The power of friends, family and knitting

Good news! Saturday night my son was in a car accident near Denver where he lives. He has been in ICU since then - I arrived on Tuesday to join the on-site vigil. Everything, so far, is progessing in an amazing way. I'm so impressed with the medical expertise, the team effort, the miracle of the human body and the will to survive. He is on lots of pain medication and sedated in order to be on a ventilator (bruised lungs) but he had no general anesthesia today and he is actually communicating as of this evening. He was opening his eyes and acknowledging us, trying to smile with his jaw wired shut and mouthed "I love you". We are so encouraged and hopeful that this just keeps getting better and better.

Knitting saves me through all these fearful times. I ask questions, take notes, pass information on the others that wait and I wait and knit. Thanks for all your good thoughts and prayers.
Joy

Let's Dye!

This is from Juliann, the dye lady here at the shop. We are having a dye workshop on June 22, 2008, at 1:00 p.m. Last year we had so much fun. We played with Gaywool dyes, and did a little bit of Kool-Aid. This year we are going to play with a new dye called Culinary Colors. It is an easy dye to mix and does not make a huge mess! It is set in a microwave, and is kitchen friendly! I will set up a crockpot for some Kool-Aid, but we will spend our time with Culinary Colors.

So please sign up now and get on the list. We will be having a great time playing with color, eating, laughing, and making ourselves turn special colors. Be sure to bring rubber gloves and an apron.

And be prepared to HAVE FUN!

A Quick Note

Just a little note about the World Wide Knit in Public Day this Saturday,June 14th (also Flag Day). We don't have anything formal planned but if anyone feels like coming to the shop and knitting outside in our yard they are certainly welcome. We have some chairs though if the weather is wonderful and the word gets spread you might want to bring your own chair or a blanket. Again we don't have anything planned but the lawn is open. I hope to be back(if I get out tomorrow) from New Orleans. Of course the airlines might screw me up again( today I got to the airport for my 11:50 flight and it was delayed and we couldnt find the right connecting flight so I ended up at home). Don't you just love flying these days? It just makes a person just sit at home and knit. Well I'm off to bed as I have to get up at 4:30am to make the flight they promised me for tomorrow. Wish me luck

Our entire line of Mirasol yarns are now 25% off!

Are you familiar with the Mirasol line? Well, it's a neat story and wonderful yarn. So, we bought into it - too much so. But, it's to your advantage on many levels - price, quality, designs and giving back.

Here's the deal - it is luxurious Peruvian fibers, cotton, merino, baby llama and alpaca, spun and dyed in Peru. A portion of every purchase is dedicated directly to the funding of a school in the remote Munani region in Peru. Go to http://www.mirasolperu.com/ for beautiful photos and more details of this fairtrade endeavor. Jane Ellison is the designer for the line and has created some wonderful pattern books - she is highly envolved in the project. "Miralsol" is the name of one the children that lives in the highlands. She and her brother are responsible for 350 alpacas and a local school will enable them to get an education.

We have five different yarns in good quantities and two pattern books. And we are selling it at 25% off. We will have it in our webstore this week so you can see colors and of course at the store store so you can touch it -

Miski is 82 yards of 100% baby llama on sale for $6.67,
Sulka is 55 yards of 60% merino and 20% silk on sale for $5.81,

Hacho is 137 yards of 100% hand dyed merino on sale for $6.67,

Cotanani is 90 yards of 60% pima cotton and 40% merino on sale for $5.36 and

T'ika is 91 yards of 100% pima cotton on sale for $5.36.

New for Fall!

First, I'd like to say, "be in the present and enjoy summer." But, because life never stops, Colleen and I are planning some fall activities that we hope you’ll really like - we're excited. And we’re buying our new fall inventory!

Here are a few of the details so far- Our favorite sales rep visited this week. And as far as the Rowan line is concerned - we're on it! Kim Hargraves is designing fabulous stuff for them and even has her own colors in about six of current the yarns. She has a new book out for Summer which is on it's way and two new for fall. We're replenishing our Cashwool colors and got bunches of lucious Kid Silk Haze. The preview of the fall magazine looks wonderful.

Stephanie had real live Prisim models that we got to try on. The two models were sooo wearable - a swing jacket that covered the derierre and a boxy jacket with curved front panels. We are debating about the line - it is very unique, high-end, luxury hand dye line. See http://prismyarn.com/ which does not do it justice. What do you all think of this line of yarn? How would you like a fashion show and kit sale evening? Any feed back is welcome.

Next, Mission Falls is introducing their wonderful washable wool in a lighter DK weight. We are getting it in all the current colors with a new pattern book. This weight will be so good for our climate and for children's things! Can't wait for that to come in.

Also, we have some ideas for classes and workshops. The Sunday workshops have seemed to work for you all so, we'll be doing more of those. Look for this one - a workshop on the corelation between Good Health and Knitting, yoga for sitters/knitters and how to use the incredible website Ravelry to your advantage and connect to the knitting community "out there".

Another class idea we are planning is a fantastic designer project that uses up your stash yarn. Good, huh? 'Cause you might have some yarn stashed away and might have some small amounts of cool stuff that you don't know what to do with. So, you and a few folks with similar issues, could get together with us and knit Chris Bylsma's fabulous Crayon Box jacket - mitered squares of combined yarns, in colors you choose that is so fabulous. She even has a girl's sized version.

And, we are going to do a Christmas stocking class using the very cute, popular Minnow Knits pattern. If you have never knit socks this is a great intro - first off, it is only one large gauge stocking, not a pair and second you do a real heel flap and turn!

Cynthia Parker is going to teach intarsia knitting - a beautiful Kaffe Fassett knock off pillow top and Jane Foster is going to show us shadow knitting ala Vivian Hoxbro.

Sound like a good start? Let us know what you think and if there is anything more we can do for you!

Hi, All. We've been really slow in posting about our fabulous Knit Out that we had May 10. Lots of us showed up to knit in public and we attracted some good attention. We have photos and everything. It started to rain for the last 1/2 hour but, we had great fun. The other neat thing is we gave away door prizes by selling raffle tickets for $1. The money we raised, in 1.5 hours mind you, was over $100 for local Meals on Wheels program. We found it very sad that the program can no longer provide meals on the weekends for folks due to lack of funding.

I had an idea - it is quite half baked and needs some work. It may not even be possible to access the names/addresses of the participants but, what if neighbors/neighborhood associations/neightborhood churches could pick up some of the slack? I would be willing to make sure one of my neighbors had, at least, peanut butter and crackers to eat. What do you all think?

Also, how about we knit together again on Saturday morning, June 14, Fayetteville Square for World Wide Knit In Public day?
Joy