I'd like to thank the academy....

Our dear friend at KnottyKitty Knits nominated me for a Rockin' Girl Blogger award! Thanks KnottyKitty!! If you haven't visited her site, please do!

One of my responsibilities as a WINNER is to nominate others for this great award so, here it goes:

Sharon of The Adventures of NeedleGrrl! Sharon recently moved to Pennsylvania and we miss her dearly. She is very clever and has a WIDE range of interests, other than knitting.

Amy of good to be girl: a knitting blog. Another very talented woman and great artist. Not only is her blog fun to read but she has her own very successful on-line stitch marker business! You go girl!

Ree of Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. Now, Ree doesn't know me from Eve but her blog is one of my favorite non-knitting blogs. Mucho enjoyable!! You must check out the recipes she posts, complete with step by step photos.

Naomi of gnomiejo knits! Naomi is one of our customers who always has something wonderful to share with us. Her blog is always inspiring.

Last but not least, Ellen of *That's my middle name*. Ellen is one of our employees but I am able to ignore all the yarn she talks about that she didn't get from our shop. :-)

Tea Time

Minjing Township, Taiwan

We just received two new delicious teas:

Formosa Honey Flavored Black

• fully fermented
• Chin Shin Gan Tze variety (whatever that means)
  
• Grown in San-Xia Township, Taipei County, Taiwan
  

"Rich, mellow flavor with a hint of honey and medium dark brown color." I like this one iced because the honey flavor gives it a little sweetness without being too cloying.


Ever-Spring Green Tea

• Lightly roasted (gives it a bit of a nutty flavor)
• Ever-Spring tea variety (which means it can be harvested year-round, unlike most tea)
• Grown in Mingjing Township, Nantou County, Taiwan

"Medium bodied tea with a hint of flowers and nuts." (If you drop the word "tea" and read this sentence just right, it describes a guy I dated in college.)

Baby Bamboo

The new Sirdar Snuggly BabyBamboo just might be 104 yards of the softest darn yarn on the planet!! It's DK, machine washable, 80% Bamboo, 20% Wool, and comes in several oh-so-yummy colors. There's a nice book, too! Who could ask for more!

How about some more Noro....ooooohhhhhhh



aaaahhhhhhhhhhh

Death by Noro

Deb finally succame to her Noro addiction and was found on the floor of the shop surrounded by empty bags of Silk Garden Light. Before she left us she could be heard singing this song:

(sung to the tune of "Ring of Fire")
I fell in to a burning ring of Noro;
I knit, knit, knit but the flames kept getting higher;
It burns, burns, burns, this ring of Noro
The ring of Noro

May she purl in peace.

Sugar 'n Cream and Stitch-n-Pitch

(I wanted to title this entry "The Ns" but I thought it would be too vague...)



I know, I know....Sugar'n Cream would not be considered by many to be blog-worthy but I think the new Twist version is cute. The literature (okay, "literature" might be too strong a word) that came with it shows some things made up with it and I think it looks nice - kind of tweedy and natural. I've also decided to remake my market bag out of the regular Sugar'n Cream in some summery colors (they don't make the yarn I originally used anymore). I should have made the base out of the yellow and the body out of the variegated but I'm too lazy to rip it out. Next time. I'm also going to make one with the organic cotton and the hemp, just for variety. I can usually crank a bag out in a few hours - I'm a fast crocheter. BTW, I'll be teaching two separate classes in how to make crochet market bags. Check the website for dates and times.



Onto another topic entirely, Stich-n-Pitch tickets are here! Get them while they're hot. The game is Thursday, July 26th, 2007 - 7:05 p.m. We close early that day so we can get down there and get set up. I can't remember how early they open up so you can shop before the game but I think it's around 5ish. I'm also not sure if you pick up your free gift here or at the game this time. It's a needlecase this year! Even if you don't care for baseball, this is a fun event. There are lots of vendors from all over the area - it's kind of like a reverse LYS tour! There's a lot to do during the game if you get bored; lots of food, lots of giveaways....just lots of stuff.

UPDATE: Here is a little washrag I made from the pattern on the label of the Twist:

Kayaking

This weekend was my one-year anniversary of NMC - no more chemo! So, to celebrate, I took myself on little kayaking trip off Bellingham. I'm not an experienced kayaker, yet, so I went with a guide and my friend Rachel. I used one of those disposable waterproof cameras so I don't have any of my own photos to post yet but this shot is from the Moondance Kayak website. (Picture that view with a gray haze.) I thought I would be really sore today but surprisingly, I'm not.

