New Yarn

It's always fun to get new yarn in the shop and I sometimes forget to let everyone know.

For the sock knitters, we just got in some Lorna's Laces (pictured here - Jungle Fever in Y2Knit colors!). The colors are dreamy!

With warm weather upon us, I've ordered some summery yarns, all of which come in many beautiful colors:

• Flax - 100% linen, the yarn we're using for the Market Bag
  
• Summer Linen - 50% cotton/50% linen - I've cast on for Eastern Lace in this soft yarn
  
• Cotton Blossom - cotton with a rayon twist
• Links - 100% organic cotton (worsted weight) - we suggest Jane's Bag and Scalloped Bath Set (pictured below)
• Cottonwood - 100% organic cotton (DK weight) - make up Flirty Tank

Scalloped Bath Set in Links

Knitting Navy

This afternoon I had a pleasant visit from Rachel, who plays with the Navy Band and has a performance in Hagerstown this evening. Rachel learned to knit a year or so ago from Navy Band co-workers and quickly became infected with the bug.

She told me that on a recent band tour, the knitting band members taught others how to knit. They soon had a large knitting group! Go Navy!

What a Spring!

This has been quite a spring. On top of all the daily events of my life, the shop and Y2Knit, three major events transpired:

• My youngest son, John, married Quy in a wonderful ceremony on March 29. Of course, the weeks and months leading up to the event were full of planning and activity. My week started with picking up my mom at the airport Monday evening. I hosted a rehearsal dinner on Friday, with a Mexican fiesta theme. My brother and sister-in-law did most of the cooking, we added Frankie's tamales and the meal was perfect. Jill and others set up while I was at the actual rehearsal.
  
  The next day had three main activities: the Vietnamese wedding at Quy's parents, a church wedding (yes, the women changed clothes) and finally, a large reception at a Chinese restaurant.
  
  I concluded the week of activity with a two day visit by my brother and sister-in-law in Funkstown.

• Jill and I took a business trip to Italy April 10-16. It was kind of a whirlwind, but also very relaxing.
  

• On April 19, my second grandson was born. Ian Roberts is the first child of his parents and arrived via c-section as he had a 16-inch head and weighed 9.5 lbs.

  
  

Tuscany Travels

Where to begin? Everything about this trip was amazing. Jill and I are so glad we went! Not for just the obvious--who doesn't want a trip to Italy, but because we were able to really get feel for Montisi, to meet some people there, and to find more suitable lodging. This means we can offer about 4 more beds each week, so if anyone is interested in joining us for the Y2Knit Experience Tuscany, let me know ASAP. We've also reserved the Villa for October 09.

Montisi is a village on a ridge, as are all the villages in the area. At one time it was a fortified village, with a wall and lookouts, which still remain. Curving streets make it seem bigger than it is, home to 315 people. While small, there's a lot of activity, and much of it takes place in the streets so we were able to take it in.

On the main street, just two doors down from the Villa Maddalena are two cafe/bar places, each different, but offering coffee, beer, wine, sodas, snacks, newspapers and magazines. Even locals drop in for a quick drink and to catch up on the latest news of the village. There are clearly peak times (early, midday and about 6pm) when regulars stop in.

Amazingly for such a small town, Montisi boasts three B&B (agrico tourismo) and two fabulous "slow food" restaurants, where the food is local, natural, often organic. We couldn't believe we could eat so well!

We were able to meet locals, both native born and ex-pats, so we developed some resources for making our stay there memorable. I have to say, I miss it already and can hardly wait to go back.

greetings from rome!

Jill and I are in an internet cafe in Rome after a fabulous lunch (fried artichoke, pasta, eggplant parmigiano) and we are on our way to Piazza Navona, hoping to find a pastry shop I remember from years ago when I was here with my daughter,Rose.

We had an amazing time in Montisi--more about that later. The pace and lifestyle of Tuscany is amazing and we look forward to sharing about it with you. We have eaten really good food and walked miles. The countryside is spectacular and because Montisi is on a ridge, you can see in all directions.

Tomorrow we fly back and we,ll be posting more once weàre ate familiar keyboards!

