Thursday, April 20, 2006

84 LONG Days Later.....

My yarn magnet has a new home.



It's now living on.....


THIS!!!!!




I know, it's one of those vehicles, you love it or you hate it. I don't mind if you hate it....I completely understand. But I am soooooooooooo excited, after waiting so very long for it to arrive, and not knowing for so long if I could even get one.

This cute little green machine is #1771 of only 2200 made. A special edition Scion xB. You won't see too many of these on the road in this color. Until today when I saw mine, I had only seen one other one (at the dealer), and have never seen one on the road. Heck, I have only seen about 15 of them in ANY color since January.

Vote now...


Love it?


Hate it?


I wonder if I can sleep tonight....OMG...I am so in love with my new wheels!

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Update from Up North

What knitterly fun I'm having!

Yesterday I stopped at Yarn Quest in Traverse City (where you now can buy my patterns) and talked to a lady who used to live very close to where I grew up. She told me someone had been in the store the day before looking for buttons for their B4 Bag! Wish I had been there! Yarn Quest is a very nice store. I bought Knitting With Wire by Nancie Wiseman, and a lime green Chibi (which I have never seen before, and since I love green, well, I had to have it.) I guess a girl can never have too many Chibis. I have 4 different colored Chibis now.

I didn't have much luck with the other stores on my list for Traverse City. One store was empty, one address was something else altogether (but turned out it was a needlepoint store anyway, not a knitting store, so no great loss) The other one I missed somehow and I may go back to it.

Later in the day we went to Sleeping Bear Dunes, and on the way back I stopped by The Yarn Shop in Glen Arbor
and Inish Knits in Cedar, both of which had closed less than 10 minutes before I got to them. That was disappointing!


Today I went back to Inish Knits and greeted warmly by Kathy when I walked in. She asked if she could help me with something...I told her I worked in a yarn store in Romeo, and that I had designed a few patterns, "including this one" at which time I held up my B-4 Bag. She was very excited and asked "You're the one who designed the bobble bag?" at which point she jumped up and hugged me. She gushed over me a little bit (I am still having a hard time getting used to this type of thing happening.) Anyway, she got Fiona, the owner, on the phone and told her a designer was in the store and explained my bag (which she seemed to be familiar with). I talked briefly with Fiona, and she said she'd be happy to have my patterns in the store, so now they are also available at Inish Knits in Cedar, Michigan. I browsed the store, which was in a historic building complete with tin ceiling. There was lots of great yarn, and lots of fun "extras" created by local artists. Knitting needles topped with polymer clay accents, great polymer buttons, jewelry and other things to take in.

I ended up getting 3 different sheep buttons (I may start a sheep button collection...they are so cute!) 2 of the Noni felted flowers patterns, and a felted vase pattern. All 3 of the vases in the pattern were made up as shop samples and I fell in love with them. I also picked up Mason Dixon Knitting which I've been wanting to get my hands on since its release. I can't wait to spend some time with this book. Kathy pointed out the nesting felted baskets and that will probably be one of my first projects from this book.

Kathy invited me back for Sit 'n Knit tonight and I really would love to go back. I'm not sure what our dinner plans are or what I'll be doing later, but if the family is content to be at the waterpark without me, I'm going back to Inish Knits! I felt right at home there.

Meanwhile...on the needles:
Trekking XXL in color #134


Sunday, April 16, 2006

Spring Break!

We're taking the kids to The Great Wolf Lodge for a few days. Should be a blast. I have a feeling we will be in a constant state of "prune" from many hours in the waterpark. Of course I have made a list of all the yarn stores within a 100 mile radius, and hopefully can sneak out while everyone is splashing around (they won't miss me, right?) and check out at least the closest ones.


If you order a pattern while I am gone, please be aware it may be a few days until I get it sent to you. I will take my laptop with me, but am not sure if we will have internet connection. If we do, I'll get your PDF file to you right away. If not, Thursday or Friday will be when I get caught up on them.

I think some sock knitting will be coming with me. I believe Trekking XXL Color #134 will be my choice. It's a summery blend of lime, pink, turquoise, peach and baby blue. I think this is a new Trekking color. Love it!