Sorry Jane

Jane is working today and has received 5 boxes of yarn and books to unpack.

2 boxes came in from Nashua this morning. There are 5 new magazines including one for babies and one for children plus lots of yarn. Unfortunately Nashua's website doesn't have the patterns on it yet.

Then 3 boxes came in from the Rowan supplier. I ran downstairs and quickly opened the box with the magazines. 2 from RYC-Coast and Nature and 2 from Rowan-Kasbah Collection and Bamboo Tape Collection. The new yarns arrived from Rowan and RYC as well. Jane is unpacking the boxes and stacking the yarns for me to put away tomorrow. I am dreading finding room for it all but that is tomorrow's problem.

I am supposed to be doing my taxes this afternoon but that isn't going to happen. The lazy boy is calling my name and I'm going to sink in and go through the books.

A brainstorm hit

Yesterday afternoon it suddenly hit me. If I pin my cardigan on a mannequin, you will be able to see it better. The cast on edge is under the arm and I am working towards the neck. Two pieces are knit and sewn together up the back to join. I accomplished more today but didn't get a picture. Unfortunately, the number of stitches increases every row by 2 so it is taking longer to get a row knit.

This box arrived from Jordana Paige yesterday. She asked me to fill out a survey about how I market her bags in the store. For doing this, she sent me a Knitter's Satchel. I have decided to have a draw for a customer to win the bag. The draw will run from now until the end of March. For every purchase over $100, in the store or online, you will receive one entry into the draw.

I unpacked more yarn again today. The spring Louisa Harding has arrived. This sweater can be found in her Swallowtail magazine. Her designs are always different than what we are seeing from other companies. They are classic but modern and can be worn dressy or casual.

Gotta run, my chef has dinner ready.

I've been tardy on my posting

Here is some of my latest knitting. I started the Asymmetrical jacket from Trendsetter. The yarn came today and I couldn't resist. You cast on and work from the armhole towards the middle of the back/front and then do another piece the same. It is hard to show in a picture but I have been a bad blogger and wanted to add some colour to my post.

This is a close up of how the yarns are striping.

I also started the second front of my Kimono Jacket. The squares on this front are 1/2 the size of the other front.

Back to Sunday. First the Daytona 500-great finish!! Jeff Gordon did crash at the end, he wasn't hurt and I was happy.

Then the start of Amazing Race All Stars. I think that it is Rob and Amber's race to lose. How can some of these people be doing this for the second time and still mess it up?

Then Apprentice. It is tough to pick a winner. There are some strong people in the game.

Monday was very uneventful. I had the day off which means running around. I met with my financial advisor to do my RSPs.

Tuesday I worked and my Lattice Bag class started. The ladies got started on the bottom of their bags. They all picked very different colours so the finished bags will be interesting to see. I am going to felt my bag over the weekend.

Today I worked. Got some knitting done and am getting ready to teach class. I got a surprise in the mail today. Berroco has added new colours to the Ultra Alpaca range-heather colours. I ordered some of them and hope to have them in 3 weeks. The shade card isn't on their site yet hopefully soon.

The remaining Rowan magazines that haven't arrived yet should be in the store by the weekend-I am holding my fingers. These are the magazines for Bamboo Tape, Summer Tweed and the RYC magazines. The new yarns as well as new colours of the existing yarns should be in the box as well.

The new yarns and magazines from Nashua left the US today so they might be here by the weekend as well.

Crochet Class

My message yesterday morning was great. Okay, it hurt at the time but it loosened up my shoulders.

People have asked and asked and I finally gave in and taught crochet today. I have been crocheting since I was 3 so it comes very naturally to me. Not to some in my class. A few had a hard time holding the hook-much different than knitting needles. For the people who didn't know how to knit, they got along fine. Then there was Lisa, she picked it up right away. I had her start her scarf and while the others were still practicing, she learned more stitches and made a granny square. They are making the crocheted scarf that I showed a couple of days ago. I think they will enjoy working with the self-striping yarn. It always makes you want to do just a bit more so you can see what colour will come next.