Welcome Spring Potluck

We had a great turnout and fabulous food for the Welcome Spring Potluck. What good cooks in our midst! We had another rowdy game of Knitionary (with a charades option). I'm sorry we don't have a picture of Heather's "Superman" charade. She's quite a good flyer!

Phyllis read a wonderful poem, that several wanted the words to. It's got a Zen-like call, a good reminder of the season, and anytime: to be still once in a while.

Think Like A Tree

Soak up the son
Affirm life's magic
Be graceful in the wind
Stand tall after a storm
Fell refreshed after it rains
Grow strong without notice
Be prepared for each season
Provide shelter to strangers
Hang tough through a cold spell
Emerge renewed at the first signs of
spring
Stay deeply rooted while reaching for
the sky
Be still long enought to
hear your own leaves rustling.

Karen I Shragg

Spring is here!

Spring is not only here in the form of daffodils and crocuses, but we've got spring yarns too! I love the arrangement of pastel Cottonwood (Fibra Natura from Universal Yarn). It's 100% organic cotton dyed with natural dyes, except for the colors which do not require dyes.

Knitters are using this yarn for babies as it's very soft. It knits up at about 5.5 sts to the inch on a size 3-5 needle. We've also had it knit up in Y2Knit's Flirty Tank. You won't find a lovelier yarn for a facecloth, for baby or mom.

Keeping the spring theme, Jill and I purchased a couple new yarns at the trade show in January. Cotton Blossom from Farm House Yarn is a worsted weight cotton with a rayon twist which gives a nice sheen. We'll have our pattern, Star Mesh, available soon. It's lovely in this yarn and perfect for summer wear.

Another new yarn is Evolution from Chameleon Colorworks. Evolution is a stretched Merino. The stretching is a mechanical process, which makes the wool shiny and soft. It doesn't have the stretchiness, but seems to have good memory.

We're combining these two yarns in an Italian Summer Shawl pattern--the combos are fabulous. We'll share soon!

Free Form Knitting

Sandy D'Onofrio and I have been working on some free form knitting in our spare time (she has much more of it than I do!). Her piece, pictured at left, is "Miami." The colors were so Miami-ish and she added textures, beads, pockets for seashells, etc. It's quite a magnificent wall hanging.

My piece actually has "growths" on both sides, but they aren't visable here. I ended up draping this on a curtain rod and around the radiator pipes in the classroom area. It's much better in person!

The nice thing about free form knitting is there's no pattern, no right or wrong result and no known outcome! We mostly knit in short rows, creating wedges that gave the pieces dimension. Then we added pieces as we went, just knitting them in. Sometimes I would have 6 needles in my piece at once, working in different directions. I did no sewing.

Some of the pieces were knit first, then joined as I knitted.

Teaching in Ohio

I drove to the Youngstown, OH area on Friday with my daughter Rose. I taught at the Western Reserve Knitting Guild on Saturday to about 32 knitters and at the Witty Knitters of Warren Sunday to 16 knitters, four who were repeats from the previous day. Morning class was Continental Knitting; afternoon was backwards knitting and entrelac.

I was so impressed by the intensity of everyone both days. The knitters did not have to pay for this class or their meal--it was part of their annual program that was paid from earnings from Knitters Fantasy, an all day knitting conference and market that the guilds host. Yet they came, they sat, and they knitted like their lives depended on it.

Both guilds were excellent hosts and while all the knitters were experienced, they presented enough of a teaching opportunity to keep me more than fully engaged the entire time.

It was fun to visit Kay Thompson's Knit Wit Yarn Shop in Salem. I've known Kay for a few years as a fellow vendor at Knitter's Day Out and as a customer at TNNA. Her husband, Barry, has taken one of my business classes, so it was good to see him too. She stocked up on Y2Knit patterns and sold Rose a ball of yarn and some needles as she had forgotten the instructions for the project she brought. We all enjoyed a good dinner at the Green Rose Bistro behind the shop.

I'll post pictures as soon as I have some, since they are on the cameras of others.

Punk sweater

Sandy D'Onofrio from Shepherdstown, WV is a prolific knitter and precise pattern tester (we use her often, so if you work a Y2Knit pattern without errors, you may have Sandy to thank for that!). Sandy has a college-age granddaughter that is the lucky recipient of this sweater. Too cool!