footwork 2.0: A Ram Wools Summer Sock Design Contest

Calling all sock knitters! Ram Wools Yarn Co-op is pleased to announce our second annual Summer Sock Design Contest. Prizes and fame are in store for those who can create an original sock pattern. Top down, toe up, lace, cables, bobbles, magic loop, double pointed needles, boot socks, dainty socks… The sky’s the limit!

THE PRIZES

1. Fame and glory! Every month from June to August, we will be featuring one pattern for our monthly Sock knit-along. Each winning pattern will get a month of fame. We’ll advertise it in our store, on our website, on our blog, our Ravelry group, our Twitter page, our Facebook page, our weekly emails to thousands of subscribers, and anywhere else we can think of.

2. If those 15 minutes of fame weren’t enough, winners will also be awarded gift certificate prizes: 1st Place: a $75 gift certificate 2nd Place: a $50 gift certificate 3rd Place: a $25 gift certificate As an added bonus, the top local winner will also receive a Stash Card (a $25 value), a card that entitles you to 10% off all regular priced in-store merchandise for one year.

THE RULES

-This contest is open to anyone in the world.
-All patterns must be original sock patterns designed by you.
-You may submit as many patterns as you want.
-All patterns must contain, or be submitted with, at least one large photo of the finished product. The more pictures, the merrier!
-All patterns must be made out of one of the specified yarns (in the photo submitted with the pattern, the sock must also be made with one of these yarns). You can pick from the ones below. If you aren’t sure if your yarn is eligible, please ask us.

Self-striping:
Crazy Zauberball
Fame Trend

Solids:
Sisu
Durasport

Variegated/Jacquards:
Nova Sock Print
Cascade Heritage Hand Painted Sock Yarn
Tanis Hand-Dyed (Blue Label)

Heavy/Worsted:
Tuffy
Accent Worsted

THE JUDGING CRITERIA
We’ll be looking for originality, uniqueness, knitability and wearablity. Remember that photos will play a big part in how we will make a decision, so make sure the photos you
provide are clear and well-lit. It would be helpful to have a close-up photo of any special stitch patterns as well as one wider angle shot, so we can get an overall idea of what the
sock is like.

THE FINE PRINT
All submitted patterns will be licensed by Ram Wools Yarn Co-op under a Creative Commons license. In a nutshell, a Creative Commons license means that your pattern can be shared and adapted by everyone, but no one else can take it and restrict the copyright. We think that this sharing leads to a more free flowing creative community! To learn more about Creative Commons, visit http://creativecommons.org/about

HOW TO SUBMIT
Submit your pattern and pictures to info@ramwools.com. Please include your name, address and telephone number where you can be reached during the day. Patterns should be written in English. Submissions will be accepted until June 16th, 2012.

For more information, email us at info@ramwools.com, or call 1-800-263-8002 (949-6868 in Winnipeg).

Rug hooking has caught our eye this year, and is making its way to Ram Wools. From area rugs to wall hangings, this is one very intriguing artistic outlet that can produce a wide variety of styles and looks. There will be a rug hooking class at our fall retreat, led by Judy Trefry. Judy has been making hooked rugs for years; she has definitely made a fine art of it. Her work goes above and beyond the so-called primitive style of rug hooking, which uses basic designs and chunky material in big blocks of colour. Judy's pictorial rugs are simply stunning, with a detailed, almost painted look. One such art piece, entitled Beausejour's Sentinel (shown below), toured Canada as part of the exhibit Vanishing Prairie Landmarks. You can read more about Judy in The Beausejour Review.

If you would like to give rug hooking a try, don't miss out on Judy's class at our fall retreat - click here for more info.

If there's one thing I've realized from working at yarn and fabric stores, it's that many crafters have more than one artistic outlet. Through our summer blog series "Artistic Outlets", we will be exploring various crafty hobbies. Having a crafty, artistic outlet is a wonderful way to let your imagination run free, cope with stress, or even push yourself to try new and exciting things; the result of a person's craftiness can be evident in anything from a scrapbook to painting a house. Without further ado, Part 1 of the series is about quilting. One of our favourite local quilting shops is the Carellan Sewing Centre. If you have a moment, their website is worth a look.

