I'm 40.

Today I am 40. I feel as though I should be having a breakdown of some sort - but really it feels like any other day. Zoe still woke me up at 5:45am and demanded that we turn her light on as bright as we could so that she could play school with her dolls. When I asked if she had anything she wanted to tell me she said "I SAID TURN THE LIGHT ON!" - so much for a spontaneous happy birthday from a 2-year old. Max did come running into the room screaming "Happy Birthday" at 6:30am - and he sent me a birthday email from his new email account. But then I made breakfast as usual, force fed them as usual, screamed at Max to get on the potty and then screamed at him again to stop kicking the soccer ball and get dressed!!!! Then we trudged to school in the rainy snow and then I went to Pilates even though I didn't really feel like it--but I hear it is harder to keep my girlish figure upon turning 40, so I went. Now here I am at work - blogging. I should be blogging about yarn, but yarn is so much less interesting at this moment than moaning about my age. This evening's festivities will include going to Max's school to see him in his "create-a-play" performance - a performance starring kindergarteners and 1st graders in his class and also written by them - songs and all. I think Max is a pirate since he made me pack his pirate costume in his backpack. I thought he said the play was about a Zoo...maybe a pirate comes to visit the zoo??? I brought my video camera though so that I can record the moment. After that we are going out to dinner and Jeff is throwing me a small party on Saturday. He is also getting me an Apple laptop and my mom is getting me an i-phone - all so I can feel like I am only 25! Onto the world of knitting. I just started knitting Jeff a present for his birthday. I am making an absolutely beautiful cabled sweater for him in Filatura di Crosa, Aran Cashmere. The pattern is from Jane Ellison's men's book. I really love it. I am about 10 inches up the back - 142 stitches - should we take bets on whether I will still love it when I am on my last sleeve? My goal is to give it to him for his 44th birthday in July - but it could be a 45th birthday present too. My attention span is not what it once used to be - nor is the time I can devote to knitting on a daily basis. Funny thing is that I have been knitting it at night on the couch - right next to him and he has't once inquired what I am making. Maybe I'll knit the whole thing in front of him and it will still be a surprise. My other knitting project that I will begin shortly is going to be a dress for Zoe - I cut a dress out of a magazine that I am going to copy as a knit - it is an Yves Saint Laurent - Piet Mondrian...very geometric - I love it - I think it will work out nicely. Until next time....

New President, New Yarn!

I just want to say that yesterday was an amazing day. I did not get to see Obama's speech or his oath in real time - I was on a class trip to the Queen's Science Museum - but I had chills at noon when 25 first graders began clapping and cheering upon the announcement that Barak Obama had just been sworn in as our 44th President. Truly a wonderful moment in history -- I hope that Max remembers it! So, in honor of our new President and to help the economy along -- let me tell you about some of the yummy new yarns we have just gotten in so you can call us and order lots! Fifteen new Koigu multi colors are here. Our Koigu Wrap is lots of fun to make and with our new selection of colors - picking 7 different ones is no problem at all! It's definitely a favorite here at the Yarn Co.! I also just finished the sweater I've been working on out of Koigu Solid. I like to call it "The Dot" . Another great new yarn that we've just gotten is Crystal Palace Merino 5. It is a beautiful new 100% merino yarn in a wonderful array of multi colors. I can't decide what to make with it. Maybe a quick sweater for Zoe - because she doesn't have enough. But it's great for adult sweaters, hats, scarves and baby blankets! We are still waiting for Flame and Merino HP and in February we are going to start getting spring yarns --I'd be excited about that if my fingers were not frozen as I am sitting here typing. I can't imagine wearing a tee shirt or a tank top any time in the near future.

WE HAVE A BLOG????

