Home from Seattle

It is 12:27am on Thursday and I just got in from the airport.  I am starting this while things are fresh in my mind and will complete it in the morning.

The flight home was uneventful.  Our plane from Seattle to Calgary was small-50 passengers.  We had to walk out onto the tarmac to get to the plane-haven't done that in a long time.  The airport in Calgary was very nice.  Lots of places to sit and read or shop or eat.  They even had a Dairy Queen!!  There were no problems on the Calgary to Toronto leg but my bags were the last to come off the plane.  I thought they were never coming.

I just looked back at my blog to read my last post.  Wow, I need to update from Monday and Tuesday as well.

The first workshop after lunch on Monday was Get a Life!  Basically how to balance work and home life.  Wow.  Did he write that for me?  The next session was branding.  Talk about dry.  The speaker read from his notes the whole time.  Definitely not a public speaker.  It was more like a university lecture.  Almost at the end he showed us an example that he had made up.  Wish he had started here and left the other stuff out.  They came up with the name, logo and store design for a yarn shop.  Very interesting but we didn't get to ask questions because he was over time.

Monday night we had dinner at The Edgewater Hotel.  I didn't know this but all the famous people stay here.

Tuesday morning we had two workshops on merchandising the store.  Very interesting and I came away with lots of ideas.  This could get expensive!!  Then we boarded a bus for a yarn crawl-four yarn shops and a dye house.

Seattle was beautiful but there is no way that I could live there with all the rain.  The weather changed on Tuesday and I got a terrible migraine.  Thank goodness for Imitrex and my salt and vinegar chips.  I was good to board the bus.

Yarn shop #1-Tricoter.  One of the most famous yarn shops in the US.  The store is beautiful-the yarn is arranged by colour.

Yarn shop #2-Weaving Works.  Seattle's oldest and largest fibre arts emporium.

Yarn shop #3-Acorn Street Yarn Shop.  I have been friends with the owner, Karen, for many years so it was great to see her store.  It is huge.  The best part of her store is the library ladder.  Beth is very jealous-she wants one for her warehouse.

Yarn shop#4-Fiber Gallery.  Terri Shea author of Selbuvotter.  What?

Norwegian Selbu knitting tradition.  These mittens are amazing!!  What a lot of knitting.

Stop #5-Earthues.  A natural-dye manufacturer.  While there the ladies dyed some wool for us.  This is a display of some of the natural materials used to make dyes.

I treated myself to dinner out at The Cheesecake Factory when we returned.  YUMMY!!

Packing was interesting.  I had a large suitcase and small suitcase knowing that I would be coming home with lots of goodies.  I didn't know how great these goodies would be

• Namaste Hermosa bag in black
• Knit Kit
• many knitting patterns and books
• kit from Classic Elite to knit the Firefly scarf
• set of Addi Lace Clicks-yes you did read that right.  We received trial sets to work out all the kinks before production of the sets to sell
• needle case from Della Q

It is now 8pm on Thursday night.  I have been working on the post all day.  I could sit and write more but I am very tired and need to have a rest.  My couch, knitting and NCAA Basketball are calling my name.

Goodbye Seattle

It is Wednesday morning and I am sitting in the lobby. My bags are packed and I am heading to the airport in a few minutes. It is going to be a long day. Fly to Calgary and sit for four hours and then onto Toronto.

Yesterday morning we had a few workshops and then a yarn crawl. Four yarn shops and then a dye studio.

I will try and write a longer post from Calgary.

Sunday in Seattle

It is almost 8am and I am sitting in the conference room.

There are lots of pictures for this post-you know that I like that.

This is from the ferry looking at the buildings on the pier.

The Space Needle is in the distance.  On my last trip to Seattle everyone was pushing us to go to the top of the Space Needle.  We couldn't make them  understand that we were from the Toronto area and we have the CN Tower.

You could look in any direction from the ferry and see mountains.  They were all snow covered.

As we were approaching Bainbridge Island there were amazing, huge houses lining the beaches.

More awesome homes.

We got off the ferry and were told that it was a 3 block walk to the yarn shop-Churchmouse Yarns and Teas.  I am not sure what world these people are living in but it was a mile, not 3 blocks.  Oh yeah, and a mile up hill.  I stopped part way on my walk for a rest and looked in the window of a real estate office.  These houses on the beach are selling for $1.5 million to over $7 million.

