SHHH!!!

SHHH!!! If you listen very carefully you can hear the clickity clack of frantic knitters everywhere desperately trying to finish their Christmas gifts. How do I know the sound I am hearing is blazing knitting needles flying at lightning speed? Because that sound rings loud and clear in my own living room as I try to finish up items myself. I have managed to finish my daughters dresses, my aunt's scarf and a scarf for my son. With any luck I will get the sweater finished in time for Tuesday - hoping to anyway - wish me luck as I do you.

We recently received some Malabrigo yarn at the shop. I can't wait to knit myself a hat and scarf with it. I already know what pattern I will be using - the Cable Crest Set from Figheadh Yarnworks. I just love this scarf and hat set - when Jen had it up at the shop all I could do was touch it. Yummy!!

Anyway - I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!! Don't forget to set yourself some knitting resolutions to expand your skills. Break out of your norm and try something different in 2008!

Jennifer's Visit

On Sunday, designer Jennifer Hagan came and gave a wonderful presentation in our store. She also taught a cable class for us. What a kind, creative lady! She is the brains behind the designs for Figheadh Yarnworks. The beautiful cables and creative felting projects she offers are not to be missed. We had so much fun visiting and learning from Jennifer that we have asked her back to teach again. She will be teaching another cable class and a felting class in the shop on Sunday, December 2. Give us a call to get on the list. We have many of her patterns availabe at the shop. Thanks Jennifer for joining us.

Starting To Feel The Crunch

OK - So I'm starting to feel the crunch of the holidays fast approaching - anyone else? You know how you make all these great grandiose plans for knitting everyone you know something wonderful for the holidays? Well reality is there are only 24 hours in a day (I'm still working on finding more - let you know when I do). Last year my son received a sweater for Christmas - this year it will be the girls. Mom is knitting one while I knit the other - tag team gift knitting - let you know how that works. I realize it is only the first part of November but plans need to be made to organize my knitting and crochet projects for the next two months. I am not - nor never will be - as organized as one of our customers. She carries a binder labeled "current work". All of her patterns are neatly placed in plastic sleeves and organized with dividers. WOW - now that is true dedication. She is a wonderful lady whom we adore - very generous with her time and knits mainly for charity. I, however, like to fly by the seat of my pants, haul ALL of my projects with me to the shop each day and try to find time to get to at least one. My husband shakes his head each day as I haul both knitting bags out to the car with the girls in tow. (maybe that would explain the sore back and the constant feeling like I need to visit my chiropractor more often)
Fear not I will finish these projects and then some before the required date - I have faith in myself.
Be sure to stop by the shop if you are in need of some inspiration for quick holiday gift items. We are bursting at the seams with ideas.

It Fits!

I took the sock I'm working on for my dad over and tried it on his foot. IT FITS!! In fact it fit just like a glove. The ribbing will make it fit on his low water days and will stretch enough to be comfortable when he is swollen just before dialysis. I am so excited. Thanks to everyone in Burien and beyond whom I made fondle the sock to check for rough spots or bumps. I know it is just a sock but making sure it won't cause any rubbing on his foot is very important - any sores that could develop could take forever to heal. He has already lost one foot to his diabetes - keeping the other healthy is very important.

Don't forget Pizza Night is Friday - come by and have some fun

Checking In

Knit, knit, knit, knit, crochet, knit. That's what I've been doing as of late. I'm working on combining several sock patterns to make a sock for my dad. Being diabetic, his sock needs to have no seams or bumps that might rub on his foot. I have started it several times but I think I am finally on the right track.

Can I just say how much I love Ravelry. It is so much fun to poke around on that site. You get to see what everyone is working on. The forums are great and I think there is a group for just about everything you could want - if not you can make one.

