We have been fans of designer Rosemary Hill for a while. Not only is she local to the Bay Area, we fell in love with the Ice Queen and she came to teach a class at the store. It was a pleasure to get to know her. Thank you Rosemary!!
Since then, we have followed her journey and watched her new designs for the last few years with a lot of interest. When the Haiti earthquake happened, Rosemary designed the beautiful ”Brandywine” shawl and decided to donate the majority of the proceeds to ”Doctors Without Borders”. We have several people (staff and customers) at the store who have knitted this gorgeous shawl and have watched in amazement as the amount donated for Haiti benefit have steadily gone up. As of July 4th, 2010, Rosemary has contributed $13,000 (yes! that’s correct) from the sales of this one pattern.
For the one-year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake, we wanted to share this story of knitters making a difference – a huge difference! If you would like to knit this shawl or buy this pattern or support the Haiti Relief, you can start by getting the pattern from her website. If you do decide to knit this, it looks beautiful in any yarn – fingering or laceweight yarn. And then you can knit and do good at the same time.
July 13th, 2010
Here is the idea – bring in your stash of yarns to Nine Rubies to trade with fellow knitters. We all have our stash from various places and now we’re wondering what to do with the yarn – the original idea has been long forgotten. You can exchange your treasures with other knitters to spice up your collection, inspire a new project, or just freshen up something you’ve had for a while. Hannah and Sudha will be on hand to make designs suggestions. Others on staff may join in as we get closer.
Tracy and Sharon, our co-hosts for this event, are providing a few nibbles and all I can tell you is that Sharon is one of the best bakers in the world. Feel free to contribute to the nibbles.
Cost: FREE
Date: Wednesday, June 16th, 2010; 6:00 pm-8:00 pm (yes, it is Knit Night)
May 12th, 2010
The Maker Faire is a two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. It is for creative, resourceful people of all ages and backgrounds who like to tinker and love to make things. Among the things they do is to teach people to knit and crochet.
Volunteer to teach Knitting and/or Crochet at the Maker Faire in the Bay Area, May 22-23 and get a free pass to the show. To sign up go to the Jooner’s page and sign up. Also send an email to the organizers at tnnamaker@gmail.com.
The organizers are working with Marker Faire to create an “electronic permission slip” that they will send you prior to the event. This will allow you free admission on the day you volunteer. They will keep you posted about how this is going to work.
I have volunteered to teach on Saturday from 1 pm to 5 pm. I hope you will join me,
May 11th, 2010
Introducing our new favorite yarn for summer: Cascade’s Ultra Pima! This super-smooth DK weight yarn is made of 100% Pima Cotton, which is one of the finest varieties of cotton because of its durability, shine and softness. We love that it’s machine-washable, too! We have some fantastic spring/summer colors in stock including buttery yellow, cream, denim blue, grass green and more. Come in and be one of the first to get your hands on it.
We have plenty of pattern ideas for Ultra Pima for you to choose from. A light sweater or a shell makes a perfect garment for mild Bay Area summers. Let us help you select a pattern you’ll love that suits your skill level and taste.
April 28th, 2010
We have been loving Ysolda Teague’s designs. We did a knitalong for Ysolda’s Ishbel scarf. And now we’re trying another one of her designs.
Vine Yoke Cardigan
We are going to be knitting her “
Vine Yoke Cardigan” – it’s an ingenious design. The sweater is knit in one piece from the right front around the body to the left front, with sleeves worked as you come to them. Shaping is accomplished with short rows. Lace yoke and edging patterns are given in chart form only.
We are going to be having a knitalong at the store to help everyone with this sweater. Since the knitalong at free, we would appreciate it if the yarn was from Nine Rubies. You can join the knitalong on any Thursday session. The first Thursday session is going to be from 5 pm – 7 pm on April 22nd, 2010. We will continue to run this until everyone who wants to do this sweater is done.
Materials:
Yarn suggested is a worsted weight yarn 18 -20 stitches for 4 inches in stockinette stitch. We recommend Cascade 220 for the project. US 9 24″ circular knitting needles or long straight needles. 9 buttons about 1.5″ in diameter. Tapestry needles. The pattern can be found on the Twist Collective website. Please download it before coming to the knitalong. If you need help downloading the pattern, we would be happy to do this for you at the store.
April 20th, 2010
Calling all knitters – we need helmet liners for the troops!!
We currently have more than 200,000 troops in overseas theaters where they are subjected to sub-zero wind chills during the winter. Please help us have a warm helmet liner for each one of these troops before next winter. There are several organizations which collect helmet liners and provide them to the US Army. We are working with Citizen Sam to collect these helmet liners and send it to them. Citizen Sam has collected more than 20,000 helmet liners but you can see that we have a long way to go.
If you can knit, please consider making helmet liners for our troops. It must be 100% wool, as acrylic yarn is flammable and would endanger the troops should injury occur. Only black, charcoal, brown, tan, gray or combinations of these colors are allowed by our Armed Forces. This blends with their camo and helps keep them safe. Please save your label and pin it to the helmet liner so that the person receiving it knows the care instructions and the fiber used for the helmet liner. The pattern for the helmet liner was written by Bonnie Long of Knit Wits and is available free of charge for the purpose of knitting the helmet liners. We also have printed them out and copies are available at the store.