Churchmouse wasn't open when I arrived so I walked around and browsed in other stores.  There was a fabric store that had two neat quilt patterns and fabric that I hadn't seen before called Tula Pink.  Of course I have these patterns and some fabric in my suitcase!!

Churchmouse was the neatest yarn shop I have ever been in.  It was absolutely beautiful.  If you ever get a chance to visit it, please do.

I am adding lots of pictures hoping that my mom will show dad the shelving.  There is talk about redoing the rest of the store and I love these!!

Lots of finished samples everywhere.  Churchmouse has written a series of patterns using one or two balls of yarns.  I will be ordering these patterns for the store when I get home.  In the top right of the picture is a poncho/scarf (called Mohair Bias Loop) knit in two balls of Rowan Kidsilk Haze.

I was very hungry but this point and stopped at the Streamliner Diner for lunch.  There were only eight tables in the place and the line up was out the door.  Great food!!!

It is now 8:13 and people are filing into the conference room.  The speaker is at the podium and I had better stop typing and listen.

We are going to learn about Open to Buy inventory.  Beth's comment this morning "Is that like the eye ball method that you are currently using?"

Then we are going to learn about Fearless Negotiating for Small Business Owners.  Some of my suppliers are not going to be happy with me after this.  :)

Mom and dad told me about the horrible rains at home over the last few days.  The basement in their house was flooded when dad checked yesterday morning.  The good news-the guest bedrooms will be redone.  Beth said that we had a touch of water in the basement of my house in the furnace room but none on the wood floor.  There are a few buckets in the store as well.  The winds were blowing so hard that the library had a few leaks.  There was no damage to books, just a bit of drywall will need to be replaced.

People are now reading over my shoulder.  HATE THAT.  Going to hit publish now.  Have a great day.

Short post

Tonight is going to be a quick post. It is 9:30 and I am sitting in the living room typing on my phone. I am having the same dinner as last night. Lunch was big and late so I didn't want a big dinner. Also, it was so good last night.

The trip to Bainbrigde Island today was great. I have pictures and they will be in tomorrow's post. Stupidly I didn't recharge my camera battery so some are from the camera (very good) and some from my phone which aren't so good because it was overcast.

Breakfast is at 7:15. Really? Does it need to be that early?

There is a really drunk guy who can't figure out how to get out the revolving door. Priceless.
Not sure why I added that except that it amused me (a lot!!)

I watched the start if The Apprentice before I came down. Where did he find these people? They aren't even B list celebrities. I did get lots of knitting done. Almost 3/4 of the way through ball two.

It's time to go back upstairs. Tomorrow is a long day and I don't want to miss anything.

Day one in Seattle

This is going to be another all day post. No WIFI in the room is a pain but I am too cheap to pay for it. :)

I just learned an important lesson.  Writing in Pages and putting into Blogger messes up my Font.  I have tried and tried to change my last post but can't make it right.  This doesn't make me happy.  I like things to look the same!!

After writing my post I took a walk to Nordstroms and Macys. I bought mascara and that was it. No shoes called my name. Then I went into Lush. I like to look around but don't buy. Today I bought. There are a few presents for Beth because she got left behind. They did a mini spa traetment on my hands. Of course that cost me money because my hands felt great so I had to buy the hand cream. Did you know that their products are made in Canada? There are some stores in the Toronto area. Would have been easier to drive to Toronto than bring the bag home-it weighs a ton. I will need to be careful packing.

After lunch at The Cheesecake Factory I came home for a nap. Could have been the Typhoon Punch at 11:30 am. Sleep however wasn't in the cards. There was a big St. Patrick's Day parade. Bagpipes and more bagpipes and they were all playing the same song!! Then every few minutes it sounded like an explosion. After twenty minutes I had to go downstairs.

The Seafairers had a float and were simulating the sound of a cannon. I got downstairs in time to see them. Had to cover my ears it was so loud.

After they were gone I did nap. Then some relaxing time in my window seat knitting. It is only 7pm right now but feels like midnight. I'm going back to the room to find a movie and knit. I am working though. There is a piece of paper and pen so I can make newsletter notes.

Here is a picture to show that I really have been knitting.  The Soft Linen from Classic Elite is a great feeling yarn.  Just 14 balls to go!!

I am back in the lobby having dinner.  W Big Apple (apple martini in a sugar rimmed glass) and Sexy Fries (truffles, parmesan and garlic).  YUMMY!!!

