December is moving right along...

and it is dragging me along with it. I'm incredibly behind schedule with little hope of catching up(although my husband and son went to Colorado for a week and I envision myself knitting all night long). I'm ignoring the fact that my 17 yr old daughter will be at home(and needy) as well as 3 dogs and 2 cats. My cats refuse to get along with my son's dog(whom I'm babysitting) and she(Mac) refuses to leave them alone so they are sequestered in the laundry room....Now it is 3 days later and I'm even farther behind. My older dog, Snow has been very ill(she's 13 with heart trouble)and I have spent a lot of time(and money) at the vets with her this week.
But I won't go on with all my ills. I am coming to terms with the fact that very little of my planned Christmas knitting will get done this year. I hope to go into the New Year with the resolve to plan better for the next season.
That resolution goes for the shop newsletter too. We are trying to get it out before the New Year so everyone can look at what we have going for the rest of the winter. Joy is leaving for Washington DC (to be around when her new grandson is born.) so it's going to be iffy, but we will try. Keep looking for your notice on line about it. Well onto all the chores at hand. Next post will include pictures of finished and possible unfinished project. Happy Holidays to all, and good knitting.

Early Rainy Morning

Not much time to blog these days. Im feveriously knitting away for those small gifts I have planned. Everybody on my list has a sock done for them; now for the second one. (does anybody out there know a deserving one footed person?) I think after the holidays I am done with socks for awhile. I do love knitting them but I think I need a bigger project for the new year. (of course my Vivian Hoxboro would fit the bill nicely). Wanted to let everybody know that the tree we submitted for the Alzheimers auction got a honorable mention for the most original one. We want to thank all our knitter for their contributions to the tree and we hope we can make this an annual event. Our community of knitters keeps growing and it is wonderful to see how everyone is on board when it comes to a charitable project. Well its time to get out of this bathrobe(dont even try to get a visual) and get down to the shop. Hope to see you all at this Sunday's last minute knitted gifts event. Colleen

Holidays are approaching

Ok, I'm almost sure everyone is feeling like me. Out of control and way behind.(except the friend I saw the other day who said she had 2/3 of her list finished) What list? Was I supposed to make a list? Ok I'll make one on Dec. 26th. Hopefully it will include taking down the Christmas tree. (that assumes I've put one up by then.)

Speaking of Christmas trees, our wonderful knitters at the shop helped us put a knitted tree together for the Alzheimers fund raising Christmas Festival. You can see a small portion of it in the picture. Mostly you see our beautiful shop cat, Sasha, gazing at it. I wish we could have kept the tree at the shop for the holiday season. It was great to see all the effort that our knitters went to and how perfectly it all turned out. Boy, when we took it to the community center it was a little bit intimidating because most of the trees were surrounded by decorators putting feathers here and shiny balls there and getting all sorts of advise from all the other decorators. But when I let myself see the uniqueness of ours and community effort it took and the homespun Christmas feel of it, I felt awfully proud. (just like Charlie Brown) We did mention to the director of the affair that if nobody bid on it we wanted to because we truly would like to see it back in the shop.

Now that I can post pictures(it was a family effort) I hope to show you some of the lovlies that we have worked up a t the shop. We are going to have a Sunday event on Dec. 9 for doing some last minute gifts and Joy and I are working on some of them now. Maybe I can get some pics this week end. This blogging stuff keeps me going in my knitting just so I can show it off finished. (I may even get to my Ravelry account and start posting things there: that is if I can get off my computer) I guess that means it's time for me to get going. Happy Knitting

The Joy of Blogging

It's me, Joy, taking time from my knitting to post for the first time. The season has hit me hard - I've started three new projects since Sunday. I am three inches into a Dale of Norway Baby Ull traditional fairisle sweater for my expected grandson. It was my first time knitting with a US0 needle, but what a pleasure - the yarn and the rhythm of fairisle in the round. Second, after receiving new Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran and DK and Aran tweed at the shop we had to move merchanise around, of course. It was the summer cotton that caught my eye for a table runner shown in the summer Jo Sharp 2 magazine. It looks woven and that's what I liked. Why don't I just spend a little time working on my weaving - since I have recently acquired not one, but two looms! Anyway, my third project which I've justified as a "shop project" (definition: something of interest to customers and useful to have knit up as an example) is a Wagtail Lace and Pearls shawl. Three reasons for this: 1.) I paid the Wagtail bill and it was a significant $$ so selling the yarn would be a good thing. 2.) the yarn, a tightly twisted mohair that has a sheen rather than bloom, comes in rich saturated colors from our friends in Australia and I have yet to knit any of it. 3.) The pattern is an Barbara Walker stitch pattern Roman Rows and I've been drooling over her first book all week!

For my next post I'll try photos of the above gems.

Joy is back in town(from visiting her mom in Chicago) so she will post some soon. We are getting ready for this Sunday's happening( is that word made a comeback or am I just showing my age?)We are going to decorate a tree for an Alzheimer fundraising auction. So many people have great ideas, I think we could decorate a couple of trees if there was time. We are making little knitted sleeves for plain glass ornaments and little sweaters and mittens. Joy and I are planning to do the tree skirt if we can figure out how to do wedges and put them together. It should be a great afternoon. I wish we would have some cooler weather to put us in the mood. It has been so warm this fall. I am a cold weather girl(not good for a girl living in Arkansas). I think its because I can wear sweaters in the fall and winter and cover up any unsightly lumps that have invaded my body over the last few years. It also seems that I'm constantly ironing in the summer(I love linen).
I see the first of the trick or treaters coming down the street so I will sign off.

Well it's finally happened. It took us 5 years to post a blog but we got to it today. We will visit this space at least once a week and let all of our loyal friends know what is going on at the shop and in our lives.(at least our knitting lives).

The holiday season is fast approaching and I(Colleen) am starting to feel the panic. I decided this year not to set myself up and plan to give everyone a hand knit gift, but then the guilt set in. So now I feel guilty and panicked. I guess I should put that energy into some knitting. I do think that I will try to get at least some slippers done for my mother-in-law. Cynthia(our resident whiz kid knitter) is making some from KNIT TWO TOGETHER for her mother-in-law and they are darling and shouldnt take too long. Am I being a copycat? I don't think so. That's the great thing about the community of knitters, they love sharing their ideas.