I’m happy to say that in the spirit of all the spinning and fiber that is being tossed about now at Ariadne, we will be holding our very first Spin 102 with Leslie Ordal Saturday June 28!

Build your spinning skills with this follow-up to Learn to Spin. You’ll learn different drafting techniques to help create the yarns you want, get some experience working with a variety of fibre preparations, play around with other fibres besides wool. We’ll also go over other ways to ply and how twist affects the character of your yarn. Students should be able to spin a continuous yarn, and the course fee includes all fibres and notes. Please bring a spindle if you have one, or you can purchase one of ours with a class discount (10%).

The class is $55.00, and you will get to spin with a wide variety of fibres, including (but not exclusive to) Coopworth, Alpaca and Black Diamond Bamboo, to name a few.

As always, you can contact us to sign up, or go online to reserve your space!

Think this sounds interesting, but don’t know how to spin yet? Never fear, we will be holding a Learn to Spin the very next day, June 29. You can find more information here!

Happy Spinning Everyone!

Part One of our first Toy Finishing Class is over and I’m quite excited. The class, (more like a workshop) was informative, exploratory and full of good food. We drew, knitted, laughed, gave and took advice and explored knitting in a more experimental and free form way. No patterns, no charts. Only your imagination and the massive database that is Jennie’s Brain. We took a few pictures for your viewing pleasure. And without further ado…

First, there was drawing.

We had onlookers, to make sure we were on the right path.

Students and their imaginations.

The good farmer with a New Toy coming to life.

Two of Jennie’s creations, and a third coming to life.

Progress made.

My doll, soon with hair!

Thanks to Jennie, for putting on this great workshop. We will have one in the fall as well for anyone who gets the itch to learn how to customize their toys (a great gift for - dare I speak its name in May - The Holidays!!!)

Coming soon: Workshop part 2. How to dress your doll for toy success!

Who’s that hiding in our store plant, looking coy? Why, it’s

Gertrude Tallulah McStretcherson! Our newest addition to the Ariadne Petting Zoo, designed by the insanely talented Jennie Lamond!

If you have been in the store recently, you’ll have seen her hanging about with her pals. But now she’s ready to come home with you (in pattern form, of course!) and wants to brighten up your day with her cheery personality and sweet disposition.

Gertrude is knit out of a soft, lovely Alpaca / Wool blend and has a bit of ribbon and a button for her dress.

She’s another great addition to the Ariadne Petting Zoo: Patterns for almost any age! She’s a joy to have around, and we hope you like her too!

From the brilliant mind of our own Jennie Lamond:

Introducing the Three Little Pigs!

If you knit to Jennie’s gauge, one skein of Cascade 220 will give you one pig and one cardigan, and of course you can substitute any worsted weight yarn. If you don’t care about the size of your pig, you can use any kind of yarn you like - this is the beauty of knit toys. They’re availble for download as of yesterday.

These little pigs (informally they’re named Molly, Mary and Jennie) aren’t just the kind of pigs that sit around and eat all day, no no. They’re busy and committed to other pursuits:

We just can’t stop them dancing around the store with Lester, Muswell, Orange and some other friends you’ll meet soon. Here’s one last shot of the girls, gamely modelling for us:

We tried to get them to do the Miley Cyrus shot, but they were afraid of alienating the lucrative bible belt demographic.