Three years ago, quilting caught my eye. I really started to notice and appreciate the various quilts my Grandma had given us. One that stands out in my memory is a queen-size Dresden plate quilt. I love everything about it, from the sunny, yellow borders to the happy, appliqued and embroidered flower shapes on big 20-inch blocks. Having virtually no quilting experience, naturally I decided that I had to recreate this quilt in all it's queen-sized glory, that it had to be hand pieced and quilted just like Grandma did, and that it would be finished in 3 months so I could give it to my mom for Christmas.

I had no idea what I was getting into then. Pattern and measurements in hand, I went straight to my local fabric store and bought all the supplies I needed. Now three years of Christmases, birthdays and Mother's-Days have come and gone. I'm proud to say that the top is finally pieced together (the borders were pieced by machine, but Grandma doesn't need to know that), and I'm just starting to quilt it. It has taken a long time, but it's been a labour of love, and I wouldn't have it any other way. The seams are a little crooked in places, and the applique is by no means perfect, but I think I like it that way - it will always be my first quilt. I can hardly wait to start my next quilting project: a red- and -white log-cabin quilt - with maple leaves appliqued throughout - from the book Canadian Heritage Quilting.

If you're a quilter, I'd love to hear about your current projects - and see some pictures - if you have some to share with an aspiring quilter.

Multi-crafter signing off until Part 2

Melissa

The Ram Wools blog team is proud to present

RAM WOOLS MYTHBUSTERS

Episode 1

Myth: Ram Wools Yarn Co-op is run by a large team consisting of dozens of staff members and lots of robots.

Status: BUSTED.

Here's the Ram Wools team:

We're five yarn-lovin' people on a mission to spread the yarny love. Courtney, Jason, Lori and Melissa are co-op members, and Lorna (who is, apparently, unphotographable) is our sole and extremely valuable staff member. That's it. Between the five of us, we do everything, whether it's helping a customer, publishing a catalogue, filling a mail order, mopping the floor, writing a pattern, or editing code in our website or software. When you call the store, you'll always be speaking to one of us, not a call centre on the other side of the globe. Promise.

Myth: Ram Wools Yarn Co-op LOVES open source.

Status: CONFIRMED.

Did you know that all Ram Wools computers run on Linux (specifically, Ubuntu and Red Hat), a free, open-source operating system? Open source means that the code (the letters and numbers in seemingly random order that make computer programs work) of a computer program is freely available at no cost for anyone to view, edit, improve, and distribute. This is in contrast to proprietary forms of software that you often pay big bucks to use (e.g., Microsoft Office), the codes of which are not viewable or editable by the public.

Ram Wools is a strong supporter of open source software! Our website, telephone system, internet server, point of sale system, and just about every other technological part of our business is all run on open source software. We also apply the open source philosophy to all of our patterns, which is why we're able to have so many awesome free patterns available on our website and in our store. All of our patterns are licensed under a Creative Commons license, which means everyone is free to adapt, distribute, edit, or generally go crazy with our patterns. We believe in the free sharing of knowledge of all kinds!

Myth: Ram Wools maintains a warehouse of yarn.

Status: BUSTED.

Ram Wools, all of it, even the website store, all fits into our one sunny shop on Portage Avenue in Winnipeg, Manitoba. All purchases come right off the shelves, even website purchases - we don't maintain separate stock for website and in-store purchases. We do have a small back area and basement for extra stock that can't fit on the shelves (which I lovingly refer to as Yarnia), but that's it. No magical warehouse-o-yarn. Sadly.

Myth: You need a membership to shop at Ram Wools.

Status: BUSTED.

When it comes to retail co-operatives, there are two main categories: the consumer-owned co-op, and the worker-owned co-op. In a consumer-owned co-op, consumers, i.e., customers, purchase a membership share that enables them to shop at the store. In most cases, purchasing a membership also confers voting rights and other benefits. A good example of this, for our Canadian readers anyway, is Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC). You pay a $5 lifetime membership fee which allows you to shop at the store, rent gear, and gives you a vote in how the co-op is run.

The other category of co-op is a worker-owned co-op. In this model, the people who work at the co-op are the members and owners of the business. Only workers pay a membership share and only they have a vote in how the co-op is run. To the public, shopping at a worker-owned co-op is no different than shopping at any other retail store. Ram Wools falls under this category. The long story short: No, you don't need a membership to shop here, and any time you're here, you'll be served by a co-op member/store owner.

Myth: Melissa loves Tanis Hand-dyed Yarn.

