Author Archives: Amelia Lyon

A Feisty Knitalong

Fall is coming (we promise), so it’s time for another knitalong! (For the official YU definition of a KAL, click here) Many of you have become intimately familiar with the incredible yarn-dyeing work coming from Feisty Fibres, and since she’s local and a truly excellent friend of ours, it was obvious to us that this fall’s KAL should be a Feisty one!

Just like yarn-themed KALs we’ve hosted in the past, the common thread between all our projects this time round will be Feisty Fibres’ yarn. The rules are otherwise wide open: knit or crochet, blanket or baby hat, simple stockinette or crazy colourwork, follow your heart’s desire. Many of her colourways can be seen on our shelves, or over on Ravelry. This is your chance to tackle your ever-growing Ravelry queue, try out a new technique that you’ve been daunted by, make that fall sweater, get some holiday knitting done, or to simply be inspired by each other’s creativity and by Feisty Fibres’ incredible colourways.

We also have two very special surprises to announce in association with this KAL. First: Feisty Fibres has developed a new base: DK! Each and every one of her perfect colourways will available on this new middle-weight yarn, well-suited to your long queue of projects-in-mind.

The second sweet piece of news is that Feisty will be collaborating with her very special yarn-girlfriend, The Yarn Therapist, to present to you The Magic Sweater! This kit includes a self-striping ball of yoke yarn from the Therapist that is designed to grow as your sweater yoke does. This means the stripes don’t get skinnier but instead stay the same width as you add stitches. It also comes with a perfectly coordinated skein of yarn from Feisty Fibres to finish off the body of your sweater. Up until now, this combo has only been available in children’s sizes, but just for our KAL, you can now order enough yarn to make your own Magic Sweater in your size! We will have more info on colourways, patterns and pricing soon; see details below for ordering KAL yarn in the Knitty Gritty section.

Tons of Feisty Fibres’ colourways can be seen on our shelves, but here are just a few colourways from a photo shoot we had together earlier this month. In order we have: Lemongrass Sass, Rapture, Sexy Nerd, Glamping, Raspberry Parade, Poolside Punch, Foolish Games, Gluten Free, Spelling Beez, and Smashed Candy.

The Knitty Gritty Details

KAL begins on October 17^th and ends on December 19^th (9 full weeks of crafting)
Official KAL hashtag: #YUFeistyKAL
Yarn must be Feisty Fibres, in any of her bases (Beyond Sox, DK, Worsted, or Fluff)
Yarn must have been bought (at any point) from Yarns Untangled
Yarn can be bought off the shelf at any time, but to ensure you get your chosen colourways, or if you have chosen a Magic Sweater Kit, make a pre-order!
1. All pre-orders are 10% off full price
2. Pre-orders are now open and will close on September 26^th
3. Minimum of 3 skeins per colourway
4. Pre-orders must be secured with a 50% deposit
All our classes are 10% off for anyone participating in the KAL, and Sunday Drop In Clinics are free of charge!
In order to be entered, crafters must announce your chosen yarn and project on either the Ravelry thread or on Instagram, using the official hashtag #YUFeistyKAL. Once finished, you must share at least one picture on either the Ravelry thread or on Instagram (we can help with this if you haven’t got an account with either of these, just come see us).
The price for The Magic Sweater kit will shift depending on what size you order. Stay tuned for more details on this soon in a separate post.

Prizes

Most metres worked: Be you knitting or crocheting, this prize is for the crafter who uses up the most metres in their project(s) during the Knitalong. Keep careful track of your skeins and partial skeins in your Ravelry entries (a food scale comes in handy for this one), and you could be the winner of a $15 gift card to Yarns Untangled!

Best original design: So many of you are remarkably creative with your work; this prize is for the crafter who finishes the most original project during the KAL. You don’t need to be a published designer to win this one though, simply make some clever alterations to a pre-existing design or use one as a jumping off point if you’re not comfortable building one from scratch, or let your mind go free and build something entirely your own. The winner of this prize receives some beautiful skeins of yarn donated by Feisty Fibres!

