Tomorrow is our Open House

I have been busy. The frog suit is done and as soon as I figure out how to add pictures, I will put up a picture of it. It has to be fast as it is going to Texas in time for Christmas. I was very happy with how different elements turned out. I pulled on some of the techniques that I learned from Lucy Neatby when she was here. Not only did I use her grafting method to sew the shoulder seams together, I used her 'getting rid of nasty little holes' technique for the crotch area.

Lucy suggested binding off one of the shoulder seams, using of course her wonderful easy bind off. The matching seam is knit using her chimney method and then you graft the two sides together. This way you have the lovely seamlessness of a graft but no stretch.

I hate those ugly little holes that you get when you make the thumb on mittens or after you start the gusset or when you close the divide for legs and go to one piece. Lucy showed us how to get rid of these nasty little holes. It means going back to them after you are finished with the knitting but it is the nicest system that I have ever used and well worth the extra step, if you are a hole hater like me.

I have started Annika's Salsa sweater in the mohair and it is coming out just as I invisioned it. I used another of Lucy's tricks for the provisional cast-on. And it went so slick! I know that I will be using this cast on a lot more now that I know Lucy's method.

The fingerless mitts and hat that I finished a couple of weeks ago also benefited from Lucy being here. I used the Channel Island cast-on for these and it adds a great edge. I knit them using Misty Alpaca's worsted weight alpaca doubled and one of their patterns. But the Channel Island cast-on gives them a nice extra touch.

Lucky for those who couldn't make it to Lucy's workshops, the techniques are covered in her DVDs. She has 4 DVDs out now Knitting Essentials 1 & 2, and Sock Techniques 1 & 2.

It is a busy time here for us besides trying to get ready for Christmas for our family, I have to keep things together in the shop. Tomorrow and Sunday we are having our 8th Holiday Open House. It just doesn't seem like eight years that the shop has been open, I wonder if I am eight years older too? This past Fall, I feel like it but it is hard to realize that it has been that long.

Since Bo is still unable to do many things, I feel like my days never end. When I close up the shop, I go feed the bunnies, feed the Yorkie girls, start supper, feed us and then take my knitting to bed. Usually Fuzzycat tries to get an extra meal out of me too but Bo is able to feed the cats.

The girls haven't been to school since before Halloween and they are missing it. Plus, I haven't been able to keep up with our 'home schooling' lessons in agility either. They will be really ready for school to start after the first of the year. They miss their friends. Winnie misses her friend Dexter, the boxer. Dexter, Winnie and a minature doxy named Diamond are the threesome from their puppy kindergarden class. Dexter gets down on his back legs and belly and plays with Winnie and Diamond. The older girls, Lilian and Emma have their special friends too, but they are older and haven't the puppy playing needs of Winnie. They are all letting me know that they want more time to play with me and time to play at obedience and agility. I feel the same way. Hopefully things will get back to more normal after the New Year.

Time to go get the tree up.

It is almost Christmas

When you are in retail, you had better get your Holiday presents bought and decorating done before Dec 1. After that your time isn't your own until after Jan 1. You are too busy helping other people get their shopping done to take care of your own needs.

So I am knitting like crazy to finish projects for my family. I am sewing on the last sleeve of the frog sweater. As soon as it is done, I will post a picture. When Kathryn picked out the frog suit for her new brother, she and her mom picked out a dress for her. I tore it all out the other night because I discovered that my gauge had changed as I was knitting and it would have come out too small when done. I can't imagine what stress came up that caused that! It is another pattern from Milissa but from her Toddler's book. I am knitting it in Lavold's Cotton Patine. I am not a big fan of cotton knitting and am never happy with how my stitches look. This is going to be a cute little dress. It has a big butterfly on the top front. I am just never really happy with cotton.

I have a couple of quick projects for the Grand-daughters to do too. The two youngest are in the Princess stage and I want to knit and felt a small bag for each of them to carry their jewels in. Of course they will be in pink.

Annika is 10 now and at that between stage. You know the one, between dolls and lipstick!. Boys never seem to have that problem. They start in the car stage and end in the car stage. Chris Longpre' of KnitingAtKNoon has a cute pattern called Salsa that I want to do for Annika. It is a little jacket with ruffles around the edges. I would like to do it in a soft mohair type yarn. Not a lot of fuzz but a bit of a nap. I need to do it soon as the sizes end with a 10. It is cropped so I can get away with it being a bit short.

Chris has a number of great kid's patterns that I want to try. Adriane is knitting Chris' Jersey Shore sweater in Cestari for a shop model now. That pattern is available in sizes from baby through adult and is just a great comfy sweater for all.

