2012

December 17, 2012 – Holiday Hours for December 2012/January 2013

The holiday will soon be upon us, here’s a list of our modified hours:

OPEN regular hours (10 am to 4 pm) up to and including Saturday December 22nd.

CLOSED from Sunday December 23rd to Wednesday December 26th.

OPEN Thursday December 27th to Saturday December 29th.

CLOSED Tuesday January 1st and Wednesday January 2nd.

Regular hours begin again on Thursday January 3rd, 2013.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us at Once Upon A Sheep Yarn Shop!

November 30, 2012 – It’s almost Christmas! Time for a Sale!

Christmas is fast approaching. As our way of saying “We appreciate you” to our valued customers, Once Upon a Sheep is having a Customer Appreciation Sale! The sale starts December 1st and will continue until December 15th! All regularly priced in-stock yarns will be 15% off*, but that’s not all!

If you are a current Passion Knitter Card holder you will qualify for 25% off your yarn purchases! This is a great opportunity to purchase those last minute project yarns or for that special project to start in the new year.

Come early for the best selection! We hope to see you soon!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us at Once Upon A Sheep Yarn Shop!

* Please note this sale excludes already discounted yarns, and only extends to yarn. Magazines, books, needle and other knitting accessories are not included in this sale.

September 5, 2012 – September Yarn Feature!

September is here and we have not just one but TWO featured yarns this month:

Estelle Cloud Cotton – 100% organic cotton, aran weight. I think it’s the perfect thing for baby blankets.

AND

Butterfly Super 10 – at 203 meters per skein this DK yarn is an excellent value.

As always, 15% off for the month of September PLUS an additional 10% off the discounted price for our PK knitters!

Happy September Knitting!

August 21, 2012 – Transitioning the seasons with our AUGUST SALE YARN

August 2012’s YARN OF THE MONTH is smc Select Extra Soft Merino Cotton, and extra soft it is!

I wanted to knit a shop sample from this yarn that would show its versatility totransition a summer tee shirt pattern into something you could easily slip under a blazer or denim jacket for fall. The pattern that fit the bill? Gemini, a pattern by Jane Richmond, available for free on knitty.com.

The yarn has a soft hand and is lovely to knit with. While this 70% wool 30% cotton blend doesn’t have the same spring as 100% wool yarns, it still has enough that there isn’t the need to keep a tight rein on your yarn the way we knitters sometimes do with 100% cotton or linen yarns.

We currently have 5 colours in stock; Jeans (a lovely denim blue), Lemon (the palest of pale yellows), Beige (great neutral), a vibrant green called Lime, and Tangerine (the shop sample). It’s put up in 50 gram balls (130 metres per ball). As this yarn can be machine washed (I’d suggest on a gentle cycle), it’s perfect for kids wear too! The manufacturer recommends drying flat, but I threw my finished garment in the dryer when it was just about dry and was pleased to see how the stitches plumped up a little and the memory in the ribbing became a little more obvious.

So there you have it – a beautiful WASHABLE blend yarn in awesome colours, with good yardage! What are you waiting for? Stop by the shop before the end of August and enjoy the sale price of 15% off the regular retail price of smc Select Extra Soft Merino Cotton. Oh, and if you are a PassionKnitter we’ll take an additional 10% off the reduced price.

Not a PassionKnitter yet? Ask us how! It’s a great way to save every day on all your knitting supplies!

August 2, 2012 – Summertime hours & closures

We’ve had a change in our August summer hours:

Open NOON to 4pm TUESDAY through SATURDAY.
Open 7 – 9 pm Tuesday evening (note this is when our drop in group meets, please feel free to sit and knit with us)!

CLOSED Sunday and Monday.

Happy Summer knitting!

June 27, 2012 – HAPPY CANADA DAY!

Please note we will be closed this Saturday, June 30th for Canada Day! I hope everyone has a lovely long weekend!

Don’t forget our new summer hours begin in July. We will be CLOSED Tuesday during the day, but open in the evening from 7pm to 9pm.

We will be open Wednesday thru Saturday from Noon – 4pm during the month of July.

June 21, 2012 – Summer Hours

As you know, we are run by volunteers. Many of our volunteer staff are taking vacations in July and so we’ve decided to switch up our hours a bit in order to accomodate both our staff and our customers.

Effective July 3rd, 2012 and effective until the end of July we will be open during the day WEDNESDAY THRU SATURDAY from NOON am to 4 pm.

We will be CLOSED during the day SUNDAY thru TUESDAY, however we will be OPEN FOR SHOPPING on TUESDAY EVENINGS from 7 pm to 9 pm.
We hope this gives some of our customers who are busy during the week a chance to visit on Tuesday evenings, when we also have our drop-in knitting night.

Thank-you for understanding our need for reduced hours and we hope to see you at the shop soon!

May 24, 2012 – We don’t want to count Inventory!

We really don’t, so to make it easy for us and fun for you we’ve got a “I don’t want to count inventory” sale going until Thursday, May 31st!

ALL IN STOCK YARN IS 25% off! Yes, you heard right – ALL IN STOCK YARN is 25% off! (PLEASE NOTE: For this sale your PK card discount does not apply).

