Night of Knitting and Hot Chocolate at City Bakery's 18th Annual Hot Chocolate Festival!

For hot chocolate lovers, The City Bakery in New York City is legendary.  So when the owner, Maury Rubin, asked us to participate in the 18th Annual City Bakery Hot Chocolate Festival and Night of Knitting we were delighted!


For the theme of this year's Hot Chocolate Festival, How to Knit a Marshmallow, Maury was inspired by a customer at City Bakery who he spied knitting in the restaurant, they chatted and agreed that knitting and hot chocolate made perfect companions; we couldn't agree more!

The event will be at The City Bakery, located at 3 West 18th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues on Thursday, February 18th, doors open at 7:00 pm.  Tickets cost $30 and include an all you can eat delicious savory dinner, all you can drink hot chocolate, beer, wine and knitting workshops (please note, materials for knitting are not included in the cost of tickets).  Tickets can be purchased at the door or in advance at Brown Paper Tickets (seating is limited and going fast so we recommend purchasing tickets ahead of time). 

We got a sneak peek from Leslie Koren at City Bakery of the many incredible hot chocolate flavors that will be served at the event:

• Caramel Hot Chocolate
• Banana Peel Hot Chocolate
• Ginger Hot Chocolate
• Lemon Hot Chocolate
• Moulin Rouge Hot Chocolate
• Milk Chocolate Hot Chocolate
• Darkest Dark Chocolate Hot Chocolate
• Creamy Stout Hot Chocolate
• Bourbon Hot Chocolate

There will be 5 knitting workshops and one demonstration being hosted by 6 of New York City's local knitting shops:

• Chocolate Bar Coasters (pictured below) by Purl Soho
• Marshmallow Hat by Knitty City
• Hot Chocolate Mug Cozy by Gotta Knit
• Marshmallow Man by Brooklyn General Store
• How to Spin fiber demonstration by Downtown Yarns
• Beginning knitting skills by Wool & the Gang

There will be two workshop sessions each which will start at approximately 7:30 pm and 8:45 pm. You can find a complete list of materials, answers to frequently asked questions and skills required at this link.  Please note, all shops will have materials available to purchase the night of the event (cash only).

For our workshop at the event, we designed these Chocolate Bar Coasters.  The yarn, Cascade's Chunky 128 Superwash Wool, is the perfect yarn; it's super soft, comes in a great range of chocolate inspired colors and is machine washable.  We think these coasters make a perfect place to rest a mug of anything hot, but especially hot chocolate! 

In honor of the festival, Cascade Yarns has generously partnered with Purl Soho for a giveaway the night of the event!  Six lucky attendees will win a skein of Cascade's Magnum, a Purl Soho tote, US size 36 knitting needles and a full color printed pattern of our popular Eleventh-Hour Scarf!

Whether you'll be able to attend the event or not, you can pick up one of our Chocolate Bar Coasters Kits at our shop or online at purlsoho.com starting today!  Each kit contains 2 skeins of Cascade's 128 Superwash Wool, one skein Ecru, and one skein Bittersweet Chocolate (this is enough yarn to make at least 6 coasters) and a full color printed pattern.  You can also download the pattern for free at this link!

Hope to see you there! --Purl Soho

Handmade Baby Elephants from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts & Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts!

Elephants are wonderful creatures. They are intelligent, have great memories, and live in fascinating structured social groups. Perhaps because they are such symbols of peace and wisdom they have often been the subject of children’s literature. We can’t think of any other animal that has as spawned as many memorable characters as the mighty elephant. There’s Dumbo, Ella, Horton, Elmer and of course, Babar just to name a few. 

Happily, we at Purl Soho are experiencing a mini-baby boom, so we wanted to make some baby gifts for the new arrivals that would be soft, cuddly and spark their imaginations. These two handmade elephants, one knitted and one sewn, will make great companions for the little ones! Both elephant patterns come from books written by our very own Joelle Hoverson and both are quick and easy to make!