This coming Saturday is the Trick or Treat in Burien. Last year it was CRAZY! We look forward to all the kids coming through with their costumes. This year my son is going to stand outside and pass out the candy. We had so much fun looking at all the costumes. If you are in the area, bring the kids and have some fun. There is a haunted house set up across the street at the chiropractor's office, a dog parade, hayrides and of course CANDY. Dust off those crazy, creative costumes and come on down.

A Night W/O Depends

What happens at The Yarn Stash stays at The Yarn Stash.



names have been changed to protect the innocent



Last Saturday Burien had Ladies Day Out. It was a fun all day event that was tied into a fundraiser for the Susan G Komen Foundation. We stayed open until midnight knitting and chatting. Several of our friends joined us until midnight. Around 10pm we started to get a bit rummy (not literally - just not thinking clear from exhaustion). I was trying to show Nina and Pinta how to do color work in their Christmas stocking (our October SOTM) and things went down hill from there. Pinta asked me a silly question that I started to answer and then with out thinking I looked at her and said "WHAT??? I can't believe you are asking me such a silly question." With all of her knitting skills being able to tell right side from wrong side on a stockinette piece - poor gal was so tired. She looked at her knitting and started to giggle. Soon we were all laughing so hard we couldn't breathe. Santa Maria managed to get out that poor Pinta was probably going to have an accident. At that point we just sat there laughing. It was one of those things were you can't even look at each other for fear you will burst out in giggles again. We all had tears rolling and side aches from the chuckles. We were all sworn to secrecy that we would never reveal what happened at The Yarn Stash late one night. So there you have it Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria & CC - I have kept my end of the bargain. I did not disclose any names - no harm done to anyone. I really appreciate you ladies (dear friends) for sticking it out to midnight with us. I know it was hard on each of us in our own way. We had a great time knitting and laughing and we helped support a wonderful organization at the same time.

Breast Cancer has touched all of us in one way or another. The walkers from the 3-day event walked right by my house. I didn't realize they were going to be down this way. When I saw them I got a bit emotional. My son asked my why I was crying and all I could do was cry even more. I was finally able to explain that the sight of all those people pulling together moved me. They were walking for all their own reasons but together they were walking as one for the same reason. Don't take things for granted - get checked out, tell your friends to get checked, tell your relatives to get checked out. Hug everyone a bit tighter next time for those that can't.

WOW & WOW again

Today we had a customer drop by with a box - yes a box - full of hats (60 the be exact), some scarves and a pair of socks that she and her mom had made for the Christmas Outreach Program. We were blown away by their generosity. Through out the year we have been gathering items for the fire station. As most of you know, last year we were able to turn over 99 items to the firefighters for the outreach program. We haven't counted everything yet but I know we have gone beyond that this year. THANK YOU so much to all that have contributed. We will be taking donations until just before Christmas so there is still time if you want to help.
Last night was pizza night - we had a great time visiting and knitting with everyone who was able to attend.
Alrighty then - I am going to get the kiddies to bed and try to redo the hat I am making for shop model (yes Penny - I ripped the whole thing out - sorry I didn't call you and let you do it for me).

Bits & Pieces

Can you believe I didn't get a chance to knit at all yesterday??!!?? How frustrating is that? I spent the entire day cleaning, cooking, running errands and shuttling the children around - the life of a mom. In amongst all the laundry, vacuuming and scrubbing my daughter decides we need to bake cookies. It was pretty early still in the morning so I told her we needed to wait until her sister went down for a nap. She turn to her sister and says, "Sissy it's nap time - lets go!". OK - rephrase that - no nap until after we go to the store - we need eggs. Finally we get to the cookies and she did a great job! She added everything to the mixer and turned it on and off by herself. We were making chocolate chip so I got out the industrial size bag of chocolate from Costco and started to measure them. She looked at me and said "Momma that's not enough chocolate". I was so proud - a girl after my own heart. I hugged her and said "I know baby but it will have to do". If I have taught her anything at least she knows you can never have enough chocolate and sometimes you just need a bit more.

