needleemporium.com

The changes to the website are taking longer than expected but I have seen a preview and I think it will be great when done.

I have been working away on my throw. 33 of 93 squares done. I need to pick up the pace a bit but it should get done.

Last night we had a fun night at knitting class. Kris made a carrot cake (my favourite) and Kelley brought a tea pot, tea and even cut up some lemon. They even talked me into extending their lessons for another 4 weeks so that we can do it again.

The last of the new Rowan arrived today. Holiday is a loosely constructed chainette yarn in a cotton blend which knits on 10mm needles. The palette consists of beautiful muted shades including soft pinks, heathers and blues. The magazine for this yarn is called Tuscan Retreat.

My purchases and afghan update

Here are some of my shopping purchases from yesterday. (I forgot to list a purse.) I think that the boots are my favourite. These came from Brown's-Sherway and Yorkdale had them. There were at least 15 new styles of cowboy boots for the spring. Good news for me since I collect cowboy boots. The shoes and purse came from Town Shoes. The purse also came in yellow, bright pink and lime-it was tough to choose a colour.

I now have 23 squares done on the afghan and 24 is almost done. When you look at the colours in a pile there are some that stand out (I would have left them out) but when knit together they look great.

Busy Day

I spent all day in Toronto which meant no time for knitting.

My day started off visiting Romni Wools. I had to deliver yarn for Beth (Beth runs our distribution company called Old Mill Knitting).
After Romni I stopped at Sherway Gardens. Bought some clothes-nothing exciting.
Then off to Luv2Pak where I get supplies for make kits in the store. This is at Keele just south of the 407.
From there I went to one of my suppliers Diamond Yarns. Nothing like an hour wandering through a warehouse full of yarn.
Next stop - Creative Bag to get bags for the store.
The last stop was Yorkdale. Bought another pair of cowboy boots and a pair of sandals. Couldn't help myself.

I pulled out of Yordale at 5:45 and had to rush back to Hamilton so that I could have my nails done. Gotta love the 407!! I was driving 130 and people were flying by me. 275 km on the SUV today.

With the switch of companies hosting my website I have lost the list of people who have signed up for The Needle Emporium online newsletter. I have spent the last 2 hours starting a new list and writing a newsletter to email. There is a great company called Constant Contact and I am using them for the newsletter. The first one is done but I am going to proof read once more tomorrow before I send it out.

I now have 22 of 94 squares done on my afghan-pictures tomorrow. I might get one more done tonight while watching The Apprentice. It is unbelievable how some of these people got on the show-they know absolutely nothing about business.

Am I nuts?

My pattern for the Jane Slicer-Smith throw arrived yesterday. I am working on square 8 and I have 93 to get finished by April 21. Nothing like putting pressure on myself. The Knitters Frolic is on the 22nd and I want the throw done to display there. I am knitting in the ends as I go so when I am finished knitting there will be no finishing.

I should have rotated the throw before I took the picture. The 2 squares at the bottom will be the bottom left corner of the throw.

Mom and Dad are buying me a rocking chair in Myrtle Beach and bringing it home for the booth. It will hold 3 different throws all with purple shades-should look great.

Beth visited a yarn shop in Rochester, NY today. The owner said that she thinks the next trend will be throws and afghans. She believes that knitters don't want to pay $200 for a sweater but will pay that much for a throw to decorate the house.

Home again part 2

Blogger is now letting me upload pictures. This is my shrug so far. I really like the colour (and it matches suede boots that I have!!) I have made a few modifications to the pattern-I am doing the increases as sloping M1 instead of knit into the front and back of the stitch. Not sure if it will make a huge difference but I like it better.

I talked about my purple bear collection. Here are some pictures from my room in Myrtle Beach. The first picture is the top of my dresser. The other two pictures are 2 of my 3 windows (there are more bears in the third window).

Home again

We arrived home around noon today. The trip was great and we had lots of laughs with Mom, Dad, Aunt Rene and Uncle Bob. Golfed 4 out of the 5 days and came home with colour in my face. It's amazing how time in the sun always makes you feel better. We got out just in time-it rained all day there today!!

I wanted to work on the Jane Slicer-Smith throw while I was away but the pattern wasn't ready. Instead I started a new project. It is a shrug that I saw on Michelle's website. You can download the pattern and there are 3 different versions that you can choose from-I am doing the long back with fringes out of Lane Borgosesia Merino Otto in Lavender. I tried to upload pictures of mine but Blogger is being stubborn right now. I will try again tomorrow.

