Thanks Dad

Yesterday was a very long day but we made it. Cathy, Sarah and I (okay, mostly Cathy and Sarah) worked like crazy getting everything organized.

I did plan on sharing these pictures last night. I was in the store from 8:30 until 7:30 and when I got home Beth had dinner ready. I ate, took a nice hot bath and went to sleep. This caused a problem today-I was awake at 5:30. I knew that if I went back to sleep for a bit I would feel rotten all day so I got up and off to work I went.

During the renovations I planned on moving all the sock yarn to the new section. When I started unpacking the chunky it took up more room than I thought so only part of the sock yarn moved. It's not ideal but there was no way to leave all the sock yarn in the old section.

Now all the chunky yarns are together. There are a few gaps because we are waiting to receive the new Crofter Chunky from Sirdar and Debbie Bliss' new Luxury Tweed Chunky.

Bulky yarns are going to be big again this fall and we have lots to whet your appetite-Blue Sky Alpacas Bulky, Spud & Chloe Outer, Tahki Montana, Naturally Aspire Super Chunky, Debbie Bliss Como and Twinkle Soft Chunky.

Cathy is a neat freak (this is a compliment) and she organized all the books before putting them on the shelf. I would have thrown the books on the shelf and worried about it later but she took the time to make it easier for you when you are looking at the books. The major names are all together-Rowan, Debbie Bliss and Noro. Then she did a crochet section, afghan section, how to section, etc.

My dad likes to be a trouble maker. His favourite saying is that housework is 'woman's work'. He doesn't really mean it but he likes to stir the pot. The last thing we did before leaving the store last night was mop the floors. We both had mops-I would do an area and then he would do it again-the floors were sparkling this morning. Now I have a picture so whenever he opens his mouth I can tell him to look at my blog.

I want to say a big thank you to my dad. Without him this would never have been possible. He is worn out from all the work so he is taking mom to Myrtle Beach for a couple of weeks on Thursday. They can't leave tomorrow because I still have a few odd jobs for him. :)

THANKS DAD!!!

Done

I was at the store by 7:15 this morning. The painter was there but not my dad. About 20 minutes later he showed up with a truck full of shelving. Here are the shelves that will hold the yarn in the new section.

There wasn't much I could do in the store while the painter was working so I spent most of the morning cleaning the apartment. Up the stairs and down the stairs with more 'stuff' for the dumpster.

Dad had a meeting to go to and returned to the store at noon along with Phil to put in the cupboards. The shelving needed a bit of work because the floor isn't level. That happens in a 200 year old house.

My new cash desk is much smaller-hopefully this means less collecting of junk.

The bookshelves have been cleaned and are ready to be filled. I started carrying books but was getting tired and grumpy. We will have these filled on Monday.

Around 1 this afternoon Dad sent me on errands. We needed a bucket and mop to clean the floors. Oh, and by the way, stop at the beer store for us. I don't like beer but I almost reconsidered this afternoon.

My cousin Tim who did all the electrical work.

I need to run and have a shower. Mom and dad want to go out for dinner. I can't really so no when dad did so much for me this week.

I'm sorry to all who showed up and wanted to shop this week. There was no way we could stay open while this was going on.

Tiles

All my pictures recently have been the store. Here is Roko sulking. He was mad last night because I wouldn't take him out and play ball with him. Roko can run up and down the yard forever chasing a ball. He is beside me right now looking at me with very sad eyes.

John arrived early this morning to start the tile. Did you know that tiles have dye lots like yarn? There was no way we could match the original tile in the store so I went to a totally different colour.

The colour is a bit off here. The lights were already out when I realized that I didn't get another picture. Dad and John will finish laying the tiles in the morning. The edges need to be done and then the grout.

Tim will be coming in the afternoon to hang the new lights so we can actually see what we are doing.

Cathy spent the day in the store tidying the bathroom. Old shade cards-throw them out. Faxes about cheap vacations-in the dumpster. While she was having fun I was with Beth being her shipping assistant. Many boxes went out by Canpar and Canada Post.

I saw the rest of my cabinets today. The new cash desk looks great!! Dad says they will be put in on Saturday afternoon. I'm starting to get really excited.

Big Brother is about to start so I am heading upstairs. I hope Jeff uses his coup d'etat power and puts up Jessie and Nathalie. That will make for a great show!!!

Renovations Day 4

The tiles are being laid tomorrow so Rob spent the day today getting the floor ready. First mesh was put down on top of the wood. Then he made some special mixture that had to be spread across the floor. Definitely not a job that I wanted to do.

Here is a close up.

