Super Bowl Sunday

Yes, it really is 2am. I am having problems sleeping so why lay in bed and do nothing? I also had a lay down earlier so that could contribute to it.


As you would guess, today is an exciting day in my house. Hopefully we have an exciting game and the Colts win.

Here is the progress on my Lattice Bag. I have about 20 rows to go. The store has been incredibly busy (I am not complaining) which cuts down on knitting time. It is incredible how many people have come in the store who saw us on tv. I would never have guessed that many people watch CH Morning Live. People I know stop me in the grocery store or at Tim Horton's to tell me that they saw it.

Here is the start of my crocheted scarf. I am using Tonalita from Trendsetter. It isn't going quick enough for me-my crochet hook is plastic and is killing me. I need to make a trip to Michael's to get a metal one!!

If you are interested in our class schedule, Korey has it on the website now.

Getting ready for knitting classes and Rowan preview

I have finished the schedule for my spring classes. Many people have been asking for beginner crochet so it is on the schedule. We are going to make a simple scarf so I thought I should make a sample. I started today between customers but didn't get very far. Here is the picture of Trendsetter's scarf that I am modifying. It will be narrower so that it can be done faster and use less yarn.

Tomorrow is supposed to be the launch date for the new Rowan. There are a few sites out there with pictures so I decided to share a few with you.


This is Appledore from RYC. I am in love with this. It is knit using their new yarn called Cotton Jeans. The yarn is 100% cotton so I imagine that the jacket will be heavy-more of a spring/fall garment than summer.

Here is the cover of the new Summer Tweed Magazine. There are new colours in this yarn for spring as well. Everyone has been asking Rowan for new designs in this great yarn and finally they have listened.

And the picture that everyone wants to see. Here is the cover of Rowan 41. I believe the full magazine will be launched on Rowan's site tomorrow.

Bamboo Tape is a new yarn from Rowan for spring. There will be a separate magazine for it. Take a look at the shade cards-amazing colours in true Rowan style.

Why I have a yarn shop

When doing the taping for CH Morning Live, Lori asked my 'why do you have a yarn shop?' There are the obvious reasons-I like to knit, love to fibres, etc, etc. I couldn't put into words the real benefit of having the shop.

Saturday morning Lisa came into the store with her daughter Sam. Lisa started knitting about 5 years ago and is self taught. She started out with basic, easy to knit garments for her daughter. Over the years she has learned with some help from us how to cable, sew together, use the proper needle size, you know, all the basics. Sam quickly undid her jacket to show me a sweater that Lisa had knit for her. It had a lace panel up the front. Lisa was beaming. She said it was her favourite sweater to date. It fit Sam perfectly!!! Until recently, Lisa did a lot of knitting but we never saw the finished project. She never knit for herself either. Now we see Lisa quite a bit with her finished projects. This is why I have a store!!! To see the expression on a customer's face when they have finished a project and it worked out. It fits and looks great.

I slept most of the day but am now getting ready to watch 'The Apprentice'. So far this season has been great. Whoever came up with the losing team living in tents is a genius.

My class schedule is almost done. I am hoping that Korey will have it on the website in the next couple of days. If you are interested in classes, contact me and I will email directly to you.

There have been some problems with the website over the past week that could go into this week. The server keeps crashing and they are working on getting a new one. If you can't get the site, please try again later in the day.

Dogs

People have been asking for pictures of the dogs so I took some while they were playing in the snow. Roko is still smaller than Melo but not for much longer.

Roko is starting to learn his name and will come when you call him. Since a cookie is usually involved this helps. He still likes the look of yarn but usually won't touch it. He has discovered shoes and Mom and Dads-right now he just likes to take out the insoles.

The difference in the two dogs is amazing. Melo has to be with us at all times. He sleeps at our feet and if we move, he moves. Roko loves to go downstairs and lie at the back door.

