Life could not be better

WIP-this is Dan's sweater - knitted with Karabella Aurora 8, Pure & Simple pattern - Top Down Raglan. I love knitting top down. It just seems to go smoother!

I also completed a few projects this week. A cowl neck and pattern out of Alpaca Marl. We're still working on some cute pins for closures.

This is a free pattern with purchase of yarn. It's a ribbed cowl.

I used a stitch holder for the pin. It works.

I also finished Josh's hat to go with scarf and mittens and I knit some little bones to embellish. Photo later.

I did alot of dye work again this week. I finished up the Angora I had gotten last week and some more corriedale which is on my website. We had a dye class Saturday at the shop and it went very well. Shelley is a good teacher. Everyone had a great time and got some great roving to take home. A good time was had by all and lots of fiber went out the door. I've placed another order already for roving because it just flies out the door at this time of year. I love to do this dye work. I'm not very technical about it I just play with it and whatever comes out is okay.

I guess I don't take any of these crafts too seriously. I call it playing. If it's not fun, why do it. The only time I'm discouraged is if I knit a sweater and it doesn't fit. Nancy is my Bungee cord when I'm working on something new. She is so good at helping people get the result they want. Nancy also had her Bungee Knitting class at "Betsy Back Porch", a deligtful coffee shop on 54th and Nicollet. It's roomy and cozy at the same time. Good coffee and food. This is a great group of woman to knit with. We had to move to "Betsy's" because we had the dye workshop at the shop.

There are about 15 in the group and usually 6 show up each class. Julie is working on a second sweater and it is gorgeous. In one year she has gone beyond all expectations. She probably knows more about knitting and sizing than I do at this point. Jeanne finished her sweater and I guess it is gorgeous. I'll try to get photos of these up here and on the website the next time they meet. Barbara has done a couple sweaters now and is very experienced at this point. Jeanne is working on an afghan and has come along way with her knitting. I'm sure I forgot somebody and I apologize. I'll catch you next time and show photos. I am so proud of these woman. They have learned so much from each other and gained such confidence in this class.

We have added a Monday evening Free Knitting Group 6-8 PM with Denise as the Coordinator. This is a good time to sit and knit and get some projects finished while visiting with other knitters. I guarantee you will learn alot from each other.

This is a busy season for the shop and I love it. We have so much fun. Life could not be better!

Personal:
This is the bound bunny completed. He's pretty cute but I don't think binding his arms and legs really did that much good. It needs a bow around the neck.

This is the first Saturday I have had off from the shop for months. It felt good to wake up whenever I wanted, fix a pot of coffee and relax. I had a date with Joshua this morning. I picked him up at 9:30 am and told him we were going on a Mission. Ellie was on my lap drinking her bottle and she sat straight up and said, "Yeahhhhh!" Unfortunately, she was staying home this day. We had a mission to accomplish for Mommy's birthday. I'll tell later what it was, it's a secret. We then headed to "Wild Rumpus Book Store" on 44th and Upton (or there abouts). It's got chickens running around and usually a cat or two. They had a couple new critters, a chinchilla, a ferret lounging in a hammock, two cockatiel, two lizards, a love bird and some fish. Oh, this is really a book store for kids. It's got every book imagineable for infants through teens. After that we walked to "Great Harvest Bread" and got a slice of pumpkin break and some granola mix. We then stopped by the shop to make sure everything was okay and came home for lunch and nap (we hope). It is great hanging out with this little guy.


Fiber related:
We got new sock yarn in the shop this week. I died up a bunch of roving and some white fleece. I was trying to get a skin color for the gnomes and dolls people like to make. One of the fiber artists I admire was in on Wednesday. She started out making these incredible scarves that we hot water felted and embellished with yarn that she would sew with a machine in patterns all over the scarf. Well, now she's making these incredible bowls with hand felted beads, etc. I think she may sell them in the shop. I was quite impressed.

If you ever need a tutorial on making batts or roving or comparisons on spinning wheels or making an orifice smaller please check out June at Two Sheep (blog and a store) She also sells her handspun yarn - she is incredible.

WOP/CKP:
I'm working on a neck cozy out of the Alpaca Marl - Denise is also working on a couple patterns she plans to publish at the shop. I'll get a photo up soon - we have a cute pin idea!

I finished a cut hat out of Yukon from Plymouth with lots of fiber sticking out of it. People love this design and actually buy them. I also finished Ellies mittens, Josh's scarf, working on the hat and Dan's sweater. It's another busy week and I love being busy.

