Happy Anniversary!

Some milestones are worth mentioning. 50 years ago today my parents were married in East Jordan, Michigan. They’ve persevered through 4 kids, 10 grandkids and 6.5 great grands. Many of you have met my folks as when they come to visit me they usually spend time at the shop (it is the best place to see me!). Dad makes our drop spindles, which are used every time we teach a new person to spin, Mom knits nearly all of our sock samples (until being sidelined these past few months with carpal tunnel surgery on both hands, consecutively). They are my cheerleaders and inspiration.

Over the holidays we drove to Tennessee to visit Mark’s family. He is one of four boys, but with only four children between them, the gatherings haven’t grown that much over the years. They are always pleasant. On the way down, we stopped in Berea at the new Kentucky Artisan Center. If you haven’t been, add it to your next trip down I-75. It’s at the north Berea exit and full of inspiration, both fiber and otherwise. Berea is known for weaving as the sign outside the center mentions. I bought a couple small woven pieces to use as inspiration, a small hand towel with a tulip trim and a hot pad woven in rep weave.

With many hours in the car, I read a lot, but I also worked on designs for several new pieces made from Shepherd’s Wool. Mostly swatching so I have measurements for building the patterns, but I also knit a totally unwearable mitten. BUT, it tells me what I need to know to write a pattern for the real thing. I know many people probably think I’m nuts that it excites me to knit a swatch, but it does. I see potential. So much potential. I’m thrilled that I came back to an email from Kathy in response to my newsletter call for knitters for proofing my patterns. Yeah! It makes it easier to design when I know I can keep designing and others can knit. Really speeds up the process!

Wednesday we had the first of our Holiday classes. It was Dye Play Day. And play they did. And laugh. And kick themselves (that would be over a skein of lace weight yarn that went into the pot without being fully tied). And dye beautiful stuff. Yarn, roving and batts. It was fun to watch the excitement and creativity at work. Today I am readying for teaching the Peerie Socks. Peerie patterns are simple, small Fair Isle patterns. We died BRIGHT yarn specially for these socks and each pair (even each sock) is different. Fun stuff . . . good learning of several new techniques including using a provisional cast-on, picot hem, two handed color knitting and short rows.

December?

Couldn’t tell it by the weather. Although, it has given me good cause to wear my Orenburg shawl as a coat a bit longer.

It’s been a busy and exciting week or so. Of course, I can say that most weeks! I finally went to press with our newsletter (now posted to the website), which is a big relief! I had hoped to get it out much earlier, but it just didn’t happen.

  

Last week I went up north to East Jordan to be with my folks. My dad got a new knee — he’s now a card-carrying bionic! We spent a good share of surgery day at the hospital and a I got a little knitting done. The landscape above is the view from one of the waiting rooms at the Charlevoix Area Hospital - imagine having a room overlooking Lake Michigan, sure seems it would help with healing. Unfortunately, Dad’s room overlooked the loading dock, but he wasn’t much caring about the view. Right near the hospital are some really wonderful homes that we called caterpillar houses when we were kids and are more commonly called hobbit/fairy/mushroom houses by the rest of the world. Architecturally, they were made by a local man, Earl Young and are historical landmarks that are along the neighborhood next to the hospital. Very cool.

 

While at the hospital I carried my Fair Isle hat, but knit on a mindless felted bag. It’s going to look like a baseball when I’m done - a Christmas gift for my sister-in-law, the wife and mother of baseball coaches. The yarn I’m using is Pastaza, a llama and wool blend from Cascade. It’s so nice I hate to felt it. The yarn really bloomed in the knitting. Even Sharlene, who always rubs skeins against her face testing for softness, was amazed at how it knit up. I’ve seen it felted (thanks, Lisa!), and it is beautiful.

On Friday I had the pleasure of “doing lunch.” Gayle, a customer and friend asked Suzanne and I out to lunch. She chose the Royal Park in Rochester - what a delightful spot of refinement tucked into the edge of downtown Rochester. She brought us gifts (the holiday knitting bag pictured in the photo above was at our place setting when we got there) and treated us like royalty. I felt really special. It’s been so long since I have taken a two hour lunch that this was extra special.

 As many of you know, I’ve been working on my Master Knitter certification through the TKGA for several years. Level I and Level II are under my belt, and I’ve been plugging away at Level III since last spring. I have many of the swatches done and most of the writing, but the sweater has been haunting me since I began the program. As part of the final level, you must design and knitAran and Fair Isle pieces, one a hat, the other a sweater. My sweater will be Fair Isle because I love color (and for me to get good tension on the trailing edge of my cables requires more attention than I can to invest for something that will be graded!). The sweater oddessy began when I walked into my office and saw a weaving draft on my computer screen and decided I had to KNIT it. So I printed it out and took it home and did just that. I loved it, but I only knit it in two colors (that’s what I saw on the screen!). Then I knit it into a hat that is now on display in the shop. I still loved it . . . BUT. I couldn’t imagine doing all that knitting in only two colors - boring! So, as part of the Focus on Fair Isle class we have running now, I started experimenting with adding color. I liked the next version, but I didn’t LOVE the next version. Too dark. So, I set it aside and finally had, as my friend Deb would say, an epiphany! A pastel rainbow. Now I had colors - 14 of them. I’ve been working on that version in a hat and am liking it immensely. It may end up being just a big swatch as I have been playing with colors as I go (can you see the difference in the dividing/accent row?) and I may need to make it bigger than a hat to get a feel for the sweater. Now I need to decide how large to make the sweater and then I should be able to begin knitting in January. A milestone. Makes finishing the rest of the program seem more do-able.

