Once again we come to the Holiday Season . . .

Business has really jumped this month. With the economy the way it is, people tend to stay home. Instead if spending $3000 for a Christmas cruise, the plan is cancelled, but $300 for a nice purchase of yarn is much more in the budget. So as a treat to sacrificing that big trip or jewelry, crocheters and knitters award themselves with some nice yarn.

With the increase in outgoing shipments, incoming shipments also increase. This week Lorna's Laces and Cascade both arrived on the same day, as well as a case of swifts. Is this a mess or what?? But this is what I want. Who does not want a successful business??

Cascade is introducing 2 new yarns. Eco Alpaca and Alpaca Lace. I will be getting those in, but more on those in another post. Need to get the web page created for them. Alpaca is my favorite yarn! Even more so than Cashmere!

Cascade also has about 20 new colors in Fixation. I have the color cards now up online, and the order scripts on the Fixation page. The new colors will be in stock in approx 10 days.

Janene is working today, a Saturday. Janene pulls all the orders, I check and Janene boxes. She also checks in stock and keeps the store looking neat. She tells me she is ready for me to start checking, so if I want to get your orders out today, I better get going! Have a great weekend!

November Winner of drawing!

Becky is the winner of the name in the hat drawing. Congratulations!!! http://beckygtstyl.blogspot.com/
Becky, I will be emailing you asking what you'd like. You have your choice of 2 hanks of Shepherd Sock, Shepherd Sport, Shepherd Worsted or Shepherd Bulky in any color you like.

Exciting news for this small shop! Last week I was mentioned in the last paragraph of Knitter's Review weekly newsletter as the place to go for lace patterns. As a small business, you can imagine it is a real struggle to do advertising. And advertising is a hit and miss thing. I did a TV commercial a number of years back. It was so expensive for me. Nothing . . . nada. . . . . talk about dissappointed. So I pick and choose ever so carefully these days. The best advertising is word of mouth. So when Yarn Store was mentioned I was thrilled. Sales spiked on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Even today, Monday, is good. That always is a good feeling. Owning your own business is very hard work. Sometimes I envy those who climb into their cars at 5pm leaving the business worries behind! But would I change it? Nope. I feel the work load is worth it. I love my job. It is just a nice feeling when sales are good!

The hot item each fall is the Googleheim's Christmas Stocking kits. I sell hundreds of these each year, mostly in the fall. Normally I have it shipped to me via UPS. It saves me considerable expense. But in the fall, these are shipped to me via Priority Mail. I never know what kit will catch the customers' eyes and often I will be out of stock. To get them into stock and back out to you, I have the designer switch to priority mail. This last shipment made it to me in record time!! This is only a few in the line. We have tons more in the racks!

The weekend was quite busy at the home front. 3 of our 6 children came down. Along with their spouses and friends and unusally beautiful weather we had quite a little party Saturday. Starting with lunch outside at the local restaurant, continuing with opening up the garage and letting the sun shine in while we played pool and BBQ'd, ending with a quiet nice watching movies in the media room. Can't get any nicer then that!

As a final note, the Thanksgiving Holiday closure will be Wednesday through Sunda, (Nov 26-30). We are flying down to my daughter's in Carlsbad. This is the daughter who has the 15yr old knitter I brag about each summer! I'm sooooo excited!!! Web site will be open, of course. Limited email communication. Shipping will commence Monday morning after the holiday!

Talk to you again soon!!

Chocolate, men, coffee - some things are better rich.

Just a quick note before I head out for the day. Meeting this morning of our Fiber Arts Guild and then this afternoon meeting with friends.

But don't forget the drawing is still going on. I will pull a name on November 15th for your choice of 2 hanks of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, Shepherd Sport, Shepherd Worsted or Shepherd Bulky!! Such a deal!! Names put in the jar will be from those readers who send me a comment!

On my needles I am working on these little Santa Pouch Ornaments. The inspiration came from a crochet pattern of a small purse. I looked at the picture and redesigned it to ornament size and knitted. These are fund raiser ornaments for our local guild. Takes about 4-5 hours per ornament, so I only get about 4-5 done!!

