The Sorting Hat (or the sorting of the hats!)

I'm back in the states! I traveled from Finland to Vermont on Monday and surprised my staff at the shop yesterday. I only told Barb I'd be back, and she kept it quiet (though she said it wasn't easy! We met early at Starbucks before coming in to the shop. Starbucks has not yet "arrived" in Finland (though the Helsinki airport is getting one soon) so I wanted to get my fix.

We had fun catching up and talking yarn stuff and then headed back to the shop where I quietly came in the back door. I came down into the shop, where Shawn, Michele and Chrissy were working with customers. They were all more than shocked to see me - it was pretty funny! And fortunately, Polly and Emily also came in to work in the afternoon, so I got to see the whole crew in one day. 

The shop looks amazing and so does everybody here. It was SO, SO good to see them. I miss them all so much!

And OF COURSE I miss the shop. It was wonderful to look around and get inspired with all the yarns I ordered months ago, that have now arrived and I finally got to see in person yesterday. I'm the one who put all of these yarns online, so they're not completely new to me... but dealing with a picture and seeing it in person is just not the same. 

I spent hours browsing through patterns, and we've now got a great lineup of new shop samples in the works. I saved the most fun task for just before I left... the sorting of the preemie hats!

We recently accepted the last of our preemie hat entries for our "contest" and I got to go through the box and look at over 200 adorable preemie hats! 

I had no idea we would be able to drop off this many hats at the Fletcher Allen NICU.

This morning we went in and judged the hats. We had to add some extra prize categories.

These are just some of the hats. There are about another 40-50 that I did not photograph. 

I am completely blown away by this collection of hats! And what a great selection of colors, styles, shapes... the NICU nurses are going to have fun with this.

Some folks made 10 hats, 15 hats, 25 hats! It's just beyond generous. 

There are even two sweater & hat sets!

So when I left last night to drive back to Waterbury, where I am staying with my parents for the week, I felt really good.

Doesn't giving feel better than getting? I think so. Thanks so much to everybody who contributed.

Shawn's going to contact the winners tomorrow, so once they've been contacted I'll follow up tomorrow with the names of the winners, and the photos of their creations.