For me, there's nothing worse than doing things because i have to - instead of because i want to. And that goes for knitting, too.

Now that i've finally committed to knitting the Soft Linen Hoodie (and using Soft Linen), it makes me crazy to have to work on anything else. I've been knitting on this hoodie for days now - days in which i should have been knitting on the Breast Cancer Scarf to send to Knit n Style. (The scarf will be featured in their December issue - which comes out in September... ?!?). We did have 1 BC scarf in the store, but i sent it to Vogue last month for inclusion in their Holiday Issue (that comes out in October - at least "holiday" is a more nebulous phrase), so i needed to knit another one for KnS. Of course, i knew i needed to do this 5 days ago. But i didn't want to! I wanted to watch my hoodie grow (yes, i know, i'm knitting it in brown... but at least it's a greenish brown. That's a huge leap for me).

Anyway, i sucked it up last night and was able to get my scarf in the mail today (granted, i had to pay $23 for express mail, when i could have just worked on it 1 day prior and paid $5 for priority... geesh! I basically just paid $18 to work on the soft linen first...). Anyway, it should arrive to KnS tomorrow afternoon - in plenty of time for photographing (of course Buddy wanted to model it first).

Btw, i think i have enough left over yarn to knit a single-stranded hat (alternating between the different yarns - could be kinda pretty!). If there's anyone out there that would be interested in me sending the leftovers, all i ask is that you send me a photo of the finished hat to use on the website. Just let me know and i'll stick them in the mail.

On a separate note, i wanted to thank all of the wonderful women that arrived at the shop this past Saturday to help with our YouTube Video Reviews. They got to be "employees for the day" and earn 20% off all of their purchases, in addition to reviewing some of their favorite products on film. I think we got 40-50 reviews done and doug is in the process of editing and putting them up right now. Stay tuned! And thanks again so much to all of the women that helped - we had a lot of fun!

Congrats to our very own Jeanne for winning 2nd place in the lorna's laces sock pattern contest. Jeanne is one half of the 2 Askew Design team and has been knitting her b&*^# off for months now... she just submitted a design to Interweave for the coolest gloves - and we're keeping our fingers crossed that they decide to publish the pattern. She is one talented lady and we are lucky to have her as our store manager! (I only selfishly hope she doesn't get too wildly successful - and then leave the store in pursuit of knitting fame and fortune - we'd all be soooo sad!!!)

In store other news, I want to publicly thank the entire JBW team for their INCREDIBLE work over the last week. You see, last Friday (the 16th), i received a phone call from a major cable news network station (name to be revealed later). For some crazy reason, they wanted to come to Reno and film a short (3-4min) segment on our store and business. And they were wondering if we were available on Tuesday (yes, 4 days ago). Um, ok, sure... come on over (like we'd say 'no' - LOL).

Seems fine, right? That gives us 4 days to clean up and get prepared. Except that we just received 62 boxes of Rowan Sale yarns - and another 10 boxes of Crystal Palace Sale stuff... and the store was a wreck!! There was yarn EVERYWHERE!! (Sidenote - when am i going to learn to keep my camera in my purse? I should have taken photos, so you could see how crazy it was!).

Plus, Doug and i had to go to Sacramento on Friday for a luncheon and a meeting with the co-author of our upcoming book... (it was 106 degrees, btw - a sharp contrast to the 2" of snow that is on my front deck this morning - see photo) .

Yep, we're writing a book... i can't tell you the details yet, but hope to be able to share them in about a month, once we've finalized the publishing deal. We've been working on this for about 5 months now and are SUPER EXCITED!

Ah, i digress... so, the news company called and asked us if Tuesday would work. The shoot would likely take most of the day.... (they kept warning us, as if it were a problem!). With doug and me gone, we were completely reliant on the A-Team and their yarn shop cleaning abilities. Let me just tell you, when i walked into the shop on saturday, my jaw dropped. It looked like a different place. And it was looking better every single second - Diana, Sally and Katie (the sat crew) were hustling around, making sure the yarn labels were all facing the right direction - and that the counters were clear, the models were in the right places, etc. It was amazing!! These girls (plus Darcy, Rachel on Sunday, Jeanne on Monday) really pulled through for the team. They are superstars. Because they did such a terrific job, doug and i were able to stay home and work on a script - on what interview questions we expected - and what our answers might be.

Tuesday arrived - and we met Max (from the unnamed network) around 8am at the shop. Within a few minutes, were were miked up and ready for the interview. A few hours later, we transitioned to showing him around the shop. In the pic above, i'm talking about the Breast Cancer Scarf Kit that we put together (and is going to be in the October issue of Vogue Knitting - i forgot to tell you that!).
After being shown around, he filmed 30 minutes of a knitting class that we had going on that day. There's ashley on the left - and jeanne sitting next to her!! Around 12:30, we called it a day - Max had gotten about 90 minutes of footage and was charged with editing it down to 3 minutes by May 27th. The piece should run sometime between the 27th and 30th (um, ok, the reason for the secrecy? I'm super nervous that i looked and sounded terribly goofy... is that bad? we'll let you know where to find the video once we've seen it - plus, we're always a little paranoid that if we get too terribly excited about something, it will never happen. but i promise that we'll share soon .)

Anyway, things turned out super well (or so we hope!) ... the next day, we all (well, sans Doug) went for pedicures and had Carolina BBQ and pecan pie (i love NC BBQ) - and celebrated. Thanks TEAM!!! (p.s. remind me to tell you about the election hats that allison - the other half of 2 Askew & the teacher of the class above - designed. they're adorable!)