4 years already?

It feels like it only yesterday, that I turned the key to open my dream shop. A place where people could come and escape from their every day lives to be creative and learn a thing or two. A bright space filled with nothing but beautiful color. A combination of my two favorite things, fibers and clay. I feel so incredibly grateful for all of the support from my customers, many who have become great friends. Not a day goes by that I don't give thanks, and there's never a day that I dread going to work. As you all know, I love coming to work each and every day, and for that in itself, I thank you for making my dreams come true. This Sunday, March 2nd 12-4, I will be having a little anniversary party, another words, a sale. All of the yarn will be 20% off. Hope to see you then.

The Coral Reef Project...

The Institute For Figuring is crocheting a coral reef: a woolly celebration of the intersection of higher geometry and feminine handicraft, and a testimony to the disappearing wonders of the marine world.

Carolyn Hanson is leading the crusade from Basking Ridge by giving a free crochet workshop on Sunday, March 16 from 12-3pm. Learn how to crochet 2 basic stitches and start making your living or dying coral to be included in the Coral Reef exhibit coming to NYC in early April. Anyone who contributes crocheted coral to the exhibit will have their name added to the list of contributors. More information to come. Sign up, space is limited. Bring a crochet hook. Materials will be provided or you can bring your own. This workshop is suitable for all levels of crochet.
Read more about the project at http://www.theiff.org/reef/index.html

There has been a date change for Annie Modesitt's Knitting with Color class. It has been moved to March 8th 6-9PM. Annie suggests bringing 4 colors of worsted weight yarn and needles. See you then!! If you have any questions, please feel free to call or email the shop.

Loving my Bulky Vest!

So I finished sewing together my bulky vest at midnight! Malabrigo chunky was the perfect choice for this project. The pattern comes from Knit 1 fall 2007, you know, the cover with a green alien head on it with lurex ears (bizarre- did anyone actually make that?). I love this vest, however, due to the flair out on the bottom, yesterday, customers were asking me if I was pregnant, yeah- I know-not so nice. Yes, lately I have been wearing some flairy shirts- I just like them. No, I'm not pregnant, it's winter and I like eating mashed potatoes, lots of them. Last night, in fact I have mashed manatas (as Scarlett puts it), and these...

Yummy in my tummy, and tonight I'm having spaghetti. So for everyone who thinks there's a bun in the oven, nope just one on my plate mopping up marinara, feeding right into my winter girth. I love carbs, and I especially love hot chocolate late at night, not the swiss miss and water kind, but Godiva on the stove with milk-yum. So there, let's eat to that!! If you're feeling like you have the winter blues, maybe all you need are some buttermilk mashed potatoes, good old comfort food.

Anyway, today, I happily unpacked a box of Suri Merino from Blue Sky Alpacas. Holy moly, that's soft stuff and the colors -amazing. I also got a box of books that look really good. There's a pretty scarf in Louisa Harding's "Knitting Little Luxuries" that I want to try in the suri merino. My favorite book of the batch is this one.

"Crochet Small Things". The projects are too cute for words, and the charts easy to follow, being that it's written in Japanese. Check out this scarf, I love it so much, I think I need to make it...
I have some of my silky merino that I dyed the other night in a rich deep blue, so I might play with that. Lots to do and work on, my MIL is due in tonight, later than planned because her flight was originally canceled. I can't wait to keep her up late with knitting and more knitting, oh yeah and maybe some crochet too.

I dyed all night...

Take a look!! I had so much fun the other night hand painting my merino/silk blend. I love this yarn, it is so soft and grabs the dye so nicely. I have more hanging up at home, hopefully it's dry so I can see how it turned out. My mom surprised Scarlett and I at the shop today. I was expecting her tomorrow, but she came a day early to spend the night- which means that when she and Scarlett are having their tea party (which is what I usually do every night for 2 hours)- I'll be dying more yarn!!

Dream Dream Dream...

Who can bring the sunshine, on a cloudy day? The girls from Dream in Color yarn, that's who. I am always thrilled to open a box of Dream in Color goodies. We got 10 colors of Classy, and a few of the Smooshy sock (so far), which is delicious!! Can we just talk about the colorway "Strange Harvest"?
It's no wonder why this yarn flies out the door. As beautiful as it is on the skein, the colors are just hiding, waiting for you to invite them out to play with your needles. I recently knit the Hermia sweater from Rowan in November Muse and we were all so surprised by how many colors were really tucked away waiting to emerge.

I finished my brother's hat from the "3 Tams" pattern from Knitty. Obviously, I didn't block it as a tam. He would probably never talk to me ever again if I did. I also upped the needle size from a 6 to an 8 due to his much larger noggin. Hopefully he likes it, and doesn't mind the boo-boo I made. Can you see it? I can, so I'm sending it off a.s.a.p., this way I don't stare at my mistake all day.
I am about to ball some Malabrigo chunky for this...

I don't know how I missed this pattern. It's from Knit 1 magazine Fall 2007 (perhaps it was the cover, you must check it out if you haven't seen it). This vest so cute though, and I think it only calls for 400 yards of bulky. I got an email from Malabrigo by the way, for all of you patient Malabrigo lovers, that I am being shipped next week an order of worsted and chunky, thank you Malabrigo!!

What the?

This is strange, half of my post from today has been deleted and I'm not sure why. Is anyone out there having strange blogger problems? Sometimes I forget that it isn't very friendly to safari, and seems to prefer firefox. Gees, I had a picture of Annie Modesitt's Romantic Knits and a funny story about my dog getting his head stuck in a cooler- he's okay - it was really funny. Oh well, off to dye some delicious silk/merino....

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down...

Not really, but I do love the Carpenters and... I LOVE the new Blue Sky Silk Alpaca colors!! I loved the colors before, but these are bright and gorgeous and pull me out of this winter gloom and right onto a tropical island somewhere with a frozen drink (or two).

I'm going to have crochet another scarf. That will make Blue Sky crochet scarf #4- oh dear. It's just so quick and easy and it looks great on.

Okay, not to get off of the subject, but as I'm typing this entry, I have sirius channel First wave on. I've had is on all day, and it has been treating me oh so good. Berlin is on right now and I feel like going into the bathroom to tease my hair. It brings me back to the 80's- I think I had the highest hair in my high school (I know I was grounded for most of my sophmore year for throwing the best parties EVER when my parents were away). But these were the songs we used to play- we had so much fun. Parachute pants and black rubber bracelets, nike sneakers, and high hair. Things seemed so easy and so much fun then. Excuse me while I stroll down memory lane for a minute. I know you can all relate, well maybe not to be grounded every day or having really high hair, but it was all worth it.

Now back to the knitting world, just a reminder that Annie Modesitt is coming by to teach us how to master knitting with color... February 27 6-9 - space is limited, so be sure to sign up soon than later. Watch out for for a spinning workshop with Marie Carney of Brooklyn Handspun this spring, that should be tons of fun!!