Heirloom Chevron Throw - a new free pattern!

We love Jocelyn Tunney's knitting designs. If you aren't familiar with her, she is the woman behind O-Wool yarns. At The National Needle Arts Association show this past summer, we fell in love with her newest collections of graphic blankets for Manos del Urguay. The colors and designs were irresistible! After the show she approached us about designing a throw pattern in our Heirloom Romney yarn and of course we said yes! Welcome Heirloom Chevron Throw!

Jocelyn was the perfect person to design a throw for our special yarn - she has a modern design sense that speaks to Fancy Tiger's style and she has a love and appreciation for the rustic and sustainable qualities of the yarn. She wanted to do something special for Heirloom and we think she succeeded. Heirloom Chevron Throw uses 6 colors and a series of increasing and decreasing to create a luxurious, color-blocked chevron blanket.

We spent a lot of time developing our fantastic color palette for Heirloom--22 fresh colors that play together so well. This throw allows you to pick the perfect color combo to go with your decor. The bold design of the throw will be an amazing piece in your bedroom or living room. Use the throw to add a pop of color while showing off your crafty skills!

You won't be able to resist cuddling in this thing. Heirloom Chevron Throw is knit in cushy garter stitch so it is reversible and oh-so-squishy! This throw is large at 52" x 74" so 2 people can easily cuddle together under it. It also knits up relatively quick with no purling and on size 10 needles.

When you spend time and money to make an heirloom piece such as this you want to know that your throw will last. Our Heirloom Romney is the perfect yarn for just such a project - the sustainable wool yarn comes from longwool Romney sheep. This wool will hold up to wear over time with little to no piling. If a throw this size doesn't fit into your budget for time or money, the pattern would be easy to cut in half to make a smaller lap sized blanket.

The pattern is graciously available for free download here. Heirloom Chevron Throw kits in this colorway (Summer) as well as three others will be available at the shop and in our Etsy store for your holiday gift giving. We hope you love this blanket as much as we do and can't wait to see your own color combinations. Happy Knitting!

Fancy Tiger Craft's Heirloom yarn is here!

All of our dreams have come true!! Fancy Tiger Crafts is pleased to announce the launch of our first-ever yarn line. Welcome Heirloom!

You know we are passionate about yarn. We are also passionate about wool, heritage breeds of sheep and supporting U.S. sheep farmers. When Jeane deCoster of Elemental Affects approached us about doing a private label yarn, we were thrilled. Jeane's U.S. grown and milled Shetland yarn has been one of our favorites for years. Jeane has developed a new yarn for us that you are going to love.

Yummy.

Heirloom is a 100% U.S. grown, milled and dyed Romney yarn. Romney is an especially adorable breed of sheep that evolved from medieval longwool sheep. Their wool is lustrous, strong and hardy and garments made from it will look great for years to come.

One characteristic of Romney sheep is adorable-ness.

Fancy Tiger Craft's Heirloom Romney is a worsted weight yarn. The base yarn is a natural light heathered grey which is then over-dyed in small batches by Jeane. All of the colors have amazing depth and you can see the heathered wool in the paler colors. The yarn is sold in awesome 4 oz hanks that give you 200 yards of woolly goodness to work with. One of the most exciting things about developing this yarn with Jeane was choosing the color palette. What happens when Fancy Tiger Crafts gets to pick colors? You get a modern and stunning spectrum of 21 colors. 3 shades of yellow? Check. Hot pink? Check. 2 shades of mysterious almost-black? Check. Not only do we love each and every color, but we can't handle how good they all look together! We also got to name the colors so of course they were named after Heirloom plants such as Mullein, Radish, Golden Beet, Elderberry and Nettles.

The hottest color palette known to yarn

We were able to design the labels and we even labeled all the yarn. Funtimes!

Heirloom looks great, feels great and even smells great. Fancy Tiger Craft's Heirloom is now available at the shop and online here for all of you out-of-towners. We hope you love it as much as we do and we can't wait to see what you make with it!

Two New Heirloom Patterns are Here!

Welcome The Imposter's Shawl and Radish Hat to our line of Fancy Tiger Crafts patterns! These two new knitting patterns are designed for our Heirloom Romney yarn and are beautifully suited to show off its rustic woolly qualities.

Amber designed the textured Imposter's Shawl to knit up quick on the worsted Heirloom Romney yarn. The Imposter's Shawl gets its name from its clever stitch patterns, which mimic both weaving and crochet, but it is indeed knit!

The Imposter's Shawl uses two skeins of Heirloom (or 360 yds of worsted weight yarn) and is shown here in Elderberry - a deep almost-black, purple. The shawl's down-to-earth design and long, narrow shape make it easy to wear in various styles. You can buy the pattern online here or a printed version in our Denver shop, and be sure to get some Heirloom Romney yarn when you visit, or order online from our etsy store.

Radish Hat is designed by Holly Priestley. The Radish Hat is a sweet, slouchy hat with both lace and cables!

Radish hat is shown in bright and cheery Heirloom color, Radish. It knits up in no time on size 10.5 needles and therefore makes a great last-minute project. The slouchy design uses one skein of Heirloom Romney or 160 yards of a worsted weight yarn. You can purchase your pattern pdf here.

