Salsa, not Salsa

This Friday night at Knit Nite we will be featuring delicious salsas from Mama's Own Savory Salsa, made by a local mother/daughter team. I met Dawn and Diana when they were doing a tasting at the Thriftway up the street last month. I liked the salsa so much I bought some and asked them if they would do a tasting at the shop! I'm so glad they said yes because their stuff is HOT - both in the wow-this-is-great way and in the yummy-spicy way (although I'm a bit of a wimp and bought the mild). They will bring some jars to sell and we'll have lots of chips to dip. Be sure to check out their beautiful Website: www.mamasownsalsa.com

And don't forget about the Hopelink food drive this weekend. Bring in a needed item and we'll put you into the pot for a drawing. (see previous blog entry)

On another Salsa note, I went to a going away party for one of our favorite customers/friends, Jessica, last night at a new club in Wallingford called Babalu! It's on the corner of Wallingford and 45th and it just opened up. The music was great and the dancers were fun to watch. I'm definitely goin' back with my dancin' shoes on! Anyone care to join me??

Deb

P.S. Seinfeld fans will understand the title of this post. :-)

Knit Nite Food Drive

Last Knit Nite we asked our customers to bring in food stuffs for an emergency food drive for the Ronald McDonald House and we had a fantastic turnout. We were able to donate over $600 worth of food and other necessities! Because we were so successful, we were asked to do the same for another worthy group, Hopelink.

The Hopelink Shoreline serves low income residents of Shoreline and Lake Forest Park. Services available include regular food banks, eviction prevention, energy assistance, holiday gift rooms, school supplies, emergency financial assistance, Basic Food (food stamp) education and outreach, literacy, ESL classes, and family development case management. (The kids that benefit from this service are often the kids that receive free lunch during the school year.)

They are currently in need of the following items:
Canned Fruit
Plain Rice and Grains
Canned Beans (Chickpeas, Kidney Beans, etc.)
Dry Beans
Peanut Butter
Tuna

Bring in any of these items for donation to this Friday's Nite Knit (June 1, 2007) and we will enter your name into a drawing for a door prize.

And the winner is.....

...Beth Green!! Beth is the winner of the LYS Tour $400 gift certificate. She and 6 of her friends did the tour together and had a "terrific time!" Beth is also the recipient of our special bouquet of flowers made up of one hand-made flower from each participating shop. Beth isn't sure how she is going to spend her windfall and may share it with her friends from the tour. Congratulations Beth!

Oh, for the love of socks

We really do love our sock yarn, don't we? The new Opal cotton and wool blends came in yesterday and I must say, the new colorways are awesome. (Der Blaue Mond 650 is coming home with me today.) The colors are repeated in both the cotton blend and the wool - the cotton being the more muted of the variations. The new patterns are based on famous paintings done in bright colors. Very cool. We also got some of the new Rainforest colorways. Opal sent us posters and they show pictures of socks knitted vertically! I'll have to call the rep to see if we can get the pattern.

Speaking of socks, Ellen is going to run her Sock Pals exchange again this summer. Sign-ups will be June 1 - 15th. Work on Socks June, July and August. Finished socks need to be turned in Sept. 12-15th with a party/exchange on Saturday Sept. 15th from 12-2pm. Ellen will be setting up a general email list so that she can notify every one of deadlines and just check in, etc. The person you are knitting for will not necessarily be who is knitting for you.

You can download a sign-up form here: http://www.villageyarnandtea.com/SockPalsForm.pdf

Questions? Ask Ellen or email Ellen at store@villageyarnandtea.com

Dulaan-a-thon

Our Kim is hosting/planning a Dulaan-a-thon here at the shop! Here is her post:

Date: June 2, 2007, time: 6pm - 6am

Bring your Dulaan knitting, finished items, a munchy if you like, and a tea cup. Pajamas are welcome as attire. Ryan will give us a great update on this year's item collection efforts so far, share fun tidbits about the projects, and share some materials sent to us by F.I.R.E., the organization that delivers the knitted items to Dulaan,Mongolia. My blog has some interesting facts that folks will want to know for a couple of the games we'll be playing: http://www.fleecestreet.blogspot.com

The morning after

Whew. I don't know about you but I'm exhausted and I didn't even get to go on the tour! Now that it's over I don't know what to do with myself. This too shall pass however because I have LOTS to do, actually. We will be debriefing next week and discussing next year's tour. If you have any comments about the tour that you think should be addressed by the group, please let us know. We want to make it a great experience for everyone!

Some of the shops are posting their patterns to the lystour.com site (under Patterns, oddly enough). There are only a couple there now but more are coming so keep checking back. We posted our Touring Wrap pattern for download but we are currently OUT of the Suri Blue. Fleece Artist said that they will ship in 2 weeks so let us know if you want us to contact you when it comes in. (Note for next year: Buy more yarn!!)

We still have some great yarn on sale, including the Elsebeth Lavold Silky Tweed (which has been discontinued). It is marked down 35%, but if you buy 10 skeins or more it is 40% off! Such a deal. Some of the other yarns on permanent markdown include Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky, Trendsetter Aura, Rowan Cotton Braid, Cotton Tape, Cotton Rope and Linen Print, Opal Solids sock yarn, and much, much more. (I'm beginning to sound like a game show host!)

