Goodness gracious, Bully.

That sale…that sale was something else. 

Now, let’s see.   I believe that one of the stated purposes behind all that yarn moving out of the shop (at an intense pace!) was to make room for something, if only I could put my finger on it.

Oh gracious.  What are those blue-and-white labels?

Can it be?

The Malabrigo shipment has arrived!  Boxes and boxes of sumptious wool, silk, and superwash in gorgeous colors.  

Some brand new yarns, including the Wooly Bully premiere of Rasta (a superbulky single-ply) and Rios (all the colors of the original worsted, now in superwash).  That’s right, you’ve heard about them on the Internet, now come in to the store to fondle them in person.  

As well as new and returning colors of some of our favorites, the Silky, Sock, Worsted and Twist.  

I’d just like to take a moment to share some of my favorite images from the recent TurtleDove Trunk Show, for those of you who live out of town, or just missed out.  It was an amazing day!  

Everyone loves Erica, especially when she shows up with mountains of gorgeous hand-dyed perfection.

Doors opened at 11 AM, and by noon, I’d estimate that about half the yarn had been spoken for.  Erica says that she came in with 200 skeins of Alouette Lulu, Pigeon, Starling, Magpie, Rarebird Lace, Myna Lace, Flicker, and many more, and I’d estimate that she probably only took a very small fraction of that home with her at the end of the day.  

I think we have to call this the Summer Edition, since she says that she plans to try and do this again later in the year, and on a recurring (seasonal, hopefully!) basis.  

So, what did you guys think?  Anything you didn’t get a chance to grab?  Anything you want to rave, or to brag about?  Anything you’d like Erica to bring back for another pass at a later date?

Can I just take a moment to brag about my acquisition?  I owe a very special knitter a bunch of thanks for being so generous as to part with it so that I could scoop it up with my grabby little paws.

 Hoping you guys had as much fun as me,

Emily

Which of these two buttons?

I don’t usually use this site as a venue for my own work, both because, well, it’s really the shop’s blog.  And also, there’s Ravelry for that.

But I haven’t seen any knitters in the flesh for actual weeks!  And there’s no guarantee that I will for several weeks more.  And I miss you guys.  So, as I have learned through thousands of dollars and dozens of hours worth of grad school to phrase it, I have decided to use the internet as a tool of communication through which to communicate with my peers and community of practice.  That’s fancy library-school talk for; what do y’all think?

The tan one (which is sort of an iridescent tan, if there’s such a thing)?

Or the turquoise one (which is similarly shiny and pretty)?

Or even, because I’m fudging a pattern (this one, if you’re interested) into worsted that was originally written for bulky yarn and needles, and I think I made the overlapping tab a bit too long; both?

What do you think?

Just a quick note to let people know, we will be closed on Thursday, November 26 for Thanksgiving.

We will be open again on Friday and Saturday for normal operating hours.  We’ll be providing warm cider, coffee, and treats for the weary shopper.  Stop by to take a break from all the madness going on in the outside world, to get a head start on your Christmas projects, and take advantage of some new sale items.  It’s not precisely Black Friday….more like Heathered, Tweedy, Mohair-y Friday.  A lot of different things are going to be on sale from 10-40 % off.

See you there!

The Wooly Bullies

Hey all,

First of all, We want to thank everyone that has contributed to Afghans for Afghans so far.  We are doing great, and want to really push on through to make our local Tallahassee contribution really great, especially this year.   To that end, the Bully is doing 2 things for A4A; we’re collecting hand knit and crochet items AND we’re making a shop Lizard Ridge to be raffled off and the money donated to A4A to help to cover their shipping costs.

• Extending the Bully’s A4A deadline to November 30th.
• Outlining the prizes generously donated by Hannah at Wooly Bully
• Outlining the point system

Prizes:

1st prize: 4 whole skeins of cashmere

2nd prize: 1 set of the awesome new Hiya Hiya interchangeable needle set (that’s needle tips from size 2-8 and 4 cords from size 16”-40”)

3rd prize: 1 Barbara Walker knitting book of your choice!

