Happy Holidays

Well, my Ladybug arrived just before Xmas. I LOVE IT. It's super cute and spins perfectly. No trouble so far. The attached, tensioned lazy kate looks super awesome. I'm on my 4th bobbin of yarn being spun on it, but haven't plied anything yet. I'll let you know how it works for that, but I'm not expecting any trouble.
There are so many big flat surfaces on the frame of the wheel that it just cries out for stickers or decals or some sort of decoration. The only complaint I can muster is that it stinks. Literally. The oil they used to finish the wood is mighty smelly. I've had it out of the box for a couple of weeks now, and I can still smell it when I first sit down to spin. I'm hoping that will get all aired out soon.

The basement at the yarn store seems to be no longer leaky, so I've started setting up the dye workshop area down there, and I plan to order the first batch of undyed yarn next week. The only thing I was freaking out about was that there is no spin-cycle washer down there to help get all the excess water out of things before hanging them to dry. I wasn't looking forward to all the mopping up and dripping etc. Well, today I found this thing online:



It's a little spin-dryer! If you want one, you can get it here.
OK, I'm also freaking out a little bit over my lack of a motorized skein-winder to help on things that will need to be re-skeined. Anyone got a recomendation there?

Schacht Ladybug

Schacht Ladybug
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

I ordered one last week. No idea when it'll actually show up, but yeah. I couldn't resist the cute.

To pay for it, I'm selling my Kromski Minstrel to a girl in Dallas on Dec. 30th

I love that it took me less than 2 hours to find a buyer for the old wheel. Spinning stuff may be expensive, but it holds it's value really well if you take care of it.

Finished Baby Hats & Rambling About Stuff

Modified Baby Hat
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

Little Devil Hat
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.
I made these two baby hats for my friend Billy's new boy John. The red one is supposed to have horns, but I thought it looked cute as-is. It's brand new baby sized.

The skully one is more toddler/preschooler size and uses a motif from the new Son Of Stitch N Bitch book. The adult-sized hat in the book is made with baby yarn, and the corrugated rib is on the matching mittens in the book not on the hat. I did my toddler-size hat with worsted weight yarn. The skull design is a 10 stitch repeat, so it's super easy to slap on just about anything. I may need a sweater with this as part of the yoke at some point.

I'm still working on the Sunrise Circle Jacket down at the store. I'm about 3/4 of the way up the back. It's pretty boring. At home I've started back to work on the Lady Eleanor Entrelac Stole which has been hibernating since it got too big to flip around eleventy million times per row. The being able to knit backwards stuff really kicks that thing's ass, I must say.

Yesterday was the first day I've had to keep on working with a migraine. It totally sucked. Especially the hour and a half where I could barely see and the other hour before the meds kicked in where it felt like my left eye was probably hanging out on a spindly stalk dripping down my cheek. (pretty!) After that I was pretty much just feeling stoned and like I might barf at any moment. Thank goodness nobody came in needing help on anything complicated.

I keep getting ideas for art projects, then getting side-tracked and forgetting them. I need to get one of the many empty sketchbooks I have and start using that sucker to write this stuff down.

HA!

Due to the mind-numbing ton of stockinette involved in the Sunrise Circle Jacket, I just taught myself to knit and purl left handed/backwards. (loops are worked off the right handed needle onto the left so in theory I'd never have to flip my work again.)
It's freaky and makes my usual Continental style go from picking to throwing. I tried switching hands with the working yarn so that I held it in my right hand and still picked, but it just felt WEIRD and I couldn't keep it up.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Actual Knitting Content

That's my recently completed Hemlock Ring Doily thing. I first saw this on Brooklyntweed and figured it would be a brain strainer, but after looking the pattern over I discovered it couldn't be further from the truth. This thing is easy peasy if you've ever done any lace at all. I only needed one stitch marker to mark the beginning of the round and could even work on it while people talked to me and I talked back to them. Seriously.
I didn't take it all the way out to blanket size because I wanted to use this as a centerpiece for the table down at the yarn store. It'll give people something to set their drinks on and it kinda makes me look like a badass to newbies. haha Here it is in action at the store:

Pretty, no?
I used size 6 needles and two skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece.

Another recently completed store samples project is my dishcloth experiment.
SWTC's Vickie Howell Craft yarn is cotton and milk fiber. The label says hand wash dry flat, but that stuff looked pretty tough to me so I took two balls, made these three washcloths, then used the heck out of them and washed them in my washer at home. As you can see, they survived and still look great.

I'd totally use that stuff for baby projects now knowing this.

So, my newest project is the Sunrise Circle Jacket from an old issue of Interweave Knits. I had two bags of Cascade Lana D'Oro Tweed in the yarn room waiting to make this sweater so I broke into it last week. I'm trying to leave this project at the store so I'll be forced to knit on hats and xmas gift knitting at home, but it's gonna be hard. I want this thing to wear YESTERDAY.
Here is my progress on the back section so far:

I know it looks pretty boring right now, but just you wait till I start sprouting cardigan fronts out of my armpits and we'll see about that. haha

My Sinister Mug

Sinister Mug Inside
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

Kristen got me this mug at Starbucks. I love it because I use it at work and the other side is just plain green so while other people see me drinking out of a big green mug with a striped handle, I get to look at the goofy face. haha
That yarn/scarf is yarn I made at yarn school in case anyone is interested. This pic has been in the camera for a while, so the scarf is actually finished now.

