It’s Friday the 13th of January, and we thought we’d bring some good news to help break the bad luck some believe in on this kind of date.
We’re moving! But don’t worry, it’s not far! We’re only moving about 30 feet to the right, and taking over the old Carriage House Boutique space. We plan to be in our new space starting March 1st, but we will keep you posted if that date changes. We will also be sure to have good signage in the old space to help guide you towards the new one.
So what does this mean? Our hours will not change! We will still be open standard hours during the move. This means lots of work for us (hey, nothing comes easy right?). This means more space for us to gather for open stitch times. This means, most importantly, even more space for new yarns without getting rid of old but wonderful yarns!
We can’t wait to get settled in and welcome all of you into our new space. Talk about new year, new you! Be sure to keep an eye here and on facebook for updates.
Can you believe it’s our SEVENTH annual Fibertastic Friday Frenzy? We can’t either! Read on for all the details you’ll need, plus some gift ideas to motivate you to finally start those things you said you’d start back in the summer.
We’re officially back to doing our scaled sale! This means the earlier you come, the better the savings you’ll get. Here’s the breakdown:
Friday 8am-10am – 40% off almost everything
Friday 10am-12pm – 30% off almost everything
Friday 12pm – Saturday 3pm – 20% off almost everything
What’s on sale?
Almost everything in the shop! All consignment items will be excluded from the sale and they will be clearly marked for everyone. Our sale corner will be priced as marked, and all sale items are also excluded from the FFF sale.
You may also take advantage of the Berroco Drop Ship program during our sale. You can order any Berroco yarn (really, not just the ones we stock!) in any quantity and receive the time-based discount. All orders are then shipped directly to you, usually within one week. Shipping is $8 on all Drop Ship orders and will not be discounted. Pop over to berroco.com to see all they have to offer!
What else should I know?
Start any planning now so you’re ready when you get to the shop. Pick out projects that you’d love to make, and either bring a copy of the pattern or have quick access to the pattern information on your phone/tablet. That way we can get you pointed in the right direction quickly so you can choose some awesome yarn!
We likely will not have time to help if you’re stuck on a project. If you can, please save all project questions for next week and be sure to stop back so we can help you.
Winding of yarn will not be offered during the sale. You can always bring your purchases back to be wound when you’re ready to use the yarn, or you can leave your yarn here to be wound to pick up within the next week.
There will be no holds, and all items are sold on a first come, first served basis.
Alright, on to the fun stuff!
What should I get yarn for?
Oh man, there are so many great projects out there! I know all of us can use help sometimes in figuring out what we should make next, so here are some fun ideas to get your creative juices flowing.
Aurora Cabin Shawl – Stephen West’s next Hiberknitalong starting 12/26
Get yourself some yarn for the upcoming Hiberknitalong starting on December 26th (we will also be hosting a KAL here at the shop for this shawl). The Aurora Cabin Shawl calls for five skeins of fingering weight yarn which will then be knit up into this beautiful and versatile shawl, sure to keep you warm for the remainder of winter. Grab all five skeins here from the shop, or bring some skeins from home and mix in a new skein or two or three or… hey, we know how it is!
Want something that looks fun without having to knit five whole skeins of fingering weight yarn? Check out the Killer Queen Cowl by Mary Annarella! This project uses three skeins of Malabrigo Rios, two for the main color, one for the contrast, and we’ve got lots of options here to choose from. You can opt to add button holes and buttons, or simply seam up the cowl when you’re done.
For all my fellow crocheters, we hope you’ll love the Pointillism Cowl by Janine Mudge as much as we do! This cowl takes three skeins of worsted weight yarn, two for your main color and one for the contrast. We recommend Malabrigo Rios, Frog It Yarns Merino Worsted, or mix and match and add a skein of color-shifting Cascade 220 Superwash Wave for some extra color fun.