October 15-halfway thru October already....

I just looked at my last blog and cannot believe it was Oct. 1st. I was very busy painting the railings on my deck before it got cold and I just barely made it before the flakes started to fly. Today is a gorgeous autumn day, crisp with blue skies and lots of sun. I hope to get in my garden today and tomorrow to clean it up. I still am working on the wallpaper paste in the front hall. Got a bid to clean and paint it for $500. A little too much. I'll keep working on the wallpaper past.

Before it got cold I was able to plant some Peonies. These are very special peonies! They originated from my Grandmother's garden in south Minneapolis. My grandparents had built this house originally as a garage, from what I've been told, and it became their house. They had 7 children, plus any long term visiting relatives and my grandparents living in this two bedroom house. UNBELIEVABLE BY TODAYS STANDARD.

I loved that house. We all loved that house. I think because we all felt warm and welcome there and my grandparents loved us. It had small back hall to enter from so you kept the cold out of the rest of the house. It had a large kitchen, which was half of the house on the main level and the other half was the living room. It had a great stairway leading to the upstairs with a landing halfway up. We played in this area alot cuz it was private from the adults. The upstairs had two large rooms also. One for my Grandparents room and a bathroom at the front of the house and a large closet. The other room had one closet and beds for the grandchildren. All seven children slept in this room with one closet. They had beds all over the floor and each child had very few clothes.

The ceilings in the bedrooms all slanted down so you had to be careful sitting up in the morning or you would bump your head. It was an amazing house. It also had a basement where grandma washed clothes in the old washer with the wringer used for squeezing the water out of the clothes and one tub with rinse water in it. Then you would haul the clothese up to dry outside on the line. It was unfinished down there and spidery. The furnace had those big round tubes running the heat through the house. Grandpa had a work bench down there and a cellar for all the canning they did. A root cellar! Somehow they had gotten a chest freezer down there. I guess they cut a hole in the floor upstairs and lowered it into the basement. Grandpa and my Uncles were hunters so they needed someplace for all that meat and chickens.

Every sunday Grandma would fix dinner for whoever showed up. The grandchildren usually spent every weekend at their house. It had a huge front yard with walnut trees and a lilac hedge and one whole side of the front yard (there was no back yard) was flowers. All kinds of flowers but that is where I got the Peonies from. I will take these with me when I move from this house and will pass them down to the children. I have six plants and I sure hope they all come up next spring.

I also learned to knit, embroider, rug hook and sew in this house. My grandma was the original Martha Stewart and I learned a great deal from her. I still miss her.

Enough, back to knitting. I started Dan's sweater this week. A top down pattern from "Pure and Simple" out of Aurora 8. I finished mittens for Ellie cuz it got cold so fast I thought I better get them done. I've been playing with needle felting again. I'm making some little elves and trees. I'll get a photo up here soon when I get them done.

I did more dye work this week. I got some new corriedale and decided to dye up some green, brown and blue. I also did a multi colored batch and may try to card this today on the carder.

Barbara has been making new samples and Denise came in yesterday to pick up more yarn to make samples. Barbara designed a new hat out of Adagio from Skacel and Denise is working on a neck gator, socks and felted purses.

Socks are back with a vengence this year. Creative Fibers has a great selection of sock patterns by "City Sheep", our in house pattern line by Kris and Barbara. They are lovely patterns and can be seen on our website. We will use some of these for "Sock of The Month Club", which is off to a great start.

Today is "Spinning With Shelley" day at the shop. It's always such a great time. We have a very unique group of people who come to spin and knit. Whenever it is nice enough we sit outside, but today may be an inside day.

Matt and Mike are back from Taos with lots to share. The Taos Fiber Festival was smaller than Shepherd's harvest but had some incredible vendors. Matt brought samples and business cards so I can contact the vendors he thought were great and try to get some of their product for the shop. After seeing the Navajo Weaving and dyeing Matt is really interested in knowing more about this process. Hopefully we can have a Navajo weaving class this winter. Then we can have a Natural dye class to follow up on that. I think Matt and Mike should buy a farm to feed Creative Fibers their products, like, Llamas, Alpacas, Several types of sheep fiber and natural dyes. We could become a co-op. Anybody else interested? I think I'll bring that up today.

