Introducing our latest addition to the Manos line: 100% extrafine merino roving braids hand-dyed in our artisanal co-ops!  Handspinners and needle-felters are in for a treat; not only is this super-soft fiber a pleasure in your hands, it’s dyed to match six of our most popular existing colorways.  There’s no better way to explore your creativity than making your own yarn; with our new roving, you will embark on a joint project with the artisans who painted it by hand.  As you spin it into yarn, you become a part of the Manos story!

If you’ve ever wanted to make your own Manos, now is your chance.  Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

• Use your handspun to knit a collar or edging onto a garment made with your favorite Manos yarn.
• Crochet a coordinating border onto a sweater, blanket or scarf with your handspun yarn.
• Needle felt embroidered accents onto your felting project
• Make thrummed mittens with your favorite Manos yarn & colorway

We can’t wait to see what everyone makes with our new roving; feel free to leave a comment with your own creative ideas on this blog post!

Be sure to ask for it at your local yarn shop.

Start the new year off right with the latest offering in our Wool Clasica Limited-Edition series!  This month, Santiago created a bold, bright variegated colorway:

It’s the perfect antidote for a long winter – and wouldn’t it look cute knit up as the #77 Dream Hat?

Carolyn Kern designed our Wool Clasica design contest grand prize winner! The #77 Dream Hat uses 1 skein of Clasica and features a simple fan lace stitch pattern and earflaps.  Click here for more of Carolyn’s fun designs!

You may view past LE Colors here on the Fairmount Fibers Website.  Be sure to check out our latest free patterns for Clasica, too!

There’s a great multi-season sleeveless top using Serena in the fantastic new book by Connie Chang Chinchio, Textured Stitches.

The Jennifer Shell features simple shaping and a stylish pleated collar detail that’s perfect for any occasion!  Such classic hallmarks of Connie’s designs are perfect complements to Serena’s luxurious blend of baby alpaca and pima cotton.  This lightweight shell is ideal for work and play and designed for maximum wearability. We think it would look great in any of our semi-solid & space-dyed colorways – we can’t wait to see what everyone chooses!

Image © Joe Hancock

We have our winners from last week’s contest. The Random Number Generator Chose:

Rav user CabledCrusader’s comment “Hellotrope and man-708 are my favorites!”

Jenn’s comment: “Ooh! I love, love, love the Stellar colorway! Thanks for the chance to win! (I’m bluej on Ravelry)”

ELP’s comment:  “My favorite Manos color is 116. Yay TOK Giveaway.”

Your pattern will be sent to your Ravelry ID or e-mail account as soon as possible. Thanks to everyone who entered!

Editor’s Note:  Our first-ever guest blogger is Stephanie Dosen from Tiny Owl Knits.  You may know her through the wildly popular pattern The Beekeeper’s Quilt (and the ensuing hexipuff madness!), in addition to her many other delightful patterns.  Stephanie is sharing her thoughts about her favorite yarn from Manos Del Uruguay – read below for her entry AND your chance to win a free pattern from Tiny Owl Knits!

I am so excited to do a guest blog for Manos del Uruguay! There are a few yarn companies that excite me and take me back to the first days of my knitting life, and Manos is one of the majors for me! I worked in a yarn shop in Nashville, TN for several years and we ordered big shipments of Manos; especially the Wool Clasica. Every time the big boxes arrived, we actually fought over who got to “skein” the hanks!

For those of you that don’t know, the Clasica comes to yarn shops in long, un-twisted hanks. They arrive bound up (10 at a time) into giant yarn-y bales. They are so bulky and delicious that for all intents and purposes, they could serve as a yarn addict’s favorite teddy bear! The shops then separate the bundles and twist each individual hank up into goodies for the customer. My yarn store co-workers and I used to break open the boxes and hug the bundles before we broke them apart and began twisting the hanks. We’d even save the little yarn bits used to bind the bundles and make bracelets out of them! The colors were intoxicating. “Kettle dyed”, we’d say. “Each skein will be slightly different.” we’d repeat. Yes, I know it sounds like we were kind of pathetic, sitting on the floor cuddling yarn and taking any leftover scrap of Manos we could find to tie them around our wrists. But I promise, if you saw barrels of yarn like that, you may find yourself doing the same thing! It was much like how little kids feel about bubble wrap or big boxes. Grand excitement in hard times indeed.

