Living With Yarn...

Snow White vs. Whoville

I am beyond excited about this Sunday's Christmas Stocking extravaganza.    A stress free step  into the holiday season.  Sign me up!

I've been thinking about  last year's holiday season.   Lots of  bad news & difficult  times.   Many of us are still struggling a year after the whole stock market ugliness.   Expenses, health insurance, jobs lost, health issues...its all alive and well.   And since I am no stranger to difficult, life altering events, I  think about this stuff ~ alot. 

I think, I vent, I worry and I whine.   But every once in a while, I listen. 

  This week, I listened to...*gulp*...my teenagers.  I was home with Liv  talking about decisions you make, how we really do not have alot of control, etc.    One thing led to another and before you knew it, I blurted out the  super secret, cross my heart stick a needle in my eye I am not supposed to fess up to this ever thing. 

I said, "You know,  if anyone had laid it all out in front of me and showed me how my life would go,  I am quite certain  I would have run very  fast  in the opposite direction. "  

Now,  while most kids would have been  emotionally scarred & devastated  hearing their mother question her life choices, Liv  responded without missing a beat:

"Oh, Mom, that's a bit dramatic, isn't it?  I mean c'mon.  How many people would jump up and down waving their hands in the air saying  "Pick Me.  Oh Please pick me!  I want  that one.  The life with the bi-polar kids.  Oh and throw in owning  a retail business during a recession. Yeah..that's the life.  PLEEEZE - I want that one."

Huh.  Lesson #1  for me.   Ease up on the drama.   Stop dissecting every wrong turn, unfortunate event and worse.   Its not all about  you.   No one signs up for the bad stuff.   Its just part of the package.

Lesson #2.  This one I learned  from Max.    He was complaining about all the work and projects he had this week.  How his teachers dumped all this stuff on him at once and he just couldn't finish it all during his free periods.  And his AP class - ugh - way too much stuff.   Max has an A average and never brings so much as a pencil home.

I mentioned that bringing a book home or doing  home- work is something alot of kids do.  And if he did, he might actually develop study habits that would help him in college. 

"Well, I will learn study habits in college."

"Max, it might be too late."

"No, mom, it will be fine.  This is high school and I am not going to kill myself  in high school."

"But how will you learn to study if you never do it?"

"How?  Oh, I will learn.  Mom, I am very adaptable."

After I got over my frustration, I realized Max had just handed me Lesson #2:  We are capable.  We can adapt.  We do not control what happens but we can adapt and chose how we react.  

Imagine getting a new perspective via the utterings of your teenagers.  Yikes!  But as I dusted my way through Monday, clearing the bookshelves and reorganizing, I found 2 books side by side:  Snow White  &  The Grinch who Stole Christmas.    Growing up, I was a fairy tale kind of girl.  Mirror, mirror on the wall, princes, castles, and happy endings.  This is how I grew up.   This was what  I believed. 

Now, the kids, they loved the Grinch.   They loved the part where  Cindy Lou Who  and the whole town of Whoville hold  hands and sing  in a gigantic circle.   Smiling and happy with no tangible reason at all to celebrate .   No drama.  Just adapting and being present.

So,  I'm tossing  aside the whole Snow  White thing.   I am not as interested in endings anymore happy or otherwise.    I am looking at  today.   How I live it.  How I  can celebrate  it.   Even when it appears there is no tangible reason for doing so.  And I am going to move through this holiday season in true Whoville style.   Taking things  as they come.   Reaching out  and holding a hand or two along the way. 

 

Get Ready...

Brrr.   It was chilly this morning.   Time to get ready for the cold weather.

Joanie completed another pair of fingerless gloves this weekend:

Check out the detail on the thumb:

Less than one skein of Cascade 220 Wool.    (Think gifts.  After all - it is November!)

And while I am posting pictures, here is another mohair mitten:

The great part is I actually got the thumb right this time around.    Aren't they P-r-e-t-t-y?

