Open House Time!! The yarn is in and the shelves are stocked so it's time to have an Open House Sale. It will be Saturday, May 7th from 11-4. Everything will be 25% The address is 17403 NE 45th St Redmond, WA 98052, just head in toward the water and look for the balloons. See you there!!

I need a vacation to recover from the weekend

WOW!! What a busy weekend! I actually fell asleep sitting up... I haven't done that since college. But it was all totally worth it, because it was a great weekend.
The photo uploading isn't nearly as scary as I dreaded it would be. Amy has done such a great job setting everything up- the site is going to be FABULOUS. I can't say it enough, how great Amy of http://www.quixoticpixels.com/ ! She really knows her stuff!!!
This week will be more of the same... preparing for the Open House and working on the website. In addition to uploading photos, I will be researching payment gateways and what bank to use in order to be able to accept credit cards... There is just so darn much to learn!!!

Well, I got up with the sun today to get to work on cropping my yarn photos because today Amy is going to be teaching me how to load my product photos onto http://www.aswellyarnshop.com . That means I am one step closer to OPENING DAY!!! Woo Hoo!

Karen came over last night and we 'Kool-Aid'ed more yarn. We steamed some and microwaved some...I am not sure I can tell the difference, but supposedly steaming creates a brighter effect. This is such fun to do, I just need to find a store with a large variety of Kool-Aid flavor packets to stock up. :)

My Saturday started bright and early with a page full of things to do, one of which was to photograph the dozens of new yarns that arrived. The sun was out, the sky was blue and my outdoor photo session was going to be a snap! Then it happend, the goll-darn clouds rolled in and the sky got darker and the race against the weather was on. Thankfully the photos turned out well...and I have learned my lesson not to predict the afternoon's weather based on that mornings weather :P

I love Thursday nights!!! I get to watch Survivor and CSI and knit for two solid hours :) Last night I started a pair of socks with yarn I picked up at the Seattle Knitting Expo from Blue Moon. They had a beautiful selection of yarn, but only sell to store fronts so I won't be able to be a distributor :(

A Swell Yarn Shop

A front page is now up at http://aswellyarnshop.com/ and it is fabulous!!! You can sign up to be alerted when the site opens too! Check it out!! :)

Another hat!! I tried mixing things up a bit with the colors! :)

Check out the matching button on top :)

The UPS guy knocked on the door today saying "Lots of yarn here for you". I will be getting these checked in and on shelves and an Open House will follow shortly. Stay tuned!!

Ta Dah!!! My first ball of handspun yarn :) Now to decide what to make with it!!! Thank you, Karen, for teaching me how to do this!!!

How Dangerous... Karen and I headed to the Seattle Knitting Expo. After checking out all the booths, we headed back to the one with the 'impossible to resist' supplies for spinning booth. We both left with lots of wool and a few other wonderful finds. We spent the rest of the afternoon with Karen teaching me to spin. Oh My! It is such FUN!! I am now trying to ply what I have created. We'll see how it turns out :)

It's cold, it's rainy, so as a true Washingtonian, I take a half day and head to the beach for some clam digging. Karen and I headed to Hood Canal for the first clamming digging of the summer. We didn't have the greatest luck... we dug up a few things that we aren't sure what they are, but it was fun!!!

Poor Guppy was covered with sand and shivering cold...I don't know that he is a big fan of clam digging on cold, rainy days.

The library is so great. Just arrived for me were these books. The CD Rom is for toe up socks... I get to learn how to avoid kitchner stitch!!! I watched the video right away and it looks pretty OK, until they started knitting wrapped stitches-I don't know about that!! I guess I will just see how my next pair goes. He's Just Not That Into You (which was a 6 month wait)...I am learning the secert language of men which apparently is 'if they aren't great to you, or don't call, or don't meet your friends, or are too busy, or whatever other decent thing, then they aren't into you'. Duh!! Why couldn't I figure that out?! :) A fun read so far!! The Twisted Sister Book had great inspiration for dyeing your own fibers and spinning your own yarn. I put the book down immediately and stepped away- I just don't have the strength to resist :P

Time to Toot Amy's horn

I had to make a post after seeing the rough draft of A Swell Yarn Shop's website. Amy @ http://www.quixoticpixels.com/ is absolutely AMAZING!!! Not only did she create a site that was just what I had in mind, she did it with little to no exact descriptions from me. It's as if she read my mind and made it even better than I could have imagined. If you are looking to have a website built, I HIGHLY recommend Amy....she's the BOMB!!!

Blast From The Past

I got the most unexpected phone call over the weekend. It was my high school sweetheart calling to catch up and tell me the news that he has married his girlfriend of 10 years. After the shock that he had done such a grown up thing (because at 30, it still feels like we are kids), and a twinge of disappointment (he is, afterall, my first love) I gave my congratulations. Pokey Elvis-I wish you a lifetime of love and happiness! Best Wishes for a great life together and a happy ever after :)

WooHoo! Another hat, with only about 8" of yarn to spare. I was sweatin' it :p

A BIG hoooray and welcome to my brother, Guy, who just moved home this weekend!! I am excited to have him back and tried working on my other little brother, Mikey (the one that is a foot taller than me) to get him to move here too. I am really happy to have you here, Guy :)

Hmmm... I wonder if there is enough of each of these to make a couple more newsboy hats :p

Fingerless gloves out of my kool-aid dyed yarn!!! I love how the yarn turned out, I can't wait to make more :)

Here's Guppy sporting his new sweater. The weather may be getting warmer, but the poor thing shivers in 60 degree weather :p

I love these hats from Stitch n' Bitch Nation (even though the directions are wrong)!!!! I think this is my fourth one... but for some reason I keep giving them away, even this one!! The next one is mine, ok... maybe the one after that :)

Drum Roll, Please!!! Here they are!! My first pair of socks!!! They really weren't as scary to make as I thought they would be...As one of the gals in my knitting group said, "Once you turn a heel, the world is your oyster" I can't wait for my next pair :)

A Swell Yarn Shop?!

I realized I haven't mentioned the yarn shop for a little while...Well, not to worry- things are still in the works. Amy @ http://www.quixoticpixels.com/ is working on the website and I have decided to order from a couple more distributors before I hold the Open House. I want to have as much yarn available as possible :)
Which reminds me... if there is a yarn that you would like to see me carry, please feel free to let me know and I will do my best to track it down and carry it. Sadly, many distributors won't sell to on-line only stores, but I will do my best to carry what ever I can!!

My Amazon.com order arrived!!! Bringing me two great finds. First is the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book- lots of cute ideas!! Second is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE childhood movies that recently came out of DVD!!! I am sure most have never even heard of it and I was actually suprised there are enough people out there who want the movie DVD for them to produce it. Anyways, two thumbs WAY UP for both my Amazon.com arrivals :)

Well, after seeing a few of my fellow Eastside Stitchers coming in with their lovely hand dyed yarn, I couldn't resist giving it a try myself. I invited a few daring knitters over to try it with me. Oh My, what fun!!! I can't wait to do it again...Time to go Kool-Aid Shopping!!!!!!

Rebecca's Yarn

Karen's Yarn

Diana's and my finished yarn