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......

Look what Sam did!

So you thought knitting and crocheting was just for little old ladies?
OK, so I know that those days are gone..... But we want you to meet our Sam who at age 13 has taken up knitting and crocheting with a vengance and turns out one cool project after another.

Sam has been known to be a little "late" for school so he can attend knitting and crocheting class. He gets inspiration from everything he sees and turns it into his own special project. As you can see from the pictures, Sam just made his first hat with cables. Color us all proud of him!

Everyone at the store has adopted Sam as their own and Sam keeps asking when he can get a job at Yarn Lady. (Actually, I can't wait.)
We're proud of you, Sam! I can't wait for you to start designing! I'm going to teach you to use design programs on the computer and then we'll watch you go to town!

Stacy Charles at Yarn Lady

A few days ago we had the pleasure of welcoming Stacy Charles of Tahki Stacy Charles to Yarn Lady. It only took us 18 years to get him to come! But we were so glad he did. Cherie and Nancy got their picture taken with him. I was taking the pictures so I didn't get mine taken. Boo hiss!!

Anyway, Stacy came to experience his first Yarn Tasting at Yarn Lady. He brought with him first of all his assistant, Elizabeth as well as a lot of yarn which our enthusiastic customers got to "taste" and knit with. Elizabeth brought a laptop and film of fabulous fashion which she was going to show to the trade a couple of days later. WE got to see it first!!

They also brought sample garments so we could all see first hand what others can only see in the patterns.

We just love having these events! We used to charge $5.00 a head for them (I know, I know that's not much- but we really want lots of people to come) and then we even dropped the $5.00 charge! The disadvantage to that is that we now don't know how many people are coming! So as the door kept opening and more people arrived, we kept adding more tables and chairs and I even ran home for more chairs. Well, I also had to take Dutch home. Cherie and I decided to treat folks to just a little snack before hand. Either people didn't like the food (what's not to like?) or they didn't want to give up their chair!!! I'm sure it was the later. So if you missed it, I hope you watch our calendars for our next event!

My "little girl" moved to Kansas

My little girl and her family packed their bags and moved to Kansas City. You don't want to hear how I feel about this (well, yeah, I know that God is leading them there... I just don't like it...) so I thought I would share with you excerpts from a letter that Stef, her husband wrote to all their friends.

We hit the road the day after Christmas. The movers got done loading the truck at about 5pm, we watched it head out, went to dinner, then loaded up the Jeep and the Camry with Neek, Caitlyn, my mom, me, 2 yelping cats in cat carriers and luggage stuffed with a week's worth of clothes. We started east at around 7pm. We stopped at a Starbucks in Victorville to hang with Joe and Becky while they were at Beck's folks, then headed to Laughlin, Nevada for our first stop. Finally stayed at the Riverside. Just as glamorous as it looks, alright...

The next day was a relatively short drive to a place that none of us had ever been, the Grand Canyon. We got in late, after dark, and it was cold. So cold, in fact, that the drinks we had left in the cars froze overnight. It was then I decided to replace the shorts I packed with jeans. We hung out and saw the Grand Canyon on Friday, which was breathtaking, much more than I expected. And cold. A harbinger of things to come, indeed.

We then headed out to get to Santa Rosa, NM by the end of the night, where it was cold.Santa Rosa is a hole. Never go there. That picture isn’t it, that’s Flagstaff. Shoulda stayed there...On our way out of Santa Rosa, we found this cool, little dinosaur museum on the New Mexico/Texas border. Caitlyn was itchin' to see it, as she's been enthralled with this creation museum CD series the Meyer's gave her, called Jonathan Park, that takes place at a dinosaur graveyard somewhere in New Mexico, so she was in heaven. It was pretty cool, I have to admit. The town's claim to fame is the museum and the birthplace of Brian Urlacher.

Life on Interstate 40...We got into Pratt, Kansas that night, a small town just south of Wichita. It was, um, cold. And next to a McDonalds, our 4th such meal this trip. Why can't they put a Sizzler on every podunk corner rather than a McDonalds?Sunday was a big day. We got into Kansas City about noon, and were able to show Caitlyn and my mom the house for the first time.

Caitlyn just wanted to have a snowball fight in the backyard. My mom wanted curtains. Neek wanted to get rid of the cats. I wanted BBQ. The cats wanted to stop moving. We wouldn't get our wish for a day or two, though, as we found out from our truck driver that he couldn't get help to unload the truck on Monday, and Tuesday was New Year's day, so we wouldn't get our stuff until Wednesday, which meant 3 more nights in a hotel.We spent the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve at the movie theater in Country Club Plaza watching National Treasure 2 with Caitlyn. I'm pretty sure Neek, my mom and I were all asleep when the clock struck 12. Happy New Year.

The next two days consisted of hanging curtains and ordering services online while enjoying the chicken noodle soup and free internet at Panera.

Wednesday was the big day, and we were greeted with 16 degrees with a wind chill bringing the temperature to around 4. Yes, 4. And it felt every bit of 4. I think. The coldest I've ever been was when I fell asleep in front of the open Ben N' Jerry's freezer door at Albertsons. Until Wednesday. Neek and I took turns standing out at the truck directing the movers to which room the box should go. By 3, we had everything in the house and in the garage. In boxes, but in the house. Now, the sorting begins. Thursday, Friday and Saturday are all kind of a blur at this point. Unpacking boxes, trips to the hardware store and phone calls to cable companies and telephone conglomerates.