Random draw: the classic prize of chance. Each finished project earns the crafter one entry into this draw, and the winner receives a 10% off coupon for Yarns Untangled!

PANK! and Rainbow, together in a Flax baby sweater

A Great. Big. Summer. SALE!

You read that right, a SALE!

Every needle, factory yarn, magazine, and notion will be 10% off the retail price. Spend $100, get 15% off! Spend $200+, get 20% OFF!!

We will have special deals on individual yarns, needles, hooks, fibre, notions, and other products; come down and see us to find out what they are.

We never do sales like this, so grab your deal before we come to our senses. This will run from Thursday July 5th to the end of day Sunday the 8th.

Brands included in the sale are:

baa ram ewe (Pip Colourwork)

Borgo de Pazzi (Naturalia, Stout, Cedro, Tweed)

Cascade (220, Luna, Luna Paints, Ultra Pima, Lana Grande)

Ella Rae (Merino Superwash DK, Rustic Lace, Rustic Silk Quad)

Estelle (Eco Andean DK, Estelle Chunky, Super Alpaca)

Jawoll (Sock, Colour Sock)

Juniper Moon Farms (that’s Zooey, Cumulus, Fourteen, Findley, Herriot, Herriot Fine, and Moonshine)

Nako (Fiore)

Noro (Kureyon)

Sugar Bush (Drizzle)

Gleener

Hiya Hiya

ChiaGoo

Clover

Lykke,

and more!!!

What’s New at YU: June Edition

Election Day Sale, June 7th!

Democracy is a privilege that we are very lucky to have, so let’s celebrate it!

We’re offering 10% off to every Ontarian who posts an Election Selfie on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, using this accompanying text:
“Hey @yarnsunangled, happy Ontario Election day!”

The details:

Take a selfie outside your local polling station
Post your selfie on or before June 7th to IG, FB, or Twitter, using the text above and tagging @yarnsuntangled (if you don’t tag us, we might not see it)
Come to Yarns Untangled before end of day June 10^th to pick up your coupon
Coupon will be for 10% off any single item and will expire on June 30^th

Thanks to everyone who came out for our Sinister Yarns trunk show this past Sunday! Our next trunk show featuring Shelridge Yarns of Woodville, Ontario will be taking place on Sunday, June 24th. Stay tuned for more details.

Upcoming Classes

Kate Atherley is offering two BRAND NEW classes on Steeking and Shawl design this summer!

Shawl Design: from Idea to Reality

Tuesday, August 21st from 6-9 pm ($55)

For adventurous knitters looking to expand their skills and get creative! This class explains key shawl shapes, and how to make them your own with stitch patterns and custom design details. We’ll talk about yarn choices, different types and styles of fabrics and how they affect the shape, lace motifs, and everything else you need to know to bring your shawl to life.

Steeking: It’s Not So Scary

Tuesday, July 10th from 6-8 pm ($45)

It may well be the scariest thing you can do with your knitting… taking a pair of scissors to it! Steeking – cutting a piece of knitting – is on many knitters’ “bucket lists”, and this class is any easy way to learn about it, and to take the fear out of it. We’ll talk about the hows and whys of steeking, discussing different methods of reinforcement and edging. Whether you’re a keen colourwork knitter looking to take your skills to the next level, or just curious what the fuss is about, this class will explain it all!

See our full class list here

Featured Yarn

You asked and we answered, meet “Cabot Trail” by Trailhead Yarns, out of Ottawa. This hand-dyed, 100% vegan Tencel laceweight is more beautiful than can be believed. Knit it doubled for a fingering weight, or leave it as is and make some beautiful lacy summer wear.

Nicole is in Knitscene!

As Knitscene is always a favourite magazine of ours, we’ve received extra copies of the Spring 2018 issue! Both because an extra fun 90s throwback issue, but mostly because staff member Nicole HAS A PATTERN FEATURED IN IT!!!

