August’s featured yarn is Vanna’s Glamour.

As elegant as the exquisite gowns that Vanna White wears on TV, this specially-designed premium yarn is supremely soft and easy-care. It’s also lightweight to give all your projects elegance and drape. Used alone or combined with Vanna’s Choice®, Vanna’s Glamour makes fashion items and accessories that shimmer with light.

Each month we feature a different yarn and we pair it with free crochet and knit patterns. You will receive 15% off that yarn all month!*

For the whole month of August receive 15% off of all Vanna’s Glamour. We are pleased to offer the following patterns (PLEASE NOTE: All patterns are on LionBrand.com; a free LionBrand.com account is necessary to view them online):

Knit:

• Shangri-La Scarf
• Golden Honey Shrug
• Shimmer By Night Bag

Crochet:

• Over The Top Platinum Shawl
• Dinner At Eight Top
• Honeycomb Hat
• Cable Lace Scarf

*Good for in-Studio purchases only. Not valid on the web. Cannot be combined with any other offers or coupons.

MEN’S NIGHT AT THE STUDIO
Sunday Aug 8th 5:00 – 7:00 pm

ALL CLASSES AND EVENTS TAKE PLACE AT:

The second Sunday of each month belongs to the men! Join us for a relaxed evening of knitting & crocheting (sorry, no women allowed)

Again, to RSVP, please e-mail us with the information requested above.

See you all there!

We’re excited to be offering you so many new yarn choices for the fall!

NEW YARN: Baby Wool

Soft, warm and breathable, this cozy yarn is the natural choice for baby blankets, layettes, toys and more. With its charming sherbet palette, it’s also ideal for women’s garments and accessories. Best of all, it’s both machine washable and dryable for fabulous, fuss-free fashions that mom and baby will both appreciate.

Top row: Papaya, Peony, Coral, English Garden, Orchid, Bouquet, Lavender
Bottom row: Almond, Sunflower, Pear, Sprout, Alpine Meadow, Blue Bell, Blue Bonnet

NEW YARN: Tweed Stripes

Tweedy color blends create subtle stripes as you knit, perfect for sweaters, scarves, accessories and more. A perfect blend of fashion and function this easy care, bulky yarn stitches up in a cozy, but lightweight fabric that looks and feels great.

Top row: Caramel, Tundra, Mixed Berries
Bottom row: Marble, Orchid, Carribbean, Woodlands

NEW YARN: Superwash Merino Cashmere

Treat yourself to the luxurious indulgence of cashmere and merino wool, with the added strength of nylon so you don’t have to worry about care–or breaking your budget. Silky soft and wonderfully warm, this elegant, affordable yarn looks and feels fabulous and can be machine washed, making it ideal for baby items, sweaters, accessories, and more.

Top row: Ivory, Parchment, Saffron, Limoncello, Green Tea, Olive, Seafoam
Bottom row: Blossom, Sangria, Wine, Cacao, Ebony, Charcoal Heather, Slate

And if that wasn’t enough . . . New colors too!

NEW COLORS: Vanna’s Glamour

Top row: Gold, Bronze, Moonstone
Bottom row: Jewel, Garnet, Lapis, Grey Stone

NEW COLORS: Babysoft

Circus Print, Parfait Print, Pastel Print

NEW COLORS: Homespun

Ambrosia, Great Plains, Coral Reef, Vintage, Pesto

Starting TOMORROW, join us for 3 days of great yarns at even greater prices!

• Friday, July 30th, 11:30 am – 5:00 pm
• Sunday, Aug. 1st, 11:30 am – 5:00 pm
• Monday, Aug. 2nd, 11:30 am – 7:00 pm

Visit the Studio for 50% off on:

• All Studio colors of Cupcake
• All Studio colors of Moonlight Mohair
• All Studio colors of Lion Cashmere Blend
• Select colors of Hometown USA
• Select colors of Homespun
• Select colors of Lion Wool
• Select colors of Babysoft
• Select colors of Fun Fur

…as well as select gift items like:

• Lantern Moon bags
• Della Q project totes
• Walker Yarn Tote
• and MORE!

As usual, this sale is ONLY in-store at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio. It does NOT apply to LionBrand.com.

FREE Color Work-o-Rama

NO registration needed

Just come on by and enjoy some free demos, raffles & colors!

Friday Aug 20th 2:00 – 5:00 pm

ALL CLASSES AND EVENTS TAKE PLACE AT:
Lion Brand Yarn Studio
34 W. 15th Street New York, NY 10011

Come and…add a little color into your life!

