March 9: Just arrived, 5 great colors of "Cocoon" from Universal Yarns. This is a great yarn, and will some very beautiful things. You really need to see to believe how great this yarn is, and how beautifully it knits. Yesterday we also received a shipment of "Crazy Sock yarn" from Skacel. The name does not do this very beautiful yarn justice. It is a great yarn, and at a great price.

The Knitting Patch wants to thank Knitting Fever, Inc. and Aslan Trends for their gracious support of our exhibit at the Central Florida Fair. Your donations have made a difference in the lives of some aspiring knitters.

The Central Florida Fair has by any measure been an incredible success. The attendance has been great despite the cold weather. We were blessed to be located next to the Orlando Weavers, and this combination has been incredible, and we generated a lot of interest, especially among youthful, aspiring knitters. If you signed up on our mailing list, you received the email we sent with photos of the entries which were selected for recognition. All of the entries were incredible. From our perspective, they are all winners. We want to thank everyone who assisted us in making our exhibit a success. We met a lot of nice people, and had a lot of fun along the way. As we already noted above, we are also very grateful to Knitting Fever, Inc. and Aslan Trends for their support through generous donations of their products. We hope to do this again next year. While a knitting store is a business, giving back to the community is equally important, and that is what this event was about. It was a privilege to have been asked to participate.

We are pleased to announce that we are now stocking Universal Yarn. This is a new manufacturer for us, and we are excited by the yarns they offer.

Wednesday, March 3 - It happened again. A new shipment of sock yarns from Aslan Trends. We received seven colors to chose from. Aslan Trends is a new yarn for us, and will be stocking other yarns from Aslan Trends. These sock yarns are really exceptional in every aspect, and especially in their quality. Don't forget March 8!!!!! Aslan Trends "Santa Fe" sock yarn is a great value, and is also of exceptional quality. Each skein is approximately 180 yards/50g, and is 85% merino, AND 15% polyamide. The photo below shows the 7 beautiful, non-pattern colors we received.

The Central Florida Fair has been quite busy. On Sunday, February 28, the final aspects of judging were completed, and all ribbons have now been affixed. The submissions in fiber arts were nothing short of spectacular. Judging these submission would have been a "Mission Impossible" as they were all noteworthy. We also wish to remind everyone that our store hours will be Monday - Saturday 10:00am until 3:00pm through Saturday, March 6, due to our participation in the Central Florida fair. We will return to our normal hours on Monday, March 8.

March 1: Congratulations to our February, 2010 winners of $25 gift certificates to Stefano's Trattoria!!! Ticket #618978 and Ticket #619084 are the winners. If you are holding a ticket with either of these numbers you are the winners of a $25 gift certificate to Stefano's Trattoria. To claim your winning, please come to the store and bring your winning coupon with you to receive your gift certificate. Your coupon must be presented at the store in person in order to receive the gift certificate. To find out more about Stefano's Trattoria, visit their website by clicking on Stefano's logo below. Winners have until March 31 to claim their gift certificate. If you like Italian cuisine, you will love Stefano's Trattoria. As they say in Italy "Buon Appetito....", and as we say at The Knitting Patch "Happy Knitting...."

We continue to receive new inventory (including inventory from new manufacturers) on a regular basis. If you have been looking for something special, now is the time to shop, while the selection is great. We have much more on the way from many different and new manufacturers, so if you don't see what you are looking for, keep checking back. We are also building our inventory & selection of sock yarns which will give you an incredible selection of yarns, from a variety of manufacturers, colors and styles from which to choose. We are confident that you will be surprised and pleased with our large inventory of knitting and spinning supplies. We are working to be your one stop resource for all of your fiber needs.

It was announced on Thursday, February 25, that Sarah Hernandez won 3rd place for a scarf she knitted and submitted for judging at the 2010 Central Florida Fair. Sarah has been knitting only since February 7, and was a student in our February 7, free knitting class for youth. This scarf was the first thing Sarah ever knitted, and it turned out beautifully. We want to extend our congratulations to Sarah for her quite remarkable feat. The photo below shows Sarah modelling her scarf, just before it was submitted to the fair. We wish Sarah well, and look forward to seeing what she will be submitting next year....

We have long wanted to use models other than Boris to exhibit our knitted garments. But, Boris was adamant - NO WAY. Recently Boris met Sarah, and he took an instant liking to her, and after a lot of negotiating, he decided to allow us to let Sarah model for us as well (he came to reality when we pointed out that he does not fit in a lot of things....). Below is a sweater top knitted from Lumpy Bumpy yarn. While you may have seen this example in the store, it takes on an entirely different "personality" when worn. Below, Sarah is modelling this sweater top, and it really is incredible. This is an easy piece to make, and there are many choices as to how you make it. We want to thank Sarah for allowing us to feature her modelling this piece.

Important!!! Central Florida Fair: As the Central Florida Fair is upon us, we have been forced to change our store hours to accommodate the demands placed on us by our participation in the fair. Accordingly, our store hours will be as follows starting on Thursday, February 25 thru Sunday, March7. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this causes you.

Monday thru Saturday: 10:00am until 3:00pm

On Friday, February 26th, and again on Friday, March 5th, we will not be hosting our Friday Night Knitting Club due to our participation in the Central Florida Fair.

Our regularly scheduled free knitting class for youth scheduled for Sunday, March 7th has been rescheduled for Sunday March 14th from 3:0-0pm until 5:00pm. We apologize for this, but again, due to our participation in the Central Florida Fair, we are not available to conduct this class. We are also very pleased to announce that one of our young knitters is submitting her first knitted scarf in the youth category for judging at the fair. We are extremely excited about this and wish her well.

