Thursday, June 28, 2007

Can I call it finished?


I took alot of Sunday to work on my knitting. Finished all the knitting and trim work on the child's zippered jacket. It is so cute. Brown and gold and the school colors of North Bend (Oregon) High School. I've ordered a zipper in gold, and as soon as it comes in, I'll be stitching it in by hand.
Also finished and blocked the last sleeve to the adult version of this jacket. This version is being hand knit, whereas the Brown and Gold Child's version was done on my LK150.

I'm getting there!! The excitement I feel at finishing 2 projects at the same time is almost as great as starting new ones! Hubby's sweater fell to the side, again. With just barely half of a sleeve left, it is pretty bad. But it will be done by winter, as I will still be flying high at finishing up the zippered jackets.

The summer is just about in full swing around my home. This weekend my husband's neice and her husband are coming down from Portland, Or. Bill is an architect and Kerry a stay-at-home Mom for now. We plan on a very major bathroom/bedroom remodel and Bill is going to do some plans for us. The weekend after 2 of our sons, and our son-in-law will be here to put a new roof on my Mom's place (on our property, too.)

Wall of Cascade 220 yarns!! Activity in the store has shifted into summer mode. Sales are not as frantic thru the website, but are still very very good. Sarah and I are spending our spare time cleaning and organizing displays and catching up the web site (as if it could EVER be caught up, and my evenings have been blessedly and outright lazy. Last night I laid in the chair for hours reading "the Club Dumas". Caught the last half of the movie with Johnny Depp. I'm not necessarily a Depp fan, and in fact, Captain Jack is the only character I get excited about. But Depp doing Corso was quite captivating. So I had to go to the Library and check out the book. I'm getting summer tourists into the store. We have 2 RV parks in Lakeside. Both located on the lake. Also there are quite a few summer rentals on the lake, and homes that host family reunions and such. So I have summer regulars that come in. It is always nice to see them and their projects!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Paints and Zippers

The trip to Carlsbad was great. Did alot of knitting on the plane. From Portand to San Diego and back we were able to upgrade in to First Class. Knitting in First Class!!! Now you can hardly beat that! Took only 1 project down, the Double Exposure Jacket in Teal. Since I was working on the sleeves, most of the project was left at home. Oh, yea, I guess I did throw in an extra project into the suitcase, just in case. Since I didn't do so much while visiting, progress was slow. I've come to the conclusion that I am just not a fast knitter.




Finally found some zippers! So I ordered 4 colors and the color card. These zippers come in 600 colors (not all on the same zipper). So I've no reason to complain I can't find the right color. These are large tooth plastic zippers, separating zippers. Great for coats and bags. But actually those double-headed end-to-end zippers are better for bags, but they are harder to find.





New into the store is Cascade's Paints. Since I stock all the colors of Cascade 220 and Pastaza, I brought in all of the Paints for those 2 lines. These are hand dyed colors.


Cherry Berry is my favorite. I love red. I'll have to do another coat. But the last 2 colors are very dark, yet sexy. I'd love to do a jacket for hubby out of one of them.



Well shipping for today was just picked up and my friend of 20 years is here checking out the zipper colors, so I'll sign off for a while!

Thursday, June 7, 2007

another busy week at The Yarn Store

Meant to post last Sunday, but time is just slipping by. Didn't get much knitting done this week. A bit in the evening, but progress is slow. All 3 current projects are so close to the end. Received a big box from Cascade (as well as our weekly shipment from Lorna's Laces). Mostly the Cascade 220 Superwash. Sure like how this knits up. A nice basic, classic wool. All that is left is the hood for this children's zippered jacket. Probably won't get to it for 2 weeks. I should get the zippers in for it next week. Found some nice large-toothed plastic zippers, in a fairly good match. I expect them in next week.


Knitting Pure and Simple has 4 new patterns, and that has caused us to totally rearrange the patterns in the store. The rack that held them has no room, so Sarah is moving them all to a rattan folding basket. Seems like more and more patterns are moving to this arrangement. They do stay nice and clean this way.
Sarah is my partime help. She was/is my daughter's girlfriend from high school. She helps 4+ hours a day with shipping out, freight in and keeping the store very organized. Sarah crochets a little, but has never knit. With the new Potter Pattern book coming out, she's serious about learning to knit.
Flying down to Carlsbad (San Diego) this weekend with hubby. His daughter, husband and 3 grandchildren live down there. The oldest is big into soccer. In fact she is a certified rep. So we have alot of games to be watching. I'll be sure to bring the knitting!! Sarah will be pulling and boxing orders over the weekend. We fly back in Monday night, so there will be alot of freight going out on Tuesday. You all have a great weekend!!!