Not to get all mushy and sentimental but this trip was very metaphorical. How's that, you say? Well, like with my cancer, I was in uncharted waters and needed guidance; I had to have help from my friend to paddle through the rough water; and when it was over, I felt great and stronger than ever!

Our guide, Sharmon, was wonderful and I'm really looking forward to taking another, longer trip with her. Talk about a cool job. This is her 12th season on the water and she loves every trip. Even though the weather was a little gray, it was great being out on the water. It's so beautiful up there. What I really want to do is take the trip up to Barkley Sound, Vancouver Island, B.C. It's a gorgeous area and the water is calm. Anyone want to come with? There's room for knitting in the cargo hold!

Suri Blue is here!

The new shipment of Fleece Artist Suri Blue has arrived! Many of you will recognize it as the yarn we used in our Touring Wrap for the LYS Tour and then promptly RAN OUT of it the first day! It is yummy.

I haven't talked tea for a while, I just realized. I am currently working with a group of other local tea nerds who want to plan something special for next year because it is the 400th anniversary of tea coming to Europe, or something like that. It should be fun. I wish we had room for even more tea flavors because I keep trying all these new ones that I think everyone would love! If I get new flavors, I have to phase out some flavors and people don't like it when you get rid of their favorites. I understand that completely. I need more room so, you all need to come in and drink more tea!

Deb

Church of the Holy Stitch

I have written about the Thursday morning group lots of times and commented just the other day about how I wish these groups had names! So, the group finally decided to label themselves "The Church of the Holy Stitch." Our youngest member is 6-months-old. They even have their own Vicar! One of the wayward members came to visit all the way from Idaho this morning. The CHS group is great - it absorbs members and makes them feel welcome right away. Come on by!

I start out every Thursday morning baking a fresh batch of scones. This morning it was cinnamon chip and some samples of a new flavor: lemon ginger. Yummmmmm. (Can you smell them?) Then I line up a bunch of tea pots to get ready for the CHS tea orders. This morning they just happened to line up in rainbow order. Ain't they purdy!

Hair Pin Lace

I just heard that someone will be doing a demo at Seattle Knitter's Guild about Hair Pin Lace and I wanted to let you all know that we carry a Hair Pin Lace Tool by Clover. It will make a braid width of 1 - 3 inches and you can set every 3/8 inch. The price is $16.65. We made up a few fun scarves using some of the ribbon yarns we carry with the tool and they look great. Just thought you might want to know.

Dragonfibers

Our dear friend Emma - a regular Saturday-er (I must come up with a name for all of the casual groups) - took home some of our Merino/Bamboo and Blue Faced Leicester roving and dyed it. It is beautimus!!!! So beautimus, in fact, that there isn't much left. I have to learn how to spin on the new Louet wheel we have so I can use some of her lovely roving. I can use a drop spindle but I'm ready to move up to a wheel.

I would like to apologize for the (lack of) quality of several of our photos for the blog. We have been using VC's digital and I think it is starting to lose its ability to focus - kind of like VC. (Hee Hee) We recently opened up a new checking account with a different bank and they promised to send us a brand spankin' new camera but we have yet to see it. I'm hoping that it has more bells and whistles and can focus better.

LYS Tour projects?

So, I'm at the doctor's office today and the woman behind the counter whips out her knitting bag and a skein of Fleece Artist Wool Silk that she bought on the tour and asks me what she should make with it and what needle size she should get and etc., etc., etc. So this gets this other woman sitting in the waiting room in a lather and she wants to talk about the holy cross book marks she's crocheting and if we sell such-n-such thread.... But then the nurse comes out and saves me by telling me that it's time to pee in the cup. Whew! And all I wanted to do was catch up on my People magazine reading (even if it is 3 years old)!

If any of our readers/customers/friends/strangers have completed or are working on any of the LYS Tour free patterns, we would love to hear about it and post pictures! I know there are some of you out there because I've seen you working on them in the shop! Also, if anyone has had a chance to make anything from "Charmed Knits" yet, we would love to borrow it for the July Knit Nite for our Harry Potter display.

Speaking of the shop pattern, we should be getting more Suri Blue in before the end of the month and VC is ordering more of the Sea Silk. (Come to me, my precious.....) Oh, sorry, I was channeling Golem there.

