But let's get into it!
Our vintage buttons are some some of our customer all-time faves, and these leather toggle buttons add a special bit of flare to any cardigan! But of course you want to know, how should you safely wash them?
Leather buttons are actually pretty easy to care for!
Here are a few quick tips:
But did we test this?
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Whenever I vend at events, folks at the booth always ask, "So tell me about these wool threads!" The eye-catching rainbow of colors and wood spools are irresistible!
So let's talk about how these threads!
Stitch on a flour sack towel! Use our simple cotton flour sack towels as your blank canvas. You can pencil on a pattern of your own, or use a stick and stitch pack for an easy project.
Stitch on European linen! Wool and linen love to play together - the thread glides through this fabric beautifully, and you can "color in" the patterns on the tea towels for a relaxing activity that turns into a thoughtful gift for someone! The bee towels are a customer fave - try them with thread colors 211 and 801 for yellow, and any of the (many) gray and charcoal tones.
Stitch on your knits - in this example, the threads held double, plus the help of a stick and stick pack, created a sweet embellishment to this sweet summer bag! Use the same technique on cuffs, collar, children's knits and more.
Mend with these threads! With the help of a Katrinkles darning loom, you can make colorful mends on anything - wool sweaters, yes, but also tears in your nylon windbreaker, denim jeans, your favorite tee. Several sock knitters have told me they pair a strand with their fingering weight yarn to add strength at the heel and toe of their handknit socks, too!
Weave on mini looms - these cute mini looms are fun kids' projects, holiday ornaments, gift toppers, door hangers and more.
Whatever you use them for, these colorful little wool gems will give your creativity a burst of new energy! We can't wait to see what you make with them - be sure to tag us #needleandpurl so we can celebrate with you.
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For holiday 2022, we created cloud loom kits, pre-threaded (or warped) with cotton string and ready-to-use! These kits are a fun, easy adventure ready to use!
Below are some tips for using your cloud loom kit. We hope you enjoy!
Phil and I at Iceland's Perlan Museum.
When we traveled to Iceland in 2019, we were prepared for slightly cooler-than-normal (for us) weather. For adventures. For Wool with a capital "W." But everything about the people, the place, and yes, the wool, was beyond what we could have imagined.
We soaked up every day of our visit and immediately talked about when we could return. We haven't been able to do that yet, but I still believe we will see Iceland again!
Reykjavík
Hiking into a lava cave. Iceland has no native wildlife, other than arctic foxes, birds and marine life, so there are no bats in this cave! As our tour guide told us, in Iceland, if you are lost in the outdoors, nothing can harm you but the weather.
Our friend in an open section of the lava caves.
And I also vowed that someday, I would bring Iceland's wonderful lopi yarn to my someday-shop ... and I'm so happy to announce that this month, that plan came true!
Welcome Léttlopi to the shop, and join me on some armchair traveling around Iceland for some fun lopi facts!
One of the most striking things about Iceland is its rapidly changing landscape. We would drive past black and gray moon rock-style landscapes, then flat fields that looked like American prairies. Five minutes later, we would see rocky pastures with mountains that resembled the Scottish highlands. Iceland is constantly changing all around you, and it took our breath away every time!
Swimming in the Blue Lagoon, a man-made hot spring colored by blue silica. The Lagoon is an experience unto itself, but we loved the naturally occurring hot springs all over the island the best; ask a friendly local for their favorite recommendation, and you can enjoy a naturally hot, outdoor swimming pool and a beer after a busy day exploring!
Iceland's short growing season is why they have so few native plants and animals. Much of the island's produce is imported, or grown in greenhouses, which are heated geothermally. Actually, a lot of the island's energy utilizes geothermal heat - not just for turning hot springs into swimming pools or growing tomatoes in greenhouses, but for heating homes, businesses, you name it. You'll see signs of Iceland's forward-thinking environmentalism everywhere you go. And sheep - brought by the Vikings in the 9th century - are a huge part of their way of life.
Friðheimar, a restaurant inside a tomato greenhouse on the Golden Circle! The tomatoes grow from and around thin tubing which are a network of hot and cold water systems to hydrate and heat the greenhouses, using natural springs. You'll also see "bee boxes"; bees are not native to Iceland, and so the farm imports them in cardboard hives set up around the plants.
Icelandic sheep grazing
So what makes an Icelandic sheep - and its fleece and yarn - unique?
Before visiting Iceland, I had heard a lot about how big, sturdy and independent Icelandic sheep are. They have a double-coated fleece, too: a long outer coat (tog) that protects them from the elements, and a finer inner coat (þel) that gives them insulation.
