A friendly yarn store?

To those of you who know us it hopefully comes as no surprise that we think we are a friendly store. At least we sure try to be!

So today my husband decided that we should go to the store (even though it is closed) and scrub the bathroom! We have been less than happy with our cleaning crew and even my husband could tell that the bathroom needed scrubbing. Now we don't turn on the lights when we're there when the store is closed, you get it- so no one SEES that we're there.

But Dutch being who he is, crumbled at the first sign of life at the front door and let the lady in. Now mind you, I look horrible, I have cleaning materials and mops and toilet bowl brushes everywhere, as well as the vacuum in the middle of the floor. MEN!!

Then the front door (which he had failed to LOCK) opened again and two more ladies walked in. Now normally I am MOST happy when people walk in and I greet them and try to make them feel welcome. But I was CLEANING!! MEN!!

So now I have the proverbial GUILT because I'm so afraid that I was less than gracious to these poor women. If you're reading this, please accept my apologies!

But at least the bathroom is cleaner than it was.....

Your knitted Gifts

Today I was able to deliver some "angel blankets" to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, CA. They were made by volunteers from Stitches from the Heart participants and others with a caring heart.

We were asked by some nurses to supply tiny blankets for still-born babies. While this will make some people sad to even think about it, there really is a need for these precious little gifts. (This is why we chose to rename it "Angel Blankets") You should have seen the reaction of the nurses when they unwrapped the blankets! Some were close to tears as they admired them.

The tiny blankets and little hats are used to wrap the tiny babies when the mother gets a chance to say good-bye before burial. We have been told that if the mother desires a picture, one is taken with the baby in these blankets and given to the mother for her to keep as a remembrance. One can just imagine what a gift that is to any mother who has just lost her new born baby.

If you would like to participate with making more of these wonderful gifts, the patterns are available on our website at http://www.yarnlady.com/charity/charity.htm or you can knit or crochet any 12" square (any pattern, stitch, gauge, etc) and attach another piece to form a pocket on each square. Stitches From the Heart (a charity group that meets at our store once a month) is also making these wonderful "angel blankets" and presenting the finished ones to us to deliver to any hospital in need on the 4th Wednesday of each month. Please scroll down to my blog from Thursday, May 3rd to see pictures of these "Angel Blankets" that have been donated thus far. ~Gaby

Fashion colors

Do you ever have something right on the tip of your tongue and then you immediately forget? Well I've been meaning to share this with you for some time and then I always forget. The other day a yarn rep was at the store showing us the new yarns for Fall and she reminded me of this wonderful website. http://pantone.com/downloads/articles/pdfs/PANTONE%20Fashion%20Color%20Report%20Fall%2007.pdf

If you want to know waht's in and what's not, and just about everything to do with color then go to www.pantone.com . When you browse around their site you will find all kinds of stuff. For some of the information you need to be a member but it's well worth it for all of the information you get.

Have fun!!

Live and learn! My newest knit project

So Niqua, my daughter, hands me a bag with a pattern and yarn and says: "Here, mom, you need to make this"
Since I always love to work with Prism STUFF I dropped everything else I am working on and started right in on this project. The yarn she had chosen was Prism Stuff, Trendsetter Pinot, and another prism yarn.

I worked quite a bit of the long ribbing thinking all the while that I just don't see the STUFF in it and I can't imagine that anyone would want to spend money making this if they can't even tell that there is STUFF in the mix. Of course that's what I got for substituting! Just because a yarn has the same name, doesn't mean that it LOOKS the same!!

So I started over again, this time replacing the Pinot with just plain Trendsetter Charm. (There again, I am substituting..) Of course the sweater is supposed to be made out of all Prism yarns, but when I started over late in the evening, this was all I had. You can look at the picture and see the difference!

I love working on this! Although it is plain stockinet stitch, you change yarn every row and working with STUFF, it constantly changes and you can't wait for the next color and texture. I'm almost to the armhole. Did I mention that this is made in one piece in the round? The pattern is one of the new Prism patterns called Stuff Plus

Laura Bryant's idea was to use a hank of Stuff and in order to stretch it, use one, two or, three other yarns with it to make some fabulous things. These Stuff Plus patterns have been so popular it's hard to keep them in stock! You can go to their website and see these patterns and then call our Jenny to order them. Prism's website is http://www.prismyarn.com/patterns.htm and you can reach Jenny at 888 770 7809

Have fun!!

Work in Progress

If you look at the mess in the picture, you will see my "work station". So many projects, so little time and so little space!! My granddaughter was telling a friend the other day: "My nana has yarn EVERYWHERE!" And so it is. Perhaps I mentioned before that I am working on a sweater for my husband (finally!!) and he loved a purse that our Jan was making and said the he would LOVE a sweater in just those colors! Well I picked a bunch of different Noro yarns and just started. He is a 3x size, so there was a lot of chance to let colors "play". My challenge is to actually finish it! I tend to get distraceted by yet another project on the horizon and have to discipline myself to actually finish.

I thought you would also like to see a scarf that Jenny is making in Entrelac. Now I'll have to ask her which yarn she used, but you can see all of the wonderful color changes.

Jan and Jenny also taught a summer- T workshop and here is one of her students working on it. Very simple, very stylish, using a ribbon and a component. She used Charm and Dolcino.

So what are YOU working on?

Getting ready for our next Bagsale

The countdown is on: Just one more month until our next famous Bag Sale!

I've been spending hours almost each day at our storage unit, bagging lots and lost of yarn! Can you ever have enough? Cook at home for the next month so you have money to spend at this next sale because once again, we will be giving you 75% off the regular price on all of our bag sale yarns! We must be crazy! But we want to clear out our storage unit and make room for more yarn!

Niqua and Cherie are planning a trip soon to do just that: Buy more yarn! But yarn never gets old and just because our distributors have moved on to the next yarns doesn't mean that the ones we still have are any less exciting!

While I was sitting there bagging today and having some alone time with my i-pod (listening to the Bible on tape) I was thinking that I should publish a bunch of free patterns for you in time for the bag sale. So Stay tuned. I'll try to have them for our next newsletter. For all of our newsletters, please go to www.yarnlady.com

If you're waiting for the pictures from our last Pajama Party, give me just a little more time. They are almost ready. I am just waiting for permission from the parents of our two youngest knitters just to make sure it's OK to put their pictures online.

If I have a chance tomorrow, I'll show you some pictures of what I have been working on... Hint: My husband has asked me to make him a sweater for a gazillion years...... now it's almost done.....

Talk to you soon! Gaby

More Charity Knitting at Yarn Lady

We've told you before that we really want to place an emphasis on Charity knitting and crocheting. We all have been so blessed and would love to share with others some of our bounty.
For this reason we have started a drawing for a $100.00 Gift Certificate from Yarn Lady. Your name gets entered each time you bring in a little baby sweater. We want our little sweaters to "Hold Hands" clear around our store! We're almost 1/4 of the way there! When it's all said and done the drawing will be held on September 17th and then the sweaters will be donated to Stitches From The Heart.

We so hope that you will participate as well!

Just look what one little lady can do!!
We are encouraging everyone to make little blankets for preeme babies and little still born babies. No one wants to talk about that, but it does happen. There are nurses who lovingly wrap these babies in tiny little blankets that are lovingly made by YOU!




Stitches From The Heart is another organization which maes these precious little gifts. We encourage you to put YOUR time and your love to work and create some of these little treasures. http://yarnlady.com/classschedule/workshops/stitchesheart.htm