My Favorites

Tuesday evening I had a complimentary facial at Origins in the Galleria- it was lovely! I do love their products and it was very relaxing to have someone give me a facial and redo my makeup. I recommend it! I bought a new lipstick and liner plus I got 6 free (small) samples! What a deal!

My next favorite thing to do is have a massage. I have a special place in Shakopee that I go to as often as possible and she now has yoga classes plus several other specialty services. Michelle is the owner and the name is River Valley Massage. I hesitate to give this out because I'll never get a spot after you've tried her. I have an appointment Saturday. She has also given me some tips on keeping my shoulders loose after knitting. Some involve exercise which I'm not very good at, nor fond of doing. I've been a slug all summer and need to get back into a routine. I'll walk every morning and do weights and crunches every other day. That's the plan but boy it's tough to get into the habit again. I've never been real fond of exercise but I know I should and I feel so much better when I do make the effort. Enough on that subject!

My next favorite thing is a manicure and pedicure. My favorite person has moved onto working with hair so I've been doing my own. Actually, I've been saving alot of money. A new nail salon is opening up in Ron's old spot by my shop. Can hardly wait. I can do my own and I do, but sometimes it's a nice treat to have them done.

My other favorite is eating dinner out. Last night we went to Salut in Edina. If you haven't tried it - it's fantastic. They have an oyster bar for you lovers of the little slimy things, great cuisine, very unusual, great ambiance, good service and we had a really fun wait staff last night. We had Oyster's with caviar, cream sauce and a shot of Russian Vodka. Excellent! A fresh beet salad with vinagrette dressing and to top it off we had a crayfish, polenta dish. A glass of Reisling and a very dry martini and we were set. Oh, they have great coffee and desserts also.
This evening was a mini vacation (since I didn't get one this summer).

I've been working on the vest for our class and my sister's sweater again. I have the sleeves on the sweater, now just to knit up to the collar. It's turning out very nice. Phoenix should be cooling off soon so she'll be needing her sweater. I have many more favorites but that's another blog.

New class schedule is finished!

August has been a good month. The relatives came and left, birthday party for Ellie was a success, spinning class was great, spinning sunday was even better but I missed most of it due to a medical test on Monday. All is well, but the prep was the worst, if you know what I mean! This little sweater was knit for my Granddaughter, Ellie, by Shelley Hermanson out of the Karabella Aurora 8 - it is so beautiful! www.karabellayarns.com


One of the highlights this month was the addition of a class from Annie Modesitt. If you have been reading her blog you'll know she and her family are looking at moving to Minnesota.
She was kind enough to add a class the day she came in to town. We have 10 new combination knitters, including me. I really like and I learned how to do cables without a cable needle. If you come in soon I may be able to show you before my computer brain loses the information.
We had a great time--Annie is such a comedian, even with a pretty severe attack of breathing problems due to the rain that night, she was her very funny and entertaining class. Hopefully, she will return.

I worked on the new schedule for a couple weeks and hopefully all will find some class that they would like to take. It should be up today on the website. Every time I do this news letter, I proof it and have a couple other people proof it and still I find mistakes (or Shelley finds mistakes). So, if you are reading it and find a couple typos please excuse me! I try my best!

There has been some movement across the street at Connor's old restaurant. The rumor is, it will be a restaurant with morning fare as well as sandwiches and a wine/beer bar. Sounds interesting and I hope it opens soon. We can sit and knit over there or bring it across the street. Some of my customers want a ladies night with wine and cheese. I'm trying to pick a date, and will post it on the website when we can arrange it.

I've ordered some interesting new yarns for the shop - this is the most fun part of owning your own shop. The shopping! It's difficult to choose but I really do keep my customers in mind when I'm buying and try to fit the yarn to what I know they will like. For instance, we have a pullover vest class coming up and I found a great yarn to use for this vest. It's called Vesio, I believe, I'll have to double check that name when I get to the shop, but it self patterns and will be so cute on this little vest. I just got permission to use the pattern from one of the magazines, so I'm very excited. We also added a "Sock of the Month" class which should be alot of fun for Shelley.

