Nina will be at the Creativ Festival this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, showcasing new designs and new yarns. If you are planning on going to the show, be sure and stop by the Creative Yarns booth to say hello to Nina and check out her latest creations.
In preparation for the show, the store will be closing at 7pm on Thursday, and the regular Thursday evening social knitting group is cancelled for this week. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday hours remain as normal.
Berroco’s Boboli yarn has been popular here for a while now, so we’re delighted to see this new, lighter weight version of the same fibre mix. Although it calls itself a lace yarn, it’s more like a fingering weight in yardage and behaviour. 
Single-ply, like it’s heavier cousins, it has the same exciting colour mixes that made Boboli so popular, and the same, wool-rich, fibre composition: 42% wool, 35% acrylic, 23% rayon/viscose. It’s lovely to work with, and the dynamic play of colours is fun to watch under your fingers.
Nina has worked a simple striped triangle shawl with one ball of Boboli lace, and one ball of Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca Fine in a complementary solid to show off the Boboli colours to great effect. It’s a simple, fun knit (at an economical price) and we think it looks terrific!
There are so many colours in each ball, that the possible combinations are endless. These yarns have been flying off the shelves in all colourways, and we are looking forward to seeing many of them coming back as finished shawls.
What colours would you pick to knit this shawl?
“Titus” is a new yarn by British company”‘Baa Ram Ewe”. It has been creating quite a bit of buzz on the net, with good reason. The fibre mix is 50% Wensleydale longwool, 20% Bluefaced Leicester, and 30% British Alpaca in a 4-ply fingering weight. If you’re not familiar with those first two names, they are both premium British breeds of wool-producing sheep. OK, all sheep produce wool, but some breeds produce better wool than others, and these are two of the best.
Wensleydale
fleece has very long fibres that add a lot of strength and sheen to the yarn. Bluefaced Leicester, a long-time favourite fibre with handspinners, also has a long staple, and is soft, strong, and lustrous. Titus yarn, with a generous amount of alpaca for extra softness, is a wonderful blend of woolly warmth together with visual characteristics – soft, gray-toned colours with a rich ‘glow’ – that provide excellent stitch definition. 
The yarn launched with some very attractive patterns that highlight the yarn characteristics, all available at the store. Pictured here are a couple of these designs – Ann Kingstone’s “Ilkely Moor” hat and “Baht’at” fingerless gloves – knitted as store samples at Creative Yarns. Thanks to Jane and Angela for knitting the store samples, and Meredith for modeling the hat. We’re looking forward to seeing more customer projects with this interesting yarn. Please do bring your finished projects back to the store to show off what you have made!
We are very excited to host our first official ‘yarn tasting’ event, sponsored by Estelle Yarns.
We will have samples of ten new Estelle yarns for you to test and enjoy in the store, and there will be a door prize from Estelle for each registered participant.
Creative Yarns will provide coffee and snacks.
This event is free, but registration is required to reserve a spot. Call now (416-331-8085) to reserve your place.
Skill level: Beginner. No previous experience required.
Date: Saturday 21/Sep, 1-4pm (1 session, 3 hours)
Instructor: Mina Amini
Cost: $35 + HST + materials
Details: click here
Skill level: Beginner/Intermediate
Dates: Sundays 22/Sep, 29/Sep, 6/Oct, 13/Oct, 1:30-3:30pm (4 sessions, 8 hours total)
Instructor: Mairi McKissock
Cost: $85 + HST + materials
Details: click here
Skill level: Beginner/Intermediate.
Date: Saturday 28/Sep, 1-4pm (1 session, 3 hours)
Instructor: Trish Denhoed
Cost: $35 + HST
Details: click here
Skill level:Intermediate
Date: Saturday 5/Oct, 1-4pm (1 session, 3 hours)
Instructor: Trish Denhoed
Cost: $35 + HST
Details: click here
Skill level: Beginner/Intermediate
Date: Saturday 12/Oct, 1-4pm (1 session, 3 hours)
Instructor: Mairi McKissock
Cost: $35 + HST + materials
Details: click here
Skill level: Intermediate
Date: Saturday 19/Oct, 1-4pm (1 session, 3 hours)
Instructor: Mairi McKissock
Cost: $35 + HST + materials
Details: click here
Skill level: Beginner/Intermediate
Dates: Sundays 20/Oct, 27/Oct, 3/Nov, 1:30-3:30pm (3 sessions, 6 hours total)
Instructor: Mairi McKissock
Cost: $65 + HST + materials
Details: click here
Skill level: Beginner/intermediate
Date: Saturday 26/Oct, 1-4pm (1 session, 3 hours)
Instructor: Trish Denhoed
Cost: $35 + HST
Details: click here
Welcome to the Creative Yarns website. You’ll notice that we have a completely new site design. Please take a look around, and let us know what you think. We’ll be adding some new features over the next few months, and we’d love your feedback about what you’d like to see.
The recent site changes are focused on making the site more dynamic – we hope you’ll come back often to learn what’s new at the store. Our first posts are about current class offerings – check out the Calendar and Classes options on the main menu (top right of the screen).
We also plan to make regular posts about new yarns in the store, and exciting new designs that Nina is working on.