Appledore

As many of you know I love Appledore knit in Cotton Jeans from RYC. This is Maggi and Lise from my Thursday night class. They are proudly showing off their amazing jackets.

I do have some knitting to report. I am working on my cardigan in Silk Garden Lite. I finished the back last night. Somewhere in the back of my head I think I will have it done for the Frolic at the end of the month-I better get going.

For the past week I have been having some weird, weird dreams. Last night I decided to go back to high school and one of my classes was 'How to Knit'. In the dream I did know how to knit and that caused many problems with my teachers (there were two men teaching the class and neither one could knit).

Here are a couple of pairs of shoes that I bought while away. I have these in black and hot pink. Thank you Franco Sarto for doing some great shoes this spring.

Who can pass up a pair of black patent shoes?

Home again with lots of pictures

A very special parcel arrived in the store while I was away. KAUNI is here!!! The yarn looks great. While I was pricing it on Friday and Saturday (there is a lot of it) people were pulling it out of my hands to look at it.

The conference in Chicago was amazing. I came home with lots of ideas running through my head. I met yarn shop owners from all over the US. We had time to discuss different ideas that work in our stores.

On Monday night at the welcome reception I met Amy Butler. Amy designs amazing fabrics and I became familiar with her name through some knitting bags she designed. I am going out tomorrow to buy some of her fabrics for quilting.

On Wednesday afternoon we visited Lorna's Laces. People come in the store and question the price of hand painted yarns. Spend a couple of hours with a hand painter and you will understand. It isn't just the dying of the yarn. It has to steam for an hour, hang to dry, then it is re skeined.

This is Beth Casey the owner of Lorna's Laces painting some yarn for us.

The conference was put on by Yarn Market News which is a division of Vogue Knitting. The goodie bags we got were amazing.
-knitting needles from Lantern Moon, Denise and Addi
-needle cases from Lantern Moon and Della Q
-balls of yarn
-books
-a brand new Namaste knitting bag


Shopping in Chicago was great. I took two suitcases with me that were pretty empty. Thank goodness. Between the goodie bags and my new shoes (five pairs) they were very heavy coming home.








This is a picture outside of out gate on Thursday afternoon at O'Hare. I posted from the airport and could have posted again because I sat there for so long. It was 7pm before we got on the plane. Then the pilot came on to tell us there was luggage on the plane with no passenger so they had to find it and take it off. Then we had to de-ice. I finally made it home to Ancaster at midnight.

Last night Beth and I watched the TV shows she taped while I was away. The season finale of Celebrity Apprentice was sad because I wanted Trace to win but you can't fault Donald choosing Piers.

Has anyone been watching Oprah's The Big Give? These people are incredibly stupid. They were given $100,000 and had 24 hours to give it away. They couldn't give cash but had to buy things. Also, they could only give $500 to any one person and only $10,000 to any one location (like a hospital). Out of seven people only one managed to give away the whole $100,000. One lady only managed to give away $16,500.

Red Carpet Lounge

I am sitting at O'Hare airport in Chicago-luckily in the Red Carpet Lounge where there is free internet access. For the past few days I have been getting terrible migraines. The maid woke me at 8am this morning-my check out was noon but she thought she should check if there was anyone in the room. I tried going back to sleep but couldn't. It is cold with wet snow in Chicago so I decided to change my flight to get out earlier. There was no way I was going to walk around downtown Chicago in this weather. I should have tried to make it for the 1:15 flight but was afraid of traffic so I choose the 3:45 flight. It is now 3:32 and they are saying my flight will be leaving at 5:30 (which happens to be 1/2 hour before my original flight). As you can guess I am not a happy camper. My head is killing me and I just want to get home to my own bed.

My workshops were great. I learned about marketing, advertising, managing my time, changing the layout of the store, utilizing the internet and more that I have already forgotten.

Chicago is a city that everyone should visit. You have to love a city with not one but two Macys that are both seven stories. There is also an amazing Nordstroms. Cheesecake Factory and California Pizza Kitchen always make me happy as well. My hotel was very lacking. It is called the Inn of Chicago but it is really a Best Western redone. I don't think I need to write anything else on that subject.

While I am typing, I checked united.com. My new flight is now 7 minutes after my original flight. Good thing I paid the fee to change!!! I'm off to talk with customer service and find out what is going on here.

BTW Noro Kureyon sock yarn arrived yesterday. Jane has taken home a ball to play with-we should have a sample pair by next week.

Chicago Day One

I am posting from my iPod touch. Sorry no pictures until I get home.
The flight was uneventful-long enough for a drink and then we were here. My hotel is described as a 'boutique'. Very nice but the rooms are small! There isn't much room to maneuver in the bathroom. Normally the tv is on a stand at the end of the bed. The room is so small that the bed almost touches both walls-the tv is beside the end of the bed.
Nordstrom's is across the street. :) Shopping today and the conference starts tonight.
gotta run-my visa is ready to go!!

Knitting Catastrophe

I was happily crocheting around my Jane Thornley shawl yesterday and then all hell broke loose. I noticed some strands of yarn that were joined in two different spots. What was going on? Then all of a sudden I saw it-somehow I had dropped about 10 stitches. To do the shaping you are casting off 10 stitches at the beginning of every row. Somehow I had dropped a stitch while doing a cast off. Of course I am now many, many inches past the spot, completely done my knitting and almost done my crochet. I really, really wanted to yell, swear and cry but I had people in the store. I calmly used a crochet hook to pick up the stitches, recast them off and continued on with my crochet.

I finished it last night while watching American Idol. What a boring night-nobody stood out. Big Brother was great. Matt was not expecting to be back doored.