I'm still struggling with the fact I didn't get any knitting done - maybe that's what caused that weird twitching in my fingers all night - withdrawals. Not to worry though - I plan on making up for lost time today. We got some new yarn in the other day and more coming in later this week. It's very difficult to see new things and not get to play with them. I think that's why yarn shops are the best. As a kid you're always told not to touch anything - in the yarn shop its all but mandatory to touch, squeeze, nuzzle and smell (yes - many people do this) the yarns. Its rather thrilling to "break" the rules that have been grilled into to all of us since birth. "Don't touch - hands off"!! Well step into the yarn shop my fellow fiber artists and touch and squeeze away all that childhood frustration - let it go and have fun - just be sure your hands are clean.

I'm Exercising

So I was poking around on the internet checking out websites about exercise and burning calories. Check this out - knitting falls in there somewhere enough to show on the list. Basically depending on your height and weight you can burn anywhere from 85 to 135 calories per hour. That's pretty cool - the next time my hubby grumbles about me knitting I will simply reply "I'm exercising". If I knit faster maybe I can work up a sweat and burn a few extra calories. Now if I could figure out how to knit while cleaning and folding the laundry just think what could happen! I might actually have to eat the chocolate to keep from disappearing all together. Wish full thinking - I know - a girl has to dream you know.

I Finished the Bag

OK - So I finished about a month and a half ago but I finally took some pictures. I have never been too good about taking pictures (my poor children). I hate having my own picture taken so why would I want to do that to someone else. Thank goodness my kids have grandparents that tend to have cameras glued to their foreheads - at least there will be some photos of them growing up. I love my kids dearly and I really think they are about as cute as they come - I just never think to haul the camera along with all the other essential items one needs when they are transporting kids.

This weekend was the Art Walk in Burien. I realized once again that the saying "one man's junk is another man's treasure" holds true for art as well. I am still trying to figure out the strange ladder dance but they did draw a crowd. We were pleased to have a local artist display her paintings, one of our friends (also an artist) displayed her fabulous knitted food sculpture, and another friend of ours spent most of Saturday spinning yarn in the shop and answering the many questions about what she was doing. It was interesting to listen to people and watch their reaction as they realized the food in the window was all knit.

I'm off to bed now - we are open on Sundays again now that summer is winding down. I need to get used to it.

Whatever!!!

Phooey on those that criticize creative people! OK - don't be so harsh. Periodically the questions arises "Don't you ever finish what you start? You are always knitting something different when I see you?". Well DUH!!!! I finish stuff all the time. I am a firm believer in not holding creativity back. When the creative juices start you need to start casting on NOW. Attempting to hold the creativity back will only cause it to get messed up with other pent up projects, make them all get jumbled and then you end up with some freaky "craft" project you can't give away to save your soul. Periodically the creative juices slow up on a project so they must be redirected to a new project - that is why having a large collection of knitting needles is so important. I try to clue my husband in on this - he is always complaining about the yarn and needles around the house - I say "I'm not knitting, I'm working.". (owning a yarn shop lets you use that excuse often) He comes back with some reply about why the yarn is breeding in the bedroom and how come I need knitting at each end of the couch - again - DUH!! What if I sit down at the wrong end of the sofa - I don't have to interrupt his channel surfing by asking him to pass my knitting bag. (I put a lot of thought into that one) "I'm only thinking of you dear", I reply as he grumbles. Attempting to come up with new and inventive reasons for feeding my so called yarn/knitting addiction can get rather draining - some people just don't get it. I usually have to take a break, clear my head by knitting awhile and that spout out a new "reason". Someday my goal is to break my husband. I know it is possible. He caved and taught himself how to crochet several years ago by watching me. Eventually he will pick up the knitting needles and ask me to show him how. Probably not until they stop making batteries for the remote but it doesn't hurt to believe there is hope.

