Victorian Holidays and a LOT of Show and Tell

Well...it's been a busy few weeks but we've got the shop decorated and we decorated the tree below with over 50 ornaments made during our 2 charity knitting classes. We donated $375 in gift cards to the Schoharie County Community Action Program. They were trilled to receive them and will be handing them out to flood victims from Hurricane Irene. So...thanks again!

I hope you got to see the tree in person. I took this picture right after Jana and Jean got done with the initial decoration. They added a little bit more before the voting began. We came in Second Place in the voting by the community and we got MANY wonderful comments about the tree.

These are the lovely girls whose tree came in First Place. They treated us with a Christmas Carol during the Victorian Holiday Celebration this weekend.

The day was just beautiful and the arrival of Santa on the train was very cool!

So... since I haven't posted in a while, there are a lot of customer FO's to list. So, get ready...here they come.

Of course, wouldn't you know... the first one, I didn't write down the woman's name who knitted this. Yvette helped her pick out yarn (Cascade Eco Wool) for this man's sweater knitted for a friend of hers that was very particular. He wanted a boat neck with extra long ribbing in the cuffs. Didn't she do a wonderful job?!?

Mary Kate has been on a finishing streak. The next 3 pictures are her Gilet vest...

.... her Felted Urban Bag...

...and her Window Pane Felted Bag made during KGA's class here at the shop.

Jan also finished a few things. These are her Winding Way mitts out of Cascade 220 Sport made during Robin's class along with a great pair of socks!

These are Gail's socks. I believe this is her first pair. Aren't they lovely? And they look SO warm.

I THINK these are Mari's socks (correct me if I'm wrong please...I forgot to write it down!) made out of the Periwinkle Sheep's Spinning Room colorway.

And...a few of the felted buttons made during the class at the shop. This class continues to be so much fun for everyone. There will be another one soon!

Kathy L. has been busy too. Here are 2 mini stockings made during class...

... and 4 pairs of slippers, made after taking Trudi's class. They are so nice!

This hat and booties set are SO cute. Theresa couldn't wait to show them to us. (Oops...sideways...sorry.)

And, this is Florence's absolutely gorgeous sweater. She was lucky it made it out of the shop in her possession. There were several of us that would have gladly put it on and ran out of the shop with it!

Liz's Daybreak Shawl (before she blocked it). It's it beautiful? She'll be teaching a class on how to make this next month!

This blanket is just fabulous. But, there was no name on my list of pictures so I apologize for not knowing whose it is. Please leave us a comment. It's beautiful!

And...Christine's LAST creation for the year. We love her!

This is Heike's B4 bag. She overdyed the yarn with kool-aid. Isn't it neat? The colors are so bright and cheery.

And Diane's VERY large stocking made during class at the shop. She was so happy to finish this. It was her first project in a while and she did a wonderful job.

That's it everyone. I hope you have a great week!

Pullin' a Yarn Harlot

So, most of you know that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka The Yarn Harlot) travels alot. If you read her blog, you know that she knits and also works on her computer on ALL of her flights. Well...I pulled a Yarn Harlot and I uploaded pictures for the blog during my flight to Florida. Because the connection was so slow, I also knit while the pictures were uploading. But I did not knit socks...that would be what Ms. McPhee would do. I've been knitting my Noro Striped scarf. The only thing I didn't do was take a picture of my knitting and my computer on the tray table of the airplane. But, I ran out of time on the plane so I wasn't able to do that. And...once I got off the plane, I promptly forgot that I hadn't posted yet! So, it's the night before Thanksgiving and I just remembered. So, I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving. Don't forget to stop in the shop this weekend to take a break from the malls and the traffic. Remember that Saturday is Small Business Saturday too so be sure to patronize your favorite small business this Saturday and through the holiday season.

So...pretty much all I have below is customer show and tell. But I do have to confess, I've left my notes somewhere in the shop and I don't remember who owns some of the items below. So, if it's yours and I forgot, please accept my apologies and comment below.

This is Shiela's Boogie vest, I think. I hope I'm right on that one.

And I'm sorry but I've forgotten whose Irish Hiking Scarf and hat this is. Oh wait...it's...oh shoot...I just forgot. I can picture who it is but can't remember her name...so sorry.

Kathy L's Pavement Scarf and 2 Noro hats. So nice!

And her beautiful sweater from the Vintage Modern Knits book made out of Cascade 220 Sport. This picture does not do it justice. The cabling on this is just gorgeous.

Nancy C's blanket made for herself out of Encore. Perfect for those upcoming chilly nights.

The next 3 pictures are Flora's and Yvette wrote everything down for me about each item and I can't find the note. Guess it's been a little hectic. They are all beautiful Flora!

Melissa and her sock made during the Socks 101 class. Very nice...now onto the second one!

Jane's Noro hat. She added the earflaps. Isn't it cute?

More from Kathy L. Two Temple Cats Hats made during class here. I love these hats.

And Mari's Temple Cats Hat, also made in class here at the shop. And, her Knitted Beaded Ball made during the Charity Knit-Along this past weekend.

Have a good week everyone and a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Be Our Guest

On Wednesday night at the knit-in, we welcomed Emilia Laime, Director of the La Imillia Knitting Group in Arani, Bolivia. That's her in the hat (which was crocheted...I think...out of thin thread and then coated to make it strong...wow!) and her translator and business associate Tamara Stenn who owns KUSIKUY Clothing Company in Brattleboro, VT. KUSIKUY commissions La Imillia to knit designs out of the native Alpaca from Bolivia. These hand knitted items are then sold a boutiques and high end specialty stores in NYC and LA.

