Maryanne Dunn is my guinea pig. I asked Maryanne 6 questions…one of them her name of course. So Maryanne’s favorite yarn is that she doesn’t have just one. Her current favorites are Blue Sky Alpaca, Malabrigo and Classic Elite Provence. Her favorite pattern to knit is Rambler by Marie Wallin. The pattern is in the Rowan Magazine no. 48. She also likes to knit sweaters with cables or lace details. The last question I asked her was “What do you think makes a good yarn shop?” Her answer: “Lots of variety of quality yarns, skilled knitters who want to help us become great knitters; and skilled knitters to knit with in a friendly, inviting atmosphere”.

Maryanne is a skilled knitter and her projects are beautiful and many of our knitters projects are. Here are a few photos of her work.  This green sweater is made of Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky.  The blue lace shawl is made of Blue Sky Alpaca Suri Merino.  The navy cowl neck is made of Malabrigo Worsted.   The next light green cabled cowl neck sweater is also made from Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky.  The bright teal sweater is made from Malabrigo Silky Merino and the tweed jacket is made from SMC Tweed Deluxe.

NOW WHO SHOULD I SPOTLIGHT NEXT?

For news on the store, we just received James Brett marble chunky. It is a great deal for the money. It is a variegated acrylic chunky yarn. It has 341 yards and the cost is $13.95. It is actually quite soft for an acrylic yarn. I was pretty surprised. It would make grat prayer shawls, baby blankets, etc.

Tomorrow I am going to introduce something different in my blog. I was talking to my friend Danielle the other day and she mentioned how nice it would be to see what others are working on. She suggested that I highlight a knitter every week or two with photos of their completed projects. So tomorrow I will get that going.

Stay tuned for the next chapter and don’t forget about our raffle. You could be the one who wins 1,850 yards of a worsted weight yarn.

I am so glad we finally have a little sun.  This week John and I are childless (both boys off vacationing with friends)  so I had visions of lots of things that had been put aside getting done and the weather did not cooperate.  Maybe tonight we can start.

As many of you know John is headed off to college in the fall and I have been working on an afghan for him.   I have been using Leisure Arts 60 Easy-to-Knit Sampler Afghans.  I am making 20 squares.  Each square will be a different pattern. After I made the first one John told me he wanted a thick blanket to keep him warm.  The squares are knitted with a worsted weight yarn and they measure 12×12 upon completion.  Since he wants a warmer blanket I am knitting with 2 strands.  My squares are 14×14.  It is perfect.  John is 6’5″ so originally I thought I would need to make 24 squares to make it long enough but now I can stick with 20 squares.  I am on square 13 and I have to have it completed by the first week of August.  I can assure you once this is finished I will definitely knit something for me.  The only drawback is Matthew goes off to college in 2 years so I will have to make him an afghan also but I will try something different for him.  I really think it would not have been so bad if I had started earlier and not have to feel rushed right now.

I am also trying to squeeze in knitting a belt.  I am using Cascade Ultra Pima Cotton.  I just ordered some cut belt hardware.  Nothing fancy.  I crocheted the cotton onto the belt hardware and now I am doing a seed stitch.  I like the way it is coming out.  it is also a great portable pattern.  I can carry it in my purse or keep it in the car for those time I am stuck waiting and we all know we spend a lot of time waiting.  Once I finish all of these projects I will post some photos of them.

I hope to be writing more often so I can keep you up to date with all the news.

Today is Memorial Day and from experience I realize that most people are not thinking about visiting a yarn shop so I closed the shop and gave everyone the day off.  A bit of me was being selfish since this weekend was John’s graduation from The Covenant School and we hosted two parties…one Saturday and another on Sunday.  So as you can imagine Big John and I have been cooking and cleaning and cleaning and cooking.  We needed the day off which made me come to the conclusion that today would be the perfect day to dive in and start “THE BLOG”.  My blog is going to be about things that are on my mind…some may relate to the shop, some may relate to me and some may relate to whatever pops into my mind at the moment.  The good thing about this is that I can do it wherever I want since I can write it on my IPad.  Good for me.  I am not sure about you having to listen to my ravings.

Around the middle of May I sent out my newsletter and touched on the subject of summer knitting.  I still cannot understand why knitting or crocheting is considered seasonable.  You can knit or crochet in the car, on a plane or train.  Most places are air conditioned or you can sit outside in the early morning or evenings when it cools down a bit.  You can work on small projects to give as gifts or work on a winter garment that will be ready to wear as soon as the weather changes.  You don’t necessarily have to use wool, you can use bamboo, cotton, linen or any other lightweight materials.  So I really think that knitting or crocheting does not have to be seasonable.

I will leave you with those thoughts and come back and write more another day.  I don’t want to exhaust you on my first day.  Have fun today and hope to see you soon.

Please stay tuned.