And warm.  :)

My New Favorite Thing

This time of year, I like  my knitting to be simple, quick and gift~like.    This may be why the  sitcom chic sweater  is still sitting in my knitting basket with half a sleeve  and no hope of hanging on the wall at the shop anytime soon.

Well, my new favorite gift project  is  felted slippers:

Nothing new about this project.    The patterns  have been around for a long time.  They are light years easier than the felted clogs that were popular the last few seasons.   These  go up in no time. They are fun to knit and the color combinations are endless.  The colors I chose above are the direct result of Joanie's influence on me.   I used to be a neutral / blue/ green girl and everything was subtle and unassuming.   Joanie, on the other hand,  needs to see shades that wake you up and shout  color. 

I have just posted a new class for these slippers.    Check out the Felted Slipper Class  on the website.
 

Picture Day~

Years back when I was back at work  after having Isabelle, a funny thing happened.   We had one of  those coveted "jeans days" in our building.  Of course after gaining 72 pounds a little weight and losing about half of it, my jeans were not always cooperative.   I rarely wore them jeans day or not.

At any rate, on this day, I was in jeans and ran into one of my co-workers.  He did a double take and then said, "Wow - haven't seen you in jeans in a while." 

To which I replied, "Well, not since I had the baby,  the baby weight and all. "  

He chuckled and said, "Isn't she like  three years old now?" 

 And - well - yeah...he was right.

Okay - so every once in a while  I like a good excuse.   Take the move, for example.     How much longer do you think I can blame the move for  just about everything?   I realized this morning that, yes, it will take a bunch of time to re-stock.  Especially when we sell  yarn as fast as we bring it in.  On the other hand - oh what a great retail problem to have.   

And I love to blame  the move for missing tape measures, lost patterns, and my picture taking woes.   Gone is my lovely photography setup.   But today, I decided enough with the move excuse.  Time to take some pictures...

First, the lovely Shepherd Worsted order from Lorna's Laces:

No this isn't all of it.  We have already sold a bunch.  But this is a little peek at what is here.

And I have been trying out the new Cascade superwash 128:

I knit this headband last week during David's Colonoscopy.  Oh yeah - I forgot to blog about that.  I will get back to you on that one. :) 

Its tough to see the cable design in this heathered brown. Here is another look:

Easy to knit.  Great stocking stuffer and I bet you can get 2 out of one skein.

The pattern is called Leafy:  http://thehappylivingshop.com/Products/freebies/Happy_Living_Leafy.pdf   

My one complaint?  I would do a provisional cast on and then kitchner the ends for less bulk in the seam.

Oh, and I have been trying mittens again:

Cute.  Well, normally I have an issue with making 2 mittens that look the same.  Or I get a thumb going that looks, well, kind of weird. I tried to avoid any strange looking thumbs and actually stopped too short.  It looked like a cute thumb on the needles but in real life, its stubby.  And weird.  But you may have better luck.  This is a double strand of LaGranMohair.  Free pattern on the Classic Elite website.

And while I was taking pictures, I grabbed some pics of the new lamb's pride that arrived:

And if you aren't a green person, there's more:

They are very pretty, vibrant  tone on tone colors.  Love them!

That's all the pictures for now.  I need to charge my camera, but the power cord is missing.  Darn move!
 

Ahhh...

This morning as I was dodging rain drops and watching my I -so-need-a trim-hair  become a wavy, curly,  floppy heap, it hit me.   Forget the soggy jeans,  the dreary morning and the old guy watching me use my polar fleece  as a rain tent.   (Yeah - he couldn't resist mentioning how much easier it would have been to stay dry with an umbrella.   Ya think?)

Well, forget it all.   In the midst of  a rainy Rochester morning, I was reminded of how special today was going to be.   Today was the day.  The yarn day.   The super lovely, squooshy, gorgeous, we have been waiting since August 5th yarn was coming.   The Lornas Laces Shepherd Worsted was coming.  And,yes, it is here!

Ahhh...As soon as I can stop staring at it and hugging it, I will take a picture.  

24 hours, 10 minutes & 4 seconds...