We got our hat forms in. I ordered them at market. They are plastic mesh and you freeform knit and crochet to go over them. They are the same idea as the Freeform Purse that I did for the art exhibit a few years ago. I can hardly wait to get started on mine. I want to work with wide ribbons as well as other yarns and make a real Ascot style hat. But the yorkie girls are telling me that I promised them new sweaters and I need new socks so my hat will have to wait.

There is a mohair shrug that I want to do as a shop model too. The bane of owning a shop is that the models come first and your own knitting later. Of course you CAN knit the models for family members but that usually doesn't work. They want to actually wear the items not just see them displayed in the shop!

I am getting more sleep now and the pain level has dropped some and my energy has improved but I still have tons to get caught up on. But there is our Annual Open House coming up Dec 9th & 10th. I can hardly believe that this is our 8th year to be open and to have the Open House. One year a young Annika was our Lucia. This year we will have to be satisfied with a Yorkie Lucia!

The day before Thanksgiving

The sun is out but I am dragging! Mixing fibromyalgia with a husband's bypass surgery is not an easy mix. We fibromites have a saying when we feel bad that an 18 wheeler has been running over us. Well this time that darn truck brought his friends!

I have new yarn to get on shelves and more shelves to restock. And today even yarn feels heavy. But it is such nice yarn. I did get all of the regular Rowan on shelves but not the Rowan Classic, Nashua or Jaeger. hopefully, I will get a burst of energy and shelve it all.

I am almost done with the baby's Frog sweater. Then I have a little dress to finish for his older sister. I haven't a great deal more to knit up before Christmas but I do have this wonderful sweater that I started while Bo was in the hospital for myself. It is a Black Purl jacket pattern called Rapture. I am doing it in Malabrigo. What a 'feel good' yarn. I'd like to get that done before the Hoidays.

I have a good stock of shawl pins in for Christmas presents. Also some nice needle bags. Of course a gift certificate is always good. There seems to be a good number of people knitting small items for presents this year. Mittens and hats seem to lead the list. But we do have those nice cat and dog toy kits for the furry set.

We are just about done with Christmas shopping this year. We all put a $20 to $30 limit on adult gifts. And we have stayed pretty much with in that range. And we got things that the people really wanted too. The kids are getting a bit more but not all that much. And we tried to buy local when ever possible. But I do have to admit that I did some on-line shopping. Things that I couldn't find close buy, I did find on line.

I remember one Christmas as a kid when we got a 'family gift' that was a table tennis set. The net attached to our kitchen table and there were 4 paddles and a couple of balls. We played for years with it. The only thing that we had to replace was balls. Someone in the family would dent the balls playing with them in other ways. But back then we only got presents a couple of times a year, Christmas and Birthdays. I really felt sorry for kids who had birthdays in the summer or near the Holidays. But then an old friend, who is gone now, was a priest and raised in Ireland. Being about the same age as me, he grew up during World War II. His birthday was on Christmas and coming from a large family there were lots of brothers and sisters. He told me that he convinced his siblings that his parents loved him best because he got a cake on his birthday and they didn't. Sugar was hard to get during the war and they only had cake once a year. It was a birthday cake but not his. I always gave him a hard time about it but he would just laugh. It would be hard to explain to kids today that it wasn't that long ago that a cake or simple game for a whole family was a big Christmas gift.

I like the idea of making gifts. A few years back when our kids were at the young adult stage we made it a rule for a few years that all gifts had to be made by the giver. Of course it was easy for me to knit something up but the kids had a harder time. Marion, our youngest, was in college at the time and wondering what to do. She makes really good cheese cakes so I suggested that she make a cheese cake for everyone. I think that Artur made bird houses and book shelves for the girls and me and a gun rack for his dad. Elisabet x-stitched something for everyone. My mother knit socks for everyone. I always thought that it was a double gift, one for the giver and one for the receiver. There are so many gifts that I'd like to get that doesn't cost much but some labor.

A foggy Saturday

I think that I have figured out how this blogg business works now. At least I can get things published. Only bad part is that there is no spellcheck and I am a very creative speller.
The frog suit has both legs almost done and I really love the feel of the Misti cotton. I just finished some fingerless gloves and a hat in Misti Alpaca/silk with mock cables. I used a Misti pattern and doubled the yarn. What a great feel and quite easy. I think that I will schedule a class to teach knitting them. They went very quickly on number 10 needles.
There is so much to do in the shop. The Rowan shipment just came in and needs to get on shelves. And the Lovikka Yarn from Järbo Garn came in too. Where are those Brownies when I need them? I leave porridge out every night for them and extra on Christmas Eve, but they never seem to be arround when I need them. Maybe I need to start putting some lingonberries in with the porridge.
Duluth had the Christmas City of The North parade last night. I guess that makes it official, the Holiday season is upon us. That means that our Open House is almost here too. We always have it the weekend around Santa Lucia Day which is Dec 13th. So this year it is the 9th and 10th. I wonder if we will have snow this year.