Yep - I'm Still Here

OK - I need to get better about posting. I get so caught up in kids, housework and knitting that by the end of the day I crash and nothing gets posted. I'm still tinkering with my socks out of Cat Bordhi's new book. They are fascinating to knit - it's obvious that a lot of planning went into her designs.

Saturday was pretty crazy. After the shop closed I had to dash over to Kent to spend the evening at my dad's house. It was their 30th anniversay so they invited us over for dinner and to watch the Seahawks game. It's always fun to take an evening and visit with family and friends. The fact that we won the game and Rose made a fantabulous meal was all bonus. They had ordered this cake - it was supposed to say "Happy 30th Anniversay Grandma & Grandpa". When they went to pick it up it said "Happy 30th Birhtday Grandma & Grandpa". HELLO!! That makes no sense at all. I was a bit surprised they didn't question it while they were decorating it. You would think they would have called - no they just got the pleasure of fixing it while they waited. Silly, silly! I guess it pays to double check other things besides dye lots. (important lesson learned)

Done!

OK - so here are my sisters socks - done at long last. Now they await her arrival so they can be placed on her little tootsies - much like Cinderella and the glass slippers except there is no prince involved - just me - her "favorite" sister. Don't be bothered with the trivial nonsense that there is no other sister - she just knows that I am her favorite so we will keep it at that. I like being the wiser sister - not older - just wiser.

Any who - now that I have finished her socks (Sockina Cotton #02) I have started on some socks for myself. I know that in the knitting world actually knitting for yourself falls in some weird realm that rarely exists but I thought I would give it a shot. Once in a while doing something for your self is kind of nice. You can rave to yourself endlessly about how wonderful your gift is and you won't even get embarrassed by all the praise. When I finish my socks I might even get out my tiara and give myself the royal treatment for all of two minutes before reality sets in and the family needs me yet once again. If not at least I will know that something I knit is truely treasured in the highest regard - that might be reason enough to finish my own socks.

Socks, Socks, Socks

At the Yarn Stash we have a birthday club - customers can shop one time during their birthday month at a 20% discount. This month Mom and I are celebrating our birthdays so we decided to share our birthday discounts with everyone. All of our sock yarn is on sale 20% off until August 18th. One of our customers (friends) brought us engraved tape measures today. What a cool gift - never again will we question who owns the tape measure sitting on the table. How thoughtful of her - thanks a bunch KM - I love my tape measure.

Great News - I have finally finished my sisters socks! Yes, I know it took me a while after I got her to measure her foot. I didn't want to get too far ahead of myself until I could double check her foot. Now that they are done she can enjoy her birthday present too! Celebrations all around.

Mom finally got her invite to Ravelry - I am still waiting for mine. I'm pretty close on the list - hopefully in the next few weeks. I can be patient (pretend to be).

Stitch N' Pitch

We went to the Mariner's game for the 3rd annual Stitch N' Pitch. What fun!!! It was great spending the evening with our friends and fellow yarn junkies. It is always fun to see what everyone is working on and to spend time with people who have some of the same interests as we do.

Saturday and Sunday mom and I spent most of the days checking out lots of new yarn for the shop. We found some beautiful lace weight, hand dyed sock yarns, extremely soft superwash sock yarn, some glitzy stuff, several new patterns and buttons - the list goes on. Needless to say we had way too much fun with the vendors.

We took some great classes - Artfelt and toe-up socks. Artfelt was fun - I love felting. Sounds kind of funny for someone that likes to have some influence over the outcome on things. With felting you have to let go and let the fibers have the final say in how things end up. Scary but fun.

The toe-up sock was wonderful. Cat Bordhi taught us from her new book. She is a great teacher - three hours flew by so quickly. You come away from her class bursting with information that you want to run back and teach everyone. Her new sock book is brilliantly fascinating and extremely detailed - I have just about finished reading every thing (yes, I read the patterns too). She puts some of the most interesting bits of information in amongst the meat of the book.

