I've figured out Ravelry and more...

So, it seems that we skipped spring and launched right into summer. I was wearing my summer knits all weekend. Saturday I had on the great Ayala tank top. Saturday night Jeff and I went to a wine tasting party and I wore a little black dress and my linen shrug (I was woefully under dressed - but everyone consumed too much wine too quickly to really take too much notice.) Then Sunday I actually didn't wear a knit - but I did dress Zoe in her Banyan skirt which she loved and it looked just adorable on her! I need to hurry up on her Mondrian dress - I have one side finished - but I guess that is not going to cut it. I seem to have little knitting time....between trying to get stuff done on the computer (I will elaborate on this in a minute), reading (I've just read two good books --The Post Birthday World by Lionel Shriver and The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards- both really good- and I am engrossed in Still Alice by Lisa Genova right now), work, kids, and life in general I feel like I need 48 hour days - not 24! On the computer I have been working on two main things. First - I have finally figured out Ravelry! I am really not sure why it took me so long - but someone finally showed me and it's really easy. I have put some projects up - so look at my page - or join The Yarn Company Group - I think you can just click through above... I am also working on setting up a Yarn Girls' Website that will offer downloadable patterns. We have tons of new designs but no platform for them really - publishing is in the tank and I don't see us doing a new book - so I thought a good way to get our patterns out there for those who want to purchase them without purchasing the yarn from us is to join the bandwagon and set up a site! I am trying to do this as much by myself as possible - my lessons at The Apple store need to pay off. I have the general format of how to go about it down - but before I can do do much I need to size all the patterns and we need to redo photography. Then I can set the whole site up and hopefully only need to engage an outsiders help for the e-commerce aspect. Lofty ambitions but I think I can do it. My goal is to have the site up by sometime in August. I can't believe it is May next week - we start seeing reps to buy Fall yarn! I am not sure I can wrap my thoughts around wool at the moment - but I guess I have no choice...and it is suposed to get colder tomorrow. Until next week...happy knitting. Check out Zoe in her Tahki, Sky cardigan.

Well I am back from Jamaica. A week of sun and fun was very nice. The trip was good - easy travel - the place we stayed was fine...very kid friendly and we all had a nice time. I read on the beach and was about as lazy as I could possibly be. Jeff relaxed and enjoyed all things Jamaican. Max loved the big waterslide and playing soccer on the beach...he loved making his schedule each morning and sticking to it. And Zoe loved the jamaican men. She cooed and batted her eyelashes --it was quite a spectacle. She named the grill guy "ya man" and stood at the grill demanding ice cream, popcorn and attention. This is Zoe dancing the night away with Kervan. Here is zoe loving her daddy. Max also went sailing everyday with one of the lifeguards. He loved it - I think he really got a thrill going way out into the ocean - I got some palpitations but I love that he has a sense of adventure. That is Max on the boat all the way out.... And here he is a little closer to shore. I did not get much knitting done - almost the front of Zoe's dress. I am happy with my color choices though - it is going to be super cute if she actually wears it. Well - it's nice to be back (kind of)...and hopefully I'll have more knitting news next week. Until then - happy knitting!

I am on my way to Jamaica on Saturday. I cannot wait- I am so ready to get away! I am in the packing/gathering/stressing out phase that always accompanies getting ready for a trip with kids. I really hate packing for trips with my kids - I always feel there is so much stuff to bring because of my uncertainty as to what the kids will actually need... will they wear one or two pairs of shorts in a day? Will Zoe drip ice pop all over herself everyday or every other dayor twice daily? So I almost always end up overpacking their clothes. Then I pack medicine - what if they get a fever - bring motrin, what if they have a cough, a stuffy nose, diarreah etc. And I always like to have an antibiotic for strep on hand and the pink eye eye drops(because who knows if I can get medicine where I am - or my medicine of preference??) I really turn into a nut in such a situation! Then the kids need entertainment for the plane, food for the plane...I need to make sure I pack special animals that they sleep with, that special blanket (Zoe likes to sleep with 5 blankets on top of her, in a specific order...she has a little ocd with that...but I have already told her I am limiting her to one blanket - we'll see how that goes over)...and then I need some books, and who knows what else? If it were just me I'd bring a bathing suit, flip flops and a few shirts, shorts and some nyquil(just in case). Anyway, between the packing, the upcoming seder at my in laws, my husband's partially torn achilles, and my father sending me an email that he "needs to speak to me about something urgent soon" -- it all made my eye start twitching. It was very annoying, so today I am trying to take a lot of deep breaths! Today I am trying to focus on what knitting I should bring with me on vacation. I have decided to make Zoe her own Mondrian dress. I am going to use pink, off white, brown, turquoise and green. I am very excited. I am also trying to figure out one more project and I can't decide between a sweater for me out of black Gedifra, Ayala - or something else for Zoe -- maybe her own Creative Focus Silk cardigan. We'll see. Tomorrow I am taking Max to see the Bodies exhibit down at South Street Seaport. I am looking forward to it. I think it should be interesting and he is fascinated by the human body so I think he will think it is really cool. We are bringing my computer to Jamaica so I should be able to post from there--if not maybe Julie will or I'll be back in two weeks. Happy Holidays. Oh - and I almost forgot...we now have groups on both Facebook and Ravelry - The groups are both called The Yarn Compamny...please join us! Also - anyone know why even though I type my blog with paragraphs and my preview shows paragraphs - there seem to be no paragraphs when I post....I am confounded!

Aaaah Life.....

