Hello,

It has been a VERY busy couple of weeks here at Jimmy Beans, and we all needed some relaxing, bonding time, so Sandy suggested we have a knit night here at the store. After we closed today at 4pm, we gathered in the back room to knit, talk and eat baked goods, courtesy of Greg's girlfriend Jen.

I worked on a bed for my new cat Tin Tin. I'm using the pattern "Kitty Pi" (by Wendy D Johnson) from Ravelry. I'm making it with Lamb's Pride Bulky in color M200 Strawberry Smoothie. For the edge of the bed (which is more like a bowl) I'm using a green wool from my stash held together with a strand of GGH Gracia in #17 Lime Green.

To the left is a picture of how Tin Tin sleeps. I think that he really needs a bed like Kitty Pi (right) to contain him. I made a lot of progress on my cat bed today, and hopefully by the end of the week, it will be ready for felting!

-Amerique

Where to begin indeed! Boy I just can't keep up with all that is going on around the shop and so much of it is secret, dang, dang!! My lips are sealed but I am all twitchy holding all this secrets back. I promise that I will update you as I can though, really!!

I can tell you that we have gotten ALL the colors of the Malabrigo Worsted yarn and are already selling out of the Malabrigo Sock yarn, WOW! Luckily for me I got mine almost the first day and am already working on my socks. We will be getting more, but it is so popular that it is going to take some time :( so hang in there!


We are also adding the Be Sweet line of yarns a few at a time and I am completely in love with the Bambino Taffy yarns, color 880, Licorice has me very intrigued.

I am also totally stoked about the Magic Balls that we just got in, they are soooooo pretty!

Well, that's it for the moment, as I have to get back to work trying to figure out what to work up next!

As always happy knitting & crocheting Jeanne

Hello,

Just after Christmas I gave in and bought the Felted Clogs pattern from Fiber Trends. I say "gave in" because I never buy patterns, instead I find free ones on Ravelry. However, I could not find a good free felted clog pattern online, and I knew from customer feedback that the Fiber Trends pattern was easy and awesome. And they were right - I LOVE this pattern. I finished a yellow pair for my sister (a makeup for a pair of failed felted jester slippers) that I knit with Cascade 220 in the colors #7827 Goldenrod and #2453 Pumpkin Spice . For the cuff I held one strand of Pumpkin Spice together with a strand of some reddish-purple wool I found in my stash.






These slippers are a little too plain for me (and my sister) so I'm going to embellish them with some buttons and felted flowers. It's nice to have a felted project turn out right for once! Right now I'm working on a pink pair for my mom for her birthday in February.

-Amerique

This is a real quick post to say the wait is finally over, we have the Malabrigo sock yarn and of course I have already cast on a pair using the magic loop!

This yarn is so beeeaaaauuuutiful that it was hard to choose just one color, but I finally decide on Archangel for my socks and am using a US 1 Addi Lace needle, 40".

This yarn and these needles were made to dance together. I will get you a picture of the socks in progress soon.

Happy Knitting & Crocheting! Jeanne

Well I love birthdays especially when they are mine and yesterday was my birthday! ALL the little beans came to surprise me and feed me pizza, cake and shower me with gifts, WOW! THANKS YOU FABULOUS Beans and Amber for organizing the whole thing and Sandy for the yummy, yummy cake! They got me a pedicure too and now my tootsies are smooth and pretty! I even wore my birthday crown all day!! Thanks really it was so neat to have you all go to such trouble for me, blush, blush!

Ok, ok enough mush onto more important things like yarn, knitting and getting ready for Stitches West! Yep, you read that right we are going to be at Stitches West in full force and we are all getting very excited with all the planning.

We will be taking so much neat stuff and will also have new stuff too, like the Noro Aya yarn which is absolutely amazing! I am particularly in love with color 09 and am trying to figure out what to work up with it.

Of course we are adding some of Louisa Harding's yarns to our line up and she is one of my favorite designers. Her charming designs are feminine and creative.