Now these days I’m feeling a little bit spoiled! I actually have a hefty stash of Manos sitting with me in this very room. In fact, when they contacted me for yarn support I had to look around my stash and sheepishly admit that I already had so much Manos, I might not actually need yarn support! *Ahem* What am I thinking!? Yes, please send any extra skeins to this address right away. I’m quite sure no one could actually ever have enough.

What do I like about Wool Clasica? I’m a huge fan of natural looking fiber. The way it is spun with a bit of slub and texture, yet it has a smooth appearance has always appealed to me. The colors are to dye for (Yeah, I made a pun. Sorry.) I love the variegation and the solids too. And I think it is the perfect wool for felting. There is such gorgeous texture in the finished product. I’ve got a pattern on the go right now that involves Wool Clasica and a tub of very hot water. I can’t wait to release it!

So what is the worst thing about Wool Clasica? The fact that no two batches are exactly alike leads a slightly neurotic knitter like me to purchase every single skein I touch! “I HAVE to get this wool! Just in case it was a fluke batch, and the like will never be seen by human eyes again!” I mean, you’d do the same thing right?

Giveaway alert! One of the most popular patterns I’ve ever released, the Deer with little Antlers Hat, uses Wool Clasica. I chose this yarn because of the woodsy look – it was the perfect color for a deer (it’s not often that a company with such a talent for variegated yarn gets the solid colors so right too!).

Three lucky readers will be randomly selected to win a FREE copy of this pattern.  Simply leave a comment on this blog post sharing your favorite Wool Clasica colorway (click here to view them all!) and your Ravelry ID or some other way for us to contact you.  We will randomly select three winners one week from today. Good luck!

This month’s Limited-Edition Wool Clasica colorway is subtly variegated  and just right for a little post-holiday indulgence.  When all your crafting for others is done, treat yourself to a few skeins of Santiago’s latest creation!  LE3 begins shipping out this week – be sure to ask for it at your LYS!

You may view past and current LE colors on Ravelry, Facebook and right here on the Fairmount Fibers Blog.  R emember, these colors are extremely limited edition – so get them while you can!

Having trouble deciding what to make?  Here are a few fun projects requiring 1-2 skeins of Clasica:

The Dawn Treader Capelet can be crocheted as a cowl or capelet – it’s perfect for this tonal colorway and is a great post-holiday indulgence!

Keep your feet warm with the Wavy Cable Boot Toppers!  You need to wear boots anyway, why not stay warm and be fashionable at the same time?

Finally, there’s nothing like a few good hats to keep your warm all winter long.  The Edna Slouch Hat from the recently-published My Grandmother’s Knitting is a great way to use up leftover skeins of Clasica to accent the subtle tones of LE3!

Tunes is a quick-to-crochet beanie that’s just right for everyday wear!

It’s that time of year when small projects you can make quickly using only a few skeins of yarn reign supreme. We’ve released two new FREE patterns using our beloved Wool Clasica, with more to come!

Here are the latest winning entries from our design contest held earlier this year:

Poco Rojo is an adorable cabled cap designed by Kara Hobbs (click here to read her blog).  Sized to fit a toddler, this is a sweet project to make for your little one using only 1 skein of Clasica.

Click here to download pattern from the Fairmount Fibers Website
Click here to download pattern from Ravelry

You only need 2 skeins of Clasica to knit up a warm & snuggly Stellar Cowl!  The textured stitch pattern will keep you interested, and the seamless construction means you’ll be finished in a flash!

