Spinning and knitting my time away

I spent last Wednesday spinning all day. I ended up making about 200 gms of novelty bulky yarn and knitting a hat. I needed a new hat to cheer me up a bit. Spring is slow in coming this year. My ears are still freezing when i walk my dog. The March winds have been fierce and this hat makes it okay to be outside checking on the crocus and daffodils that are trying to come up between the snow and ice. Weather has been a little warmer this week I hope every day gets a little warmer so I can soon be outside working in my garden again. My newest handspun is rainbow colors for spring.

Spinning Reds Mohair and Wool

Snow! snow and more snow. Since my last post. I finished my store inventory and sent all my 2007 tax info to my accountant. I have been inside my house for 4 days. Today is Sunday and snow finally stopped and the sun came out. The clocks were turned ahead so it must be spring. I planted seeds, basil and yellow grape tomatoes in small plastic drinking cups in my bay window. The wheat grass I planted for Bob and Emmet last week came up and was enjoyed by Bob this morning. Cats need greens and they love the wheat grass. If they do not have grass to eat I catch them trying to eat my orchids and other house plants.

Friday I got a phone call from Interweave Press letting me know my application was accepted to be a vendor at SOAR in October. I am very happy. I always dreamed of someday being able to go to SOAR. It will be in PA this year. Having a booth at SOAR will give my life some needed direction. Going through my fiber stash will take most of the summer. Pounds of silk noils and angora can be carded with wool. Merino wool can be dyed, spun or just packaged to sell at SOAR. Odds and ends of curley mohair dyed every shade of the rainbow can be blended with roving to create noro like colors for spinners. By now you, my readers are probable wondering what is going to happen to the huge yarn stash that needed to be sold if I spend all my time playing with my fibers. Well the yarn is stored in a safe place and eventually will be sold. Right now I would rather be spinning. One can only hold back the creativity for so long. I need to be spinning, it is good for my soul.

Here are pictures of the unspun fibers and a ball of my bulky yarn I just finished spinning. A core ply spun yarn in various shades of red wool roving and hand dyed locks of curley mohair. I feels good to be spinning again.

The yarn was spun on my Louet Wheel and then plyed with a fine rayon yarn on my Roberta Electric Wheel. The next step is to knit a swatch and decide if I want to make more yarn like this. I have been spinning this kind of designer bulky multi colored boucle like yarn for many years. It sells well and garments made from it wear really well. I have a few 20+ year old sweaters and vests that have been washed many times and just seem to get softer and nicer with each wash.

Yoga Socks and Handspun Mittens

Yoga Socks. I take a yoga class at IXL here in Mercer two mornings a week and I love it. My flexability and strength have improved over the three years I have taken this class. It really helped when I was moving all the store stuff. The socks I usually wear slide more than I would like. My the yoga socks in the picture were designed with holes to grip my matt. I have not tried them yet since I am still working on my second sock. I'll post the pattern if they work well.

A logcabin cotton baby blanket is on my needles for mindless knitting. I usually have a couple mindless knitting projects on my needles and a couple pair of socks and mittens. I also like one challenging project to work on for times when I want to escape into my knitting. My new challenging project is a short sleeved top with lace detail in leaves up the front. I will knit a small one as a sample to take to Knitters Fantasy in April to show off some summer yarn that I am hoping to sell. I will use a Dale Pattern and some Cascade Tencel Yarn. I will post pictures when I get it going.

I am finally figuring out my new camera. I lost all the pictures I took at the Pgh Knit Fest and ruined the 2g memory card I had in the camera. The nice sales person at Staples said the card was hopeless and sold me a new one. I guess I pulled the card reader out of the USB or was it UBS Port while the pictures were loading and some how corrupted the data and then I initialized it again by mistake on my laptop.



