Jill's blanket

These squares are courtesy of Jillian along with the Great American Afghan and the Great American Aran Afghan books.

This is a post where the pictures do say a thousand words.

This and That

On Wednesday, one of our customers found this little guy out on M-22. They brought him back and placed him with the Lily of the Valley plants. During the day, I watched him hop around and chirp away. When I came back in to work on Friday, he was gone. I am hoping he found the rest of his family.


Jill is knitting an afghan for her granddaughter, using various squares out of the Great American Aran Afghan and Great American Afghan books. She has mentioned that she will never again knit anything pink.


One of our Susans is knitting her first sock, using Yarn Hollow's Sock Religious. This yarn comes in a flat and is handdyed by Rita. I love this colorway.

Patty brought in 3 more socks to show off. All of these are made with Classic Elite's Summer Sox. Aren't they colorful? Patty said the yarn was a joy to knit.

And the Barb came in yesterday and brought in a sock she knitted with ShiBui.

Nancy is modeling a coat she purchased. This woman uses fur and other wonderful materials in her knitting. Isn't this gorgeous?

Keeping the Faith

Like everything else, owning a knit shoppe has its ups and downs. Real life intrudes and you have to pay the bills, do the bookwork, and sometimes deal with unpleasant events. But then, someone walks into the shoppe and you talk about your passion and you remember why you put in 8 days a week.

People like Patty who is churning out socks (this is Yarn Hollow's Sock Religious, Coffee Wave colorway)


or Carole who has started knitting again after many years.


For whatever reason, we love what we do. We play with colors, with textures, with the feel of good fiber. We challenge ourselves with a new technique. We go into a meditative state with garter stitch. And we meet others, who feel like we do.

Thanks, folks.

Lady Darcy of Thistledown in residence

Every shoppe needs a dog. Or at least, that is what us dog lovers think. And we are fortunate to have a dog, every now and then.

If you are lucky and you stop by when Lady Darcy of Thistledown is in residence, this is what you will see.




She takes her responsibilities seriously.

After all, there may be something hiding in the ground cover that could prove detrimental to the yarn.

All you need is the wanting

About one week after Christmas, Shirley came into our shoppe. We had not met before and she announced that she had not knitted for about 30-40 years and she wanted to make five sweaters for Christmas and she wanted to start now. We introduced Shirley to Knit Pure and Simple and she started her sweaters. At this time, she has completed one sweater and has two more almost finished.



Kate is modeling the sweater for us. Shirley used Lamb's Pride Worsted and it is cosy. Makes me almost want some snow and a fireplace.


Laura knit this hat after our Lace Workshop with Amy.


This is the Picture Hat from the Gathering of Lace. Laura received this book as a give away and she promptly made good use of it. Her mother belongs to the Red Hat group and Laura knitted this for her. Amazing!

I told you we wouldn't lose Jill. She is making samples for our shoppe and this is her latest.



The top is knitted from Euroflax and the pattern is called Linen Top. Kate Coyle is also the author of the book Boho Baby Knits. A book we just happen to carry. Two skeins, easy knitting, and you are ready for summer.

Yarn

When you have a yarn shoppe, you get to open boxes of goodies. Here is what came in last week.


One box from Cascade and another from Classic Elite.



We have added the Alpaca Sox and Summer Sox yarns to the shoppe.


And then restocked our colors for the Cascade Ecological Wool.

The better to knit with, my dears.

Lady Darcy of Thistledown

In our house we have 4 dogs and 4 cats. One of those cats and dogs are Scotty's and mine. We have 3 children. One is living with us right now. She is in between selling her house and buying a new one. She brought in 2 dogs and 1 cat. We have a son in college. He has his 1 dog with him and his 1 cat with us. We have another daughter in college and she has her 1 dog with us and her 1 cat with us. Got the picture?