Emilia's work was just gorgeous and what was even more amazing about it is that all the women in her company knit on size 3 needles...yup...everything...from the hats, mittens and sweaters. And...they knit them fast. Most of them learned to knit at a company that paid them by the sweater so their incentive was to knit them as quickly as they could. And...they are gorgeous. I'll be wearing one of them at the shop this weekend as the samples were for sale and well...a few of us couldn't resist!

Below, Tamara is wearing the hat and scarf that she commissioned Emilia's company to design and knit. She asked them to come up with something for children and they came up with the gorgeous tiger mittens, hat and scarf. It was too cute.

I wish I had taken more notes but it was just so fascinating that I forgot. Oh well... I hope those of you that were there enjoyed the talk and her work. Anyone that was there, feel free to leave comments at the end of the post for the rest of us. Any tidbits you remember would be great!

Now...on to customer show and tell...

Isn't Karen's Leaflet Cardi just gorgeous. That was the KAL we did at the end of the summer and she knit it in that beautiful color of Pastaza.

And Annie...she made something for herself for once. I believe she'd been working on this for quite some time which makes it even more special. We all oohed and aahed over it on Saturday. It's Deb Anderson's leaf pattern shawl in Noro.

Take a look at all Mary Kate's mukluks. I do believe that ALL of her family will be getting these for Christmas this year!

Here is Libby's B4 bag made in class at the shop. That picture does not do it justice. The color combination is so nice. Notice those needle felted buttons. She made those in another class at the shop. They match perfectly!

And here is Teri's lockspun. She spun and dyed this herself. It is just beautiful. She started knitting a scarf with it at the knit-in on size 19 needles. Our guest, Emilia, got a big kick out of the size of those needles. Compared to the size 3 she's used to, they looked like tree trunks!

Well...that's all for now. Have a great weekend. Hope to see you at the shop soon!

Rhinebeck and other things

Well...it's been a while since I've posted...mostly because we were getting ready for Rhinebeck.

I didn't take very many pictures when we were there because we were very busy. These are a few from my mother and Kevin's sister. Jana and I setting up. Can't believe I was smiling...must have been a smile of confusion. Oh boy...where to put things!

And below...me, Cece, Joan and Jana in front of the Jessalu bags. We just couldn't get over how cute they all were. Again...we're smiling...must not have been too bad. At this point, maybe we were almost done setting up? Phew...

And me and Joan. I'm wearing Jana's Pagewood Farm Handspun Bouquet hat. Isn't it just great?!?! By the way...it's not too late to order one of these skeins!!!

Well...I guess that's it for Rhinebeck pictures. Next year (and yes...there will be a next year) I'll try and take a few more pictures throughout the weekend.

Now...onto some show and tell...

Here are Sheila's socks made out of the Ella Rae Amity Print. These are just great!

And, I think this is Mary Kate. That shawl is just beautiful.

And Jan's sweater that she made in the Top Down Pullover class at the shop. It's made out of the Encore Coffee Beenz and is just lovely.

Beth's beautiful baby blanket.

And Joan teaching Courtney's son (whose name escapes me right now) how to knit during last week's knit in. So cute. He was doing very well when he left.

Sorry about this picture. One because I can't get it to rotate and two, because I don't know whose it is. It's just beautiful though. Leave a comment if it's yours!

And here is Ronnie's dishcloth made in the beginner's class at the shop.

And Joy's dishcloth, also made in the beginner class. Good job to both of them! Welcome to the knitting club!

That's all for this post. Have a great week and a very Happy Halloween!

Party!!!

Well...after 2 months of owning the shop (can you all believe it's been 2 months???) we finally decided to have the "official" turnover from Liz to me. So, Friday night, we had a little party to celebrate. We had a very nice crowd of about 30 people with some great food from our local orchards and vineyard. Thank you to those of you that contributed snacks as well! Everything was just yummy!

So, this is the official handing over of the yarn. And...if you look closely...the needles are upside down. Ooops...oh well. If you can't tell, we weren't sure which camera to look at. I wonder if anyone took a picture where we were both looking at the same person.

And, below are Liz and I and the "shop girls". I couldn't have made it through these last 2 months without all of them and I really appreciate everything they have done for me. So, thank you to Robin, Joan, Yvette, Jana and Liz! You are all wonderful!

So, as many of you know, one of the big reasons why we put off the celebration for so long was because of the friendship quilt being made on the sly for Liz. It took a while to coordinate everything, of which I had nothing to do with other than making my one square. So, for those of you that contributed, I know that Liz absolutely loved the quilt and if you check out her blog, I'm sure she'll be posting something about that soon. But, once Joan actually pulled it out of the bag and we all ooo'd and ahh'd over it...there were ends to weave in!!! So...how do you like the teamwork??

Here is a close up of the quilt. I have MANY more pictures, thanks to Christine who took the pictures on the shop camera. I will put a slideshow together for the knit-in on Wednesday. I just couldn't upload them all here.

Again, thank you all for coming in last night. I hope you had a good time. I know I did!

So, on to some customer show and tell. Today Karen taught a felted buttons class. Here are the ladies looking like they were having a good time. And Janell with the BIG needle...YIKES! I'm happy to report that no one needed a band aid.

Here are the bottons they all made. Aren't they just gorgeous????!!!!!! I was so jealous that I wasn't taking the class!

And, here is Mary's scarf that she made in the beginning knitting class that Robin taught last month. Isn't it just great? What a nice fall scarf!

And, another beginner, Kate, and her ribbed scarf made out of Riva. I think we've got them hooked. What do you think?

Stevie is up to her cool tricks again. Don't you love the tiny crab finger puppet she made for Sally? How does she do that?

And last but not least, Janell's very pretty pink socks.

Have a great week everyone. Don't forget to check out the slideshow at the knit-in Wednesday!