Merry Christmas from Dutch and Gaby

Love Personified

We have been given many gifts this past year. God has graciously granted us another year with each other and although we have had many experiences with doctors and hospitals, Dutch is still with us. The economy is very bad for us as it might be for some of you. Our dreams of passing our store on to someone else don’t seem to be coming true and we must close the curtain on what was and is a great experience. The kids are happy in their new surroundings and although they, too have experienced some bumps in the road, we are all rejoicing because we know that we are in the Hands of God. When the storms rage in our lives, God seems to reach down and say: “Peace! Be still!”

As I sit here writing this letter, a storm is raging outside of our walls. The rain is pouring down and the wind is howling.
I thank God for the protection of the walls around me, knowing that many at this time do not have such protection.
I thank God for warmth, knowing that many are cold at this very moment.
I thank God for food, knowing that we have abused it and that so many multitudes are hungry.
I thank God for family and friends, knowing that many souls are lonely and without support.
But mostly, I thank God for Jesus, who truly is love personified. When God created everything, He also created us in the image of Himself. He didn’t create us as slaves, but with a free will so that we might choose to love Him. We all have fallen short of that goal and this sin now separates us from His love. But God didn’t stop there. To show His love to us again, He came to redeem us and bridge the gap between Himself and us. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) He took the punishment we deserve on Himself because the debt is more than anyone could pay.
And we have the choice to accept this, the greatest Christmas Gift……. or not.
May the Prince of Peace reign in your heart this Christmas!
With much love,
Duane and Gaby Monson
http://sayhitojesusforme.blogspot.com/

Luke:1- 46And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord
47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name. 50His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.

Bag Sale

It's been quite a while since I have posted on this blog it seems. I have been so busy writing on my personal blog. Since I last wrote, we have elected a new government, are fretting over the economy, mourn with victims of natural disasters and more! During all of this one thing hasn't changed: God's love for us and His plan for our lives!

Since you are reading a YARN blog, you probably agree that working with fiber gives you many hours of relaxation and helps you forget the outside world. Wow!! That sounds pretty lofty!! The fact of the matter is that we are all fiber junkies! I've heard it said that we don't ever have to USE it all, as long as we collect it.

I do have a more serious story to tell.... A number of years ago, a year or two after the Laguna Beach fires, we had one of our first bag sales. Back then they were still a lot smaller and we had a much smaller selection. People were going through the yarn and making little piles for themselves of the things they were considering. One lady had a huge pile next to her, which made Dutch a bit uneasy because it seemed to him that she was just setting yarn aside that she would later throw back into the pile. He finally found a way to tactfully ask her if she intended to buy any of this yarn. Her response was that she planned on buying it all. She had lost her home in the fire and had come to a previous bag sale to try to replace some of what she had lost. Emotion overcame her and she left. This time she felt that she was ready to purchase fiber again. She did in great quantities and we pray that she enjoyed using it.

My heart goes out to those who have lost everything in this year's fires. I rejoice with them that no lives were lost and mourn with them for their losses of memories and material possessions.

I can count my blessings!

New Blog from Gaby

As some of you probably know, Dutch and I have retired due to health reasons. We want to publicly say a great big THANK YOU to our wonderful staff, who are "keeping the home fires burning" as they say. Business is cyclical in any case and when the economy falls into the toilet to boot... well they have their hands full!

We also want to thank YOU, our loyal customers. We appreciate your continued patronage! We feel that Yarn Lady is and hopefully will be a place where you can come and fellowship with other knitters, crocheters and spinners. A place to gather and forget about the news of the day for even a little while. We thank you for spending your money with us, when things are uncertain and tight.

So many people are asking how Dutch is. I have decided to start another blog where I talk about those things. If you're interested, you can log on to http://sayhitojesusforme.blogspot.com/

God bless you all!