The painter arrived at 5pm to spray the walls in the library and cash area. He will be back on Saturday to do the walls and ceilings in the main room.

The Rowan Room is taking shape. Kid Classic, Cocoon, Felted Tweed Aran and British Sheep Breeds.

Cathy and Sarah helped all day getting as much done as possible. We are at a stand still until Monday when the cabinets go in the new room. Monday will be spent getting all the chunky and bulky yarns on the new shelves. The library will be set up and then we need to put out the knitting needles. It is going to be a crazy day!!

Renovations Day 3

We ran into a small problem yesterday. This used to be the kitchen which meant taps and running water. The piping had to be cut out and dad thought we could just cap the pipes and cut off the excess. No we couldn't. This would mean no running water in the apartment. The plumbers spent all afternoon fixing the problem and when I left at 5 the hole in the floor was fixed as well.

Rob did a lot of mixing today. In this picture he is mixing the self leveling cement. Big problem here. We need water to mix the cement and the water is turned off so they can cut out the pipes. Dad made a few trips across the road to the gas station. People driving by must have looked at him weird-who walks across Wilson Street with buckets? The self leveling cement is a great invention. You pour it on the floor wet and watch it move to the low spots. When we get to the store in the morning it will be dry enough to walk on.

The drywall will be done tomorrow and the painters are starting tomorrow afternoon. The tile floor will be started on Thursday morning. All the new cabinets are made and are waiting in Beth's warehouse until Saturday.

Cathy, Sarah and I are going to be busy on Monday. You can't walk through the front of the store. There is 'stuff' everywhere.

I'm on my way upstairs to watch Y&R, Hell's Kitchen and Big Brother. Some knitting has been accomplished. The back is done on Rochdale and I have cast on the second front.

Another job I don't want

This morning started out with a dentist appointment. Not my idea of fun. A tooth had to be refilled.

On the way home (my dentist is 45minutes away-gives me some alone time) I called Beth and she was in a panic. A huge shipment arrived from Italy. There was 4 skids of boxes-at least 10 boxes on a skid. This had to be put away NOW because there was a truck on the way with another shipment-this one from New Zealand. I picked her up a sandwich and headed to the warehouse.

My first job was putting yarn on the shelves. Unfortunately these were the top shelves and I had to keep climbing the ladder. I don't like climbing the ladder. I complained loudly about this so she gave me another job.

The boxes all have labels detailing what is inside. My next job was to go through the boxes and cross the yarn off the packing slip. The packing slip was 15 pages long and was not in alphabetical order. This took forever. Of course I complained about this job as well. The warehouse was very hot today. Why do the boxes have to arrive on the hottest day of the summer?

My next job was to start picking orders. Big mistake. I kept finding colours that I don't have in the store. 2 bags for XYZ Yarn Shop and 2 bags for The Needle Emporium.

From my warehouse job I went to the store. It is looking good. Tomorrow morning dad is pouring a special cement on the floor that will level it. Then the drywall will be done. Tiles on Wednesday?? The rest of my cabinets were measured today. These should be ready by Friday so as soon as the painters are done they will be moved in.

From that job I went to job #3. I spent a few hours working in the office of the construction company.

I forgot to take pictures today so here is a surprise. This pattern (Bailey) didn't make it into Rowan's Colourscape Folk and I have been told that it will be a free pattern on the Rowan website. Keep checking their site for it.

I don't want a job in construction!!

When I arrived at the store this morning (7:15am - I was on dad's time today) dad had already ripped out the front counter and was working on the wall. Tim, Zach and Mike arrived after me and worked like crazy getting the kitchen cupboards ripped out. The walls came down and then it was time to work on the floor.

Dad loves to use power tools. He is working on getting the tiles up.

The dumpster is full!!

This is Tim and Zach trying to pack everything down. Zach was the rookie on the job which meant he had to carry all the garbage out. The poor kid must have made 100 trips out to that dumpster.

Here are a few pictures of the new shelves in the front room.

When I opened the store we had a rule that nothing would be on the floor. LOL. It didn't take long before we had baskets and then more baskets. Hopefully these shelves will help us keep the front room organized.

The rest of the store is total chaos-and that is putting it mildly. I can't wait for next week when I can start getting everything back in order!!!

We were supposed to take dad to the Ticat game tonight but it is raining out and my body hurts. A day of physical labour can wear you out when you aren't used to it.

Blast from the past

My mom called me today and was very upset (not really). How could I call her a pack rat on my blog? Dad was killing himself laughing in the background.