But actually seeing the landscapes that these sheep have thrived on for hundreds of years made it click for me. Icelandic sheep don't spend the year in a pen next to the barn. Shepherds turn them out into the hillsides and mountains to free-range in the summer months, then collect them again in the fall with a community sorting event called réttir (on our last day in Iceland, we stumbled upon the start of one as we were searching for a lighthouse; the organizers invited us to join in - even though we were definitely clueless tourists they'd never bet before - and I'm still sad our flight schedule kept us from participating). Once the sheep are gathered and sorted, they winter at home, where they are sheared in fall and spring.
It's pretty wild to think about, but the world's supply of lopi as we know it is made by small family farms. Ístex, the only yarn-producing mill on the island, is largely farmer-owned and buys directly from shepherds, whose flock sizes averages 2-300 sheep. When we think about making with materials that are traceable and sustainable, it doesn't get any better than lopi! Watch a short video about Ístex's sustainability, and its process for collecting and processing wool, here.
Icelandic lopi is sold in several forms. Plötulopi is unspun and untwisted (like a fine pin roving); it's often knit with two strands held together. Léttlopi is worsted/aran weight, and it is basically strands of plötulopi lightly twisted together. Both forms make very lightweight, warm garments.
We are so happy to bring Léttlopi to the shop and hope you'll enjoy making with it!
Our Airbnb in Hafnarfjörður. We spent many hours chatting with our host Antony and getting advice from him and his partner Yr about our adventure itineraries!
The harbor of Hafnarfjörður at night
Until next time, Iceland!
Léttlopi colors 0054, 056, 0057 and 0058
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If your January is looking anything like ours, the name of the game is "unexpected." We've been talking about this a lot in the Needle + Purl HQ: how to keep going when we feel frustrated, afraid or tired.
I can't tell you why we're the people entrusted with these times. Maybe it's random. But, we are the ones who get to go through it. We are the ones who the world will someday say, "They did this." And I hope someday someone will say of me, "She got through it by caring for others before herself. Thinking about what her neighbors and her community needed. Building a business, but building compassion first."
Makers know how to take something and make it into something else; how to mend broken things; how to warm people with the work of our hands. And that work matters so much right now. Our families and communities need us. I hope we find courage and hope in that, when we put on our masks and go out into each new day.
During the months of January and February, Needle + Purl will be donating 10% of our sales to Women's Lunch Place in Boston. They provide meals, free medical care, advocacy and support to over 1,800 people a year. You can learn more about their good work at womenslunchplace.org and maybe consider your own donation. As we move through the year, we will be thinking about other ways to care for our community, so stay tuned.
And in the meantime, if you need a way to keep your hands busy and soothe your nerves, embroidery is a great option. This summer when I needed a break from knitting, stitching gave me a reset button - a chance to play around creatively with no strings attached (well, ok, it actually uses a lot of strings - but no swatching!). I have loved it ever since.
Whatever you like to make, it's a good way to give yourself some rest. And we could all use more of that.
Courage, my friends. We are all in this together.
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I know, I know - it may seem weird to recommend a book for looking up information. I'm the first to grab my phone and search something (my iPhone has about a million tabs open for everything from recipes, to knitting patterns, to dog rescue organizations).
But when it comes to a reference tool for knitters, crocheters and spinners, this book can't be beat! Why? Because it thinks like a yarn lover, in a way that Google search just can't.
You can look up "Romney," get to a 2-page spread with photos of everything about the history of this sheep breed, to what it looks like, to what its raw fleece and knit swatches look like, and recommendations for spinning and knitting with its yarn. I guarantee that would take you a few searches online to dig up. And once you start researching rarer sheep breeds, you'd be piecing together multiple sites for a while.
This book does that work for you.
A 2-page spread on what to expect from Romney fibers, below:
When we knit and crochet with blended fibers - which most commercial yarns and mill yarns are - they combine a number of sheep breeds' fibers together and you sort of learn what to expect based on that brand.
But when you start to explore the world of single-breed fiber - what to expect if you are knitting with 100% Shetland, or Cotswold etc - it's really helpful to understand how these sheep differ, because their fleeces produce different textures that may surprise you, in the best possible way. And that may get your creative juices flowing in some fun directions when you think about what to make with their yarn!
Think of this book as a map on that journey - giving you some signs and pit stops on the way, so you can plan your trip with an idea of what to expect.
And that is my #1 use for this book.