Meet the cheeky Wilmington Pullover:

Loosely inspired by Liv Tyler’s outfit in the iconic film Empire Records, Nicole’s sweater features classic cables and super-soft Herriot baby alpaca from Juniper Moon Farms. This sweater perfectly embodies the 90s comeback we’re all loving, and it looks good on any body type when paired with high-wasted jeans, tights, a skirt, or simply a healthy dose of self-confidence. We are so excited (and proud) that we are offering the magazine at 50% off if you buy enough of any yarn to make the Wilmington pullover!

Feast your eyes on some of our other faves from the issue:

So good right? It’s a great issue, and we’ve got tons of copies (for now). Grab yours while you can!

Clearly Liv likes it too…

Warm Blonde – A Headband

I’ve been wanting a twisty turban style headband ever since it got cold and they became stylish (like 5 years back, I’m a bit slow on the uptake). When the Big Bulky Alpaca from Estelle went on Clearance, I figured this was as good a time as any to crank one out. This pattern can get two headbands out of one skein, if you’re careful, so it’s an extremely quick, extremely inexpensive present for the cold ears in your life.

Materials:

1 skein, or a minimum of 30 metres, of super bulky yarn (pictured here in Big Bulky Alpaca, colour 12 “Grey”), we also recommend Cascade Lana Grande
12.75mm (US 17) needles, straight or circular, whichever is handiest
a bigish cable needle (or a pencil, a DPN, a popsicle stitck, a friend’s finger, you get the gist)
a bigish darning needle

Gauge:

10 stitches in 1×1 ribbing = 10cm/4″

Pattern:

Cast on 10 stitches (or desired width but keep it to an even number) using your desired cast on. If you’re playing yarn chicken, it’s a good idea to leave a tail here that is long enough to sew this end to the cast off edge.

Row 1: slip first stitch purlwise, *purl 1, knit 1. Repeat from * to end, finishing with a purl stitch.

Repeat row 1 until your piece is 24cm (9.5″) long.

The twist:
Slip the first 5 (or half) of your stitches purlwise onto your cable needle (or clever cable needle substitute).
Holding these stitches in front of your work, work the remaining 5 (or half) of your stitches as follows: purl 1, knit 1, purl 1, knit 1, purl 1. (if you’re working with a multiple of 4 stitches, the second half will begin with a k1 instead of a p1, but if you’re confident enough to change the CO number, then I’m betting you are confident enough to follow the established stitches).
Then work the stitches on the cable needle as follows: knit 1, purl 1, knit 1, purl 1, knit 1.

Row 2: slip first stitch purlwise, *knit 1, purl 1. Repeat from * to end, finishing with a knit stitch.

Repeat row 2 until headband reaches almost all the way around your head, or another 24cm.

Bind off all stitches and sew the cast on and bind off ends together. I like a good kitchener stitch myself, but if you’re feeling less than ambitious, anything that neatly-ish closes the circle will do.

If the intended wearer has a much smaller or much larger head than the average ~22″, adjust length and placement of twist accordingly.

Fall KAL

Autumn is coming and that means it’s time for another knit/crochet-along! Cooler temperatures are on their way, and we’re turning towards cozy and colourful projects to make before the snow flies. Which leads us to the theme for our next knit/crochet-along: COLOURWORK!

Pattern: This is a technique-based KAL, so any knit or crochet pattern that uses a colourwork technique as a valid option. For absolute beginners, we recommend stripes or colour blocks, while more experienced crafters are encouraged to try more advance techniques like fair isle, mosaic, or intarsia. Any technique that uses more than one colour is eligible, so let your imagination run wild! A two colour brioche scarf? An Icelandic cardigan? Argyle socks?!

Yarn: Any yarn purchased at Yarns Untangled!

