Cast Away Yarn

castawayyarn — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:49:55 +0000

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New Yarns!!!

castawayyarn — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:13:00 +0000

We just got in a great new yarn by Tahki Yarns, called Truffles! This is devilishly sumptuous, it’s just like candy for the hands. The fiber content is 32% cotton, 30% Viscose, 20% Angora, and 18% Nylon. It would be a great to wear in Fall here in Sonoma County, because with the 32% cotton, you’ll never get too hot wearing it. Personally, I think it would be perfect for a cool weather version of the Caitlin Shrug (see class schedule). There is 102 yards per skein and we have it in six great colors (the black is an actual pure black).

We also received in Schaefer Yarn’s Nichole yarn in five multi-color ways and three solid colored ways. This is a great sock yarn with 405 yards , with a fiber content of 80% extra-fine superwash merino wool and 20% nylon. In addition we’ve recently put on our shevles Cascade’s Pastaza, a 50/50 llama and wool blend, that’s perfect for winter. Plus, we have a whole bunch of new colors of Mission Falls 1824 Cotton.

Hope everyone is enjoying the great change in weather we are having. I know here at Cast Away we are, and it’s causing our fingers to start itching for more knitting!

Lambtown!

castawayyarn — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:09:00 +0000

This past Saturday Lambtown festival took place in Dixon. It was tons of fun and full of loads of things to see and touch! Much time was spent with the Alpacas; they have such big, round soulful eyes, almost twice the size of most sheep’s eyes. They are a bit on the timid side towards strangers, but very loving with their handlers. While I was talking with one owner about one of his young rowdy alpacas, one of his geldings kept rubbing his head against the man’s chest, it was very sweet. They also emit these strange mewing sounds, which I was quite surprised to hear.

Later in the day, I watched the fleece and sheep judging shows, which were both judge by Martin Dally, a very well-known judge. He was a wealth of information! At times it was just too much information to take in.

Finally there was the market building with many more booths than I had anticipated. Several booths were small scale artisans, who dye their own roving and yarn. There was a really great array of beautiful selections. I couldn’t stop myself from getting a little. I also got to try out a spinning wheel for the first time. I was quite taken with it. And speaking of spinning, in winter we will start carrying spinning supplies in the shop!

It was also fun running into a few of our customers, enjoying the day!

Sale Today!

castawayyarn — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:12:00 +0000

20% off all Cascade yarns today! Cascade is a big company so there are 15+ yarns on sale today. Open late until 8:30 for our Sit & Knit

Regatta Fun!

castawayyarn — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:22:00 +0000

Hope everyone made it down to Railroad square yesterday for the Handcar Regatta and had a rollicking good time, I know we did! It was terrific seeing everyone lending their hand to knit a sail for our boat. Everyone was so full of spirit and wearing such amazing costumes. The handcars were spectacular and brimming with ingenuity.

Thank you to every one who stopped by the Cast Away booth and helped with the sail!

Check out more pictures of the event at the flickr Handcar Regatta 2009.

Photo Credits:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwen/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Autumn Musings

castawayyarn — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:34:00 +0000

Autumn is starting to creep it’s nose up and here at Cast Away we are looking forward to the sweater-wearing Fall months. It’s time for thinking of new autumn sweaters to knit, for planning your holiday knitted gifts, and for dressing in knitted layers. In fact, layered knits were once again seen all over the runways this season, and so we may soon start seeing it’s influence upon our knitting. Missoni’s Ready-to-Wear showed layers of soft camels, pinks, creams and grayed blues. One of their key pieces were the super long and thick cowls. This would be a great piece to make this Fall out of Misti Alpaca’s Chunky or Malabrigo’s worsted yarn. Or maybe try Twinkle’s Soft Chunky for a thick short cowl, like what appeared on the Rodarte runway.

Speaking of yarns, our new Fall yarns are beginning to arrive in. We are now carrying MiraSol Yarn, and just received lots of amazing colors in both Miski and Sulka!Miski is a medium worsted weight and is 100% Baby Llama and would work great for a cute slouchy beret or cosy cabled scarf. And Sulka is a thick worsted/chunky weight yarn and is 60% Merino Wool, 20% Alpaca and 20% Silk! Sulka would look great in a textured cardigan, great for layering or it would work well for fair isle mittens.

Another silk and wool blend we’ve received is Elsebeth Lavold’s Silky Wool in eight colors. This is a really beautiful light-weight DK yarn, that looks fabulous knitted in a lace stitch. The fiber content is 45% Wool, 35% Silk and 20% Nylon and knits at 5 1/2 stitche per inch with 192 yards per skein. We’ve also received two new yarns from Jade Sapphire. We now carry their 6-ply Cashmere and their Sapphire Sock, which has enough yardage for one pair of sox.

We’ve also gotton in two new yarns from Filature Di Crosa, Gioiello and Pom Pom. Plus more colors in Superior Cashmere and even more new colors in Mochi Plus by Crystal Palace.

On another note, we were sent an email about submissions for a “Pattern-A-Day” Calender. Check out: http://www.knittingpatternaday.com for information.

Sheep Light Show

castawayyarn — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:03:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered what life is like for shepherds? Well, sometimes all that quiet time alone watching your flock of sheep gets to you and you have to create your own fun! :) In March a group of Welsh shepherds brought together several flocks, a video camera, and LED lights and made a unique visual experience. Check out the youtube video of the Welsh shepherd’s amazing light show!

Cast Away in YMN

castawayyarn — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 01:02:00 +0000

Cast Away was featured in this months issue of YMN: Yarn Market News! YMN is a trade magazine for the yarn industry. Justine shared with Daryl Browner how she came up with the store’s name and about a few sleepless nights spent choosing the store’s location. Plus, there is a super cute photo of Olive!

Manos manos manos…

castawayyarn — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:29:00 +0000

We have a boat load (literally) of great new colors in Manos’ Wool Classica and Silk Blend to delight all! :)

In the Wool Classica we recieved eight solid colors and seven multi colored skeins with names like Goldenrod, Mulled Wine and Cornucopia. And in the Silk Blend we have nine solid colors and three multi colored skeins with names such as Coffee, Violets and Woodland.

Both Silk Blend and Wool Classica are hand spun and kettle dyed. While Classica is a merino and corriedale wool blend, the Silk Blend is a blend of 30% silk and ultrafine merino.

castawayyarn — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:17:00 +0000

Be Sweet Trunk Show!

Be Sweet’s Nadine Curtis will be here at Cast Away on Thursday, July 23, 5:00-7:00 (Free)

She will be bringing some amazing Be Sweet Products- and all Be Sweet will be 20% off!

* Thursday is also our Sit & Knit night so we will be here knitting until 8:30!

Go to the Be Sweet website to see some of the beautiful products Nadine will be bringing. We will have wine and snacks for you too, so come on out to play!

A bit about Be Sweet:

Be Sweet works with several job creation programs in South Africa by giving artisans the confidence and the means to support themselves and their families in an otherwise economically depressed region.

Be Sweet also donates a portion of its profits to the Shaw Park School, a primary and secondary school in the Eastern Cape where many of the participants’ children attend.

Lynmar Winery will be donating wines for the event!