Alot of old stuff (patterns and very old yarn) went into the dumpster but one thing I grabbed was a bag with a few balls of Tuttofilo-a mohair/wool blend with eyelash. FABULOUS. This yarn came out when I opened my store. 22 years ago it retailed for close to $20 a ball. A sweater was over $300 and a jacket over $400. We couldn't keep this in stock-I don't know how we ended up with some left over. Beth doesn't remember much about the early days of the store but she does remember Tuttofilo.

I also found many of my old Rowan books and my copy of Aran Knitting by Alice Starmore. When this is all done I am going to set up my knitting library. I know, who am I kidding, this won't get done for a while.

Cathy and Jane worked very hard today and we are almost ready. My job tomorrow is cleaning out the drawers at the cash desk. At the end of the day we need to clear out the needles and books. I am feeling much better-the last few days I was worried we wouldn't be ready for my dad to start. And believe me, that is not something you want to encounter.

I had a visit from my Rowan rep today along with one of the very big bosses at Coats. He was in Toronto for the day visiting shops. I mentioned the Rowan website and he assured me that in about a month we will see a big difference. Much faster and easier to navigate. The free pattern section will be expanding as well.

I'm off to watch Big Brother. Please, please, pretty please, send Ronnie home!!!

Pack Rat No More

I have been working since 6:30am and need to take a break.

Dad and I spent the morning cleaning out the back room. There was a lot of junk. Why was I keeping that old Christmas tree? I did find a treasure though. My bucket of old Rowan chunky yarns. How many of you remember Bright Tweed?

It is now 10pm and I have relaxed on the couch watching some TV. Two episodes of Y&R and Deadliest Catch. I remembered that this post was started and thought I better finish it quickly so I can fall into bed.

The dumpster is half full already. I spent some time going through the back room and then asked my dad to throw everything out. The clock radio with a cassette player has been in the store for a while. Beth hasn't looked at her skis for over 10 years.

After the kitchen cabinets on Saturday it will be overflowing.

The back room is almost cleaned out. There are a few bags of yarn that we need to move out and then the glass shelves can come out. The book shelf in the store is being cut in half and mounted on either side of the window.

This window is being knocked out and will become the doorway into the library. The wall in the background is coming down to make a large room with more shelves.

What was Ronnie thinking last night when he threatened Michelle? I would have called everyone into the house and make him repeat what he said. It's not hard to believe that he wasn't liked in high school.

Let the games begin

Dad, Beth and I have a tradition of golfing on holiday Mondays. Yesterday was such a beautiful day that we golfed Willow Valley in Hamilton. Dad lost and owes Beth and I big time.

The dumpster arrived this morning and I have been busy making trips outside filling it. I can be a pack rat (a trait I got from my mom-definitely not my dad) so this week I am getting rid of things that I haven't looked at in years.

Many people are coming in and can't believe we will have everything done in a week. My family has a construction company which makes anything possible. Some of the sub-trades will be in working at night (tile floor and painters) so I'm not worried about our deadline.

Jim has been doing flooring for my dad for as long as I can remember. He brought in tile samples for us to look at this morning. Small problem-both Dad and Jim are colour blind. Doesn't really help me so the decision was all mine. There was a great purple colour but it would be much too dark so medium grey won.

I haven't looked at Iris again. The next two weeks are going to be stressful and I really don't want to think about ripping out the sleeve right now. I will work on Rochdale during Big Brother tonight.

More stories about my Dad

I just received an email from Mom. Dad has worked out a schedule for renovations. This story will explain why Mom is doing the emailing and not Dad. First of all he calls a computer 'the machine' or 'that box'. When he went on his last trip to Honduras an email account was opened for him. The construction company was in negotiations for a very large job and if we needed to get information to him this was the best way. The first night there a group of them walked into town and found an Internet cafe. Yes, Honduras is a very poor country but the Internet is available. Dad didn't know how to log in so Cal did that for him. Cal opened his emails to read and now Dad had to reply. My dad has never sat down in front of a typewriter let alone a computer. His message to us read "HI. DAD." That was it. He called home every night after that (and collect calls from Honduras are not cheap). When he got home he wanted to know why the order of the keys were so messed up. Why can't A and B be beside each other?

The renovations are going to take a bit longer than I thought but there is nothing I can do about it. The work needs to get done and if we don't do it in August then it will be April before we can do it.

Here is the plan as of today. The store will be closed from Saturday August 8 until Monday August 17. The store won't be open for shopping during this time but if there is a yarn emergency I can be contacted by email or by leaving a message on the store phone.

