MY Blog

Hi! (this is Christina)
We just got in a ton of Noro Kureyon and Silk Garden!! (Kureyon is my absolute favorite yarn! I’ve made numerous scarves, felted bags, Lady Eleanor, Klaralund, Shaftesbury, DB’s Silk Garden scoop cardi, my own scoop neck vest and a cotton kureyon tee, calorimetry, and the Vol. 18 giant shrug)
Lots of very cute new colors! (Including a very interesting cream color of Kureyon that seems like a departure from his usual color palette.)

And there is also Jane Ellisons newest book for Noro, Pure Noro, as well as Noro Vol. 22.

Also in is the Lace Style trunk show…

One more thing! If you are on Ravelry, please come and join our group! Modern Yarnies!!

life in an RV, and last Sunday, Julia Roberts (no, not that one, a different one), came to the shop to talk about her RV travels around the US this summer with her three kiddles.  She’s written a book–RV There Yet--and she’s got an awesome banner, which unfortunately did not make it on her trip.  It did make it to the shop, though.

To go along with the kzitch  glamour of RV life, Alyssa and Jennifer (aka whitetrashknitters) played along, showing the world, or at least the world that appears on Church St on unseasonably cool Sunday afternoons, how to knit some beer cozies using your stash yarn.

We had some good fun.  Here’s Louise with her cozy:

And Gabriele with hers:

And then I got thinking.  Hmmm.  Maybe my coworkers need some cozies.  And we were going out for a happy hour on Tuesday.  So, I got cranking.  I had planned to knit the cozies while I was on jury duty Monday.  Unfortunately (yes! I truly feel that way!), jury duty was canceled.  Hard to believe that there’s no crime in Essex County, but. . .

Anyways, with jury duty canceled, I fought off the HUGE urge to just not go back to the office so I could instead knit, and whipped out 13 cozies Monday night.

Here’s the pile, taken about midnight.  Still a few to go.  Notice the skull.  I really like that one:

Also, notice the empty practice beer cans (I do my own market testing, thank you very much).  The skull looks a bit alienish, but that’s ok. It’s only a beer cozy, after all.

On Tuesday, I gave out the beer cozies at the happy hour.  DH thinks that they will be accepted happily (with a bit of perplexed-ness) and then get left in some drawer at home to only be thrown out in a year or two.  Well, even if that’s the case, they served their purpose on Tuesday night.  Here’s the proof:

from left to right are blogless Ellen, blogless Mark, blogless Adam, blogless Lizette, blogless Jackie, and blogless Yvonne.  There are others, they’re just not in the photo, and they, too, are blogless (sadly, cuz they’re all quite interesting).  Notice Jackie nabbed the skull.  She’s quick.  I did two skulls–they were popular.  I should have done more.  But they took the longest to knit (an hour each); the others were in the 30-40 minute range.  Meaning I spent about 8.5 hours knitting this stuff.  (ok, now I’m thinking “please please please don’t through it away!”)

Yes, RV life is oddly appealing.  Maybe it’s the beer cozy factor.

Paige

schedule some crazy event for the shop this weekend. Here’s the scoop:

First of all. . .

What I did on my summer vacation. Everyone has one of those friends, that person who gets some whacky idea into her head, and then, you know, actually acts on it. Well, our friend Julia Roberts (no, not that Julia Roberts) is just that person. She thought packing up her 3 kids and driving around in an RV all summer sounded like a plan. And that’s what she did, and she even lived to write about it.

Anyways, Julia’s visiting the shop on Sunday from 2-5pm, with her RV and her book. She’ll be offering RV tours, and talking about her advertures. Of course her book will be for sale. On Sale here too.

Then. . .

I know you’re saying to yourself, could there be any more fun than driving around in an RV? Of course there is. . .knitting great stuff for your RV!!

Idea girls Alyssa Carlberg and Jennifer Ralston of whitetrashknitting will be in the shop (and RV) at the same time (2-5 on Sunday) helping us knit beer cozies, just in case you ever take your own RV trip. Hey, the project may even inspire you to turn your living room into an RV!

So join us Sunday for some kzitchy fun (and maybe some twinkies and jack!). Kids are welcome in the RV–and maybe if you’re lucky, Julie will drive off with them! (just kidding)!

So now you’re in the know–and you have no excuse except to show up and munch on some twinkies. Hey, it really can’t get any better than this.

And I know you don’t need any sort of additional motivation to get your butt into the shop, but just in case, here’s a tease: the new fall Rowan is in:

ain’t it purdy?

And awaiting me at my doorstep this afternoon when I came home were my sockpal 4 socks!  Woot!  They are absolutely bee-you-ti-ful–carefully knit by  Jen.  The pattern is Broadripple, and the yarn is Lisa Souza Sock yarn.

I love love love my socks!  They fit great (see pics):

and:

Thank you Jen!

Paige

So in the shop’s last newsletter, I wrote about Emma who knits for Warm Woolies.  Here she is in a hat she did for that great organization.

Not only is Emma a doll, the hat’s pretty cute too!  Join us on Tuesday nights this month as we knit for Warm Woolies.  If you’re not able to join us, but still would like to contribute, just drop off your project at the shop.  I think one reason I like this organization so much is that they want their volunteers to knit with WOOL, not ackrylic! Yippee and hats off to warm woolies and Emma.

To start my warm woolies project, I first had to finish this:

It’s the Square Neck Cami from from Knitting Lingerie Style–about a 10 day to two week project, done in Dolly (dark brown) and Diakeito Diacouture Silk Lame (the lavender color).  I’m wearing it tomorrow to the office, I think.

And a big welcome to Charlotte, my newest niece.  She’s 6 days old and a tad over 6 lbs.  Here she’s surrounded by my Thing 1 & 2, and my sister’s Thing 1.

Of course, we got all the way to Queens when I realized that I forgot the sweater I made for her.  arg.  Only six days old and already disappointed. oh well.

Paige

Hard to believe I’m actually rooting for (gasp!) a Yankee, but given the trainwreck out in San Francisco the other home-run chase I feel inclined to root for athletes deserving of accolades.  So, yeah for A-Rod.

And along the lines of that shout out–a big one for me for finishing my 500th 3rd pair of socks!

The pattern is “sprung” from the Keyboard Biologist.  I love love love the pattern–easy to knit, easy to memorize, a cute lace and the foot is just stockinette.  No need to share lace with the shoes.

Kristen’s been on a finishing kick, and although she has her fall project in line, she has vowed not to start until she gets through her UFO pile.  So I’m aiming to finish up some other stuff before I start my fall project.  Maybe.

Along those lines, I’m on the back of my square neck cami from Knitting Lingerie Style:

I’m using Dolly (the dark brown) and some remnants of our old Diakeito Silk Lame in light purple (violet?).  As you can see the front is done, and I’m about 1 1/2 inches up the back.  So almost done, because there are no sleeves.

But tempting me in the meanwhile is:

In the new Rowan magazine (for fall/winter ‘07–now in at the store) there’s this ADORABLE top made from kidsilk haze and a complimentary wool/cotton color.  The top half of the garment (above the empire waist and elbows up) is wool cotton.  The empire waist and down, and the lower sleeves are done in kid silk haze.  I’ve picked this khaki olive-ish green color because I just can’t wait to get this done.

Oh, and the fall Vogue and Interweave are now in the house.  Both are awesome.