Some knitting was accomplished

Here is a picture of my Lattice Bag. Once you get going, the knitting goes quickly. You will all be proud of me, I am doing the cables without a cable needle-saves a ton of time and easy because the yarn is double stranded on 9mm needles.

All day today I had people in commenting on seeing the tv show. It is amazing how many people have driven by the store for years and didn't know that we sold yarn.

CH Morning Live

This is the bottom of my felted bag. I have picked up around the bottom and one row is complete.

The store will be featured on tomorrow mornings show, 6-9am. We have Starchoice and it is channel 345.

The Blue Sky Alpacas yarn arrived today-talk about service. It was shipped from the US yesterday morning. Unfortunately there isn't room in the store right now so the yarn is in baskets on the floor. The colours are amazing when you see them in person.

Knitting class starts tonight. These are the ladies who have been with me forever so I don't dare cancel on them.

TV

We did the taping for CH morning live this morning. Unfortunately, it took a bit longer than expected and they had to run to do a show for the noon news report. I forgot to ask when it will be aired-will try to contact Lori tomorrow and ask her. Lori was amazing. Her day starts at 3:30am so it was surprising how upbeat she could be by 11am. She picked all the segments but we did get a lot of information in to a short time. Phyllis and Lynn from my Thursday class came and knit during the taping. Lori talked with them about their love for knitting and why they started. Thanks for coming out guys. I also need to thank Jane, Cathy and Sarah for the work they did tidying the shelves. The store looked amazing.

The funniest thing that happened was Lori kept calling the knitting needles 'sticks'. She couldn't wrap her head around needles.

I have come down with bronchitis. All I want to do is sleep but when I lay in bed I can't sleep. I will admit that I am a very whiny, awful sick person. This means no knitting. I read most of the afternoon-nothing to do because the store is so neat.

I did finish the bottom of my felted bag over the weekend. If I am up to it tomorrow, I will pick up the stitches to start up the bag.

Blue Sky Alpacas

It was just confirmed that we will be carrying Blue Sky Alpacas yarn in the store. I have been looking at their yarns for years at the trade show but these two patterns did it for me. They are knit out of Alpaca Silk which is 50% alpaca/50% silk. I have ordered in 12 colours to start and can order in any of the other colours. There is also some Bulky Hand Dyes which is a blend of 50% alpaca/50% wool and knits on 10mm needles. The other yarn is Worsted Hand Dyes-a blend of 50% alpaca/50% merino. The yarn is being shipped this week and we hope to have it by the weekend.

CH Morning Live

Tomorrow morning CH Morning Live is coming to tape a segment in the store. We need to do 6-8 segments so I have been racking my brain to decide. I have come up with a couple so far

• socks and the self striping yarns
• felting
• new closures for jackets and cardigans-shawl pins, knit sticks
• my ruffle scarf
• new knitting bags

Any suggestions will be helpful-they are arriving tomorrow morning at 9:30 am.

Phyllis (my new best friend) who owns the Keeping Room in Dundas has segments taped in her store at least once a month. She has been pushing for them to come to my store and finally it is going to happen.

I have started knitting again

The Noni bag patterns arrived while I was away. I am working on the rectangular Lattice bag in Naturespun Worsted from Brown Sheep using N144 Limestone and N601 Pepper.

It is going to be a busy weekend catching up on work that should have been completed while I was away having fun. The classes have been finalized for the Gone Stitchin' weekend so I have a large mailing to do next week. CH Morning Live will be taping some segments for their show in the store on Tuesday or Wednesday. We were going to be live on Tuesday morning but they can't get a strong enough signal. If it was done live, there would be 8-2 minute segments done over 3 hours. Now we will tape these segments in less than 45 minutes. YIKES. I will let you know when these will be aired.

Very eventful trip

We arrived home from Las Vegas at 7 this morning. After sleeping for most of the day I am up and catching up on work.

