Miss Babs Blog

Babs Ausherman

It's almost time for our two big fall shows, Rhinebeck and SAFF. Getting ready for a show means that the tempo in the studio changes. It picks up. Everybody moves a bit faster, the days last a bit longer and there is more to be done in the day. We also move to doing some overtime so that we can get as much done as possible! See what we've been up to... Read More

Comparing the Yowza Weigh It Shawls

Veronica Parsons

Susan B. Anderson's Yowza Weigh It Shawls have been a hit - and for good reason! Each shawl gives the knitter the opportunity to make the most of one big skein of Yowza. No matching, no alternating, just simple, mostly-garter-stitch knitting creates a great accessory. And this week, you're in luck - through October 14, all of these patterns are on sale! Here's a little bit more about each shawl - all of these are currently on rotation at our shows, so you can also see them in person. The shapes, though, are sometimes... Read More

Blog Tour: New Patterns from Knit Play Colour

Veronica Parsons

Today we're excited to dive into color and bring you new patterns from Louise Zass-Bangham of Inspiration Knits. Louise has written a new book, Knit Play Colour, that takes a collection of patterns and shows you how you can take an idea and push and pull it into different directions for different effects. We are always playing with color and mixing up new color combinations, so we love the spirit of Louise's new book. Featured on the cover is Affinity, which stripes two skeins of fingering weight yarn. Depending on what you choose,... Read More

New Colors for Fall 2015

Veronica Parsons

While brights have been very popular for the last few years - and bright colors are some of our best sellers! - we've been working to develop new colorways that have a slightly more neutral undertone. We think a neutral undertone gives depth and interest, makes the colors more wearable, (especially in larger garments like sweaters), and also helps colors coordinate and blend. Here are five of our newest colors for Fall 2015: Read More

Short Row Knits Blog Tour: Zapote jacket and German Short Rows

Veronica Parsons

We're delighted to have our yarn featured in Carol Feller's latest book, Short Row Knits. This book features a great technique section detailing four types of short row methods as well as twenty knitting patterns including a variety of sweaters and accessories. As part of the blog tour, today we'll be taking a closer look at Zapote, a children's jacket, as well as the German short row technique. The Zapote jacket is knit from the top down using German short rows to shape the hood. The shoulders are shaped in one... Read More

Gradient Sets - Now with 6 Colors

Veronica Parsons

We love gradients and we love seeing all the ways people use them to create beautiful and interesting projects. Some of our favorite gradient patterns, like The Joker and the Thief, require six colors in the gradient, and we only had five in our sets, leading to annoying searches for that last perfect color. Search no more! We've decided to transition our Gradient Sets (with the exception of Gemstones) to 6 skeins of graduated color - and a total of 798 yards - per set. In the case of Enlightenment,... Read More

New Adventures - Weaving!

Jennifer Krause

Jennifer is beginning to learn about weaving! In order to be able to help our customers who may want to use our yarns to create with weaving, she's beginning at square one with a big rigid heddle loom - a Kromski Harp - and some Northumbria Fingering. Read on to see her first weaving project... Read More

Leftie Shawlette Edging Technique

Helen C

Leftie is great... except for all those ends. As the pattern is written, each contrast color stripe is a separate bit of yarn, leaving you to weave in dozens and dozens of yarn tails. Fantastic for using up leftovers, but what if you want to work the contrast color stripes and leaves in one ball of yarn? Helen has a solution. Read More

On Our Needles September 2015

Veronica Parsons

While we're not working on our Rhinebeck sweaters, here's what else is on our needles... actually in most cases, what's just come off our needles! We have lots of FOs to share. Read More

It's September - Does That Mean It's Fall?

Babs Ausherman

How did it get to be September? Does that mean it's Fall? Oh my, oh my! Gotta make yarn, gotta make yarn as fast as we can! And yes, it really does feel like the pressure to create treasures for our customers does go up when it gets to September. It is only 6 weeks until Rhinebeck, we have a trunk show next weekend (September 11-13) at fibre space in Alexandria, VA, and SAFF is 2 weekends after Rhinebeck, and a Trunk Show at Bliss Yarns near Nashville, TN in November... Read More

Team Babs Rhinebeck Sweater KAL Progress

Veronica Parsons

Some speedy knitters over on our Ravelry group have already finished sweaters in our Rhinebeck Sweater Knit-Along. The rest of the Miss Babs sweater-knitting team, though, is making good progress. Read on to see our sweaters in progress! Read More

Babs' Rhinebeck Sweater - Dexter

Babs Ausherman

I have never knit a sweater! So when Veronica suggested a Rhinebeck Sweater knit-along this year, I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to knit a sweater and develop the perfect colorway on one of our newest yarns, Killington. Read on for more about Babs' Rhinebeck Sweater progress... Read More