My Sister's Yarn Shop or "Come to the Dark Side"

Episode 19

Production scheduling

1. Events
   1. Ann Arbor Fiber Expo October 22 and 23^rd at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds.
   2. Yankee Peddler Festival in Canal Fulton, OH 3 weekends in September the weekend of the 10^th, 17^th, and 24^th. I'll be at this event on September 18^th. Be sure to drop by the Algonquin Spinning and Weaving Guild's booth. There will be crafts for kids I have it on good authority that they will be making yarn and woven bracelets. Not sure if B will be able to pull this off but we'll try. I hear I know the lady helping out with the crafts pretty well. <It's my mom...>
   3. Newly scheduled and the event that I’m most looking forward to! I will be attending Session one of Camp KIP April 21-24 2012.
2. The Yarn Discovery tour is in full swing. I made y 1^st two stops today!
   1. I met a few ladies from my Knitting group at My sister's Yarn Shop in Green Ohio. Very helpful ladies! Very friendly! A good amt of knitted samples of patterns available and the ladies knew where the patterns were. Decent selection including new and trendy items like ruffle ribbon yarn. Which I don't think I would ever use but it was very cool to see and to be show how it's used. This show also has tons of natural light which I think of as a big plus when I'm choosing colors. So what did I buy? I bought a book of Christmas tree ornaments, the samples for these were out in a bowl on a table and they were gorgeous. Picture a glass Christmas ball ornament covered with a fine gauge knitted sleeve with beading. I know that probably isn't the best description but they were very pretty and I'll be making a bunch of these the pattern book is called Beaded Ornaments to Knit by Leisure Arts if you're dying for photos check out www.ornamentalknits.com. Also purchased 2 skeins of Heritage silk in color 5637 Which is a dark peacock blue. I think this is going to become the I Heart Lace shawl, and because I can't resist a funky sock yarn 1 skein of Marks and Kattens Fame Trend Sock in Party... Party seems to be the new purple. This time party is a kaleidoscopic mix of fuscia, teal, brown, purple, and mint green. These are going to be awesome socks! Out of the two shops today this was my favorite.
   2. Second stop of the day was Stitch piece N' purl in Cuyohoga falls Ohio. I was pretty surprised at how close this shop is to my house. I had no I idea where I was until I was following my GPS home. The owner here is very nice (even though I did not catch her name) The store itself is HUGE. But they're nor really using it. When I walked up I was pretty excited to see a Louet wheel in the window. I was hoping for a local supplier for roving but alas all they had were some over priced 2 oz balls in black. <Sigh.> The rest of the room with the wheel and roving was occupied with cross stitch supplies and some comfy couches. (Always a plus.) The next room was the yarn room and they had a large selection of berroco and Heritage yarns. The thing that stuck out the most were the sample projects. I saw a gorgeous alpaca purse (the Brea Bag Pattern) and that made me buy the yarn to make it (2 skeins Berroco Ultra Alpaca in color 6279 which is a reddish brown, something nice and neutral the will go with most everything.) I'm also coveting the Intertwined Shawl that was on a mannequin. That shawl has a basket weave “medallion” for lack of a better word front. It's gorgeous and I may so back and pick up the yarn for that soon. Though I need to decide if I want to do it in wool or cotton as they had both on display. The owner told me she has recently decided to get out of the quilting supply business. I'll definately go back to this shop but I hope she expands her yarn and possibly starts to carry some spinning fibers.
3. Production
4. What's in my Tea Pot
5. QC Inspection
6. Materials Sourcing
7. After 5

II Production / QC

The beginning of this week the knitting was going really well. Then yesterday It went bad, All Bad. So both of my projects are in QC so we'll just combine QC with Production.

1. Twisty Sister Cabled Hand Warmers by Kate Gondwana out of the donated acrylic for my friend with the cold hands. I love this cable it looks so much more complicated than it is. I've been trying on this 1^st mitt all week and admiring it. SO I came home all excited that I had some new toys to play with and in a mood to knit and I picked this up. I was going along fin until I had a double twist row and somehow I got distracted and I had two many stitches and lost my way in the pattern. So I tried to tink back and it wasn't going well so I slid out the needle and frogged the row. I thought I could get away with this because the acrylic is so stiff that the stitches really don't move when the needle slides out. What I didn't bargain for was me not getting them back on the needle in the right order and with that mistake twisted the cable in wrong direction. SO with the yarn harlot's instructions in hand (and I may even follow the advice of having a lie down and a drink before hand...) I will attempt to isolate those 4 stitches drop down and retwist the cable. Though it will not be tonight because I think I've done enough damage tonight. Because we respect our knitting elders around here and because it's a pretty funny and informative read I've linked to The Yarn Harlots Cable fix Tutorial. If things get any worse... I will go for the full on voodoo fix. It might require some rum, a cigar, and some dancing but I'm not above it to fix 4 stitches on the last repeat of some acrylic mitts. :) http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2006/06/20/all_is_not_lost.html
2. The Spiral Viscous … Insert the sound effect from Psycho here. I cast this on for the 1 of sever time this week at knit group last Sunday. I had a few false starts on it and I had it PERFECT until last night... I had the waterfall rib done and I was through the 1^st repeat. I had to tink back one needle to fix an error but that went well and I was back on my way. I was working with out a net no stitch markers and no life lines. I was feeling good! Flying along... Feeling as if I had this pattern beat! Then I got distracted and the lace repeat jumped out of my head and I started knitting a repeat from another row and found it out when I got to the end of the round. SO I took a look at it and tried to find the mistake as I did in the previous round. And I found one on the third needle. SO I tinked back to fix that and put it back into pattern. And I was still one stitch off. On the second tink back to find the mistake I somehow dropped a stitch and as soon as it was free that sucker ran. It ran so far back that I didn't think I'd be able to manage getting the lace repeats correct so I didn't take anyone's advice which was “put it down take a deep breath and look at it in the morning.” I frogged it in frustration right then and there. So I tried to cast it on again today and ended up tearing out again. I'll make another go at it this week and if it doesn't happen I'll let it go back into the UFO bin for a while. AT this point I know the problem with this pattern is all in my head. This is an easy pattern and I'm so amped up and stressed about it I'm making it 20 times more difficult than it has to be. This may be one of those things I set down and pick up and as long as I don't say anything about it and make it not a big deal. It'll happen because there will be no expectations. Besides my knitting mojo has been off this week.

