Sun is shining, breeze is cold!

Time has just flown by. Been doing a lot of administrative work. Web work is like house work, it is never, ever, done! And just yesterday I finally went back to my enewsletter account and had to ask everyone to reconfirm their email addresses. A friend asked today "what is the average # of times a person changes their email address in a year?" Interesting question. But it makes it doubly important for a business to keep their newsletter contacts up to date. So I'm going to make an extra effort to post a newsletter once every 4 months, even if it is small. If you are interested in receiving it, go to my newsletter page to sign up.
I expect to put one out in about 5 days.

On the stock front, I am now fully stocked in the Cascade 220 Superwash colors. This is a washable, 100% wool, that knits to about a DK or heavy DK weight. Tons of colors! I still have not gotten them all on the shelves (of which I do not have enough available). Just when I think I'm 100% on top of that, an eagle-eyed customer spotted that I had left off one very important color. But that's all fixed now.

On my designer front, not much progress on anything. My combo crochet/machine knit top out of Pearl has hit a snag. The large lace front and back yoke is so drapey that it falls way lower than I planned. So now I'm trying to stablize it without it looking obvious. Worst case scenerio, I will have to redo the yoke smaller. But it has been laying on the blocking board since Sunday, when I attempted 3 times to stablize it, without luck. It had so much potential! I'm bummed, but will get back to it.

Sun is shining, but breeze is cold here! Talk to you soon!

Pearl Yarn Winner

My 15 yr old granddaughter, laughs a lot. And when she laughs it is heart felt. I saw this sight a lot over the last 6 days while she was with me. Here we were are down at the Lakeside County Dock. It was a very rare hot day and we were loving life. I was trying to take pictures of her jumping in the air. Never got the timing right, but got a lot of fun pictures. This one stole my heart.

As promised, Tyler chose her funniest story. Kids will be kids, and the Seagull story was her favorite, although she also loved the Punk Rock Bouncer story. I loved them all, but the sight of a knitter waving knitting needles while chasing a seagull had me busting up too. Ana, I will be contacting you, or contact me first! Got some new colors in this week, so the Pearl selection has grown!

The last few weeks have been chaotic. Not a single day was like the day before. Just before picking up Tyler at the Portland Airport, I spent the day with my youngest, Whitney. We bought clothes, coffee, fabric, coffee, did make-overs and walked and walked and walked over downtown Portland. Living in a town of only about 1200, Portland is like shopping nervana! Don't EVER go into a Guess store and say "I wonder what a pair of $100 jeans feel like on." You WILL leave $100 poorer! But WOW, they look good!!

Today I finally got the Clara's Garden colors photoshopped. Those pics I took weeks ago. This photo is the worsted weight.

I now have 4 colors of Pearl to photograph. I'm still working on my crochet lace yoke shell. Pieces are all done. Just need to assemble. It's been done on the "fly", so to speak. Should be really cute. I will be taking that one to the trade show in June. It shows off the Pearl yarn, and it also shows off combining crochet with machine knitting (LK150). Its sleeveless, so I hope I don't freeze to death on the trade floor.

GIVING AWAY LORNA'S LACES PEARL & PATTERN

Send me your story on your funniest knitting-related story. The stories will be read by a 15 yr old knitter. She will select the funniest one.

The winner gets 1 free hank of Lorna's Laces Pearl (any color currently in my stock) and the Lyerka Scarf Pattern (a $47 value).

Winner will be announced Thursday night, April 9th !!

Clara's Garden (Lorna's Laces newest color)

Real Quick!!! UPS just walked in with this:

Clara Parkes of Knitter's Review designed this shade. When Lorna's Laces approached Clara to design a color, Clara's mind immediately turned to those peonies, hollyhocks, and tulips—all three of which she has in her garden.

Helen's Laces us coming too!

See more pictures HERE.

New pattern, new projects, new contest!!