Nov !7th

Bo has had his surgery and is recovering nicely. But it is taking a lot of my time, driving him back and forth to therapy. He is a bit cranky but not as much as when he first came home. It is deer season and he can't hunt! But the doctor said today the he can start driving tomorrow.
The Yorkie girls are missing school. And I have not been able to keep up with their practicing at home. They will be happy when they get back to a normal life. Maybe not Winnie, she isn't much for school lessons. She just wants to play with her friends.
I found a book to donate to the local fiber guild in Karen Sather's name. It is a book on weaving with kids. Hopefully it will continue her work of weaving fibers into early childhood classes.
Baby Bo was born last week. I have a green frog suit that his big sister picked out for me to knit for him. I think that I will make the big white eyes in a shaggy yarn. I am using Misti's cotton for the suit and the pattern is from Babies to Toddlers By Milissa. I am not a baby person. I like kids and teens but babies are not my favorite. I like puppies and kittens better. I used to be careful not to tell people my feelings about babies as it was considered 'un-natural'. But now I am old enough not to care what people think. I like kids who have learned to say 'no' and question why. But I do like knitting for babies. I get to use fine, sofy yarn and little needles.

Fall 2006

What ever happens to us that we sometimes loose track of what it happening around us? This has been a long year for us here at Playing With Yarn. It seems that age is catching up with us. As most folks know, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia sixteen or so years ago now. I have learned to pace my life to deal with the ups and downs of living with a autoimmune, chronic disease. But that means that I try to keep my life on an even keel. But sometimes things happen that are beyond our control.
Things like our dear Pippi being killed by an aggressive dog a year ago last June. Then driving down to pick up our then new puppy Lilian, I blew a tire, crossed two lanes of traffic and ended up almost sideways in the medium, sliding between two trucks in the process. Of course the good news was that no one was hurt. And with a new tire, I was able to continue the trip. But it has taken a year for me to be able to drive without my knuckles turning white.
Or when my husband, Bo, who many of you know from helping out here in the shop, had a heart attack at the beginning of August. We have been blessed with not having a lot of medical incidents over the years so we didn’t have a lot of experience with dealing with hospitals, rehab etc. Suddenly we had to learn new words and look at the world in a different way. Bo is not used to having restrictions put on his activity. Suddenly he had to cancel a long planned trip to Alaska to hunt with our son. This is his last year of phased retirement from the University where he teaches physics. He has to look at this year in a different way. They put stints in during the August episode but we were told that he would need By-pass surgery in 6 months. Just yesterday he had another test at the hospital because the doctors weren’t happy with some of his symptoms. Just before he was to go home, he started to bleed internally. He spent the night in CCU and will come home today. But the test results have caused his surgery to be moved up as soon as possible. So instead of our carefully planned time line for his surgery we are having to work the rest of life around this most important event.
With everything happening around here other things have gone without getting done. The summer class list never got on the website. The Yorkies and I didn’t get to the Yorkie Specialty Show in PA. Yard work and household chores were limited to what had to get done. Priorities changed and some new things became more important then others. My Fibromyalgia kicked in big time and my shortened memory became even shorter, places that I forgot that I had begin to hurt.
A dear friend Karen Sather who had fought cancer and I thought was doing good was told that her cancer had come back. Karen died late last week and I didn’t even know that she was ill again. Karen was a weaver and an early childhood teacher. She would work her love of fibers into things that she did with the kids in her classes. She was one of those rare people who was kind to all and could bring people together from all aspects of her life. She not only wove fabric together to make cloth, she wove people together to create a bigger ‘shawl’ of friends to surround her. I will greatly miss her. I have lost one of my friends that I would pass on fun things to with kids using fibers.
Changes! I am not very good about changes. I like ruts and when there is a change, I want to call the shots and prepare for them. I may be adventurous with fiber but not with the rest of my life. I don’t move furniture around, I don’t change wall colors and I wear what I like no matter what the newest styles. But change comes and there are times that I wonder if I am becoming my Grandmother talking about the good old days. But then I adored my Grandmother and for much of my life she was my best friend. Being my Grandmother is not a bad thing.
I have gone on and on about the not so good things that have happened in the last year or so but many wonderful things have happened. The granddaughters are growing and will soon be joined by a grandson to be named after my husband. Each daughter will have two children. All three girls have shown an interest in knitting even if all aren’t knitting away at a great rate. Bo and the daughters their families went to visit his family in Sweden early on this summer. I am not a great traveler and was happy to stay home. Annika has been attending Swedish Camp at Concordia the last few years and this gave her a real chance to work on her Swedish. My disappointment each year is that she chooses the Dala Painting class instead of the weaving class at camp.
