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.

THE SALE IS COMING!!! THE SALE IS COMING!!

I want to let everyone know that THE YARN COMPANY SUMMER SALE starts on Tuesday June 2 at noon! All summer yarns will be 10%-30% off of original prices as well as selected winter yarns also. So be sure to come in or phone your order in - and stock up! We've still got lots of great yarns left and need to make room on our shelves for incoming fall/winter yarns! The sale prices are not listed on our website so feel free to call 888-yarnco1 to ask how much your favorite yarn is on sale for. I'll list a few great ones here that will be 30% off: 1. Taris - I wore this tee shirt the other day and got a million compliments! And the yarn comes in great colors. I think it would actually make a nice skirt also. 2. Ulmo Multy - This is a great yarn! The colors are FABULOUS - and it knits beautifully. I am making Zoe a skirt out of it now in the orange/purple/brown color - the banyan one I did last year. It is a bit hard to picture what the yarn will look like when you see it in the ball - but if you take a chance I am sure you will be delighted! The sweater that we made last year which is on the website is also a great little project. 3. Nepal - This is also a wonderfully soft cotton yarn. It comes in some fun colors. The wrap we made is not for beginners but if you feel up to the task - it is a great sweater. Otherwise - you can do anything with this yarn: baby sweater or a great pullover for the summer - you name it - you can do it! 4. Mulberry Silk - This 100% silk yarn is beautiful and great to knit with. A true luxury - and at 30% off - a great time to give it a try! Also 30% off - some other yarns I love - without the commentary - banyan, jeans, linen jeans, ayala and jamaica. Don't forget there will be LOTS more on sale too. And if you spend $200 or more you get a FREE Yarn Girls' Guide to Knits for All Seasons - A $30 value! Other than the upcoming sale - I thought I'd share a few photos from memorial Day weekend. - Max & the Mayor! How cool is that?! The happiest girl in the world - Zoe had a smile on her face all weekend. She just loved running around and playing in sprinklers and eating ice pops! And here is Julie's son, Nicholas. Also, happy as a clam!

KNITTING REDUCES RISK OF MEMORY LOSS

As a mom of young kids with a house to run and a store to operate – I am busy and probably over extended. Usually, I don't mind. But what bothers me is my startling lack of memory. For example, today, on my way home from dropping Max off at school, I stopped off at the store to prepare a bank deposit. I put it in my pocket and figured I would stop at the bank on my way home since it is right on the way. About a block or so before I reached the bank I put my hand in my pocket and said to myself "oh yeah, I have a deposit, I have to stop at the bank" (mind you this was only 10 minutes after I had put the deposit in my pocket in the first place.) Anyway, five minutes later, as I am walking up the steps to my apartment I once again put my hand in my pocket and this time I said "What the ---!!!" The deposit was still there! Next anecdote...Today, on my way to work, I decided I wanted to pick up something to eat at Corner, a new little place between 84th and 85th street and Broadway. On 86th and Broadway, I reminded myself that I needed to cross Broadway on the next block so I could get my food. Next thing I knew I was in front of The Yarn Company with no coffee and no food in my hands. I had to order from Lenny's. Why am I telling you this - my woes with loss of extremely short term memory??? (I just read this great book - Still Alice - about a woman who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers - and although her symptoms were more severe and even though I am really not a hypochondriac at all...I have my worries) - But that is not why. I am telling you this because, while there are many reasons to love knitting: the sense of satisfaction from completing a project, the beautiful colors and textures, the joy we get when making things for others... the list goes on and on and is different for everyone. But now there is another reason – knitting is actually good for you! I just read an article in Yarn Market News (a trade publication) - that says that two studies were recently done regarding the health benefits of knitting. At the Mayo clinic, Dr. Yonas Geda reported that " in a study of 50-65-year-olds that those who knit, quilt and engage in similar activities were found to reduce their risk of memory loss in later years by 30 to 50 percent." Also, in an article in March "Ways to fight Demential in your 20's, 30's and 40's", Dr. Paul Nussbaum, a neuropsychologist said that "using both hands works both sides of your brain." Thus helping to ward off dementia. So, it's good to know that had I not been knitting for the past twenty years - things could be much worse for me - maybe I wouldn't remember my kids names, not just forget to stop some place.