We love color work! This day is all about introducing you to everything you can do with color.  There will be free demos on everything from fair isle to intarsia, to two-color Tunisian crochet, and MORE! We will have free patterns to hand out, raffle drawings and . . .

10% off yarn picked out to make a color work pattern

Free Demos

There will be 14 free demos run in two different locations in the Studio from 2:00 – 5:00 pm.  Check back to this blog for a full schedule.

Raffle Drawings

We will have three raffle drawings throughout the day for prizes. The more free demos you attend the more chances to win!

• Fill out a ticket at each free demo
• Stay for all three drawings
• Must be present to win

Raffle times:

• 2:20 pm
• 3:30 pm
• 4:20 pm

*No purchase necessary to enter raffle drawings.

Welcome to our regular Lion Brand Yarn Studio blog feature “Look What I Made”, where customers of the Lion Brand Yarn Studio, in New York City*, write about their projects. Have you taken a class at the Studio and then made a wonderful project? Do you have a Lion Brand Yarn project you want to share? Send us your stories & pictures to: lookwhatimade@lionbrandyarn.com

Please note, many of our customers create one of a kind works with no pattern. If a pattern is used, we will include that information.

*If you are not a Studio customer, but have a project you’d like to share, sent it into LionBrand.com customer gallery. Click here for the link.

BY: Karen Durante

On January 3rd, 2010, I attended the kickoff of the Nicky Epstein Knitting on Top of the World knit-a-long at Lion Brand Studio. Mary Taylor, a knitter from Minnesota, was inspired by the movie, “Julie and Julia” to knit all 48 projects in Nicky’s book in 48 months. Lion Brand Studio was generous enough to offer their space to a wonderful group of knitters and a 10% discount to anyone who knitted along with Mary for any project in the book for the next four years. I have long been an admirer of Nicky’s work, and just say the words “discount” and “yarn” in the same sentence and I’m in!

My first project was the Northern Lights Cardigan. I made the sweater with Lion Brand Wool-Ease. Such an easy yarn to work with, I knitted most of the solid section at my company’s annual meeting without hardly having to look at my needles. I kept faithful to the pattern but did change the colors. All I did was swap colors in the chart for ones that suited me a little better. I am not much of a “blue” person and I like the contrast of a darker yoke with the lighter cream color in the lower section.

In February, my thoughts turn to pink for Valentine’s Day. I made the Copenhagen Shawl in the LB Collection Superwash Merino in the Peony color. Such beautiful yarn, gorgeous colors and so soft to the touch. Easy to work with, too. I kept faithful to the design, just added rhinestones when it was finished with a Brisk Set. The same principal as a beadazzler, but similarly used like a stapler.

March’s project was the Princess Bride Mittens. I used the LB Collection Superwash Merino again. You can fall in love with this yarn. I plan to make my son-in-law, Adam, a ribbed sweater out of the Denim color. Again, I stayed faithful to Nicky’s design, but swapped the colors in the chart for a different look. I used the Leaf color for my background color.

The St. Petersburg Camisole, while being beautifully designed, was not suited to my grandmother-style body. When I first saw it, loved the feather and fan double border and the pleated ribbon trimming. I immediately thought of a jacket with the same double border and long sleeves. This was not too difficult to do, but it did take some planning. I made the double border closer together by eliminating some length in the under layer, widened the shoulders, narrowed the sleeves and made them full length. I used Lion Brand Microspun in purple. I also changed the ribbon from the velvet pleated ribbon in Nicky’s design to a satin box pleated trim. It was lighter in weight than the original trim and better suited for the yarn that I used for the jacket.

(modeled by our own Claire)

Next, the Baltic Cuffs and Cap. When my daughter, Elaina saw the cuffs, she fell in love with them, but asked if I could make her a beret instead of the cap in the book. I again used the LB Collection Superwash Merino, and again I swapped colors in the chart for colors I wanted to use. I kept faithful to the design for the cuffs, but the beret needed to be designed from scratch. I searched the Internet until I found a beret that had a color chart and once I studied the basic design, I substituted the border for the same one I had used for the cuffs, just worked it in fewer rows. I used a pie-shaped outline on graph paper to draw in Nicky’s design for the top of the beret and added the sewn-on bobbles, just like the cap in the original design. The knitting went pretty swiftly after that. Elaina is very pleased with the results.