Click here to download pattern from the Fairmount Fibers Website
Click here to download pattern from Ravelry

If you still need some last-minute motivation, the Hedgehog Neckwarmer & Hat from the most recent issue of Knitty would look fantastic knit up in Maxima!  We’re also posting lots of interesting projects to make on our Facebook Fan Page and Twitter feed all month long – stop by and get inspired!

LE4 is on the loose! When we saw this festive colorway, we knew right away that it couldn’t wait til next month – so if you’re wondering what happened to LE3, don’t worry!  You didn’t miss anything – LE3 will be coming out soon, and it will be worth the wait.

In stores now is LE 4:

Wondering what to make with these lovely rich tones of cranberry, red, and salmon?

A felted bag such as this lovely design from the winter issue of Knit Simple would be perfect! Pair it with one of our semi-solid colors (like #48 Cherry or #69 Hibiscus) and you’ll have a memorable gift that knits up quick. This adorable bag was designed by Cheryl Murray and uses 2 colors of Wool Clasica (shown: 2 hanks in #116 Caribe multi & 1 hank in #68 Citric).

The Tweed & Seed Pillows are another fantastic option.  Designed by Danielle Chalson, they’re lovely and simple knits to accent your home decor.  Not only would this set make a thoughtful gift, they’re fun to make, too!  Both patterns appear in the Interweave Knits Winter 2011 issue, on newsstands now.  To view more photos of these patterns, click here and here.  Stunning!

Click here to view our gallery of past Limited-Edition colorways.  Remember to ask for them at your LYS!

Pure, extrafine merino wool in a worsted-weight yarn with an unbeatable combination of wonderful softness, excellent stitch definition, and rich color.  Available in a lovely array of solids and multis, this yarn is perfect for sweaters and has been featured recently in several stylish new designs.  Of course, this is the time of year when our focus turns to projects we can make in a jiffy for our holiday gift-giving needs – and there are plenty of fabulous patterns using Rittenhouse that fit the bill, too!  We’ve rounded up some great designs using this versatile yarn – be sure to check out our Ravelry Group and Facebook page for more gift-knitting inspiration, too!

Fiber Content: 100% merino wool
Yardage: approx. 240 yds / 220m
Gauge: 18 – 20 sts = 4″ / 10cm
Needle size: #7 – 8 US / 4.5 – 5mm
Care instructions: Handwash, dry flat

Pinecote Hat
by Amanda Scheuzger

This striking hat is worked in the round from the bottom up, combining twisted stitches and cables to create a warm winter accessory!

Spiral Rib Legwarmers
from the Purlbee Blog

An adorable free pattern you may have missed, these legwarmers knit up quick in the round using an easy-to-memorize stitch pattern!

Baker Cowl
by Janet Margolies

Available as a free PDF download on the Fairmount Fibers website, this buttoned cowl is a fast-knitting project that’s perfect for beginners, yielding fashionable results!  For more free patterns from Fairmount Fibers featuring Rittenhouse, click here.

Eadon
by Susanna IC

From the Twist Collective Fall 2011 issue, this cabled cardigan is flattering for most body types and, thanks to a few clever design elements, does not require hems or facings.   The simple construction elements make for a satisfying, quick knit, and the celtic-inspired cables will keep you interested!

Cable-Trimmed Jacket with Hood
by Lisa Myers

Our own Lisa Myers designed this gorgeous cabled hooded sweater for the inaugural issue of Interweave knit.wear 2011.  The simplicity of the boxy silhouette paired with the complexity of the reversible-cable selvedges lets the rich kettle-dyed colors of Rittenhouse take center stage.

#34 Zippered Cardigan
by Deborah Newton

This asymmetrical sweater in the Vogue Knitting Holiday 2011 issue features interesting zipper details in contrast to a simple stitch pattern. We love how these elements show off the subtle variations of Rittenhouse’s rich hand-dyed colors!

From the Manos Del Uruguay Blog: “We leave you with some pictures of this spectacular yarnbombing that took place last January on the steps of Helsinki Cathedral in Finland. It was covered by 7800 crochet blankets which were then donated to shelters. Simply Brilliant!”