Second Graders Master Knitting

I have just come from Max's class - and am happy to report that I have 26 new knitters! After our fourth week of knitting in school - the entire class has grasped this new skill. It is great, everyone is very excited and I feel very satisfied. It is different from teaching knitting last year in Max's first grade class...first, the difference in motor skills is huge. I was surprised at how much easier the 2nd graders picked it up than the first graders. Also, this year instead of just a handful of kids knitting- the entire class is doing it. That's a lot of mistakes to fix, rows to help turn and balls up in the air. Luckily I have a helper this year. Nicole who is a customer at the store and the babysitter of one of the boys in the class and an excellent knitter - comes in and helps out too. Some of the kids have already completed a handwarmer, others are working on scarves and a few are working on a bag. Take a look:

And America's Next Top Model Is........ZOE!!!!

I don't know why I ever think things are going to clam down and I'll have time to sit and knit, read, blog etc. I must live in a little fantasy world. Needless to say, things have been hectic in life lately with the start of school - getting two kids out the door every morning (clothed, fed and teeth brushed) is a challenge for me. I know some people seem to do it with ease - but I am not one of those people - I think my head spins and my voice hits octaves I never knew it could- as I scream: "EAT YOUR BREAKFAST!!!! STOP SPITTING YOUR EGG OUT ON THE FLOOR!!! ARE YOU TWO YEARS OLD??? WHY CAN'T YOU SEEM TO GET YOUR OWN SOCKS ON???!!! GET OFF THE $#*!! TOILET WE HAVE TO LEAVE NOW!!!!" I am sure you are wishing you were at my house at 8am on weekdays. Anyway, that coupled with the fact that my husband made me cut my nanny's hours - so that the free time I once had is cut in half....and the curriculum meetings, class picnics, class potluck dinners, leaf hunts, holidays, etc. - I don't feel as if things have calmed down. But - that being said...I have been busy putting patterns onto our Ravelry store that people can download. I must have 15 or 16 up. It is very exciting. I have put mostly adult patterns, hats and scarves and blankets on because I did not have a little model. But last Thursday that all changed. Zoe (my daughter) came to the store for a visit before we had to go to her school picnic (for which I brought no food) - and she modeled a bunch of kids sweaters for us. It was a huge success! She was a great little model - and had a ton of fun doing it! So, hopefully I will get some of these great kid's patterns up for sale soon. I have also been busy trying to come up with a few cool, easy designs to submit to the magazine Knitscene. Over the weekend I knit a very hippyish handbag out of Punta Yarns, Flame. I knit it in garter stitch and sewed it so the ridges went vertical and then made a handle by casting on lengthwise - so that would have vertical lines too. And put some fringe on the ends. I like it. Will post a picture of it soon. And here at the store, things are moving along. We have almost all our new yarns for the season. Will write more soon....

Back from the Beach

Zoe turns 3!! Miss Zoe at a bon fire on the beach Max Boogie Boarding I cannot believe summer is over! I am officially sad. We had such a nice family vacation - even with our two crazy kids - I am just so not ready to be back in the real world...to make lunch, get kids places on time, to tell Max "no, you cannot play your PSP baseball game 8 hours a day" and Zoe -"No, we cannot watch High School Musical for the 999th time!" and to come to work! I got back on Monday after two and a half weeks away - and on Tuesday I just could not bring myself to come back to work (so since I am the boss - i didn't - although I did come in and get work to do at home.) But yesterday I had to reenter society as a productive human being. I brought both my kids to school and came to work. I have to say - that as far as a place that one has to go back to work to - a yarn store fully stocked with fabulous fall yarns isn't the worst way to go. The store really looked amazing. Almost all our yarns are in - and it is so colorful and textural - it's great. All the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran is here in a beautiful array of colors. The Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk DK is to die for and Sirdar has outdone themselves with their colors in Baby Bamboo! We got this luscious yarn by Filatura di Crosa - Karma - it is angora and merino - so soft! And Mercedes already knit up a great sample cardigan out of it. I am sure I will live in it this fall. We also got a Teva Durham yarn, Granite - and I am almost done with a super Cowlneck sweater. In her book for Tahki/Stacy Charles - she has a great cabled cardigan out of the Granite. It is soft and super chunky. What else? Oh yes, Rowan came - the books are outstanding - a million things to make! And we got a beautiful new Rowan yarn called Lima - and old favorites - Cocoon and Felted Tweed. From Nashua - we got Vignette and Grand Opera and we are now carrying Twinkle Chunky! I know I missed tons but check out our website - we are adding yarns as fast as we can.