It is time to resume my CSI Miami marathon on A&E and get that ball of yarn finished.

Tomorrow morning I will be boarding a ferry for Bainbridge Island.  Please-no rain.  The weather today was nice but definitely not warm.  I hear that it was raining like crazy at home.  You can keep it for the next few days.  :)

Made it

It is almost 8 am in Seattle.  I woke up at 5:15 but decided it was way too early to get up.  I was tossing and turning at 6 so I got up and started my day.  I have been out to get a tea (Starbucks is across the street).  No rain so far today but it definitely isn't warm  Glad I brought my big sweatshirt and a turtleneck.  I don’t have internet in my room so I am typing this in Pages (think Word in Microsoft) and then will copy and paste into Blogger when I get downstairs to free internet.

Our drive to the airport yesterday took under 45 minutes so I was very early.  I needed to use the washroom so started my quest to find one-not that easy in Terminal 1.  I had to walk through the check in area (which was jammed) and then down a hallway.  Didn’t make the walk because there had to be another 200 people in line to check in.  I started to freak out that customs and security was going to be crazy.  Thank goodnesses for flying business class.  Check in took about 5 minutes.  Customs was quick-about 15 minutes but I could see the security lines.  Did you know that they have separate priority security lines if you are flying business class?  There were 2 lines and the flight crews go through here as well.  People were starting to freak out that they were’t going to make their flights.  I saw some of them in the business check in and they were checking in an hour before their flight-of course you aren’t going to make it.  My line was moving quicker than the other one so people started jumping into my line.  Sorry.  Can’t do that.  We put an end to it and made it through with no hassles.  Yes, I did have knitting with me and they didn’t say anything about the needles.

The flight was uneventful and I got 3/4 of a ball of yarn knit.

We landed in Seattle and had to go to another terminal to get our luggage.  Before I came I read about the Link which is a light rail line from the airport to the downtown.  Thought it was a good idea.  $2.50 compared to an expensive cab ride.  It was a mile walk to get to the Link.  I am dragging my suitcase, my small carry on bag with my CPAP and then my purse which weighed a ton.  Laptop, Bookreader, camera, phone, knitting, candies....  The internet said the ride was about 20 minutes.  Try 50.  Finally make it to my stop and the internet said it was a block to my hotel.  Really??  The block was up the steepest incline I have seen-think about the hills in San Francisco you see in the movies.  Remember I am dragging two bags and carrying my purse.  

Here are a couple of pictures.  The first is looking down the hill.  The Link terminal is the first light at the bottom.  Remember I am dragging two bags and carrying my purse.  It is now 9pm in Seattle which is midnight in my time.  I have been going since 8am so I am now very tired and hungry and just want to get to my hotel room.

The second is looking straight out.  Unfortunately there is a tree in the way.  At the end of the hill is the water and ferry terminal.  

I get to my hotel and the registration desk was up a set of stairs.  Really?  How am I going to get my suitcases up there?  I left them at the bottom of the stairs and went up to get a bellman to help me.  

My hotel is what they call a Boutique Hotel.  The lobby isn’t called the lobby but The Living Room.  There is a fire place and lots of comfy couches.  Everything is very dark which isn’t good except when you are going to sleep.  In many hotels the light from the halls comes in around the door but not here.

My room is huge.  Great window seat that I will be sitting on and knitting later today.  Or I might be napping.

Nice bathroom as well.

It is now 8:30 and I have copied into Blogger and added pictures.  The mall doesn't open for over an hour.  I think I am going back to the room and sitting in my comfy window seat to get some knitting done.

Off to the airport

My dad is going to be here in 15minutes to take me to the airport so this is going to be quick.

This is how I pack.  Throw it all on the bed to make sure it is all there and then put it in the suitcase.  Normally there are lists as well but I didn't make one this time.

This is the kitchen counter.  Most of this is going to be in my carry on bag.  The chips are for emergency purposes.  Should I get a migraine then I like to have some Miss Vickies salt and vinegar chips-they always make me feel better.

My morning has been crazy trying to finish paperwork, send out cheques and get mail orders ready for the post office.

The Soft Linen from Classic Elite arrived so I will be casting that on during the drive to the airport.

Ishbel #2 has been blocked but I need to sew the ends in.  It is packed so that I can wear it while away-pictures next week.