Catherine is back in the shop during the week now and I'm sure grateful and happy to have her back. Shelley is going to work Sat. and Fri. afternoons this year. I could still use one more Saturday person if anyone is interested. It's good to be back to Fall.

It looks like rain today. I was hoping to work outside for awhile before going to work. Pull a few weeds, scrape the deck, do the wash, sew a purse, pick up the house, spin some peach silk/merino, and find the right color for my living room. Do ya think I'll get that all done before 2 PM.???

My daughter was over yesterday, Jenna. We're having a 21 year celebration for her. She arrived from Korea, August 9, 1985. She was 3 1/2 years old. We were making invitations with a cute photo we had originally received from the foster mom's in Korea before she arrived. We had a little trouble figuring out something clever to say on the invitation, so we called Dad and he came up with a very appropriate celebration. It's called "Chu Suk" and it means bountiful abundance. This is one of the greatest Korean Holidays and it begins in August. So it was very fitting for Jenna and for our family. We are serving a Korean Dinner that all my children love, Beef Bulgogi, rice, cream cheese wontons, cabbage salad, Kimchi (for those brave soles) and Dairy Queen cake. She is very excited.

I did some dyeing on Friday, I nearly forgot to mention it. I dyed some Alpaca (beautiful Turquoise color) some of Annika (from Sue Ross's fleece) Corriedale/Romney - peach, blue, green (lovely) and some grey corriedale which came out turquoise, also. I like to keep using my dye pot once I have it mixed up so I keep throwing fleece in there. I love playing and experimenting with dyes. Oh, I also hand painted a few skeins of Merino from Henry's attic. If anyone wants yarn from Henry's attic just let me know, I can order it in bulk for you.

Well, I hope I can figure out how to get photos on here soon. I'm so slow at this computer stuff. I can do it on Frontpage very easily but this seems more confusing. Oh, Well.
Happy knitting!

Used Equipment

Ashford Knitter's loom project with Diaketto self striping yard, Kertzer ribbon, a boucle' from Plymouth. It's very fun working on this, you design as you go.











I finally finished this project for Pam on the Ashford Knitter's loom. I had to line it but it worked well. I hope she likes it.


I believe it was Thursday this week, I arrived at the shop to find an old floor loom sitting by the back door. It was rusted and dirty with some kind of warp on it. I don't know if it was a gift from someone thinking I would like this? or someone decided it would be my responsibility to dispose of this for them. I would like to go on record that I don't deal in used equipment, I don't fix used equipment. I am a dealer for new equipment only. I have dealerships for Schacht, Norwood, Ashford, Louet, LeClerc and New Voyager. If you buy used equipment on-line, I do not repair it, nor does anyone else in town. You need to know what you are buying before you buy it. Research your product and make sure all the part are there. Often people receive equipment that is only partially there. It may be cheap to buy but the repairs or replacement parts can be expensive.

Saturday we had a spinning class and two ladies(students) arrived early. As they came into the back of the shop and put their bags down, I heard this unusual noise, which I thought was her cell phone, because people have the strangest rings on their phones these days. Well, no! It was a flying squirrel type animal from Australia. The owner proceeded to tell me that "they" had two new babies, also in the bag! As she pulled this squalling gray squirrel out of the bag, I could see two babies hanging onto her underside. She put them back in the bag and pulled the drawstring shut.

The same two ladies mentioned that they would like to learn how to weave. I said, "Oh, would you like a loom. " YES! in unison. I said, "great, go out back and there is a loom in the parking lot. It's yours! " They were thrilled, and proceeded to load it into the back of their Van. Meanwhile, in the shop, two more students showed up and heard this squalling noise and thought it must be a mouse or something. I told them it was a flying squirrel from Australia and their eyes got huge and their toes curled up. I quickly retreated to the parking lot to ask the ladies if they would remove their animal during class as the other students were a little uncomfortable with this animal in a draw string bag. No Problem.