Knitting @ Angel Stadium

The whole country has been exited about Stitch and Pitch events where a bunch of stitchers go to a baseball game together. This sounded like fun to us in Orange County but it seemed the Angels needed some convincing that there would be any interest. Some people including our own Cherie went to bat and made it happen! The event was a great success and we showed them!! The Angeles never thought we could drum up this much interest! Thank you to Lindy Garber for your help in making this a reality. 175 tickets were sold!!! Thanks also to Jasmine Matthews of the Angels for your help!

A great day was had by all and the Angels won in extra innings. Talk about getting your money's worth! Even the weather co-operated with clear sunshine. If you went, you got lots of excersise, climbing up to the seats and back down to get the goodie bags. By the way, Thank you also to our suppliers who donated lots of stuff for the goodie bags. Thank you also again to Cherie for getting them all stuffed and delivered!

If you were there, PLEASE e-mail the Angels and let them know how much fun it was! We want them to be on our side next year and make this event even greater!

What a difference knitting and crocheting can make

I just looked at the date of my last post.... Yikes!! I had no idea it had been this long.

So many things have happened and are happening that time gets away from me. One of the many things that have inspired me this summer is Michelle Yung's blog 6° 18' N 10° 48' W
http://livinlavidaliberia.blogspot.com/

I challenge you to read the musings and reposts from this young woman who serves on a Mercy Ship in Liberia and uses her knitting talents to help others. There have been others who have crossed paths with me, who inspire me as well with the way they use their talents to brighten someone else's life. Email me, if you would please, if you use your talents in any way to help others. Do you knit or crochet for charity? Tell me about it. gaby@yarnlady.com

As Michelle put's it: And then again, it is not about knitting. Knitting is just an excuse to be able to sit with them, talk to them, encourage them and love them. It opens them up, stirs up excitement and builds a bridge between languages, continents, oceans and lands. It is a very simple way to tell them a very simple truth:You are valuable. You are unique and one of a kind. You have a purpose. You are no accident.You have a Creator who loves you very much.

Teddy Bear and other knitting patterns

We have done this in the past and I know others have as well, including the Knitting Guild, who did a great project. But I'm thinking why not do it again.... Use your scrap yarns to make little Teddy Bear Sweaters. Get some inexpensive bears and dress them. I'm sure we can all find worthy recepients. In the past, we gave them to the local fire department or polcie department for them to give to children who have been tramatised in some way.

We have our Famous Bag Sale coming up where we sell certain yarns at 50% off the marked price. Because this yarn is in bags, I have decided (as my time permits) to make these little sweaters, so folks can see what the yarn knits up like. Now don't expect me to do this with EVERY yarn that we have. No way would that be possible! But some....
I ran accross one yarn that I really like. It's a very soft chained ribbon. You guessed it, because it is really a knitted tube, it will ravel when cut, just like any knitting would. I found a solution that I can share with you here. Perhaps you already do this..... I just take a small sweing needle and thread the loose end into the needle and the try to go through as many of the loose stitches as I can and secure them. Voila! No moe unravelling! Of course now you have to weave in the entire end and you can't cut it or you'll start all over again. A little extra work, but worth it to use this yarn!

See you at the bag sale!
For details, check out our newest newsletter at www.yarnlady.com

You'll also find links to free patterns in the newsletter.

Free Patterns

We are getting ready for our semi-annual Bag Sale, so I thought you may want some patterns.

If you e-mail me at gaby@yarnlady.com I can put you on the list for the free patterns each week.

Last week we offered a purse made from Prism "STUFF", and before that it was a shopping bag I call the "Netz". This week I am offering a surprise pattern. It's my 3 yarn tank top. I hope that this will help you use up some of your stash yarns. Of course I'm always hoping that you will have to buy more yarn and will buy them from us. Call us toll-free at 1 888 770 7809 to order and go to our website at http://www.yarnlady.com/ to see the free patterns for the week.

Have fun!!