We will be closed Friday, June 1st and Saturday, June 2nd for our inventory count.
Hope to see you soon!

May 11, 2012 – May means Noro Silk Garden’s on Sale!

Now that we’re on our way to warmer weather I’d like to point out that it’s still not too warm to knit a quick project with some Noro Silk Garden or Silk Garden Lite, which are our featured yarns for the month of May! This means 15% off the regular retail price of these two yarns (in stock only, no special orders at this price). If you are a Passionknitter you’ll receive an additional 10% off the sale price!

A quick search of Ravelry turned up some great free patterns for these yarns, many of which take only one or two skeins of yarn. I’ve listed (and linked) to just a few of my favourites in the photos below. If you haven’t yet joined Ravelry, you should think about it as there is no cost to join and it is a great resource whether you knit or crochet.

As a full-time knitter who always has something on the needles I am surprised at the number of people who tell me they put away their knitting when the warm weather kicks in, and don’t think about it again until September rolls around.

The serial knitters amongst us know that these seasons of spring and summer offer up time for more frivolous projects, a chance to read up on techniques, experiment with new yarns and even begin planning our Christmas knitting. There is no rush with warm weather knitting (unless you’re knitting for a summer wedding perhaps)! It’s a time for small portable projects that can travel easily. It’s a great time to try out a one skein project and treat yourself to that luxurious yarn you’ve wanted to try.

There is nothing more relaxing than spending a quiet bit of time out in the sunshine with your favourite knitting magazines. Something I like to do at the beginning of a new season is to pull out my favourite magazines from previous years as well as the current issues. More often than not a project I didn’t notice before pops onto my radar and suddenly I have Ravelry pulled up on the laptop as I cull through my stash and plot and plan!

Even when the temperatures soar I find a way to knit, either by heading to my favourite beach or lake (where it’s always just a few degrees cooler), or by finding an air-conditioned or well-ventilated café where I can sit and sip an iced coffee with like-minded friends and continue working away at my knitting.

I hope this will provide you with inspiration for the coming months. Please drop by the shop, our Facebook page or our Ravelry forum and share your knitting plans for the coming warm weather months, we love to hear (and see) what our customers are knitting!

April 1, 2012 – No Foolin’!

It might be April Fool’s Day, but this is no joke! For the ENTIRE month of April we are highlighting Cascade Yarns Pacific as our feature yarn of the month. That means 15% off the SRP, plus an additional 10% off for our Passion Knitters. If you’re not a Passion Knitter yet, ask us how to get a Passion Knitter card the next time you drop by the shop.

Cascade Pacific is a blend of 40% Superwash Merino Wool and 60% Acrylic that knits up as an aran/worsted weight at 4.5 to 5 stitches to the inch on 4.5 to 5 mm needles. It has a lovely soft hand and is perfect for everything from afghans to kidswear to adult clothing and accessories. A quick perusal of the Cascade Yarns website shows they have lots of cute free patterns for this yarn that are available to download. I’ve shown just a few of them below.

My personal favourite is the little girl’s Kimono cardi and although I don’t have anyone specific to knit it for at the moment, it’s a pattern I’ve downloaded and saved for future use.

What about you? What have you got on the needles for Spring and what projects are you planning to knit next?

March 6, 2012 – Spring has arrived at ONCE UPON A SHEEP!

We spent a day re-organizing the shop and creating a feature wall for all the lovely yarn that’s arriving for Spring 2012! What a difference a little re-arranging made – the shop has shed it’s cozy winter clothes and is bright and airy for Spring! We hope you’ll drop by soon and check out the new yarns that are now arriving!

If you check on our Products page under yarns – anything that has an asterisk (*) is new for 2012.

AS WELL … For March 2012 we are featuring Berroco Remix! This gorgeous yarn will be 15% off the regular retail price for the entire month of MARCH 2012! This applies to current stock, not special orders. There is a good selection currently in the shop.

Please note that current Passion Knitters card holders will receive an additional 10% off the already discounted price!

March 1, 2012 – Knitting Classes are starting soon!

Our beaded lace class last fall was a success and we’re starting a new series of lessons for 2012!

Ever wanted to learn how to knit? Know someone who wants to learn? Each class requires a minimum of 4 students and start times could be delayed while we wait for a class to fill.

Drop by the shop and sign up for our Beginner Knitting Class, which we hope to begin on March 10th. This class goes for 4 Saturdays. Learn how to cast on, cast off, basic knit and purl stitches and simple increases and decreases. By the end of the class you’ll have knitted a scarf. Fee includes a set of knitting needles and enough yarn to finish your project.

We have plans for classes to learn cable how to’s, knitting in the round and how/why/when to swatch, along with that old question “what the heck is gauge and how do I get it?” – so watch the blog, visit us on Ravelry or follow us on Twitter to keep up-to-date on what’s happening at ONCE UPON A SHEEP, your local yarn shop in Maple Ridge BC.

February 28, 2012 – New Look, New Site!

Welcome to our new website! We hope you like the new look and will take a minute or two to look around.