Hope to see you soon,
Deb

LYS Tour, Day 2

Wow!!! What a great turn out. I arrived at noon and hit the floor running. We have met so many fantastic people! And that's what this whole thing is about - people. Not that I'm unhappy about sales but it really is the people that make this whole thing worth doing. Our Saturday regulars even braved the masses and came to hang out for the day.

We had a surprise this morning with the arrival of our new ShiBui sock yarn. Yes, I threw myself into the box and rolled in it before putting it on the shelf (a bad habit of mine). ShiBui has its own mill so they have a very unique twist to their merino superwash and it is beautimus!!! They also have some great pattern support - wraps, shrugs, baby booties, etc. If you are touring, be sure to take a look.

Tonight, the VYT gang is going to Kari's for some after-tour libations and much deserved "west and wewaxation", to quote Elmer Fudd. We aren't sure if Sunday's crowd will be like todays but we are guessing that there should be at least a few visitors trying to get those last few shops in. Can't wait!

Deb

Sippin' and Knittin'

Day one of the LYS Tour is almost over and we be sippin'! (Them ain't lemonades, sister.) It's been GREAT! Very busy and fun. We think it will be even busier tomorrow!

Happy touring,
Deb

P.S. Is there a rule about drinking and blogging? ;-)

P.S.S. Don't we look great in our new glasses!

LYS Tour time!

We worked like mad women in the shop today to get things ready for the tour. There are over 50 yarns on sale!! Sale yarns are all in the class area and there are sheets with them all listed. Some are only $1!

We don't know how many people will be coming through for the tour but we are expecting a lot. We are asking the across-the-lot neighbors to allow our customers to park in their spots but we haven't heard a yeah or nay yet. The upstairs neighbors are going to park farther up 25th, if they can, to leave more back spots open.

If you come in for the tour, please be sure to let us know if you read the blog!

We hope to see you this weekend,
Deb

Going, going.......

....almost gone! We still have a few skeins of Yarn Pirate Merino sock yarn left but they are not expected to last through the LYS Tour this weekend. Here are the colors and number of skeins I have left as of 3:00 pm Tuesday:
Daisy 4
Sagebrush 5
Primrose 3
Village 3 (only available at the shop!)
Sonoma 3
Karma 3
Sweet Magnolia 4
Mermaid 1

We also have one skein of the Merino/Tencel blend in Karma and one in Olive You.
Because of the popularity, we cannot put any on hold but we can take orders and payment over the phone for pickup later.

Deb

Shiver me timbers!

The new Yarn Pirate sock yarn is in!!!! And, to carry on with the pirate chatter, its a treasure! We have more of the exclusive Village colorway as well as 7 others. It's so hard to pick which one I like the best. So much yarn, so little time.... Come in and get your favorite color ASAP because they sure go fast.

Speaking of pirates, my daughter can't wait for the new Pirates of the Caribbean to come out next week. Last year we went to the first midnight show and that has set a precedence in our family. Now we have to go to all the big movies at midnight. Unfortunately we saw Spiderman III on opening night - it was embarrassingly bad. But I think Pirates and Harry Potter will be great fun to see.

Deb

Wensleydale is not just cheese....

For those fans of Wallace and Gromit, you will recognize Wensleydale as a type of cheese adored by those two characters. But for the fiber fiends, Wensleydale is also a type of wool prized by spinners. Fleece Artist has just sent us a new batch of beautiful Wensleydale Teeswater Slivers (100% wool, 50g) and heavenly Silk Wool Slivers (65% wool, 35% silk, 50g). They threw in a few dozen skeins of the über-fantastic Sea Silk as well, because we just can't seem to get enough!!! We have a nice free wrap pattern (Ellen's design) that comes with the Sea Silk.

Food Drive update: thank you to everyone who brought in a donation when they got the last minute email about the Ronald McDonald House need for food. I delivered a station wagon FULL of food on Monday!! They were thrilled and surprised at our donation. Consequently, we have since been contacted by the Shoreline food bank people and asked if we could do the same for them next month. (They provide food for all the kids who would normally be getting free breakfast and lunch at school.) I'll post more details closer to the drive. I love our community!!

I haven't been able to post much lately and our website is sorely in need of updating because I've been so busy getting ready for the LYS Tour. It is less than 2 weeks away! If you haven't picked up your map and passport yet, be sure to come in and grab them so you can start making plans.

Thursday Girls

Okay, so I KNOW that it isn't PC to call a group of women "girls" but that is how I think of the Thursday morning group. (If it looks like a duck, and acts like a duck, and quacks like a duck.....)It was a big group this morning - even the baby was here! Jeanne lost her husband last week but came in for her knitting therapy and we are so glad she did. Jennifer is almost done with her Mason Dixon throw - ain't it purdy! I had to make 3 batches of scones this morning to accommodate everyone. We tried out a new scone flavor from Iveta this morning - orange. I added a little marmalade drizzle to the tops and they were delicious. We'll definitely be ordering that flavor again!