I have discovered the Crystal Palace Mochi Plus yarn and WOW! It is so nice to work with and I just can't stop picking it up and working a few rows. The colors are fabulous and I am currently working up Tapestry Rainbow, 555, in a top secret project.

Here is just a little taste for you to see the colors. The hand is fantastic and being a singles yarn it fulls as I am knitting it. I think I will work something up in Treasure Chest, 559, or Jungle, 560 next. I am feeling a pair of house socks, or maybe leg warmers, scarf, mittens, hat, or even a sweater!

Ok I just made myself giddy with all this knitting talk. :)

Of course the boxes that I talked about last time are finally open and the contents have been revealed. There is the new Debbie Bliss Fez yarn which has the most amazing feel to it and with the touch of Camel it has you can't go wrong. I can't wait to work something up with it and am really excited to see the texture, as the ply has a really neat look to it.

The list of yarns Laura is tempting me with seems to be endless! However, for the moment I will stay calm and only touch on these for now.

Yesterday was the 1st and you all kept us jumping both online and in the shop too! Purple Mojito (our Lorna's Laces Limited Edition yarn) is an amazing color this month, have you gotten yours yet? I got 4 of the Shepherd Sport this month and think I will do leg warmers with it. I just love the soft green touch and of course you can't go wrong with the elegant purple Lorna's put together in this one, it's a winner!

At the end of the day I pulled out my camera to take a couple of pics of Terry, one of our new beans and found out she is camera shy. Terry you are so cute what's up with that?

You are going to adore her and her knitting abilities are amazing. Welcome on board Terry! I can't wait to have you help me with my lace projects! Come on let's knit!!!

You can see Laura peeking from behind Terry in the picture below and note the bin of orders she is working on, phew, you all do keep us jumping.

Thanks for that and stay tuned to this knitting channel for more JBW news...as always, happy knitting!

Jeanne :)

We received 29 boxes from UPS yesterday and while that is not the biggest delivery we have ever had at one time it is a big one for sure! There are some yummy things in these boxes that I know you are going want to see and hear about, but the list is a long one. I know you will all want to be knitting a little bit of luxury with this nice stuff for the holiday's as a gift, or a nice treat for yourselves. While I have seen the invoice I am still a bit in the dark, so keep your eyes on our New Products page for updates.

In other news the bride is back from her honey moon and while a little tired, very happy! We missed her here at the shop for sure and I know her kitties missed her at home. I was sorry to hear that Space Mountain was closed for renovation and they didn't get to ride my favorite ride! Blast! I guess they will just have to go back to Disney World again, what a problem to have, ha ha!

If you haven't had a chance to meet our newest little bean, Terry, say hi when you can; we are so happy to have her on the team and my life is so much better with such a go getter on my retail team! Her knitting skills are amazing and she is as helpful as can be. Thanks for coming to us in our hour of need, welcome on board Terry.

Now here we all are eating some well deserved Honey Treat Yogurt from down the way. Laura bought this for us today to keep us motivated to fill you orders. Now don't ever think that we aren't motivated, because we are, but this helped today as you all are keeping us on our toes!

We are busy!! Wow!!

Thanks Laura for the treat!! You are the best!!

Here is (right) Amber with the Yum pointing to her treat talking with one of you about an order. Sandy is licking the lid of her treat and Amanda is just saying Yum, Yum!!! Sandy, Ashley and Amerique are enjoying their little cold treat too! Thanks Amerique for helping out while we are so busy! You are fun to have around for sure.

More soon same knitting channel! Jeanne

This has a be a quick post because we are sooooooo busy that I need to get going to work, but before I go I wanted to show you Amber's UPS arch that she built with a note to Manny (the UPS driver) of all of your packages going out on Wednesday to fill all you orders, THANK YOU!!








And Who says you can't teach an old knitter new tricks? I just bluetoothed these pictures from my phone to the computer, WOW, I amaze myself!!

Happy knitting and talk to you all soon, Jeanne :)

The bride was piped in by the piper, the kilts were amazing and the bride was stunning! Ashley and Corey are married and the wedding was GREAT!

Kristen caught the bouquet and the ring bearer was looking for cupcakes! Huck was there in his little safari suit and was held by his surrogate Grandmas Sandy & Jeanne, Kristen jumped in there too and I think I glimpsed John, Victoria's husband getting a little Huck time too! He does the cutest little thing for Laura when she whisper's banana bread in his cute little ear he smiles a HUGE smile. The weather was cooperative and it was just a fantastic day all around!!

Now it may be considered rude to bring knitting to a wedding, but I knew there would be a knitting opportunity and sure enough there was. The food was fabulous and that was when I took the knitting bull by the horns and whipped out my mitten! Yup I knit at the wedding reception and all of sudden there was Victoria clamoring for my camera; she wanted to shoot the knitting event and so Sandy jumped in to knit a bit on my mitten too. What do you expect we are the Jimmy Beans Wool crew?? I hadn't had a knit fix for about 3 days, imagine, 3 days without knitting! Why I didn't die I will never know, but it felt so good to feel the soft velvety yarn in my hand as I k1, p2 for my mitten cuff.