Brought in a few more new patterns from Figheadh Yarns. I really like Jennifer's style.

Last weekend hubby and I went to Portland (Oregon) to look at condos. I'd really like to have a small place there. 3.5 of our 6 chidren live in that area. While they do come and visit the coast alot (they love the sand dunes, lake and the beach), there are times I'd like to get out. Found one we loved, loved the area, but the numbers are not making my CPA husband too excited. He says it is a scary risk, and I can certainly see that. So is all of life! But, if the money just does not exist for the monthly payment, well--I understand, but I am sad! This pic is a condo building called The Edge (upper right hand corner). The neighborhood is quite nice, loved the stores and coffee ships. It is right off the 405, but the noise is about the same as if you lived on the beach. I mean, have you really thought about the roar of the ocean 24-7?

The weekend was awesome! It was Cody's birthday. He's 24. Whitney (23) spent all of Saturday looking thru condos with us. Now that was fun! She took lots of pictures.

More later, gotta go!!

Happy Haunting!

Don't forget, I'm still giving away some free yarn. I will pull a name on November 15th for your choice of 2 hanks of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, Shepherd Sport, Shepherd Worsted or Shepherd Bulky!! Such a deal!! Names put in the jar will be from those readers who send me a comment!

Took me a while, but my Neckdown Summer Cardigan (Knitting Pure & Simple: Neckdown Summer Cardigan for Women #221-last one on the page) is complete.

This is my second one. The first one was in Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb. This was is in Cascade's Cash Vero. Both of them I modified to take in the waist some. On the second one I only put the top buttons on the top, leaving the bottom open.

A couple of new things in the store. I've been bringing in the Cascade Superwash Handdyed shades and I'm almost got them all now. This is perfect for children's garments, and garments that need to be machine washed. This is a worsted weight yarn that usually gets 4.5 sts per inch on about a 4.5mm needle (US#7).

Also, I've picked up a few more patterns from Figheadh Yarnworks. I like Jennifer's patterns because they have a classic design and are pretty simple to knit. These two designs (shown in this picture) are both hoodies. The one on the right is a pullover for children. The one on the right is a zipper hoodie and it includes both children and adult sizes. It is a very easy knit. Both of these might make great Christmas gifts. You can see more of their details here.

On the home front, things have been quiet. Our son-in-law has been gone for a few weeks. He stays with us when working on jobs (contractor) down here. Been playing a few games of pool usually daily, but my pool skills are sadly lacking and not really improving. In fact last night I swear I was getting worse!! Don't know if I mentioned it, but my gawd-awful glasses have been laid to rest. I am now using contacts and love them. Well, most of the time I do. I do get angry when they won't go in, or won't come out. The lab technician was concerned I would have trouble because of my long nails. But I hate glasses, so I will prevail!!

Everyone enjoy Halloween and be safe!!!

Monthly drawings, ideas?

This blog is thinking of monthly drawings. So how does one go about this? Send me a comment on ideas and from that grouping I will draw a name for the first drawing.

Success with the photo of the Revelation in Renaissance Romance. Was able to get the red and chocolate to photograph true. Did have to enhance the harvest and dark green in Photoshop, but the colors are looking good!

Life is too short to drink bad wine (or wear cheap shoes!).

I am a believer that life is too short to drink bad wine. While I do not drink $500 bottles of wine, I don't drink $5 bottles. In fact, I drink so little wine, that when I do, I truly enjoy the better qualities. When I get involved in something I get rather passionate about it for a while. Which brings me to my current blog topic. Last weekend hubby, John, and I drove from Lakeside, Oregon (So Oregon Coast) to Los Gatos, Ca, to visit his oldest son, Scott. We left Friday at 1 and arrived at Scott's at 11pm. The next morning the 3 of us drive back north into Napa Valley. I took control (naturally) and told hubby to take a side road. I didn't want to visit the huge wineries with the crowds of people. The first place we stopped at was Silver Oaks. A beautiful building, with mature gentlemen in suits. A somewhat upscale image. Scott and I tasted a 100% Cabernet and a blend. I came away with 2 bottles of Cab (1 was for a gift) and a really cute hand made bag from Sally Spicer. I couldn't help it. I'm passionate about textiles too! What drew my eye was the brown and green colors.

