Baaad Anna's Yarn Store

Join us Friday January 24th for an evening of yarn mini sampling, pattern discussions and treats. With a new year, comes time for an introduction to some of the newer yarns that snuck into the store during the Fall rush!

What is a yarn tasting?

REGISTER NOW

This will be a sit-down event with some refreshments, hands-on knitting and good company! Your reservation will include five mini-skeins from some of our newest and favorite dyers and farmers: Hue Loco, Suburban Stitcher, Okanagan Dyeworks, Baaad Sarah’s and Americo! Compare different yarn weights and fibre content head to head while knitting up a simple pattern or swatch square.

REGISTER NOW

What: Winter Yarn Tasting Event at Baaad Anna’s Yarn Store

When: Friday, January 24th 2020

Time: 6:30 – 9:00pm

Cost: $25

To Register: Book online or give us a call at (604) 255 2577.

All featured yarns will be 10% off for the duration of the evening. Don’t forget to bring your own needles and hooks for working with fingering to worsted weight yarns.

There are only 20 spots available so get your ticket soon!

Here’s some eye candy from past yarn tastings. It is a perfect way to spend a rainy winter evening. Hope you can join us this round as we have some pretty exciting yarn in store for you to try on your needles!

To Register: Book online or give us a call at (604) 255 2577.

Our month-long annual Warm Things Drive has been a heart-warming success. In fact the generosity shown by this fibre arts community has been truly outstanding. Every year we collect custom-made or under-loved handknits, crocheted items or woven accessories to be distributed throughout the downtown east side, and this year we had enough to support multiple groups. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed all year round as well as over the month of December, as it was truly a living example of the spirit of the season!

Here’s a tribute to every donation made during this drive:

It became clear near the beginning of the drive that we had a plethora of hand made hats, so we were able to make TWO separate holiday gift donations to every resident of two of Vancouver’s recently opened Temporary Modular Housing units. TMHs have been appearing all across the city as a means to provide housing, meals and life skills to some of the 2,200 people do not have a home in Vancouver. We have been collecting and distributing handknits/crochet/weaves to every resident in various TMHs since they were launched in late 2018, including socks, scarves, more socks, and the hats, hat, and socks (below).

• 46 hats to tə cecəw (The Beach) in the Little Mountain Temporary Modular Housing in the Little Mountain (near Main St & 33rd) area of Vancouver:

• 52 hats to the Hummingbird Place Temporary Modular Housing in the Olympic Village area of Vancouver:

• 52 pairs of socks that will be donated to the  hats to the Nora Hendrix Place Temporary Modular Housing in the Chinatown area of Vancouver:

And we have also had the opportunity to visit the Hunger Bites knit club of David Thompson Secondary School to donate both yarn, needles and some finished handknits for their donation drive to the Downtown Eastside Womens’ Centre. Every year they work on various philanthropic ventures, and over the past few years they used their lunchtime club as a knit group to produce warm items for others.

• This selection of scarves, wraps and shawls was given to these philanthropic youth to add to their donation to the Downtown Eastside Womens’ Centre:

Also, a small selection of these knits above went directly to a refugee family of 3 (including a newborn) that arrived to Canada earlier this year from the Congo.

• Lastly we also collected a variety of food donations and a $100 cash donation to the Vancouver Food Bank through our Boxing Day (donate and get 15% off sale) and my own family’s annual Christmas Caroling:

Thank you to everyone in our community that thinks of others need for warm head, feet and hearts at this chilly time of year. This is what truly makes us a community, regardless of where one calls home!

If anyone wants to try their hand at adding heels/toes to a circular tube; let any of my staff know as we have many tubes to offer towards our new Temporary Modular Housing socks goal of 58 pairs!

And please know we happily collect knit, crocheted or woven donations all year round, and host monthly Give Back Sundays on the second Sunday of every month where free yarn and treats are offered in addition to good company for an afternoon of charity crafting.

We have already started on our next Temporary Modular Housing sock donation, thanks to a very generous gift in the mail of 15 pairs of socks arriving to us from Oregan; as well as our January Give Back Sunday event which was paired with a Circular Sock Machine hands-on demo where donated sock yarns were cranked into tubes, ready for any charity knitter to add heels and toes to to complete into a pair of handknit/handcranked socks! Thank you to everyone who donated their time, skills and yarn; and keep an eye on future Give Back events as we are now building our 2020 calendar!