MEET VERONIQUE

I have been very busy the last week and a half! I have added 14 yarn girls' designs to our Ravelry Store. These patterns are available to download for a fee (between $3.00 and $5.00) if you are on Ravelry - check it out and tell your friends to check it out. If you are not on Ravelry yet - get on it. It is a great resource for finding patterns to knit! I found it very overwhelming at first - but now I really think it is a great place to get exciting ideas. I have lot's more patterns to add and will add all the new items we design with the new yarns that come in. Last week, we got the mannequin that we ordered - her name is Veronique and aside from being rather broad shouldered, she is quite hot! So, we packed her and a bunch of sweaters up and headed to Riverside park for a photoshoot! You should have seen the wacky looks we got - toting this 6 foot bald lady around - prone - across our shopping cart. and on the way back - we separated her torso from her legs and stuffed her in the cart - people were stopping us on the street left and right - everybody had a comment! It was fun though - and the pictures look good. She wears our sweaters well. Getting Veronique ready for the photoshoot: Veronique in our Koigu/Superior wrap: And in the Alpalite cabled sweater: I have also been knitting up a storm. I knit 5 bracelets out of this great Lopi wool we got by Imperial Stock Ranch. Check out their website - they are a new company that we are doing business with this fall and I think they have a really interesting story. also we will be getting some roving from them later in the season that you can make some really cool scarves with - I am very excited. I am going to felt the bracelets next week and then we are going top make up kits - with different colors - to make 5 bracelets and you'll get the bag and the pattern. The yarn comes in awesome colors and is supposed to felt magnificently! I am also knitting up a sample in a new Teva Durham yarn - Granite that we are expecting shortly. And I worked on my Zara jacket for Zoe. Things have also been busy at home - we are redoing the kids' rooms since Zoe is going to go into a big girl bed when we get back from vacation. But I couldn't do things in a simple way - I decided that Max needed a new bed because his room is so small. I found this great bed at walmart that is a low loft bed - and has a desk, drawers, bookcase and mini closet built into it. Jeff drove out to Walmart the other night to pick it up (it came in 3 150lb boxes...we live in a 4th floor walk up...) - and last night we were up until 1:30 am putting it together. Actually - Jeff was putting it together - I just was there for the moral support and to hand him the proper screws. But it is done and Max can sleep on it tonight! Then on Thursday night we went out to Ikea to get Zoe a new dresser and bookcases - she is taking Max's old bed - we had it painted white. It was a very long nite at Ikea deciding what bookcases were right etc. We came home with 4 extremely heavy boxes. Jeff is obsessed and wants to put that stuff together tonight. We kind of need to at least do the dresser because all of Zoe's clothes are all over my bed because I gave Julie her dresser and the double bed that was in Zoe's room (as I write this Julie is now moving to New Jersey!). I am here for another week and then VACATION! I can't wait! Hopefully I'll blog once more before I leave and give an update on the new yarns that we've gotten!