Zoe's Skirt, My Plants & Max's Poems

Zoe's Zara Chevron Skirt - Zoe made her mommy happy last week and wore the skirt I made her this past fall. She was the hit of the birthday party! We just got our Zara colors filled in - so come check them out. It also looks great in cotton classic! If I ever finish my Mondrian dress for her I want to make her another one of these skirts - just in cotton. Well, we saw some great new yarns for the fall last week from Tahki Stacy Charles. Despite wanting to buy very conservatively, Julie and I may have gotten a bit carried away. They had some beautiful new yarns, very soft. Stacy Charles, Karma, is a beautiful wool/angora blend. They had it last year - but it will be new for us. It is super soft, knits on a fairly large needle but is light and airy feeling. And Teva Durham has a great new yarn called Granite. It is a very soft merino wool and nylon that knits on a #13 needle but again is not at all dense. We also got some Zarina print and zara in new multi colors. I think we are off to a good start. We see Jay on Thursday. He has Sublime, and Debbie Bliss. I spent the majority of yesterday doing more planting on my roof deck and various other decks. It was exhausting - but I must say - it looks wonderful! I took the advice of one of our customers and planted all marigolds on the roof in the window boxes - it looks very fresh. Maybe if this yarn thing doesn't work out she can give me a job as a landscaper! Take a look: Now some close ups: marigolds daisies Also, yesterday I went to Max's class publishing party. They published poems that they'd been working on. Because what mother doesn't think that their kid is a genius - I'll share his poems with you: AQUA BLUE IN THE AIR Aqua Blue is every fabulous sea floating up and down. Coming on the shore,Singing it's sweet tune: Woosh, Woosh, Woosh! Aqua blue's smell is so charming it fills the air with brightness shimmering in the sunlight so bright. WRITE, WRITE Write write, write. Fast as you can You can't catch me I'm the little writing paper man! The pencil chased the writing paper all the way to a lake The paper jumped in And got all soggy Pretty impressive for a first grader, huh?

Time to Buy New Yarns

We see our first line of Fall/Winter yarns on Thursday morning. Stacy & Diane from Tahki/Stacy Charles yarns are coming. I love seeing all the new yarn but it is so hard to choose. Also, this year I think that Julie and I will have to be very disciplined in our buying...the darned economy. Gone are the days of "We'll take 10 bags of that color and 20 of that one....ooh and this yarn too..." Now it's more like "Should we get this yarn or that? What colors can we do without?" Not quite as much fun as it once was, that's for sure. But hopefully we'll see some exciting new yarns and it will get the knitting juices flowing again! Next week we see Jay from Knitting Fever -- he has Debbie Bliss, Sublime, Noro, Katia....then it's Toni who has Gedifra, Rowan, Nashua and Louet and then Donna who has Skacel! After that we go to Columbus to the show to see all the lines we still need to buy. We weren't sure that we were going to go to Columbus -I have a Bar Mitzvah that Saturday - but Jeff kept pressing me for an answer so he could RSVP - so when push came to shove - I decided Columbus - here we come! We've gone every year for the last 12 years...how could we miss it? And really when I think about it...a weekend away from my kids, looking at yarn and eating out vs. a weekend with my kids, driving an hour and a half on Saturday morning to Long Island - with Max asking non stop about God and taunting me that he and his dad are believers...only to then sit through a 2 hour bar mitzvah service where the men are going to be separated from the women (or more likely chasing Zoe around the parking lot in 90 degree weather for 2 hours while I am wearing a nice dress and heels)...hmmm. Really it was a no brainer I suppose. Speaking of fun with the kids....Zoe has a new hobby. Biting. This past Sunday we had a surprise 70th birthday party for my Mom. Zoe's cousin, Julia, was there. Zoe did not want to share her scooter so she decided the most effective way to get Julia off the scooter would be to take a chunk out of her arm. Granted, Zoe did not break the skin - but Julia has quite the bruise. Then yesterday - I come down from our roof where I was planting flowers for several hours in the rain and I see that I have a message...it was Zoe's pre-school teacher..."We had an incident with Zoe today...she bit another child..." Ugh! Then last night she bit Max! What is going on with her? I asked her why she was biting people and basically she said she just didn't like what they were doing at the time. She is a VERY verbal kid - so I asked why she didn't use her words and she just gives me this evil smile and shrugs her shoulders. It's always an adventure. I took a picture of the little monster wearing her Zara chevron skirt to put on the blog - but I forgot to load it onto the computer - so I'll do that tomorrow...It looks so cute on - I think I will make a cotton one for the summer . she does love wearing the skirts that mommy makes her! Lastly, I cannot for the life of me figure out why when I publish my posts the paragraphs disappear! They are there when I type the blog and they are there when I preview it - but once I publish it - poof - no more paragraphs! Just so you all know - I have nothing against paragraphs - i like them in fact - I just cannot figure out how to keep them!

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!