I have the most incredible customers visiting my shop. A hot tip from a customer yesterday. She said she works on her computer all day, so her hand is in one position all day, when she goes home in the evening to knit she uses this hand in a different position and it somehow loosens up the tendons for her. AMAZING! Keep Knitting.

The Bound bunny tail

We had a great week at CF - many customers stopped in to visit from out of town and several of my wonderful regular customers stopped by on Friday. Matt was in on Monday to Sit and Knit with me. He was working on a baby dress for a new neice and I was working on my vest sample. We both made some headway on our projects.

Wednesday my friend KL and her new baby girl came to visit Grandma. I get to be grandma for her babies too. Lucy and Georgia. Adorable. My old friend, Leslie, joined us and we had a great lunch (at Kwans) catching up on our busy lives. We all used to work together at TLC several years ago now.

I left early to spend time with the other two grandchildren. I brought some pipe cleaners along to their house and Gram and I (the two grandmas) played games, had dinner, did the bath and made several pipe cleaner cheerio bracelets. Josh would get so far and then he'd chew them off, so it took several tries to get a completed bracelet for Mom and Dad who were arriving home the next day.

I have finished one of the pumpkin hats shown on Ellie who is just walking. Josh was not as cooperative but he loved the hat! Whenever Ellie decides to try walking he cheers her on by saying, "Good walking, Ell" and then he claps his hands. He's so cute.

Thursday morning I had a fasting blood test, those are so much fun. They took about a pint of blood and I was finally able to get coffee. I also had a dexa scan for osteoperosis. Got to the shop late but I don't think anybody noticed except the mailman.

Friday, alot of my wonderful customers stopped in. Julie stopped by to knit on her lovely sweater, a yarn from Jaeger, which I cannot remember the name of and the pattern from their book. I'm going to try to introduce some of their yarns and patterns. I love their patterns but had not touched their yarns before.

I LEARNED HOW TO KNIT SOCKS ON CIRCULARS. I was knitting away and Julie said she always knits on two circulars. She's in the "Sock of the Month class" that just started this week. Great group of women in the class. Anyway, she showed me how to knit on two circulars and I love it. It's much faster and not as difficult to knit as it is with all those needles. It's easy-I'll be happy to show you if stop in on Monday or Friday. Shirley also stopped in, which she does every week. She's just learning to knit socks so she can join the sock of the month class. Ginny stopped to pick up her order of Louet linen. She makes lovely garments. Our other Julie stopped by - she's working on a two color mitten and cotton shorts for her daughter. She's a brave woman. I think I'm forgetting someone so I apologize if I left you off. It was a very stimulating day.

I took some photos of the tear down of Connors to make room for the new restaurant, Bistro, going in this winter! We are so excited. We can have coffee or beer and wine and knit!

Saturday was Bungee Knitting day. It is always exciting and crazy around here with this group. They are all working on a different project and nearly all done with their sweaters. J finished her hooded pullover but I wasn't able to get a photo yet. I'll try to get each one to model their finished project. It's very impressive. Julie has only been knitting for a year and she took on this lace cardigan. It's goregeous. This is a great class if you want to start a new technique or project you've never done before. Nancy walks you through the whole project and you learn all sorts of new techniques as you go because everyone is working on something different. Nancy stops the class and teachers the new technique to everyone. It's genius, if I do say so myself. Don't be initimated by your knitting, it's only two needles and string.

As class was finishing up Nancy and I were putting finishing touches on her new samples, a fish and a bunny. This is where the Bound Bunny tail comes in. A new customer had stopped in to look for a particular yarn to finish a scarf - Amazing Threads had sent her my way. Nancy had bound the bunny as she was needle felting it's nose in place and telling me I should bind him and then wet him down real good and when he dries he'll stay in this position. Our new customer thought this was quite funny that she came looking for yarn and found this "bound bunny" stuff going on! I said, "kinda kinky, huh?" I sure hope she comes back.

I sold a Schacht loom on Saturday to one of my new customers. We are planning a four harness class in October for three customers so far. If you are interested call the shop.

Curious? When you are knitting do you use plastic markers? or for holding stitches do you use metal or plastic holders? I never have, I admit it. For a marker, I use a different color thread, tied around the needle and keep slipping it as I go. I never loose these markers. I also like to use a piece of yarn to hold stitches because I can never find my stitch holders when I need them and I don't like running into that metal piece all the time. Just an option if you feel like I do.

One little bummer, the sweater I made for my sister is too large. I guess we measured something wrong. It's too big around.

Happy Knitting!