We left for San Diego on Friday morning. The trade show was from Saturday - Monday so we were getting there early to have time to shop in the afternoon. Okay, Bev and I were going to Nordstroms and Beth was going to the zoo.

We arrived at Pearson airport around 6:30 for our 9am flight-I would think that was early enough. After checking in, going through US customs and security we went and sat at the gate. Bev's boss was also on our flight but called to say that they bumped him off because of weight restrictions. Her boss lives in Italy and English is his second language so we thought he misunderstood the people checking him in. The flight was probably oversold and they were flying him to LA and then he was going by bus to San Diego. At 8:30 they start boarding our plane. Just before Beth and I were about to board they called our name. We were bumped off too. They had us on a small jet that could make the flight in ideal conditions but there was a strong head wind so the jet needed more fuel. This meant it needed less passengers!!! Now they had to scramble to find us something else. Bev was already on the plane - flying business class. They gave her a note saying we weren't on the flight and we would see her sometime that day. We had a 6pm meeting but Air Canada didn't care. If they had bumped us at 7am when we checked in we could have gone to LA as well and been in San Diego by 3 in the afternoon. Unfortunately Air Canada isn't run like a real business!!! They flew us to Las Vegas at noon and then into San Diego. We arrived at 8pm-should have been there at 11:30 am. Air Canada had this problem 5 out of the 6 days last week but wouldn't put a bigger jet on for the flight. They had to bump 30 peole off our flight-what did that cost them?

The weather in San Diego was very cold. You needed a heavy coat at night when going out.

I spent Saturday at the show. I looked around and bought some new yarns for the shop-it is a secret for now. The company has to okay me to carry their yarn but once I know, you will know. I had a long talk with the people from Rowan to try and get their deliveries to Canada working better. Hopefully we will get our yarns in a more timely manner now. I also saw the new books for spring-looks good. If you stop by the store I can show you a preview.

We knew when we left that there was going to be a football game in San Diego on Sunday. My dad ordered us to go so it was set that Sunday morning we would head to the stadium and buy scalper tickets. Sunday morning the news was reporting that you couldn't drive near the stadium without a ticket and couldn't use public transportation to the stadium without a ticket. We checked out the newspaper and found a ticket agency that still had some. Off we went and ended up with great seats. The game was amazing but the wrong team won!!

Monday morning was running through the show to see the last bits of yarns and accessories. I bought some fantastic knitting bags from Off Hand Designs. I ordered in new colours that won't be available until March. Take a look at the website, if there is a bag you are interested in, let me know. We can special order for you. I also ordered in some more shawl pins. One set came home with me (Gita Maria) and the others will be mailed this week. There was a special bag that came home in one suitcase-15 more skeins of Mountain Colors Bearfoot. They just finished dying them so they brought to the show. We will also be receiving a new 100% silk, handpaint shawl yarn from Claudia Hand Painted Yarns. It isn't on their website yet so you can't see pictures.




Monday afternoon we set out for Vegas. Not much to tell. Just went to bed early and did nothing. NOT!!!

Tuesday afternoon Bev and I went to Nordstroms. I ended up with 3 pairs of shoes, Bev bought one pair of boots. Of course I needed a new bag for the shoes so I bought a cool brown leather knapsack at the Brighton store. Mine is a dark chocolate brown. Tuesday evening we went to see "O". The show was amazing. Beth and I were seeing it for the second time. If you are going to Vegas spend the money and see it. The tickets are expensive ($150 US) but totally worth it. You won't see a show like this anywhere else. It was actually much better the second time. If you have seen a live performance of Cirque du Soleil you will know that many things are happening at once so you miss things. You can catch them the second time seeing the show.


Dad is flying back to Myrtle Beach on Saturday so Beth and I are off to have dinner with him. When I get home I think I will lie on the couch and watch the Barrett-Jackson auction. If you haven't heard of this, flip to the Speed channel. It is an amazing auto auction from Arizona. What I could do with lots and lots of money!!!

