Category Archives: yarn tasting

PRE-ORDER Berroco Fall Yarn Tasting Kits

Berroco Fall 2021 Yarn Tasting Kit PRE-ORDER

This season Berroco is doing something neat and is making their Fall Yarn-Tasting kits available to the general public (via their retailers, like us). It contains samples of the new yarns they are launching or promoting this season, which you can swatch and work experiment with. I receive one of these kits every season and I dutifully swatch with my sample to get a feel for the different yarns. It helps me decide what to order for you, but also it gives me insight into what’s out there, even if I don’t want to carry it (sometimes people come to me looking for something specific and I can special order it for them). If enough people purchase a yarn tasting kit we can have a Zoom yarn Tasting Party with someone from Berroco. If we sell ten kits Berroco will even pitch in a door prize! Please note, these kits are special Pre-Orders, please read at the bottom of the page for more info on that.

A Yarn Tasting Kit might be for you if:

  • You are thinking about making a Fall project and want to find a yarn that makes you happy.
  • You like swatching (some people sincerely do enjoy it, they exist, I know them).
  • You’re allergic to wool (or know someone who is) and want to try-out some alternatives (5 of the 6 yarns included in the kit are wool-free).
  • You’re stuck in a bit of a rut and you’re ready for a gentle exercise to help you moving outside of your comfort zone.
  • You like ‘NEW’.
  • You don’t like ‘NEW’, but you’re tired of being afraid of it (file this under ‘comfort zone’ above).

What you’ll get in your Yarn Tasting Kit:

  • 6 Mini balls (10-20g) of each new fall yarns :  Remix ChunkyLuccaDulceTopazLanas Quick and Aerial Color
  • Yarn Tasting Menu
  • Berroco Fall ’21 Newsletter
  • Berroco Fall ’21 Lookbook
  • Berroco Alpaca Sticker
  • Thank you note with a 50% off pattern coupon code!

Pre-Orders

These kits are special Pre-Orders, we aren’t stocking them in the store, but – you have the option to order it any time (it will be available to purchase as long as the manufacturer makes it available to us). Your kit will ship or be available for pick-up once it arrives, and we will contact you (it may take 2 to 3 weeks for your pre-order to arrive). If you need your kit for a specific date please let us know and we can find out if it’s feasible. 

Pick a Project, Any Project

Another super cool thing is that if you like what you see & feel & knit & crochet and want to make an actual project we can now special-order that for you. This applies to all their yarns, for any of their projects (or other projects not designed by them). As long as it is in stock it’s available to us, and if it isn’t we can look into waiting for it to come in. Berroco is also the North American distributor for Lopi and Amano, so we can look into special-ordering projects in those yarns too (Amano is super drool-worthy, their yarns are SOOOO beautiful). Berroco is making it really easy for us to get their yarns into your hands, but it’s a COVID innovation, so take advantage of it while it lasts. I’ve been adding new special Pre-Order Knitting Kits and Crochet Kits to our website, most of them with an expanded selection of colour combinations (by me, so they’re attractive … hopefully).

SCHEDULED Online Yarn Tasting Party + Mini Sampling

Online Yarn Tasting Party!

I’m pulling the cord, we’re doing it, we’re hosting our first FREE online yarn tasting party via Zoom on Sunday March 14, from 3 to 4pm. Spend an hour chatting yarn (and what to do with it) with yours truly, Haley!

Attendance is FREE, but you need to register by ‘purchasing’ the Online Yarn Tasting Party on our website and checking out through our online store. After you check-out you’ll automatically receive a link to download a PDF document packed with event information, including the Zoom meeting link, instructions, swatching suggestions, and a survey where you can submit topics you’d like us to discuss. You do not need to have purchased the Berroco Spring 2021 Yarn Tasting Kit (see below), but it is advisable since these are the yarns we’ll be talking about. 

To get your engines running, I’ve started uploading Spring & Summer Kits using Berroco’s yarns to our website. Everyone’s experiencing feeling burned out (otherwise know as COVID fatigue), and I think it’s really important right now to actively look for small, achievable things to look forward to and put us in the present moment. I just came across this short podcast on Covid Fatigue on “This Matters” (The Toronto Star) which might give you a little boost (they make some good recommendations, but I also just felt better having my feelings validated).

