Power?

This early morning I woke up and we had no power. I decided that I am going to keep a diary of when we lose power. We lived in AK for almost 15 years and in the 11 years we have lived in Leelanau County we have lost power many times over what we ever lost up there. Anyway, we were out of power, again. So I got up, made sure all of the windows and doors were securely closed as it was blowing and howling outside and the house would become pretty cold. I went back to bed and snuggled down into the covers. Woke up at 7 AM and called Consumers Energy to let them know we were out of power as I could see that the houses across Lake Leelanau had power. We seem to be the hole in a doughnut area regarding loss of power. I put together a bag so I could wash up at the PA office, where I was scheduled to work, took the garbage out, and as I was coming back into the house, the power flicked back on at 8 AM. That was good. I hopped into the shower, my husband made me sandwiches for breakfast and I was at work by 8:20 AM.

So the point of all of this? Later this morning at work I found out two county employees were stuck in a car this morning for several hours, with live wires on their car. So while I am fussing and groaning about a cold house and no running water, two of my friends were sitting inside a car, wondering if they were going to become crispy critters. Changes your perspective a bit, doesn’t it?

Still doesn’t mean I am not going to keep that diary.

Do You Have a Dog?

We are sitting in the shoppe. Susan and Kathy are working on their projects and I see a project lying on the table next to Kathy. I pick it up and ask Kathy if she has a dog. As I ask, I hold up her wooden needles. See the needle on the right? The picture does not do it justice - the end is a bit scratchy and not smooth. This poor mitten was jinxed from the start. I should have told Kathy that black is hard to knit, you can't see it very well. Would she have listened? So, she bought the yarn and the needles and sat down and started to get ready to knit. She reached into the inside of the skein and pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and pulled. Didn't get a picture of that. But, there was a lot of yarn coming from the inside, with no end in sight. We had to wind it into a ball. On the bright side, Kathy has just finished her Baby Surprise Jacket. When she has sewn the buttons on and blocked it, she will let us post a picture.

MOEBIUS STRIP CLUB

We also have a Moebius class going on in the back room of the shoppe. Melody is teaching them how to do an I-cord.

It is misting outside, so today is a good day to stay inside and knit with good company.

A fall day at Thistledown

Susan, Stella the dog, and her Kiwi are here sitting on the couch. They keep me company and educate me in the finer points of creating a community of fiber artists at the Thistledown Shoppe.

We have been open since 6-29-07 and I finally have time to start a blog. It has been a very busy summer, I work 3 days at the Prosecutor's Office in child support and 4 days at the shoppe, so time has flown by. I signed my lease on early June and was opened for business 3 weeks later. I was going to show you pictures of the early shoppe, but they are on another computer, so I will do that later. Anyway, we started the end of June and just worked on building inventory and meeting our customers. I was lucky in that I had my knitting group, the KnitWits, helping me out. Betsy, Melody, and Liz gave me lots of support and ideas. Melody works in the shoppe on Mondays and Betsy fills in when needed. In the meantime, Jill, who used to work at another store, showed up and told Susan - and now here we are.

Susan is knitting a scarf out of the wonderful ShiBui Baby Alpaca. It is a DK weight yarn and very soft. With the weather cooling down and snow forecast within the next several days, it is a great thing to make. I am working on the ribwarmer - Bea Arthur style, with the Unspun Icelandic fleece that we buy from Schoolhouse Press. Mine is the silver color and Susan is making her ribwarmer out of the denim. The fleece is amazing with the colors varying in their intensity. This picure shows the color that Jill will be using for her ribwarmer.

It is time for me close up the shoppe for the day. We have a class in the Moebius tomorrow, so it will be busy in the afternoon.

As my favorite knitter says, Knit On.