Peanut the Wee Elephant is a much beloved pattern from Joelle’s book Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts and was designed by the very talented Hilary Lang. Hilary is the creative force behind the adorable Wee Wonderfuls blog and online store. For our elephant above we used a fun print from Liberty of London Tana Lawn called Pastel Over the Rainbow and also embroidered some eyelashes on her. Molly named her Sunshine the Groovy Pachyderm and we think she’s the perfect gift for a baby girl.

This knitted elephant is from Last Minute Knitted Gifts which is also written by Joelle and it only takes 4-6 hours to make. This is the kind of stuffed animal that a child will drag with them everywhere because it’s so soft and cuddly and has such a sweet personality knit right in. For this elephant we used Jade Sapphires 8-ply 100% cashmere in color Creme de Menthe, which we think will be perfect for a new baby boy!

If you’d like to make your own stuffed elephants please check out Joelle’s great books, Last Minute Knitted Gifts and Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. They have wonderful, quick gift ideas for everyone from new babies to us older folks!

Molly's Sketchbook: Heart-Shaped Zippered Pouches

Nothing says Valentine's Day like a heart-shaped box of candy! My box always comes from See's Candy in California (from my dad) and I love opening up the box and picking out my favorite pieces, the Walnut Squares, the Molasses Chips, and the Dark Bordeaux. Yum!

I wanted to send my nieces their own boxes of candy, but one of them has food allergies so I didn't want to send her something she couldn't enjoy. Instead, I decided to turn the whole heart-shaped box idea on its head and sew heart-shaped pouches instead. I love the idea that I can fill them with non-allergenic candies and that the girls can re-use them even after Valentine's Day.

For fabric, I chose some fun, playful dots in pinks and reds and used our brand new 15mm Grosgrain Ribbon for the looped handles. I also decided to take advantage of our wide selection of zippers and added a zippered closure along one side of the pouch. Even though I was a little scared of tackling sewing in a zipper on a curve I'm very happy with how it turned out. I think it makes the pouches so much more usable and, as with so many sewing techniques, it wasn't as hard as I'd made it out to be!

If you'd like to make your own heart-shaped pouch, and learn how to put in a zipper on a curve in the process, please visit my Heart Shaped Zippered Pouches Project Journal.

Happy Valentine's Day! --Molly

Whit's Knits: Spiral Rib Leg Warmers

For many of us, the mere mention of leg warmers conjures up vivid images of ripped sweatshirts and really big hair. Having grown up in the eighties, I love Olivia Newton John as much as the next person, but that doesn't necessarily mean I want "Let's Get Physical" to be my theme song for 2010. However, I'm not so curmudgeonly that I can't appreciate new takes on old trends.

So, instead of acrylic and rainbow stripes, these 21st century leg warmers are super soft merino and naturally subtle colors. Hand dyed by Manos del Uruguay's cooperative of local craftswomen, this 5-ply Merino is perfectly now. A South American rural community sustaining itself through its traditional crafts sounds like a very beautiful future to me!

If you're not ready to say goodbye to everything that's come before, please visit my Sprial Rib Leg Warmers Project Journal. You will find everything there that you need to make yourself a gorgeous pair of 2010 leg warmers! Thanks! - Whitney

Molly's Sketchbook: Rose Barrettes

Roses are so much more varied and exciting than those tight red buds available at every deli and supermarket. I grew up right down the street from the lovely Berkeley Rose Garden and every spring when the garden was in full bloom I loved exploring all the different varieties; from the tiny peppery smelling Cecil Brunners to the opulent pink and peach Tahitian Sunsets. There were purple roses and yellow roses and velvety red roses so dark they looked black. There were fat ones that seemed to have a hundred crinkly petals and delicate ones with only four. It's no wonder that this fascinating flower is such a symbol of romance, and of course of Valentine's Day!

With the big day coming up I designed these little girl's barrettes in celebration of the rose. I liked the idea that they could add a little Valentine's spirit to any outfit but also still be used after Valentine's Day. I used our 100% Wool Felt Bundle in Spice because its rich luminous colors have the same intensity as some of my favorite roses. Sewing these together was a snap and it was so fun watching each flower bloom in my fingers. If you'd like to make some for your little valentine please visit my Rose Barrette Project Journal.

Happy Valentine's Day! --Molly