The holidays are a-coming!

Just yesterday I realized that we are just 2 short weeks from Thanksgiving. It seems as if it was just Halloween yesterday, but that was over a week ago. I guess time really flies when you are crazy busy. And that's what it's been around here. Lots of customers, classes, internet shoppers, and new yarns.

Before I skip over Halloween, I'll show you what treats we get to enjoy around here on certain holidays. Michele makes these amazing cookies, and is always nice enough to bring in a big tray for us. Of course, they are gone within a matter of hours. This poor little guy hung around until the next morning - I guess people were shy and didn't want to take the last one. Well, I was bold and gobbled it right up. Nothing like cookies for breakfast. This, only days after Kalen brought in half of a Costco cake - the leftovers from her brother's birthday. It was chocolate, and Michele doesn't eat chocolate. Barb was out for a couple of days so she missed out on the cake, but never fear, Kalen and I managed to eat almost all of it. Cake for breakfast, snack, lunch and snack is not the healthiest of diets, but hey, that's life. And then came the leftover Halloween candy. We live in a big neighborhood that gets a LOT of trick-or-treaters. And I never know just how much candy we'll go through, so I tend to overbuy. I usually have leftovers which come into the shop the next day. This year was no exception. And we've gone through those leftovers pretty quickly.

At least the sugar has helped us keep our energy up. We've been busy moving around some yarns - check out our sale section for lots of new markdowns. These are ONLINE ONLY. They are not in the shop any more, they have been moved to one of our warehouse locations. If you want them, place an order on the website and write HOLD FOR PICKUP in the comments section. We'll deduct your shipping charges and call you when the order is ready. I'm sending out a mass email on these yarns tomorrow, so they won't last long. Great sock yarns - perfect for gift knitting or gift giving. Plus some colors of Plush, Plush Colors, Touche, Love It and Bonsai that we are discontinuing. This always happens at this time of year. I meet with some reps to buy for spring, and they always have some yarns in stock already - some new yarns and some new colors in existing yarns. And since I can't resist, I end up buying them, and having to make room. So help us move them out so we can show you the new stuff!

Marc and I took the girls to NYC last weekend. It was fun - certainly a whirlwind trip - but we really had a great time. Some highlights:

The gorgeous ferry across Lake Champlain to New York. Look how calm it was!

The American Girl Doll Store... CRAZY! Can you see my eyes rolling into the back of my head?

A man wearing an Eros scarf... after being so tired of this yarn, I was actually pleasantly surprised to see him wearing it! It looked very fashionable on him.

A very interesting (?) hat I spotted on the train. Hmmm. Enough said.

The M&M store! Note the ceiling high bins of different colored M&Ms.

I won't tell you how much money I spent on M&Ms, nor will I disclose how many peanut M&Ms I've eaten since my trip. I can't even say how many (few) days it took me to eat them.

In summary - it was fun! It was quick and busy, and exhausting and stimulating. But fun. And furing the long car trip, I was able to whip up a couple of neat hats. Kalen gave me some great ideas of what we needed to write up for free patterns, and this is what we came up with. This one is a great unisex earflap hat using Frog Tree Alpaca and Berroco Foliage.

This one is the ever popular super bulky ribbed pom pom hat. Love it! It uses Berroco Peruvia and Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky. It came out a little big, but it would fit an adult l-xl. To make it smaller, I'd use the same pattern with a smaller needle. It's oh so soft and warm, and the huge pom pom really makes it.