Angie's Tattoo

Angie's Tattoo
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

My friend Angie has the most badass knitting tattoo ever!

Time Flies...

What? I have a knitting blog? Oh, yeah...oops.
I've been crazy busy this month with store stuff and store blogging and trying to get my house into some kind of order. (I'm totally failing at that last one) So here are the latest kntting things I've finished:
Big Smooshy Scarf (store sample)

I made it with Brown Sheep Burlyspun. I love this picture so much that I ordered new business cards with it on them. They're gonna be all shiney and black with white lettering and a white border for the pic. Classy!

Fake Isle Hat from Nov. 2006 Magknits (another store sample)

The top of this hat makes me all kinds of happy.

I'm working on another one in the same colors but reversed with the blue as the main color and the black as the contrast.
Are you seeing a patten here? Yep, everything I'm knitting is a store sample. On the needles at home is a Kiri shawl in Misti Alpaca laceweight, and I'm thinking of starting another kiri in Crystal Palace Kid Merino just to show the difference a fuzzy yarn makes in how the lace looks.
Things are going great as far as the store goes. July was a little tight, but I managed to clear the rent, utilities, advertising, and cover the orders I placed. Whew! I was a little afraid going into August that things would fall apart because I have fall orders coming in, but so far so good for August as well. There will be a feature about the store in next month's free entertainment mag, and more people show up for Tuesday help class and Thursday SnB every week.
Today has been the best work day EVER at the store. I've had a steady stream of customers. I had a private learn to knit student, and two desperate for help knitters that I got back on track with their projects plus more shoppers who were all so positive about me being here.
One lady almost made me cry because she told me that she likes the shop so much, and that when she first came in she was afraid she wouldn't fit in with the Thursday night crowd, but then everyone was so nice to her and it didn't matter that they were different ages and backgrounds and how talking to the younger knitters who were "fearless" had really helped her find courage to try new stuff on her own. She said she grew up in the time when the attitude was you do things the "right way" or you don't do them and she'd been afraid to mess up. Now she knows it's only yarn, and if you mess up you can just rip it out and start over.

I'm A Bad Knitblogger

I've been spending all my knit-blogging time over at Ravelry posting on the message boards and joining the Summer Camp Secret Pal Swap and generally fooling around. I'm behind on this blog and I'm way behind showing customer FO's on the store's blog too. dang.
So here is the latest thing I've finished:

It's a Baby Surprise Sweater. It was almost finished there. I have since woven in the ends and done a black single crochet border around the neck and sleeves, but you get the idea. I've also started another one using some kool-aid dyed yarn from the stash. It should be done probably next week. I don't have buttons for either one yet, but once I do I'll get some modeling shots if Teresa will let me borrow baby Rebecca.
I'm also working on a big fat scarf out of Brown Sheep Burlyspun for the store. (Who am I kidding? It's for me once it gets cold enough out there to need it, ha!)

Knitting LOL-Cats

LolCatRenderer6
Originally uploaded by herzeleidknits.

There is a thread on the Ravelry message boards where people are posting knitting-themed lol-cats. (see www.icanhascheezburger.com if you don't know what I'm talking about.) This is by far my favorite. hahahahahaha

Look, I Finished Something!

Project 365 - Photo #158
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

The Vine Lace Baby Hat from Knitting Daily done with some Yarn Bee yarn from the stash. I'm going to make another one from some of the store yarn and another bigger one for Teresa's daughter Rebecca. This one was supposed to be for her, but that girl has a newscaster head (haha) so the age-appropriate size didn't fit her.
Things are going pretty good at the store. Yesterday I taught a lady how to spin and there is one interested in buying a wheel coming in on Saturday. Now that I have everything tagged, I get to spin and work on my own projects in the afternoons once I'm done putting stuff away and ordering new stuff in the mornings. If it ever quits being rainy I'll take the big triangle loom down there.
There are almost so many people coming to the class on Tuesday and the Stitch N Bitch on Thursday that I need more chairs. I have 8 chairs and the couch right now. They've been full this week. I will pick up some folding chairs when I get tables for the basement maybe this weekend.
I did a crazy thing yesterday and ordered myself a new bike. My old bike is a frankenbike assembled by my 2nd husband, and it's OK but it is really heavy and a one-speed. I priced out the parts to turn it into a three-speed and new rims etc. to make it how I want it, and it came out close enough to the cost of a new bike that I gave in to the temptation and ordered myself a Trek Drift 3-speed from Scott's Bike Shop. Scott is super nice on the phone and I didn't get any of the snooty bike shop attitude I've gotten at a couple of other shops when I asked about cruiser bikes.
For some reason the other shops around here are so focused on their competitive, "serious" bike customers that everyone else is talked down to and pretty much made to feel shitty for even asking. (I felt like I went into a fancy, snooty yarn store and asked if they had any Red Heart.) Even though the bikes I was asking about were good brand names which they carried, and they totally could have helped me if they'd wanted to, they just blew me off. My old bike is basicly a stripped down Haro, and I couldn't even take it in for a tune-up without being openly laughed at. pffffft!
I'm really glad to have found a bike shop without the elitist attitude and shit-talking staff. So that's my plug for Scott's Bike Shop. If you live in the area and need any bike stuff, go see him.

Newness!