Knitter's Frolic, getting ready to travel and new yarns

I haven't written anything yet about the Knitter's Frolic. This is Saturday, April 22 in Toronto. I will have a booth there along with other vendors selling anything to do with knitting. There are great workshops being offered from instructors including Lily Chin and Maureen Mason-Jamieson.

Trying to get ready to go away tomorrow which means a late night of chores.

1. Getting the house clean because the cleaning ladies are coming on Friday. Don't want them to see the house a mess
2. The newsletter is at the printer. I have to print off mailing labels so that Jane can get the newsletter out while I am away. This is a job that I hate so the timing is perfect
3. Make a list for the ladies of other jobs to do in the store
4. Make price signs for the new yarns that arrived today.
5. Laundry and packing.
6. Shining my golf shoes.
   

Luckily it is a good tv night-American Idol, Amazing Race and Big Break.

The afghan is almost finished. If I get my chores done I will sit down and finish it tonight. I have big tassles to make for each corner so it won't be completely done until I get home. Still waiting for the throw pattern from Trendsetter. If it doesn't get here tomorrow I will have to pack something else to knit.

I mentioned new yarns arriving today. Hempathy from Elsebeth Lavold is a blend of cotton and hemp. Angelica is my favourite sweater from her new book.

I also unpacked new colours of Cotton Classic (Tahki) and the some spring yarns from Stacy Charles.

Not much knitting

I didn't get much knitting done over the weekend. Saturday night we babysat Melo's half brother Rex. They kept sitting on me while I was knitting so it was easier to put it away. The afghan is almost done-maybe tomorrow.

Wednesday afternoon Beth and I are flying to Myrtle Beach for 5 days of golfing. I am trying to decide what to take for knitting. I know that there won't be time but must take something just in case. If the pattern for Jane Slicer-Smith's afghan is ready I will be taking it. It uses Trendsetter Dune, Checkmate, Marrakech, and Merino Otto. Nothing like a project that uses 8 different colours-won't leave much room for clothes.

If women ruled the world

Saw this picture today and had to share it.

The afghan grows

My afghan is growing. You can't really tell by the picture but it now measures over 48" square. I have stopped adding to the width but will continue to make it a bit longer. I can already hear my mom, 'That will look great in the house in Myrtle Beach!' For some reason my digital camera doesn't photograph the purple well. It isn't as blue as it appears.

Alexis (a customer of mine) gave me a great beaded bookmark for Christmas. I suggested that she make some beaded stitch markers and here are the results. We are working together on getting her business going to sell them. Any suggestions would be appreciated. She first brought in greens and oranges and I told her we needed blues, purples and pinks-these are the colours that people like. You can guess what colours are selling (green and orange). I knit up a piece to show them off and they look great. I used Louisa Harding's new Nautical Cotton-a new worsted weight cotton and it was nice to knit with.

This picture is for Wannietta and my parents. Beth and I put a bookshelf in the bathroom to hold the boxes of Super 10 cotton. This would have been Wannietta and Kyle's job but the 3 hour drive is a bit much to tidy the store. You can actually get to the toilet now!

What to knit when you don't feel well

I am still suffering from headaches (the doctor now has me on Tylenol 3 because she can't see me until the end of the week). I want to knit but don't want to follow a pattern so I picked out some different yarns and started an afghan. Once the camera came out Melo jumped up beside the afghan on the couch and posed for pictures. The purple is exactly the same colour as the pillows on my couch.

I am using Naturally Mohair Plus, Trendsetter Liberty, Plymouth Athena and Crystal Palace Party Ribbon. I will post the pattern once done. Garter stitch every row-can't get much easier than that.

Just sitting down and watching the Academy Awards. Our friend Heidi Berger (who works for Trendsetter yarns) was complaining last week that she had to babysit this weekend because her brother (Howard Berger) was going to the Academy Awards. Well, not only was he going but he won an Oscar for Makeup (Chronicles of Narnia). Now I can say that I know someone whose brother won an Oscar!

www.needleemporium.com

After months of having nothing done on my website I have a new web guy. Talked with Korey yesterday and he has already done a few changes. We are changing the shopping cart to be more user friendly. The layout for the whole site is going to be different and it is going to be set up so that I can make some changes myself. This way the minute we get something in the store it can go up on the site. I am so excited!!! Hopefully the new cart will be going early in the week. Glad that this is happening after the Knitting Olympics-I am not sure that I would have finished the cardigan.
I am so happy with my cardigan-wore it yesterday and today and I might wear it again tomorrow.