Leaving comments on blogger

Customers come in the store and tell me that they read the blog and wanted to comment but couldn't because they don't have a blog. I require this because I was getting spam comments before I added that feature. Who would have thought of spam on blogger but it is there.

If you want to comment on something, look to the left column and under my profile it says 'contact me'. Just click on this and send me an email. If you would like it posted, I will copy it to the blog-just let me know.

I didn't get the shawl done today. Jane worked so that I could get some paperwork done before going away. I also needed to have my nails done (fingers and toes). Not sure why I had my toes done-it is going to be way too cold to wear sandals. The temperatures in San Diego are ranging from 13-17 during the day and 1-7 at night (for those of you who don't know metric 55-63 and 35-45) Vegas is even colder 7-9 during the day and -1 to -3 at night (44-48 and 26-29). That is really, really cold for Vegas.

I am having more fun with my computer. When I first got the computer I put Windows onto it. With the new parallels program (so I don't have to turn it off when I want to switch between Mac and Windows) I installed the Windows again. I keep getting the message to register Windows and have been putting it off until yesterday. I can't register it because it has already been used-on the same computer but that doesn't count. Microsoft doesn't want to listen and says I have to buy another copy of Windows. Okay, I will do that. Unfortunately there is a new Windows coming out at the end of January so why buy a program when a better one is coming out? So for now I am restarting to jump between.

My other fun today was with the hotel we are staying at in San Diego. I booked the rooms (4 in all) at least 6 months ago and requested 2 non-smoking rooms and 2 smoking rooms. I have talked with them at least 3 times since them to change dates, add names, etc and ask each time to make sure that the rooms are correct. I called the actual hotel today (not the toll free reservations line) and they have 3 non-smoking rooms and 1 smoking room. For those who know Bev-she must have a smoking room. That leaves Beth and I in a non-smoking room. We had the same problem last year and ended up in a non-smoking room (with a king size bed) that had a small balcony so we could go outside to smoke. I told them this was not acceptable and the answer was that I could make a new reservation for a smoking room but the extra cost would be $60 a night. For those of you who know me, I was hopping mad. After a 30 minute conversation (not to a toll free number) they finally agreed to switch the room at no cost. Some of you are going to say 'just quit smoking' but that isn't the point. When you are already paying $190 a night for a room you would think they could get the reservation right.

It's done

I finished the shawl this evening but don't have a picture of it done. Here is a picture I took this afternoon in the store.

I am deciding what pin to use and I am thinking one of these-new from Trendsetter for spring.

Tomorrow will be sewing in the ends. There are too many to count. I used 10 balls of yarn. One ball had 4 knots (did not make me happy) and another ball had 2. This yarn is so slippery that the ends are going to be tough to keep secure.

Blogger help needed

I just finished a post and have some questions for blogger experts.

Why does the spacing change within a post? Sometimes it looks like there is double spacing and the next paragraph looks like single spacing.

Can you change blogger so it doesn't cut a word between 2 lines?

Roko and Melo

Here are a couple of pictures of the dogs. Unfortunately light coloured dogs on the yellow floor and poor lighting doesn't make for the best of pictures.

I am finished 7 balls on the shawl. I forgot to take the camera with me to work today so no pictures-I should have some tomorrow.

Shawl to match red bag

I have started knitting my shawl for the trade show in San Diego next weekend. I am using Magique from Trendsetter. This yarn is 60% Polyamid, 16% Cotton, 15% Acrylic, 9% Polyester. It isn't red but there is enough red in it to go with the red bag.

I actually made a swatch before I started. Don't try to figure this out at 2am. I got 36 stitches to 9" which in my mind translated to needing 688 stitches. Oops. I did the division based on 36 stitches to 4". I really only needed 200 stitches. Good thing I didn't start casting on.

I started to cast on with Lantern Moon needles. Got the stitches almost cast on and my needle broke. Not a happy camper. Luckily I could transfer most of them to an Addi.

