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' I absolutely love the interim period between summer and fall. The nights are turning cooler, the leaves are slowly starting to change, and I get to attend some of my favorite Reno events of the year. Women in pink tutus and men in onesie pajamas racing camels and ostriches, Darth Vadar and panda balloons sailing across the sky, and cheetahs sprinting at full speed across the sagebrush. Really, these are some of the sights you'll see if you visit our corner of Nevada come September (jam packed in one weekend, nonetheless)! Alright, since many...

No sooner had Kersti hit the shelves then we were bombarded with questions from all of you! To clear the air, we've decided to dig in deeper and give you not only a first hand interview with Taiu- creator of Kersti (both the yarn and the young woman), but also give you a chance to try it out for free with a giveaway! Here's what Taiu had to say about Kersti: JBW: Tell us about Kersti -your daughter and the yarn! Taiu: Kersti the Yarn is a wonderful DK weight merino yarn, soft to work with and wear. The yarn is perfect for babies for its cushiony soft feel. It is also a wonderful 3 season sweater weight yarn. We introduced Kersti to the market in 2003, as consumers  were demanding a Koigu hand painted Merino Yarn. It has really been a little sister yarn to KPM /KPPPM (Kersti...

Alright- we will keep it short and sweet! Thank you to the almost 100 people who left comments about how wonderful Touch Me is!  Thanks to random.org, our winner is Jen, who left this comment: Jen said... I have not tried Touch Me yarn but would love the chance to try it!!September 21, 2011 10:16 AM Jen- Please email your full name, address, phone number and colorway preference to giveaway@jimmybeanswool.com within 48 hours. If we do not hear from you we will pick another winner.  Thanks again to everyone for entering and to Kirstin at Muench for sharing her wonderful story. :) Bethany P.S. You won't want to miss our next couple of Newsletters, as we have some really exciting top secret stuff that should be revealed there soon! Our Newsletters come out twice monthly,...

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'; That's right, there are really UFO's in my life and their little aliens want to take me to their leader! They actually live in my closet and have been probing my mind lately....to take action, which is just what I am going to do! Okay, okay...you and I both know (at least, I hope you do!) that I am talking about my U.F.O.'s (a.k.a. unfinished objects/knitting projects). I yanked some of them out of the alien hive recently and have been just  plugging away at them. Focus, Jeanne...focus! In the following pictures, you can see only...

Happy Friday, everyone!  I hope you are all well!  I wanted to share with you some of the knitting that has been happening around the shop lately.  There has been a whole lot of it, that's for sure! I thought I would show you in all picture form, if that's okay! Knitting speaks louder than words! :) All of these projects and details on the yarns and patterns used can be found on our Project Log. Just search by "creator" or just sift through the many pages of wonderful projects the "Little Beans" have knit over the years. They are listed as most recent to oldest, so finding these should be easy! Here goes: Shevawn's "Little Colonnade Shawl" by Stephen West in Tosh Merino Light Jeanne's "Umaro Throw" by Jared Flood in Cascade Eco Wool  Shevawn's "Seedling...

Red Velvet The ever irresistible Touch Me Yarn has been making our fingertips swoon since 1991. In order to celebrate the 20 year anniversary, we sat down with good friend to Jimmy Beans Wool and owner of Muench Yarns, Kirstin Muench, to talk about this amazing fiber!  JBW: Tell us a little about Touch Me. Kirstin: Touch me was inspired by an old friend of the Muench Family, and actually helped develop the yarn in Italy in 1989-1990…..we have been selling Touch Me since 1991 and we don't see that stopping any time soon! JBW:What is it about Touch Me that you think appeals to so many people? Kirstin:The softness, and richness of color, its like velvet, and every girl loves velvet! JBW: We LOVE this super cute slouch hat pattern! Can you tell us a little...

It's hard to believe that we have been in the new space for over 2 weeks now...WOW! So I thought you might like a quick update on how things are moving along now and believe me they are!   W Shevawn and Sharon are having a blast in the new space We are starting to get organized now and it is so easy to find things that it is hard to remember how we were working before.  I shudder to think how we were running around literally dancing as we moved! One little bean would come down an isle and the other little bean would give way with a nice dance move. Well now there is no fancy foot work going on and it's GREAT!!!! There is always time for a quick hug and smile at JBW's (of course that's not a new thing around here :). Piet is enjoying one of the shipping desks We...

Since I’ve actually been here for about 3 weeks, my apartment alone isn’t the only place that I have gone. So instead of making this one massively long post, I am going to blitz you all some shorter posts about some of the adventures and experiences I have had thus far. All right…ready…set...go! The first week here was kind of hectic and a little bit overwhelming. On the first day that we got here, we went to Carrefour, which is basically a smaller French equivalent to Wal-Mart. And that’s when I got the sense that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore, Toto. I have never felt as bombarded by being foreign as I did that day. I can barely read the Hanzi (Chinese characters) and people are coming at me like I am a national. And all I can do is just shrug helplessly and look pitiful, and I think...

Happy Friday everyone!  I hope all is well in everyone’s world!  I’ve got some exciting Featured Products for you this week so I hope you all enjoy.  We’ve got tons of new fall products coming in, but these days, I am mostly excited about some of the new books and patterns that are arriving each week.  You’ll notice this post is quite heavy in both.  Either way, I hope you enjoy! First off, we have one of the cutest books I’ve ever seen!  A garden gnome, a fried egg, a cactus, and a juicy looking pear.  What do all of these things have in common?  They are all little teeny tiny items you can make with Teeny Tiny Mochimochi!  This book contains the blueprints, aka. patterns, to knit some of the cutest teeny tiny items.  I am thinking about...

Jimmy showing off the first project packs! Happy Wednesday everyone!  I hope you all are well.  :)  I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about Project Packs!  Who’s been collecting them?  I know I have! For those who have no clue what I am talking about, the project packs are the bags we ship our orders in!  About a year ago, we started printing a free pattern on all of our shipping bags for your enjoyment.  We posted about them on the blog and mentioned that we’d do a contest at some point to see who collected the most.   You sure do!!! And then we got busy.  Really busy.  You know, with all kinds of knitting and crochet related stuff.  No excuses, I know. :)  Well, we just wanted to check in and make sure that people were...

Read about Ailene's life as she finally arrives in Chengdu, China.Finally - Chengdu! Blue skies! There were BLUE skies today. I woke up this morning, and I could not believe it. It was like a whole new world. So amazing. I honestly did not think I would have the chance to see blue skies again until I got home. We have been in Chengdu for almost 2 weeks and that week in Beijing and almost every day was humid and the skies were “overcast” so I never saw any blue skies. But I guess those really were clouds (for the most part) here in Chengdu. I caught the tail end of a really beautiful day for you to see! For you it might be ordinary sky, but for me it was a miracle. Appreciate it people. You don’t know what you have. Missing those open blue skies surrounded by mountains at home....