Need some inspiration? These are some of our favourite colourwork projects lately:

Velvet Morning Cardigan, pattern by Julie Crawford
Yarn: Topsy Fibres in five colours
Technique: Fair Isle

Sunshine, Lollipops, Rainbows, pattern by Nicole Tavares
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash, 7 colours
Technique used: stripes

Campbell Glen Mitts, pattern by Kate Atherley
Yarn: Mineville Wool Project fingering
Technique used: Fair Isle

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Emiliana, pattern by Lisa Hannes
Riverside Studios Fingering, two colours
Technique used: mosaic

We would also like to draw your attention to Canadian designer, and friend of the ours, Kathleen Sperling. She is extremely talented and has a particular gift for designing beautiful patterns that use more than one colour. Check out her available patterns on Ravelry.

Schedule:
Start: Wednesday, September 6th, 2017
Sunday Drop-In Clinic (FREE for KAL participants): September 10, 17, October 1, 8, 15, November 5, 12, 19, 26.
End: Wednesday, December 6th, 2017 (3 months)

Prizes:
Most colours used on a single item: Why use one colour when you can use THEM ALL. Prize will be a $15 gift card for Yarns Untangled, and a Kathleen Sperling colourwork pattern of your choice!
Most finished objects: Want to knock out holiday presents early? The participant most finished objects will win a $15 gift card for Yarns Untangled, and TWO of Kathleen Sperling’s colourwork patterns of your choice! In order to count towards your total a project should take 50 yards of yarn or more (so no passing that swatch off as it’s own project, even if it feels like one!)
Best mess up and recovery: KALs can be wonderful learning experiences, so share yours with us! The person who learns the biggest lesson will get a coupon for a private lesson with either Brenna or Amelia.
The Random Draw: one winner will be randomly chosen from among the participants, see below for parameters. Prize will be a $10 gift card for Yarns Untangled.

Suggested classes (10% for official KAL participants):
Brioche Knitting with Kate, Thursday September 7th from 6-9pm
Introduction to Colourwork: Fair Isle and Intarsia, with Kate, coming soon
Double Knitting with Nicole, coming soon
Colourwork Christmas Ornaments, coming soon

Participation: In order to be considered for entry for prizes, and to receive discounts on classes, crafters must either join the Ravelry thread or post on Instagram (#YUColourworkKAL) and announce which yarn you’ll be using. Once the project(s) is/are finished, you must post at least one picture of it. If you’d rather, come see us in person and we’ll get a snap of it for you and help you to post it on Ravelry.
Hashtag: #YUColourworkKAL (use this wherever good hashtags are accepted)
Yarn: Crafters must use yarn purchased from Yarns Untangled, but it doesn’t need to have been purchased during the time of the KAL. If you choose to use yarn purchased elsewhere, you are still welcome to stitch-along with us, but you will not be eligible for prizes or free drop-in clinic help.
That’s it! If you have any questions, shoot us an email at info @ yarnsuntangled.com, give us a call at (416) 603-2338, or drop in and see us in person!

Our Next KAL: Options Sweater by Amy Herzog

It’s YU’s first ever sweater knit-along!

Many of our serious regulars have already got yarn and even started up a few swatches, but the rest of you have a couple of days to pick up your yarn before we officially begin.

If this is all news to you, here’s a brief summary of the plan:
“…it’s an Amy Herzog design, so you know it’s going to be a great-fitting sweater. Amy is the sweater-fit guru behind tons of beautiful designs and the brains behind CustomFit. Options allows you to knit a sweater customized to your own needs: crew or v-neck, cardigan or pullover, textured, smooth, striped, or not. It’s done in pieces and then sewn together, and the KAL would involve lots of help from our staff on how to complete this step, and any other step that might be baffling you along the way.”

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Pattern: Options (Pullover or Cardigan)
Yarn: DK/sport weight, or whatever you need to get a 23 sts/4” gauge. We suggest Georgian Bay Fibre Co Bayfield DK (the yarn that inspired the project that inspired the KAL), or Estelle’s Eco Andean DK Wool. Both are in stock in a beautiful range of colours, and we’ve got more of the Georgian Bay en route to us as we speak. Come see us to choose your size and style and to get your yarn all sorted if you haven’t yet.

