New Company Name with a Lovely Visit to Churchmouse Yarns and Teas!

Well, it's official! The new name for my design company is (drum roll, please....) 'Battle Born Knits'!!!! I LOVE, LOVE it!!! Thank you so much, Flossie, for the name and be sure to call our shop with your information. Congratulations on your win. Thanks soooooooooo much to everyone for all of your wonderful input. It was really difficult to narrow all the great choices for the poll! Stay tuned for my new blog and there will be, of course, a new pattern in the works too. :-) Also, I haven't gotten information from the 4 other choices for the poll...please let me know your pattern choices and how I can get them to you! Thanks again!

Leaving the dock at Seattle

Now, on to my trip to Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound. All I can say is....*SIGH*, what a great trip! Churchmouse Yarns and Teas sponsored a wonderful Fair Isle color class with Janine Bajus and what I learned there is truly invaluable!

 My friend, Barbara, and I went together and had a wonderful time on the island. It may have been a bit wet and cold but the warmth that we felt from everyone we met kept us snug and happy!

Come on already, let's knit!

 I immediately fell in love with everything about the island and Churchmouse Yarns and Teas is one of the most charming shops I have ever been in. Kit and John (the owners) were so welcoming and all the people who work there are simply amazing! 

 Of course, Barbara and I both shopped and came home with fantastic treasures. I brought back some of their winter blend tea and have already enjoyed some this afternoon...yum, yum! Here's Barbara, waiting on the ferry!

Cookies, Crumpets, and Tea..Oh my!

You can see that we were well supplied with amazing snacks, coffee, tea, and lunch both days!

The tray is almost all gone...that's how yummy everything was!

The aroma of the teas is so lovely!

The workshop was phenomenal and has inspired me to take all my knitting to the next level. Janine was a GREAT instructor and happily dealt with my own personal knitting challenges like the real professional she is! Here's a snap of the Churchmouse storefront!

Janine's playpen!

We learned about color progressions in Fair Isle design and Janine brought ALL of the colors of Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift (a great yarn to work with fair isle) to the workshop for us to play with.

You can see how Janine uses her colors to create the most lovely garments.

Her tams are inspiring and her sweaters are to die for!







She reminded us that all this happens one stitch at a time which is such a great mantra! It all looks impossible at first but, when broken down into just the one stitch, it's not so overwhelming after all!

My little bits of color swatching!

The sweater to the right is so beautiful and, if you look closely at the cuffs, you can see the date and Janine's initials knit right into the piece, BRILLIANT!

I can't wait to go back to visit, knit in the shop, and just hang out! There is so much on the island that we didn't get to see on our quick trip but I plan on going back for an extended trip again real soon!

 It was wet but that makes for some really green views and, of course, coming from the high desert I enjoyed seeing all of that green!

Thank goodness Barbara thought to bring umbrellas for the short walk to and from our hotel since they turned out to be a real necessity!


 As we left, I felt that we had made some great new friends and I hope that if ANY of them are coming our way, they will let us return the wonderful welcome we received from them!



As always, happy knitting and crocheting!

Jeanne

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