For example ... I recently got some fabulous Tunis from Tarheelbilly Farm. It's my first time knitting with 100% Tunis, and I planned on making a shawl with it, which will be no problem at all with this gorgeous stuff. But of course, I had to go peek into The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook to learn more about this cinnamon-y colored sheep before I start.
After reading up on Tunis, I had a better idea of what to expect from my yarn (en route to me via the mail) and started shifting my pattern ideas. When the yarn arrived - even squishier than I hoped! - I made a sweater instead, and it was the right call. The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook pointed me in that direction, and it's a favorite make of mine to this day!
My yarn next to the Tunis page:
For many of us, this summer has held so much hope! After a long, tough winter, we looked forward to once again hugging our loved ones safely, gathering for barbecues, and sharing a cup of coffee with friends.
And perhaps summer has been all you could have asked for: dreamy, warm, and wonderful. But perhaps summer has also brought you unexpected challenges: unprecedented heat waves, worries about your kids or family, or a general exhaustion from all the work and grief of 2020, the year that just wouldn't leave us.
Has making been a help to you in the midst of all these adjustments?
The picture above is a raglan tee I knit last summer, in Green Mountain Spinnery's Cotton Comfort (it's one of my favorite yarns for summertime knits). I knit it mostly alone, just my family around me, and its simple pattern kept me company on many quiet days. I wore it all that summer, and (in layers) through winter, too. Last year taught me about being ok with my own company in ways I never had before. I wasn't always comfortable with that. Sometimes my mind wandered, and I've been surprised to discover that it is often still hard to focus. The rhythmic, simple stitches of this pattern helped. This tee has been a favorite wardrobe staple ever since - a true comfort.
But sometimes, knitting does not help me focus, and my mind will wander away after only a row or two of stitches. In other words, the craft that once brought me ultimate stress relief and relaxation . . . doesn't always work the way it used to. I've had to get comfortable accepting that, too. I still believe that fiber crafts are great for focus and de-stress, but I've come to realize my brain, at least, needs a lot more of a mental re-set these days; I've found it helpful to change up my old routines and creative paths, and to be gentle with myself. We've all gone through a lot this past year. It doesn't seem surprising that the old coping routines we used to use might need a bit of a tweak here or there!
If you normally knit or crochet, and lose your joy or focus in that for a time, don't lose heart. Take a break and learn a bit of embroidery! If you're a stitcher, give tapestry weaving a try. I'm a year-round knitter myself, but even I would be the first to admit that there are just some days that are too hot to lay a pile of wool in your lap. When that happens, it's great to have another option. The mental restart via another craft can help restore joy in our old favorites, and give us new hobbies to recharge our focus, creativity, and ability to rest.
Whatever you do this summer, I wish you wellness and wholeness. May you pursue love and justice in your home and your community, for all persons. And may you love well, both yourself and others.
Happy summer, friends!
]]>The other day, I remembered back to the Wayland Farm Fiber Days, a beloved market held every winter here in Massachusetts. Vendors set up cheerful stalls of homegrown and hand-dyed yarn in the warm, expansive greenhouses of Russell's Garden Center that are themselves a delight to explore.
Around every corner of the Fiber Days is a surprise - a happy stand of monstera plants shades a needle felting table for kids and grown-ups alike. Geraniums wave you over to naturally dyed hat kits. A vendor sells local maple syrup next to a weaver's rainbow of scarves and blankets. You buy fresh pastries, tamales or steaming hot chowder to slurp on while you roam the aisles. You take your coat off, hug friends, shop and visit in the warmth of all those plants and wool. Sheep wait outside to say hello to you as you head back to your car. It's heavenly.
Wayland was the last fiber festival I attended in 2020 - unbeknownst to me, the final time to see fiber friends in-person for what would be a long while. But I missed out on one important thing when I was there: Favour Valley Woodworking's handcrafted wood buttons. Ooooh, I was tempted, as I walked by their display bursting with buttons in every gorgeous wood imaginable. But I didn't stop at the time, intent on chowder or maybe distracted by some yarn skeins overdyed with marigold, and never made it back to purchase them.
Since then, Favour Valley has relocated from New Hampshire to the West Coast. When I realized I'd never get a chance to see them at Wayland again, I knew how much I wanted to have these buttons in our shop - a chance to experience them again, but also, if I'm being honest, a way for my heart to hold onto that winter. That time-before-we-knew what would come, when my memories will always hold onto that last market day with a special fondness.