I am using the Lorna's Laces Swirl yarn for the mittens and it is so soft! Now I can't put a link in here to the swirl because we are sold out, but I happen to know that there has been some talk about more coming into the shop next month, so keep your eyes peeled for that beautiful yarn to show up on the site.

I had a hard time choosing the wedding knitting, because I do have a bit of the new Hand Maiden Silk & Seacell yarn (are you surprised? :) and am struggling to NOT cast on with this amazing stuff. I am going to work up the Shipwreck Shawl with mine and I am just twitching to cast it on.




I think it is safe to say that a good time was had by all and the happy couple are now on their well deserved honeymoon at Disney World in Florida. My favorite ride is space mountain, hmmm, now that I think about it I wish I was there!

Congratulations you two and Ashley we already miss you at work!

Jeanne

I was surprised to walk into the store for my Sunday shift this morning to see the beautiful Hand Maiden Yarns Sea Silk gleaming at me from baskets near the counter... These yarns are AMAZING! Beautiful hand painted silk and seacell (a cellulose fiber made from seaweed)= lovely stuff. I would love to buy a skein soon and make a lovely lace shawl out of it...the colors are just gorgeous.

In the meantime, I am still working on several projects, but mostly the Satine top from French Girl Knits. I cast on a few weeks ago in the Sublime Mohair that is on sale right now in the poodle color, and I had hoped to finish this in time for Ashley's wedding, however, that did not happen. I thought, based on the measurements, that I would need a size large...it turned out to be huge! I was even using a size smaller needle and everything... Of course I had already knit about 6 inches of the lace pattern before I realized this. Oh well, rrrriiiiipppp! I have to say though, I just love love love the lace pattern in this top. It is so easy and works up pretty fast. I think I should definitely be able to finish this soon...if I work dilligently on it that is... Anyway, there are about 10 garments from the French Girl Knits book that I want to make. Kristeen Griffin-Grime's patterns are just so lovely! Once I get a bit furthur along, I will share some actual photos. Until then, happy knitting!


-Kristen

Well, we are so excited around the shop, as the last couple of days have been really hectic! We have been included in the top 5000 small businesses in the country which is published by Inc. 500 5000 Magazine! We are 3253 on the list and considering there are some 27 million small businesses in the United States that's no small feat! All three of our local Reno News Stations have picked up the story and channel 2, KTVN, did quite an in depth little story/video that you may enjoy looking at.

The truly exciting part of the KTVN interest was that they sent their anchor, Tom Henkenius, a 2 time Emmy winner out to interview us, WOW! It was so much fun and as some of you know I ride a Harley motorcycle, so that came into play too! My 30 seconds of fame ha ha ha!! Amber and Laura made appearances too and looked fabulous darling! It made us feel like stars having such a top story teller come to visit and get this, he knits!! How cool is that? The camera man knits too and I have invited both of them to come in anytime to hang out with their sticks and bits of yarn.

Thanks to all of you out there who are such fantastic customers and have helped us get to where we are. Without you we wouldn't be anywhere and we know it!

Have a great day and knit on! Jeanne :)

Well, we are at the count down to the big day for Ashley and Cory, WOW! Saturday is rapidly approaching and all the little beans are so excited about this big event. I must confess that while I worked on a few things for the happy couple in a knitted format it hasn't come about, so they have been frogged :( Sorry guys, but I do have a special little something for you that I am hoping you will enjoy for years to come...enough said on that one. Hee Hee!

I have started a new project (imagine) that involves knitting Fair Isle and it is from the newest Rowan Magazine, #46. It is the Shetland woman's sweater and has a shawl color, subtle color changes and uses the new Rowan Felted Tweed Aran yarn. This yarn is FABULOUS, machine washable and comes in a Chunky weight too. My husband wants me to knit him the men's version of this sweater which is amazing (he is big), so using an aran weight is ok by me!

I have told you about my queue system of knitting and well, I have already fallen off the queue wagon so to speak, sheesh! I cast on a shawl with Helen's Lace by Lorna's Laces yarns last night, but have only done 2 rows, so I could rip it out and stick to my queue?? NOT! The colorway is one of our Limited Edition colors, 'Huck's Room' and it is so amazing! Stay tuned on that one....

I am also working on a double knit scarf in the new Berroco Blackstone Tweed yarn, from the Knit.1 magazine Spring/Summer 2009. Yes I am still working on my Knitting Pure and Simple, #294 sweater in the Oasis yarn and have just picked up the ribbing around the body.

So there are four projects right there and of course I have a hat that my son wants, another Hoot Hat to knit up, husband sweater, ok, ok, I know it already looks like the queue is shot to heck. What's a knitter to do?? Keep on knitting that's what I am gonna do, knit on!!