We love nothing more than a super cute hat, and we absolutely adore this one! The Lucky Hat Wrap perfectly mixes those ear warmers we all love with a hat for all the extra warmth you’ve always wanted. It’s also perfect to wear all day for protecting your hair or if you just don’t feel like washing your hair yet (we get it!). You’ll need only one skein of any worsted weight yarn to make this beauty. For extra color fun, grab a self-striping or variegated yarn to highlight the shift in stitch direction from the brim to the top. We recommend Berroco Sesame or Cascade Friday Harbor.
There’s nothing better than a nice warm pair of mittens on a cold winter’s day! We love the flexibility the Tinsel Mitts offer. You can make your mitts fingerless, full, or a flip-down combo. Either way, we love the sneaky slip stitch detail, and it’s the perfect opportunity to use delicious yarns like Dream in Color Cosette, a beautiful merino/cashmere blend. The pattern calls for up to 240 yards of DK weight yarn. Depending on your choice you may need one or two skeins.
We hope we’ve given you lots of inspiration to get your planning started. We look forward to seeing you bright and early Friday morning!
Can you believe it? String Theory Yarn Shop is six years young today! It has certainly been a wild ride up to this point, and we have all of you to thank for keeping us going. We’ve survived growing pains, like any new business, but we’ve also persevered despite an ongoing pandemic, even thriving on the other side. So here’s a huge THANK YOU to all of you who continue to support us!
Now, onto the important bit, CLASSES! Our class schedule is officially posted over on the Classes tab at the top of the page (or under the drop-down menu on mobile). We’ve got all sorts of things scheduled from Learn to Knit/Crochet to really fun techniques like Twigg Stitch and Brioche. Take a quick hop over, and if you are interested in signing up for any of our classes, you can either stop in or send us an email at stringtheoryyarnshop -at- gmail -dot- com and we’ll get an invoice headed your way.
We hope you enjoy the rest of your summer, and look forward to seeing you in class and here at the shop come fall!
Well everyone, it’s July, and HOLY COW is it hot! We feel like we’re channeling Ruby Rhod from The Fifth Element on the daily! (Also, if you have never seen this movie, stop what you’re doing right now and go stream it. You can thank me later.) It’s so hot that many of us put down our projects in favor of anything that will make us less warm, like popsicles, reading in the darkest, coolest corner of our homes, or simply laying naked by a fan. But, it doesn’t have to be that way. This is the perfect time of year to whip up all sorts of cute and small accessories that don’t lay on your lap and instead hang coolly from your hooks and needles.
This is a super cute headband that you can whip up in no time and will be ready for the first cool nights of fall when they inevitably sneak up on us. It calls for just over half of a 100g skein of worsted or aran weight yarn (ballpark is probably about 130yds) and US8 needles. The pattern will walk you through the super simple seaming to make the cute twisted knot that sets this headband off, and you can use the technique for any other headband you dream up. This pattern is available for free through Ravelry.
We recommend something delightfully soft yet warm, like Cascade Miraflores, Malabrigo Rios, or even Cascade Cherub Aran. Add a strand of Rico Designs mohair for an even warmer and fluffier version!
In this shop we believe every day is the best day to be making socks. We love their portability and how they keep our attention just enough to keep away the boredom some other projects may bring (we’re looking at you sweater body stockinette slog-fests!). So if there was ever an even more perfect time to knit your own socks, it’s summer!
These socks are perfectly built for summertime wear with their short cuffs that will peek out over the edge of your sneakers while you work or run errands, and a stunning stitch pattern you can stare at when you kick those sneakers off at the end of the day. Depending on your foot size, each pair will take about 220yds of sock yarn and the pattern calls for US2/2.75mm needles (or use your usual sock needle size if you have one). This pattern can be purchased through Ravelry for £4.00. This is one of those rare patterns we can’t sell you in-store, so make sure to grab it off Ravelry yourself.
We recommend any fingering weight yarn with at least 20% nylon (for easy washing and durability), like Frog-It Yarns Merino Fingering, Cascade Heritage, or Manos del Uruguay Alegria.