FREE pattern

So I decided the other day in honor of Earth Day to come up with an "idea" of sorts. Then I remembered that when I was growing up in Germany we used a thing called a "Netz" to carry groceries in. I looked it up online to see if they still existed, and sure enough they do.....

Of course I wanted mine to be knitted and use lots of yarn since I am in the yarn selling business. There is so much talk about being eco- friendly and I wanted it to be just that. Of course there is also much talk about how much energy being eco- friendly might use in some cases. So I used a yarn that we and many of our customers have lots of: Eros by Plymouth. The result was my version of a Netz. We had lots and lots of inquiries for the pattern, so I expect to see a finished version of it in a grocery store near you soon! If you are making one, please send me a picture of it at gaby@yarnlady.com and I'll share it here.

You know how one design often inspires another? Well when I looked at this bag, I turned it just a bit and mentally took off a portion of it and there it was: a tank top!! (If this was going to be a tanktop, I would do more solid rows on top so the line wouldn't come you-know-where...) I couldn't wait to get to work on it, only this time I did use an eco -friendly yarn. I used 3 hanks of Pakucho by Trendsetter. Because of the amount of stitches that I used, it became a very SMALL tank top or a beautiful dress for a little girl. All it needs now is a ribbon and a small flower and it would be darling on a little girl.

If you would like the pattern, please write to me and I will e-mail it to you free. Please give me credit if you use it and pass it on. Enjoy!

Another opportunity to help

Dear friends, As some of you know, I, and 17 other knitters in the area, have been busy this past year knitting and putting together an afghan - in a small effort to help bring about peace in the world through an organization called Central Asia Institute, founded by Greg Mortenson. Several years ago Greg Mortenson visited Hood River to talk about his work building schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to promote his bestseller "Three Cups of Tea" which chronicles his work. It is an amazing story of how one person can make a tremendous difference in the world, in this case by building schools, primarily for girls, in a fundamental Moslem part of the world, where only boys are traditionally educated, and then mostly in fundamentalist-based schools run by the Taliban. Greg and his organization CAI have completed over 60 schools to date! Greg's visit left a lasting imprint on many in the Gorge community. A silent auction was organized and held last May, and the money collected then, and in the months following, has reached a total of more than $30,000. An entire school can be built in Pakistan and Afghanistan by Mortenson's organization for about $34,000, so we are very close to having raised enough money for the gift of a school from this area. The afghan consists of 20 blocks of complex knitting - mostly cables, or what is referred to as aran knitting - and it is done up in a beautiful, offwhite wool. The dimensions are roughly 4' x 5'. See attachment with photo. I'm hoping you will get inspired to contribute to this wonderful cause, and wish to purchase raffle tickets with the chance of winning a gorgeous piece of handiwork. Each ticket is $5, and I will personally fill out a raffle stub and put it in the "tub" for each $5 you send me to 2556 East side Road, Hood River, OR 97031. Please make checks out to CAI (it is a tax-deductible donation), and mark your telephone number so I can call you if you are the lucky winner!! In Peace, Marie Louise

More places to get involved

I'm sure you have a whole list of places that could use your contributions of knitted and crocheted items. Someone just pointed out this one to me. It looks like a very worthy cause to me, so get your needles cooking and use up that stash!
http://www.warmwoolies.org/

Click here for a video about this.
http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=4D81321608A5B1944FD3674AE36589FC?contentId=2344135&version=4&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

Thanks for helping!

Glimpses of a day at Yarn Lady

Getting Involved

We have had such great responses from our customers when we asked you to get involved and help a specific cause. You support Stitches From The Heart and you have knit so many little sweaters that we hung them from our walls and they circled the store, then you knitted pink scarves for cancer and there are so many other things that you have opened your hearts for.

