Best selling product this week: Ear Light!

This is the coolest product. Gina, from Checker Distributors, turned us onto the fantastic Ear Light when we were in Tuscany. I came back and ordered some and keep having to order more because everyone wants one.

Lightweight, this just clips on the ear. I thought I wouldn't like it, but it's not uncomfortable. Adjust the light and the soft white light shines on your knitting, then when you turn your head to look at the pattern, the light goes with you. So cool!

Great for readers, knitters and I have customers that are using them for walking the dog. I used mine the other night when I couldn't find the key hole at the back door. Abigail loves to chase the light!

What a great gift! Hope my family members aren't reading this or they'll know what's coming their way!

Y2Knit Experience Tuscany Picture Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Travel is over...for now

I think I have finally settled in after the fall travel, which included over 2 weeks in Tuscany and 9 days in Buffalo, WY.  When I return from these trips, the thing I miss most is the wonderful conviviality of spending time with a group of knitters and getting to know a group fairly well.  Getting up and having my cup of tea in the morning is decidedly less fun that sipping tea, knitting and visiting with others in the lobby of the Occidental Hotel or the breakfast room at Villa Maddalena.

Upon my return, there is always this sense of loss. Other than the obvious, I was unable to identify what this was.  Finally it dawned on me:  when I am on a Y2Knit Experience, no matter how hard I am working, I am not overloaded with all the things that enter my personal and work life when I'm back in Funkstown.  What's missing is a less complicated day!  What's missing is finding time to knit!

We had a great time during the Yarns on Stage Debut event at the shop last Saturday.  Fun to see which yarns knitters are drawn to.  Prism sold the most, Alpaca with a Twist and Great Adirondacks next.  There's still leftovers, like after any good meal. 

Sandy brought some delicious carrot cake so we could celebrate Nancy's birthday. She made Nancy her own little cupcake.  I had three servings.

Do Jackalopes Exist?

For the recent Y2Knit Experience Buffalo, we stayed at the historic Occidental Hotel.  Well worth it!  One of the features is the saloon, which has been lovingly restored, complete with animal heads of all kinds.  I believe every animal found in the West can be found in the saloon.  I polished my identification skills and after a week (and a few beers), i confidently know the difference between deer, elk and caribou, among others. 









One critter than I knew instantly was the jackalope.  He's mounted on the wall just to the left of the doorway into the gift shop and hotel lobby.   Since I felt that all the animals would look better if they had scarves or cowls on, but didn't feel enough commitment to that ideal to actually provide them, I decided to knit a small scarf for the Jackalope. 

I was able to do this with some lovely purple yarn donated by Mountain Meadow Wool.  I knit the scarf in seed stitch, 2 inches wide by 14" long, not including fringe.  It was perfect knitting during Knitting Night with local knitters.

I gave the Jackalope the scarf the next morning, attaching the yarn label.  The next morning the owner of the hotel, Dawn, commented on how lovely the scarf looked on the Jackalope.  I told her that Emily, the resident ghost, had apparently gotten into my needles and yarn and been up to some mischief.  We'll see if that story sticks!  Anyway, he looks quite fetching, whoever gets the knitting credit!

pics courtesy of Maureen Ladley of Ladley & Associates

Story 2: 

I had a magazine deadline, which since I procrastinate, means I was working on it at the last minute.  This involved finishing Bunny Love, a pattern that Creative Knitting accepted for a special interest Babies and Children edition coming out sometime in 2011. 

So, right now I'm kind of over bunnies, cute as they are.  I thought about sending the prototype knitted Bunny Love to my nephews, perhaps with a ransom note, but then decided to just turn him into an Jackalope.  When Sandy and Phyllis stopped by to pick up their new One Skein Wonders Sock Yarn books, we sat and visited and I just whipped those antlers up.  Bunny Love got to sniff the rosemary while I took his pic.   He's so Wyoming!!