Finally, a plant that not even you can kill! There are all sorts of plant-based amigurumi patterns out there, but we love how adorable this little guy is, right down to his pot, cute safety eyes, and stitched smile. Wanna have even more fun? When you’re finished, grab some pink eyeshadow and “paint” the edges of the leaves to make them look even more realistic. Use any size yarn with the appropriate hook to make this succulent as big or small as you want. This pattern is available for in-store sale through Ravelry for $2.99.
We recommend Cascade Cherub Aran or Universal Deluxe DK Tweed for this project.
We absolutely love Tin Can Knits patterns here, and this pattern is no exception. You can pick from four sizes and four different weights of yarn to make these warm mittens in whatever you’ve got lying around. We think these would be a really fun way to do some striped scrap busting, and would be equally beautiful made from a fresh-off-the-shelf skein of yarn. This pattern is available for free through Ravelry.
We recommend Berroco Vintage or Vintage Chunky, Dream in Color Cosette, and Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball for this project.
We hope you are inspired by these projects to get those hooks and needles moving. Feel free to stop in and ask us about even more fun heat-busting project ideas, as we have plenty! Oh, and stay cool, dear theorists!
Local Yarn Store Day, April 30, 2022, International Yarn Crawl Celebrating Local Yarn Stores
This Saturday, April 30th, is 2022’s Local Yarn Store Day! We will be celebrating all day during our regular hours of 10am – 3pm. As always, we have lots of exciting things planned and plenty of project ideas to help spark your creativity! We also have lots of free pattern offerings from Malabrigo, Cascade, Berroco, and Casapinka for you to look forward to.
Introducing Frog It Yarns!
We are SO EXCITED to announce that we will be adding Frog It Yarns from Wellsville, PA to our yarn collection! We really wanted to bring you something wonderful and local for LYS Day this year, and we feel Frog It Yarns is the perfect choice.
Frog It Yarns is a husband and wife duo that started out as a mobile yarn shop back in 2017. Brian designed and worked on the inside of their mobile trailer, and came up with the name Frog It Yarns because he was always frogging his own projects (we’ve all been there!). Tasha is the dyer and self-described yarn enabler. Together they’ve created something truly wonderful, and we can’t wait for you to see what they’ve dyed up for us. We will have a nice selection of fingering and worsted weight yarns for you to ogle and add to your stash from this wonderful duo.
Speaking of locally dyed yarns…
We will also be featuring yarns from our in-house brand, Chromodyenamics! We have a gorgeous selection of colors and weights from our guest dyer Mary R., all dyed using natural dyes. We will also be debuting our in-house dyed single-ply fingering.
FREE patterns YAY!!!
As we listed above, we’ve got all sorts of free patterns available from all sorts of designers and yarn brands. In order to receive your free pattern, you’ll need to purchase yarns from Malabrigo, Cascade, or Berroco, or purchase any two skeins of fingering weight for a free Casapinka pattern. Here are the patterns being featured so you can plan ahead:
Ric Rac by Casapinka – uses 2 skeins of any fingering weight yarn
2022 LYS Day Wrap by Shannon Dunbabin – uses 3 skeins of any Cascade worsted weight yarn
With any purchase of any Berroco yarn (including drop ships!), you will get a code to download one Berroco.com pattern for free
Save on discontinued favorites!
Any yarns that have been discontinued by the manufacturer will be 25% off. We will have these clearly marked throughout the shop. Make sure you grab what you need, or maybe a bit more just in case, as these yarns will not be returning to our shelves. Help us clear out some old but awesome yarns to make way for new awesome yarns!
Last, but certainly not least…
When the first LYS Day happened a few years back, we decided to celebrate with mimosas. It is now an LYS Day tradition, and we will have regular and alcohol-free mimosas available all day.
It’s that wonderful time of year again! The birds are chirping, the flowers and trees are beginning to bloom, and the weather is finally warming up. Each spring brings the promise of rebirth and the opportunity for a fresh start.
