knitting

Sometimes there exists the mistaken notion that do-it-yourselfers are not interested in luxury products. Made by hand, no longer only implies a cost cutting measure and no where is this more evident than in the products available to home knitters. What better way to give yourself a gift than to use the finest fibers available on the market.

The fine fiber yarns available both through specialty shops and the Internet offer a range of products for those who don't care if the raw materials cost more than the average finished sweater one might find in a high-end retail store.

We've previously written about String, a knitting store with branches in New York and Greenwich, which now offers customers its exclusive Cashinetta yarn. This chunky 100% cashmere yarn is available in 7 colors and each 160 yard ball of yarn sells for $180 a piece.

Other entries in the luxury yarn market include products from, Windy Valley Muskox, a family farm located in Alaska. The company is devoted to providing knitters with unusual high quality yarns from exotic animals. There is pure Qiviut, which is from the fine undercoat of the Muskox and sells for $90 per 218 yard ball. According to the manufacturer this rare fiber is considered warmer than wool and finer than cashmere. This unusual fiber is also hypoallergenic and will not shrink. They also offer Vicuna another rare fiber from the almost extinct ancestor of the modern day alpaca. The Vicuna lives only in the upper regions of the Andes Mountains and the methods of obtaining the fiber under strict regulation by the Peruvian government to protect the remaining animals.. Vicuna yarn, only available in its natural cinnamon color, is offered for $300 per 214 yard ball of yarn.

Tanglewood Fiber Creations offers hand-spun and hand dyed cashmere through local knitting stores and on-line retailers. One aspect of their unique natural cashmere is that the great natural variety is seen in individual skeins and is priced accordingly. The hand dyed cashmere is offered knittingcentral.com for prices ranging from $144 to $180 for various sized balls of yarn. They also offer hand spun yarn that has been laced with vintage beads, again by hand, for the knitter who likes the combination of the natural textured cashmere and a little sparkle. Knitting Central sells 50 yard balls for $189 on-line or at their store in Westport, Connecticut.

Sometimes I think the word "luxury" gets batted around a bit too much ("luxury water"), but I was curious when I saw a small ad for String, a luxury knitting boutique in NYC, in an NYC lifestyle magazine. While the Web site isn't the most refined, it seems the store itself has everything the serious knitter would want, and gets its luxury reputation for selling cashmere and other refined fibers (more than 80 kinds of yarn); needles; patterns for high-end, expensive projects, including clothing, accessories and even home decor; and perhaps its Upper East Side location. You can shop online for anything knit-necessary, including the store's new book, Luxury Knitting, by owner Linda Morse, or visit at 130 E. 82nd St. Also check out String's blog for store happenings, and the gallery below for a few of the items the store sells.

With the Santa Ana winds kicking up record temps here in Los Angeles, it wasn't the ideal night to visit a store full of wool but last night's event at Suss Designs was worth the visit. Suss Cousins was celebrating the launch of her latest book, Home Knits, a lavishly photographed book full of knitting projects you can make to decorate your home. I don't knit but if I were going to start, I'd want to start here. After the jump, a brief tour of the store and some of Suss Cousins's fabulous knit creations.

I have heard it said that there is a knitting craze among the Hollywood hot list, but it seems rather unlikely that they're sitting at home knitting sweaters when Los Angeles is in the midst of a major heat wave. But it might be true because a popular LA knitting store, Suss Designs, is now selling sweaters inspired by Suri Cruise and Shiloh Jolie- Pitt. Suri's sweater is emblazoned with her initial, while the Shiloh sweater has two cartoon faces that might represent Brangelina's other kids, Zahara and Maddox. The sweaters are selling for $109 (Shiloh) and $89 (Suri) at Suss's LA boutique.