OK - I am off for the night so I can work some more on my toe-up sock.

I Survived!!!

YES!! I made it through an evening of Harry Potter insanity! I managed to find my self a place to sit out of the way and spend 4 hours knitting while the kids ran amok in the book store. Some of the costumes were fantastic! We made it home by 1am so the kids could start reading.

I struggled to get out of bed this morning to get to the yarn shop at any decent time. Thank goodness Mom gets there early enough to open up. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow though - I have nothing planned! It is supposed to rain really hard all day and I hope to sit and knit the rain away. Wish me luck!

My sisters socks are coming along nicely. I still have my green sweater on the needles and of course there is always the Mystery Stole. That should keep me out of trouble for most of the day.

'Cause I'm a Slacker!!!

OK - I'm a slacker! It has been pointed out to me that I haven't posted in a while - sorry for that. I have been so busy knitting and getting ready for my daughters birthday. Tonight I will be able to sit down and collect my thoughts while I wait for my son at the book store to get his Harry Potter book. (and get caught up a bit more on my knitting)

My sisters socks are coming right along and I am all caught up with the Mystery Stole project.

Road Trip

The shop was closed today so we took a road trip. Mom wanted to head over to Shelton so she could pick up a spinning wheel. We loaded up the kids and headed on down the road. We made a few stops along the way at some yarn shops of all things. We stopped at Yorkshire Yarns in Lakewood - Sonya is so nice. We really enjoyed meeting her and seeing her beautiful new shop. We headed over the bridge and ventured into Allyn. We stopped at Allyn Knits - what a surprise that was - in a good way. Here is this cute little town that is so small if you blink you will miss it - tucked right on in there is this wonderful yarn shop. Because we own a yarn shop you would think that visiting others wouldn't be too high on our list of things to do when we are off - NOT TRUE!! It was really great to meet these ladies and share bits of knowledge. Of course we invited both ladies to stop by our shop if they are ever in Burien - I hope they do.

After a few missed turns we finally found our destination. Mom picked up the wheel and the kids got to feed the miniature horses and see the chickens.

When we left Shelton we decided to try to hit Shipwreck Beads on our way back. What a huge place that is! We didn't get to explore too much because the kids were basically "done". To bad - I noticed they had a coffee stand in there - you really could stay all day and never see everything.

P.S. - My sister finally measured her foot - thanks Squirt

I Finished!!

I have finally finished my Ronald McDonald socks. With the nice big stripes it was pretty easy to match them up. I have a strange thing about wanting my socks to match as close as possible - it's almost like a game. Now that I have my sock knitting needles freed up, I can start my sisters socks. I gave her yet another call today to reminder I need to know how long to make these things. If she doesn't get back to me soon I might just knit to the end of the ball and she can roll them up. OK - I am off to work on clue 2 of the Mystery Stole.

Happy 4th!!

Wow - What a fun day! We went up to the shop early to stake out our spots for the parade. We sat around knitting while we watched the bicycle races going on outside - man were they fast! Several people wandered in the shop and just before the parade started we locked the doors and went outside. My son was in the parade this year so he was totally stressed about not getting any candy. He had to trust his two much younger sisters to step up and gather all the candy for him. Boy did they ever come through for him - they filled up half a grocery bag. I think it helped that there weren't too many other kids close to us. Those two really have the candy radar. My youngest was running out and grabbing as much candy as her little hands could hold. She actually went down to get a piece that another little boy was trying to get. She stopped, stared at him, gave him the "evil" eye and snatched that piece of candy right out from in front of him. We had more fun watching the kids than the parade. I'm actually glad I opted to leave my knitting inside - I would have dropped all kinds of stitches every time I had to run after the kids.

I finished clue #1 from Mystery Stole 3. It's really pretty - I 'm glad I decided to attempt this project - so far it has been a lot of fun. I can't wait until Friday to see what happens next.

I quickly blocked this just to get a better idea of what it is looking like.