In yarn land, this means new and returning summer favorites. Warmer weather calls for a shift in what kinds of fibers we wear, typically moving from warmer wools to cooler cotton blends. Here are some yarns we are super excited about this spring, and we hope you’ll find some wonderful projects to match:
This new yarn is the perfect mix of color and washability and is ready to be made into everything from simple shawls to summer tees. Lazy Hazy Summer Cotton is a DK weight blend of 49/46/5 Cotton/Acrylic/Polyester and each skein comes in at 164yds/50g. We’re currently working on a shop sample of Alicia Plummer’s Salted using this yarn, and we’re planning to leave off the sleeves to make this a perfect summer top. We expect this yarn to be on the shelves early next week (4/5), and we hope you’ll love it as much as we do!
Remix Light is a newer classic that has been part of Berroco’s lineup for a few years now. It is marketed as a DK weight blend of summery fibers, but we find it works up particularly well as a fingering or sport weight. Each skein is a 30/27/24/10/9 blend of Nylon/Cotton/Acrylic/Silk/Linen and has 432yds/100g. It is surprisingly lofty, rustic, and reminiscent of shetland wool with none of the itch or extra warmth. We think it would be perfect worked up into Bristol Ivy’s new Fields of Gold pattern, guaranteed to be a classic transition piece for your spring and fall wardrobe.
Bamboo Pop has been a staple here at the shop since the day we opened. This beautiful 50/50 Cotton/Bamboo DK weight yarn has stunning drape, softness, and coolness that is unparalleled by any other yarn. It comes in a stunning array of solid, variegated, and dotted colors that are sure to make your next project shine. Each skein has 292yds/100g. Grab two skeins and work up Tulip Chest by Klára Nagy for a beautiful and lacy piece that is sure to be a conversation starter.
These are just a few of the lovely yarns we’re hoping you’ll fall in love with this spring and summer. Feel free to stop in and ask us about any of these on your next visit.
P.S. – Local Yarn Store Day is right around the corner, and we’ve got lots of exciting things planned for this year’s event. Keep an eye out for an update on this in the coming weeks!
Hello there, theorists! We know it’s been a minute since we’ve posted any updates here on the website, but we promise we’re still here and we’re all set to get you excited for our 6th (yes, sixth!!!) Annual Fibertastic Friday Frenzy. We’ll start off with the not-so-fun business, and then get right on into what you can expect for our biggest sale of the year.
First things first, MASKS ARE REQUIRED REGARDLESS OF VACCINATION STATUS, NO EXCEPTIONS. This is in big, bold print to let you know just how serious we still are about this. If you do not have your mask on when you enter the shop, you will be asked if you have one. If you do, great, go get your yarn squish on! If not, you will be asked to return another time, or you are welcome to email the shop at stringtheoryyarnshop@gmail.com and we will be happy to do some personal shopping for you. We most likely will not have the time to do personal shopping during the Friday and Saturday rush, and you will not receive a discount for anything purchased outside of those two days, so be sure to come prepared with your mask at the ready!
Alright, now that the not-so-fun stuff is out of the way, let’s get on to the good stuff! Our hours for this year’s Fibertastic Friday Frenzy will be as follows:
Friday, November 26th – 8am to 2pm
Saturday, November 27th – 10am to 3pm
Since we are still in the midst of a pandemic, we will once again have almost everything 30% off for both days to discourage everyone gathering all at once first thing Friday morning. All items excluded from the sale will be clearly marked.
As a reminder, we may not be able to help you if you come in with technical questions on a current project as we expect to be fairly busy throughout both Friday and Saturday. We also will not be offering winding service for the duration of the sale, but we’re happy to hold onto the skeins you want wound for pickup the following week, or, as always, you’re welcome to stop back to have your skeins wound when you’re ready to start your project.
Be sure to keep an eye on Facebook over the next week and change for some great projects that we think are perfect for gift giving. We very much look forward to seeing half of your faces on this most Fibertastic of Fridays and Saturdays!