And we had a wedding. When our son married Penny he got an instant family and we got not only three more grandchildren but even great-grandchildren. That was some years ago. And now Lacy, the oldest girl, was married in September in Superior, WI. Son, Artur, gave her away. He was pretty pleased about it all and together with the bride made a nice picture coming down the isle. Penny had knit beaded purses for the Bride and younger daughter, Becky as well as beaded necklaces for the bridesmaids to wear and carry using vintage beaded bag patterns. What a nice custom to have in the family.
The Yorkie girls are growing. Emma is turning out to be just the big girl that I wanted. She has the nicest personality and such a nice even disposition. She has been to four agility trials and has done very nicely for such a young dog. We have done mostly Teacup Dog Agility Assoc (TDAA) trials but has also been at one AKC trial. In her first two trials she earned her Games Level 1 title for TDAA and she earned 2 Jumpers With Weave legs, three are needed for a title, and 1 Standard leg for AKC. Then she and I went to the TDAA Petite Prix in Springfield, IL and earned two legs in Games Level 2 and one Standard leg. This was the longest non-fiber related trip that I have taken since opening the shop in May of 99. And I drove down and back with no panic attacks! We attended a two day Small Dog Handlers Seminar before the trial. By the last day of trial, Emma was just looking for tunnels to hide in. She was tired. But it was so much fun being in a group of all small dogs. There were 14 Yorkies, Emma had never seen so many other Yorkies at one place before. Next year it will be in Springfield again at the same site and I plan to take both Emma and Lilian, - if the creek doesn’t rise and I am still ambling around.
Lilian is growing up to be such a sweet little girl Yorkie. She is a bit timid and wants to be sure that things are safe before she gets too close to them. She has done very good in agility classes this year and likes obedience, except for those sits and downs if there are strange dogs around. We are going to have to work on her trust levels. She is so pretty and has such a cute face.
Winnie is such a twit! She is very like Emma, they have the same mother, but she has a very short attention span. She will sit a short time ( two seconds, maybe) but then wants to go visit her friends. She also thinks that she should be the shop manager. I have tried to explain that she has to grow into the job but I am not sure that she listens. So when you come you will probably find Winnie in the shop. Lilian thinks that since Winnie wants to be here she should be too so there may be two Yorkies wagging tails at the door. Emma eats garbage, plastic garbage. So her attendance in the shop is limited.
We took all the girls to Earthdog practice this summer. Emma loved it. She really wanted to get those rats. Lilian was worried about the cage the rats were in and Winnie was much to busy trying to play with other dogs to think about the rats. But as the summer has gone, both Emma and Lilian have become obsessed with the local chipmunks. Next year we expect to have two Earthdog Yorkies. We are part of a group of Yorkie owners working at getting AKC to allow Yorkies in their Earthdog Tests.
…..My knitting projects are piling up. One of the down sides of owning a shop is that you have to knit for the shop and not necessarily what you want to knit. There are just too many pretty yarns out there and good patterns. There is a return to basics in the knitting world. There are nice cables and Faire Isle patterns are back.
I have also added the most glorious Crewel kits. My mostly French Grandmother taught me to embroider even before I learned to knit. A young girl needed to be good with her needle in her world. I always thing of Crewel as my painting medium. I can’t mix paints at all but I can take threads and create a picture using color and texture. For the last few years I have stood at the booth of the British Crewel Work Company’s at market and sighed. This year, I ordered some kits. I also ordered a very nice teaching video and DVD from the company that you can borrow if you have never done crewel or you need to brush up on your skills. And in addition to crewel, I have brought in some Swedish Weaving (Huck Embroidery) kits. These join our Scandinavian needlework kits and the Hardanger kits that we have always carried. I decided that there is more then one way to play with yarn.
I have never understood the business of blogs but as I write this it seems to take on the feel of a blog. It is also a catch up letter to you because my world has gotten so topsy turvy that I haven’t let you all know what is going on in our lives. At Karen’s funeral someone said that they missed the paper newsletters and they wondered what all we were doing. I miss them too but they are just too expensive to send out anymore. Maybe I need to ask Eric, who is our web guy, if he can add a ‘sort of bog page’ where I can let you know what is happening here at Playing With Yarn in Knife River. Just don’t tell Emma. She thinks that it is her job to keep up Pippi’s page and let you all know what the girls are doing. She even has taught Lilian to push the shift key to get capital letters. If she find out that I am writing often, she may want her own blog.