Sezession

Okay ya'll, I have the patterns formatted. I have them ready to go. But.

Yeah, but.

The free one is available! Yes, that is true! I dropped it into Stev's e-mail mere moments ago.

But the store will be re-formatting our patterns and I don't know how that will affect the second pattern, which will be for sale. When we get that sorted out, it will also be available. I am SO sorry guys, I never thought it would take so long for this to all fall into place!

Here are some pictures to help soothe you.

This is one of our customers and when I bemoaned my inability to find a friend to model the shawls, she and her mother were sitting nearby in the cafe and her mother instantly volunteered her for the job, which she gracefully accepted.

Sezession I and II from behind

Sezession I

Sezession II

We've also changed our hours. The store is undergoing some changes, all of which are being made by smart and clever people who are working behind the scenes to make the store better.

New Hours
Monday, Tuesday: 10-7
Wednesday, Thursday: 10-9
Friday, Saturday: 10-6
Sunday: 12-5

The cafe is still open at 7 Monday through Friday, and store hours on the weekend.

Summer's Below The Surface

I have to admit to being a summer child. I was born in spring, and Christmas is my favourite holiday, but summer is the season that always feels the best to me. Like putting on a comfy t-shirt, summer lays next to my skin and makes me smile. Spring is always a temptation to spring out into my summer gear without regard for the rain and hail that peppers a Northwestern spring.

I finished my wristwarmers, and I am entranced by the tiny stitches and the fluidity of the fabric They couldn't be more prefect for the kind of weather we've been having.

Yarn: Socks That Rock, mediumweight, in Covelite. From Blue Moon Fiber Arts.

Pattern: My own design for a top-down wristwarmer with a thumb gusset and an afterthought thumb. In the next pair I will probably alter the thumb process to make it more similar to a traditional gusseted thumb.

The shop will be closed May 20th through the 22nd. We are reworking the layout and overhauling the general look of the store. We will be open bright and early on Wednesday so that you can see what we've done. I think it's gonna be great, and of course I'll take pictures of the whole messy ordeal.

Today I will be taking the pictures of the shawls that are on display in the shop to put to the patterns and Sezession I and Sezession II will finally be available. We will be having a class on these shawls at some point, but I don't know when.

AllHemp6 in Deep Sea

By the way, if any of you are allergic to wool or know anyone that is, I can highly suggest the book No Sheep For You by Amy Singer. Amy is the genius behind Knitty.com which has been online for a few years now and is a major force in the on-line knitting community. We don't have the just yet, as we're getting our orders together to send them out but I've been bugging Stevanie to get this book and some of the yarns out of it. I'm starting a sweater out of some beautiful hemp yarn as soon as all my other two sweaters are off the needles. I did sneak in a swatch, and it's truly a magnificent fiber.

Now it's time for class, and I've gotta run. See ya'll in the store.

Slogging? You Betcha!

I recently joined Mason-Dixon's Slog-A-Long and if you've got that project that you're "just trying to get through" or it's "killing me a little bit with every stitch," then this is the place to find solace and comfort that you are not the only one who slogs, but that there are people who find enthusiasm in that Long-Haul project. :D

I am slogging on these size double zero needles and Socks That Rock mediumweight in the colourway Covelite. They are so purdy. I had them done, but discovered that in my Design It Yourself Way I had forgotten to note how frequently I increased and ended up with 10 extra stitches which contributed to a drastically different feel and fit. One that did not please me. RRRRIP! Out came the ends, undo the short little seam, and then unravel a good four inches of knitting. Basically, everything I'd done that day. But that's the beauty of it. Now I can fix it and do it right.


I'm also slogging on a brown-sweater for my friend Shawnathan. He has been patiently waiting since NOVEMBER. I feel guilty, because he paid for the yarn (mostly.) I am never allowing somebody to pay me to make them a sweater ever again. It's too much pressure, and it's too much guilt. I will make sweaters for people how and when I like.

Some brief shop news. I will be writing up some crochet patterns, including a variation on the triangular Silk Garden shawl you see in the shop now. The triangular version will be free with the purchase of yarn, while the variant will be available for purchase. They both take 4 balls of Noro Silk Garden. I will be bringing in the variant sample on Saturday, so ya'll can see it starting Sunday.

That reminds me! We will be closed this Saturday (i.e. Tomorrow) because we are doing another inventory. We're going to be trying to do these about every 6 months in the future, but we really needed to do this one going into the summer season so that we have a better idea of what to order and what maybe we ought not re-order.

I was reading a blog post written by Laurie of Crazy Aunt Purl today wherein she talks about her inability to comprehend the shootings that have taken place recently and all the other events which are connected to the deaths of the people at Virgina Tech. I share this sentiment with her, and like her I will not be writing a great deal on it just because I cannot encompass it in my head. I cannot possibly articulate myself. I feel a deep regret and sadness for the loss of the students' families, friends and colleagues.

HURRAH!

In case ya'll didn't hear, our Brandon passed the Bar Exam and is now all Laywerly an' stuff. Go figure, right? I always knew knitters were the smartest people.

Real post coming in a few days.

- Rodger

Eheu

The past month has been a tiring one and I am looking forward to when things settle down at the shop and we can really get into the groove of doing what we do best: Providing for our customers.