Status: PLAUSIBLE.

Last time we saw her, she was standing by a box of Tanis yarn wielding a pair of scissors, scaring customers and co-op members alike and looking rather dangerous. We're assuming she really likes it, but we can't get close enough to ask.

As a knitter and a snowboarder, I never ever complain about winter unless it's 40 below. Now that the weather is warming up and the ground is thawing, I also look forward to getting outside and playing in the mud. I think my love of gardening is shared by a lot of other knitters out there. Last year, we volunteered to take some catalogues from one of our favourite greenhouses to the store for our customers to pick up. We were amazed by how many hundreds were taken! This got us to thinking about doing some gardening at the store location. There was a small unpaved patch at the front of the store that had decent exposure so we started there last year with some wild flowers. Perhaps not the best choice for such a small area. The taller ones took over and shaded the little ones, making it pretty scraggly looking. I think something a little more organized will work out better this year.

Our other plan is to plant a vegetable container garden along the parking lot fence behind the building. The side street that runs alongside the parking lot is very pretty, lined with beautiful turn of the century homes and Winnipeg's famous elm trees. Our parking lot is a bit of an eyesore in comparison. A big part of this plan is to make our own compost. We started looking at plans for the bin last year and have been collecting the bits and pieces right up until yesterday when we began building. We now have a fantastic compost tumbler made from an olive barrel, salvaged lumber and a dumpstered pipe! I haven't built anything for a very long time and it was so much fun to work outside and talk to the curious neighbours passing in the lane. Jason and I were busting our buttons with pride when we finally put the barrel on it's axle and gave it a spin!

For anyone interested in making their own compost bin, here are the plans that we used. The designer not only tells you what you need, but also tells you how to adjust the plan to fit any size of barrel that you find! He made a rather elaborate venting system that we didn't do. We just drilled holes that were large enough to vent the compost and small enough to keep the material inside.

http://dixiegrilling.com/tumbler.htm

or watch the youtube video

As the gardening season heats up, I will post more about how it's growing!

We had a great time at the opening event by the Manitoba Crafts Museum and Library! Follows are some pics of the opening kick off and a brief description of the exhibit. I really liked the bicycle made entirely of knitted wire.

Sponsored by Ram Wools Yarn Co-op

Manitoba Crafts Museum and Library

Exhibit:
Casting On: Knitting in Manitoba

This exhibit features hand-knitted pieces made primarily by Manitoba craftspeople. Traditional techniques are showcased in historical pieces, and contemporary pieces expose new stitches and designs, unique fibres, and hand-dyed yarns. Some Manitoba industries that have centred around knitting, including the Mary Maxim Company, the Spin-Well Woolen Mills in Sifton, and the White Buffalo Mills in Brandon, will also be featured.

Angry about the bad weather?

So are we.

This has always seemed the perfect time of year to hunker down with a good movie, a mug of hot chocolate and some knitting and just relax. With the hustle and bustle of the holidays over and done with and the heart of winter ahead, my fingers invariably reach for projects that will bring some woolly warmth into my life.

Just last week, we received in a shipment of the wonderful On Your Toes 4-ply from S. R. Kertzer, a wool/nylon blend fingering weight sock yarn that comes in a variety of colours, including semi-solids and jacquards.

I love making socks in the winter... I find that no matter what I do, my feet are always chilly this time of year!

Speaking of socks, have you all checked out our Footwork 1.0 sock design contest? If you've ever designed a pair of socks before – or even if you haven't – you should enter. You could win up to $75 in Ram gift certificates and have your name in virtual lights. We'll advertise your pattern here, in our store, on Ravelry, on Facebook, on Twitter, in our emails, and wherever else we can come up with. Click below to check out the details.

And finally, what's hot in the shop? Lately, it's been Litoral by Aslan Trends.

This yarn is very hard to describe. It has this incredibly silky texture with some ribbony nubs thrown in, and the colours are absolutely wonderful. We whipped up a pattern for this yarn that is quick, easy, takes only one skein, and shows off this yarn to its true potential. It's been so popular in the last few days that we're completely sold out of three of the seven colours, but never fear. More is on the way. We're expecting it early next week. Check out the pattern by clicking here!

Ram Wools will be at the University of Winnipeg CBC kids tent demonstrating knitting, teaching knitting and having fun! The event will be from 10-4 on Saturday, September 25.