Posting date: 5 October 2021
For cardigan lovers, here’s a terrific modern, stylish take on a wardrobe staple. The pattern is St Catherines, by expert Scottish designer Kate Davies.
It’s designed for woolen-spun, Shetland-style fingering weight yarn. So, it works very well with the BC Garn Bio Shetland we are currently promoting on special offer.
This ruffled wrap has been at the store as a sample for a while, but we’re featuring it now as a pattern suggestion for the BC Garn Bio Shetland promotion. It’s a great free pattern by an unnamed designer for Patons UK.
Mairi used just four skeins of BC Garn Bio Shetland, in the colourway ‘Washed Jeans’. You won’t be surprised that the colourway goes beautifully with denim jeans for a great casual look. The wrap is worked side-to-side with increases up to a middle point. So, it was easy to judge how much yarn to use. Increase for two skeins, then decrease for two skeins.
The pattern was great fun to work. Most of the knitting is garter stitch, with tiny little cables to add interest, and short row turns to give extra volume for the ruffles. The long crescent shape is very flexible, allowing the wrap to be styled many different ways by adjusting the drape.
Also, it’s super-warm, thanks to the lofty, woolen-spun characteristics of the Shetland yarn.
Posting date: 2 October 2021
Here’s a great free pattern that would work well with our current promotion for BC Garn Bio Shetland: Da Crofter’s Kep by Shetland native and expert designer Wilma Malcolmson.
Posting date: 2 October 2021
We’re trying something new this Fall knitting season – a special promotion for one of our favourite yarns. BC Garn Bio Shetland is an absolutely lovely eco-friendly, pure wool, woolen-spun, inexpensive, lightweight yarn. It’s suitable for all kinds of warm, soft, light-weight garments and accessories. And it comes in a truly wonderful range of colours. The range of colours, combined with the ‘sticky’ characteristic of a woolen-spun yarn make it ideal for stranded colourwork.
Here are the details:
During the promotion period, we will be highlighting a few patterns that are terrific for this yarn. We’ll publish those here on the news blog, and also collect them on a new page for the Bio Shetland Promotion under the ‘Home’ tab in the web page banner menu. Additional ideas are available on Ravelry – you can use the ‘pattern ideas’ tab that’s available for any yarn in their database. Here’s a link for the Ravelry pattern ideas for Bio Shetland. Also on Ravelry, the ‘projects’ tab for any yarn shows all the projects that other users have made with it – here’s a link for Ravelry projects made with Bio Shetland.
Posting date: 9 June, 2021
Six years ago, we hosted a wonderful workshop with Sylvia Olsen, as part of her cross-Canada knitting tour. She taught a fascinating class on Coast Salish knitting techniques, and shared stories from her book, Knitting Stories: Personal Essays and Nine Coast Salish-inspired Knitting Patterns. Together with her partner, Tex McLeod, they spent six weeks travelling from Victoria to Newfoundland, and conducted workshops in more than 40 locations (including Creative Yarns). She taught knitting, listened to stories from hundreds of knitters, and told her own stories. Along the way, Sylvia gained a new appreciation and formed a new relationship with her country.
Posting date: 9 June 2021
On Friday, 11 June, Creative Yarns is re-opening (again) for in-person shopping, at reduced capacity. Our hours will be:
Creative Yarns will be following all city and provincial rules and guidelines for safe Step 1 re-opening. In particular:
Online shopping with curbside pickup is still available for anyone not comfortable with visiting in person, but we hope that this opportunity to look at our yarns for yourself will be helpful to many of you.
We are very much looking forward to the time when COVID restrictions are no longer necessary! There is nothing we enjoy more than having a store full of knitters, relaxing together to chat, knit, and share creative ideas.
In the meantime, thank you very much for your continued patronage through this very difficult time. Your words of encouragement and support, as much as your purchases, have made it possible for us to keep operating and have hope for the future.
Posting date: 10 April 2021
There’s a huge amount of yarn in one of these giant balls of lightweight Noro Kakagori. So, your single-skein projects can be quite ambitious!
It’s a single-ply blend of cotton and silk, with a small amount of viscose and nylon added for strength and drape. It’s the perfect mix for cool, summer projects.
Noro’s is famous for woolen-spun, long gradient colour blends, in nature-inspired colourways. And this yarn is a standout example. So, the texture and the colour combine to make simple knits become dramatic and eye-catching.
Try it for go-everywhere sweaters and cardigans, shawls and wraps, ponchos and accessories.