I have 10 balls and I think that I will use all of them. So far I am finished 3 balls. Yes, I will be sitting on the couch today, watching football and knitting. Roko really likes this yarn. He has it in his mouth whenever possible. He is going to start thinking his name is Noroko. We are continually saying this to him and he just looks up at you saying 'what are you going to do about it? I am way too cute!!'

I knit today

Even with customers in the store today I did find some time to knit. I finished the back and one sleeve of Kilcar. (After publishing and re-reading my post it looks like I knit the whole back and sleeve today. Both had been started and I just had to add some rows to finish. I knit fast but not that fast!!) This is the sleeve that was taken inside the store. The picture taken outside is a close up of the back. It really shows the stitch definition but the colour is way off.
















I like knitting with the yarn (Debbie Bliss Donegal Chunky Tweed). I have a small problem with the pattern though. Debbie says to knit 80 rows on the back before the armhole shaping. Luckily I looked at the schematic because I was at least 3" short to what the measurement should be. I am afraid that people knitting this jacket will follow her pattern and be disappointed when done because it is too short. I would rather the pattern said to knit to ___".

New Blogger Hint

When I switched to the new Blogger, my links (Websites to Visit and Who I Read) automatically showed up with their links. Unfortunately they wouldn't open in their own windows. After playing the other night I couldn't make it work but I got it today. On the 'Page Elements' page-add a new page element. (For some reason I can add a new page element in Windows but not in Mac). Choose 'List'. Type in the name that you want (Needle Emporium) and hit the create link. Type in the website address and you are done. Save this and continue. A bit of a pain to transfer everything over but now all your links will open in a new window. I will thank you very much for doing this-I hate having to hit the back button to go back someones blog after jumping away from it to see something they are talking about.

New purse patterns

While searching the internet tonight I came across some amazing purse patterns. This is just a sample. I hope to have these in the store within the next couple of weeks. You can see the rest of the patterns on the Noni pattern website.

The 'Around the Bay' knitting guild met tonight. We are getting new knitters joining us every meeting. I am going to teach the Moebius cast on at the next meeting. Check out the guild blog for more information. Samantha should have this posted in the next couple of days.

I actually did some knitting today. Got the back done on Kilcar and the sleeve almost finished at guild.

The shipment of Mountain Colors Bearfoot finally arrived today. I already have another order in since the wait time is so long.

Beth and I are getting ready for our trip to San Diego. We leave next Friday morning for a trade show to see the spring yarns. Unfortunately the San Diego Chargers (football for those who don't know) will be playing either Saturday or Sunday in a playoff game so we will have to go. My dad has told us that he will be disappointed in us if we don't. Can't disappoint dad!!! The show runs from Saturday until Monday afternoon. On Monday afternoon Beth, Bev and I will be flying to Las Vegas. Can't go that far and not visit. We will be meeting up with some of the folks from Trendsetter Yarns. Tuesday night we are taking everyone to see 'O'-the amazing Cirque du Soleil show. We take the red eye home Wednesday night and back to work on Thursday.

LP-if you are reading this-thanks for your help today!!

Didn't take too long

As you can see there is a new look to the blog. I decided that if I was going to change then really change it. The new blogger is amazing. No more working in html to get things onto the blog. You pick the page element you want to change (Blogs I read, Finished Projects), type in the information and done. You can move the page elements around easily-no more scrolling through the html and trying to find something and then move it somewhere else. Well done Blogger!!! I also like that posts are published immediately. No more waiting. No more watching the circle saying 30%, then 50% and then it says that it is done. But you look at your blog and it isn't there. Sometimes it can be days before it shows up. Spellcheck works on my new computer too. As long as I remember to hit the button, there should be no more spelling mistakes.

New Blogger

I switched to the new Blogger weeks ago but haven't played with many of the new features. Since it is 11:30 on Saturday night I figure this is a good time to play. I am going to try the feature for customizing the design of my blog. Of course, this could back fire for the time being until I get everything where I want it to be. Please be patient while I play!!