We can't wait to see your versions of these two new patterns. Be sure to post your projects on Ravelry so we can see them. Of course, if you can wear them into the shop for us to see in person, that is the best!

Stay tuned for four more new patterns coming next week! Pattern bonanza!

Final Heirloom Pattern release: Meet My Favorite Cardigan and Kilgore Mitts!

We are pleased to announce our final release of new fall patterns for Heirloom. Welcome My Favorite Cardigan by Emily Platzer, and Kilgore Mitts by Amber Corcoran. Also updated is our popular My Favorite Sweater pattern, now featuring our Heirloom Romney yarn!

My Favorite Cardigan is by superstar knitter and Fancy Tiger instructor Emily Platzer. My Favorite Cardigan is a cardigan version of our popular My Favorite Sweater. This pattern is a choose-your-own adventure style pattern. You get to make your own choices in terms of fit and length for the most flattering and personalized sweater possible. This cardigan is knit seamlessly from the top down so you can try it on as go. The garter stitch button band is picked up and knit with mitered corners for a perfect fit.

Finish your cardigan with fun Liberty of London fabric buttons

Professionally finished mitered corners line up with arm shaping

Wearing My Favorite Cardigan is so much fun!

Kilgore Mitts is a new pattern from Amber. These stylish mittens make use of increasing and decreasing along with garter stitch ridges to create an awesome arrow shape. You can choose to make fingerless mitts or full mittens in three different sizes! Sturdy Heirloom Romney yarn will hold up to wear and keep your hands toasty warm and looking good.

Kilgore Fingerless Mitts in Poppyseed

Kilgore Mittens in Bee Balm on left, Kilgore Mitts on the right

Kilgore Mitts look sexy on men and women!

My Favorite Sweater was our first ever published pattern and continues to be our best selling pattern to date. This sweater pattern is knit seamlessly from the top-down and is written so that the finished sweater will fit your measurements. It looks great on everyone, men and women alike. The pattern has always been for a worsted to aran weight yarn so we were super excited to knit it up in Heirloom. The new Heirloom My Favorite Sweater is the same great pattern you know and love with fresh new photos. The pale yellow Quinoa is a great color to go with almost anything!

We hope you enjoy our new patterns. If you have a shop, all of our patterns are available for wholesale purchase in high quality print, so please email us for a current linesheet. Check out Ravelry or our Etsy shop for the full line of Fancy Tiger Patterns!

Meet More New Heirloom Patterns: An Army of Caterpillars! Tunisian Heirloom Cowl!

Two new patterns are here from amazing Fancy Folks, Miranda Harp and Cat Stolzenbach! Welcome, Army of Caterpillars by Miranda and Tunisian Heirloom Cowl by Cat!

Army of Caterpillars is Miranda's ode to her favorite lepidopterist, her father the moth scientist. These little realistic caterpillars are inspired by the larvae in the Sphingidae family – hawk moths, sphinx moths and hummingbird moths.

Purl ridges create the segmented abdomens, and knitted bobbles form the tiny legs of these adorable larvae.

Knit one in every size to make your own rainbow of caterpillar friends!

Many of you may know Cat as our resident Tunisian crochet expert and instructor. Her Tunisian Heirloom Cowl pattern is a great pattern for those interested in picking up the technique of Tunisian, or Afghan crochet.

A bit like crochet, a bit like knitting--Tunisian crochet makes a lovely fabric that is the best of both worlds. It is a great craft for the knitter or crocheter who wants to take a step towards the other side.

This cowl uses basic Tunisian stitches combined with a Tunisian cross stitch to make the unique “X” texture. Fancy Tiger Crafts Heirloom Romney yarn provides hearty structure and rustic wooliness to this striped cowl.

We hope you like these patterns as much as we do! Stay tuned for two more coming later this week!

Heirloom Seeds for Spring!

We are getting really excited for the coming growing season and are hoping to have an abundance of heirloom vegetable growing in our backyards this year. So, for the first time ever and for a very limited time, Fancy Tiger is carrying heirloom seeds. We have seed packs for super cute and tasty vegetables, edible flowers, and even garden wonderberries--all from the adorable heirloom seed company, Baker Creek Seeds.


All of Baker Creek's seeds are non-GMO, open-pollinated, natural rare seeds and priced from $1.50 -$3. Now is the time to get these seeds sprouting, so come by and pick some up for your summer garden.

Lets spend 2014 together!

Fancy Tiger Crafts is sending you hugs and many thanks. We have been crafting together for going on 8 years! Our customers and our shared passion for all things hand made are the reasons for this. This year has been beyond amazing.

2013 has seen the development of our own line of yarn, Heirloom, produced for us by Jeane Decoster of Elemental Affects. This was received so well that it is now sold in stores nationally and have even hit a few stores internationally! 

The folks here at Fancy Tiger have developed twelve beautiful patterns for Heirloom, and we couldn't be prouder of the things we have created together over the last twelve months.

Our patterns for Heirloom have been pushing us to create even more. Big things are coming in 2014... We can't wait to share them with you! Here is a sneak peek of two new patterns coming soon for Heirloom!!

Here is to an abundant and beautiful 2014!