Posting date: 9 April 2021
I’m sure you already know, but retail stores in Toronto are closed again. As of 7 April, our physical store is open for curbside pickup only during the current lockdown phase.
We will be happy to assist you by phone (416-331-8085), or through our online shopping portal. Curbside pick-up and home delivery are both available.
Stay well and stay safe! We look forward to seeing all our friends and customers again in person when it is deemed safe to reopen.
Posting date: 1 April 2021
We are particularly excited by our latest new offering. Artfil Mericana DK is a wonderful, soft, smooth, squishable, hand-dyed DK weight yarn.
It’s available in a huge range of space-dyed, tonal, semi-solid, and speckled colours. All of them are gorgeous! It’s a very flexible weight of yarn, suitable for projects big and small. It has a nice, multi-ply, high-twist character, making it sturdy and pill-resistant, but still soft and smooth. Use it for sweaters and outerwear that will look stand up to years of love, wear, and laundering. Use it for cowls and delicate accessories that you need to be next-to-skin soft. Use it for snuggly blankets that your family will consider heirlooms. Or buy just one skein for that perfect hat. And then maybe a second skein for matching mittens. Because you will never run out of things to knit with Artfil Mericana DK.
Posting date: 31 March 2021
Mmmm, laceweight mohair and silk! There is no such thing as too many choices for laceweight mohair blends, and Pro Lana Kid Seta is an excellent addition to the family.
The 70/30 blend of finest kid mohair and silk is as good as it gets. The vivid solids and tasteful, long-colour-run gradients are visually stunning. And it comes from a yarn company that specialises in high-quality yarns, milled in Europe.
The reason we love laceweight mohair blends so much is because of their uniquely versatile characteristics. You can knit simple, lightweight, accessories – cowls, scarves, wraps, capelets – and even cardigans and sweaters, with just one strand of mohair at a very loose gauge in plain stockinette or garter stitch, and they will come out as light and soft as a cloud, while still warm and snuggly, with a magnificent halo. Or, hold one strand of mohair together with any other yarn to knit more robust garments and accessories at a denser gauge. Either way, the mohair adds visual and textural interest. Colour and texture blending with strands of different yarns is so much fun, and so easy to do!
Posting date: 30 March 2021
We’re now stocking the fun, new Bubble Tea yarn, from Hikoo. This is a yarn with a lot going on – thick-and-thin texture, softness and drape, balanced with just enough ‘memory’ and elasticity. It’s ideal for lightweight accessories, or loose, drapey wraps and cardigans. And it’s a very easy yarn to work with. The simplest patterns will come out looking terrific, because the yarn does all the work. No complex knitting tricks required!
Posting date: 29 March 2021
There’s always room on the shelves for more beautifully hand-dyed sock yarn! Nina’s latest ‘find’ is the ‘Tough Sock‘ yarn from Martin’s Lab, a small independent dyer in Toruń, Poland.
This comes in a gorgeous range of vivid colours, and the 75/25 Merino/Nylon blend and high twist means that it lives up to it’s name – although deliciously soft, it is tough enough to be perfect for socks. Or anything, really! Sweaters that don’t pill; shawls that can be blocked aggressively and carried around for everyday in-and-out-of-a/c use; next-to-skin accessories; you name it.
What’s not to love about a hand-dyed sock yarn?
Posting date: 23 March 2021
This recent arrival falls into the category of affordable luxury yarns. Illimani Santi is a gorgeous blend of ultra-fine merino, baby alpaca, yak, and mulberry silk.
This is a very versatile yarn. DK weight, it has great drape so it can be worked loosely for a garment with liquid flow. But it also has terrific stitch definition, so you can use it at a tighter gauge for denser projects with cables or textured stitches that really pop.
And, it is very, very soft and smooth. So you can use it for next-to-skin garments, including luxurious cowls.
Posting date: 22 March 2021
This has been in stock for a while, but is new to the online store. Katia Easy Hat is exactly what it claims to be. It might be the easiest hat project you’ve every tried, and it’s definitely the yarn you’ll reach for if you ever need a hat for Right. Now.
This is a self-patterning yarn, jacquard-style, so it looks like clever knitting. But even the contrasting brim colour is part of the single-ball pattern. There are no extra ends to weave in when you’re done.
Available now, in three beautiful colourways.
Posting date: 8 March 2021
As of today, retail stores in Toronto are re-opening, with strict COVID-safety restrictions. Creative Yarns will be re-opening starting Tuesday 9 March, and our hours will be:
Creative Yarns will be following all city and provincial rules and guidelines for safe re-opening. In particular:
Online shopping with curbside pickup is still available for anyone not comfortable with visiting in person, but we hope that this opportunity to look at our yarns for yourself will be helpful to many of you.