Finally...we are just 24 hours away from the long awaited delivery of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted:

This  shipment has a  bunch of colors we have not carried before.  One skein of this amazing yarn can become a pair of  fingerless gloves or a beret or  a hat or  mittens.   2 skeins will  create the gorgeous  Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl.   Lots of possibilities.  

Can't Wait!
 

Holiday Kick-off a.k.a This Year It's Going to be Different

What a gorgeous fall day.   I am tempted to grab my knitting and sit out on the front  steps of the shop for a minute or two.    This may, however,  be the last hurrah.   Its  hard to believe it is almost Halloween. 

I'm starting out this holiday season all organized and over achieving like.    Yup.   Izzy's new Pirate Princess costume is wadded up in a ball under her bed  all ready to go for this Halloween.   Normally, I'm placing a special order on the internet paying an arm and a leg to have it  delivered  before October 31st.   Now, this year  we actually planned.    Izzy  and her friend, Juliette (love that name!), researched the whole costume  thing on line.  They found their dream costumes and then headed to Party City to purchase them.   Since I was working and did not go shopping, Isabelle managed to sneak in a  gigantic  pirate sword for a mere $12.   I recall my initial reaction went something like ~ "$12 dollars!!  For a  sword?  A sword she can't  even take to school with the costume?"   I immediately had visions of  Izzy on Halloween night.  Our  pirate princess running from house to house in the dark.  Her trick or treat bag  firmly in one hand and a great big machete swinging freely in the other.    Why she  could wipe out  an entire  play group with just one swoop.  

  So, while we may not make alot of friends in the neighborhood this Halloween, at least we are ready.    Next up - the Holidays.    Now, I've "done" the holidays a number of different ways.  There are the years where I dressed the kids in matching outfits, sent out tons of  Christmas cards,  covered our house in pine boughs & white lights and hung little wreaths on every window.   I  made my wrapping paper and invested heavily in matching grosgrain ribbon.  Then there are the years where we bought our tree on clearance,  power shopped the mall  two days before Christmas  and tried to convince the kids that  socks together  with the jumbo pack of  underwear can be called your "big gift.". 

  This year, I want to escape to a tropical island   enjoy  the season.    I don't want to sign up for too much, be rushed at the last minute or feel like the holidays never really happened for me.   I am knitting my gifts early.  I am finding time to spend with friends and I am going to soak in the decorations, the music  and the food (yum) of the season.   And you can too.

On Sunday, November 8th we will be here all day listening to relaxing  music, eating and knitting stockings.   Jeannine has an all day workshop planned where you can drop in , stay for a while or stay for the day.  Bring your  Christmas stocking project or pick one out and  get going.  Jeannine will be teaching various techniques:    Latvian braid,  I-cord loop knitted into stocking, duplicate stitch for names & dates,  &  embroidery embellishments.　

Bring you favorite Holiday recipe.  We will be swapping recipes and getting some new ideas for things to serve this season.   We will also have a fabulous holiday theme gift basket to raffle off.   So mark your calenders and sign up for the  Christmas Stocking Workshop.     We will spend the day together creating our knitted  masterpieces and enjoying the season minus the mall, the coupons and the crowds.    Holiday heaven!

The 3/50 Project

One of the promises I made to myself  during the move was to really work on our website, get it up to date and keep it fresh.   So, yesterday, I spent several hours working on website pages.  Ugh!  It is tedious stuff and, of course, I do everything the long, round about way.   I haven't a clue how to program HTML.  Its just sort of hit or miss for me.

Anyway, last night I finally sat down to talk with David.  I mentioned updates to the website and some programming glitches.   David's response:

"I need an IPOD."

"What?"

"I need an IPOD.  Everyone has one."  At this point I have to shake my head as I just had a conversation with Izzy about cell phones that sounded an awful lot like this.

"I need one.  Then I can listen to music."

"Okay, well your birthday is coming up.  Do you want one for your birthday."

"Well, yeah,  but I can't do all the uploading, downloading and stuff to get the music on it."