Sometimes I feel like it's hard to keep my head above water. Our phone system (that we've had for 10 years) stopped working the other day. Now the phone rings and if we pick it up with the phone system then the person on the other end can't hear us - so we have to go through this convoluted process to answer the phone so that we can be heard. We ordered a new phone but it can't come soon enough! Then our printer ran out of ink. Last month our laptop that we use in the front of the store died. At home, we have a mouse. Our roof is leaking. And Zoe has pink eye and vomited last night because she cried so hard when I was trying to put the drops in her eyes. And I finished the beautiful Sublime sweater for Zoe - the one with the cables and bobbles, it looks great. I had her try it on this morning - after I sat on her for quite sometime trying to get drops in her eyes - and it fit very nicely. She wore it for all of three seconds - not even long enough to snap a picture of her in it for the blog - and then she threw it on the floor. I am finding this series of unfortunate events to be rather mentally exhausting! But on the bright side - we went to Max's school auction on Saturday night. It was a lot of fun. I went a little crazy bidding for things - but it made me feel better. We ended up coming home with a great framed and autographed picture of Mike Richter - former Rangers all star, skating lessons for Max, a tour of the 20th police precint for Max - plus he gets photo ops in a police car and he can get fingerprinted, some tickets to kids shows (Dear Edwina and Goodnight Moon & The Runaway Bunny) - and a giant snake that was a class project (I thought someone would outbid me for it - but I was the only sucker crazy enough to bid for it. Jeff was not so happy about that one.) We also won a day with Max's teacher for Max in a raffle. All in all we did pretty well. Richard Kind, the comedien, was the auctioneer and he was great - so funny. He really got everyone into the giving mode. And Bill Telepan outdid himself at this years auction - offering up 3 dinners cooked in people's homes - each going for $9,000!!! (last year it was for $7,500 and I was amazed) - so again - I let all of you reading the blog know - he is a very generous man - support his restaurant - it is delicious! He also is an advocate for wellness in the school and has come in and made lunch for the kids - which is a huge hit. He has a salad bar and made wonderful wraps...it's really a great thing! Anyway, they say the school brought in 20% more than last year, pretty impressive!

The Modrian Dress

We finished the Mondrian inspired dress. Check it out on Zoe.

Something to think about....

I was reading an article in Sunday's NY Times about an independent book store that was closing down in Chappaqua, NY. As an independent retailer, with a small "local shop" myself, the article made me a little sad. It basically spoke about how hard it is for an independent local retailer to survive not only in today's economy, but in today's world of mega stores and the internet. The article discussed that it has become a game to look on the internet to see where you can find the cheapest item you are looking for. I'll admit that I do this myself sometimes. But then the article pointed out that "there are things you lose (when you do this) in ways that are not numerically measurable when a place like this (the bookstore) closes." "Downtown" loses it's vibrancy, it's uniquesness, it's excitement when there is little or no community support. When I think about New York City now compared to how it was when I grew up - it has certainly lost a lot of the neighborhood feel that it once had. There are still some local merchants left that you get to know, say hello to as you walk by and frequent because you know and like them....but for the most part - the drug store is an impersonal Duane Reade or CVS, the bookstore is a Borders or Barnes & Noble, the coffee shop is a Starbucks, there is a bank every other step, the furniture store is a West Elm or Pottery Barn...you get the gist. And it has certainly become harder in the brick and mortar world of Yarn too. While there are of course less "Mega" yarn stores, there are the internet Giants and the internet in general, free patterns, yarn swapping and gossip...all things that make it harder for the LYS (local yarn store - for those of you reading this that are not immersed in the whole online knitting universe) to survive. Anyway, it is just something to think about in general...what is our world going to look like in ten or twenty years from now? Will we ever leave our homes and our computers? Or just have things delivered to our doorsteps and then retreat into our own little worlds? I guess we'll see. And don't forget to sign up to follow the blog - or join us at The Yarn Company group on Facebook!

FACEBOOK, BRIDGE & CABLES

I set up a Facebook Group for the Yarn Company yesterday. Please join it - I am not sure exactly how I will use it - but I'd love for it to be a place where people can show sweaters they've made - ask questions, talk about knitting in general.... I also went back on Ravelry the other day - thinking we really need to put ourselves out there on it - but I just find it very overwhelming. How do stores use ravelry exactly? I wish I were more techno savvy. But alas, my interests lie elsewhere for the most part. For example, I am going to start bridge lessons tonight! I am very excited. I used to play a little many years ago- at camp actually (I went to a completely unstructured hippy dippy camp where half the time we went to our bunks and played cards instead of softball - and the other half of the time we were skinny dipping at Tushy Rock and singing union songs..."Oh there once was a union maid, who never was afraid, of the goons and the ginks and the company finks....." Okay - I am going off on quite a tangent...) Back to bridge lessons - - we have an instructor and another couple coming over to our house tonight...I think it should be fun. I remember really enjoying bridge and would love to become good at it - I should have been born several decades before I was - bridge, knitting - and I'd love to learn mah-jong too. Anyway, because they are coming over at 8pm - I really want Zoe to be asleep by then. I asked my babysitter not to give her a nap today so that when I get home I can just put Zoe down and she'll fall right asleep. BUT my babysitter just called and told me that Zoe passed out on the floor. Poor baby. It's not like she doesn't ever not nap. Pretty much every weekend she skips her naps and has no problem with it...of course on the one day I want her not to nap she passes out. Is that kind of like a Murphy's Law situation? I think so. Well, we'll see what happens tonight - I'll keep my fingers crossed. On the knitting front - I am still plugging away at Zoe's sweater. I am almost done with the 2nd front. The other day though I was almost done with the 1st front and I looked at it and about two thirds of the way down I saw one cable that was wrong, so of course I had to rip it. It was a bummer - I had to rip a few inches out of Jeff's sweater the other day too. It is very unlike me to make mistakes but I guess I am so tired - I am not paying so much attention. Also - we just started watching the Tudors on HBO. We love it - and I am absorbed - so I am not paying proper attention to my cabling.