I've been working on handspun mitts again. I really want to get back to my spinning, it's been tooooo long. I know once I get started I will be fine. I have had spinners block for a few months now, I have everything ready to go but just have not been able to sit down and ply off the beautiful red yarn that I spun about a month ago.
I need to get all the loose ends of closing my store and scaling back my business taken care of. I am still working on my tax stuff and time is running out. Today will be a good day to get a grip on the value of my inventory. I have been counting for a couple weeks but have not started totaling up the mess. In the mean time I have been knitting mittens for my little friends. I have one more set to finish up and I will have all 7 of my little friends in handmade mittens. It's been cold and snowy here so they have had a chance to try out their mittens this winter.

Happy Valentines Day

Ellen and I drove home from the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival Sunday evening. It was nearly zero outside and very windy. The wind blew off the snow but made driving difficult. My little boxy Sion is not good on windy highways. I had to really work at keeping the car on the road. It felt really good to was very happy be home safe. The car did not get unloaded till the next afternoon before I went to Grove City to visit my knitting students. Elizabeth just completed her second knit heart Valentine. I am so proud of her. I have only been teaching her for a little over a month and she has made 2 hats, a knitted rose for one of the hats, a mouse cat toy, 2 heart dishcloths and several squares for a baby blanket. She is 13 and seems to really enjoy knitting. I try to teach a new skill each week. I really am enjoying teaching children again. We made some cut paper valentines last week and the children decorated a Valentine mail box. This week when I arrived there were Valentines for me too. I picked up some flowers at the store on the way home to go with my Valentines.

Verna Greenan's husband passed away on Friday. I went to the viewing this afternoon in a blizzard. 8-10 inches of blowing snow fell. I almost rear ended a car a block from my house on the way home. The funeral is at 10:00 am tomorrow. I am glad the Funeral is just a few blocks from my house. The windows are frozen over and covered in pebble like ice. You cannot see out so I suppose the freezing rain has started on top of the snow that fell today. It is a good day to stay inside and knit mittens. I still have 4 pair to knit for my young friends.

About the pictures I took at The Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival. I was using my new camera and made a mistake and lost all my pictures. I was so anxious to see them Sunday night when I got home. I took out the memory card put it into the card reader and open my IPhoto program and clicked import and erase the card when finished importing button and a message came up that a disc error occurred. I was very tired and when another box came up I clicked a button that asked if I wanted to initialize the disk. I thought this might fix the problem so I clicked yes. This erased the memory card. I shut off the computer distraut and depressed. I went to bed. How could I be so stupid. Yesterday I got out my camera manual and learned that the disc erased if you click initialize. Ellen took some pictures also maybe she will share some to post.

Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival

Well its early around 6 AM I have to get up and pack my car for the trip to Pittsburgh.
I am wondering if all the boxes will fit in my little Sion. It will be fun to see just how much will fit in the car.
I am taking all the Lambs Pride, Step sock yarn, Ultra Alpaca. Sissi a beautiful lace mohair, all the 220 Cascade plus an assortment of books. Keeping the booth simple offering only a few choices. The yarn will be sold at a discount in hopes of selling most of it. I am teaching a class, Gauge Mysteries on Sunday. I ran out of ink for my printer yesterday in the middle of printing my workshop handouts. Tom finished them up on his printer but I did not get my new business cards printed and sale signs. So Magic marker and paper will have to do. I will make the signs at the show.

I am not looking forward to this drive into the South Hills. There is just no easy way to get there from here.
Ellen O. is riding with me and is bringing her GPS so I am sure we will make it okay. I was only lost for a little while last year. I am picking Ellen up at noon and I have much to do.

I will take my camera and post to the blog so you all that have decided to stay home can check in and get a feel for what the show is like. Next year it will be held at a hotel in Cranberry near the turnpike exit. It will be so easy to drive to.
Knit On!
N

Blue Felt Bag and sweater

I finally got to finishing this sweater almost finished. I have one more sleeve to go. I started it a few years ago and then lost it when I moved the store to the new location and I found it again when I had to empty the back room when I closed the shop. I am trying to finish us or frog all the knitting that was in the store. I would start projects to show off the yarn and sometimes finish them other time I would sell them as is, sometimes take them apart when they served their purpose of selling yarn.