We know that the number one rule in the world of blogging is that you MUST post regularly. We know that there is probably no one out there reading this blog because we have had terrible, horrible, lackadaisical posting practices. But we are going to try again and hope that those of you out there that found us once, find us again and that you find forgiveness in your hearts. We hope that you give us another chance and we promise to try to be good bloggers and post often and regularly. That said, we met with a lovely woman today who has her own blog. She came to interview us -- she is reviewing NYC yarn stores in February. http://www.knityoursocksoff.blogspot.com/ When she asked us about our blog, Julie and I looked at each other and fell silent....and then "our blog?...Oh yeah, our blog!" I suppose we should do a quick "catch up" since October. Our computer crashed again (the beginning of the end of the blogging), a new president was elected, the store got busier for the holiday season, we had a wonderful trunk show during the month of December --Prism Arts sent us so many beautiful hand dyed yarns in luscious fibers which our customers snatched up like kids in a candy store, and we have made it to a new year despite the crashing economy! I knit Zoe an awesome dress out of Sublime cashmere silk dk. http://www.theyarnco.com/brand_display/396 I will have to put the picture on - it is grey and black striped and really came out great! She has these adorable patent leather boots that look awesome with it - but she prefers her pink new balance sneakers -- for the high fashion 2-year old look. I made Max two ribbed hats that he looks great in - I used 3 balls of Torino bulky and made two hats. http://www.theyarnco.com/brand_display/396 Right now I am working on Koigu Solid http://www.theyarnco.com/brand_display/440 sweater as a sample for the store. It is lime green and has a big blue circle in the center. It's very cute - I am in the process of deciding if the sleeves should be stripped or solid. Now that it's January, we are kind of in a yarn store netherworld. Even though it is freezing outside and in real life we seem to be entering into the thick of winter, here at The Yarn Co. winter is on its way out and spring is just around the corner. Although we are restocking some Blue Sky Alpaca Bulky and Punta del Este, Flame. Today we completed our spring buying. Cottons, linens, silks, bamboos and more will begin arriving in early February. We will pick up where we left off soon!

The Yarn Girls Go Shopping

Julie and I went "shopping" on Madison and 5th Avenues on Monday. "Shopping" in this sense means going around to expensive stores (think Barney's, Henri Bendel, Bergdorff Goodman...) and not buying anything- (who has the $$ in this down economy for $300 hats?) - but instead, looking for pricey knits that our customers can make for less! Well, we suceeded. We found lots of cute hats, scarves and other knit accessories that were $200 or more - that can easily be knit up for somewhere in the fifty dollar range. Already I've knit up a cute Balaclava out of Teva Duraham's Tundra (that's me in my knock off - above- think how great this will be in December when it is zero degrees outside!), and a chunky striped beret out of Blue Sky Bulky. Julie is working on an adorable cap with a brim out of Blue Sky Alpaca Worsted and Mercedes is making a chic scarf in black and white out of Karabella La llama. In the next few weeks we will get all the projects up on our website and hopefully get out a newsletter giving you some great gift ideas for the holidays that although they are still two months away - will be upon us before we know it. And who can believe that election day is less than a week away! To help ease your jitters between now and late Tuesday night (hopefully) - we are having an Election Day Sale! All yarns in the store will be 10% off. It is a great time to begin making some holiday gifts - save some $$ on yarn and ease your anxiety by doing a little "knitting as stress relief."

Computer Trouble!

