This year has been amazing and thank you for your part in helping to make it so! I have had a wonderful year personally and Jimmy's has grown so much that we are in awe of it all. We (Laura and Doug) added a new little bean, Huck to the JBW team this year, Amber is now our E-commerce manager (well deserved too!) and we have more Bean's around the shop than ever before! WOW is all I can say to all this excitement. It is going to be interesting to see where we go from here and I am so glad that I am part of the team. I had a GREAT visit yesterday from one of my customers, Susan, who brought in show-n-tell which is a fabulous use of our beautiful Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted yarn, thanks Susan! She took a class on how to use the Ashford Knitter's Loom last year and her husband used the class...

I hope you all had as wonderful a holiday as we had around the shop and at home too! I know this little bean had a GREAT holiday with family and friends here at my house. Sandy and her family came over, along with my daughter and her friend for dinner with us. We just had a real fun time, stress free with lots of laughter and hugs.Now most of you know what a technique junkie I am and the new Interweave Crochet magazine has inspired me to learn more crochet. The cover piece is such a beautiful Ruana wrap that I am going to make it and of course Sandy is encouraging me too, so she will be working it up with me.Sandy is a really accomplished crocheter, but I am a novice and decided to dive in with hooks in hand this last weekend.The wrap is done in Tunisian crochet using an afghan crochet hook...

Well if I haven't mentioned before that I work for the most amazing people then I am mentioning it now, however, I am pretty sure that I have said this once or twice before. We had our annual holiday party on Thursday night and WOW is all I can say! We went to Ichiban Steak House in Harrah's here in Reno and then went to see the Shanghai Acrobatics and Kung Fu show after dinner. Here we all are wearing sweater samples from the shop, even Greg got in on the fun!It was a night to remember for sure and this has been a year to put in the books too! We have been busier than ever, Laura & Doug had our littlest bean, Huck and I was paid the most humbling compliment I have ever received in my life by Laura at the party. It makes me blush just mentioning it here, blush, blush. I have thought and...

addthis_pub = 'laurazander';addthis_brand = 'Jimmy Beans Wool'; addthis_logo = 'http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/images/headerlogoSmall.gif';addthis_options = 'favorites, digg, delicious, email, google, myspace, facebook, reddit, newsvine, live, more';Hello,Change of plans - forget about my "make felted slippers for EVERYONE" plan. Now its just one knitted gift each. A stocking cap for my 10 yr old sister, slippers for my 25 yr old sister, a scarf for my 27 yr old sister (in Rowan Colourscape Chunky), and a felted bag for mom.I am driving down to L.A. on Tuesday morning, and I'd like to have everything finished by then, so I don't have to keep disappearing in order to finish my presents secretly. I'm also going to knit my grandma a scarf in Swirl Chunky in Desert Flower, but I can work on that...

Last weekend I (Amber) went to Chicago for a little vacation where I got to spend a whole day working at Lorna’s Laces. Amanda, who is the manager of LL, put my friend and me up at her adorable apartment in the city and took me to work with her on Friday.We arrived about 9 am and were greeted by Beth (the owner of LL) and her Great Dane Pearl (yes, the yarn is named after her).My day started off with a nice tour of LL led by Amanda where I asked a million questions. I met about half of the regular LL staff who were more than happy to answer my second million silly questions. A typical day at LL consists of 2 dyers, 3 people who wind, label and organize the yarn, Amanda, Beth and Pearl (who mostly just wanders around looking cute). They dye about 20 different yarns including Roving and Buffalo...

I am so excited that I have a young knitter in my life who is doing such wonderful things and reminding me how exciting, frustrating and just plain confusing it can be to learn this art. Sara is 16 and my sons girlfriend.She has knit 3 scarves (all different) and is now working on her first hat. She chose Ann Norling pattern #54, Spiral Rib hat and is using Lamb's Pride Bulky yarn for this project. The color is Limeade M120 which matches my sons new ski jacket, wow, will he be visible on the slopes. She worked up to the point of the decreases last night and I gave her a lesson in the use of double pointed needles. She had an ah ha moment, boy was it cool! She went home at 9:00 and I bet that the hat is finished today because knitting was on her mind for sure!I can't wait to see what she knits...

addthis_pub = 'laurazander';addthis_brand = 'Jimmy Beans Wool'; addthis_logo = 'http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/images/headerlogoSmall.gif';addthis_options = 'favorites, digg, delicious, email, google, myspace, facebook, reddit, newsvine, live, more';Hello,I know I am not the only one scrambling to finish gifts - at LEAST half of the customers I have helped this week were buying yarn for last minute Christmas gifts. I decided (and am now second guessing this decision) to knit gifts for all of my female family members (the men are indifferent to nice things). I decided to make them all felted jester slippers (so cute!) and then one extra thing. I'm making my mom a bag, my grandma a scarf, and two scarves and a hat for my three sisters.I finally bought some Swirl Chunky the other day, and I'm...

It has finally snowed here and boy did it cover us up with a blanket of white stuff! Now the weather has decided to get super cold and was -3 degrees this morning at my house and I know for some of you in the northern states it may not sound cold, but to us high desert rats here in Reno it is a bit chilly. I must admit that I love it though and hope that the power stays on and all will be well! Here is a picture of our parking lot in front of the shop and there were 3 backhoes here Monday making the snow mountains that will now be here until late spring. Of course this cold weather really stimulates my desire to knit and I just finished Terry's easy slouch hat pattern and once we get all the kinks worked out we will be putting it up as a free pattern on the site, thanks Terry for such...

Hello,After Wednesday I will be done with classes, and able to actually KNIT!! My goal is to make at least one knitted gift for each of my family members (excluding the two men, because they could care less) and I'm going to try my hardest to do it. I am making a pair of cute multicolored jester slippers for all the women (I found the pattern for "Jester Slippers" on www. ravelry.com) and then another item, like a scarf or hat. I have all the yarn, and all the patterns, now I just have to make the time, and find the drive to power through it all before I go home for Christmas on the 22nd.I also have two hanks of Saphira in color #561 that I want to make a nice warm scarf out of, because its so FREEZING lately, and I don't have a scarf I really like. A customer told me about the "Sinful Ribbed...