I finally finished the button hole bag. I ran it thru the maching twice so it is felted very firm and is a nice knitting bag. It is knit with two strans of bulky wool held together. The color shading is achieved by using two differrnt colors of yarn and changing them as it is knit. I really like how this bag turned out. I am using it as my take along knitting bag. It is the perfect size to put a couple small projects in. This pattern is a free pattern from the Mason Dixon Blog. I registerd my bag project on Ravelry and was surprised to find pictures of hundreds of these bags finished and posted on Ralvery. This was a very popular pattern. It is easy to kit and with #15 ndls it can be knit up in a week end. With the bulky wool knit double it felts into a thick sturdy bag. I added an attached icord finish around the top and button hole. I used Brown Sheep Lambs pride bulky in 3 colors and used a little multi color Desert from Classic Elite with the Lambs Pride on the top and in the finish icord.

Knitting and cats at play

I am working on my yoga socks. I am writing the pattern as I knit.
This is what I found one morning. Poor little emmet had a little tooomuch of his new catnip mouse that I knit and just gave to him the night before. Bob saw me taking his picture and wanted in on the fun.

Return to my knitting Mittens

This bag began months ago at the store. My goal for this week end is to finish it and get it felted. The yarn is mostly Lambs Pride Bulky plus some Classic Elite desert. There are 4 colors of yarn knit double fading from one to the next. I am anxious to see how heavy it turns out and how the color blending looks. I think it will be handsome. I will post a picture of the finished bag.

I have been pretty busy since my last posting. The days seem to fly by. I feel much lighter like a huge responsibility has been lifted from my shoulders. I do not miss going to work at the store. I do miss seeing my friends and knitting customers. Please email me and send photos of what you are working on. I am still willing to help with problems. We can meet at the Mercer Library to fix a knitting problem that can not be fixed thru email.

I joined Ravelry. It is fascinating to explore. I do not think I would want to share as much info about myself as I see some folks doing on this site. I keep wondering how secure it is. Check it out and add your name to the waiting list. I have joined a few groups on Ravelry and found a few friends that are also members. My blog is linked to the site.

I am still moving boxes around in my studio trying to find essential items from my office. It is going to awhile for me to get this mess organized. I have too much stuff. I need to have a yard sale to just get rid of display baskets and books and magazines. I hope I sell lots and Lots at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival Feb 9. & 10. Only 21 days from now. I need to find my workshop samples. I am teaching Knitted Felted Valentines and Gauge Mysteries Revealed. There is a link to the Festival Website to the right of this posting. Next year this Festival will be north of the city in Cranberry at a Hotel. I am so glad it is moving closer to us. The present location in the South Hills is hard to drive to. I got lost getting there last year and I might get lost again this year.

I just finished fingerless gloves. They are from Taos. I love the colors and the fit. I have been altering this pattern with each pair. I like the longer ribbing over the fingers. This can be folded back for working. I will post this pattern once I am happy with it. I need to make another pair and write down the pattern as I knit.




Christmas 2006 I set a goal for myself to knit mitters for all 7 children of a family we visit on Christmas.
Well due to moving and closing the store I only finished two pair. So last week I finished two more pair. On Monday I gave the mittens to the kids and they were very happy to have hand knit mittens. I was a little surprised. I even had requests for more mittens knit with very bright colors. One little girl about 6 years old said she felt these mittens would keep her hand warmer than the other kind. I hope to finish a couple more pair soon so my little friends will have warm hands for playing in the snow. Here are a few pictures of some of the mittens. I have a new job teaching knitting and art. There are 4 girls and 3 boys ages 2 - 15. I love working with children again. I was an elementary Art Teacher in the public schools when I was in my twenties and thirties. I love making art with children and look forward to my Monday afternoons with the kids.