III What's in My Tea Pot

1. Boston Tea party French Vanilla Tea
2. The Back Of the box: Like ice cream dripping from a cone, you'll lick your lips with every sip you take of this French Vanilla tea! The creamy, rich essence of vanilla bean gives a full-body aroma that intensely complements our premium blend of Chinese and Indian black tea. Pour a luscious cup and enjoy this tasty tea any time of day! Take this perfect petite box anywhere you go or give it to a friend, just because you love them! Taste a piece of American heritage with Boston Tea!
3. I didn't have high hopes for this one. I got it in a gift basket. Pleasantly surprised it's yummy. I taste the vanilla and the Lipton – esque black teach with a bit of almond. I got this for free but I would buy it if I saw it. Doing some research it can be order from the Boston Tea Party Website.

IV Materials Sourcing

When the knitting wasn't going so hot I sat down at my wheel to spin. Which was easy to do since I got a new toy!

1. This past Wednesday was my birthday and Joe was an awesome husband and braved the internet and ordered me some gifts! The first being a skein winder from Babe's Fiber garden. This model attaches to my wheel and the price was right. So now that I had my new skein winder the red alpaca was wound off and Skein-ed with the help of B who really likes spinning the skein winder. I hear I'm expecting one more knitting related gift and I think it's my lace blocking wires. He must have bought them off of ETSY because the shipping is taking too long for him to have ordered the ones from knitpicks. But that's me making wild conjectures. Cross your fingers they're the ones from Etsy and that I can review them next week!
2. With the Red alpaca hanging up to dry and not being ready to wind all of the gray alpaca singles into a plying bracelet. I pulled out the 4 oz of merino/ silk mix I got at Woolfest. This fiber is Cranberry with a bit of pie crust brown and white silk. It reminds me of one of Joe's favorite fall recipe’s I make him. Cranberry Duff. Which is sort of an upside down cake with cranberry instead of pineapple. I was worried that the silk was going o make the merino overly slippery but it's spinning up very well. This has been one of those that I've found spins better pre drafted. I have no clue what I'm going to do with this fiber but I can't wait to get it done. I'm about 2 thirds through the braid.
3. I also did some swatching this week and knitted up swatches out of that nubbly Black cherry fiber I got at Woolfest. It's nice spun up it look like a novelty yarn and make a pretty fabric very reminiscent of a sweater I already own. This will be a real PITA to spin, and will make a nice rustic looking cloth. No Idea when I'll get back to it. I'm still a bit put off but how hard it was to get that sample skein. Also swatched was the potluck fiber in the Party Colorway not to be confused with the party colored sock yarn I bought today. I entered this yarn in to the SUM SUM SUMERTIME spin along summer challenge on the I got Ewe babe discussion board on ravelery and I've renamed it Midway because it reminds me of the colors on the Salt water taffy stand at Cedar point. (trust a fat girl to remember what the candy stand looked like...) So I swatched Midway for the slouchy beret and it looks like if I go up to a sz 8 needle I can get it done. SO who knows maybe I'll get that cast on.

V After 5

As I mentioned before Joe is trying to be very supportive of the amount of fiber that's been running through the house. When we met he knew I knit but it wasn't something that I did in front of him all that often. When we moved in together he moved my then meager stash and saw my UFO's bit we were in the midst of planning our wedding and I had other crafts going on. (like the 200 stamped favor bags... or the 150 Jordan almond flowers...) Suffice to say that since B was born and I started sleeping regularly again the fiber crafting has been becoming more and more prevalent. Last night while I was sitting on the couch knitting on the cabled mitts. He said “I think I should support you and try to knit.” Talk about being shocked. I just kinda sat there and looked at him for a moment. Now my dad has been going to guild meetings with my mom and I saw him knitting a pumpkin hat. I don't know that it was ever finished but I know my dad can knit in the round. My dad is also a boat guy and he knows that knitting was one of those things that manly men did on ships Ishmael over there did scrimshaw and Mr, Hornblower knits socks... My husband as we've discussed in the past is not that guy. He's not into the history to know that there's a rich history of knitting men. Or that it can be considered manly. So he went on to say...” I know I saw your dad knitting that hat and if he can do it...” ahhhhh he doesn't know the bit about the sailors... “I don't think I should start on anything large like you do... Maybe something small like that Teddy bear kit I bought you.” That Kit was to make a small stuffed toy with shaping. I told him I didn't think that was the best pattern to start on . Then he suggested something totally off color. Typical... I won't even tell you what it was but there is a pattern for it on ravelry. What we've settled upon is a decepticons wash cloth. So I'll be sitting down to teach Joe the art of Knits and Purls some time in the next few weeks. “Yes, My dear... Come to the dark side....” :)