Helen shows her love

Helen Huey was one of the folks we came into our shoppe. She passed away recently, and her daughter brought into our shoppe the sweaters that Helen knitted for her great-grandchildren this past year.




Here is a close-up of this sweater.




Helen knitted sweaters like this every year. She started in January so she would have them done by Christmas.

I did not know Helen very well, but I know that she loved her family.

Jackie, who has previously done amazing knitting, brought in a baby blanket she had just finished. The blanket is knitted with Punta Lava.

There are all sorts of bobbles on this blanket. Jackie stated that she almost lost her fingers after knitting all of those bobbles. The blanket is soft and very nice. Good job, Jackie.

Jill couldn't, but Lynn did

We called Jill in for help. Kate needed help with making loops. She and I worked on it Monday evening and were not able to lock the loops in.

So Jill came over and worked on it. She was not able to figure it out. Then Lynn came in and guess what?
Meet Stella.

She is a rescued greyhound from Florida. Lynn and Stella are from Ft. Wayne. They are up here on vacation. Stella makes a great yarn shoppe dog and Lynn - well, Lynn knows how to knit.

Mr. Greenjeans

Okay, this did it. On September 16, Diane posted a picture of her Mr. Greenjeans.

For those of you who are not familiar with this sweater, go to Knitty.com I have loved this pattern ever since it came out two years ago and now I am going to knit it.


Now, this is with the understanding that I am at a work site six days a week and then on my day off, I do other things that can't wait. So, if I can put in 5 hours a week on this sweater, it may be done later in the winter and just in time to add something new to my wardrobe.

So, the question is -what yarn do I use for this wonderful sweater? I was looking at Ravelry and some folks have used Cotton Fleece. That would be good for this terminally hot person, plus I can wash and dry it in the machine. But, I also like Lamb's Pride and they have some beautiful reds. Or, we carry Shaefer Yarn and I could order some Miss Priss in a colorway that I like. Annie looks nice, so does Catherine the Great, or what about Frida Kahlo? And I like Billie Holliday, but I think I want to stick with a red colorway. It is bright and cheery.

Are you ready to join me?

Only three and a half weeks

It is that time of year to pull out the pumpkins.



Susan made up a felted pattern for pumpkins and the wonderful thing about them, is that you can use them for Halloween and Thanksgiving and then knit them up in other colors for Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter....You get the picture.

Two skeins of Lamb's Pride worsted makes three pumpkins.

Mila sent us a picture of the baby jacket and hat pattern by Naturally she knitted for her new grandaughter. She used Buttons yarn from Fiber Trends.


Isn't Corallus cute? We blooged about her cousins on July 12.

Cast on and off

If you have noticed, I have a list of favorite blogs that I enjoy reading. On that list is TECHknitting. I have just finished reading her post for September 30, 2009 and it is full of many great ideas. But the one I want to specifically point out is the stretchy cast on and cast off.

First, start here with Knitty's article. Then let's look at Cat Bordhi's video of the cast off.



Jeny has also come up with a great technique for a stretchy cast on and here it is.



Isn't it great! I am so easily excited. Next pair of socks I knit, I will have to try the cast on technique.

Turning

We have some scrumptious yarn that arrived this week. Elegant Yarns Kaleidoscope. (if you click on the individual yarns, you will see a color sample)


Nine separate, wonderful colorways.

I found the perfect scarf pattern for this yarn. Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf. Check it out at Ravelry.


So I am knitting along and doing really great.


Then I stopped and looked at it. My knitting was turning. I pulled it out and started over. Doing just fine. Then I did it again.

I think I have it figured out this time. I am knitting the last row, instead of starting back with my increase and ssk row, after finishing my short rows.

I will let you know how it goes.

The lord of grafting stitches AKA Kitchener

Recently, we have had lots of requests dealing with the Kitchener Stitch. This is when you take two sets of live stitches and weave or graft them together. It is mostly used when you finish the toe of your socks.