Store Hours

I have been thinking about changing our store hours starting in February. Many people ask if we stay open late any nights of the week. I am in the store 5-6 days and teach at least 2 nights a week. This doesn't include time for post office, bank, paperwork or my other 2 businesses. I am thinking of changing the hours on Fridays from 10-5:30 to 12-7. Please comment on your thoughts. If you aren't on blogger and want to comment, please email me.

Somedays I am surprised by how many people read my blog. I get people asking every day about Roko and Melo. Today I had a lady in the store who came to buy Noro-she heard it was on sale from her sister who lives in England and reads my blog.

I have been knitting a scarf-that's it. The week between Christmas and New Year's is always incredibly busy. We get out of town visitors who are in the area visiting family. We have had visitors from all over Ontario. We've also had a few visitors from the US including Betty.

Boxing Week Sales

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas. Beth and I had dinner Christmas Eve and on Christmas day with family friends. Both days were good but we couldn't stay long. Roko is still to little to leave for too long in the crate.

Speaking of Roko-he chewed on his first pair of shoes today. I am not happy!!! Luckily I caught him right away so there aren't any marks.

I decided around midnight tonight that we should offer some specials for people who visit the store this week. The list is too long to write but the notables are 15% off sock yarns (not including Bearfoot) and 20% off Noro.

New Berroco

Here are some pictures from the new Berroco books. If you double click on the pictures, you can enlarge them to see better.

The first book is Yin & Yang #262. All seasons, all ages, all sizes. The book uses different yarns including Ultra Alpaca and Pure Merino. The Pure Merino just arrived in Heather Colours-the shade cards aren't on the internet yet.


The second book is #255 for a new yarn called Bonsai. Of course I forgot a ball of yarn to tell you what it is made of. It is a ribbon type yarn with small slubs in it.


Berroco will be adding the new yarns and shade cards to their website at the end of January.

More Christmas and I knit something

These are 2 of the Christmas gifts that I received from Bev. She picked up the sheep on a trip to England. Very fitting with knit vest and golf shoes. I always carry a leather bag at the trade shows so she bought me a new red one. The only problem is that I didn't plan on red for the upcoming show so I have to knit some red to go with the bag. This is going to be tough because we leave for San Diego on January 12-not much time left. I have a scarf planned which will go with my suede jacket and then I am designing a shawl right now.

We received a new yarn in from Gedifra. It is a combination of yarns knotted together. I knit up Sally Melville's Shape it Scarf to see how it would work. I think I should have made the ends shorter but it is done now so it will be wrapped around a couple of times.

Christmas gifts and more playing with the computer

I forgot to mention a gift from my mom. She is making a scrap book for me and another one for Beth. Unfortunately her printer broke so they weren't done in time. The first page of mine is pictures from my high school and university graduation. It seems so long ago!!! There are some great pictures of us as kids going to Disney, playing baseball and hanging out with our friends.

When I write my newsletter on Constant Contact I can only insert one picture for each topic. Sometimes there is more than one picture that I want to show so today I played with making this happen. There is software that can be purchased to do this for Windows but I didn't want to buy anything else for the computer right now so I did some research and figured this out. On the Mac side I add the pictures to a program called Pages. Then I save them as a pdf file. From there I can transfer them to a jpeg file and voila-now I have one picture but it has many pictures in it. This is a sample showing some of the new garments from the spring Debbie Bliss magazine called Summer Essentials. This magazine uses her Pure Silk, Cashmerino Baby, Cotton Cashmere and Cotton DK.

If you can believe, spring Berroco arrived this morning. Cathy is working today so I haven't had a chance to look at the books yet.

We received some new patterns from Black Purl Designs yesterday. Patrick is knit using Takhi's Donegal Tweed.

Sandstorm is knit using Silk Garden from Noro.