Steve gave up trying to fix the old computer after about 4 hours. haha
I went to Best Buy yesterday and got a new one from the clearance area. It's an Acer Aspire 4400 something or other, and so far so good. It has a nifty card reader thing so that I can more quickly dump my pictures into it. I plan to start back at project 365 today. I guess I could have been taking pictures all this past week or two without anywhere to dump them, but I didn't.
I'm really liking Ravelry. I think either tonight or tomorrow night I'll start to document the stash. That is going to take a while, because there is a lot of stash. I also want to take pictures of the yarn at the store that isn't already entered into the Ravelry database so that people can find it and know it's awesomeness. I might start that this afternoon if I finish tagging all the rest of the needles and hooks. My life is way exciting, huh?

Blue Screen Of Death

My computer at home bit the dust last night. Sadly, it took the last couple of weeks worth of project 365 pics with it. ugh. I had downloaded them and then deleted them out of the camera to make room for more stuff. I intended to sort and upload them to flickr, but I've been all busy with other things and I put it off. Oh well. I will just start back up again once I get the computer situation sorted out. Steve thinks he may be able to recover some stuff this weekend, but I'm about ready to drag it out back and beat it to bits with a hammer.
In other news, The shop is pretty much all set up now. I got my fixtures for the needles today so that is what I've been doing in between breaks to mess with Ravelry and customers coming in. The customers so far have mostly been great. Once in a while there is an odd one who just came in to tell me they have no use for anything
I have here, which I find really weird, but other than that everything is swell. I'm pretty happy at the number of people who have expressed interest in spinning and in learning to spin. YAY!
Lately I've been knitting the sample things. I've got a One Skein Wonder on the needles in the Vickie Howell Craft yarn (organic cotton & milk fiber) and I'm about to bind off the big feather and fan Boku scarf (finally!) There will be pictures of both once this computer issue is straightened out.

Hit Me Up

I finally got my Ravelry invitation yesterday, so if you're on there please let me know so I can friend you.

Thanks For The Flowers!

Thank You to whoever sent me the pretty flowers for the store's opening day! There was a message, but no signature.
So far so good :) I've had several customers in this morning and almost all the comments I've overheard were positive. The only negatives were about the stairs out front and stairs in general which I figured might be a problem for some people, but maybe I can get them to put in a railing out front or something.

I Got Tagged!

Jennifer tagged me for this meme so I'm going to do it but I'm not tagging anyone so if you feel like participating then consider yourself tagged.
"Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write on their own blog those 7 facts as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag 7 others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog."

So here are my 7 random facts:
1) I have the worst looking cuticles I've ever seen on a woman right now. All this painting, cleaning, and furniture putting togethering for the store has left me with really gross hands and since I hit my thumb with a hammer today I'll probably also have a black thumbnail soon.
2) I've promised myself that when the store breaks even I will get a yarn/knitting/fiber arts related tattoo on my ankle.
3) I mostly just talk about the store all the time now so I'm kind of boring to hang out with or to talk to. haha
4) I've owned a yahoo group called "Punk Parents" since about 1999. It doesn't have a lot of traffic anymore because some people decided I wasn't "punk" enough and went off to form their own group. I think that's awesome.
5) For as long as I can remember I've loved paper, pens, yarn, and crafty things.
6) I like to go to the movies by myself.
7) I've been to three Star Trek/Sci-Fi conventions.

Still With The Store Stuff

My life lately has been Quickbooks and Quickbooks POS. I have been entering vendors and items into the computer for the store for the last week. I'm finally starting to believe I'll be finished by the end of the month, so I'm going to say that the store will be open regular hours starting June 4th. I'll probably have 99% of everything done by June 1st, so if you're around that day and you want to come by for a preview I'll be there 10AM-6PM. I might even pick up some muffins or cupcakes or something that we can have to celebrate.
Check out my snazzy check-out counter:

It turned out SO NICE. My friend Beverly's husband David built it. He is also building a counter for the free coffee area.
Tomorrow I have to get a fire extinguisher inspected and put in the order for the stick-on letters for the windows. Get this: if you stick letters to the inside of your window you don't need a sign permit from the city, but if you stick the same letters to the outside of the window, you need a permit. hahahaha

Maybe I've Been Sniffing Too Much Spackle...

I had the BEST idea yesterday! OK, I just got the 200 ripple stitch patterns book because I'm obsessed with crocheting a ripple afghan now. This is the idea I had while looking at the book: I'm going to make an afghan using all the worsted and near-worsted weight yarns that are in the opening inventory for the store. Most of the yarn doesn't come with swatches, and I'm crazy about wanting to have a swatch of most things for people to see so what I'll do is pick one ball of each yarn in colors that will all work together, make swatches out of those to keep for the store, then use the leftovers to make the afghan. That way there is a knitted swatch and a crochet sample too for as long as I leave the afghan down there plus when I'm 100 years old in the nursing home I'll have this afghan to remind me of the time I decided to spend my life savings on opening a yarn store.
Oh, by the way...we have some shelves down there now:

Ahna helped me put one of the IKEA shelves together. DANG it was a pain trying to get all those little pegs to line up and stay together. 2 more to go, but I have to wait until I'm done filling in holes and touching up the paint on the walls or it'll be a big mess.

Loot!

I got perfectly timed chocolate sticks - perfectly timed cause I needed me some chocolate when they arrived haha, a fun movie, a book I've been meaning to read, some needles, and some also perfectly timed hand cream - I use that same brand regularly and was almost out. Thanks Secret Pal person!