"I can do it or the kids can do it."

"See - I am falling way behind on technology.  I have to have an IPOD."

"David, you are not behind on technology.  You have a Blackberry.  You use a PC at work.  You are fine.  honest."

"No - I am falling behind.  I need an IPOD.  Then I can listen to it on the motorcycle."

"Forget it.  I'm not buying the IPOD."

"Why not?  I'll just buy it myself."

"On the motorcycle?  Then you can't hear. You wouldn't hear cars or car horns.  Its dangerous."

"Everyone does it."   (Again - feel a bit like I am talking to the 9 year old now)

"You won't be able to hear.  Its a safety thing."

"Well, I need an IPOD.  I am falling way behind on technology and the newest stuff.  I fell behind on the last big  technology thing.  I am not falling behind now."

"What thing?"

"You know - the last really, really big thing."

"What?"

"Velcro."

"Velcro?  Velcro wasn't a technological break through."

"Oh yeah?  Well, tell that to the kids who never had to tie their shoes.  I spent my whole life tying shoelaces.  I missed out.  I am not missing out again."

So, even though David's definition of technological break throughs differs from mine, I did do alot of thinking yesterday as I updated the website.   The internet is such a cool thing.  It makes everything so much easier.  As a business owner, I love the extra little reach it gives me. 

There are concerns for businesses, however, who own physical store fronts and rely primarily on their local customer base.   Check out the 3/50 Project:    http://www.the350project.net/home.html.    Basically, if everyone chose 3 local business and spent a total of $50 a month at those businesses ($50 total not per business), it would generate billions of dollars in revenues.   Revenues that get fed back into your local communities.     Think about it.   Only $50 spread across 3 local businesses each month. 

Just a reminder that technology, the internet and velcro are all beautiful things.   But so are your favorite local merchants.    Don't miss out ~ support those  businesses every chance you get....THANKS! 

Remembering Marsha...

I received a phone call today that was so incredible and heart warming.  As you know, I blog alot about my crazy kids, the shop, my husband.  Its therapy for me some days and its great to know other folks who read this stuff can laugh along with me.  (You are laughing with me, right?)  

Every once in a while, I post something really close to my heart.   Last December, I wrote about my friend, Marsha Whaley, who passed away before the holiday.    I just wanted to share what a special person she was and how she impacted my life.   (If you haven't read it - here it is: http://spiritworkblog.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/12/index.html)

Well, today I received a call from Marsha's sister, Susan,  in PA.  She explained how she had been working on a pattern Marsha had given her.  One of our freebie patterns from the shop.   She had been missing Marsha terribly and ended up with a question about the pattern.  She tracked down our website, saw the blog and then found the post I had written about Marsha.

So, there we were- Susan & I - tears on either end of the phone remembering Marsha.   Susan ended  up posting a comment on the blog.    Here is what she had to say:

Dear Pam,

I just googled the name of your shop to get information about a pattern that my sister sent to me after she knit a hat for my granddaughter (a heart and the words "Spirit Work" were printed at the top of the pattern). I started the pattern last night and wished that I could call her to ask a question about the pattern.

I'm sitting here with tears running down my cheeks as I type because my sister was Marsha. She used to talk about you and your shop and how she loved to come in and knit and what dear friends she'd made through knitting.

How strange life is that today, missing her and wishing I could pick up the phone and ask her about this pattern, I should find your shop through google. I just called and left a message on your answering machine and decided to check out your blog. You can't imagine how wonderful it is to see this tribute to such a dear and special person.

I live in PA and so Marsha and I didn't see each other often but talked on the phone, laughing and crying at times about events in our lives. We both shared a love of knitting and used to talk often about the beautiful yarns you have in your store.

When I went to her house for her funeral, I looked at all the balls of yarn, knitting needles sticking up in unfinished projects, patterns and books ready for her to start a new project and realized how important this art was in her life; a genuine source of joy and therapy.