The 2nd winery was just down the road, Plump Jack. This winery had a totally opposite personality. Walking through the door was like walking into a lively bar full of young people. It was difficult to get up to the bar for sampling. The tender caught my eyes a few times, understanding that I was trying. Eventually we tasted 2 wines, but didn't really enjoy the crowd. We did enjoy sitting on their back porch looking into their grapevine fields. We came away with no purchases from this cute places. Eventually we returned to St Helena and selected the Louis M Martini winery to visit. It was late, but we did go on a tour. It was a great tour and Catherine our guide was very passionate about her employer. I ended up with another Cabernet and 2 bottles of a desert wine (very sweet-yummy!!) We ended the day at some friends with a delicious chicken barbeque on the back deck.

Sunday, was fun for me. The men took me into downtown Los Gatos (simply walking down the street from Scott's). We checked out the spa hotel (someday!!) and the unique and fun shops. One of the stops was at a small yarn store called Yarn Dogs. Of course I came away with 2 hanks of silk yarn! Brunch was in the park with sandwiches and coffee from the Bagel shop. After more window shopping, we hopped into the car and headed into San Jose to visit the Winchester Mystery House. The house was very interesting and I loved the finishing work. But I was a little dissappointed. I guess I expected a little bit more "entertainment" during the tour. But right across the street was Santana Row. If you like to shop, and you like top of the line and brand name products, you must visit this place! My favorite shoes are Cole Haan Nike Airs. Of course I had to come away with 2 pairs! Isn't this one cute? The color I bought is a dark metallic green silver. Very unusual.

It was great to get home. Within a day, Janene and I were caught up with shipping. The store itself was quiet this week, as compared to last week, but the website was very busy. I have quite a few pictures to take, edit and post on the web site of new colors of Baby Alpaca Chunky and Cascade 220 colors. Not to mention that all the new exclusive Lorna's Laces colors need to be photographed. I photographed the Renaissance Romance Revelation this morning. I loved the way the wool is so deeply saturated with those colors. But the picture was just "off". The green faded to a dull flat green, the chocolate didn't look as rich as it is and the dark red looked pinkish. So I will try again tomorrow, maybe going outside for a different type of light. Also, I shipped in some of Figheadh other patterns. I really like her zipped hoodie designs. Those aren't even on my web. Maybe this evening with my feet up, and a newly opened bottle of wine I can get those up. Well, mmmm, maybe not!! Time to close up shop for today. I'm taking my youngest niece out for a girls day! She's so excited. She was telling everyone that Tante and she have a "special" day planned today. Have a great weekend. Talk to you again soon!

Gosh is summer over already??

Here is a picture of my Swirl DK T-Top. The fit was perfect. So now I have got the exact measurements that make a perfect fit on my shape. My next machine knit top, will be will some of Lorna's Laces limited edition silk-bamboo blend. and I mean limited. It is only available through the end of the year and only in Amy's Vintage Office color. Two hanks are laying on my desk, and have told me they want to be a long-sleeved, shallow neck pullover with a lace yoke and long lace sleeves. This is a DK weight yarn, so will knit at approx T4 or so on the LK150. Beautiful yarn, very soft, stunning sheen. Just finished both front bands of my black neck down summer cardigan. Now to pick up and knit the sleeves. I could do this in a night or two, if I'd get going on it, but seems like when it is time to put my feet up, I'm working on something else. It'll get done!!

This afternoon, my nieces decided to get their Halloween pumpkins and asked me to join them. So we journeyed up the hill, complete in costume, to Mountain View Farms where Mel Lucky has a pumpkin patch, store and Haunted House/Hillside. Here is Aurora and Ariel playing magic tricks on each other. See the sparks fly!

Ariel loved the haunted hillside (complete with haunted houses and shacks), but Aurora and Tante Angelika stopped before we got to the spooky noises, skipped over the fence and waited for Ariel and her Dad to get through the maise. Aurora just preferred to run through the pumpkins. The day was very crisp. I'm sad to see the summer ending so soon.