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Remember I told you there were some changes coming?  Well, they have started.  We are clearing a few lines of yarn to make room for aaaallllll the new yarn that is coming in.
On Friday we moved the bookshelves and rearranged a lot of the summer cottons and bamboos after the sidewalk sale ravaged it.  Then on Sunday Tom, Kyle & Ruthie were all hands on deck to put up a wall of slotwall.  And then today Cari and Lynne rearranged all the Cascade 220 and hung it on the new wall.  It looks great!  Thank you to all of you for helping!  I really do know how fortunate I am to have all these people in my life and on my team.

And then there is all the new yarn that has come in so far.  I showed you pictures last week of the Zauerball – well now we have more – lots more – every colour!  Manos – oh the pretty colours!  We have some new Naturally yarns and some new colours of lines we had before.  Have you squished the Dove or the Savoy?  New colours in Aspire – that knits up really fast and then there is the new Grande and Opus from Schulana – need a hat or scarf?  I think we might just have the perfect yarn.
ADDI CLICKS ARE BACK!  Well, temporarily – we already sold one – hardly had it out of the box.  And the book everyone is waiting for is Jarrod Floods new “Made in Brooklyn” is a must see. 

The only problem with all this lovely new stuff (besides where to put it – it will fit – really) is what to start first.

Zauberball – don’t you just love to say that name!  It’s fun!  Can we all say Zauberball, Zauberball, Zauberball – see isn’t that fun?  And squooshy too.  It has a really long colour repeat – as in maybe no repeat and slow colour changes – very cool.

See – didn’t I tell you?

And this weekend in New Hamburg is Moparfest and tonight is Cruise night.  60’s music anyone?  We had to shut our swing doors so we could talk but it’s a perfect night.  Usually for the sidewalk sales there is rain sometime over the weekend.  But this is a perfect cruise night weather.
This is the view from my front door and they go down 2 full streets.

Exciting things show up in the mail!  You never know when you open a box what might be showing up.  We have some gorgeous new patterns in. 

Cookie A is known for her intricate socks, her book is a feast for the eyes and the needles.  She came to a lot of our attention with her pattern Pomatomous on Knitty and she just keeps rolling out the most amazing patterns.   We  just got in a bunch of her patterns, check them out if you dare.

 Then there is Anne Hanson - I just had a class with her on the weekend.  And if I didn’t love her already I would now.  But I did love her before and we have some of her patterns in.  I didn’t get them all in yet – she is very prolific – socks, sweaters, mitts and SHAWLS!  Her lace work is stunning.  She will be the adjudicator for the KW Knitters Guild Adjudicated show next June – can’t wait.

So much has happened and so many pictures and a lot of them were just on my phone because it was fast and convenient.  This picture above on left is Anne Hanson being her lovely, gracious self with one of the students in my class.  She was a wonderful teacher and was able to make every student feel like their needs were being met.  The class was Holes in my Socks (lace) and we had some knitters with a lot of lace experience and some with none – but we all enjoyed the class.  I can’t wait till she comes next June for the adjudicated show.

Saturday evening was the Ravelry meetup.  Casey, Jess, Mary-Heather & Sarah hosted it and it was wonderful.  There was noshies, door prizes, making new friends and even making new yarn.  The second last picture above is Johanna’s new Turkish spindle and her first 3 ply sock yarn.  The last picture above is a sign post by the big square downtown.  It struck my funny bone – pointing to everywhere including outer space.

The Luminary panel – wow what do I say!  Lucy Neatby, Cat Bordhi, Deb Robson, Anna Zilborg, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, Meg Swansen, Barbara Walker, Judith Mackenzie McCuin and Nancy Bush.  What can you say but WOW!  And all this moderated by Tina and Stephanie.  The idea was discussing women in business and how it has changed or not.  The funniest thing was when Steph asked Meg if she had been treated any differently in business because she wasn’t a male.  And Meg answered “I’ve never been a man”  Steph lost it.  But then I think Meg almost lost it when we all sang Happy Birthday to her Mom (Elizabeth Zimmerman) who would have celebrated her 99th birthday (and then Meg cut the birthday cake).

And the heroes of the week – Tina & Stephanie – they totally ROCK!

YUP – Thats Barbara Walker!

and guess who sat with us for lunch – prepare for head explosion!