Reading your note about her brought her back to me; it's like seeing her again, hearing her deep, hearty laugh again; thank you so much, you've allowed others to see how really special she is. I really believe that Marsha is instrumental in guiding me to your site today.

Best regards,
Susan

Yup - it just made my day.   And now I am heading  home.   To sit,   and knit and hug my unfinished projects.   (Okay - and David & those darn kids too!)

Fall Hours & Things That Go Bump in the Night...

It is officially Fall.  My favorite season.  Yes and I am terrified.  

Well, I do find comfort in the changing leaves  and eating apple pie.  The air is cooler at night - ideal for sleeping.  We are cutting the last of the fallen trees and stacking the wood in the garage.   This means we will be sitting around a nice cozy fire soon.  All these things are good.   Well, and then there is the inevitable.  With the cooler weather, we get knitting season.  With knitting season comes Fall Hours.  With Fall Hours comes visions of my children at home doing  laundry, cleaning up after themselves, cooking,  and getting their homework done.  You know just being responsible, productive members of society while David and I run in and out meeting our work commitments.  You see where I am going with this right?

Remember David & I have been blessed with 4 little bundles of joy.  Bundles of joy that aren't so little anymore.   Izzy is the smallest  and she's the easy one.  We can get anyone to help watch her or babysit.  She's  young.  People still find her charming.  Its the rest of them that pose the greatest threat to  our  health and well being.   If you've read my blog over the past year or so, you know I have a very creative, independent bunch that believe rules are...well..pretty much just a a starting point for negotiation and interpretation.

The other day, while I was wrestling with when to announce our Fall hours for the shop, I wondered how we get here as parents.  Why do we feel so tied and responsible to these human beings?  Why do we keep coming back  for more in the face of such defeat?   Why do we hang on hoping for better?   The pineapple diet didn't work for me.  Never lost a pound.  So I gave up.  Called it quits.  I didn't  spend the next 10 years eating pineapple  determined to fit into  a bikini.  So why do I continue to look for the day when Max holds the door for one of his sisters?

Then it hit me.  It nature's way.   The universe needs to  ensure we have kids.  And that our  kids have kids, etc.   Knowing what was in store for parents,  there must be some assurance that babies will be taken care of, kids will be fed and teenagers will be...well...allowed to live.    Nature needed a backup plan.  A safety net of sorts.   It wasn't enough to send us adorable little bundles that had chubby cheeks and thighs.   Nope.   It had to go a step farther.  So, they look like us.  Or someone we love.  

You give birth and then you love and care for this tiny person.   Why?  Because  that little guy who spews baby formula out his left nostril  has your husband's jawline.  Whenever you look at him, there's a tug at your heart.   Just when you have think you have had your fill of burp cloths and baby wipes, you catch that jawline out of the corner of your eye.   Why its the jawline you fell in love with during the homecoming football game.   Its like some crazy magnetic force pulling you closer to Old Faithful - I mean your baby boy.    You sigh.  You're hooked and the universe knows it.

That's phase one of the back up plan.    Nature has to ensure we will not only give birth but actually raise these beings no matter what they do.   Its no coincidence that speech happens later on.  After you are already head over heels for your toddler.   Once you are hooked, then they speak.  And what's a toddler's  favorite word?  "NO!"   (I rest my case.)

 Now, the family resemblance thing remains in effect even into the teenage years.       No longer is it just adorable that your son has the same tell tale bump on his nose like his  Dad.   No that bump is  a  DNA identification  device.   School administrators, police and the like will use it to track down notify  the responsible parties  loving parents.   

Okay, so with 4 kids and thanks to nature, no where to hide, I had to summon up my courage and push ahead.    Time to announce Fall Hours which begin this week.   The house may become a bit of a war zone now that I am around less, but there is one gigantic upside~ There are no piles of laundry  at the shop.  Not a one.  :)

Fall Hours:

Sunday:  12-4

Monday:  Closed

Tues: 10-6 (unless we have classes then you can come on in)

Wed & Thurs:  10-8:30

Fri: 10-5

Sat 10-4