Needles

Can I just say how much I love my Addi Lace needles??!! I have several pairs. Currently I am using them on the Mystery Stole project. They are a huge help with the sharper tip. Two of my other pairs are on my socks. I like to make my socks two at a time with two circular needles. Someone told me I had to do each heal separately - not true. I thought about it for a while and figured out a way that made perfect sense to me and it worked. I am currently on the foot of what I like to call my "Ronald McDonald" socks. It is Jigsaw #57 and they have bright pink, orange and yellow stripes. For some reason they remind me of Ronald McDonald so that is what I have named them.

I am pretty excited about the Fourth of July coming up. Burien has a big parade at it runs right down the street in front of the store. We plan on getting there early and setting out our chairs in front of the shop. It should be lots of fun.

We are also looking forward to the Mariners Stitch n' Pitch. We have a bunch of people going with us and we still have a few tickets available if anyone wants to join in the fun. We had so much fun last year just knitting and admiring everything everyone else was making that we didn't even realize that the manager for the Mariners had been ejected and that we lost the game. Silly us. Maybe I will try to follow the game a bit more - we will see. I like baseball but I really like knitting.

Friday Night Knitting

We have a group of ladies that meets one Friday a month for pizza and knitting. It is a total blast! We order in some pizza from Bison Creek (great pizza) and sit around knitting after the store is closed. There are several restaurants around the store so the street is busy with people passing by. Many times we look up from our knitting to find someone peeking through the window to see what we are doing. Last night four of us started working on Mystery Stole 3. We were so involved with our lace knitting that there wasn't much conversation. We had fun though.

Mystery Stole 3 is a Yahoo group where you get a "clue" or piece of the pattern each week. We have no idea what this will look like when we get done but so far it is very pretty. Judging from the previous Mystery Stoles I have no doubt this will be gorgeous when we get done. I can hardly wait.

I finished the left front of my sweater. After I finish the first clue of the stole I will probably start on the right front. I hope to finish my socks soon too since I need to knit a pair for my sister for her birthday. She has yet to give me the measurements for her foot so I am not feeling too bad that they are late. I have the yarn - Ann - if you are reading this - I need the measurements to get going. (Love Ya Squirt)

One Proud Mama!!!!

I am one proud Mama! I just need to brag for a second. My son just received the National Presidential Academic Award! He has worked so hard in school and then received this very high honor - I am still beaming with pride. As his name was called, I started welling up with tears. I am always very proud of my children but I must admit I puffed up a bit more over this one.

OK - on another note - there is a small group of us knitting a sweater out of the latest Creative Knitting magazine. I have finished the back and am almost done with the left front. The yarn I am using is Alpaca by Heirloom. I choose the heather green - oh my gosh is it ever soft. As if one KAL wasn't enough - there is another group at the shop that has decided to attempt Mystery Stole 3. The first clue should be posted soon. We are all waiting - impatiently I might add. We must look pretty silly - needles and yarn in the ready - crowding over the laptop waiting for the first clue. Never enough knitting projects - I only need 48 hours in a day or an extra set of arms to go with the eyes in the back of my head.

We are finally on the right track with the bag lining - we decided to take the new piece of fabric and quilt it. All I need to do now it hand sew it to the facing.

I Found It!!!

OK - I have finally found it - the lining fabric for Mrs. Weasley's Bag. I started this bag a hair over two weeks ago. I have thought long and hard about what I wanted to line it with. Mom and I spent most of the day plowing through her tremendous fabric stash. After we failed to find anything that sparked us - we trekked down to the quilt shop to find something. As we wandered through the shop, holding the bag up to several fabrics we finally found it - the ONE! We had actually selected another one and were heading up to the counter when we found it. This picture is a bit darker than I would like - the fabric is actually a bright green (like a granny smith apple).