Have we had computer problems!!!! A virus took over our computer a few weeks ago. Finally after Julie spent many many hours trying to get the virus off our computer, we had to call a real tech person to come in and fix us up (he was here for 4 and a half hours!) Then when he left - for some reason our virus protection was not on and over the weekend we got 2 new viruses. Julie managed to eradicate those herself. And she had to install new memory so that the computer would move faster than a turtle! So that's why there have been no blogs. (excuses, excuses...) But - we are hopefully back up and running. Things here at the yarn co are great. We have gotten in pretty much all of our new yarns and they are just to die for. Yesterday we finally received our Bottega 100% Cashmere - Julie will put it on the site next week. It comes in 11 great colors and is a good buy for 100% cashmere - 125 yards at 4.5 sts to the inch for $45.00! If your pockets are not quite that deep in these trying economic times - we also have beautiful merino hp - I must make a sweater for Zoe out of this. And new Teva Durham yarn, Tundra- it is thick like Tahki Baby but super soft and much lighter feeling. We made a cool raglan sweater that is knit from the top down - not really my thing this top down knitting - especially for an adult sweater - who wants to carry their whole sweater around with them?? But it came out nice and is a little different. We also got a beautiful organic multi colored merino wool called Nimbus. We made an adorable baby sweater from it - it has a cool diagonal edge at the neck. We stole the patten from Sarah Gochberg - she brought her little sweater in for finishing and we thought it was such a nice detail! I taught Max how to knit last week. He totally got it - although he does not have the patience to sit and knit more than a few stitches at a time - all of the sudden after the third or fourth stitch his eyes begin darting around the room seeing the gazillion other things he could be doing. But he wanted me to teach him because I am going to go into his 1st grade class and give them knitting lessons. Should be interesting. But - it is part of the first grade cirriculum at Waldorf schools so I figured why not give it a try! Tahki very nicely donated 30 balls of multi colored Baby yarn for the kids to learn on. I'm excited to do it! And I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Two weeks off. . .now that is the good life. I didn't step in a store, town or really go anyplace except the beach and back to our rental house for two weeks! Quite a change from the hectic life I lead in NYC! It was great and we had an awesome time! I dug huge holes on the beach, made great sand mountains for Max and Zoe to climb up and jump off, I actually went in the ocean, I ate lots and lots of yummy tri-berry pie with vanilla ice cream, did not exercise, played a million games of rat-a-tat cat and blokus, watched the olympics and the democratic convention, had picnic dinners on the beach and was just totally relaxed and content. It was quite a shock to my system to get back to NYC, throw a labor day BBQ, have school start for Max, come to work again and have many errands, doctor's appointments etc. to take care of. But, I am finally getting back into the swing of the daily grind. I barely knit a stitch while I was away. I finished Zoe's chevron skirt in Zara on the car ride out to vacation. But I didn't have a sewing needle with me so I couldn't finish it until I got back. And I knit a sleeve for Max's baby cashmerino sweater. That is it. But now that I am back and we have sooooo many great new yarns, my head is spinning with all of the projects that I want to make. The new Jane Ellison men's book has a great cable sweater that I want to make for Jeff out of the aran cashmere - maybe for his 45th birthday (he's 43 now), in the one of the new sublime books there is a great cardigan with a cabled yoke that I want to make for Zoe out of the cashmere silk dk and I want to make zoe a dress - modifying the chevron skirt I just made her. I will post some pictures of vacation soon! And lastly - Thanks to Tara for filling in while we were away. Nate is a great model!

Thinking Pink

Julie and Jordana will be back next week and after being on vacation for two weeks, they should have a lot of projects completed to blog about. So until then you are stuck with me. I am starting to get a little sick of brown and blue and green. As soon as I found out I was pregnant with a boy, I have barely touched a ball of pink yarn, let alone knit with it. That was over three years ago. I pretty much only knit sweaters/blankets for Nate, a) because he is still young enough not to argue about what he wears and loves telling his friends that his mommy made this, b) my husband lost the golf club covers I knitted for him back when we were dating (and then admitted he never really liked them anyway) and therefore I stopped knitting for him, and c) I love seeing Nate in all his sweaters and hoping that one day he will pass them down to his own children. That said, there arent too many options to make for a 3-year-old boy, in terms of color and style. And when you are as obsessed as I am about knitting, you need projects you are excited about. So about two months ago I went up to the Yarn Co to pick out some new projects and saw the Dream Childs Dress and decided I had to make it, even though I dont really have a one-year-old girl in mind to knit it for. I knit the body of the dress in pink and added a red pocket and big red buttons - if any of my friends become pregnant with a girl, you are very lucky because I will give you this adorable dress. I started to like seeing myself with pink yarn so I copied Jordana and made her Samba Dress for Zoe in, of course, pink. When I went back up to the store to show the girls my new dresses, Jordana was working on the Cashmerino Aran Striped Blanket (from Sublime) and I had to do the same - of course using pink, orange, green and white. I am thinking about making an adult size because it looks amazing (if I do say so myself) and sooo soft. And finally, I couldnt resist going to my favorite section of the Yarn Co, the Zara shelves (see previous post). I just knitted a pink Sophisticated Baby sweater with orange trimming and pink/orange flower buttons. Unfortunately I dont have someone to model these projects but maybe my husband I will work on that - I certainly dont want them to go to waste! While I tend to babble when I blog, I hope you take from them how much I enjoy knitting and how much I love the Yarn Co and Julie/Jordana (and Petra, Mercedes, Leslie, Jen, etc). No matter how many times I go up to the store (and my husband will tell you that is very often), there is always something knit up that I want to make - if I havent said it before, the Yarn Co is by far the best knitting store I have ever been to and anyone living in NYC or visiting should not go anywhere else. And more importantly, Julie and Jordana have given me a hobby and a passion that continues to grow even stronger everytime I walk into their store and see more projects I want to make. Have a great Labor Day Weekend - is summer really almost over? Make way for the wools! Tara Goldsmith Elbaum