I have picked up the cardigan in Silk Garden Lite again. One sleeve is done and I am at the armhole shaping on the back. I will get lots of knitting done this weekend. Big Brother and Survivor tonight. Then March Madness over the weekend-this is the best sporting weekend of the year. College basketball all day Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Since I will be busy knitting and watching tv, I probably won't do another post before I leave for Chicago. Have a happy Easter weekend and I will check in late next week when I get home. How many pairs of shoes am I going to find there?

Knitting progress

I actually have some knitting to report. The knitting on my Jane Thornley shawl is done. I am now crocheting around it. I hope to get most of it done tonight-fingers crossed.

The past week in the store has been very busy-no complaining-but that takes away from knitting and blogging time.

I have exciting news-we are now carrying Classic Elite yarns. Right now we have three yarns in stock-Alpaca Sox, Premiere and Soft Linen. More yarns will be coming for fall (when I find more room in the store.) Lynda is knitting The Feather and Fan cardigan out of Soft Linen for a store sample.

A new shipment came in today of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Socks. Unpacking all these amazing colours is starting to get to me. I might have to take some and knit it while away in Chicago next week. In skeins we received
-Edgewater
-Pilsen
-Apple Hill
-Huron
-Fresh Stipe
-Irving Park

In kits we received
-Newtown
-Neon
-Pine
-Cranberry
-Pink Blossom
-Turquoise
-Edgewater
-Butterscotch
-Hawaii
-Lilac
-Bittersweet
-Tuscany
-Cool
-Sandridge
-Irving Park
-Charcoal
-Iris Garden
-Watercolor
-Forest

A shipment of Dream in Color Baby arrived Friday afternoon. Unfortunately they are out of the yarn until May so we couldn't get all the colours we wanted. We have about 12 different colours in stock with about 15 more coming in May. Jane finished the shawl and brought it to work today. It is beautiful but I am having her block it once more to make it a bit longer. She was afraid to overblock it but I think the bigger the better.

I have set up an assembly line in the basement for making kits for the Tulip Cardigan. We roll the skein into a ball and then measure off the smaller amounts needed and roll into a smaller ball. We know there must be a better way but can't think of one. We have tried some different things but ended up wasting yarn. The dogs and I are off to roll more yarn.

Socks

I just got the phone call from mom. "When are you going to update your blog?" She didn't see that I did a post yesterday but to make her happy I am doing another one now.

The Knitter's Frolic is coming up on April 26 in Toronto. There is a market on Saturday and workshops are running Saturday and Sunday. We are trying to get samples of new yarns knit up for the show. These are two pairs of socks that Lynda knit for us. Yes, I could have knit them but this way they are finished and I don't have to worry about it.

My pictures came out too bright-the socks are hanging at the front door and the sun is out today. I could complain that I didn't get good pictures but it is amazing to have sun so I won't.

This is Monkey knit out of Baby Boom from Fiesta in the Clematis colourway.

This is Pomatomus knit out of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Socks-Tuscany colourway. I love this pattern and seeing it knit in person did not disappoint me.

Jane is knitting like crazy on the Oakleaf Shawl for the store. On Monday she was almost finished the body so I am hoping she will be done by this Monday. We are almost out of the Baby from Dream in Color. I called today and put in an emergency order for everything they had in stock. We have about eight colours coming that will be here next week. The rest of the colours won't be here until May.

The new season of American Idol really started last night. We are down to the final 12. We have an interesting group of contestants. Last night they sang John Lennon and/or Paul McCartney songs. The country singer really needs to go. We taped it and then watched the whole two hour show in under one hour-it is amazing how much better it is when you don't have to listen to Ryan or watch commercials.

Snow

Every day I tell myself that I need to do a blog post and then it is bed time. Korey and I are working on getting new products up on the website. All the Rowan yarns and books should be up now. We still need to get up the Lorna's Laces Shepherd Socks and Dream in Colour yarns. We also have lots of patterns to add.

The snow over the weekend was incredible. I didn't open the store on Saturday. I could have gone to work but would have sat knitting. Instead I spent the day winding balls of yarn for Tulip kits.

Alexis knit a Tulip Cardigan for the store. I searched some of the finished projects on Ravelry and saw some in darker colours. When I handed the kit to Alexis, she was very doubtful but when it was done she loved the colours.
This is my Jane Thornley wrap. All of a sudden I realized that I need to get it finished. I am going to Chicago on March 23 for a conference and want to take it with me. I am now decreasing so the rows are going faster (not quite fast enough though). When the knitting is done I will crochet around the edge to make it neat.

This is my baby sweater out of Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton. The back is done and the front is a couple of rows from the neck shaping.
The parking lot at my store isn't very happy. The back has piles and piles of snow filling at least four parking spots.

I stepped away to help some customers and just read through this-it sounds like something a 7 year old would write-sorry. My mind is spinning in too many directions!!

What is with the snow?

What is with the snow? Some of you (ie Phyllis in the Yukon) are laughing because of our complaining about a little snow but seriously, is it ever going to end?

Fiesta Yarn's website has been overhauled. You can now see all their colours and the new yarns including Baby Boom, the new sock yarn. One of my knitters is working in this yarn so we will have a pair of socks for you to feel when you visit the store.

I started another Fake Isle on Saturday afternoon and finished it on Sunday while waiting for the Nascar race to start.

Another box arrived today from Lorna's Laces. All of our Little Can of Paint kits were gone but today's box included kits in
-Poppy
-Bee Stripe
-Mt Creek
-Gold Hill
-Glenwood

In skeins, but not in the kit, we received
-Winona
-Rainbow
-Mt Creek
-Gold Hill
-Watercolor
-Jungle Stripe
-Tickled Pink