Lord Kitchener developed this technique. According to Wikipedia "The knitted sock patterns of the day used a seam up the toe, that could rub uncomfortably against the toes. Kitchener encouraged British and American women to knit for the war effort, and contributed a sock pattern featuring a new technique for a seamless join of the toe, still known as Kitchener stitch. "

Knitty.com has a great tutorial. I like this one for her pictures, thorough explanation, and also the pointing out that garter stitch kitchening is different than that for stockinette. If you prefer a you tube tutorial, Knit Witch has a good one.

Not knitting - Fuzzy Fuzzy Cute Cute

Ok, every now and then you've got to put the knitting aside.

Wrapping it up

I finished several samples for the shoppe.



Easy Lace Scarf using Claudia Handpainted Worsted 55. This took one skein of yarn. The pattern is by Clara Parkes of Knitter's Review and was very easy - just a 4 row repeat.


A shawl using Schahrazade from Henry's Attic. This is the same pattern we use for our Mountain Colors Merino Ribbon Shawl.

I learned a new cast on!!!!

As much as I like to knit socks, I am still a novice. And that is what is so exciting about the world of knitting - there is always something to learn!

Knitting Daily had a video posted the other day with Nancy Bush and a cast on that she uses for her socks. Check it out.

I am using it to knit a pair of socks with our new sock yarn, Crazy Zauberball.

What we do on Yarn Lover's Night

Every Monday night, from 6:30 pm until 8:30 pm, or whenever we leave, it is Yarn Lover's Night at the shoppe.



We do all sorts of things on these nights.






When you get a chance, come join us.

I had a day off

Once a week, I get a day off - Sunday. What I did this Sunday was ignore all the bookwork and housework that needed to be done. The weather was perfect for lying around and napping and knitting.


Our backyard has been turned into a meadow.


I watched the hummingbirds visit the feeder.



I made sun tea.


And I finished knitting the Rufflicious baby sock. (Baby Ull yarn, US 1 Addi Turbo needles and Kalamazoo Knits pattern)


What a perfect day.

I want to adopt them

This weekend I was treated to a delightful experience. I met Ellie and Lilly.


The girls and their grandmother came in. A new baby girl was to be born into the family and Ellie and Lilly wanted to knit a gift. We picked out the yarn, Monte Cristo, and I taught them to knit.

If my grandchildren were to be like this, then I am ready to become a grandmother. It was a pleasure to spend time with both of the girls.


This is Ellie modeling the Tomten.

Thank you, ladies, for stopping by. You made my weekend.

How to get to a yarn shoppe

The shoppe is located in Suttons Bay. For those of you who have never been here, Suttons Bay is a village. At least, I call it a village. I just looked up the definition of a village versus a town and I still cannot tell which is which. So I will call Suttons Bay a village, as I like the word.

Anyway, Suttons Bay is a village, located on the western side of the Grand Traverse Bay, in Leelanau County. You can access the shoppe by walking to it, driving to it, or as this lady did, by riding her bicycle to it.


She rode the TART trail from Traverse City with her husband. She is not the only one to do that. We had a mother and son come out the other day, the same way. Our summer weather has been so beautiful, that it only makes sense to visit us on your bicycle. Especially since we are only a couple of blocks from trail.

Remember the picture of one of our Susans knitting her first sock? Well, she finished the pair and they have since been mailed out to her daughter in Pennsylvania. I do like that colorway.


And our other Susan made these sheep up for the shoppe. She used a Fiber Trends pattern and Lamb's Pride. Aren't they cute?


Diane knitted a baby sweater and this hat out of Marble Chunky. I have to admit that I like this yarn, even though I thought we would never carry straight acrylic.

Fourth of July

The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription

---

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

---

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton

What we do for you.....

There are so many yarns out there. If I could, I would carry about 90% of them. But since I only have so much room, we are continually thinking of new ways to fit more goodies into the store.


One of the ways we have done is this is by adding more shelves.


Here is my son, Ian, building some bookcases for the shoppe. T-Bone, his dog, is backup.

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.