New Fall Yarns & Ravelry Downloads

It is hot out there!! But that doesn't stop beautiful new wools from coming through the door on a daily basis. I have spent the past two weeks unpacking boxes and stocking shelves. The store is beginning to fill up and look enticing. We have gotten all of our fall Zara colors in. That's thirty-five scrumptious solid colors with which you can make baby blankets, adult throws (the zara garter stitch throw has been flying out of here), pillows, sweaters, skirts, hats and scarves! Zara is my absolute all time favorite and I think that this year it came in even softer than ever. It also washes wonderfully. I am currently working on a sweater jacket for Zoe - I am copying a sweater that I saw on the tv show Charlie & Lola. It has a charcoal bottom, small black line, and the rest is in dark brown. Then the front has srtiped pockets that are bright orange, pink and red. It's going to be adorable. We also got in Zara Chine - a tweedy zara that comes in fabulous color combinations; Zarina Print - a wonderful multi colored yarn that is slightly thinner than Zara; and Zarina Tweed - which has little flecks and looks very baby - perfect for baby sweaters and blankets. Zarina Print and Zarina Tweed: We received Koigu - half of our multis and most of our solids. People are having a ball picking out colors for the Koigu Wrap - it takes 7 colors, one ball of each. We received Punta del Este, Merisoft. It is a beautiful hand-dyed yarn that knits on a number 9 needle. It is super soft and the colors are to die for! We received Zara Plus in great colors. Here are some of the new ones: And Torino Bulky in a full range of colors. Start picking your colors for the Torino Dot Blanket now. Finally, we received Maxime Print for those of you who want to make a quick pair of socks. And quite a few colors of Karabella, Super Yak. And for those of you on Ravelry - we have begun to set up shop! We now have 5 of our favorite patterns available to download for a small fee. If you search Yarn Girls" they should come up. We have lots more on the way - just have to take pictures, and size patterns - so they will go up slowly but surely! Tell everyone you know to check it out. Foe those of you not on Ravelry yet - join - it's fun and then join our group The Yarn Co. And if not, we are still planning on putting up a Yarn Girls website with new designs available to download for a fee. Happy Knitting until next time!

Fall yarns are coming

It's been a while once again. Sometimes life just spins out of control and before you know it - 5 weeks have gone by. Crazy. First, there was all the end of school stuff to deal with. Picnics, publishing parties, a dance festival and more that I have blocked out of my memory I am sure. Then school finally ended and Camp began - and Jeff has had me on a whirlwind schedule of mooching off people who have summer homes, having barbeques and just making me so tired that I can barely think. And then for the first two weeks of July, Julie and I gave our whole staff off. It was like when we first opened - the two of us here, everyday - all day. Actually when we first started - we had Petra - for these two weeks we did not even have her. Petra was definitely missed - but we did survive and the store was neat and in tact when she returned. (She was a little surprised). Now, things are getting back to normal- so I finally feel that I have a few minutes to sit and write - plus its raining out and I guess everybody is hiding out at home instead of coming to the yarn co... We have gotten in some fun accessories recently. First, THE CIRCULAR SOLUTION. It is a handy storage solution for all your circular needles and it hangs anywhere! Only $22! A longtime customer of ours wrote her endorsement for the product:

The Circular Solution changed my knitting life!! After 10 years of trying various circular needle holders, I had given up and resorted to a Yarn Company shopping bag crammed with 80 needles of various sizes and lengths – I never knew what needle I had for a given project, so often bought duplicates. A friend suggested this product – I bought one that day, went home and organized my needles. Now there are no more kinks in the needles and a quick glance tells me exactly which needles I have. Ah, order has returned!! I whole heartedly endorse this product (and am not a paid spokesperson!!)

We also got THE KNIT KIT. It is a small plastic oval (that looks sort of like a diaphragm case - as everyone who sees it on the counter seems to point out) - but - looks aside - it is great - the kit includes a tape measure, stitch counter, thread cutter, scissors (TSA approved), a crochet hook, stitch markers and point protectors. It is a great item to have when traveling! I keep forgetting to take one and keep wishing I had one with me! It comes in black or white and is only $20! Hopefully,I will once again become a consistent poster- especially since fall yarns are beginning to arrive. We got our Zara shipment and have lots of beautiful colors in stock. We also got unbelievable chenille and multi chenille colors. Now would be a great time to make a baby blanket! I love getting fall yarns in, it makes my fingers itch and want to knit everything in sight. Right now I am knitting a reversible cable scarf with an amazing new cashmere by Jade Sapphire that we will be getting. Enough writing about knitting - I think I will actually go knit now that I have some free time on my hands!

THE YARN CO SALE HAS BEGUN!

Hello everyone. Things have been very hectic around here with year end school activities, the sale and various other activities. Just want to remind everyone that the sale is still going on until June 30! While the yarn is moving - we do still have lots of yarn to be had at great bargain prices! My new favorite yarn is Linen Jeans - I just swatched it up yesterday on a #9 needle and I am hoping to make a loosely knit cardigan out of it - it has great drape and will be the perfect weight for cool summer evenings. I am almost done with Zoe's Ulmo skirt - and I've had a piece of it on the table and the Ulmo has been flying off the shelves. Finally - I have to show you Zoe wearing her Sublime Organic Cotton sweater. I love it on her.