Knit, Blog & Be Happy!

2024 is the year that I want to knit a Christmas Sweater, and why not gather together and have a Holiday Sweater KAL? No matter what you celebrate, there is a sweater out there for you. I am going to cast-on Isabell Kraemer’s Jingle.  Perhaps you want to knit a fancier sweater for a holiday party.  Whatever you fancy, let us encourage you to cast on a holiday garment. So how does it work? Select a sweater to knit or crochet, purchase the yarn from Monarch Knitting, and we will gift you the pattern! On October 19th, we will all...

We are so happy to welcome Ito Yarns to our shelves. This is a yarn line that calls to be combined. Texture and color come alive when you mix and match bases and tones. We are thrilled to welcome Sandy Barnes and Britt-Marie Brehmer this weekend show all of us the possibilites.  To start, we are introducing five bases to the shop: (all will be online staring next Monday) Sensai: lace - 60% mohair and 40% silk (it is so like Shibui Silk Mohair)Kinu: lace - 100% silkSo Kosho: DK - 90% merino and 10% cashmereKosho: lace - 90% merino and 10%...

Our fall celebration with Kristine Vejar of Bread & Butter yarn and Julie Weisenberger of Cocoknits this last weekend was so inspiring. While many of you made it to the shop to meet Kristine and Julie, squish yarn, and try on samples, we want to bring the story of Everyday and Bun to those of you who live far afield.  Both bases are 100% merino, which is grown, spun, and dyed in the US. Everyday, a Worsted/Aran weight yarn is put up in a 200-yard, 100-gram hank. On the other hand, Bun is a chunky weight yarn with 130 yards...

I recently blogged about my fall knitting list in which I featured potential projects I plan to knit this season and we asked for you to share. Wow, you delivered!  There are some tempting projects that I may add to my list...   Tina shares a neat design... "Mette from Petite Knit is super active on Instagram. The Esther Design is inspired by the Isager Archives, from the 70s.Helga Isager invites designers from Denmark every summer for a knitcation, where they have the chance to dive into the Isager Archives to design new patterns based on Ase Lund Jensen’s designs from the seventies....

If you love to wear sweaters, pills are a part of your life.  We are asked all the time, does this fiber pill? To be honest, the answer is usually yes. There is no getting around it. A sweater, when loved and worn, is going to pill in certain places.  Yes, some yarns pill more than others, but most everything is going to require a little bit of cleanup from time to time. With that in mind, let's take a peek at what I keep at home to fight those pesky pills. First, there is the Mini Gleaner. Yes, there...