this morning. I have over 300 yards left and will whip up this little guy in preparation for my classes this fall:

Photo courtesy of MAdelinetosh