The instructions on the pattern say you can ship this to Citizen Sam directly. Nine Rubies is also collecting them and sending them to Citizen Sam which will save you a step. We will sending out one shipment on March 31st, 2010 and a second one on October 31st, 2010. Just drop off your knitted helmet liner when you are done with it.
The following stores in the Bay Area are having helmet liner drives that I know of:
1. The Knitting Room
1195 Branham Lane
San Jose, California
2. Yarn Boutique
963 C Moraga Rd.
Lafayette, California
3. Yarndogs
151 E. Main St.
Los Gatos, California
4. Nine Rubies Knitting
28 E. 3rd Avenue, #100
San Mateo California
Please check their websites for the details of their helmet drives. They are all donating to different organizations but to make it easier for you, we have several yarn stores who will be helping out with this. Thank you.
March 6th, 2010
We have a special event at the store this weekend – Jared Flood will be teaching classes this weekend and we are going to be swamped. The modified store hours this weekend are as follows:
Friday, March 5th, 2010: 10 am – 3 pm
Saturday, March 6th, 2010: CLOSED
Sunday, March 7th, 2010: 12:30 – 5:00 pm
We apologize in advance for any inconvenience caused to you because of this. We will do our best to make it up to you.
March 1st, 2010
We are thrilled to announce that Jared Flood will be visiting Nine Rubies in March, 2010. He will be presenting 4 classes at Nine Rubies over a 3-day period.
Jared Flood is a Brooklyn-based knitwear designer and photographer. His very popular blog brooklyntweed features his knitting musings. His designs for hand knitters have been featured in many different magazines including Vogue Knitting, Interweave Knits, and knit1. Many of his designs are inspired by the timeless designs of Elizabeth Zimmerman. And we have been following his journey with excitement and have knitted many, many of his designs.
The four classes that he will be presenting are:
Koolhaas Hat by Jared Flood
1. Koolhaas Crashcourse: this is one of the most popular designs for hats – it was first featured in the Interweave Knits Holiday 2007. This class includes a discussion on cabling – even cabling without a cable needle – and travelling stitches. This is great for knitters who understand the basics of knitting.
2. Intro to Shetland Colorwork: This is a comprehensive introduction to the world of stranded colorwork. This is for those of you who want to understand stranded colorwork as well as everyone who has struggled with carrying two yarns on a row. It also includes a demonstration of steeking (cutting your knitting). EEK!
3. Seamless Sweater Workshop: This workshop discusses the foundations of seamless sweater knitting, construction, and yoke variations. This class discusses Elizabeth Zimmerman’s percentage system. This class will give you the confidence to make your own original designs!
Girasole by Jared Flood
4. Girasole Workshop: This is the perfect introduction to lace, chart reading and a circular cast-on. And the project that you will be working on is the Girasole which can be a blanket or a shawl depending on the weight you knit it in. Jared is very famous for his circular blanket construction.
So, block this weekend of and come join us while we learn from one of the most exciting designers in handknitting today! For complete details check out our class schedule for the classes with the pricing (materials, homework and skill level required).
January 14th, 2010
The Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman has stood the test of time since it was designed in 1968. It has been knit by knitters over the decades and everyone has marveled over the construction of this one-piece sweater. There are two seams at the shoulders and nothing else besides that. When I first knitted this sweater, I took a class with Ada and to this day I am thankful because knitting this sweater means that you are in love with Elizabeth Zimmerman forever. I don’t know if I would spent the time to decode the pattern on my own.
Baby Surprise Jacket
Ada is teaching another class for this sweater starting at the end of January 2010 on Tuesday evenings and if you are making resolutions about knitting, this is one to go with. You will finish the entire project as part of this class. You will knit a blob that looks like this:
Blob Baby Surprise Jacket
And it will magically become this:
Baby Surprise Jacket folded
If there is one class you should take, it is this class. See all the details on our class schedule page. And you can call the store to sign up for this class at 650-685-6205.
December 30th, 2009
Your Knitting Driing you Crazy?
The Knit and Crochet ER will now be available from 5 pm to 7 pm on Wednesday evenings. This is the same night as the Knit Nite and will generally be held in the classroom at the back of the store. Same rules apply – someone will be in the classroom waiting to help you and there is a $10 drop-in fee. We can help you on any day if the help required is less than 5 minutes and does not take away from “floor time” of the people working in the store. If it is more than 5 minutes, then we request that you come in for the Knit and Crochet ER’s during any of the following times:
Monday’s between 10 am and 12 pm
Wednesdays between 5 pm and 7 pm
Saturdays between 10 am and 12 pm
Bring your unfinished objects, forgotten projects and questions to the Knit and Crochet ER! This is the only time we will help you with projects with yarn purchased from other locations – we do prefer, of course, that you buy your yarn and supplies from us. We’re here to help you.
December 28th, 2009
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