Our entire line of Mirasol yarns are now 25% off!

Are you familiar with the Mirasol line? Well, it's a neat story and wonderful yarn. So, we bought into it - too much so. But, it's to your advantage on many levels - price, quality, designs and giving back.

Here's the deal - it is luxurious Peruvian fibers, cotton, merino, baby llama and alpaca, spun and dyed in Peru. A portion of every purchase is dedicated directly to the funding of a school in the remote Munani region in Peru. Go to http://www.mirasolperu.com/ for beautiful photos and more details of this fairtrade endeavor. Jane Ellison is the designer for the line and has created some wonderful pattern books - she is highly envolved in the project. "Miralsol" is the name of one the children that lives in the highlands. She and her brother are responsible for 350 alpacas and a local school will enable them to get an education.

We have five different yarns in good quantities and two pattern books. And we are selling it at 25% off. We will have it in our webstore this week so you can see colors and of course at the store store so you can touch it -

Miski is 82 yards of 100% baby llama on sale for $6.67,
Sulka is 55 yards of 60% merino and 20% silk on sale for $5.81,

Hacho is 137 yards of 100% hand dyed merino on sale for $6.67,

Cotanani is 90 yards of 60% pima cotton and 40% merino on sale for $5.36 and

T'ika is 91 yards of 100% pima cotton on sale for $5.36.

New for Fall!

First, I'd like to say, "be in the present and enjoy summer." But, because life never stops, Colleen and I are planning some fall activities that we hope you’ll really like - we're excited. And we’re buying our new fall inventory!

Here are a few of the details so far- Our favorite sales rep visited this week. And as far as the Rowan line is concerned - we're on it! Kim Hargraves is designing fabulous stuff for them and even has her own colors in about six of current the yarns. She has a new book out for Summer which is on it's way and two new for fall. We're replenishing our Cashwool colors and got bunches of lucious Kid Silk Haze. The preview of the fall magazine looks wonderful.

Stephanie had real live Prisim models that we got to try on. The two models were sooo wearable - a swing jacket that covered the derierre and a boxy jacket with curved front panels. We are debating about the line - it is very unique, high-end, luxury hand dye line. See http://prismyarn.com/ which does not do it justice. What do you all think of this line of yarn? How would you like a fashion show and kit sale evening? Any feed back is welcome.

Next, Mission Falls is introducing their wonderful washable wool in a lighter DK weight. We are getting it in all the current colors with a new pattern book. This weight will be so good for our climate and for children's things! Can't wait for that to come in.

Also, we have some ideas for classes and workshops. The Sunday workshops have seemed to work for you all so, we'll be doing more of those. Look for this one - a workshop on the corelation between Good Health and Knitting, yoga for sitters/knitters and how to use the incredible website Ravelry to your advantage and connect to the knitting community "out there".

Another class idea we are planning is a fantastic designer project that uses up your stash yarn. Good, huh? 'Cause you might have some yarn stashed away and might have some small amounts of cool stuff that you don't know what to do with. So, you and a few folks with similar issues, could get together with us and knit Chris Bylsma's fabulous Crayon Box jacket - mitered squares of combined yarns, in colors you choose that is so fabulous. She even has a girl's sized version.

And, we are going to do a Christmas stocking class using the very cute, popular Minnow Knits pattern. If you have never knit socks this is a great intro - first off, it is only one large gauge stocking, not a pair and second you do a real heel flap and turn!

Cynthia Parker is going to teach intarsia knitting - a beautiful Kaffe Fassett knock off pillow top and Jane Foster is going to show us shadow knitting ala Vivian Hoxbro.

Sound like a good start? Let us know what you think and if there is anything more we can do for you!

Hi, All. We've been really slow in posting about our fabulous Knit Out that we had May 10. Lots of us showed up to knit in public and we attracted some good attention. We have photos and everything. It started to rain for the last 1/2 hour but, we had great fun. The other neat thing is we gave away door prizes by selling raffle tickets for $1. The money we raised, in 1.5 hours mind you, was over $100 for local Meals on Wheels program. We found it very sad that the program can no longer provide meals on the weekends for folks due to lack of funding.

I had an idea - it is quite half baked and needs some work. It may not even be possible to access the names/addresses of the participants but, what if neighbors/neighborhood associations/neightborhood churches could pick up some of the slack? I would be willing to make sure one of my neighbors had, at least, peanut butter and crackers to eat. What do you all think?

Also, how about we knit together again on Saturday morning, June 14, Fayetteville Square for World Wide Knit In Public day?
Joy

A. N. Avery

Hello, fellow Hand Held knitters!