(modeled by our own Kendra)

I just finished the Bohus Swing Coat. I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease for this project. I have substituted a more pastel palette for the original.

Thus far, this has been an interesting journey for me. Even though I am a long-time knitter, some of the techniques, like knitting from the center of each square outwards to the borders of the squares for the Copenhagen Royal Shawl, I had never tried before. This has been quite a learning experience for me. I have greatly expanded my skills with this project. I plan to complete all 48 projects in the allotted four years. My advice to knitters is to not be afraid to try something different with a pattern that is beautiful, but doesn’t quite fit the intended recipient. You can always do something to make it your own.

To view the original patterns, come by the Studio and pick up your own copy of Nicky’s amazing book: Knitting on Top of the World.  If you are a fan of Nicky’s keep your eyes open for the announcement on this blog of her next master class & book signing special event!

Daina Taimina – Artist Talk & Book Signing

Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes

Thursday Aug 12th at 6:00 pm

ALL CLASSES AND EVENTS TAKE PLACE AT:

Lion Brand Yarn Studio
34 W. 15th Street
New York, NY 10011

Enter the amazing world of Hyperbolic Crochet.  Come be inspired with the sculptural beauty of what a little yarn & a little math can create.

Daina Taimina: “I thought if something can be made out of paper, it can also be crocheted, so I made my first crocheted hyperbolic planes in June 1997 by increasing stitches in constant ratio – after every two stitches I did an increase by one stitch. The number of stitches in each row grew exponentially, so after finishing my first small, very ruffled one I realized that to explore the hyperbolic plane I have to change the ratio of increase.”

LB Collection Superwash Merino & LB Wool Stainless Steel

RSVP e-mails received before July 21st will NOT be accepted.

See you all there!

FLICKS WITH STICKS AT THE STUDIO

Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets

Thursday July 29th, 7:30 pm

ALL CLASSES AND EVENTS TAKE PLACE AT:

Lion Brand Yarn Studio
34 W. 15th Street
New York, NY 10011

The last Thursday of every month is FREE MOVIE NIGHT at the Studio!

Every month we will feature a different movie that features a scene with knitting or crochet.

This months feature: Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets

RSVP e-mails received before July 21st will NOT be accepted.

Note: A previous version of this post listed the subject line as MOVIE-7/10 (meaning July, 2010).  There was some confusion, so the subject line was changed to reflect the day of the month, 7/29. Reservations made prior to this update will be honored.

HUGE SUMMER SALE!!!!!!

We have TOO many new yarns, new colors and new products for the fall, so something’s gotta go.

Friday July 30th 11:30 – 5:00 pm
Sunday Aug 1st 11:30 – 5:00 pm
Monday Aug. 2nd 11:30 – 7:00 pm

Visit the Studio for giant savings on:

• All colors of Cupcake
• All colors of Moonlight Mohair
• All colors of Lion Cashmere Blend
• Select colors of Hometown USA
• Select colors of Homespun
• Select colors of Lion Wool
• Select colors of Babysoft

…as well as select gift items like:

• Lantern Moon bags
• Della Q project totes
• Walker Yarn Tote
• and MORE!

As usual, this sale is ONLY in-store at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio. It does NOT apply to LionBrand.com.

We were thrilled to have two amazing designers share their talents with us.  First the one of a kind Nicky Epstein came to teach her most popular class, Edging Magic & Flower Power.

As always Nicky brought TONS of samples to inspire.

After some expert guidance and some exited declarations of “I never would have thought of that!”, we all dove in making spirals, roses, ruffles, bobbles, flowers and more.  There was no limit to what could be made with yarn, needles, Nicky & imagination.

Here’s a few of the wonderful works in progress from the class (I think the purple one looks like a face):

As if that wasn’t wonderful enough, last Thursday the wonderful Debby Ware came to dazzle us with her whimsical designs.

Not to mention her own quirky sense of humor!

She showed us that sometimes a mistake turns into a designer’s inspiration…

and that knitting is all about having fun and being creative.  Even serious knitters don’t always have to be serious!

And, of course, she brought along tons of samples for us to enjoy and oogle.  It was an adorable explosion!!

After the talk, everyone enjoyed chatting with Debbie and getting her to sign their new books.  Scrumptious Toppers is her latest book of adorable head fashions for babies and children.

We really enjoyed having both of the creative and talented ladies visit us.  We certainly hope to see them again soon!