We’re on for a lot of fun over the next couple of weeks. Check out the various activities happening soon!

Although the store is open regular hours today, TONIGHT’s CLASSES WILL BE POSTPONED, but both of the courses will be extended by a week as follows:

• Kids Learn to Knit will start on on Thursday Jan 23rd
  • It will run from 4:30-5:30pm for four weeks on Jan 23rd, 30th & Feb 6th & 13th
• Beyond the Basics will start on on Thursday Jan 23rd
  • It will run from 6:00-8:00pm for three weeks on Jan 23rd, 30th & Feb 6th

Our apologies and keep safe out there!

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We are hosting another WINTER YARN TASTING on Friday Jan 24th from 6:30-9:00pm

Join us Friday January 24th for an evening of yarn mini sampling, pattern discussions and treats. With a new year, comes time for an introduction to some of the newer yarns that snuck into the store during the Fall rush!

What is a yarn tasting?

This will be a sit-down event with some refreshments, hands-on knitting and good company! Your reservation will include five mini-skeins from some of our newest and favorite dyers and farmers: Hue Loco, Suburban Stitcher, Okanagan Dyeworks, Sugar Bush and Americo! Compare different yarn weights and fibre content head to head while knitting up a simple pattern or swatch square.

What: Winter Yarn Tasting Event at Baaad Anna’s Yarn Store

When: Friday, January 24th 2020

Time: 6:30 – 9:00pm

Cost: $25

To Register: Book online or give us a call at (604) 255 2577.

All featured yarns will be 10% off for the duration of the evening. Don’t forget to bring your own needles and hooks for working with fingering weight yarns.

There are only 20 spots available so get your ticket soon!

***

And back by popular request, we will be hosting another FRAME WEAVING WORKSHOP on Sunday January 26th from 1:00 – 5:00pm.

This is a 3-hour workshop with all materials included; and you get to take home the loom, instructions booklet and starter kit. It will open up a world of creativity and leave you with gift of an art piece to take home. You will learn various hands-on weaving techniques on a portable frame loom which you get to keep.

DATE: Sunday January 26th from 1:00-5:00pm

COST: $135 (+tax) includes all materials and a frame weaving loom (valued $57) to keep

INSTRUCTOR: Serah Hedin

To register visit us in store, call 604-255-2577, or register online here to reserve your spot!

Snow Day!!! (But we’re open from 11am to 3pm for all your keeping warm needs). KNIT NIGHT CANCELLED due to forecast blizzard!

And for any bored kiddos young or old… we’ll have a drop-in needle felting for ALL AGES from 1:30-2:30pm for $10; no experience necessary (though recommended for ages 6+).

AND Iron Dog Books next door will be open as well… come visit us!

There’s some yarns hiding at every local yarn store that are unsung heroes, and this little 50g ball of cashmere, silk and merino is pure bliss. Sugar Bush Bliss is a sport-weight blend that creates softness, warm and drape beyond compare, and at $12.95/50g it becomes one of the more affordable luxury blends available. When paired together with an incredible Melanie Berg pattern, you end up with a work of wearable art!

The Love of Spiders is a gorgeous colourwork shawl that showcases any two colours chosen, and is described by the designer Melanie Berg as a whimsical knit inspired by Charlotte’s Web, a beautiful story about finding love, growing up, and saying goodbye.

The delicate spiderweb lines are made with slipped stitches, as is the two-color section meant to evoke Charlotte’s 514 children ballooning in the wind. This creates a beautiful stitch pattern without the need to work two strands of yarn at a time. A great beginner colourwork that is knit down and out from the center of the top edge with increases at the center and sides, finished with a garter stitch border.

Melanie Berg is one of my favorite shawl designers who has a knack for combining as she describes: a texture and color into wearable modern designs that are both playful and beautiful. [She] designs to surprise — from matching cheeky stripes with elegant lace, to choosing unexpected color combinations.

The yarn, Bliss, is a lavish blend of luxury infused fibres. Cashmere and silk are blended together with extra-fine merino to create a yarn with incredible softness and excellent stitch definition. The colour range of coordinating colours compliment the exquisite texture of Bliss! Ideal for cowls and scarves or a showcase of luxury apparel.