New issue of Knitty is out. I love browsing thru the patterns and printing out the ones to add to my personal note book. This issue includes a cute summer top called Pioneer, very simple, out of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport. Shepherd Sport is a nice weight yarn that lends itself perfect for any baby, child or woman's garment. Not too thin, not too bulky for the human form.
Juuust riiight!

As promised, photos of my swatches on the Lorna's Laces Pearl. The color is Mystic, one of my 7 exclusive shades. Mystic is usually a very dark forest green, but in the bamboo silk blend, it shot off at a slightly greyed green. A very unusual shade, but one that caused quite a bit of excitement at Lorna's Laces. I think they were hoping I'd turn it down so they could keep it. Not!!! (eh eh)

Ideas are swirling in my head, but have not yet been translated to paper. Something to the effect of lace, as you can see. Lace short sleeves, lace across upper and and front yoke area. Shape would be simple T-Shirt style with waist shaping. I'm all set for the trade show in June. TNNA - Columbus. I'm hoping that I will have this completed by then. One has to "be" in the mood to machine knit, so I'm hoping the mood is there!

Stay tuned. The new give-away is beginning to gel in my mind. The give-away will be a hank of Pearl, your choice of color limited to what I have in stock, and the pattern Lyerka Scarf.

Progress . . .

Here are a couple of projects in process. Still plugging away on Knitting Pure and Simple #293 pattern, neckdown pullover. It ended up being the project I used for waiting for doc apts, etc, so that really slowed things down. The other night I decided to knit on it while watching a bit of TV. Therefore I managed to finish the body. Soon, the sleeves, but no rush. This yarn is Shepherd Worsted in Renaissance Romance (multi) and Mystic (the dark green at the neck). Both of these shades are exclusive to the Yarn Store.

Lorna's Laces is releasing the newest color commentary shade this week, with Clara Parkes of Knitter's Review. Read all about it on the Lorna's Laces Blog, and if you are wondering, yes, my order has already been placed!

This cute little thing is the Lorna's Laces Wavy Baby pattern. This is my Mom's project. A gift for someone special. The pattern calls for a multicolor and a solid. Mom did it in pale pink and whisper. Much, much cuter. Such a fun pattern to knit. Very easy. It uses Lorna's Laces Shepherd Bulky.

Been swatching Pearl on my Silver Reed LK150. I have to admit that I can accomplish many more projects using that machine. Works best at Tension 4, although I started at Tension 5. Tension 5 was just too too loose. I'll save photos of that for another day. Hey, did you see the Leslie Solomon feature in Knit 'n Style. She talks about the LK150.

Finally! New patterns for Oat Couture. Comfortable tops or use as summer jackets from Oat Courture. EK710 Capri Sweater (knit) GU431 Sante Fee Shirt (knit) PH617 Sedona Shirt (crochet). More soon!

On My Way!!

Took quite a few days to recover, particular when you combine catching a cold to a busy week. Cascade, Lorna's Laces, Needles and patterns--all arrived this day last week. Finally got the last of it put away Sunday. Lorna's Laces had 3 new patterns in their box. Gabriella and the Lyerka scarf done in Pearl. And the Tallin Sunset Stole in Helen's Lace. Also the Charcoal color in Pearl. Might be a few days before that gets photographed. The 3 new Oat Couture patterns are still waiting to be uploaded, too. Sometimes I wonder why I bother to write out a list each morning. There are days not a thing gets checked off!

Stole a bit of precious time and finally finished the yoke top. Turned out the way I wanted it to. Doesn't help that I lost 6-8 pounds since I started it. That's always a good feeling. The yarn is Cascade's Heritage Sock, which is perfect for the standard gauge knitting machine and creates an incredibly beautiful and expensive looking fabric. I will never go back to the acrylics I spent years machine knitting with. I'm into the good stuff now!! This top took 3 hanks of Jade and 1 of Chocolate. Well its late already this Tuesday night and I hope to check off at least 1 or 2 small items on my "to do" list. It's time for all this lounging around to stop and get back to work!! Till next time!