norahsknits

I'm posting photos of a few items (out of quite a few) that I will have in the WGSL Annual Sale Oct. 23-24, 2026. I'm looking forward to the sale. It's one of the only places around where you can purchase hand-spun yarn.

Norah's Knits news - I plan to participate in the Weavers' Guild of St. Louis annual sale this year, October 23 & 24 at the First Congregational Church of Webster Groves. Details are below.  

The small shawl on the left is knit from Little Knits Mirus, half silk and half camel fiber, purchased online. It's about 23 inches measured along the "spine." This yarn is exceptionally soft. The small wrap on the right, doubled over so that the pattern is obscured (sorry!) is knit from Isager brand Tvinni, 100% wool laceweight or very light fingering, purchased at Brooklyn General Store on our recent visit. The yarn is made in Denmark and is a very "crisp" wool that is said to be long-wearing, although that may not have much application to lace knitting.   

I finished this during the past week. It was a fun crochet but a little bit hard on the hands because of the big yarn and large crochet hook needed, but I'm happy with the finished product. The yarn is "Snowstorm" from Hobbii Yarns  which I ordered online. It arrived fast, considering that it had to go through customs. For my next blanket, I'm going to try a different method of joining the squares. 

  Our downstairs kitchen table, a "still life with Featherweight sewing machine" and various works in progress, such as the lining for a crocheted bag and linings for two cowls with reversed stranded knitting patterning. The Featherweight is a 1941 Singer 221 (1/2 size) that "someone" in the family has been restoring along with a number of Singer 99 machines (3/4 size) for City Sewing Room . He worked on this machine and then when it didn't sell at a recent fund-raiser, purchased it for us. CSR has several vintage Singer machines for sale that have been restored to working order.  

I had some left-over yarn to use up, and this is the result. The finished bag is lined and has a magnetic snap at the top of the body. 

Posting this just because it turned out sort of cute.  About 26 inches square; individual squares were 4 1/2 inches across. Lion brand yarn Woolease DK, leftover from another project.  The squares differ slightly in size, pumpkin vs. light blue, as the yarn is not uniform from color to color. 

Red cotton & silk crocheted small cowl & large scarf or wrap, Noro yarn; blue and black granny square cowl made with left-over Lion Brand Wool Ease DK; crocheted wrap in dark pinks, etc. - mostly alpaca, left over partial balls of yarn; small light blue & navy crocheted cowl in Alpaca (Berrocco brand).  

I've been working on using up yarns in my stash. The two-at-a-time ribbed fingerless gloves above are knit in a discontinued Berrocco "Cosma" yarn that knits to a fingering gauge. The yarn is alpaca, wool and silk and is very nice. The finished gloves will be seamed along the outside edge and will fit various hand sizes. I got a couple of cowls out of this leftover yarn as well.  The crocheted wrap below used about 5 skeins of a Noro cotton & silk yarn that I came across at the City Sewing Room while looking for fleece fabric to use to line knitted cowls. (I found some pieces of fleece to use for linings too, so "success.")

  Several cowls and a rectangular shawl being blocked. The shawl was knit from handspun yarn purchased at the 2025 Weavers Guild of St. Louis sale; the pattern is porcupine lace from one of Barbara Walker's stitch books. The cowls include one knit in the Oriel lace pattern and one in an alternating leaf lace pattern. 

The Winter Artist Market at TDLC was postponed due to weather. They hope to reschedule it in the spring. If so, I hope to be there with knits, crochets, blankets & handcrafts!!

Thomas Dunn Learning Center is located at 3113 Gasconade Street, and there is a parking lot on the north side of the building, between Marquette Recreation Center and TDLC, where the main entrance to TDLC is.  Norah's Knits & Handcrafts will be at the sale with purses, scarves, etc., and my niece will be with me, selling her flannel baby blankets. Come see us on the 29th!!   Sample of items we will be selling: 

The image above was posted on the WGSL Facebook event page, and shows one of the items I will have in the sale. And here's a link to the WGSL 2025 sale info on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WeaversGuildOfStLouis

I'll have items in the WGSL sale this year!!

  In addition to knitted & crocheted shawls, wraps, purses, etc., by Norah's Knits, I plan to offer my niece's hand-sewn flannel baby blankets at the sales that I do this fall. (Other than at the Weavers' Guild of St. Louis sale, which will be Oct. 24 & 25, 2025.) These blankets are a generous size and made of two layers of sturdy flannel with quilt batting in between, and can be used through toddler-hood.

The pattern is Trellis Leaf pattern, the yarn is Noro Yukata. 

We took a class on Granny Squares (Making a Crocheted Granny Square Scarf) at the Midwest Fiber Festival last weekend, and really enjoyed it! Granny squares are addictive - once you start making them, it's hard to stop. In the weeks before the class, I used up all of my scrap yarn making squares (which will become a small blanket), and also made some potholders using some Queensland brand yarn from littleknits.com (95% recycled cotton, made in Italy). The potholder square patterns are from Ravelry. The "solid square" pattern needed a little bit of modification, namely, turning the square over and crocheting every other round on the opposite side. Otherwise, the square biases or skews (at least, it did for me in this yarn). I used the cotton yarn single for some squares and double for the light green one, with the back side of all three potholders in plain single crochet with the yarn doubled.  

I'm blocking these today - on the left, DK weight yarn in Thistle Leaf stitch, on the right, Cascade blue-faced leicester wool in Oriel pattern. (Both lace patterns from Barbara Walker books.) I used size 8 needles for the Thistle Leaf stitch and size 6 needles for the Oriel stitch, and both items are edged in crochet to make blocking easier. 

Norah's Knits & Handcrafts will be a vendor at the Tower Grove Park Frosted Pop-Up Sale on Sunday, December 15, 2024 from 9am to 1 pm, in the park near the Piper Palm House. There are several races (5K, etc.) and other events in the park that are part of the "Frosted" winter events as well. Piper Palm House is on the north side of the park just east of Center Drive (the extension of Tower Grove Avenue that goes through the partk).  I will have handmade (handknit & crocheted) scarves, shawls, purses, fingerless mittens, hats, cowls, and handmade flannel baby blankets for sale. Visa & Mastercard accepted. 

  Here are a few recently finished items. The baby blanket is all cotton, mostly #4 weight. The potholders are also all cotton, in the style I have been making recently. On the blanket, a few of the colors were lighter weight yarn, which involved finessing the last row of  some of the squares so that they ended up all the same size.