Happy New Year!

It's always a hard day back at work/school after the holiday break. Very hard to get those kids up and out of bed in time for the bus. But thanks to new alarm clocks for the kids from Santa, it was a little easier today.


Last week we saw some strange weather, and that both scared customers away, and brought them in to the shop in droves. It just further proves my theory that you can never predict anything in retail. You think you're going to be slow and you are slammed. You prepare for crowds, and you're only steady. Oh well, we always have things to do here and when it is slower we are never idle. Last week in our down times, we did last minute year end and inventory things that needed to be done. And just so we didn't get too comfortable counting things, another crowd would arrive and we'd have a few hours of being slammed again. But we were thrilled to see the snow on Saturday. It was long overdue, and we enjoyed it (while it lasted.)


So Barb got a new pet a couple of days after Christmas. A week or so earlier, she told me that she and her daughter Lizzie wanted to get an angora rabbit. She had called a place locally but did not get a response. I gave her a contact in Charlotte and she went online, contacted them, and by the next day she had arranged to be the new owner of Milo, a one year old white angora bunny. She picked him up last week, and he has grown accustomed to his new home. He is really cute and Barb can't wait to spin up some of his fur!

Speaking of pets, Maisy and Lucy have been mischievous recently. They have taken to stealing my knitting. Not just grabbing a ball of yarn and messing it up by dragging it throughout the house. No, actually TAKING my knitting and hiding it in another room. It started when the Christmas stockings came out. Two Yankee Knitter stockings that I made for Helen and Sophie about 5 years or so ago. Just plain old Cascade 220, not even any fun angora in it, just wool. The cats thought the stockings looked interesting, so they jumped up on the tv cabinet (where we hang them... no fireplace in our house) and pulled them down. Each day I would come home and the stockings would be missing. They would turn up in various places around the house. Not ruined, but pulled here and there and in need of a little TLC.

Then last week, I started a new project. Two years ago we had this little "ponchini" or "shoulder warmer" as I like to call it. It was made out of Mountain Colors Alpaca Blend. I wore it all the time, but last year stopped wearing it. Betsy now wears it when she is chilled. Whenever someone sees her wearing it, they comment on it. So we decided to make another one, in Malabrigo. I picked out a color and grabbed the pattern and the Alpaca Blend "shoulder warmer" from Betsy's office - so I could compare it as I first started knitting. I worked on it that night, and went to work the next day, leaving the Alpaca Blend piece on the top of my knitting bag. When I got home that night, it was no longer in my bag. It was all the way upstairs by the linen closet. Luckily, no damage.

Yesterday, I finished the new one out of Malabrigo. I took it down to the basement and blocked it. It was nicely laid out on a couple of towels on top of the washing machine. I went upstairs for NOT EVEN five minutes and came down to see the towels, sitting on the machine, with nothing on them but a wet impression of the shoulder warmer. Marc and Helen and Sophie (and the two cats) were all in the basement. "Did anyone see my poncho?" I asked frantically. "Did anyone see the cats dragging a wet piece of pinkish-purplish wool around the room? The very room you are all sitting in? Is anyone paying any attention to anything? How can you miss something like that? It's like 400 yards of knitted wet wool! It's not invisible!" Well, no one saw anything. I searched the entire house and it was nowhere to be found. Finally I found it in a wet heap behind the couch in the basement. Hmmmmm. Again, no damage. Why can't they play with the nice catnip mice I gave them? Clearly I have to be more careful.

Our customer and friend Karen was in last week with a scarf she has made many times by mixing fibers. I had always heard her talking about it and she finally brought it in. It was gorgeous and inspired us to make one up for the shop. It's a pattern we used for Duo (a Berroco bulky self striping yarn a few years back) with some added fringe - just a simple 1x1 rib on size 15 needles. But it combines three soft yarns in different colors, creating a beautiful blend. It took NO time at all and I've already picked out another combination to make myself one. Thanks Karen!