Now for the point system:

The way this is going to work is that at the end of November, when all is said and done and we’ve finished collecting all the A4A items, we’re going to put names in a hat. 1 point = your name once in the hat. There are different “points” attributed to different items. here goes:

5 points:
Baby Blanket (30 inches by 40 inches minimum)
Adult Sweater

4 points:
Child sweater (age 5 and up)
Child pants
Adult vest

3 points:
Baby sweater (like Erica’s beautiful Firefly)
Baby pants
Child vest

2 points:
Baby vest
1 pair of full size adult socks (not footies)
1 pair of adult mittens/gloves

1 point:
1 Noro Lizard Ridge Square (unblocked please)
1 pair baby socks
1 pair baby mittens/gloves
1 pair adult fingerless gloves
1 pair adult footies
baby/child/adult hat

A few reminders:

• A4A this year is really stressing Baby Blankets.
• Everything knit and crocheted for A4A must be made of natural fiber, such as wool or alpaca.
• No scarves.
• No baby booties.
• No graphical representation of people or things on the donations please, these items will be unusable.
• No Camoflage (for obvious reasons).
• A4A has loads of FREE great patterns available if you need inspiration! You can find them on their website.

Love,

Rubino and the rest of the Wooly Bullies.

So, have you seen this?

Not to toot our own horns, but it is sort of thrilling to read through the website of what is clearly an awesome project, see all the criteria, and be able to think  "hey, that’s us!" so unequivocally.

Needless to say, we’re in support of this project.  We have always been proud to be locally-owned, rooted in the community, and (hopefully) part of the Tallahassee business scene.  But, I don’t want to be selfish here.  In this economy, I’d like to urge everyone to think this idea over and decide what it means to you personally.  If you decide that you’d like to know more about the 3/50 Project and what they’re trying to accomplish, then go visit their site.  Go ahead, I’ll wait.  If you also decide that you want to make (or continue to make) Wooly Bully one of the Tallahassee-area businesses you’re supporting, we’d be proud to have you.

See you soon,

Emily

Those of you who have stopped by the shop this week may have noticed a few…changes.  A little less caftan skirts and cross stitch, slightly more indie rock t-shirts and lace-knitting.  A little less Hannah, is what I’m trying to say, and a dollop more of someone else. 

Wooly Bully is proud to welcome the newest member of the Bully crew.  Presenting, Ziona!

It’s the true sign of a grownup, looking this polished and chic while simultaneously modeling a Baktus scarf over one’s head.

Ziona is going to be our new shopgirl all summer long, before matriculating this fall, and we invite everyone to come into the shop for some of her cheerful assistance.  Or, you know, we can just stare at her, whisper behind our hands, and occasionally poke her with sticks.  Either way, we’re very glad to have her, and I know that the Bully community will make her feel very welcome.

– Emily

It’s happened to all of us.  Hannah posts the class schedule, you look it over, you get excited about a new yarn, you research a pattern (what did we ever do before Ravelry?  You mean I can look at every single picture of every single knitter who’s ever done the Koolhaas, and what yarn they used?)…..but then, you don’t follow up on it.  You mean to call the shop and register, but it’s Sunday, and the shop doesn’t open again until Tuesday, and by Tuesday you can’t even remember what you had for dinner on Sunday, much less that you had something you needed to do.   

Or you do call the shop to register, but apparently every other knitter in Tallahassee has beaten you to the punch.  Or you manage to sign up for one of those spots, but something comes up on the day in question, or no one else actually wanted to knit that object (what, are they blind?) so the instructor cancels, or there was this hurricane….

Like I said, we’ve all been there.  Hannah and the rest of the crew have been discussing what classes should be given a second show.  What was really popular at the time, and we need to address the spillover now?  Or maybe you didn’t see the beauty of something when the pattern was first published, but now that you’ve seen it in someone’s project gallery, knitted up in Noro or Silky Tweed, you’re realizing that you absolutely need it.

We’ve thought of a few that people have requested in the past.

The Falling Waters Wrap, for instance.

Or the February Lady Sweater.

What about the gorgeous Little Slip of a Thing bag?

Or the perennial favorite, Saartje’s Booties?

http://www.micropoll.com/akira/mpview/568898-154615

What’s this?  Can it be?  Is it….a Shari Hill creation?

Well, it’s crochet, so it must be.  Jeez, look at those colors!

We just wanted to give you guys a sneak peek at the emerging Bobette blanket project, in case you were thinking of taking that class next month. 

–Emily