We are happy to let you know that we are receiving new yarns daily and the list is very long so I can list them all.  Last night I did list a few on facebook.

The classes for the Winter Retreat, (January 13-15) are posted online http://friendsandfiberworks.com/winter-retreat/ Check out the classes and call the shop to register before they are all filled up! 

Now for some awesome sales for you to take advantage of in November!

Starting 11-16-11 we are having our “Cascading” out the door sale.  We need to make room for our new yarn and unfortunately something has to go.  All Cascade yarns will be on sale at 20% off until it is gone!

All Nantucket bags on sale at 30% off while they last.

Our Black Friday Sale, November 25th, will be………………………. pick your own discount!  We will have a pot with sticks that you will be able to draw you own discount, they will range from 10%-40%.  This can not be combined with any other sale discount.

We invite you to sit and knit/crochet/spin/weave or whatever it is you enjoy doing.  We have many comfortable great areas to have you and/or your group out for a day or evening.

Knitters/crocheters make sweaters for penguins after oil spill:
It’s a sad story with a happy twist. Blue penguins in New Zealand have been soaked with oil after a container ship ran aground near the east coast of the country’s North Island earlier this month. New Zealand’s Environment Minister Nick Smith has described the oil spill as the nation’s most significant maritime environmental dis taster.

If you want to knit a sweater for a penguin we will ship them to New Zealand to be handed out.  Their sweaters are about 9 inches high and 4 inches wide, with openings for the head and flippers. The sweaters must be pure wool to provide enough warmth for the penguins.

Have a great day,
Lisa, Kim & Sandy

We are trying a new mail server due to some friends not getting our e-mails.  Please let me know if you have any problems with receiving or items not displayed. Please click on July Newsletter and July Calendar to view.

Shop hours for July 4th are 10:00am-6:00pm.

Sit and Knits are happening almost daily as we are getting more groups in, please feel free to join us Fridays, many are also bringing a refreshment which we encourage.  Last Friday was Banana Split Night.  I can’t wait to see what today will bring!

July is a happening month for us!  Our Summer Retreat will be July 15th-17th, with a few Hangover classes on the 18th and 19th.  Some classes are full but we still have openings available in many classes.  Hours for the Retreat are Friday 10:00am-8:00pm, Saturday 10:00am-8:00pm, and Sunday 12:30pm-6:00pm.  The food court is in the mall so you do not need to leave for food once you are at the Retreat.  Stone Ridge, Pappas & Beer, and Apollo Flame are just across the road.  We will have animals just outside the mall doors, at the entrance where the fountain and stage are.  Tracey is again working on the Fashion show.  Many groups will be sitting knitting, spinning and weaving, pretty much all over the mall, join us for 3 fun filled days!

Most of the area’s yarn shops are participating in the Asheville Tourist Stitch n’ Pitch Night Wednesday July 20th at 7:00pm at McCormack field. Cost is $5 for general admission and $10 for general admission plus a voucher for a hot dog, soda and chips.  The first 200 participants will receive a goody bag. We will have a booth.

A big thank you to Julie Wilson who will haul our goodies to Stitches Mid-West, August 25th-28th in Shaumburg, Illinois.  Many of you have offered to go with us and help out in the booth, we appreciate all the offers and are humbled by your generosity. Expect much laughter and good times as we will post pictures while we are traveling.  Kim and Sandy will stay back at the shop so stop by and visit them as we are at the show.


July Calendar 

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Tracey, Sandy & Kim

September is a great time to start those fall and Christmas projects!  Pick up your needles and come in for a Sit & Knit/Crochet fun time at the shop.  Sandy is available for help during class times if you get stuck on your project.  The fee is $10.00 per hour for help.  We have 3 sit and knit areas, if your group would like to meet in the shop just give us a call to see if we can accommodate your group.

New yarns are arriving daily.  We picked up some new Hand Painted Knitting Yarn at Stitches Midwest, in braids that are spectacular in Afghans, Sweaters and Shawls.  New shipments of Rowan, Schaefer, Malabrigo, Claudia, Fiesta and many funky novelties arrived this week.  Hand spinners have a great selection of hand spun yarns available at the shop.
New patterns all over the shop, many are free downloads.

We will be at the Knit & Crochet Show in Greensboro, September 22nd-25th.  If you are at the show stop by, and see who is wearing the horns
We are still accepting proposals for the Winter Retreat so classes have not been posted yet.  Dates are January 13th-15th.

September Calendar

Have a great week,

Lisa, Sandy & Kim

Our show season ended with SAFF and we are excited to work on the shop and stay put for a bit.  Some notable shop changes are……..we have built a “Lady Cave” filled with notions and fiber.  We are opening up the small room in the back of the shop to be the “SALE” room, here is where you will find bagged yarn and also loose yarn at incredible savings!  Stop by often to check it out.

New around the shop

• Skacel is now offering interchangeable cables in sizes 16, 20, 24, 32 and 40 inch, we have them ordered and are awaiting shipment, call the shop to reserve your set now.
• Berroco’s new hot yarn Lacey is a great fun, and a must try if you haven’t already.
• Nancy’s Knit Knacks now has a 4 yard skein winder, and yes we have it in the shop as well as ball winders with motors.
• Asland Trend’s Litorial is our fastest moving yarn of the season and yes we just got in another shipment yesterday.  So stop by and check out all the fabulous color selections.
• Coco Knits pattern the Liesel is also in demand and we have plenty.  The sample is also in the shop, so you can see how beautiful it is.
• New area for kits.
• Beautiful Alpaca worsted and sport weight, 1200 yards $200.00 ready to be dyed or used with its natural shade.  I have 75 kilos and will be dyeing it in the next few weeks for those of you who want color.
• Too many new items coming in daily that I can’t possibly list them all here!
• We have a new face to our web site.  A big thanks to Emily Trimnal for all her hard work in converting it over.