I don't have WI-FI in my room but the lobby of the hotel does have it so I will be checking in.  Tomorrow will include a trip to Nordstroms and The Cheesecake Factory.  On Sunday I am thinking of taking a ferry to Bainbridge Island and visiting a yarn shop.  This will depend on the weather.  Rain doesn't make for a good ferry ride or walking around quaint shops.  Sunday evening the conference starts.

Have a good weekend!!!

Transferring pictures to Ravelry

Do you read the Spud & Chloe blog?  These socks (Jelly Bean Baby Socks) are a free pattern-see the February 27 post.  One skein of Sweater-what a great gift.

Why do I have this picture in another post?  You can post pictures on Ravelry using Flickr or other special picture websites but I don't want to do that.  From a blog post I can take a picture and upload it into one of the Forums.  Yesterdays picture of the dress takes up a full page when I uploaded it to The Needle Emporium group so I thought I would repost a smaller picture and try again.

Last night Beth and I watched Idol in about 10 minutes.  This is one boring season so far.  We keep hearing that the contestants are making the wrong song choice.  Maybe it should be changed that the judges help them choose a song?  If they become Idol they will have someone choosing their songs for them.

I have no knitting to report-just waiting on my Soft Linen from Classic Elite.  Betsy and Heather-can you make it come quicker??

Knitter's Frolic

Mark your calendars that the Knitter's Frolic is coming up on Saturday May 8 and Sunday May 9.  The market is open on Saturday while classes will be running on Saturday and Sunday.

There are a couple of things to note this year

The market will be open from 9am-5pm on Saturday.

From the Downtown Knit Collective

Shopping Bags
You may not be aware that the City of Toronto has a bylaw that requires the vendor to sell any shopping bags used for 5 cents.  It is part of Toronto's "green initiative".  It is our understanding the by-law enforcement officers have done spot checks at other shows this year and providing the bag as a "gift" is not acceptable.  We do NOT want to see any one of your get a fine for disobeying this by-law.  In our flyer, we have also encouraged our customers to bring their own shopping bags.

My dilemma last night was what to knit.  I didn't want to pick up something that I was already working on.  That meant figuring out what row I was on and paying attention to a pattern.  The easiest project in that situation is another Log Cabin square.

The Tunic is finished.


Sirdar Leaflet 1830
Size 1-2
3 balls Zara Chine colour 1928.


Sally says that my mannequin is 'creepy' so I am going to have Jane knit her a hat while I am away.  

Watching too much TV

I cast off the last stitch of this at midnight.  I wasn't going to bed until it was done.

If you want to get lots of knitting accomplished then pick a TV series, buy the DVDS and start watching.  We are going through 2-3 episodes a night of Grey's Anatomy.  I think we are about half way through Season Four right now.

Here is a close up of the lace.  Atlante shows of a lace pattern very well.

Before I left for work this morning I started blocking.  Unfortunately my piece of styrofoam isn't big enough to do the whole scarf at once so I will block one side today and the other tomorrow.

I have picked my next project.  From Classic Elite I will be making the Drapey Front Cardigan.  Read more about this in the latest Web-Letter from Classic Elite (and see the finished jacket in many different colours).  I will be using Fern Green like the picture.  The yarn is supposed to arrive on Friday-will it get here before I leave for the airport??

Curvy Knits is a new line of patterns from Classic Elite that start at size medium and go up from there.  This pattern is in the booklet Park St.

I started sewing together my baby tunic today.  Way too cute!!!

Another Ishbel

I am going to hear it from my mom today.  "You haven't posted in two days!!"

Saturday I came home from work and went directly upstairs.  It was an incredibly busy day in the store (thanks to all who visited) and I just wanted to knit.  There were about ten episodes of the Y&R for me to watch so I got down to business.

This is another Ishbel.  I am using Atlante (100% bamboo) from Naturally on 4.5mm needles.

I am extremely happy with how the lace is showing up in the Atlante.  Now the push is on to get this done.  I have 7 more rows to go and I want to take it with me to Seattle on Friday afternoon.  Seattle??  I am going to the Yarn Market News Conference-yarn shop owners from across the US and Canada meet for two days of intense sessions.  This will be my third conference and I come home with great ideas-sign up for Twitter-knock out walls and make my shop bigger.

The knitting on my baby dress is done.  I just blocked it and now I can sew together.  Jane is in the store today so that I can do paperwork and errands.  I might need to run to Limeridge to get some cute tights to go with this.