Here is another organization that would welcome your contributions, so I thought I would highlight Afghans for Afghans. You probably already heard of them, but perhaps today is the day you want to learn more.

http://www.afghansforafghans.org/

This grassroots effort is inspired by Red Cross volunteers who made afghans, socks, slippers, and other items for soldiers and refugees during World Wars I and II and other times of crisis and need. Read about the Red Cross knitting tradition.
Afghans for Afghans is a humanitarian and educational people-to-people project that sends hand-knit and crocheted blankets and sweaters, vests, hats, mittens, and socks to the beleaguered people of Afghanistan.

Eco friendly yarns- what to choose

By now, I'm sure that you, too have at least thought about switching some of your knitting to eco-friendly yarns. We are all more conscious of what goes in and on our bodies and of course what it takes in terms of materials and energy used to produce these items.

Laura Bryant, owner of Prism Yarns, suggested recently on the Knit-U list that we could Google different fibers to find out exactly what they are about and can make better decisions for ourselves. I thought I would do that for you and give you some links here. Prism Yarn carries a Tencel Tape and Laura has shared with us some thoughts, pictures and pattern samples. You can see them here: http://www.yarnlady.com/prism/from%20laura/tencel%20puff%20piecepublic.pdf

Regarding bamboo: http://www.swicofil.com/bambrotexenduses.html

Regarding tencel: http://www.lenzing.com/fibers/en/textiles/4180.jsp;jsessionid=91806AF27437BC9B4FEA8346134E5B36?rdc=1

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-5/Lyocell.html

Well, I can already see that this could take some time, so perhaps you had better look for yourself, if this interests you.

Fashion Colors

Most of you probably already know this, but I just remembered that you can got to
http://pantone.com/downloads/articles/pdfs/PANTONE%20Fashion%20Color%20Report%20Spring%2008.pdf

to find out about the latest fashion colors and anything related to that.

At Yarn Lady, we are of course very interested in what colors you will be looking for when you come in to buy that yarn to make your newest garment. Actually, our suppliers have made most of those choices for us, often a year or more in advance, since they have to place their orders early. Where we come in, is selecting from the colors that our suppliers offer to us. While we can't stock each and every color, we have always tried to carry most of the colors that are offered to us to give our customer the largest selection possible. Just because I like one color over another, doesn't mean that you will.

Proud people in Jan's class

It's always so much fun to see what others have been knitting and crocheting! Here is what some of the students in Jan's class have been doing. We'd love to see your completed projects. Go to the store and have them photographed so we can share them here.

Linda in her new sweater,

Kathy with her baby hat with a crocheted flower,

Sue in her new sock

and

Mary Lou in her new hat.

Yeah ladies!

Look at what Donna knitted!

It's always so much fun to see what people have knitted and see the completed projects. It's especially fun if they are presented in such a beautiful way.

Thanks, Donna for sharing this with us!

Niqua and Gaby drive to Kansas City

So we returned from Stitches on Monday evening and late Tuesday night Dutch suggested that I drive back to Kansas City with Niqua so she could get her car back there. A quick conference with her husband and a quick oil change on the car and we were off to Kansas even before noon on Wednesday!! No planning or anything, just: Let's GO!! We were already over an hour into our trip when we started remembering all the things we COULD have taken with us, like all the houseplants she left behind when they moved right after Christmas. But we decided to keep on driving and not turn back. Of course as we went we kept thinking of more and more things that we SHOULD have packed.

We had a wonderful trip. The car worked great, the weather was beautiful, we enjoyed each others company and even our hotels. On Friday it became clear that we just MIGHT make it in time to pick Caitlyn up from school. She knew we were coming, but she had NO idea that we would be there to pick her up from school. Niqua kept texting her husband, telling him where we were and when she saw the first KANSAS CITY sign, she knew that she was almost home!














As it turned out, we made it with FIVE minutes to spare to surprise Caitlyn and pick her up from school! She was soo excited to see us!



From there we went right to their house, and I got to see first hand where they live and Niqua showed me through the house. Within the hour I was really sick and was bleeding and wound up in the hospital that night!