I am writing this today to make something very clear. IF YOU COME INTO THE SHOP, YOU MUST PROPERLY WEAR A MASK. If you do not properly wear a mask, meaning covering nose and mouth, we will be unable to provide in-person service.
“But I have an exemption!” you say. This is where the direct threat portion of reasonable accommodation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) comes into play. To quote the ADA:
Ҥ 36.208 Direct threat.
“(a) This part does not require a public accommodation to permit an individual to participate in or benefit from the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages and accommodations of that public accommodation when that individual poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others.
“(b) In determining whether an individual poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others, a public accommodation must make an individualized assessment, based on reasonable judgment that relies on current medical knowledge or on the best available objective evidence, to ascertain: The nature, duration, and severity of the risk; the probability that the potential injury will actually occur; and whether reasonable modifications of policies, practices, or procedures or the provision of auxiliary aids or services will mitigate the risk.”
When you come in without a mask, you are a direct threat not only to me as a shop owner (or any other employee), you are a direct threat to any other customer present at the time. I do not know, and have no right to know, if you have COVID-19. Therefore, the assumption is that you do, and measures need to be taken to protect myself and others.
“So how can I shop?” This is simple! Just send us an email at stringtheoryyarnshop@gmail.com with what you are looking for and we will be happy to do personal shopping for you. Once you’ve chosen your items and paid, we can either ship product to you or deliver within a reasonable radius (approx. 10 miles).
We hope this helps and makes clear our stance on mask mandates.
The last few months have been strange, to say the least. The COVID-19 pandemic has turned our lives upside down and we’ve all had to adjust to a new normal. For us, that meant closing our doors and staying home to help keep everyone safe. The hardest part of this has been missing out on simply being together as a crafting community.
Needless to say, we were very excited to find out that Cumberland county would be moving into the commonwealth’s yellow phase this Friday, May 22nd. This means we can reopen, albeit with restrictions, and start stitching our community back together. We know you’re excited too and can’t wait to get your hands on some good, yarny squishiness!
Until Cumberland county is moved into the green phase, the following restrictions will be in place:
You must wear a face mask covering your nose and mouth at all times while in the shop.
Upon entering the shop, you must use the supplied hand sanitizer. Yarn is a soft surface that can easily hold on to virus particles for extended periods of time, and by using sanitizer you are preventing the possible spread of the virus to others.
While shopping, please maintain a distance of at least 6 feet from other individuals.
The shop will be limited to a maximum of 8 customers at once. This will help ensure that you have enough space to keep 6 feet apart from other customers while shopping.
There will be no stitch gatherings. There simply isn’t enough space around the table to make this safe. The table will be limited to a maximum of 4 people at once, and there will be no food or drinks allowed.
The shop will also have adjusted hours until we move into the green phase. They will be as follows:
Sunday & Monday – CLOSED
Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday – 12pm-4pm
Wednesday – 1pm-6pm (5pm-6pm are reserved for high risk individuals and seniors)
Saturday – 11am-2pm
We truly look forward to seeing you and helping you pick out some fun summer projects!
Three beautiful Huacaya alpacas at the 2020 PA Farm Show
It’s officially Farm Show week here in the Harrisburg area, and that means our favorite event is coming: Sheep to Shawl! As usual, we will have the laptop set up streaming PCN’s coverage of the event so we can listen to Tom Knisely and Sara Bixler’s commentary throughout the contest. Since it’s a viewing party, no party is complete without delicious noms, so we’ll be sure to have pizza and drinks all night long.
Sheep to Shawl coverage begins at 3pm on Wednesday, January 8th and usually runs through around 7pm with the auction included.
We hope to see you there!
PS – You can find out more about our local experts Tom & Sara at redstoneglen.com/instructors, plus you can find information and schedules for weaving and spinning classes on their website. Red Stone Glen is located about 20 minutes south of the yarn shop.
String Theory Yarn Shop 