Happy Knitting! Jeanne

There are so many projects out there to tempt us that it’s rare any of us knit without some sort of purpose. I mean, you wouldn’t knit baby hats without a charity in mind or a baby in your life to wear them (ok, in the case of some of our more anxious grandmas-to-be, you might…ahem) but generally, you know what I mean. As knitters, we tend to choose projects with a recipient in mind. But what about taking it a step further? As knitters, what if we each chose to knit one holiday gift for a friend or family member that not only bears special meaning to the person we give it to because it is hand made, but because it symbolizes a common cause (and the purchase of the yarn itself resulted in a donation to charity?).

A couple of years ago Jimmy Beans was offered a unique opportunity that few if any yarn shops have ever had. We were invited to participate in the 2007 pre-Emmy Celebrity Swag Suite. That’s right—Hollywood stars (aka hunks!) and Jimmy Beans Wool in the same room! Of course, Laura being the genius that she is thought it might be neat to have the A-listers knit a row or two on a scarf we could later auction for charity. We’d already be there with all of the necessities: yarn, knitting needles, and know-how, so why not?! Stars like Scott Baio and Kevin Sorbo picked up the craft relatively quickly and knit a few rows on the original Breast Cancer Support Scarf (Laura chose pink when designing the scarf because the event fell just before Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October). Upon returning from Tinseltown, she listed the scarf for auction on http://www.clothesoffourback.org/ and raised $265 for breast cancer charities. Here's one of my favorite 'hunk pics':

So, many of the customers who frequent our shop already know that I recently accepted a new job with a local non-profit here in Reno. Of course this means that I am not going to get to spend as much time in my favorite LYS, but I will still be around the shop in various ways for as long as they will possibly let me. ;)


My first official day at the new job was last Monday where I left to attend a professional conference in the beautiful Ruby Mountains here in Nevada...more specifically Lamoille Canyon... Lamoille is one of the most beautiful places i've ever visited. It was great as well because I was able to take my doggie Wallace and even Nick got to come as well! It was such a great week and I came home with lots of new ideas for ways to teach kids about science and the environment.


Of course, while I was away, I was able to get a little knitting done. In honor of this new beginning in my career path, I began a Multi-Directional Scarf (pattern by Ann Norling) in the Noro Kureyon Sock (color 184). I know, I know, i've used this yarn a lot lately, but I have so much of it at home, it was just begging to be a Multi-Directional Scarf! I think one skein is going to be more than enough. For this version I used a US size 5 needle and increased until I had 40 sts. It's such a fun and easy project (since it's worked entirely in garter stitch) that is perfect for when you need a break from those tougher projects. Also, it's a great gift idea... that is probably what this scarf will be... as long as I don't get too attached.


I have still been quite busy in the garden these days, so my knitting time is more limited than usual. Here is the progress that my little plot of land has made. I'm very proud of it, especially since this is my first year gardening in this soil and all on my own. We've had fresh greens for about a month now and I plan to continue these using a hoop house throughout the winter. We've had some cherry tomatoes ripen in the last week or so but mostly we have lots of little green tomatoes and squash beginning to pop up...I am so excited for the harvest!

Well, that's all for now...back to knitting on my Satine top from French Girl Knits. I am loving working with the Sublime Kid Mohair. It's gorgeous!

Happy knitting,
Kristen

A while back (quite a while) I actually won a contest and not just any contest, it was a Lorna's Laces Yarn sock pattern contest.

I won second place and since I NEVER win anything it was cool!! I got sock yarn along with copies of my printed pattern. Of course my name is on the pattern, Herringbone Lace Sock, and I am excited to say that we have the pattern in stock for your knitting pleasure. I thought you might like to see a picture of my winning sock, which I am embarrassed to say does not have a mate. I must be taking lessons from Laura, LOL! I have considered knitting some of her second socks for her, but with this confession I better just hang my head and get to work on the second sock for this one.

It was a fun knit and as you can see it has a scalloped cuff and uses two colors of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn. I used Watercolor and Sage to create the stripe effect as I knit it up. It has a short row heel and carries the pattern through the instep.

So moving on from horn tooting :) to amazing new stuff!! Good heavens it has been hectic around the shop lately, what with new shipments arriving just about everyday and just keeping up with all of your knitting ideas, wow!

We have new Cascade Yarns in our inventory that are so amazing and of course priced right! I don't even know what to mention first, but of course socks come to mind (imagine:) and the Heritage sock yarn is fantastic! The colors are rich, bright, and beg to be knit up. They are not variegated, so are perfect for so many other projects that have a light weight yarn gauge. It has a GREAT feel and the yardage is very generous.

The Eco Alpaca yarn is incredible and the name says it all; eco friendly. The colors are just they way those great Alpaca's wear them in nature and I just can't decide what to knit first. This is a worsted weight 100% alpaca yarn and phew I am getting light headed just writing about it. I better stop now before I swoon and go focus on some of my current projects. Yea right, I am already trying to wiggle out of my Que project theory! There is more new Cascade, but with the light headiness I better stop now and pick up my needles :)

Happy Knitting! Jeanne