So I tracked Favour Valley down to their new home in Oregon, where they are still making wood buttons thoughtfully and sustainably, and it turned out that the owner Martha was happy to hear from me and to have her buttons in our shop. She put together such a great assortment of buttons for us - I was overwhelmed when I opened her package!
So here they are. Buttons for your handmade knits and sewn garments. The little details that matter. But also, a tribute to a memory of a time before - and hope for the time ahead. For friends. For fiber. For being together again.
]]>Hello, friends! Today's blog post is about tapestry weaving! For a long time, weaving was something I wanted to get into but felt overwhelmed by - I admired the beautiful wall hangings I'd see (the braids! the tassels! the texture!), but had no idea where to start.
But once I figured out the basics, I was in love, and I believe you will be, too. It really is a simple, beautiful hobby that is so relaxing and doesn't have to be expensive. Once you have your loom and a couple of small tools (some of which you may already have around the house!), you can use your own yarn stash to make beautiful projects!
So here's my all-in-one-place, make-it-easy-for-you Starter Guide to Weaving! I've got all my favorite video links, tools list, and terms in one spot for you! I'll also note which of our looms and loom kits include the tools mentioned, fit with the videos shown, etc. Find it all here, and message me with questions!
Tools you will need:
Loom: you can find individual Small Weaving Looms, as well as kits, in our shop - all are a great size to start a first project!
Thread for warping: you'll need a sturdy fiber like cotton for your warp threads. Wool thread can break more easily, so just a word of caution. Experiment with different colored warp threads to add more color dimension to your weaving!
Tapestry or weaving needle: a needle to thread your working fiber over and under your warp threads. You can use a metal tapestry-style needle or a longer weaving needle made of either metal or wood. You may also see a tapestry bobbin, which works like a needle, except it has a small area to wrap or hold some of your working yarn as you weave, instead of threading it through the eye of a needle. This is all a matter of personal preference. Generally, a longer weaving needle that can run through more of your warp threads at a time will help you weave a little faster, but a regular needle works just fine too, as long as the eye is big enough to hold your bulkiest yarn!
Weaving comb: this helps you push your rows of weaving down as you go.
Weaving shuttle: optional for small loom projects. This carries your yarn back and forth across your work. It's useful when the loom and project are big enough that you are using a good amount of a single yarn color at a time. When you use a shuttle, it replaces a needle for guiding the yarn over and under your warp thread; you instead push the shuttle through the warp. This might be a tight fit on our Circular Loom Kits (because those are pretty small), but would feel more natural with the Small Weaving Loom with heddle bar - it's up to you! Note: two shuttles are included with the purchase of every Small Weaving Loom.
Ready to start? Let's do it:
Gather materials and tools. Plan your colors!
Warp your loom. This video from Melonie Wallace shows you how to warp with a heddle bar (included with the Small Weaving Loom), but the process for threading through the tabs of a loom without a heddle bar is the same! Also, Melonie taught me how to weave via her virtual Fibre Studio classes and is a wonderful teacher - I highly recommend taking a look at her site!
Twine your loom with this easy tutorial from Spruce & Linen. Placing a twine stitch at the top and bottom before you start will make sure your piece is secure and beautiful when you finish. You've got this!
Weave. Have fun with your design! Here are a few options:
Tips and tricks:
Yay, you finished! You have a few finish options:
Tapestry Terms (not a total list, but now you can speak some of the lingo like a pro!):
Wondering what knitting needles you'll need to get started? Don't worry, we've got you! This short video covers:
There are no bad choices, but here are a few knitting needle brand names mentioned in the video to help as you shop: Chiao Goo (metal), Knitter's Pride and Lykke (wood)
Have fun!
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One question I'm often asked is, how do I mix and match yarns for my colorwork projects - specifically, small-batch/farm yarns and naturally dyed yarns? How do I make sure the textures and weights of these yarns will work well together in a project, and that the naturally dyed yarn will be colorfast?
I'm super lucky to live in New England, where we have a lot of choices for local yarn grown, spun and dyed right here! But as more and more farms around the country - and the world! - create online shops, we have more opportunities than ever to play with breed- and farm-specific fiber, and I love the all the texture and color options it gives us!
So I created a short video just sharing a few thoughts I had (including colorfastness with natural dyes) - I hope you'll give it a watch, share your thoughts in the comments, and subscribe if you're interested in following along!
]]>In so many ways, this site is really just an extension of our work and home, and what we've been working towards for a few years now. We're excited to finally be at this point, and to bring you our favorite things, both made and found.
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