I think it is important in every business to know the people you serve, and know them well. When you're having a bad day and you want to go home, it is much easier to enjoy work when you genuinely care for the people who come into your establishment. When the first thing you want is for them to be happy, then it is that much easier to go the extra mile for them and to have fun doing it.

So it's frustrating when you can't do everything you want to do for your customers. When they only need one more skein of that perfect colour. When a gal needs the one size of needles that we're out of. When the last stitch markers just got bought and somebody wants to start an epic piece of lace.

I just want to say thank you to all the people who come into the store, even just to check us out, and I hope that someday I will know all your names, have all the answers, and always, always have that last skein that you need or the last set of double points in town.

Until that day, I hope that you will have as much fun coming into the shop as I do working there. I feel lucky every time I talk about work with people, because I don't have a job. I have a beautiful community which I feel privileged to be a part of.

I think I speak for all of us when I say,
Thanks to the Carols, Larissa & Martin & Sebastion, Surena, Suzanne, Kim, Betty, Victoria, Michelle & Isabelle, Jan, Kabira, Heather, Donovan and her girls, Mary, Suzie, Marnie, Kathy, Ellen, Momma's Night, Tuesday Night SnB, Thursday night SnB, every guy who ever came in to pick up a pair of needles for the first time, and every knitter that I've ever met. Y'all are the best people I know.


- Rodger

Finding Time

A customer in a sock class during our Green Sale on St. Patrick's Day

I woke up today and realized that I, literally, had nothing to do. So of course I did my errands, and I'm doing my chores. I don't work today, finals are all over, and I basically decided that it was the day to be a Good Boy and do everything that I put off all week because I have work or school or something. Days like today are when I am possibly the happiest, just running my life and making sure that everything happens the way it ought to.

But! The shop, oh yes, the shop. We have been busy this past week. On Saturday we had a green sale, which gave me an idea for bi-monthly, year-round events..you'll see, 'cause the wrinkles are waiting to get ironed out and that will have to wait until we get our April-May-June class list into action.

By the way, Earth Day is in April and we are considering a series of Sunday or Saturday classes to follow the themes of Reclaiming and Recycling for our knitting and spinning, so watch for those on the website and if you have any questions please come ask us!

We also had a trunk show with the girls of Zephyr Style and they were SO friendly. I asked them a few questions, but neglected to really write anything down so I will tell you what I remember.

The girls do the layout of all the patterns themselves, and as they are both graphic designers in Real Life this is pretty easy and makes for a fantastic finished product. Their patterns are clear and concise, with schematics to show the measurements and proportions.

They actually started out making stitch markers before branching out into designing. When I asked about their inspiration, they said that it varied for each sweater and that certain garments started out in the sketch stage and were altered radically before the end while others were more organic, progressing naturally.

I really liked a sweater that I saw there called The Tree Jacket, which is NOT yet available. I think I'm going to make a men's version, or at least a sweater with a squared-off, garter-stitch yoke.

Talking with them was very very easy, as both are very personable and I hope to see them in the shop again! If you're interested in buying their patterns, you can find them by going through this page and order them from Abundant Yarn, or you can look at the list of retailers on www.zephyrstyle.com

Many of you have been asking where all the neeldes have gone, and here I must apologize. We have been having some difficulty with several shipments lately which will be resolved shortly and hopefully we will be able to have needles on a more regular basis from now on.

Speaking of shipments, we just received part of our Noro order and it is proudly displayed near the front of the store, where we can gaze longingly at it from the register.

I also took a decent picture of Hannah. Who found time to knit on one of the prettiest days in the past two weeks.

Rainbows

Things at the shop have really been crazy lately - Stev is now managing both the yarn store and the cafe, which means more work than ever. Fortunately the cafe crew is pretty good at maintaining the place on their own so Stevanie isn't totally overloaded. See how calm she looks in the photo?





We've gotten some new yarns in in the past few weeks. The Cascade 220 Superwash, some new colours of Cascade Jewel which is a deadringer for Rio De La Plata, Nikki a thick/thin yarn from Cascade. We like Cascade, they have nice stuff for low prices. They fit nicely into my budget.


This is Nikki in one colourway. You can see all of the ones we carry on our website, and then there's always Cascade's website for all the colours.






We're talking about carrying a fingering weight alpaca, but nothing solid yet.

Also! We're planning a few retreats for the next coming months. There may be one during the summer, and we're thinking one the weekend after Mother's Day. Annie Modesitt is going to be teaching at one of them, so be sure to keep an eye out for them!

As an aside; Annie is one of the knit designers that I have a great deal of respect for even though her designs are not usually to my taste. Her dedication to technique is incredible, and I think that her repertoire of skills is amazingly varied. If her class list is anything to go by, then she's definitely one of those people who is always trying to look at knitting from another angle. I like that.

I'm really excited about the fiber festival that's coming up on the 15th. It's the Ides Of March Fiber Festival, and it will be from 9 to 9, regular store hours. It should be really awesome, a lot of our own customers will be showing their best stuff.

Portland has been abso-fricking-lutely gorgeous lately. I have taken lots of pictures of the sunrises over the past few days when it has been shockingly clear. They're the kinds of mornings that make me WANT to get out of bed and have a good day.