Making Up For Being Gone
Happy post-turkey day. I'll use just a single excuse for not being present this week---between Monday and Wednesday, we received 21 (yes, twenty one) large boxes of yarn. It's a little wild in these parts......between the 10 on Monday, 5 on Tuesday, and 6 on Wednesday, we're crammed full of yarn in these parts. We've also had a blast meeting some folks from parts far away (holidays bring folks our direction, and there's more coming in this weekend) and we had an incredible day of silence around here yesterday (tho we did work on some orders and the shop yesterday after a quiet meal). We had joked about putting newsprint over the windows (Matt said he was gonna soap 'em, but that's too much work to take off) and becoming recluses for a day, and the phone only rang one time yesterday--and they didn't leave a message. Thanks for the busy time, but BIG THANKS for our downtime yesterday.So that means I have like four or five blog entries to roll into one..........NOT a problem. Pictures galore, you've been warned!
Monday brought six boxes of Lana Grossa yarns, each about waist high and packed. It also brought Classic Elite and a HOST of certain Noro yarns. For some bizzare reason, I now have eleven bags (well, 10 -- some sold already) of Kureyon #115 (which is what the Lily Bag is knit with) and eight bags of Kureyon #52 (blues/grey/purple). No other colors arrived in Kureyon (all on backorder), but we did get a little Silk Garden, some Shinano, and some patterns. For me, the highlight of the shipment was FINALLY receiving the Big Kureyon, after ordering in April and waiting since then. Behold the beauty of bulky-weight Kureyon
Top row has (left to right) colorways 1, 2, and 4. Bottom row is 5, 7, 8, and 9. For some odd reason, they sent between 4 and 6 bags of every color, which I don't remember ordering. But I'm glad to have it. It's nice yarn and great colors. Number 9 is what Yentala used for her BoogaBag interpretation. Great stuff! I think it will be fun to sub some of this for regular Kureyon for felted bags (I'm thinking a Madeleine Bag--it would be a little larger, have stripes........and a quick knit. Details on the Big K (as I've been calling it).....100g hanks, 160m/176y, $15.95 retail, so $14.36 from us. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, Noro.......big thanks to DEB for making the Noro shelves look like humans actually exist around here!
We always have great folks around, digging in boxes, helping us put yarn on shelves, auditioning for employment here at the 'Bear (part tongue in cheek, part serious--we are going to add some part-time staff in the coming days). But on Wednesday, I caught Deb in the act
pilfering in the fresh shipment of Koigu (two big boxes) on Wednesday. She is a big fan of the solid KPM, and we had 215 news skeins of it arrive. She and Shelda were rummaging in the new goodies and I caught her in the act
Some of you out there may know Shelda from her duties as listmom for the Ample Knitters' List, a wonderful resource for non-size-2 folks who knit. She just happens to be a resident of Columbia, Missouri, and works at my alma mater and has the ability to consume the world's best pizza whenever she wants. Lucky Shelda. It was a complete joy to meet her, after conversing over e-mail for several years and discussing Columbia, and enabling her from time to time (I'm so bad). Thanks for making my Wednesday, Shelda!
I also captured Deb and Shelda comparing the multicolored Rumba to the new boucle yarn, Fancy.....
I'll show some of those lovelies shortly, but trust me when I say..........the folks at Koigu are MASTER DYERS and they make incredible yarns.
Martha and Anne were in on Wednesday as well, making order out of disarray in the Koigu Wall
THANK YOU LADIES! Look at that top row---we now have a full four cubes of solid KPM, to go with that fabulous supply of KPPPM. And there's a full dye lot of P622 stuck in the bottom just waiting for Heather this weekend. Ah, custom jobs!
Speaking of Koigu, the boxes from them brought all kinds of wonderful things. Here's a shot of the shelf that now holds (left to right) Rumba (solids and multis), Fancy, and Kersti.
Fancy is a new yarn for us from Koigu. It is a wool boucle that knits at the aran weight (4.5 sts/inch) and comes in six amazing colors
We have patterns for it but oh, the ideas that started to run through my feeble brain. This is a beautiful BEAUTIFUL yarn. And the multicolored Rumba is stunning--here's three
I'm smitten! Taiu herself called on Wednesday to make sure the boxes arrived, and she said some of the Rumba came out lovely--SHE WASN'T KIDDING! Fun thing is, also in that box of good stuff was the new Koigu Fun Socks II (also known as "Take Along Socks" because you can stick a sock in progress in your bag and leave the house and knit without a care and make a fab sock. Here's the cover
The top sock is called "Jazz" and matches their Jazz sweater for kids and adults (folks thought it looked like my Broadripple sock in Koigu, but it's definitely not that similar). The second page of patterns looks like this
I'm particularly drawn to the sock in the lower left corner--I hear it calling my name (remember, I'm highly suggestable right now when it comes to socks....I'm on a bender). And in the back of the book there's a bonus pattern of sorts....
Maie Landra includes her Cozy Toes pattern and her departed mother's advice for curing a cold--warm, woolen socks to wear to bed (thus, Cozy Toes). The pattern calls for KPPPM and Rumba to make a delightfully fuzzy and warm pair of socks. Between the colors of KPPPM and KPM and now the Rumba multis and solids, this could be a GREAT project.
More Manos del Uruguay came in on Wednesday as well
I adore this yarn and I've settled on what design (Patagonia from Design Source Collection 4) and colorway (E--English) that I'll use for a shop model. I love the idea of a throw as well, but I've resisted starting some sort of "block of the month" group because two shops within an hour of us run such a program. Well, discussing this on Sunday with the folks that were here I restated my concern about duplicating things that are readily accessible elsewhere, and they decided to start their own group, which will meet the fourth Sunday of every month. Since they were "defying me" (not really), Deb (pictured above) and Eva decided to call the group "The Afghan Rebels", and anyone who wants to knit any sort of throw or afghan or coverlet in any pattern will be welcomed--I'm going to join them with my Ramblin' Rows out of Cascade 220 and Matt may be making a wonderful throw out of the Corneila Tuttle Hamilton book using Noro yarns. No matter, it will be a fun group.
We've got a bit of sock yarn on hand..........
Monday brought us OPAL sock yarn and Lana Grossa, and in there was a bunch of Meilenweit sock yarns--more colors of the Fantasy 100g that I knitted my sock with last week, lots of their Fun, some of their Fun & Stripes, some Multieffekt, and some Jacquard. As for OPAL, we have a number of patterns--Lollipop, Southwestern, Masterpiece, Brasil, and Inspiration. We're "to the gills" on sock yarns, as you can see above, and here's just the German stuff
All that remains to be put out from the monster shipments would be what I call my "dirty little secret" stash. We have a small foyer on our side door and I hid the Lana Grossa in there
It's supposed to be put out today........on the new Lana Grossa wall of yarn that we made shelves for last night. I think Martha and Anne will be back to help again today (they're supposed to be "job sharing", but I think they share by doing it together, not at separate times. We love them........they're very helpful and quite fun to have around. And with that, I'm done. WHEW! Be well, knit a lot this weekend, and be in touch. THANKS!