After class we had to discuss parts for this used loom. It will need a new reed for sure and heddles plus a really good clean up job. I'm not sure if it even works. At any rate I don't want it back.

So, it was a very good week at Creative Fibers. Annie Modesitt's Combination Knitting class is filling nicely and we're into planning the next session for Fall.


I've been researching some new fibers off internet sights. June at Two Sheep had some new fiber from a place called Kickapoo Creek Farms. An Alpaca blend. 60% Alpaca, 20% merino and 20% silk. I'm ordering some to try out. June seem to like it - check out her blog at Two Sheep.
I'm also looking at "Buffalo Gold". He's sending me samples to try. It's expensive but might be fun to try spinning.

Keep Knitting, spinning and weaving - Think about the Holiday gift ideas - it's just around the corner.

Family

I took a week off from blogging due to family events and a serious virus. First, Sister Gretchen arrived. She visits every summer about this time. She has been a catholic nun for close to 50 years, I think. She was one of the first sisters to wear street clothes and live in an apartment, and have a television. So Brazen! We lost track of her for a few busy years and then she visited Minnesota a few times and contacted the family. About 15 years ago she arrived at St. Catherines and we invited her over to hour house. My husband, (now ex-husband) Dan went to pick her up in his Black corvette convertible. Sister Gretchen is really his cousin. Well, she came strolling out in her full black habit and got into this convertible. It was quite a shock for us and quite a ride for her.

Since then she has come back quite often and attends a family reunion in the southern part of the state each year. We have become quite good friends and enjoy each other's company. She usually wears her white habit in the summer but this time chose street clothes. She works with refugees in South Carolina and found that wearing the habit gave her more leverage with school and government officials. She does great work down there with Mong families.

Sister Gretchen thinks Nicole's baby, Ellie, looks like her cuz she has red curly hair, blue eyes and porcelain skin. Gretchen had red hair as a child, now is white. She is enamored with this baby.

My sister arrived last Thursday around Noon from Phoenix. Stopped to get her hair cut and pick up a gift for Ellie's 1st Birthday and headed over to see the Grandchildren. Josh calls her Tia! (special Aunt) and his eyes got so big when he saw her at the bottom of the stairs. We had a great time with them, a nice supper and then I went home because I worked on Friday. Sandy stayed at their house and I soon became chopped liver next to Tia.

I've feverishly tried to finish the sweater I started for Sandy last year. I'm using Kris Olson's City Sheep Pattern, The Bulky Cardigan, which she made with Colinette's Pt. Five but I'm using "Paint box". My sister picked the yarn. I'm also making it longer for her. Kris's is a cute short waisted cardigan but my sister likes her sweaters to be a jacket. At any rate I'm nearly finished, just to add the collar and sew it together. Good timing. I also finished Ellie's green sweater for her birthday.

My son, Dan, is complaining that he is low man on the totem pole these days. The grandchildren are getting priority and he feels neglected so I guess I start his sweater next. (before he graduates in the Spring).

Ellie's birthday was adorable. She was dressed in white linen with pink embroidered flowers and a bow in her hair, and barefoot. She quickly got into the party mode with her brother and cousin Maddy running around with the balloon boquets. She also stood for quite a long time while punching balloons. Josh started singing the Happy Birthday song to her so we all stood and listened to him sing it for her. It was adorable! It came out as Hap..birth..to...you, etc. We then had cake! Each child had his own individually decorated cake. The guests had green and the Birthday girl had pink. Her high chair was skirted in pink netting and a pink hat with pink fur trim. She received adorable gifts and everyone had a great time.

Thank you to Catherine and Shelley for filling in for me this last week. I really appreciated the time I was able to spend with my sister.

We saw the movie, Scoop! Don't bother unless you love Woody Allen. We did some knitting, crocheting and just kicken' back on the deck.

I'm at the shop today and had the air conditioner repaired. What a pain that was. It should be working top notch now.

Summer is coming to an end, I could smell it in the air this morning.
Think Fall and Holiday Projects everyone. Happy Knitting, spinning, felting and weaving.