New Beginnings, Knit and Spin

I am still moving boxes around in my home. Last week I managed to get the computers up and running except for the imac that I was using at the store. It did not move well. It will not start up at all and i did not back up anything on it so i lost a lot of patterns and all my records of the purchases and the updated mailing list. I have most of the important stuff in hard copy but I am not likely to spend the time to re-enter this stuff. I do not need digital copy anyways I would rather be knitting or working on new stuff than documenting the past. I visited Margaret on Friday to deliver her new spinning wheel. She has a Kromski Sonata. Her first spinning lesson went well. I could hardly believe that in all the years Mags worked at the store that I somehow neglected to teach her to spin. She will catch on quickly with a little practice. Mags gave m a beautiful pair of handknit cabled red socks. I love handknit gifts and these socks are the best. A perfect fit also. I wore them yesterday and they kept my feet toasty. I will post a picture when I can find my camera. In the chaos my camera is lost somewhere. So no new pics till it turns up.
Tom asked me what I wanted for my birthday a month ago and I asked to go to go to see The Golden Compase when it came out. I read the book several years ago and wanted to see the film on the big screen. We do not go to many films prefering to watch films at home via Netflix. The reviews are bad for this film but since I read the books I wanted to go anyway. I am a fan of fantasy films like Lord of the Rings. So today is the day. The snow has melted and the roads are good so the 14 mile trip into the Valley will not be a problem. The movie is at 2:40 so I need to go get ready to go. I will post again soon. Let you know how I liked the movie.
N

Empty Store

The store front is empty and I am still recovering. We worked till almost midnight on the 27th and were not able to move all the stuff. We got up at 6 and went at it in the morning and finished around 10:30. the closing was to be in Grove City at 11:30. With our car loaded with the last load we drove to Grove City totally exhausted like two zombies. We were so tired, our bodies ached that we could bairly get our selves out of the car and into McBrides office. Tom and I are just too old for this. We were 10 min early and no one showed up at 11:30. We sat and waited and finally Lucy our agent came and told us the closing was postponed till Monday. Mike was still in NY and called an hour and a half before the closing to cancel. We spent the next couple days recovering and moving boxes from one spot in our home to another. I got some of my office unpacked and set up the computer printer and phones. The closing took place on Monday at 11:00. I deposited the check in the bank and went to visit some friends to celebrate. New Years Eve was very nice. We has a lovely dinner with friends. Adriana and Aneldia prepared some wonderful food. We were home before midnight. I actually fell a sleep in my chair watching TV at around 11:30.

Packing up the Baby Ull

Today is Sunday I will go in for a few hours this afternoon and pack the Silver Forest Earrings Displays in boxes to return to Vermont. This little company has been good to me over the years. I want to get the boxes to the UPS on Monday. I will also start to take apart my office and get my computers ready to bring home. The time is running out and I have so much more to do to get the store empty by the 27th.


Yesterday I finished packing up the Baby Ull and the other Dale yarns that have not sold. I am sure some of the knitters that bought these Dale Yarns on sale have not used wool of this quality before and when they knit items out of the Baby Ull they will want more of this yarn. It is so soft and light and warm to wear. I love my socks knit from this yarn. Many knitters seem to feel that wool is not good for babies because they have some memory from there childhood of having to wear some scratchy wool thing. I too have had to endure hours of having scratchy wool scarf or hat on while sled riding or ice skating in the 1950s. I wish my mom would have had Baby Ull. I will take the unsold books and yarn with me to The Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival.

Knitters come to build their stashes in spite snowy weather.

The weather turned bad and kept many folks from driving to Mercer on Sunday. We had several brave knitters that came out to take advantage of our sale. Saturday business was really good. Just take a look at the emptt shelves. I will spend this week clearing out the rest of the inventory. I will wait till the end of the week to pack up the yarn just in case some customers stop by had help me clear more of the inventory. I really do not need to take all of this yarn home. I am way beyond SABLE. I can sell at the up coming shows where I will have a booth at but there too much for a booth. So if you are reading this and want some yarn at really good prices please call and come by and check out what is left.