In other news, stuff continues to arrive at the shop. I continue to leave the boxes sealed because I don't have the computer set up to receive stuff yet and I don't want to have to take it off the shelves once I put it up, plus I don't really have enough shelves for it all right now. BUT, when those Jordana Paige bags got here today I tore that box right open and picked out the one I'm keeping for my very own. (As soon as the POS and merchant service stuff is set up this will be my first test sale - Yes, I'm selling my first thing to myself. That isn't bad luck or anything, right? I hope not.) I thought I wanted the red until I saw the Graphite. It perfectly matches my Sparkly Pirate Wallet. Check it out:

Working working working...

I've just been working on the yarn store stuff and not knitting much except that one Boku shop sample that you've all seen already so I won't inflict that upon you again.
I did all the ordering this week, and I updated the website to reflect everything that should be on it's way so you can go take a look at that if you want to see what I've been up to. ( http://www.stringtownyarn.com/ )
Tomorrow we go on the big IKEA trip to get shelves for the store. IKEA is about three or four hours from my house. I hope it doesn't rain on us. I'd better pack a tarp or two just in case. I'll take some pictures so the blog can be less boring for you guys to look at. haha
Oh, and my Secret Pal person from SP10 says she's sending me a package soon-ish so there will be that to see.
I'm really starting to get the urge to crochet myself a ripple throw after seeing this over at the no end in site ripple along blog. I need to control the urge until I get the store a little more put together, but once that is done you just look out cause I'm gonna crochet me some ripples.

We Have LIGHTS!

I spent all day down at the store watching guys climb scaffolding and tall ladders to hang my lights. They even cleaned the ceiling fans for me. Now THAT's customer service! :)






There are even lights in the basement! You can see the ugly yellow floor! (must remember to get floor paint or a big throw rug to throw over the ugly)
I get a phone and Internet down there on Friday. Shelves arrive May 5th or 6th.

Button, Button, I've Got A Button!

Here is a button I made to link to the Stringtown Blog with in case you're interested. Please save to your own server etc.

I'm Self-Employed!

Yesterday was my last day at the not so air conditioned air conditioner factory. YAY!It was pretty nice. All the guys said they'd miss me and I got a cake. (Chocolate cake with crushed strawberries in the middle and whipped cream type icing! YUM) Of course, every time one of them asked what I was going to do and I said "I'm opening a yarn store." I had to answer that same ::Man looks puzzled:: "Is there actually a market for THAT?" question. By the end of the day I was saying, "No, but I get to spend thousands of dollars on yarn!" So yeah, they all think I'm off my rocker, but I have faith that there are enough knitters & crocheters around here to support a real yarn store so Pthhhh! on those scoffing fellas.
I made these cards to hand out yesterday and to post places around town.

Today I met the electrician down at the storefront. He seemed surprised to see 15-foot ceilings even though I told them about that when I made the appointment. He only had a 10-foot ladder in the truck so he's going to have to come back Monday with an assistant and scaffolding. That's fine with me. I just want lights sometime before the store opens. haha I also met with the sales rep. from the cable company. Stringtown will have fabulous cable internet and a phone/fax number sometime next week.
I'm about to go down to the City Collections Office to put in the paperwork for the occupancy permit/business license. That should only take a couple of weeks to process so hopefully it'll be ready by the time I'm ready to open. My Sales Tax ID application has supposedly been processed and a number will be issued "today or maybe tomorrow, I don't know exactly." according to the lady in Little Rock I talked to today. Those people are slower than Christmas!!
So yeah, there is a lot going on and it's all round-about-yarn-related, but none of it is knitting or spinning or weaving. I'll be at Sweet Bay tonight working on the same old sample scarf I work on every Thursday.

FInally!

I just got a call from the guy who has been working on the loose
plaster wall at the shop and he says they are finishing up today, then
once everything up there dries I can paint. Whoo!
We can start cleaning tomorrow if we want as long as we don't touch
that wall till it's dry. I'm going to go over there and crank up the
heat tonight so maybe it'll dry faster. We've had a cold snap here,
and I think leaving the heat off down there to save on the electric
bill has cost us some drying time. I hadn't even thought of that, but
then the guy didn't complain about it either.
I guess in the next week or so I need to pick out my light fixtures,
schedule an electrician to install that stuff, schedule the cable guy
to install the internet and phone so I can start working down there,
get some paint mixed to match the color already on the walls, schedule
a plumber to come cap off the former shampoo sink pipes sticking out
of the wall, buy some cleaning supplies, a trash can, a tall ladder
(hello super high ceiling), and a vacuum for the store, make an
"opening soon" poster for the front window, and do a BUNCH of
cleaning.
At least I'm not stuck in waiting-for-the-plaster-guy-purgatory anymore :)

May The Gods Of Technology Smile Upon Me

Yesterday I bought all of that stuff for the store. See that airpot? That's for the two liters of coffee which will be powering me daily for the next couple of months.
I have about a month and a half to learn Quickbooks, Quickbooks POS, and get the laptop to be friends with the scanner, the receipt printer, and the regular printer/scanner/fax. I have to do all that while also ordering and setting up shelves/yarn/fiber/needles/notions/bags/etc. and making sure I have all the legal permits and numbers and things to file here and there taken care of. Did I mention the yard sale I need to toss in there somewhere?
With all that to do, what am I doing today? Sitting here at a little after 3PM still in my bathrobe thinking about cleaning my closet, going to the grocery store, and cooking chicken tonight. Yeah, my brain works like that.