 I think today had a record theme.  We were attempting to break the Guiness World Record of Most knitters knitting in one spot.  The current record was set in Australia in June with 236 knitters – according to The Oregonian we had 935!!!  Too bad Australia!  We even did the wave!

   Then we went and knit on the giant sock.  Remember last year when the sock was at the shop?  It has gotten so big that it is now travelling in 6 parts.  So Johanna and I did our bit of knitting on it again and got our name in the book.

     Then while Sue was off shopping (again) Johanna and I sat and knit and watched the Foucault Pendulum (http://myweb.msoe.edu/~westr/pdxconvention.htm scroll down the page).  It is really cool and Johanna had to lay on the floor under to try for another view.

Ok, I had to keep my glasses on all day today.  Every time I turned around and was talking to someone or went to sit down there was knitting royalty around!  OY – what a day!

The convention center is a interesting venue.  I have a couple of pictures that I will post tomorrow but one of the washrooms has this in the floor.

 
Yup – thats a spider tile -now what were they thinking?  Why??

I took a bunch of pics so there are lots today but if I don’t do it while its fresh they will get lost in my computer and who knows what tomorrow will bring.  This morning I took a class with Judy Becker – with JUDY BECKER!  Then a knitting with beads class with Sivia Harding – oh that stuff up close – yumm!

Then at 4:30 the marketplace opened for anyone who was registered in classes – tomorrow it opens to the public.  Stephanie and Rachel had the LONG lineup singing 99 skeins on the wall before going in.  It was hilarious.  We stood back and watched as everyone went in – as we were going in a couple of the convention people were standing there and they just said “oh wow” – I think we shocked them.  We ran into Lucy Neatby and she was carrying our chicken bag.

Marketplace was open till 6:30 and then we went to the Opening Night Reception.  We went in and found a table with a good view and there was just one lady sitting there so we asked if we could join them.  After we were sitting we realized who we were sitting with – THE RAVELRY GROUP!!!

Stephanie & Tina were wonderful – had us laughing and crying and laughing and …well you know what Stephanie is like.  I introduced myself and gushed over Anne Hanson and hugged Amy and saw Meg Swansen knitting a few stitches on someones lace shawl and I saw BARBARA WALKER!  Wow – I saw Barbara Walker!

after a verrry long day we made it to Portland.  We left Detroit at 6:30 this morning and flew to Dallas and then transferred to a plane to Portland.  Not the most direct flight but we got it through Priceline so the time was worth it.

Anyways, we made it here and took the Max (the local transit light-rail) to the hotel.  It works really well!  We have an amazing hotel!  We are at the Courtyard Marriot and I knew that a new one had just been built around the corner so I didn`t have high expectations but its pretty!  Sue and I got here and poked around and declared it wonderful.

We then hopped back on the Max and went and picked up our registration packets and Sue picked up the swag she had pre-ordered.  But of course going in we had to take a couple of pictures.

This evening we joined a bunch of Ravellers at a local seafood place and it was great to put some names to faces.  And there were door prizes!  We`re exhausted and classes early tomorrow morning so it`s off to bed.  And our 3rd room-mate is joining us about 1:00 tonight – we may.. wake up when she comes in but then again.

Did you see the weather this weekend?  It was gorgeous!  We left about 4:30 on Friday and headed on the Motorcycles with 2 other couples up towards Collingwood.  Perfect weather – one of those nights when you want to keep driving but it’s that time of day that the deer like to do a bit of jaywalking.  So we stayed in a lovely inn and had an amazing breakfast and hit the road.
Over the 3 1/2 days we did 1800 kms. and just did a bunch of circles.  We spent 2 nights just outside of Minden and drove over towards Algonquin and places I have no idea where we were.  Between the GPS and the biker mentality we hit some pretty small roads.  We even stopped in the shoe store in Bobcaygeon and I didn’t buy a thing!  If you are ever up that way you need to check it out – it just keeps growing.
We made it home safely Monday night, loved up the dogs and did a pile of laundry.  I went to work today but sorry Lynne I wasn’t really there.  We got a couple of things done but I think she was happy when I got out of the way.  It is really hard to focus when you know that Sock Summit is right around the corner.
So my lovely and patient husband drove Sue and I all the way to Detroit to our hotel and we’re ready to catch our plane at 6 tomorrow morning.  We were just going to leave the car at the hotel (part of the package) but next week when I get home it will be late and the next day is the beginning of our Anniversary Sale.

off to bed now – is it dark at 4:30 in the morning?