Mini Sweaters?

You may be wondering what’s up with the mini-sweaters in the picture above, and what they have to do with sampling yarn and yarn tasting. Knitting mini-sweaters is currently my favourite way to date new yarns to see how I feel about them. Please note, it does NOT give me an accurate gauge or tension for the yarn, but I do glean lots of other insights from the exercise. It takes me about 45 minutes to an hour to make on of these little guys and it’s slightly futzy work, which means we spend a good chunk of time together.

Process Benefits:

  • I get to experience the texture, see how it behaves (or does not behave), figure out what size needles work well, etc.
  • I get to feel how much I enjoy working with it, how fiddly it is, how it finishes and blocks, and how much I like the finished product.
  • I get an idea of how it is to *really* work with, including increasing, decreasing, picking up stitches, weaving in ends, and blocking.

End Benefits:

  • After I finish my mini I can choose to take things further and make a larger, proper swatch and go deeper, or we can graciously part ways.
  • At the end I have an adorable little ornament to display and share. I tag & label mine and keep them in the store for reference, but you may have other uses for yours, including holiday decorations (tree ornaments, swags, wreaths, advent calendars, holiday cards), little gifts, or you can put them in a picture box frame and display them as art.
  • One of the biggest reasons why I mini-sweater sample … I find it entertaining and I don’t get bored.

Mini Sampling Suggestions:

  • Pattern: Cheers
  • Use short, 5″ or 6″ double pointed needles. I find the longer 7″ and 8″ ones are too fussy.
  • Needles that are less slippery are better than more slippery, especially if you are working with fine yarns or summer yarns (cotton, bamboo and other cellulosic fibres, silk, rayon … anything that doesn’t have any ‘grab’).
  • Feel free to elaborate and modify the pattern: change the style, needle size, ribbing, increases, etc.
  • You don’t have to make sweaters – you can try mini-hats, mini-mittens, mini-socks, mini-pants, or an easy-peasy pennant.
  • If you like the sweaters but get tired of making the same vanilla sweater over and over check-out Berroco’s annual Minutia patterns; every holiday they put out new free patterns for little tree ornaments, including sweaters, hats, mitts, socks and more.

Now, I’m not advocating you sample yarns this way, this isn’t a “you must”, or a “you need to”, or a “you should”. This is me and it fits my needs, so file it under the Free to be You an Me tab as “you might like to, but you also might not, which are both cool”. I own a yarn store and have to test yarns out to see if I think clients are going to enjoy working with them and love the projects they make with them. You have to do what works for you. I share my experience in hopes that you’ll feel inspired in some way to do something that brings you enjoyment. I can only be me, you can only be you, so you do you, I’ll do me, and we’ll share and inspire each other!

Berroco Yarn Tasting Kit

This season Berroco is doing something neat and is making their Spring Yarn-Tasting kits available to the general public (via their retailers, like us). It contains samples of the new yarns they are launching or promoting this season, which you can swatch and work experiment with. I receive one of these kits every season and I dutifully swatch with my sample to get a feel for the different yarns. It helps me decide what to order for you, but also it gives me insight into what’s out there, even if I don’t want to carry it (sometimes people come to me looking for something specific and I can special order it for them).

A Yarn Tasting Kit might be for you if:

  • You are thinking about making a spring/summer project (or two) and want to find a yarn that makes you happy.
  • You like swatching (some people sincerely do enjoy it, they exist, I know them).
  • You’re allergic to wool (or know someone who is) and want to try-out some alternatives (5 of the 6 yarns included in the kit are wool-free).
  • You’re stuck in a bit of a rut and you’re ready for a gentle exercise to help you moving outside of your comfort zone.
  • You like ‘NEW’.
  • You don’t like ‘NEW’, but you’re tired of being afraid of it (file this under ‘comfort zone’ above).