We apologize for any inconvenience this causes you. However, we feel very strongly that participation in this event is a very positive thing for the knitting community at large and will include: spinners/spinning, and Wet Felting, who will also be participating through our exhibit. We hope to promote the fiber arts in general, and to generate interest in the fiber arts through our participation.

Those of you who have been in the store lately may have noticed that Boris has been getting a little testy, with an attitude. It seems that he is always wanting something new to wear. Well, today he got it and he is once again in great spirits. He is the talk of the "bear" since he got his new "Pom Pom Scarf." We are very pleased as there is nothing worse that a bear with an attitude. We offer a class on how to make this very unusual scarf.

Due to our participation in the Central Florida Fair, our Friday Night Knitting Club will not be meeting on Friday, Februry 26, nor on Friday, March 5. We will resume our weekly schedule on March 12. We apologize for this inconvenience, however, we will be "At the fair..." We hope to see you there. Due to our participation in the fair, our free youth knitting class scheduled on Sunday, March 7 will be rescheduled for Sunday, March, 14. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

If you are knitting hats, or plan to in the future you should consider how you will block your hat, or how can you hold the hats form while it is starched.This can be very challenging. We have a solution... The hat forms shown below are the solution to this dilemma. They are perfect for blocking, starching, or just holdiong the form of your knitted hat. They are made from a vinyl that is flexible, and will not stain, or otherwise compromise your finished hat. If you knit hats, this is a must have. Since there is nothing to wear out they will last forever. They are available in three different forms, which are ideal for whatever type of hat you plan to knit. This is one of those hard to find items, that you would not think about until you need it.

When browsing our website, please know that all of the manufacrurer logos are links to their respective website. In fact all of the graphic images used on our website are links to those respective website. Case in pint, if you are looking for free patterns, and you seen the graphic images of the various site we suggest, all you need to do to go to that website is to click on that image and a new window will open for you with that website loaded.

Instead of deleting important information from our website, we will move it to the Events-Archive section, where it can be accessed at any time. An example of this would be the notices posted of the winners of the monthly drawings.

We contniue to improve our website and to make a resource for all knitters. In that context, we have just created a new "Knitting Links" gallery, which is graphically oriented, and easier to find the exact knitting resource you need. This is especially true for those who are just beginning to knit and are looking for assistance with the basics. We have created individual links to computer based training resources so that you can quickly find the resource you need. As we continue to refine, and improve our website we solicit any suggestions you may have. Please email and suggestions, or comments to: Webmaster. Dont forget 2/14 and March 8.....

The Knitting Patch extends an open invitation to all local knitting groups to hold meetings at the Knitting Patch. If you have such interest, please call the store and to make arrangements. We offer a very central, convenient location, with ample, well lit parking. Your meetings need not be during our business hours, as we will be happy to make the store available outside of our normal business hours.

In our Free Patterns Gallery, we just added a beautiful Orenburg Lace shawl. Orenburg Lace is a unique style of knitting, and is unique to the Orenburg region. Little is written about this style as most of the techniques and patterns are quite literally handed down within a family from generation to generation. Below is an image of the pattern we have. If you would like to download the pattern, click on the image, and it will download automatically. It is 26 pages long, so it may take a while depending on your internet connection speed. For more on the history of Orenburg Lace, visit our Free Patterns gallery.

We have just added an incredible vintage knitting resource to our website, and best of all it is FREE!!!! "The Ladies' Work Book" is made availble by Project Gutenberg, and is available without charge. We created an Adobe Acrobat file of this document to make distribution and printing easier. The document is 159 pages in length, and is 7.1MB, so it will take a while to download, which is dependent on your connection speed. You may click on the image below and it will download. If you do not have the ability to print this document, it is available at the store for a nominal printing charge of $23.85.

We have an exceptional, vintage (from 1949) 32 page pattern book dedicated to knitting and crocheting for babies. This is a true collectible. We have this book available in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) for $5, and printed for $10. These patterns are truely exceptional, and are representative of an era we can only try to remember. These knitted pieces will be family heirlooms, and will be in your family for generations to come and will be cherished. If you check our Vintage Patterns Gallery you will also see that we have started building our inventory of vintage pattern books. We have started with baby related books, and have just added numerous books from Pingouin and still have many more to add. Keep checking our website as we will be adding and bulding our inventory of vintage, collectible publications during the coming weeks. We have both books and individual vintage patterns available.

We now offer assistance in steaming and blocking your finished knitted garments. We will assist you in steaming & blocking your finished knitting for $5.00. We have found that steaming is absolutely necessary and makes a big difference in how your knitting will appear as it "relaxes" the yarn.

We have revised our mailing list subscription link, which gives you detailed instructions on how to join our mailing list, and receive special offers periodically which are not posted on our website. When sending an email to subscribe, it is crucial that you include the ** in the subject, otherwise we will not receive your email.

Knitting Patch gift certificates are the perfect gift for the knitter in your life. They are available in any denomination, never expire, and allow the knitter in your life to select exactly what they want.

We are located in The Westmonte Plaza, Suite 1108, which is 195 S. Westmonte Drive, Altamonte Springs. Our telephone number is 407-331-5648 (KNIT). Our store is located next to The Dance Dresser (Ballroom dancing attire). We are blessed with abundant parking, and a very convenient location near the Interstate I-4 & SR 436 intersection, just west of I-4 behind McDonalds & Bojangles. South Westmonte is the third traffic light west of the I-4/SR-436 intersection.

We accept VISA, Master Card, Discover, Debit Cards, checks and cash for payment.

We look forward to seeing you soon.