Quitting

I'm trying to be nice and give 2 weeks notice at my job, but most of
the people I'd normally tell aren't here today because tomorrow is a
holiday. The ones who are here don't know if they are supposed to fill
out some paperwork or what, so I'm just telling them "OK, my last day
is the 19th" and trying to leave it at that.
When I say I'm quitting the boring auditor job because I'm opening a
yarn store they look at me like I just told them I'm going to levitate
the Pentagon with my super secret mind powers.

Good News & Bad News

The only knitting I'm doing right now is all swatches and sample scarf
thingies for the store, and I haven't even been able to work on that
the last few days. It's true what they tell you that if you're going
to open a yarn store you won't have time to knit, at least at first
anyway. So I'm giving you the good news and the bad news of the last
few days -

Good News: I sold my extra house! We close at the end of the month or
sooner, and the girl who is buying it to fix up for a rental property
has cash.
Bad News: The shed over there is full of junky junk. I have to clean
it out and haul most of it to the dump before closing. eek! When will
there be time to do THAT??

Good News: Work has started on the store space. There are workmen
there today knocking off loose plaster and sealing down the gaps so
that we can paint the plastered parts of the walls. I also found a
decent looking metal shelving unit and a wire magazine rack stuffed in
the dumbwaiter/freight elevator thing.
Bad News: Plaster makes a ton of dust which will need to be cleaned
off of EVERYTHING, and last night while we were over there taking
measurements for light fixtures and shelves Ian found a stash of human
hair clippings in the wall. (gross gross gross) He also found where
someone has drawn boobies on the wall with a pencil. Leave it to the
14 year old boy to find the boobie graffiti anywhere.

Good News: I'm losing weight because I'm so busy I forget to eat.
Bad News: I can't find my smaller pants so everyone gets to see my
"plumber's butt" when I bend over. haha

Flash Your Stash Day 2007!

Here it is in all it's messy glory:


Here is most of the spinning fiber stash:


& here is a little more of the fiber stash...OK, it's 15 pounds or so of Brown Sheep Mill Ends and maybe some carded Teeswater Cross stuff in that big ziplock baggie. Oh, and a bag of knitpicks something or other too:


There is more fiber hiding in the closet, but not very much...only like two or three pounds or something, I swear.

I Think I Found It!

Project 365 - Photo #87
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

Is this the future home of Stringtown Yarn & Fiber? I went down to check out this space today. They're offering me a really sweet deal on the lease so I think I'm gonna take it tomorrow. It needs a LOT of cleaning up, but it'll be great.
The last renter took every light fixture in the place, so I'll have to go get some track lights and maybe a few lamps, but during the daytime you don't really even need many artificial lights anywhere but in the basement.

It's Big and Scary and Totally AWESOME.

I'm giving my 2 weeks notice at the day job one week from today. I
just canceled my health insurance and filed papers to switch it over
to a different company associated with Steve's work beginning April
15th. If things play out smoothly, my final day at the day job will be
Friday, April 13th. I start full time yarn store owner duty on Monday,
April 16th.
I'm getting nervous about making the big leap to being self-employed.
Yes, I'm totally excited and happy and all of that, but I'm also
totally anxious and afraid to let go of the small degree of security
the day job provides. Sure, the day job is no fun at all, is not in a
climate controlled environment, and requires me to wear steel toe
shoes, all of which have been making me want to poke my eyeballs out
with pencils since almost the day I started it, but it pays pretty
well.
I'm looking at the controllable and familliar hell I already know vs
the unfamiliar, unknown, and completely possible hell I can't really
predict. Of course, Steve is there with his own self-employment to
catch whatever slack develops in the budget and chances are the store
will do fine, but it is still a big deal to me to make this drastic
change. It means I have to let go and trust that he can pay everything
for a while. That's huge for me.
People used to live with this uncertainty all the time. There were no
big companies or factories to go work for back then. It was every man
for himself and if you sucked as a craftsman or as a salesman or a
farmer, or whatever then you just didn't eat. If I think of it that
way it isn't so bad because at least I know there is cheap stuff
available to eat, plus we do own a huge pile of camping equipment so
we could always run away and go live in the national forest if things
got super bad. We could come into town once a week, panhandle for a
day, load up on ramen, rice, and beans, and hightail it back to the
woods. Is it bad that my backup life plan is being a farty hippie? I
thought so. haha

This Is For Scout

nataliedee.com

Spring!

I'm still a little coughed up, but I feel a lot better than I did this
time last week. YAY!
I'm still not knitting any more on the sock or the sweater right now
though. I have to finish a project for a swap I signed up to do like
three months ago. I'm halfway done with an extra thing I was going to
stick in the box and everything has to be mailed by the end of next
week so I don't have time to mess with anything else. I can't even
show you what it is until it's off in the mail because my swap person
might read the blog, so I'm going to be totally boring and knit-less.
Store things have hit a point where I can't really talk about it so
I'm just waiting around.