We are very much looking forward to the time when COVID restrictions are no longer necessary! There is nothing we enjoy more than having a store full of knitters, relaxing together to chat, knit, and share creative ideas.
In the meantime, thank you very much for your continued patronage through this very difficult time. Your words of encouragement and support, as much as your purchases, have made it possible for us to keep operating and have hope for the future.
Posting date: 27 February 2021
Are you ready for summer? Maybe you’re just ready to think about summer! We’ve got a lovely new yarn in stock that will have you dreaming of a warmer, safer world in no time.
Linello, from Lang Yarns, is a treat for anyone who loves the look and feel of linen, but maybe wishes it were a bit easier on the hands.
It is a blend of linen, cotton, and viscose that is light, soft, strong, breathable, easy to knit, and durable. Like all Lang Yarns, it is a high-quality preparation, with great consistency. And it comes in a terrific range of colourways, with long, striking colour runs.
Nina already has a summer scarf worked up in this yarn – you can see it in the project gallery. What will you make?
Posting Date: 14 February 2021
This is a new addition to the popular Cumulus line of yarns from Jupiter Moon Farms. Cumulus Rainbow has the same yarn base, but adds beautiful colour gradients to make your soft cotton projects more exciting.
If you’ve already worked with Cumulus, you know how luscious it is. Cotton yarns are sometimes disappointing – they look and feel great in the skein, but end up feeling hard, even stringy, when knitted up. Not Cumulus!
Juniper Moon Farms brag about the long staple length of the Israeli Mako cotton they use for this yarn, and it’s justified. That extra staple length allows them to spin this yarn thicker and with more loft than lesser quality cotton fibre. The result is a yarn that’s thick and bouncy, but with a smooth surface that makes it soft enough for the most sensitive skin. It also holds up well to wash and wear.
Nina has a new design based on this yarn (Gallery pictures & pattern coming soon!), and there is additional pattern support from the yarn distributor, like this beautiful, but simple, Watery Ripples shawl from Vicki Myers.
Posting Date: 13 February 2021
Here’s another great general-purpose yarn that we are now carrying in a wide range of colours.
Estelle Superwash Merino DK is particularly well-suited for baby items. It is next-to-skin soft. It knits up quickly, but isn’t too heavy. It’s 100% wool, so it’s naturally flame resistant, but it is also Superwash treated, and is machine washable. Plus, it comes in at a lower price point than similar yarns, and is tremendous value for money.
It is very similar to Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino (now on clearance), and can be substituted without modification into any pattern where you would use Cashmerino.
It’s also an excellent choice for light-to-medium weight sweaters, as it has good stitch definition to highlight cables and other interesting textured patterns. And it’s soft enough for cowls and neckwear.
In short, a terrific all-rounder that checks all the boxes!
Posting date: 12 February 2021
We have another marvelous new yarn in stock, the aran-weight Hayne’s Creek Heathers from the Canadian company Gathering Yarn.
This is a brand new yarn range, and we love everything about it. The soft, heathered colours are beautiful and visually interesting; the lofty, woolen-spun structure is warm without being heavy; the yardage is truly excellent for this weight of yarn; it is spun from 100% Peruvian Highland Wool in a Fair Trade certified mill in Peru; and the cost per skein is remarkably low.
We recommend this yarn for quick-to-knit outerwear projects of all kinds, but especially for cozy warm sweaters that you will come back to season after season, but won’t break the bank.
Of course, it will also work well for hats, mittens, scarves, and any felted projects.
Posting Date: 1 December 2020
Our annual mini-sock tradition will be available online this December, as the store is still closed for in-person shopping due to the coronavirus.
These decorative mini-socks are made from scraps of sock yarn, and no two are alike. They might have one colour of yarn, or a dozen, but every one is locally handmade with love – love of our craft, and love of our shared community at Creative Yarns.
Each sock has a loop for hanging – on your Christmas tree, if you have one, or perhaps on your key chain or zipper pull to add a note of whimsy to everyday life.
We are making these available through the online shopping portal and, yes, you can buy them if you want more than one. But we would much rather give them away for free! So, put one in your cart and enter the code MINISOCK at checkout to get one free mini-sock with any order, while stocks last. Coupon is valid one time per customer.
Note that every mini-sock is different, and socks will be picked at random.