What you’ll get in your Yarn Tasting Kit:

  • 6 Mini balls (10-20g) of each new spring yarns (plus a few spring favorites): Summer SesameZinniaChai, Ultra Wool HandpaintMedina, and Remix Light
  • Yarn Tasting Menu
  • Berroco Spring ’21 Newsletter
  • Berroco Spring ’21 Lookbook
  • Berroco Alpaca Sticker
  • Thank you note with a 50% off pattern coupon code!

UPDATES Yarn Tasting Event & Kits

Yarn Tasting Kits Have Arrived!

The Berroco Spring Yarn Tasting Kits have arrived from Berroco! Sorry that took so long, they were waiting for a shipment with the yarns – international shipping is bit of a mess because of COVID. If you wanted one by didn’t pre-order that’s ok, we have a few extras in stock. If the whole thing is new to you all the details are below, after the Yarn Tasting Event info.

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Yarn Tasting Event!

When last I wrote I said that if we sold enough we would hold a virtual yarn tasting. Well, we sold a bunch of kits, so a Yarn Tasting is happening! The session will take place via Zoom (or a similar platform) on a Sunday (time TBA, see the survey below). The big question is, what type of Yarn Tasting do you want?! You have 2 options:

1. Guided Yarn Party with Professional Instructor (2 hours/$20)

Professional yarn-partier Lynne Sosnowski will lead you through a very informative and educational Yarn tastingLynne will send out info ahead of time on needle recommendations and other supplies you might need or want, a hand-out on how yarn tasting works and a hand-out on effective swatching (for a garment or fitted accessory). During the session she will guide you through casting on a small taster swatch and will talk about the yarn itself – it’s composition, the things it’s suited to, etc. She will also offer some project suggestions for the yarn you’re sampling.  

2. Informal Yarn Sampling with Haley (45 min to 1 hour/Free)

Professional yarn store owner Haley will go with the flow and show you how she swatches for the store and answer all the fibre related questions you can throw at her.

Please tell us what you’d like to do by filling out our survey below (please don’t let us know by emailing/messaging/replying to our newsletter, the survey is the best way for us). The survey should take less than a minute and is anonymous:

TAKE SURVEY HERE

Berroco also sent us several little giveaways and a couple of really nice kits as prizes for our Yarn-Partiers: each of the kits comes with 3 balls of Berroco Remix Light and a copy of their most recent Remix collection Berroco Remix Family (a $65 value all together – not too shabby). We also have several of their summer pattern books to give away ($17 value).

Pattern: Kyrie

Berroco Yarn Tasting Kits

This season Berroco is doing something neat and is making their Spring Yarn-Tasting kits available to the general public (via their retailers, like us). It contains samples of the new yarns they are launching or promoting this season, which you can swatch and work experiment with. I receive one of these kits every season and I dutifully swatch with my sample to get a feel for the different yarns. It helps me decide what to order for you, but also it gives me insight into what’s out there, even if I don’t want to carry it (sometimes people come to me looking for something specific and I can special order it for them).

A Yarn Tasting Kit might be for you if:

  • You are thinking about making a spring/summer project (or two) and want to find a yarn that makes you happy.
  • You like swatching (some people sincerely do enjoy it, they exist, I know them).
  • You’re allergic to wool (or know someone who is) and want to try-out some alternatives (5 of the 6 yarns included in the kit are wool-free).
  • You’re stuck in a bit of a rut and you’re ready for a gentle exercise to help you moving outside of your comfort zone.
  • You like ‘NEW’.
  • You don’t like ‘NEW’, but you’re tired of being afraid of it (file this under ‘comfort zone’ above).

What you’ll get in your Yarn Tasting Kit:

  • 6 Mini balls (10-20g) of each new spring yarns (plus a few spring favorites): Summer SesameZinniaChai, Ultra Wool HandpaintMedina, and Remix Light
  • Yarn Tasting Menu
  • Berroco Spring ’21 Newsletter
  • Berroco Spring ’21 Lookbook
  • Berroco Alpaca Sticker
  • Thank you note with a 50% off pattern coupon code!