Stained Glass is knit using Noro Kureyon and a solid worsted weight yarn.

Mom and Dad are leaving for Myrtle Beach tomorrow morning so we did Christmas last night. After dinner out we went back to their house to open gifts. Last Christmas we gave them small stockings to fill for us. They had lots of fun with it so this year they went out and bought 3 foot stockings for each of us and filled them. We got gift certificates to Tim Horton's, Swiss Chalet and Jack Astor's. There was candy, chocolate and pajamas-all the stocking essentials. They also found some neat things that will take up way too much space to go into detail. Thanks Mom and Dad!!

Spring Rowan

There are 2 new yarns from Rowan.
Bamboo is a tape yarn with a mini-magazine of patterns to go with the yarn.
Damask is a blend of Linen and Viscose. Patterns for this are in Rowan #41.
There are 6 new colours of Summer Tweed and a new Summer Tweed magazine.
In Handknit cotton DK there are 10 new colours.
Kid Silk Haze has 4 new colours.

There is a new yarn from RYC called Jeans. The name doesn't fit the yarn-it isn't denim coloured. The yarn is an aran weight cotton with marled colours. The cover jacket for the new RY magazine is amazing.
There are new colours of Natural Silk Aran with amazing patterns.

I don't have any pictures but I did see all the new magazines. Lots of great sweaters. They are getting back to the traditional Rowan. Stylish but not wild.

Shoes, Roko and something I knit

Roko has an infatuation with the water dish. He loves to play with it, drag it around the kitchen, try to pick it up and nothing is better than getting his feet into it.
























At knitting guild last week a few ladies were making felted mittens. I took the pattern, adjusted it and knit it out of Tussock chunky from Naturally. I still need to felt this-it looks like an oven mitt right now.


I ran to Yorkdale (a huge shopping mall in Toronto) on Monday to get a program for my computer. Of course I had to check out the shoe stores. I finally found something that I like. These are Geox, made in Italy, very comfortable and purple. Can't get any better than this.

Roko

This picture was taken with Photo Booth on my computer. You sit in front of the computer and have your picture taken. I don't have my printer connected to the new computer yet. Once this is done I can download more pictures.

Roko wasn't exactly happy with us for trying to hold his head straight.

In the past week he seems to have given up yarn. Now his love is socks. There are at least 30 dog toys in the apartment but he wants socks!!

Beth and mom are at the airport to pick up dad. They have a bag of sandwiches and treats ready for him. Refried beans at every meal doesn't make him happy.

I saw the spring Rowan last week but have been too busy to comment on it. I did get to see Rowan #41. The sweaters are very 'wearable'. Nothing outlandish. Handknit DK cotton is being used alot in the magazine. I remember there being at least 2 sweaters for men that looked great. Of course I left the notes in the store so I will post these tomorrow.

Progress Made

I finally figured out how to move iTunes to the new computer. Apple won't let you plug your iPod into the new computer and transfer the songs. They figure that you will share the songs with everyone-I guess it's a copyright issue. I had to download my songs onto a flash drive, load them onto the Windows side, copy to the Mac side and then download into iTunes. I now have to plug in my iPod, delete everything from it and then download again.

I also got my Simply Accounting moved over tonight. This is huge because that is the most important thing on my computer.

Tomorrow night will be making the printer work and everything is done!!

If you are thinking of changing to an iMac I would suggest it. Working the Mac and Windows at the same time is great. I would also suggest getting someone to transfer everything over for you!!

I knit about 2 rows on Kilcar today in the store. We received a shipment from Fleece Artist and Hand Maiden so I was busy putting them away. Customers kept coming in as well. I have to chuckle when I am knitting and a customer comes in and says, 'It must be nice to knit all day.' I wish. They are many days when the needles aren't touched.

More computer fun

I am not a stupid person!! I can find my way around a computer!!

