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!