Of course her yarns go right along with that idea of softness and elegance. Like her Thistle yarn which is so soft and rich, with 2 fabulously soft fibers; merino wool and suri alpaca! It doesn't get a whole lot better than this.

I am a green girl and the color Bracken, 06 is one of my favorites.

So I could just go on and on about all this yummy stuff, but I better stop or as usual I am going to swoon, phew.

As always happy knitting & crocheting! Jeanne

Hello,
I was so pleased with the way my red Almeria scarf turned out (on the left is a pic of it being blocked), that I decided to make one for my other grandma in color #4, Blues . For this one I held one strand of Almeria together with a strand of Saphira in #572.
















In other, even better news, I adopted a kitty today!!!! Sarah, our newest hire, needed to find a home for a kitten named Tin Tin, who didn't get along with her other cats. When I saw pictures of him I fell in love, and when I met him after work this afternoon I knew we were meant to be.


-Amerique

Those of you who frequent Ravelry will recognize this exclamation. It is the standard way to talk about Malabrigo yarns. They are yummy and so, so soft mmmmm.....

The Acorn hat has been test knit, yeah!!! I am still working on the perfect picture for the pattern and this one is in the running, what do you think?

Thanks so much to Terry and Kathie for working on it for me. As most of you know I dabble in design and publish under the moniker 2 Askew Designs.

I was lucky enough to get a hank of the Aslan Trends Invernal yarn to work up for the shop and the little white hat is what came out of it. This yarn is so FABULOUS and gets better as it is touched. The Angora just fluffs and fulls AND I didn't get any shedding while working with it. I frogged it a couple of times too, so it is a tough little yarn!

So many of my in store customers are excited to work it up and I should have it finalized in the next couple of weeks, so thanks all of you for your patience.

I also dove into the Rowan Silk Wool yarn and got myself enough of the color lip gloss to work up the China Vest from Folk Vests, by Cheryl Oberle. Wow is all I can say about this yarn, but really Rowan yarns are fantastic, especially when they are on sale.

When we got the Rowan discontinued yarns list I was so excited to see that Silk Wool was on the list, as I have always wanted to work with it, but alas my wallet has argued with me on that for a long time. At 50% off I couldn't listen to the wallet any more and had to have some!! Shut up wallet you blasted voice of reason!

Laura, Amber and Victoria just went to TNNA (The National Needle Arts Association) conference in Long Beach and boy are we going to have some cool stuff for you in the next year! Top Secret though, so I will have to leave it at that, hee, hee!! I just got a little taste from Laura yesterday as we ran by each other and I can't wait to sit down and get the whole scoop!

As always happy knitting and crocheting! Jeanne

Hello,

I am still overwhelmed (in a good way) with all the fabulous SALE yarn that is flying off the shelves as I type this. Because its going fast, I'm trying to decide what to make so I can decide what to buy. I already blogged about my attraction to Bolero by GGH, but I am now equally enamored of Cadiz and Cadiz Unito by GGH (such a clean, pleasing texture!), Tris by Lana Grossa, and Gigolo by GGH. I guess its pretty obvious I love fancy, glitzy yarn.












I bought 3 balls of Almeria by GGH in color #003 a few weeks ago, and I just began a birthday scarf for my grandma with it. I'm using a double strand and size 15 needles for a very simple stockinette scarf (13 stitches) with a ruffle at the ends. So far its looking good, and knitting up real fast, which is a big plus.

School starts in a week, so I'm going to make as many things as I can while I have the time.


- Amerique

Hello,

I am very much in love with our new Amy Butler bags. They are canvas (which I love), and they come in awesome, colorful funky patterns. They also come in several different shapes and sizes. These are my favorite ones: The Pearl bag, which is small and more of a handbag, The Sanibel bag, the perfect all-purpose tote, and the roomy Dew Drop sling.





Today at work I discovered and fell in love with Bolero by GGH. It's so fancy!!! My favorite color - 01 - is red, and gold, with small sections of glittery silver. It reminds me of the Old World, of the Middle Ages, of Byzantine . . . stuff. I need to buy a couple balls before its all gone!!

-Amerique