This probably wasn't the way I envisioned my first night in Kansas City! In retrospect, I am thankful that things worked out the way they did. I could have been sick on the trip but I wasn't. Niqua was there to help me drink this HUGE container of fluid in preparation for the colonoscopy that was scheduled and I got some much needed rest.

Again, I probably would NOT have planned it this way, but then who am I to plan things anyway :-))) I am so very thankful that God was in control and worked everything out for good in the end. I have since been told that what I had was FOOD poisoning. Go figure!

After a "wonderful" weekend in the hospital, I got to immerse myself in Niqua's family and learn to love their new home as much they they do. I was so worried about leaving Dutch at home alone. With his medical issues, I have not felt that he should be alone, just in case..... Perhaps you can imagine how blessed I was to have people from our church bring him meals, take him out to dinner, check up on him, call and remind him to take medication and most of all, keep him in their prayers. It taught me a great lesson and relieved from the burden of being a "caregiver" and realizing, that after all, God is our caregiver.



Niqua took with her a number of my sample sweaters and we decided to list them on Etsy. So we spent days photographing and writing descriptions and listing. At one point there was a brief snow storm outside and I thought how cool it would be if we photographed summer sweaters in a snowstorm. Well, you had to have been there.

If you are interested in any of these garments, please check them out at
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5515002

Yarn Lady at Stitches

It's been a while since I posted and I thought you might want to know what's been happening. The first thing I would love to tell you about is our trip to Stitches in Santa Clara.

We almost didn't go because I was so tired and couldn't see myself doing all that work. After prayer and a lot of: "You can do it!!" talks to myself, we decided to go ahead with our plans. This meant that Niqua would be flying back from Kansas City to help with the preparations and with the show.. (YEAH!! I miss her so much and this was a great excuse to see her).

We packed and sorted and planned, wrote lists and checked them twice. Our trailer is 20' long and you can see from the picture that every inch of it was packed! When the guys at the convention center helped us unload they asked: "WHO packed this thing??" My answer to Dutch's "Do we REALLY need to bring all this?" has always been, we can't sell it if we don't bring it!

We knew going in that we would be short handed, but the "we can do it!" sentiment prevailed. At the last minute we also had an offer of help from Rikki (THANKS Rikki) who covered lunches and bathroom breaks for us during the show. Dutch felt well enough that he was ready and willing and excited to do his "thing" by sitting next to the "playpen", talking to people and encouraging them to dive right in and sample the yarn. He so enjoyed all the attention and love shown to him. Thank you for that! He was OK for most of the day and then in late afternoon, Niqua would take him back to the hotel.

Of course we are known for our bag sale at our store as well as at Stitches, but we always bring other items as well. So the question always is, how to fill the booth with wonderful yarns and still have room to maneuver? I think we did a good job with our display and hope that you enjoyed the huge variety of Prism yarns we had with us.

It's always a LOT of work, but also a lot of fun! So many people, so much yarn, so many ideas, so much color!

We thank you so much for your patronage and look forward to seeing you at the next show!

We're SPINNING!!

Well that sounds great if you're reading this in English. If you change the spelling just lightly and pronounce it in German it might mean something a little different....

In any case, we're excited that a group is meeting on Tuesday nights at our store to practice spinning. You should see the beautiful sweater Karen knit from yarn that she spun herself.

There is something so soothing about watching the rythmic motion of a spinner and it conjures up images of straw being spun to gold.

We did a show in Burbank once and another vendor (sorry I forgot her name) insisted that Dutch had to learn to spin. She wouldn't take no for an answer and dragged him into her booth where she promptly made him sit and attempt to learn. Now this is a guy who has told me for over 18 years that it is NOT his job to learn to knit, so I'm sorry to say his spinning was very short lived.

What did happen was that I wound up with a spinning wheel (my dream) in exchange for some yarn. Unfortunaly the other part of my dream did not come true: A house on the cliffs overlooking the ocean under the tall pines at Big Sur. We all have our dreams and that is mine......