Store Sample

This is my current knitting.  We received a shipment of Zara Chine and the purple was calling my name.  Zara is 100% merino wool from Italy that is machine washable-perfect for baby garments.  Zara is made up of many plies of fine yarn and to make Zara Chine they combine different colour plies.  It is hard to tell in the picture but the colour is a mixture of medium and darker purple.

The pattern is Sirdar leaflet 1830.  It goes from newborn to 7 years and I am knitting a 1-2 year size.  Before I get any questions, I am knitting this as a store sample.  :)

It is now 5 hours since I started my post.  The store has been busy and we got a big shipment in from Namaste.

The new Circular Case from Namaste.  Available in the great Namaste colours-Black, Eggplant, Hollywood Pink, Lime, Peacock and Red.  We have them all.  They aren't on the website yet but should be by the end of the weekend.

From Namaste's website:

The Namaste Circular Case is the solution to storing and organizing all of your circular needles. Features a unique accordion-style opening and labeling system to take the guesswork out of finding the right size. Compact, clever, and oh-so cute! 

There are individual sleeves for each size of needle.  My collection is so big that there will be an individual sleeve for the needle size and length (think 4mm, 60cm)

There are 14 slots for needles.

There are tabs to write needle sizes on.  This way you can individualize your case.

The weather today is amazing and it is supposed to get even nicer on the weekend.  Enjoy the sunshine!!!

Putting mom to work

I saw this great pattern on Ravelry but know that I won't have time to make it so I packed up the yarn (in a Namaste knitting bag) and took it to my mom.  She likes to crochet more than knit so I knew she would enjoy making it.

The pattern is called Chameleon Baby Blanket.  It uses 3 balls of Silk Garden Sock and 3 balls of Kureyon Sock.

Beth took this picture last night while visiting our parents.  She needed to felt some things that Lynda knit and the parents have a top loading machine.

I just unpacked a box of shawl pins from Annie Adams.  They are made of lead free pewter.

This pin is called Blossom.

Aurora

(I just figured out how to make the writing left justified so it is close to the picture-happy day!!)

Cosmos

Ladies night on American Idol was much better!!  I picked Crystal to win during her first audition and at this point I can't see anyone beating her.

Iris the Gourmet Monster

Well, it is that time again.  Rearranging the store.  Now that the Olympics are over and I don't have an excuse to sit and knit all day I must do some work.

The Dyed Cotton and Multi Cotton from Blue Sky Alpacas lived in baskets and I decided that they would look much better put out this way.  The colours really show up now.

A shipment arrived from Lorna's Laces with kits for Iris the Gourmet Monster.  I saw Iris knit up at TNNA and have a kit to knit.  Maybe Rhonda would like to knit her for me??

Five kits have arrived so far.

I let Beth and Amanda pick the colours that we were sent.
Bright turquoise and lime-Beverly

Hot pink, yellow and orange-Winona
The yarn in the kits is Revelation-100% wool, bulky weight

Denim blues-a new colour called Avondale
The kits contain the eyes and a piece of felt to cut for the mouth

Wine, coral, olive green and yellow-another new colour Zombie Barbecue

Bright yellow, turquoise and lime-Daffodil
4.5mm-5mm needles will be used to knit Iris.

Somedays I am really showing my age.  I went home last night without the cord to my laptop.  It really isn't a big deal because I can work on my iMac but it throws me off.  I had many mail orders to do and I am used to doing them on the laptop.  Printing is easier from the laptop.  Now that I am at work my laptop needs to be charged and I can't do that from the front room while I am working on it.

Did anyone watch Idol last night?  Was that not the longest two hours of your life?  I am not sure if any of the guys have enough talent to win the competition-their performances were so boring last night.

Spring is in the air

The new Interweave Knits has arrived.  This is the Handkerchief Tee knit out of Debbie Bliss Prima.

Here is another view.  Way too cute!!!

Preview the magazine...

We totally forgot that The Amazing Race was starting again.  We watched on Sunday night after missing the first two episodes.  The cowboys look like they are going to be tough to beat.

Yesterday was spent on a road trip to Toronto.  We were out of clear shopping bags in the store and I have been putting off making the drive.  The day was so bright and sunny that I couldn't pass it up.  Of course I stopped at Yorkdale-it was right around the corner.  I came home with nothing.  It was one of those days-nothing was calling my name.  Oh, I forgot, except for the $1000 purse at Coach but I set it back down and walked away.  Maybe it will end up in the outlet store one day.