Garden Stuff:
Spring has kind of snuck up on us here. My yard is still a total mess
and I don't have the garden boxes ready to plant stuff in or anything.
Steve and Ian mowed up the old leaves and did a little work out there
last weekend, but I was too sick to go out and breathe dust so I
stayed in the house. It is supposed to rain off and on all this week,
so I'm using that time to plan stuff.
I think this year I'm not going to try to plant a lot of crazy stuff
like I did last year. (which was the 1st year for the square foot
garden) I'm going to plant more of the stuff that did good and leave
out the wacky white eggplant that never made fruit and the broccoli
that the bunnies kept eating etc. I'm even gonna leave out the
cucumbers even though they did really well. I don't like them all that
much, and I felt pressured to eat the damn things all summer. haha
So, Box #1 gets 4-6 heads of Lettuce, a bunch of Onions, and two
trellis things of Peas this weekend. The rest of the boxes will have
to wait a month or so to be safely past the last frost date for this
area. When it's time, box #2 gets 8 Okra plants, 4 peppers, and 4
tomatoes. Box #3 gets 6-8 Yellow Squash plants, and 8 square feet of
bush type Green Beans. Ian wants to put corn in box #4 again. Last
year raccoons or giant rats or something totally ripped it to shreds
before we even got one ear started so I guess we can try it again.
I've got plans for a more sturdy fence around each box. Hopefully
that'll work to keep out the beasties.
In the front yard potato pot we have potatoes already coming up. We
must remember to dump that thing out this year. I'm afraid of what
might be in there right now so we're just gonna let them grow. I'm
also going to plant some more Canna Lilly bulbs in the cursed flower
bed under the big window (nothing wants to grow there) and some
Gladiolus in the big pots. Maybe the squirrels won't run off with them
all this time.

Rockin Socks!

Project 365 - Photo #74
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

Here is the progress on the Rockin Sock Club sock that I made while in Eureka. I haven't worked on it all week due to the sick.
I got a huge migraine yesterday, then threw up my migraine meds so it wouldn't totally go away and it came back this morning. This week sucks rocks. I'm tired of being sick. I'm tired of coughing, and I'm tired of migraines. bleh.

The Weekend & Stuff

Go here to see pictures from my weekend at the 1st Annual Arkansas
Ghost Hunters Conference ~
http://www.flickr.com/gp/65665739@N00/91D897
It was held in Eureka Springs, AR at the Crescent Hotel. If you watch
the show Ghost Hunters on the Sci-Fi channel, you might remember this
is where they caught the image of a man in the basement on their
thermal camera which couldn't be explained. I didn't get that lucky,
but I did get lots of pictures of weird orb things, and I got a good
bit of knitting done on the Rockin Sock Club pattern for this month.
I'll have pictures of that later tonight. People were fascinated with
the sock knitting on the teensy size 0 needles.
The freakiest things that happened to me directly at the hotel this
weekend were feeling like I was being tapped on the head during one of
the presentations in the conservatory, and the door chain swinging. We
were all in one of the rooms which they say has lots of ghost activity
going on all the time. My friend Elissa left the room to go back to
our room to get something, and the chain on the door kept swinging
steadily for several minutes after she closed the door. One of the
other girls in the room said "That needs to stop now!" and it
instantly stopped as if someone had grabbed the chain to stop it. We
all said "Thank You!" and that was that.
I wasn't feeling so hot on Friday when I left for Eureka, but I
thought it was just allergies or something. By Sunday when I came home
I was feeling downright sick and crappy. I ended up having a fever
Sunday night, going to the doctor Monday morning, and being told I had
the beginnings of a case of pneumonia. Staying up till 3 or 4 AM two
nights in a row and spending time in basements probably didn't help me
any. haha I got some antibiotics, decongestant, and the really good
cough syrup so I feel halfway Ok now. I'd be better if I could stop
this coughing.
Oh, and if you're my new Secret Pal 10 person, the questionaire is
either waaaay down at the bottom of this page or over in the archives.
I posted it not too long ago so you shouldn't have too far back to
hunt for it. :)

Tattoo Meme!

Project 365 - Photo #65
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

This picture is to show my tattoo because Scout really really really wanted to see it. haha

Yarn School

I'm going. Are you? You totally should!

http://harveyvilleproject.com/yarnschool07/index.html

I figure by September I'll need a nice long weekend away. As of right
now I'm planning on just driving up there (cause secretly I think I
have long haul trucker genes) so if anyone local or between here and
there via Hwy 71 would like a ride just let me know cause I'll be
going that way.

New Store Blog

This weekend I bought a domain and made a new blog for the store. The site is super boring right now, but hopefully I'll have time in thenear future to jazz it up a little. You can go check it out at http://stringtownyarn.com/ if you're interested. Local people, leave me some comments over there so I don't feel like I'm talking to the wind.
I still plan to do my personal blogging over here, and I haven't linked to it from there yet because I haven't decided whether I want to or not. In case you haven't noticed, I kind of have a potty mouth on occasion over here. I need to work on breaking myself of that habit when I speak because I have to be all retail-friendly again. 10+ years of working in a factory has contributed to my bluntness and bad language in a big way. I don't want to go running people off when the store opens because I talk like a teamster. I know some of the people won't care, but probably just as many would freak out never to return.
The blog over there is more for stuff like pictures of the store as we get it set up, pictures of the yarn & fiber as it arrives, and then once we're open it'll have pictures of new stuff as we get it in, sale announcements, class schedules, finished objects from local knitters, and then eventually there will be an online store too.