Yesterday I got news that I have been invited to lead a retreat class at SOAR (the Spin-Off Annual Retreat). I am thrilled. The class is called: Making Your Wheel Do the Work. I first went to SOAR in 2000 after learning to spin the previous year. It was my last outing before opening the store. I was hooked. I enjoyed the event and especially the Interweave folks who put it on. 2007 SOAR returns to Shanty Creek in Bellaire, Michigan. A beautiful setting on the top of a huge ski hill when the leaves will be at their peak of color - I pray for good weather so we can show Michigan at it’s finest to all the visitors.

Speaking of teaching classes, I’ve also been selected to teach at Michigan Fiber Fest for the third year running. All weaving classes this time around: Warping Refreshed (one day class), Planning a Weaving Project, Take it All Off (Finishing techniques) (both 1/2 day classes).

Planning for Knit Michigan is coming along. We’re already getting registrations in - do we have yours?

A week in the life of a yarn shop

 

During the holidays it seems the pace is always a bit brisker outside, but people still come in the front doors to get their fiber fix. It’s satisfying to watch people de-stress. We can visibly see kinks and stress ease as shoulders fall to a normal level, faces seem more relaxed and demeanors change from hurried to just a tad bit slower. Wool and color and scheming about new projects tend to do that to people. The photo is of the staff at our monthly company meeting this week. From left to right: Frankie (kneeling), Joan, Heather, Jenny, Su, Deb, Joy, Annie, Sharlene, Suzanne, Cindy (with grandchild), Marge, Gina, Ann (holding her daughter, Piper).

I spent much of the week updating the web page for our new project: Knit Michigan. Check out my work at www.knitmichigan.comand think about participating. We’ve adopted four different Michigan cancer charities and are raising funds via a special event on Saturday, February 2, 2007. Check out the website and let me know what you think! You can help in a couple different ways before the event: we can use stuffers for goodie bags - 250 pieces of things you think might be of interest to participants. Also, we have just kicked off the process of getting non-profit status for Knit Michigan and are desparately seeking a CPA to adopt us and do pro-bono work to help us keep the IRS happy!

I forgot to write in the last post that I went last Saturday to the Stoney Creek Chapter of the DAR (Daughter’s of the American Revolution) to deliver a presentation on weaving and textiles during Revolutionary times. There must have been 40 women there off all ages — a much larger gathering than I remember when I was a member (BH - before Heritage). I loved doing the research and learned a lot. My favorite quote:

What did they do, our grandmothers, as they sat spinning all the day? Are we not ourselves the web they wove?

Anonymous toast, Mary Floyd Talmage Chapter, DAR,

Litchfield CT

1910

On Wednesday I went to the monthly breakfast meeting of Greater Detroit’s NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners). Again, another group that I haven’t had time to keep up with much since I opened Heritage! It was good to see the group thriving and so many new faces. What’s kind of sad is that most of them thought I was a new face, when, in fact, I started the satellite group and was on the local board for many years. Just shows you how quickly faces change in an organization. A non-profit factoid (in a past life I was an Executive Director of a couple of them): the average “life” of a member in a non-profit is five years. Most people only stay long enough to get something out of the group. Either an expanded skill set or contacts. Interesting stuff!

Our print newsletter is almost ready to go to press (and would be a lot closer if I wasn’t blabbing away here). Dates for a few of the classes have been revised a bit to accomodate schedules and a couple classes have been added. Watch for changes on the website by Tuesday. I should have a PDF of the newsletter posted by then, too, if all goes well.

New stuff this week: Books. Several that we’ve been waiting for including Victorian Lace and Knitting with Balls. New colors of Decor.

Don’t miss the Holiday Classes. One day fun classes on December 27, 28, 29, and 30. Something for most! Hope you can join us.

And the winner is . . .

      

It’s official, we won the window decorating contest in the Village. Heather and Jenny really did do an awesome job. I took a photo of each of the windows at night and have included them here so you can see them better than in my earlier post. Unfortunately, some of the details aren’t visible . . . next time you stop by, check out the little train in the west window.

Friday evening, as Jae commented, was our Annual Show & Tell. It really is fun to see how much people have accomplished in the last year. The winner in that category was definitely Jill Bastian. She made knit gifts for each of her staff members and inspired us with her creativity. Socks seemed to take first place for what was being knit. The award for most colorful went to Maureen for her lace patterned sweater made from our hand dyed SoySilk. It was very cool and the SoySilk feels so good when knit - it’s a year around weight, especially for those who run “hot” and don’t like to wear pullover wool sweaters inside. Of course I forgot to take photos, but for those of us in attendance, it really was a fun night.

Today is work on “Knit Michigan” day. Check the newly updated website tomorrow at www.knitmichigan.com, mark your calendar for February 3, and then plan on coming. It’s going to be a very cool event with LOTS of Michigan “knitting celebrities” teaching.

Dressed for the Holidays!

Deck the halls, errrr . . . windows! Jenny and Heather attacked the front windows with gusto yesterday. They were feeling the pressure from last year’s decorating standard set by Christel and Sharlene (we won the window decorating contest in the village). The windows are now full of sheep and mohair and winter woolies! They are dressed for today! Jenny snitched greens from “discrete” places in her yard to decorate our pots and, if you look closely at the photo, you can see them whipping in the wind! A very Winnie the Pooh day it is. Cold and blustery.

Inside we are getting ready for tonight’s annual ”Show & Tell.” This is our 6th year doing it and it looks like it will be our best turnout yet! It’s a very special Girl’s Nite. Many bring special goodies (I know Pat has already made a cake) and we show off what we’ve done over the past year. Sometimes projects are still on the needles, sometimes it’s a skein of just-spun yarn, and sometimes they take your breath away! It’s always inspiring and a nice lead-in to the holidays.