NEW Yarn Tasting Kits & Special Orders

Berroco Spring Yarn Tasting Kit PRE-ORDER

This season Berroco is doing something neat and is making their Spring Yarn-Tasting kits available to the general public (via their retailers, like us). It contains samples of the new yarns they are launching or promoting this season, which you can swatch and work experiment with. I receive one of these kits every season and I dutifully swatch with my sample to get a feel for the different yarns. It helps me decide what to order for you, but also it gives me insight into what’s out there, even if I don’t want to carry it (sometimes people come to me looking for something specific and I can special order it for them). If enough people purchase a yarn tasting kit we can have a Zoom yarn Tasting Party (I have no idea how that will work, but I’m open to experimentation). If we sell ten kits Berroco will even pitch in a door prize! Please note, these kits are special Pre-Orders, please read at the bottom of the page for more info on that.

Pick a Project, Any Project

Another super cool new thing is that if you like what you see & feel & knit & crochet and want to make an actual project we can now special-order that for you. This applies to all their yarns, for any of their projects (or other projects not designed by them). As long as it is in stock it’s available to us, and if it isn’t we can look into waiting for it to come in. Berroco is also the North American distributor for Lopi and Amano, so we can look into special-ordering projects in those yarns too (Amano is super drool-worthy, their yarns are SOOOO beautiful). Berroco is making it really easy for us to get their yarns into your hands, but it’s a COVID innovation, so take advantage of it while it lasts. I’ve been adding new special Pre-Order Knitting Kits and Crochet Kits to our website, most of them with an expanded selection of colour combinations (by me, so they’re attractive … hopefully).

A Yarn Tasting Kit might be for you if:

  • You are thinking about making a spring/summer project (or two) and want to find a yarn that makes you happy.
  • You like swatching (some people sincerely do enjoy it, they exist, I know them).
  • You’re allergic to wool (or know someone who is) and want to try-out some alternatives (5 of the 6 yarns included in the kit are wool-free).
  • You’re stuck in a bit of a rut and you’re ready for a gentle exercise to help you moving outside of your comfort zone.
  • You like ‘NEW’.
  • You don’t like ‘NEW’, but you’re tired of being afraid of it (file this under ‘comfort zone’ above).

What you’ll get in your Yarn Tasting Kit:

  • 6 Mini balls (10-20g) of each new spring yarns (plus a few spring favorites): Summer SesameZinniaChai, Ultra Wool HandpaintMedina, and Remix Light
  • Yarn Tasting Menu
  • Berroco Spring ’21 Newsletter
  • Berroco Spring ’21 Lookbook
  • Berroco Alpaca Sticker
  • Thank you note with a 50% off pattern coupon code!

Pre-Orders

These kits are special Pre-Orders, we aren’t stocking them in the store, but – you have the option to order it any time (it will be available to purchase as long as the manufacturer makes it available to us). Your kit will ship or be available for pick-up once it arrives, and we will contact you (it may take 2 to 3 weeks for your pre-order to arrive). If you need your kit for a specific date please let us know and we can find out if it’s feasible. 

Yarn Tasting Parties & Yarn Swaps

We are also scheduling two yarn tasting parties in the coming months! We’ll be hosting one featuring Shibui Knits  on October 27th, from 1 to 4pm, and one for Cascade, Manos, & Estelle Yarns on Sunday November 24th, from 1-4pm. Refreshments will be served (as if a license to experiment with yarn isn’t enough?) and a few lucky souls will leave with door prizes! 

Attendance is free, but space is limited so please RSVP by clicking on the following forms:
Sunday October 27, 2013, 1 to 4 pm
Sunday November 24, 2013, 1 to 4 pm
If for any reason the forms don’t work, please email us or call at 416-653-7849. 



yarn swaps

Bring in the yarn and needles you never want to see again and deposit it in one of our baskets, poke around at all the other donations and take home whatever you like. The leftovers are donated to charities, and if you can’t make it to a swap but you want to donate please feel free to drop it by any time, sealed up in a plastic bag. Attendance is free and you can drop in any time, no need to RSVP.
Sun Oct 13, 2013, 1pm to 4pm
Sun Jan 12, 2014, 1pm to 4pm
Sun Apr 13, 2014, 1pm to 4pm