I'm A Joiner

This is my Faux Fair Isle Raglan from a pattern in Spin To Knit by Shannon Okey. I've had my eye on this pattern since I got the book, and I kept thinking I'd make one someday after I finish up some of these other half-done things I have going. Then Nikol made a super cute one in like two days, I saw another one on someone else's flickr, and I couldn't stand putting it off any longer.
The colorful yarn is handspun from a brown sheep mill end roving and a handpainted merino roving I bought somehwere. It was the first yarn I spun on my Louet Victoria. The black is Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride. I already love this sweater. If it ends up not fitting like I want it to I can use it as a shop sample for the store since I'll have lots of Lamb's Pride and spinning supplies.
Speaking of the store, things are going pretty much on schedule. I've heard back from most of the companies I contacted. Now comes the hard part where I have to decide what to get and what to wait on for later or not get at all. I also need to pay down a few credit cards in preparation for going to the bank to get my home equity loan on the rent house. I have to wait until after our taxes are done for that, and it's KILLING ME. Now that the store plans are so specific I'm the most impatient girl ever. haha It doesn't help my patience to have yarn reps calling almost every day to check in with me and see how it's going. I appreciate them being so on top of stuff, but I scream inside just a little bit every time I have to hang up without placing an order.
Oh well, It's the first of the month and all the yarn/fiber clubs I joined are sending out the goodies so that has cheered me up quite a bit. I got this awesomeness from Scout's Indie Swag Club last week -

& today my PO box held this from the Spunky Eclectic Fiber Of The Month Club -

I expect a Blue Moon Rockin Sock Club package any day now. Hopefully all this stuff will give me something to do with my nervous energy while I wait for the accountant to finish the damn taxes. :)

Free Cones!

Project 365 - Photo #48
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

I got these cones of weaving yarn from a girl named Rachel in Fayetteville. She's super nice. She got it at a yard sale or something and wasn't using it. I'm going to use it if I ever get around to weaving rugs.
Other than that, nothing big is going on around here. I'm still making yarn store plans and still knitting little bits on this and that but finishing nothing. It's that late winter blah time where nothing ever gets finished. Spring just needs to hurry up and get here.

BOKU!

Project 365 - Photo #39
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

I love this yarn. I'm going to have this yarn's babies. Yes I am.

My Secret Pal 10 Questionaire

Yes, I fell for it again. I sat out the last couple of rounds, but here I am back for more. I think there is still time to sign up over at the SP10 Blog if you'd like to get in on the action.

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
Right now I'm LOVING Plymouth Boku. The stripey goodness is very much like Noro yarns, but this stuff is MUCH softer and has none of that yard waste so often found in Noro yarns. I like pretty much everything as long as it isn't crazy fuzzy like a muppet pelt or scratchy like Red Heart.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
I have those hanging organizer things for straights and circs, and I have all the original packs for my DPN's but most of the needles have migrated all over the house right now. Some are in a vase on my desk, some are in a bin in the yarn room, and others are lost in project bags here and there around the house.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I learned to knit a couple of months before I started this blog. I don't believe in those levels. They have no power over me. I knit whatever the hell I put my mind to, and so can you.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Yes. I do have an Amazon wishlist. I need to update it. I'm Elabeth over there too.

5. What's your favorite scent?
Vanilla and anything Karma from Lush.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
I have a little sweet tooth. Anything dark chocolate or white chocolate is awesome.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
Yes I spin, weave, crochet, needle felt, and I'm learning rug hooking. I also dye yarn and fiber. I can do anything if I have an instruction book or someone willing to teach me.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I like a lot of different music, but I'm not obsessive about music in general. I listen to a lot of old punk crap, and lately to the Valley Girl soundtrack because that's what I have in the car.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
There aren't any colors I can't stand. I like everything. Go nuts.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I live with my husband and my 14 year old son who is almost a foot taller than me and outweighs me by about 50lbs. They think it's funny to put things on the top shelf in the kitchen. It isn't. (I'm 5ft 3)

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
No mittens or ponchos, but yes to scarves and hats.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
It depends on what I'm in the mood for. I don't generally like stuff with a lot of finishing involved.

13. What are you knitting right now?
Mostly a secret thing for another swap and a Plymouth Boku shop sample scarf for the future yarn store.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Sure!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I like straights for scarves, circs for sweaters and hats, dpn's for socks, and I don't care much what they're made of.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
Yep. I own a ball winder and three swifts cause I'm a goober like that.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
I'm still working on a Dr. Who scarf I started about a week after I learned to knit.

18. What is your favorite holiday?
Halloween. duh.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Not really on purpose. I do have a lot of glass paperweights, skull themed things, and those old colored glass insulators from power lines.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I'm subscribed to everything, and I buy books I want pretty much right when they come out. I need more size 7 and 8 needles though. Those things keep going missing. Oh, I know..those sock dpn's that come in the fancy tins. I can't remember who makes them.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
I pretty much run right out and learn stuff as I think of it. Actually finishing stuff would be a good technique to learn. haha

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Yes. I don't know my foot measurements because I always do toe-up socks. I wear a women's size 7.5-8 or a men's size 6 shoe though.

23. When is your birthday?
August 22nd. I'll be 35! DAMN.

There Will Be Knitting Tomorrow

Project 365 - Photo #31
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

This is what my truck looked like when I came out to leave work at 4:30 this afternoon. That's less than an inch of dry, powdery snow. It took me 3 hours to get home! It usually takes 15 minutes. People are stupid. The roads weren't even that bad yet. They suck now. Schools for miles around are already closed for tomorrow so that means I'm staying home with the boy, knitting, drinking tea, watching daytime tv, and maybe dyeing some roving or something. YAY!