The Love of Spiders used four balls of each of the two coordinating colours. Sample shown in colourways Pear and Cobalt.

Fibres:  70% Superwash Merino / 20% Mulberry Silk / 10% Cashmere
Gauge:  23 – 26 stitches = 4 inches (10 cm)
Needles:  3.25 – 3.75 mm (US 3 – 5)
Weight:  Sport (2)
Length:  50 g / 105 yards (96 m)

Designed in Canada. Made in Italy.

BUY NOW!

And a special shout out to one of our regulars Karen H who brought this yarn and pattern combination to our attention and knit this gorgeous sample, and to Mel Broome, our Felting teacher and friend for allowing me to rope her in to modelling the shawl for me on this cold wet afternoon!

As Charlotte told Wilbur: ’You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing.’

BUY NOW!

We have a fun weekend coming up with our first Drop Spindle yarn spinning class of the year as well as a second installment of our Circular Sock Machine Hands-On Demo during our Give Back Sunday event.

Check these out:

LEARN TO SPIN WITH A DROP SPINDLE

Want to learn to spin your own yarn? This 2-hour workshop will teach the basics of how to make your yarn with a drop spindle. Participants will be spinning a single ply yarn and will receive a basic intro to the process of spinning your own yarn from beginning to end. Participants will also learn various drafting techniques. .

DATES: Saturday, January 11th & 18th. 1:00-2:00 p.m.

To register visit us in store, call 604-255-2577, or register online here!

CRANKING OUT DONATION SOCKS

This Sunday January 12th from 1-4pm we will be hosting a hands-on circular sock machine (CSM) demonstration to help us crank out a few more pairs of socks for our Give Back Sundays Modular Housing Knit Sock Campaign!

If you’ve ever been interested in trying your hand at cranking out a sock on a CSM, or want to help out by hand-knitting toes and heel onto the tubes that we hope to crank out this weekend, stop by and lend a hand. Bring your needles and/or a friend and help us give back some knit love to our community this weekend!

Also any donation of SUPERWASH sock yarn (with nylon) to use for these CSM donation sock would also be appreciated!

We have now received enough handmade socks to make another donation to every resident in a local temporary modular housing unit; more details on that later this week! With this we will be launching into another collection of hand knit socks for donation to newly homed local residents!

We’re growing! Please pass this along to any enterprising community-minded fibre artist you might know! Please email us at baaadannas@gmail.com with resumes and inquiries about our openings for:

• Classes Coordinator (10-15 hours/week)
• Community Engagement Coordinator (10-15 hours/week)
• Bookkeeper (10 hours/month)

We have a number of amazing classes starting up in January to help you try your hand at a new skill… check out some that start in the next few weeks:

BEYOND THE BASICS

For knitters that are comfortable with the basic stitches, here’s a way to conquer your next knitty challenge. Bring whatever project with a new skill you would like to master, and our teacher will work with you over 6 hours of class time to teach you the skills you need to succeed in its completion. Self-paced with the project of your choice, this is a class for knitters of all skill levels to try a new technique, while receiving help and feedback on their work-in-progress. No need to abandon a project when help is less than a week away! Work with an amazing local designer to tackle a new pattern or project and master some new skills.

JANUARY DATES: Thursdays, January 16, 23, & 30th from 6:00-8:00pm

To register visit us in store, call 604-255-2577, or register online here!

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SOCKS FOR BEGINNERS

JANUARY DATES: Mondays, January 13, 20, 27th, and February 3rd from 6:00-7:30pm

To register visit us in store, call 604-255-2577, or register online here!

To register visit us in store, call 604-255-2577, or register online here!

Our storefront will be closed on January 1st, but we have dropped some items in our online store with 50% off for a ONE DAY SALE!

These will be available from midnight to midnight with free shipping for orders over $200, and as always there is also free in-store pickup available!

Just a heads up that our holiday hours for today are shortened at both ends due to our annual inventory count.

WE ARE OPEN FROM 1:00 – 4:30pm today (Monday December 30th); and our online store will also go live again at 1pm.

Sorry for any inconvenience!

What a better way to spend Sunday night than with friends touching EVERY. SINGLE. SKEIN. of yarn in the store for our annual inventory party!