New Lornas Laces! Honor, Shepherd Sock and Shepherd Wool Top!

Lorna's Laces is a yarn company with a cult following among knitters. The dyers behind this amazing company give discernible attention to detail--the colors are carefully placed on each skein to interact with each other in wonderful ways. We love winding Lorna's Laces into a ball for customers and seeing these skeins of loveliness opened up on the swift--the gradation of colors is just stunning!

Lorna's Laces is most famous for their Shepherd Sock, a beautiful superwash yarn that sock knitters adore. This sock yarn doesn't stay in the store for long!

Lorna's newest addition to their yarn family is Honor, an exquisite alpaca/silk DK weight yarn. We are carrying Honor in tonal, single-hued shades, perfect for pretty garments. Jaime is already casting on for a new cardigan in Ysolda's Red, a color designed for Lorna's Laces by the lovely Ysolda Teague.

Hand-spinners, we are totally thrilled to be carrying Shepherd Wool Top, a superwash, super soft, hand-dyed wool top. The beautiful palettes created in Lorna's dye pots are used to dye these hanks of wool into the same gorgeous colorway that their yarns are known for. Spin them up into sensationally hued and washable yarns of your own design.

Quilts for Japan

The tragedy of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan breaks our hearts.

As crafters we are inspired in a big way every day by Japan--the fabulous Japanese fabrics that we can't get enough of, geometric sashiko embroidery, needlefelted puppies and bunnies that are too cute for words, ingenious yarns for knitting and crochet--even many of the notions that we use every day are made in Japan. What better way to show our support and love for Japan than by crafting something warm and comforting for the people affected and displaced by the tsunami.

Seven Islands, distributor of Japanese fabrics, is collecting quilts to donate to the victims in Japan. We will be helping by being a drop-off location for quilts and blankets. If you would like to donate a quilt, please bring your finished quilts to Fancy Tiger Crafts and we will take care of the shipping and make sure they are safely on their way to Japan. Here are the details, dear crafty people!

WHAT to donate:

• Quilts or Blankets in new condition (Knitters and Crocheters, you are invited to donate your handiwork, too!)
• 40" square or larger--baby quilts are especially appreciated
• Quilts should be natural fibers and washable

WHEN we need it by:

Please drop off your donations at Fancy Tiger Crafts on or before Monday, April 25th by 7pm.

WHERE we are located:

Fancy Tiger Crafts
1 South Broadway
Denver, Colorado

Now let's quilt our little hearts out!

Jaime's Tula Pink Quilt

There are great fabrics that come out all the time, but rarely are we blown away by an entire collection. For me this happened with Tula Pink's Parisville collection for Freespirit that came out at the end of last year. This collection was just begging to be made up into a quilt!

I wanted to do something that showcased all the fabrics so I used one Parisville fat-quarter bundle to make this queen sized quilt. At the time, I was in a crafting frenzy, whipping up tons of handmade gifts for the holidays every free moment. One Sunday, I channeled this creative energy to create the top for this quilt. It only took a couple of hours to make! All I did was cut the fat quarters down from 18" x 22" to 18" squares, cutting a 4" strip off of each one. Then I laid the squares out on my living room floor to come up with the perfect combination, which ended up to be totally random.

I pieced my 4" leftover strips together to make two stripes on the back of the quilt. I even had enough strips to make two pillowcases that match the quilt perfectly. For the binding, I went with one of the new Jay McCarroll polka dots, which coordinates great with the Parisville fabrics. I chose a basic stippling pattern for the quilting and used a nice, soft cotton batting.

Yay! Now I have an awesome quilt for lazing about in parks on sunny spring days! Dusty the Skye Terrier loves hanging out on it as well...

Habu Textiles Super Fine Merino, Copper Yarns and Kusha Kusha Scarf!

We just received a box full of pretty cones from Habu Textiles!

N-75 Super Fine Merino

The Super Fine Merino, in an array of pretty, heathered hues, is our finest merino yarn and is perfect for sheer lace work.

N-83 Super Fine Copper | N-69B Copper Bamboo

You may know and love Habu's 100% superfine stainless yarn--now there is beautiful new 100% copper yarn! We love the warm peach tone the copper gives to the new N-69 Copper/Bamboo yarn.

Kusha Kusha Scarf

This crisp, light as air Kusha Kusha scarf used to be a kit, but now the yarns are available individually for a one-of-a-kind color combo of your choosing. The free pattern is translated into English on The Purl Bee blog. Thanks Purl Bee!

The Kusha Kusha scarf uses one skein each of the N-75 Super Fine Merino and the A-20 Silk/Stainless Steel. The stainless steel gives the yarn an amazing texture and memory and a very modern, crisp look. The new Bamboo/Copper yarn has the same effect and would be an amazing alternative to use!

A-20 Silk/Stainless Steel

Better Know A Crafter: Rachael Hamilton

Rachael is a needlefelting superstar. She has been buying up every last bit our beige Corriedale wool roving. We finally found out what she's been up to when she walked into the store dwarfed by the gigantic troll doll friend that she has been working on. We were like, "Wha-what-what!?" This enormous woolly needlefelted troll is an amazing thing to behold.

Rachael Hamilton

1) What kinds of crafts do you do?

I have been a sculptor for about seven years, but this is my first time using wool and felting. I am a sculptor major at Metro State and will soon be working on my MFA. I have always been crafty and after this experience I think I will be more fiber based.

2) Tell us about making your troll friend.
The troll was for a project in my fiber arts class at Metro. The theme was "the everyday and the sublime" so I decided to make a large troll. I built an armature and fiberfill and then needlefelted over top of it. The whole process was a learning experience. I had never needlefelted before.


3) How did you pick up your crafty skills?
I had to learn to felt, both wet and dry, as a requirement for this project. Because we had to use this technique I did my best to learn as I went. Fancy Tiger was a huge help in my process.


4) What is your favorite animal?
I love pandas and red pandas.

Thanks Rachael! Happy sculpting!

Dena Designs Kumari Gardens Fabrics!

White, bright white--it is one hot color. The new Dena designs collection, Kumari Garden is abundant with white, perfectly balanced with crisp designs and the vibrant colors of spring. Make a sweet sundress, or bright pillows to update your living space and herald the coming of sunny warm days!

New Alisha Goes Around Yarns!

Alisha Goes Around is a one woman yarn dyeing company out of New Braunsfels, Texas. We became enamored with Alisha's yarns--and her adorable yarns named for groups of animals! We picked up two of her yarn lines: Marmalade (of Ponies), an aran weight, kettle-dyed yarn, and Tittering (of Magpies), a sparkling sock yarn. Forgive the photoshop sparkles, the delicate sparkle of Tittering (of Magpies) is as elusive to photography as a magical unicorn!

We love that Marmalade (of Ponies) is a little on the bulky side--a rarity for pretty kettle-dyed yarns. We want to see the softly variegated colors as a chunky cabled hat or scarf, or it would be an amazing yarn for a simple cardigan.