Getting ready for renovations

A small amount of progress has been made on the Jane Slicer-Smith Boxed Drape Vest. The yarn is called Zara Print Tweed. You can see that there is a fleck of colour in the yarn. In many tweed yarns (think Donegal Tweed from Tahki) the fleck is a nepp of colour that can be pulled out of the yarn. With the Zara the Tweed is a dab of colour right in the yarn. Wow, these are very technical terms I am coming up with here!!




The back room is going to be divided into two parts. This will become the cash/office area. The needles and accessories will be on the wall to the right and the cash desk will be on the left (there will be a hole in the wall).

Before we could knock a hole in the wall it needed to be braced. My dad worked on this while we were in Columbus.




The doorway is going to be closed off with a permanent wall.

I purposely took a bad picture here. There is a lot of junk still in this room that will be going in a dumpster when we start knocking out walls. This area is going to become the library.

The top part of the book shelf is going to be cut in half lengthwise. Each half will be mounted on the wall in the new library.

This is a job that my dad can sink his teeth into. He loves demolition work!! When I was very young we were at my Aunt Rene's for a Grey Cup party. She made a very big mistake by asking my dad if a wall could be taken down in her basement. At half time the wall came down.

Scarves

We keep hearing that scarves are out but everyday customers are buying yarn to knit scarves and the pattern companies keep bringing out scarf patterns. A package arrived today from Lynda (one of my knitters) and these two scarves were in the box.

This is Classic Elite's Silky Alpaca Lace and two balls will make the scarf.  The books and yarn are packed for the Frolic-they will be in the store next week.  

You might be wondering why I am already packing.  I have some anxiety about the show-I don't want to take too much but I don't want to set up the booth and have it empty.  I have been doing shows for over 15 years but figuring out the amount to take never gets easier. 

Lorna's Laces Pearl. I keep talking about this yarn and now that I see it knit I love it more. This is a close up of the scarf (I tweeted the full scarf earlier today). This yarn is also packed.

I spent yesterday working in the store-cleaning. I spent most of the day in the 'kitchen'. I then started on the cash desk-this is going and we are getting a smaller one. There were phone books under the counter from 1997. What?? After work tonight I started on the back room. There are lots of great yarns put away for the tent sale. I found some Rowan Chunky Chenille and four pairs of shoes.  

I have been working on the computer since I got home finishing the brochure to hand out at the Frolic and making the price cards for the booth.  This is finally done and I am going to package up some yarn to ship out in the morning.  I was going to wind more yarn for Tulip kits but that will be tomorrow nights job.

Tent Sale and Renovations

Today has been very productive and it isn't over yet.
I was up early so I washed my Edie cardigan (in Soak of course) before I went to church. I laid it out on the deck and it was almost dry by the time I got home.
I watched the Blue Jays win and worked on my Silk Garden Lite cardigan. The back and both fronts are done and the first sleeve is half done.
I went to my parents for dinner-they felt sorry for me because I am by myself.
There is a load of clothes in the washing machine. These are the clothes our mannequins wear at the knitting shows. You wouldn't believe the looks I get when I go into a clothing store wanting to buy size 3 clothes. After explaining that they are for mannequins I get just as many strange looks.
When this post is done I am going to continue knitting and watch hockey. The Amazing Race and Celebrity Apprentice are taping.

Dad is home and we are going to start working on the renovations tomorrow. This door is behind the cash desk and leads into a secret space. It was the kitchen when we bought the house and we didn't think we needed the space so it was kept for storage. Really it is the door I open and throw things in and then close the door. Cathy has cleaned out that area once and I get to go at it again tomorrow-think of the closet on the Flintstones that Fred goes digging in to find something and everything falls out on him.

The wall behind the cash desk is going to be knocked out. There will be a hole punched in the side wall as well. You might not know that there is another storage area at the back of the house (it was a screened in porch when we bought the house). The cash desk will be turned by 90 degrees and will sit in part of the porch.

There are more renovations happening as well but I am going to keep these for a day when I have nothing to write.

Customers have asked if we are going to close during this. We will need to close for a few days but I don't have the dates right now-watch the blog, newsletter and tweets. Mom and dad are back to Myrtle Beach on Sunday for a week. When they come home the real work begins.

I have the Tent Sale dates and times now. We will be in the same location as last year-the hall behind St. John's Church located on Halson Street.

Thursday June 4 7-11pm
Friday June 5 noon-7pm
Saturday June 6 10-1pm

The pricing of yarn will be different this year. We will be charging per ball. $3 for a 50gram ball and $6 for a 100gram ball.

Yesterday I promised pictures of Sarah (and her daughter Clara) modelling Sarah's finished work. Sarah-I lost the piece of paper with the names of the garments-can you email to me? Sorry.