The stacks of boxes are slowly dissolving, services are slowly turning on and tomorrow, Caitlyn starts at her new school and I start at my new agency. We're both in for some adjustments, she is going from a 3rd/4th grade combo class of 6 to four separate 4th grade classes of 20 or more each. Her new teacher is MR. Kort. That’ll be a change, too. I'm going from working on national music accounts to working on local retail accounts. Everything should be slowing down, which is exactly what we want.We tried out a new church today. It wasn't that great. I have a feeling we'll find it hard to find what we had, but we'll keep looking. The pastor at the church we were at today went a little long, the choir was small but talented, the congregation skewed older and the announcements were boring. Oh, wait... We DID find what we had! We'll keep looking... They didn't have Awana anyway.

We also got to see the new Sprint Center in downtown KC today, as my promise to Caitlyn at the outset of this trip was that we would see the Harlem Globetrotters when we arrived, which we did today. Very cool arena. They need a pro basketball team, we'll even take the Clippers. OK, we need a PRO team...We've been exploring the area since we got here, and we've been shocked with how much shopping, restaurants and theaters are around us. It really reminds us of Aliso Viejo, kind of a new feel, even though the neighborhoods are 30 years old. The house is incredible, it's so us, tons of character, great colors on the walls, just a great vibe. And it's right on a golf course: We even got to see people playing the course today, as yesterday the temps got up to 65 and will continue through tomorrow. Just like home. Until it dips back into the 40s the remainder of the week. All the snow melted and we got a taste of what our third-of-an-acre backyard really looks like. I'm going to have to get a lawn mower, me thinks. Or I could just cement it all over right now and get it over with...Thanks for all the support everyone has given us. It'll take some adjusting but we really feel like it's worth it. We've found things are less expensive out here, from the restaurants (average about $10) to the groceries (99 cents for eggs, $1.99 for a gallon of milk) to the gas ($2.65 down the street), which is really nice. The weather is... different... but we're excited to trade the weather for the quality of life we're hoping to find. Now, if I could only find a store that sells 3XL parkas...We have new contact info, some we've shared, some is brand new as of this week, so here you go.

Can you please help?

Each holiday season a group of Scantron employee's provide singing and entertainment to some of our communities senior "shut-ins". This year as part of our outreach festivities, we are hoping to provide knitted scarves to about 130 men and women. Since this is a voluntary outreach program our funds are limited. We will be able to contribute about $3.00 per scarf. Our holiday event is schedules for December 13th, so our deadline would be December 12th. Is there a possibility there might be a group of knitters willing to help us bring happiness and warmth to our needy inpatients? A timely response will be greatly appreciated. Best Regards, Susan Swanson
Susan L. SwansonFront Desk AdministratorScantron Corporation34 ParkerIrvine, CA 92618-1604[ P ] 949.639.7649www.scantron.com

Our trip home from Stitches

It's been a few weeks since we got back from Stitches in Baltimore. As you know, Dutch and I drove the 3000+ miles pulling our trailer. The trip this year went well, no vehicles stolen like last year. We decided to visit Dollywood in Tennessee and spend a couple of days there. We continued on without any problems until we hit Arizona. Then the problem wasn't ours, but as has been well documented, our part of California was on fire.

Because we were pulling a trailer and there were such high winds, the roads home were closed and we had to spend an extra 3 days in Arizona. I had to resign myself to not feeling guilty while laying by the pool and relaxing. This, of course, is the short version. There are many details to the long version, but suffice it to say that I was quite aware and very thankful that God inserted a few days of being still into my schedule.

Although the media coverage has stopped, we should still be praying for those who have lost everything to the fires.

Elaine

It's been over a month since I last wrote. So much to do so little time.

You may remember our friend Elaine who was always at Stitches with us and besides seeing her at various times in the store, you for sure saw her at our bag sales. Elaine had a stroke earlier this year and it has been a long haul for her to first regain conciousness and then improve from there.

Dutch and I just returned from visiting her and we are so happy to report that she looked real good! She is able to eat applesauce and can manouver the bed controls. Her memory is better than mine! She can't talk and still has a trich, but it was great to see her looking so good! Her family said that she will probably be able to go home this week for Thanksgiving for a couple of hours. This will be her first outing since her stroke other than ambulance rides to the emergency hospital for one reason or other.

Go Elaine!

Lots of special events at Yarn lady

We frequently host special events at our store. Our aim is to provise a fun place where you and your friends can come and learn all about knitting and crocheting, get inspired and have lots of fun!

I've put together some pages where you can see what's going on. Please check our events calendar so you can sign up for any future events.

http://yarnlady.com/newsletter/eventscalendarpastnew.htm

http://yarnlady.com/newsletter/eventscalendar.htm

Check out this wonderful baby blanket

Amy sent us this message:

This is my Nephew, Liam James Keays. He’s 3 weeks old today! Here he is wrapped in the ABC blanket I knitted

Didn't she do a wonderful job with her forst project? The baby's not half bad either. I wonder f she knows that we trade yarn for babies :-)))

Thanks for sharing with us Amy!

HOLDING HANDS Charity Event at Yarn Lady

A few months ago we asked you to use some of your left-over yarns and some of your time to make 5-hour baby sweaters to be given to charity. We called the event "Holding Hands". To us it signified that as we help each other, we indeed are holding hands! We have displayed these sweaters all along the perimiter of our store so the little sweaters were holding hands. We took your names as you donated the sweaters and entered them into a drawing for a $100 Gift Certificate to Yarn Lady. The winner was announced yesterday and can be found in our latest Newsletter. http://www.yarnlady.com/newsletter/2007/september/september2.html

I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful it has been to see your creativity and generosity! These gifts will be distributed by Stitches From The Heart.

Way to go everyone!! Thanks so much for your participation!

Another fun day at Yarn Lady!