Good morning knitting friends,
We had an unbelievable day yesterday at the store. Everything you see in this picture I took last week has been sold. These black shelves are empty. The big Golden Retriever puppet, ball winder, swift sold all gone to new homes. I had 34 sales slips to record, A lot of puppets and other gifts in addition to yarn. I was there till 6:30 recording the sales and closing down. This task usually only takes me 15-20 minutes instead on an hour and a half. The snow was almost 4 inches deep by the time I left the store. There was no snow when I arrived, With more snow moving in today, we may not see as many knitters driving 50 miles or more to come to our sale. I am hoping to have some local knitters show up to take away more yarn.

Some of the people that came yesterday are coming back to just sit and knit. They enjoyed the excitement of the knitters planning projects and everyone seemed to be helping each other plan projects. With so much creative juice flowing it was an exciting place to spend the afternoon. There is still so much yarn left. It seems to expand to fill in spaces that open up.

With all the blowing snow I was happy to only have to drive a few blocks to get home. I can see the courthouse dome from my house in the winter and hear the bell ring out the time. It is a good way to keep track of the time when I am working in the garden. I just read my knitu email this morning and found this letter about fixing holes in sweaters. It would be a great way for me to close a couple moth holes I have in a off my cream colored cashmere sweater that I just love. My only problem is that I do not own any felting needles. I sold them at the store but since I did not need them I did not bother to take any home for myself. I will place another order with notions Marketing on monday and get some felting needles for myself. If anyone reading this wants anything else needles, books, or whatever I would be happy to add your order to mine. This may be the last time Notions will let me order. The sales rep said they will not sell to me once my retail store closes. I have to build a web page with shopping cart and reapply for an internet account. Since I do not plan to be doing a big internet business I may not bother to get set up with a new account.


Hi Knitters:
I'm glad to hear that Colgate toothpaste is such
a good stain remover. It will be added to the arsenal.
I have used hairspray as a solvent for ink, and then
detergent to get rid of the hairspray.
At the last Knitting Guild meeting a knitter
brought her husband's favorite (storebought)
knitted hoodie which had a hole in the middle
of the front, by the zipper. Very visible.
The yarn store owner (and host of our knitting guild)
used a felting kit--centred the hole on the bristle
brush, right side up, and a piece of matching wool yarn,
and then pounded it with the sharp needle tool. She did
it a few times to make sure all the edges were tucked in,
trimmed the resulting fuzz from the inside, and VOILA!!
It was cured!! Invisible mending! She said it would probably
only work with wool. Possibly wouldn't be as invisible in
a light colour. We were amazed and delighted. We are all
searching through our collection of sweaters, looking for
holes to mend.
Marlyce in Windsor, Ontario

Two More Days

Thank you Monica for helping me get thru these last few days. Your Noro Silk Garden shawl is a so beautiful. Thank you also for leading the Jacket workshop. Everyone seemed to be pleased with the experiene and love their jackets.


Well, it has been quite a week. I am beyond exhausted. I have been working 12 hour days since Thanksgiving. The store is looking good. Most of my fixtures are sold and will be picked up next week. Some are gone. Kindred Spirits Yarn Shop in Franklin got our antique magazine display stand and needle spinner. The new Natural Foods Store in Sandy Lake took one of our card displays and some shelving. The rocking chair and large antique Persian rug runner is gone. The store looks different but still looks good. I was surprised how fast the space fills in and in some ways it looks better. Less is more they say. We have a lot less yarn but we still have more to sell. I hope the snow holds off till Sunday night so the knitters can come and take away more yarn. It is a great opportunity to build up the stash for the coming winter of knitting. All prices are negotiable. Offering to buy all that is left of any yarn can really bring the price down. We have had several knitters discover this bargaining technique and walk out very happy with big bags of beautiful yarn to share with friends and family.

Folkmanis Puppets and Silver Forest Earrings and other gift items are still in good supply. The store will close at 5:00 on Sunday. This is the last official day we will be open. Next week our store hours are by chance and by appointment.