This is Lady Darcy of Thistledown. She gets to come to the shoppe. Because we have the dogs, Darcy is their alpha female and she just loves to get them all together and go for walkabouts. At first she took them back into the woods, but lately she has started to discover M-22. We are not thrilled with any of the walkabouts and many has been the times that I have taken the van and gone out to find her and her partners in crime. So, as a preventative measure, I have started to bring her to the shoppe.

Darcy makes a great shoppe dog. She loves the attention and she will quickly lie on her back, giving you the opportunity to scratch her belly. She also loves to lie on the rug by the front door. They are both the same color, so she becomes one with the rug.

So, until our daughter buys a new house and moves out - Lady Darcy of Thistledown will be my partner at the shoppe.

April showers bring spring flowers

I always loved that saying. I grew up on a dead - end street that had a woods at the end. And I loved to wander around, looking at all of the flowers that grew in there. Violets and Jack in the Boxes are the ones I remember, although there were others.

We have a raised bed in front of our house and this is what grows in there during this time of year.



These pictures were taken over a week ago. I love these little flowers.



Not sure what they are called, I call them star flowers, they are delicate and I like their color.


There are other small flowers in there, but since I planted them about ten years ago, I have forgotten what they are.

More Knitting by the Bay

Here is the group. Actually, this is part of the group. We lost some and these are the ones who stayed until the bitter end.

Good bye until next year.

Knitting by the Bay

Knitting by the Bay 2009






Nancy showed off her Mananita.





Amy came back to see us again. She taught us how to knit the Pansy Shawl and the Beginner's Shawl.



Nancy also showed us the shawl she made for her daughter's wedding.

It was gorgeous.
Amy's sweater that she talked Susan into adding the sleeves.




We spent a lot of time of knitting and tearing out.


But we learned a lot, ate good food, and made new friends.





The Beginner's Shawl.

Socks

Well, in case you haven't figured it out yet, I love handknitted socks! I find it very hard to turn down more sock yarn for the shoppe. There are so many great fibers out there to knit into socks. Under hand dyed we have Yarn Hollow's Sock Religious and Panda Cotton, ShiBui's sock yarn, Fourth Coast Fibers sock yarn, Farmhouse Yarn Bo Peep Sock and Fannie's Fingering, Schaefer's Anne, and Mountain Colors Bearfoot. Other sock yarns include Louet Gems fingering, Opal cotton, 6-ply and what I call their regular sock yarn. Also Skacel's Trekking XXL in 6-ply and fingering, Austermann Step, Fortissima, Trekking ProNatura. And don't forget South West Trading Company's Tofutsies. Then we will be adding Misti Alpaca sock yarn, Classic Elite Yarns Alpaca Sox, Summer Sox, and TY-Dy socks. Whew! See what I mean. And I don't carry every sock yarn out there.

Plus I enjoy seeing what you folks have done with the yarn you bought from us. Sue sent me this picture. She bought these from us last summer and finished them up just recently.


Who would have guessed that they would have looked like this? Thanks, Sue, for sending the picture to us.

Still loving those hats

Have to admit, even with spring peeking around the corner (come on folks, spring is not here until May), we still wear and knit our hats.




Here is a cute one that Alicia made. And yup, it is made out of one of my favorite yarns, Lamb's Pride.

Hats on to You

Yesterday we turned over 36 hats to our wonderful plow drivers here in Leelanau County.



Pictures of the various hats that were made by you folks.



Tags were added that gave washing instructions (to prevent felting).




The other side of the tag says "Thanks for keeping our roads clear!!!! Knitted for you by Leelanau County area residents" Thanks to Amy for that idea.




Channel 4 TV came out and recorded a nice segment for us.



Brown Sheep donated the Lamb's Pride and the Double Ewe Yarn Shop in MN graciously allowed us to use their pattern.



The last hat was dropped off today, so now we have 37.

This is Herb Cradduck, the Superintendent, wearing one of the hats. We also added the NW Bank buttons that say "I Can Do That."




Thanks, guys.