Oklahoma City Stuff

Project 365 - Photo #26
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

Last night I drove 3 hours and stayed in the world's cleanest hotel room. Seriously, you could bounce a quarter off those sheets and there wasn't even soap scum in the bathroom. Holiday Inn Express in Edmond, OK is great. They even had fresh fruit and coffee in the lobby at all hours.
I didn't come to OKC just for the fabulous hotels. No. I came for the rug hooking class I was in all day today. Hooking is tedious and you will stab your finger with the hook so many times you'll start to not feel it anymore. The things you can do with it are pretty freakin awesome though.
This is a sample the teacher brought to show us:

She also had some really great books and magazines showing rugs that looked like paintings they were so good.
If I ever finish the sampler thing I got at the class I'll show you a picture of it. I ordered a new hook from the teacher because my old hook I got in a kit a few months ago sucks much ass.
I'm pretty sleepy from all that driving and finger poke doing I did today so I'm going to bed now.

I'm A Scarf Knitter

Project 365 - Photo #16
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

Those of you who have been following my Project 365 on Flickr have already seen this photo. It's the scarves from my coat closet that I forget to grab most of the time so they never see the light of day. I've never really thought of myself as a "scarf knitter", but I guess the evidence doesn't lie. haha
Lately I've just been working on things that aren't very fun to look at. Mostly a black stockinette top-down raglan which is past the shaping and into the looooong boring bodice part. Sometimes I work on socks, but they are boring stockinette too. I just don't have the attention span needed to work on the Summer In Kansas Shawl without losing my place, and really that is the only even slightly complicated thing I have in the UFO box right now.
I'm distracted. I've been working on a business plan for opening a yarn store. I know, probably every other knitter on the planet thinks about doing this from time to time, but I am pretty sure I can pull it off here. The main challenge will be drawing in new customers from the Hobby Lobby set.
See, there is NO LYS here. The closest one is about 50 miles away and people DO make the drive. I am not worried about getting those people to drop into my store since I plan to make sure my stock is almost completely different from the other store's and that the atmosphere in my store is more friendly/inviting. I'm hoping people will shop in both places because if they do, then maybe I can draw customers from that town as well.
But, like I said, I'm not too worried about getting those customers. It's the local craft store knitters I'm after. I want to convert them. I want to make sure I have nice things that come in at a price point they won't be afraid of...kind of gateway fibers to get them hooked and make them want to try better things.
So, what is your favorite cheaper but nice yarn? What was the first really nice yarn that you used back when you were a brand new knitter? What was the first yarn that made you buy it even though it cost maybe a little more than $5?
Oh, and if anyone knows where I can get market analysis data for fiber arts type stores in metro areas of around 120,000 or less please shoot me an email.

I Got New Tools

Project 365 - Photo #18
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

This thing is not a toy. It's all business all the time.

OK, so it IS fun to spin the thing around and watch the little counter count the revolutions. It was even MORE fun to be done winding this yarn on there and know I had 46 yards without having to count the strands.

Handcrafted hardwood Will Taylor Skeinwinder from Carolina Homespun & Magnetic Proximity Counter from Chameleon Colorworks

New Hat & Stinky Weather

Project 365 - Photo #14
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

This is a new hat I made for my friend Patti's kids. She has 5 of them, and this is hat #2 so you'll be seeing 3 more eventually. It is also today's photo for my project 365. I've been doing better than I figured I would be after two weeks. Especially since the weather has sucked ass here lately so I've had to find a lot of stuff inside the house to take pictures of.
Tonight we are expecting some freezing rain and possibly sleet/snow. We're getting off easy compared to the people just a few miles west of here where they've had icy crap for the past three days with power outages and all that jazz. I'm hoping for nothing but slick bridges and overpasses in the morning so I can make it to work with as little fuss as possible. We'll see.
Oh, the pattern for the hat can be found in the book One Skein Wonders: 101 Yarn Shop Favorites. I used Wool Ease because it is a hat for a kid, and we all know how good kids are at taking care of their stuff. Plus, I wanted to make washing it easy in case it gets nasty somehow.

I Guess Somebody Listened

I got the new Lion Brand catalog last night, and for once I didn't
toss it straight into the trash can. I'm glad I didn't, because it
brought the good news that they've started making Cotton Ease again.
YAY! The best part is that it isn't available only in colors so bright
they'll put your eyes out. There are several decent colors that don't
burn my retinas. This will make knitting for all the babies my friends
keep having much easier.
They also have a new "Organic Cotton" yarn that looks pretty nice, and
there were some patterns featured that I'd actually want to make and
wear. What the hell? I hope they continue down this road even though
I'll miss the crazy fun fur encrusted crap and the laughs it used to
bring me.

What's A Knitting Blog Without A Cat Picture?

Bungee Retouched - Project 365 - Day 5
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

This was yesterday's Project 365 photo. I totally forgot to take any pictures all day. It was 11:30PM! What to do? I poked him in the belly and took his picture. He threatened me with is vampire fangs. haha

There hasn't been a lot of knitting or anything going on over here this week. I was constantly running all week from one appointment to another. We had doctor and dentist visits, plus the truck was in the shop most of the week with a wonky transmission. (Thank goodness that was covered under the warranty at least.)
My Mom's poor dog, Buster stopped eating and spent two days at the vet. Then, he had a seizure he didn't wake up from just when they were about to send him home. The vet said he had more wrong with him than the heartworms. There was some kind of neurological disorder causing the seizures. He had gone into a coma after the seizure so Mom decided to go ahead and have him put to sleep. He was such a sweet little dog. We'll miss him a lot.
Just when things started to slow down yesterday I started feeling not so good. I guess there will be some crafting taking place tonight because no way am I leaving the house. I don't feel sick really, just kinda tired and icky and antisocial. I think I'll just watch tv and work on stuff.