Schedule:
Start: Wednesday, April 19th
Sunday Drop-In Clinic (FREE for KAL participants): April 23, 30, May 7, 14, 21, 28, June 4, 11, 18, 25, July 2, 9
Seaming classes with Kate Atherley, especially catering to the Options pattern, $35 (20% off the usual price, and an extra hour long):
Pullover finishing on Monday June 26th 6-8pm
Cardigan finishing on Tuesday June 27th 6-9pm
End: Wednesday, July 12th (3 months)

Prizes:
Most Amusing Finished Object Photo: Break out the camera and let’s see your modelling skills. Prize will be a $15 gift card for Yarns Untangled!
Most ingenious alteration: Options is ideally designed for tweaking, changing, shortening, lengthening, adding fancy cables or colourwork, etc! Stretch your imagination as far as you can, and the winner will get a free digital copy of Pattern Writing for Knit Designers.
Best mess up and recovery: KALs can be wonderful learning experiences, so share yours with us! The person who learns the biggest lesson will get a coupon for a private lesson with either Brenna or Amelia.
The Random Draw: one winner will be randomly chosen from among the participants, see below for parameters. Prize will be a $15 gift card for Yarns Untangled.

Participation: In order to be considered for entry for prizes, and to receive discounts on classes, crafters must either join this Ravelry thread or post on Instagram (#YUOptionsKAL) and announce which yarn you’ll be using. Once the project(s) is/are finished, you must post at least one picture of it. If you’d rather, come see us in person and we’ll get a snap of it for you and help you to post it on Ravelry.
Hashtag: #YUOptionsKAL (use this wherever good hashtags are accepted)
Pattern: the project must be following the Amy Herzog Options pattern, or at least based on it. Alterations are encouraged.
Yarn: Crafters must use yarn purchased from Yarns Untangled, but it doesn’t need to have been purchased during the time of the KAL. If you choose to use yarn purchased elsewhere, you are still welcome to knit-along with us, but you will not be eligible for prizes, discounts, or free drop-in clinic help.
That’s it! If you have any questions, reply to this thread, shoot us an email at info @ yarnsuntangled.com, give us a call at (416) 603-2338, or drop in and see us in person!

Pussyhat Global Virtual March

The pussyhat project continues! The Women’s March was a great success and there continues to be a lot of momentum for this movement. We’ve had a considerable interest from the wider community for more pussyhats for future events so we’ve come up with several ways for you to get one of your own!

Right now we’re making more hats in preparation for the next major event: the Pussyhat Global March on International Women’s Day!

The goal of this march is similar to the original: provide marchers with a unique, collective visual statement and to provide women’s rights supporters with a way to come together in a virtual march. The virtual march is taking place across social media with the hashtag #pussyhatglobal. For more information on how to participate check out the Pussyhat Project website, and make sure to wear your own Pussy Hat on Wednesday March 8th to keep the movement going.

Want a pussyhat of your own? For the original women’s march, all pussyhats were made by crafters who generously donated their time and money to create each hat. Each hat takes several hours to make and could cost anywhere from $5 to $30 in materials. While we’d love to keep donating hats to the cause, the demand is so high we can’t afford to! It’s actually kind of a wonderful problem to have because it means so many of you are eager to participate in this important movement. Everyone who wants to participate in the pussyhat project should be able to, so to address this we’ve decided to move forward in two ways.

Learn to knit your own pussyhat! The first is for those interested in making their own pussyhat, our Knitting for Beginners I class covers the skills required! Our next Knitting for Beginners class is scheduled for March 7th & 14th from 6-7pm and as of this posting there are still spaces available! We also offer private lesson scheduled at your convenience for $30 an hour. Email or call us during business hours to book a time. The pattern is a pretty easy one, so this is a great time to learn.

Looking to buy a pussyhat instead? We at Yarns Untangled will be selling the ones we make for $45 and all of the proceeds going to the Native Women’s Association of Canada. There were SO many great options for charities and non-profit organizations that we could support with our donated funds, and it was with great deliberation and lots of discussion that we decided to go with NWAC. NWAC is one of the five officially recognized National Aboriginal Organizations, whose purpose is to represent and speak, at the national level, on behalf of Aboriginal women in Canada.