I will be packing and moving out inventory and fixtures all next week. Sorting out the UFO.s and throwing away the junk it will be a challenge. Any item not yet packed can still be sold. I will have the store open while I am there just in case someone wanders in. Most folks do not know we are closing. I did not advertise the closing anywhere other than email to my knitters list and this blog. I just felt that I did not want a whole bunch of people who did not support my store these past 20 years showing up and picking over all the beautiful yarn at bargain prices. I suppose I would have sold more but having to deal with crowds of bargain hunters did not appeal to me. It is hard enough to help my regular customer find what they need without dealing with people who are not familiar with good yarn coming in to take advantage of an advertised sale. Most of the local knitters did not support my store I could never compete with Pound of Love and Red Heart. Perhaps they would stop in to buy DP NDLS or some other odd notion but I could never convince them that they should knit with real wool. I would always try to convince them to try knitting wool mittens for a grandchild because they would keep their hands warmer. So often they would respond with, I am not paying that for yarn! The kid will just loose them mittens anyhow. I am happy to retire from fighting the Cheap Acrylic Yarn vs Natural Fiber Yarn battle.

Almost everyone that comes in looks around and says "WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH ALL THIS STUFF???? I know it look like a lot but I do not think there is all that much left to move. I have commercial spaces at two shows, one in Feb. and another one in April. I will be selling some on Ebay and if that does not work I can always donate stuff to a charity. Please stop by next week if you are in Mercer. If you are reading this you are someone who I would welcome.

Postcard Drawing Winners

Sleepless

I know it is the middle of the night. I could not sleep so I thought I would catch up on my email and some how I ended up finding this Handmade Pledge site. It is fascinating. Perhaps there is hope for the younger generation to make a better world,

Open House at the store was unreal. I think I am still full of the energy generated by so much excitement and that is why I am not sleeping. I am so glad Margaret, Monica and Robin came to help. I could not have survived with out help. We processed 44 sales one every 3-5 minutes for the first 4 hours without a break. It was truly amazing.
With Sunday sales added in I may be able to pay off the rest of the store debt. It would be wonderful to have everything paid off and not have to continue to hussle after the store is closed. My goal was to break even and walk away a free woman. It would mean that the cash that I earn at the show in Pittsburgh could be used to go on the Sock knitting cruise with the girls in May. It would be fun to get a whole group of Otter Creek Knitters going together. I will add a link to the Sea Socks site for you to check it out.

I need to get back to sleep now. Tomorrow will be another sale day and I am excited to see who comes and how well we do. The store is getting empty. The persian rug runner and rocking chair have been sold and are gone. Most of the big fixtures are sold and will be picked up next week.

I took the handmade pledge. I will make most of my gifts for the holidays. Will you be making yours?? You know I like it when you let me know you are reading this blog. I will post your comments. If you have suggestions for Handmade gifts for the holidays and pictures you can email them to me. Follow the link for the Handmade Pledge to see what other folks are making.

OUR LAST DAY DEC.22

NEWS Monday afternoon we got a call from Lucy, our agent, the sale of the building is still on but the closing date has been changed from Dec. 20. to the original date of Dec.28. I do not know why this happened but I was happy to have the extra days to clear our inventory. So it looks like we will stay open till the Saturday before Christmas.

My stress levels are really peaking. This deal has changed so many times. I sent out email last week to everyone saying the last day will be Sunday Dec.16 and now I am not sure what to do. I suppose I should email everyone again to let them know that we will be open a week longer.

It has been wonderful to see so many old friends coming by to help me clear out the store. Most of the big fixtures are sold. I still have a lot of wood crates that I will need to sell.

We still have a lot of gift items. Folkmanis puppets for the little guys and Silver Forest earring for the young ladies.
All our samples are for sale. Alpaca sweaters, scarves and hats, shawls and scarves. Some items are priced at whatever you want to offer. Most of our yarn is on sale at prices that are a savings of 20% to 50% or more unless it is inventory I am planning to take to Pgh Knit and Crochet Festival. Our books are 20% off and single sheet patterns are $2.00 older ones are free with yarn purchase.

