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September 2010
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Opening day…

Herr we are, just starting the Thurs. night preview.

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Before ….

Some pictures from setting up …. Finished booth later.

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Yes, we are open for business

Even though the boxes piled against the window give cause for  concern, this is just part of the extra stock  we’re taking to Stitches Midwest… And, we really hope that after loading the trailer today we can give the customers room to shop for the rest of the week. But, a lot of inventory will be in boxes because we’re taking the wonderful white cubes for the booth.  If you like finding unexpected goodies in boxes, make your way to Knitting Today and enjoy the hunt!

Or, come to Stitches and visit us in booth 227-231. We’ll show you some great looking ty-dy projects, warm sweaters in Shepherd’s Wool, cozy Zealana Rimu and Kauri possum wear, Hiyahiya interchangeables, Noni felted bags in both crochet and knit, and the wonderful  American-made purse hardware from Jul Silver…

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Ready to Help... our own Elf!

 

Well, he really isn’t our own elf, but he sure is darn cute!!!!! New grandson, Jacob,  is wearing the Andean Hat that is coming with us to Stitches Midwest. Yepp, we are packing for it!  The store looks like an actual hurricane has came through.  Jjust wait until we take the shelves, Susan will be selling out of boxes while we’re gone!  She might even throw a “box” sale just so we don’t have to put it back on shelves.  Stay tuned . .

Cassidy is almost done!  It is completely assembled, just waiting to finish up a few ends, block and sew on the buttons.  Can’t wait to show you the final product.
  

Giveaway:  In the meantime, if you would like to win one of the hat kits Jacob is wearing, leave a comment.  We’ll draw a winner upon our return from Stitches Midwest.  And, if you don’t want to make the hat?  There is enough yarn in the kit to make Marie Mayhew’s felted eggs or use do a multi-color felted bag, like Noni’s Vintage Purse.  Oh, and notice that the hat is lined?  Tammy Otis came up with that idea all on her own and shared a write-up with us.  Make sure you ask for it if you order a kit.  Speaking of Tammy, her and DH celebrated their anniversary recently and guess where they spent some of the time?  Yep, here!  She brought us size of the Andean Hats in various colorways for our display at Stitches.  Thank you, Tammy!  And congrats, to both of you on your anniversary too! 

Jim and Tammy — Happy Anniversary!

Another kit we’ll be featuring at Stitches Midwest is the Freedom Hat kit, available in three colorways.  It is a fun knit! 

Freedom Hat Kit

 Boy, am I rambling. . . can you tell my thoughts are on packing for Stitches?  Must get back to it – Lea-Ann

Your "AAWWW" moment of the day

My two youngest kids came with me to work on Tuesday.  Why I do not know.  They brought their DS thingys and some colored pencils and paper, library books and various other things to keep them busy.  Round about noon they had gone through all their busy things and had started bickering so I said “why don’t you just pick up some needles and learn to knit already!”, never thinking they would take me up on it.  But they did!  Caleb had knit before and had at some point decided he didn’t want to anymore, but Sarah was picking up the needles for the first time.  (I wish we had gotten a picture of the two of them sitting at the table together, concentrating with all their might)  When we went home that evening they had both decided that they were going to make bean bags, probably to throw at each other.  Fast forward to yesterday afternoon:  Caleb had knit two bean bags- one a square and the other a triangle (I made him learn to increase and decrease and when he got done he said “hey, this is just a square!  why didn’t I make a square and just fold it corner to corner?” I smiled when Sarah said,  “because then you wouldn’t have learned to add and subtract stitches”.  Bless her heart.) 

Caleb’s heart- just for me

So, the point of all this seemingly pointless information is to show you this.  When Caleb got done with his bean bags he started knitting away with the yarn he had left and when I asked what he was making a sly smile and a “you’ll see” were all I got.  Turns out he was making me a heart pin. (now is when you go “AAAWWWWW”) He wasn’t happy with the shape so he felted it just a bit so he could hand shape it to his liking.  Now tell me that’s not the sweetest thing ever.  What a great kid.