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Indigenous women continue to be marginalized socially, politically, and economically. According to Stats Canada, indigenous women are close to THREE TIMES as likely to be victimized in a violent crime. A truly equal society should always be supporting those that are working to represent all women’s rights. We need now more than ever to be especially supportive of those living in communities still struggling to cope with the damages done through centuries of racism and violence. This sort of systemic oppression is deeply rooted – and we have a long way to go to acknowledge and repair the damage.

The NWAC works to address issues such as education, employment and labour, environment, health, human rights and international affairs and violence, with a special focus on the currently missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls. We hope the donations we contribute will make a true difference to help address the incredibly serious, and life-threatening racism that Aboriginal women are facing today.

All hats are paid for in advance and made to order, and they support an important cause. To order yours, just give us a call or send us an email!

And of course, as always, if you knit/crochet/sew you can make your own using any of the patterns available on the Pussyhat Project website!

That’s all for today. Have a great International Women’s Day!

-Amelia, Brenna & Nicole

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Pussy Hats for the People!

As many of you have noticed, our last few weeks have been completely consumed by making dozens and dozens of pink hats with ears, called “Pussy Hats”. The Pussy Hat Project was started by Krista Suh and Jayna Zweiman in California. The hats are intended to be a symbol for the Women’s March on Washington. We thought this was a lovely way for knitters in Canada to offer support for Women fighting for their legal rights in the United States, so we got on board!

We volunteered to receive and distribute donated Pussy hats to those going to marches. The experience was really heartwarming!

We sent close to two dozen hand knit/crocheted hats to the Washington March. We also received many more than that in the days following, and we estimate that more than 35 hats passed through our hands and on to the marchers in Toronto. The Toronto March had a turnout of over 60,000

people ready to make noise and be heard, and there we saw hundreds more pink hats – good job, Toronto! Although there is so much more we can all do to fight for intersectional women’s rights, it starts with getting together and standing as a community. It will continue with us being politically active, and refusing to stay silent about what matters to us!

Brenna went to the Toronto March and really enjoyed handing out the last of the donated hats that weren’t claimed. A few child size hats went to some fierce little feminists, and the adult hats were much appreciated by their recipients too.

Were you unable to make it to the March but want to help?

We are currently taking donations for Sistering – a woman’s shelter in downtown Toronto. They work with women from all walks of life who are homeless, underhoused, low income or marginalized and are looking for a safe and welcoming place to go during the day, as well as offering employment help, food support through their drop-in program, harm reduction and so much more. If a woman’s right to access health care and compassion is important to you, this is a really great organization to support. Read more about them on their website. Please contact us at the store if you would like to donate or share your own story about the Womens March on Washington. Check out this sweet one from Karen who posted this on our Facebook wall today:

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Lastly a big THANK YOU To every stitcher who knitted, crocheted, or sewed a pink hat to show that you stand with all other women to protect and fight for their rights! We couldn’t have shared nearly so much cheer without you!

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Big thanks as well, to May Warren for including us in this Metro News article, to Alexa Battler for this Toronto Observer article, and to CBC As It Happens for their interview with Amelia last Thursday. It makes us feel famous!

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Rhichard Devrieze Trunk Show!

Rhichard Devrieze and his beautiful yarns are coming back to Yarns Untangled for another fantastic trunk show! Saturday, January 28th from 11am to 5pm, our table and shelves will be full of Fynn, Peppino, and Phantom, as well as some limited one-of-a-kind colourways and bases that are otherwise unavailable anywhere else. Last year’s RDV trunk show was a huge success, so we know this one will be even better. Get there early because the most popular colourways go quickly!

For every $50 you spend on Rhichard’s ravishing yarns, you can fill in a raffle ticket to win a fantastic RDV-themed prize pack! RSVP on Facebook to give us an idea of numbers, and bring all your friends.

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