Knitting the UFO's

I have so many UFO's unfinished knit objects around that I do not even know how many there are. They are everywhere around the store as samples. Some of these I need to just unwind and put the yarn on the bargain cart. I did finish a couple over the holidays. I really like the way these fingerless mitts fit. I need to make some in Black and Gold, Steeler colors, to go with the my hats. I started a new Steelers Hat from my pattern. I sold my samples and a few kits over the Holidays. I need to knit more samples using my pattern to edit the instructions before I sell more patterns. The patterns can always be inmproved. If you bought on of my patterns and have suggestions for changes please email me. I really like using Berroco Ultra Alpaca for this kit. I am anxious to get this kit and some of my finished hats posted on my Etsy Store.

The store was very busy on Black Friday. I hope folks continue to come and help me empty the store. We only have 16 more day to clear all the inventory. I have 100 skeins of assorted colors of Cascade 220 coming this week and a huge shipment of Lambs Pride Bulky. I will take home whatever does not sell and sell it in my booth at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival.
See the link on the right for information about the Festival. Feb. 9 & 10 2008 A great way to lift the winter blues with a knitting week end in the city with friends.

Come visit soon.

Otter Creek Store Sale continues

It has been an exciting week here in the Otter Creek world. My life here is coming to an end sooner than expected. I will be closing the doors on one phase of my life and walking into another. I do love being here. It is such a beautiful warm cozy place to spend the day. I love just sitting here in my rocking chair with all this beautiful yarn to inspire me to knit hats, socks and mittens. I keep seeing more combinations I want to try. Do not ask how many I have on needles. I do not count. I just leave them around with the yarn to pick up and knit whenever I get a free moment. Sometimes I sell them unfinished to knitters that want to finish them because they like what I have started.


On Wednesday evening I taught a smart young woman to knit while here children were at their Kung Fu lessons. She took it it immediately. She started on a hat and the next evening she was back with the hat almost done . I told her to return when she was ready to start decreasing. I did not want to add K2tog. to her first lesson. I was so pleased to see her with so much knitting done in just one day. She will be a great knitter. It is sharing the excitement of someone learning a new skill and knowing how this will change their lives forever that makes having this shop worth having. It has never been about $$$ for me. I love teaching when it works.



Every day more folks are coming and taking home tons of yarn to add to their stash. I love seeing everyone. So many folks that I have not seen in a while are returning to knitting now that the snow is starting to fly. The ground is too warm here for any accumulation but just 40 miles north the world is white and frozen. it will not be long.

I have been knitting ear flap hats again. I one in my handspun and one in an imported Italian varigated wool I love working with. I also seem to be knitting more and more cables into my hats. I do not know why my finger just seem to want to do them and I love experimenting with the twists.


I have included a few pictures of the shop. I keep taking pictures so I will have some to look at when I want to remember how lovely it was to spend the day here. It is impossible to capture the wonderful warm atmosphere and beauty that is here.

Wooly Yarn Sale

Our Wooly Yarn Sale November 10 & 11
Saturday 10 - 5 Sunday 12 - 5
It should be fun seeing who comes. I love watching the knitters. They all seem to enjoy the events so much. They seem to love seeing each other and sharing their kitting experiences. You would not believe the amount of excitement is generated by just two sticks and some string. I will admit some of it is pretty exotic and fancy string. Cashmere from goats from the mountains of Mongolia and Tibet. Sheep wool from Australia that has been dyed and spun in China and Japan. The finest italian designer hand painted yarns and rustic handspun and alpaca from Peru, Uraguay and Bolivia. All of this in a little yarn shop in Mercer.
I love this modern world we share. Yarn from all over the world brought here to us to enjoy. We really are rich. I am going to miss all of this I may not be closing the end of December. I will keep you posted. I am proceeding ahead with the sales anyways. I can always buy more yarn besides you all could use a price break for your holiday projects. There is a link to the right to a page with details of the yarn offered for sale and the sale prices.
I tried to email it but there are 5 pages and it is really to big to print out so you can view it on line. Please let me know if the link is not working for you. I will also accept phone orders and mail the yarn to you.
Nancy