My name is Nicole and I've been wandering in and out of Hand Held for about a year and a half now. My grad school program (MAT) is finally over and school is officially out for the summer, so I can once again get my knit on without too much interruption. In addition to a deep and abiding love for my knitting, I also enjoy reading just about everything and blogging about what I'm reading and what I'm knitting. Please take some time and stop by my knitting blog Sticks and Tomes. Feel free to comment on any of the posts. You can navigate around by clicking on the links under the "Categories" section or select a type of project from the "Sticks and Tomes Tags." I'll also be making appearances here on the Hand Held Ladies blog since they were kind enough to allow me on as part of their writing contingency.

My summer project is Nora Gaughan's Tilted Duster from Knitting Daily. I officially cast on this morning and I'm already loving it! The yarn feels wonderful between my fingers and the color variation is intriguing. There will be more pictures as the jacket grows, but for now, here are a few starters:

I hope that your summer has started off well and I hope to see you around the shop some time. I'll be the mysterious woman with the bag of purple yarn... Cheers!

Oh what a lovely afghan

This is one beautiful Great American Aran Afghan. A picture can't do it justice but we had the privledge of having Nancy bring it down to the shop to show us. We remember when she started it 2 years ago and of course all of us said we wanted to knit one at the time. But only Nancy perservered and it is well worth it. It has gotten me inspired again and I hope that in the the not to distant future I will start. As you can see Sasha likes it too. She just had to lay on it. She circled the table several times and we wouldnt let her on it, but when we had our back turned she slipped in and hunkered down. Needless to say she was very disappointed when Nancy took it home. It is wonderful to see what some of our local knitters have done and as I said inspirational. We hope that all of you our there don't get discouraged on any of your projects and give them up. Sometimes just putting them aside for a bit can give you the perspective you need to get back to it.

Now that I'm done waxing philosophically I will celebrate Spring. Finally it seems we are there. The dogwoods are beautiful and the recent freeze hasn't seemed to cause too much damage. We had a great day at the shop Sunday knitting our market bags and though it was pretty chilly that day and the next, I can see all of us on the Square soon with them at the Farmers Market.

Speaking of the Square I want to remind everyone to come to the 2nd annual Knitout on the Square on May 10th. We had such a great time last year and I'm sure it will be just as much fun this year. Just bring your knitting and a chair and meet us in front of the town center at 10am.

We are so pleased to have others adding to our blog. It's great to have customers who have become knitting friends and are willing to add their voice to our own in promoting this wonder ful craft. It's amazing how diverse the group is. We even taught our UPS man to knit with his wife last week. There's always something to learn in knitting! So jump right in and start that new project and come see us.

brave and bold knitters

So I'm a knitter, as one might expect. I learned the basics in high school from my mother, and then kind of let it slip through most of college. I did a scarf or two and a hat my first year, and then would pick it up sporadically thereafter, but I was too lazy and intimidated to get past marking thumb stitches on a mitten.

Then I graduated, went to France to teach English, and found myself with a lot of time on my hands to sit in the teacher's lounge between classes. So I started knitting again. Just easy little ribbed hats, because I had a limited stash of needles and yarn (the yarn shop near my house had mostly acrylics and novelty yarns). When I got back to the States, I was itching to knit for real, and fortunately, Mom had discovered the Monday night knitting at Handheld. The pink shrug above was my first big project. I'd never knitted lace before, but I thought, okay, I'll try it; after all, I loved the sample that was hanging up in the shop. Instead of the suggested yarn, I used some anonymous fuzzy pink stuff that I'd inherited from my grandmother's sizable stash of weaving yarn. The other knitters at Handheld were immensely helpful, cheering me on through the whole process. Even as they're trying patterns I'm still only dreaming of, they make me feel accomplished and brave. Monday night knitting is now permanently written into my schedule; more than once, I've turned down other engagements because I can't miss it.

Hooray for the knitters of Handheld! And, of course, the yarncat.

Introducing Sarah Jo

Hi! This Sarah Jo! Hmm... about me? Well, i love to knit! i learned at Hand Held 4 years ago and i've been exploring the wonderful world of knitting ever since.
The photo is of me in my latest big project (which i normally don't do - i like little stuff): a formal dress for a dance in May. i sort of made it up because i couldn't find a pattern i liked. Thankfully, it worked out.
i am willing to try anything once, as far as knitting goes, and i'll usually follow the pattern the first time, but i'm big on modifying to taste.
i inherited a monthly Teen Knitting Group at the Fayetteville Public Library (third Thursday of every month from 5-6:30pm, beginners welcome) where novices are taught, intermidiates can expand their skill, and all the experts pitch in and confuse the first two groups with good advice and lots of "help".
Oh, i can also crochet (my great grandmother taught me) but i prefer knitting. Unless it's a coaster or some other round, flat object - then i prefer crochet.
So now i work at Hand Held two days a week and love it! i'm learning everything i can and getting lots of practice and good advice.
And that's me. But not the end.