Most of our classes for the Winter Retreat are posted online, I am still waiting on a few proposals from some great teachers to add.  Chad Alice Hagan will be teaching, I have had many e-mails asking for her classes.  She is working on her proposal and will get it in as she can.  Also Jone Rakoski is coming up with an exciting class for those of you who have been asking me about her.  I hope to have all classes posted by the end of the month.  We are already signing folks up for classes and think we have an awesome selection for you to chose from.  We will possibly have more hangover classes as I have been speaking with an instructor about a 4 day workshop Monday-Thursday.  We filled Suzanne Morgan’s hangover class at the Summer Retreat, so we think this will also be a fantastic time to have a few more.  Suzanne is not going to be with us for the Winter Retreat but we do have her beautiful hand dyed silks for sale in the shop.  We are still accepting vendors and will post them online soon.

November Calendar

Have a great week,

Lisa, Kim and Sandy

March Newsletter2

February 2011 Newsletter

Stop by the shop to check out our 9 Noro lines. King, Kochoran, Kureyon, Furisode, Silk Garden, Iro, Retro, Silk Garden Sock and Taiyo. We are also carrying Suzanne Higgs Artbatts and hats, Jone Rakoski’s Pre-felts and hats, Neal Howards Hand Dyed Silks, Sandy Melton’s natural and hand dyed mohair, Orr Farm Shetland roving and much more than can be listed here. We are adding more displays that we hope will be helpful to you and inspire a new project. To help with that special project we are offering 25% off all merchandise in the store, (no order or rain checks) on Saturday, February 5, 2011.

Going to Stitches South? Friends & Fiberworks will have a double booth, stop by to say HI!

Tracey is still recovering from her hip replacement surgery and hopes to be back at the shop soon.

Thanks to all who participated in our 1st annual Winter Retreat. We had a wonderful time! After much encouragement from vendors, instructors and participants we decided to hold a Summer Retreat on July 15th, 16th, and 17th. We are still accepting proposals for workshops and classes so we don’t have that ready yet but hope to have it online by the end of February. We will post to the web site and Facebook as we ready the classes and receive vendor request. If you haven’t seen some of the videos and pictures on our Facebook page log on and get ready for a treat.

We have secured a rate of $80.00 on Thursday and Sunday, $115.00 on Friday and Saturday at the Comfort Inn Suites 828 665-4000, beside the mall. At the Guesthouse Inn, 828 274-0101 ask for Tim, the rate is $80.99 for Thursday and Sunday and $99.99 for Friday and Saturday. Mention that you are with Friends & Fiberworks Summer Retreat to get a discount on rates.

Check out our calendar online. We would like to present Chad Alice Hagen as our Featured Instructor for February. Many of you missed the opportunity to work with Chad during our Winter Retreat so we are bringing her to the shop on February 26 for an all day workshop on Handfelted Brooches. Please call the shop to secure your space.

Chad Alice Hagen has been exploring hand-felted wool since 1980. She received her BA in Art and Master’s in Textile Design from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her MFA

from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her work has been featured on the covers of Fiberarts Magazine, Surface Design Journal and Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot. Articles and photos on her work have also appeared in American Craft Magazine, Echoes, and Fiberarts Design Books, among others.

Hagen’s hand-felted wool has been exhibited throughout the United States as well as in Mexico City, Japan, India, England and Denmark. Her work is included in the collections of the Mint Museum of Art+Design (Charlotte NC), The Minneapolis Institute of Art, the University of Wisconsin – Madison, in the corporate collections of B.F. Goodrich and Westinghouse, and in private collections.

She is the author of The Weekend Crafter: Feltmaking 2002, and Fabulous Felt Hats, 2004 and Fabulous Felted Scarves (with co-author Jorie Johnson). she has written numerous articles on the textile arts for Fiberarts, Echoes, Surface Design Journal, and Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot, among others.

She has taught feltmaking extensively since 1984 to adults and children throughout the United States. Since 2000 she has taught spring classes in England, Holland, Ireland and Germany. Hagen’s feltmaking specialty and passion is resist dyeing of hand-felted wool. Chad Alice Hagen can be reached at chad@chadalicehagen.com.

Handfelted Brooches with Chad Alice Hagen

Make a Beautiful, Stitched and Beaded Brooch from your own hand felted wool felt! Bring your own felt or some will be available for sale from the instructor. We will learn how to stitch, bead and mount the felt to make a study, wearable piece of art. Most supplies provided. All levels welcome!

Instructor will provide: Beads, thread and needles, buttonhole thread and needles, book board, glue, brushes, backing fabric, pin back, handouts and samples

Students need to bring: sharp scissors, interesting pieces of hand felted wool, merino works best about 4” x 5” or larger, seed beads and needles and thread, interesting larger beads, a work light, if you have one. NOTE: Check out 108 Brooches made by instructor on www.flickr.com/photos/chadalicehagen/ For examples of bead ideas to bring.

Date: 2-26-11 Cost: $90.00 Material Fee: $15.00 Start Time: 10:00 AM End Time: 4:00 PM

Total Cost: $105.00