Deb

Blah-ging

I like writing our blog. The only problem with writing a shop blog is that you feel compelled to talk about the shop and not much else. If I had a personal blog, I'd be writing about all kinds of "other" stuff that might not be appropriate for this venue. I may just have to start an anonymous blog so I can do just that. Only thing is, I couldn't tell anyone I know about it (on purpose) or it wouldn't be anonymous, and then, who would read it. I would have to be the Peter Parker of the fiber world. Hmmmmm. I'll have to ruminate on this a bit more.

Did any of you participate in the "Knit in Public" event? Too bad it rained so much - it would have been nice to sit outside in the sculpture park.I came into the shop to teach a private crochet lesson but didn't do anything more public than that. (I guess the superhero me would have been more diligent about participating for the public good.)

See ya on the purl side,
Deb

ArtFelt Fun

We had our first "alumni" get-together for the ArtFelt group last night. (For those of you not familiar with ArtFelt, it's the new stuff from Skacel that is used for needle/water felting.) It was a small group but I think we'll start making it a regular "thang." Kits are available at the shop and there is a class scheduled for July. I'm not sure when our regular gang meetings will be held but I'll post them when I figure it out. The building owners have been nice enough to loan us one of the empty condos whenever we meet so we can use the dryer. Weaving the roving seemed to be a theme this time but there are TONS of other applications. Here are some of the amazing projects that are either finished or in the works by some of our students:


Intricate use of the paper; woven together before felting - very clever.



Cute bag!



Another bag in the works


Weaving a scarf with pencil roving.

I've been tagged!

I was just saying to some of our customers who are regular bloggers that I was a little disappointed at how few comments our blog gets. They assured me that it was probably because it was so "shop" oriented, which makes sense to me. (With their help, I have stopped having junior high picked-last-for-whatever flash backs and am dealing with my need for attention.) Anywho, just when I thought that nobody loved me, Terri and Kimber left me a comment AND tagged me for the meme thingy! I'm such a blabber mouth that it might be hard to come up with 7 things that people don't already know about me but I'll give it a try.

1. I was born Cesarean but raised Episcopalian. Okay, that's a silly joke but I was raised Episcopalian and am now a Unitarian Universalist (like Walt Whitman and Thomas Jefferson - ya know, the cool people).

2. I have an MA in Audiology from the University of Florida. It comes in handy when....um....whenever.....ah......hmmmmm......when you are trying to impress people with your educational background?

3. I love to sing. I sing in a great UUC choir and hope to move up to Seattle Pro Musica some day.

4. I almost hit Perry Como with my car at the West Palm Beach Airport in 1979. He was very nice about the whole thing.

5. I am a movie nut. I'm really hoping that my kid will go to film school so I can live vicariously through her. (Maybe she'll put me in her movies like Scorsese did with his mom....)

6. I went to school in Austria for a semester in college. It was the best thing I could have done for myself at the time. I think every kid should get a chance to study abroad.

7. I love to play games - board games, word games, puzzles, even video games. Scrabble is big in our household. We get together with two other families for Thanksgiving and I always make up some sort of word or puzzle game for us to play. I love to do the NY Times Sunday crossword puzzle and I often enter the NPR Sunday puzzle contest. (Will Shortz - what a hottie!) And when I really need to take a break from the world, I do a really hard jigsaw puzzle.

Thanks to Kimber for the tag. I don't know a lot of bloggers yet but I'll tag Tava, Jessie, and KnottyKitty Knits.

If you made it to the end of this post and didn't drop over dead from boredom, let me know and I'll treat you to a cup of tea next time you're in the shop.

deb

World Wide "Knit in Public" Day

Robyn, of the NorthEnd Knitters, stopped by with this info for this great event:

NorthEnd Knitters have been chosen to host a party on Saturday June 9th!!
This is our chance to participate in a global event - World Wide Knit in Public Day. We've already been in touch with the Seattle Art Museum about holding the event in the newly opened Olympic Sculpture Park from 10:00 am to 3:00pm PDT. We'll have tables reserved inside the Paccar Pavilion in case of rain (which is always possible in Seattle) but hopefully, if the weather cooperates, we'll be outside amongst the artwork and the sunshine. Please look for us in the Paccar Pavilion first.

Special notes: Bring blankets for sitting on the grass especially if it has rained anytime recently, as the ground will still be wet. Food is available from the cafe in the Pavilion but it might be a good idea to bring some finger-type foods to munch on.
Restrooms are inside the Paccar Pavilion near the cafe. There is access in the Pavilion for the physically challenged and the paths around the park are wide enough for wheelchairs.

All fiber artists and crafters are welcome. Bring projects or just come and enjoy the camaraderie of knitters, crocheters and creative people in a beautiful setting!

We hope to see you there!