That said, I have spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday playing with this thing. It really isn't too bad but there are some things that could have been explained better. When you read some of the books it is like they are written in Chinese.

I couldn't get the internet hooked up for the life of me. It finally hit me that I needed an Ethernet cable which I didn't have. Of course this was Sunday night after everything was closed. I got the cable yesterday morning and right away I was connected. So simple but so hard.

When you buy a new Mac it has something on it called BootCamp so that you can use both Windows and Mac. To switch between the 2 you must restart your computer. I loaded onto the Windows side all the programs I needed, Word, Simply Accounting, my emails-with address book, etc.

I went to Toronto yesterday afternoon to the Apple store and bought the new Parallels program. This lets me run a Windows window while I am working in Mac. No more restarting the computer. Again, the book was helpful but a few more pages would have made everything very simple. I got it all running but had problems with the Windows window. It was taking up most of my screen and I couldn't do anything to make it smaller. After about 2 hours I started playing with every button and it finally worked. Again so simple but so hard. Now that I am running Parallels, I have to reload all my programs into Windows. Wish I had known this Friday night!!

I am writing this post from the Mac site and the window is a bit different. Just above your post there is a tool bar. The Mac toolbar doesn't have everything that the Windows tool bar has. I will be doing most of Blogger on Windows.

All in all, I am liking the new computer. I think it will take some time to adjust to Mac.

Of course, no knitting has been done. No sleep either.

Gotta run and open the store. I could work on this all day!!

iMac

The commercials finally got me!!! I went out on Wednesday night and looked at an iMac. Thursday morning I was back at BestBuy and purchased the iMac with 24" monitor. It is as big as a tv screen!! I have both Windows and Mac software on the computer.

I want to say that all is going well with the switch but there are a few glitches. Hopefully I will work them out tonight and tomorrow. A trip to the Apple store in Toronto on Monday is going to help as well.

• my iPod won't load onto the new computer
• I downloaded our poker account onto the new computer but couldn't remember the password. I sent off an email to get it and my email provider isn't sending it through. Of course you can't phone the poker site. Beth wanted to play this afternoon so there were a few harsh words at our house.
• I have to remember the rest of my passwords as well. Most of them are saved on the other computer so the program or website just opens up.
• I need to find out how to get my email addressed out of Outlook and onto the new computer.
• until I get a program called Parellels, I have to restart the computer to move between Windows and Mac software.
• I am still getting used to the mouse. There isn't a right and left click which is different.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!!

Obviously there will be no knitting done in the next few days. I am almost done the back on Kilcar-should be completed while in the store on Tuesday.

Roko is doing well. He is a clumsy puppy which makes us laugh when watching him play. He can be running along and just fall over.

Puppies need a lot of attention

Things have been very busy in my house. Roko needs to go out every 1/2 hour so there is lots of running up and down the stairs. He can go up the stairs but won't go down. He has to go out at least 3 times during the night so I am a bit sleep deprived. And he really, really likes yarn!!

Wannietta worked in the store on Saturday with her daughter Amanda. She took a couple of pictures of Amanda with Roko.

I haven't picked up my needles in a week but I think I will start back on Kilcar tomorrow in the store.

I forgot to tell you about our shopping trip in the last post. We didn't choose to go over American Thanksgiving-it was the only weekend that worked for everyone. It took 2 hours to cross the border!! A 7.5 hour drive turned into 10 hours. We quickly checked into the hotel and ran to the mall. Cheesecake Factory for dinner and shopping-who would complain about that? The mall opened at 8 am on Saturday morning and we were waiting for the doors to open. The King of Prussia Mall is amazing. Nordstrom, 2 Macy's, Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's, JC Penney and Sears. I got a winter coat and new pair of boots. Just one pair-shoe shopping was actually very disappointing. We got Christmas presents for the kids on our list-thank you Discovery Channel Store. The back of the Expedition was very full on the way home. Luckily the lady at the border didn't ask very many questions and let us go.