After locating the fabric we went back to Mom's house to line the bag. Several hours and many "design" flaws we created a "template" for the lining. That is basically the nice way of saying we butchered the project so bad that we are starting all over. Mom had to make another trip down to get more fabric. Rest assured we have done it wrong enough that this new piece of fabric will be assembled perfectly!! Sadly enough Mom and I are both long time sewers and quilters - just goes to show that we all have an "off"day now and then.


We laughed at our troubles today and decided to try again later.


On a much brighter note, I managed to go through all - yes all - of my knitting projects and get everything organized. I actually know where everything is and each project has everything together just waiting for me to get back to it. What a great feeling it is to actually have some - small as it is - control over my numerous knitting projects.

Meet Purl

I would like you to meet Purl - my dog. She is a very low maintenance and doesn't eat a whole lot. She hangs out at the shop and guards all of the yarn. Sometimes we forget she is there because she is so quiet. Please don't think that Purl is neglected - she has several friends that hang out at the shop as well - a sheep, chicken, some fish and a flamingo. I go home some nights and envision a scene from "Toy Story" at the shop - all of the little felted critters roaming about, playing with the toys in the play area and then nestling in the bins to sleep for the night.
Purl is made out of Cascade 220 and Pavone. The pattern I used is from Fiber Trends #225x.

Here is a picture of the bag I am working on. I'm having a lot of fun working on it. What appears to be the center panel is actually one of the sides. I am currently knitting the other side. I couldn't wait to start assembling it so I crocheted the three panels together.

My plan is to have this bag finished in time for the Harry Potter book release. My son really wants to go to the book party at Barnes & Noble so I thought it would be fun to bring Mrs. Weasley's bag along for kicks.

A Great Big Thank You

One of the things that Mom & I are so proud of is the generosity of our customers. Knitters are a caring, generous group of people in general. Many times we have been sitting around knitting with a group and all of a sudden someone needs a stitch marker or other item - almost in unison - everyone dives into their knitting bag to grab the needed item. It's almost like a scavenger hunt - whoever can find and share the item the quickest wins!

At The Yarn Stash we collect knitted items for the Christmas Outreach Program at the Burien fire station. We started collecting items August and by Christmas we were able to give the fire station almost 100 items. To our amazement, almost immediately after the first of the year items started arriving for next Christmas. We are very pleased and honored to be a drop off spot for these wonderful, handmade items. Every time someone drops by just to drop off something they have made it touches our hearts.

People taking time out of their busy lives to show compassion for others is what life is all about. I want to personally thank everyone who takes the time to knit for others. Be it for the Christmas Outreach Program or any other cause - filling a need, touching a life & warming a heart without so much as a "thank you" in return is what makes this world a better place.

Too Many Projects - Never

I have come to the realization that I have a big problem (in some non-knitting persons eyes) - I have a lot of projects going. I am a firm believer in the fact that idle needles are a waste. I need to have projects everywhere.
Currently in my knitting bag alone I have a sweater, shawl, several booties waiting to be sewn and a pair of socks (two at once). My favorite current project is Mrs. Weasley's Bag of Stitch Witchery. It is out of "Charmed Knits" by Alison Hansel. This book has so many great projects. Aside from the bag I am knitting I really like Dobby's Socks - they don't match. What a relief for all of us that suffer from S.S.S. (Single Sock Syndrome). All of my single socks can now match up with each other however they want. I have suffered form SSS for quite a while now (that would be why I learned to do two socks at once).

WOW!! What a great year it has been. For those of you that don't know my Mom and I own The Yarn Stash in Burien, WA. We have been open for one year now - one exhausting but extremely fun year. We have more fun picking out yarns, books and patterns to carry in our store than we ever thought we could.
I think my favorite part of all this past year is the wonderful friends we have made. It's really kind of fun to sit and knit whenever you want throughout the day. I really like the fact that I can stop whatever I am doing, sit and knit with a customer and not have a boss breathing down my neck to get back to work. I am "working" - I am knitting.