Tomorrow is the big day-Daytona 500!!! I will be sitting on my couch, knitting and cheering for Jeff Gordon to crash. I don't want him to get hurt-just out of the race.

Friday morning

I really didn't want to get out of bed this morning but had to-getting a massage this morning!! Now that the store is opening at noon on Fridays I can do a lot of things that I couldn't do before.

With the store being closed on Tuesday and Wednesday I got quite a bit of knitting done. One front is almost complete on the Kimono Jacket. I need to hurry up and finish it because a new Trendsetter pattern will be arriving next week that I really, really need. It uses Dune and Tonalita. My problem will be deciding the colour.

Gotta run now-the spa calls.

I've been tagged

Yes, I am bored. The snow slowed some after 10am but it is coming hard now. I talked with people this afternoon from Toronto and they didn't have any snow.

I did knit some this afternoon. I forgot to mention that the yarn is dyed in a certain way that I have to knit 2 rows from one ball and then 2 rows from another. This doesn't bother me but there isn't any finishing on the edges of the jacket. When done I am going to have to add something to cover up the ugly edges.

Nadine tagged me but it has taken me a bit to come up with a response. I had to come up with 6 weird things about me.

1. I don't eat anything that comes out of the ocean.
2. When leaving the house I am always paranoid that the door isn't closed. I have been known to turn around and go back home to check.
3. I can tell the difference in bottled water. Sounds strange but there are some I like and others I don't.
4. If I find a pair of shoes that look good and are comfortable, I will buy them in every colour available.
5. I can listen to 3 conversations at once and not miss anything. This really ticks off my Thursday night class.
6. I have to go to the bathroom twice before getting into bed.

OK, here are the next 6 to be tagged…Wannietta, Samantha, Rhonda, Cynthia, Kristin and Steph.


THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.”

Snowy day in southern Ontario

We are being hit with a snow storm so I am upstairs working instead of sitting in the store doing nothing. There is probably 5" on the ground already and this is just lake effect snow. The temperature is -15 - ouch. The storm is supposed to start after lunch. Melo and Roko are having a great time playing in the snow.

Here is my crocheted scarf so far. Notice that I have a metal hook now. It makes all the difference in the world. The crochet goes much quicker than with a plastic hootk.

This past Saturday I taught a mother/daughter beginner class. Two of the mothers already knew how to knit so they just continued on what they were doing. The kids were great. There were 4 who ranged in age from 10-12 plus one mother. Unfortunately the mother was having a hard time picking up the knitting but her daughter got it right away.

I am totally bored with all my knitting-this means starting something new. This is the Kimono coat by Jane Slicer-Smith. I am using the new Merino Otto Shadow from Trendsetter. After knitting with thick yarn on big needles I am enjoying being on 5.5mm with smooth yarn. This yarn is amazing. Bev has a jacket knit out of it that has travelled around the world. There isn't a pill on it-it looks just as good as the day she finished it.

It's Finished

The knitting is complete on my Lattice Bag. I have it stuffed with 3 bags of yarn to keep it standing up. Customers can't believe how big it is.

I will be felting this next week. Tuesday night I am starting a class teaching the Lattice Bag so I want them to see the finished bag before I felt it.

I swear it is going to be a full moon tonight!! I dealt with so many weird problems today it is unbelievable. Here is the big one. Last year when we opened the new company, Revenue Canada closed the GST account for The Needle Emporium. I didn't know this until just before Christmas. I pay my GST quarterly and make the payments online. I didn't realize that I wasn't receiving remittance forms. I needed a form for December and called to find out where it was. They told me that my account was closed. I told them that I had been making payments all year. They said, yes you did but your account is closed-we will reopen it and you have to resubmit your forms. The forms came but I hadn't done it yet. I received a call from them today. I might be penalized for not remitting the forms. I told them they had the money but it didn't matter. WTF? You close my account for no reason, I pay you the money I owe you but now I might be penalized. I faxed the forms in today and hopefully this is the end of it.

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.