Quick project update:  Just have to do the trim on the “Tee for Two”.  I got interrupted by the Dream in Color Club hat and then a Diva Bundle scarf.  I have a bit of knitter’s ADD.

Days like today . . .

make me want to crawl in a shell. Yes, its 9:30 p.m. and I’ve only left the store for two hours since 7:30am this morning. What a day this has been! First, the internet connection has been giving us fits for the last couple of months and I finally talked to someone who identified the culprit as the modem. Monday pm, run (well, drive, but you get the picture!) to Angola and get the last modem on the shelf at Staples. Tuesday early a.m., get here and start installing it. The monitor keeps going into meltdown! Finally move Susan’s monitor to the server and get the modem installed and connected to the internet. But when I hook it to the router and bridge the two pieces of equipment, I get nada. Left a help ticket for ISP pro to call me back and left for the girls school registration at noon. 2:30, we finally get back after having to redo Tara’s entire schedule since she’ll be taking IPFW classes in the morning and not the afternoon like they had it listed. Still no call from ISP so wait around talking with customers, etc. Finally, 5:30pm, get someone on the line to help walk me through the set-up issues. Finally have internet service about 7:30pm, but due to the type of set-up we did, the Forums are no longer accessible from the outside world. I can see them, get to them, etc., but the permissions are lacking and the service desk at the modem manufacturer is closed until 6am. So, here I am, almost two whole days shot and I’m trying to wrap up plans and get final inventory here before we pack up and leave in only SEVEN days for Stitches Midwest!! ACK! We were going to the State Fair tomorrow but that will have to be cut from the plans. Sorry, girls! [Tara got a merit on her top and Haley got a red on her fingerless gloves, so we are anxious to see what other projects were there and read the comments -- oh well, maybe next year??]. I’m headed home, tomorrow’s another day. Sorry folks, if you were planning on chatting on the Forums tonight, that it won’t happen. Lea-Ann
P.S. If you are network professional and can tell me how to set up the port forwarding permissions on a zoom modem, I’ll be glad to call you!!

The path to my desk

is blocked by boxes. It makes it a little hard to do desk work. But look what is in that box…new colors of encore tweed!

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So close to being done

"Tee for Two" in Blueberry Fields

I have not had near enough time to knit recently.  I planned on getting more done last week, but when the sweet corn is ready, it’s ready.  I like to put up lots of sweet corn, so I took two days off of everything else and did nothing but corn.  The second round should be ready late this week so I have to knit like crazy the next few nights.  Doesn’t it drive you mad when you are so close to finishing a project only to be too busy to knit.  It’s almost enough to make me cuss.  Anyway, I have maybe three inches to go before beginning the second sleeve and then it’s a pretty quick round and round and ready for the trim.

I have tweaked just a bit and did a three needle bind-off on the first side and knit the sleeve in the round.  So much easier than seaming when finished.  I am not a big fan of seaming and I like the idea of being done when I’m done.  I am going to take out the last few rows of the sleeve and do it over on a smaller needle.  I think my gauge loosened when I went to purl and I don’t like how loose/big the sleeve ends. 

Anybody notice the coffee mug in the background?  That’s the newest from Knit Happy, the Bright Sips Mug, in yellow.  Click the link to see all five bright colors.

I had to come back and edit this to add that the Diva Bundles are in stock!  These are so pretty.  I’d like to buy a bunch just to hang up and look at.

Once upon a Thursday, there was a grumpy old man and happy knitters...

edited July 26, 2010: my post somehow got overwritten when I changed the title so I’m just going to go ahead and try and recreate it as it was.  I know it isn’t exact, though, darn it! 

So, Tom is a little mad about having to tear back almost three inches on his sweater front.


But then a good time was had by all. 

New favorite bind off:

I first encountered this bind off in Cat Bordhi’s Insouciant Sock book. Since then,  I’ve suggested it several times for anywhere a stretchy bind off is desired. I’m posting the link here so I don’t have to go searching for my book every tine I want to use it.  Have you tried it? What do you think? Is there another bind of you love?
http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall09/FEATjssbo.php