Come One, Come All to LAMPWORKING this Saturday!

Julie is very excited to announce that we've gotten enough interest to hold a lampworking class this Saturday, March 5th, with a second class scheduled for Saturday, March 12th for anyone that can't make it on the 5th or wants a second practice session with help. We still have a couple of openings for anyone else who might be interested.

What is lampworking? Lampworking is the name for making handmade glass beads with a torch, glass rods, and a mandrel around which you wind the molten glass. You'll learn about safety, glass properties, and how to make beads that are symmetric around the mandrel in the morning, then in the afternoon you'll learn about using thin stringers of glass to decorate the beads. Julie will do several demos, but the class focuses on hands-on practice time with instructor-guidance when needed.

The class costs $30 and you'll need to purchase a lampworking kit for the class, which will cost $120 (call to ask about rental options). It includes everything you'll need to make beads at home:

4 Ounce Bead Separator

Hot Head Torch

Torch Bench Clamp

Dual Action Marver

Bead Hole Cleaner

10 Pc. Mandrel Set 3/32” X 9”

1/16” Stainless Steel Rake

Mandrel Rest

8” Tweezers

Fiber Blanket

12 Pc. Moretti Rod Pack (Mixed Colors Approx. 13” Long)

Safety Glasses

1 cannister each of MAPP and Propane gas

If you have any questions, Julie is working today, Wednesday, and Friday from 10-4pm. You can call the store at 651-282-0099.

More Spring Yarn Filtering In!

As the Spring yarns filter in, be sure to check out our Clearance Bins! We're adding great new deals as we make room for our new yarns.

Today we got two more fun shipments of yarn. First was a replenishment shipment of Brown Sheep Co. Lamb's Pride with several very fun spring colors. We were thinking of trying a felted Easter basket (and found a fun free Ravelry pattern), or a set of nested Spring baskets with the new colors.

A selection of some of our Springier Lamb's Pride colors.

We also received a shipment of long-awaited yarn, new to our store. O-Wool is produced by the Tunney Wool Company, is 100% certified organic, is made in the USA, and comes in a great variety of pretty heathered colors.

O-Wool
50% certified organic merino wool
50% certified organic cotton
approx. 1.75oz / 50g
approx. 130yds / 120m
5 - 7 US / 3.75 - 4.5 mm
19 - 21 sts = 4" / 10cm

Nothing Livens Spirits like a Yarn Shipment

Despite the new mountains of snow out in inappropriate places, like the street, today is a red banner day at Knits & Pearls as our spring yarns have begun to filter in. The first to arrive was our spring Berroco yarn including a new yarn, Linsey. Look for this pretty heathered/ varigated/ stranded skein of wonderful to officially hit the shelves on March 1st.

Berrocco Linsey
64% Cotton, 36% Linen
50g/114 yards
5sts/in on a US 7 needle

We also got some fun spring colors in Shepherd's Wool, our very soft feltable wool. And, if that isn't fun enough, we also got several colors in the new Shepherd's Wool DK weight yarn last week! Come in and check them out

Valentine's Weekend Sale

Be Our Valentine

Valentines Day is a time of love and appreciation. To show our love and appreciation for you, our customers, we're offering 20% off all store merchandise Saturday, February 12th (10am - 5pm) and Sunday, February 13th, 2011 (noon - 4pm).

February 2011 Class Schedule

We hope that 2011 has been treating you well. This February we're offering some old favorites and some exciting new classes. If you don't see a class you're interested in, always remember that we have our knitting clinics ($3) on Monday evenings from 6-8pm and Wednesday afternoon from 1-3pm, and beading clinics ($5) most Sundays from 1-3pm, where you'll get expert help with the project that you are interested in.

Our new February 2011 class calendar is available on our website; the links that didn't work in the e-mail DO work on the website as long as your browser allows popups.

Are You on Ravelry?

If you have already discovered Ravelry, then you know what a great tool this website is. If you haven't joined the Ravelry world then let us introduce you. Ravelry is akin to the Facebook of knitters and crocheters. Over the next month or so, Knits & Pearls staff will be working on adding all of our store samples to our Ravelry page KnitsandPearlsMN.

If you do nothing else with the site, it is an amazing tool for finding patterns - many free - with advanced pattern search options that allow you to find patterns for specific things (hats, sweaters, socks), for specific kinds of yarn (DK, worsted, super bulky), and yarn yardage (perfect when you have a specific amount of stash you want to use), and that's just the basics of the advanced search. For Valentine's Day, we did a search for 'hearts' and specified that we only wanted patterns with pictures, knit patterns, and patterns that were free. We found this cutie that you could still whip up this weekend:

Ravelry Pattern link
Non-Ravelry link

To sign up, click on the Sign Up button and provide your e-mail address. For those of you weary about giving out your e-mail address, we Ravelers in the shop wanted to let you know that we've never had a problem with spam from this site!

After entering your e-mail address and clicking the "Send Sign Up Link" button, you'll get a screen like.

We got our e-mail in less than a minute.

Click on the link they provide and you'll be send to a page where you'll pick your username and password. After that, you'll be free to roam Ravelry and enjoy all of its features, including posting your own projects and making notes on the yarn and patterns you used to make them.