Hurray!

In early November, as the first of our winter storms capped the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains with white powder, Amber, Shevawn and I headed for a slightly warmer climate and attended the Interweave Knitting Lab in San Mateo, CA.  We joined forces with Kirstin from Muench Yarns and Knitters Pride Needles to create an awesome super-booth in the Knitting Lab’s Marketplace.  What a fun event it was!

Shevawn and Amber on the rocking horses

Shevawn rode the Rabbit while I rode the Camel! :)

We journeyed out early Thursday morning in our rented mini-van, hauling all of our fancy booth-building supplies.  I really enjoyed driving the mini-van-- it was such a comfy ride!  As we stopped for a much-needed coffee break at the “Nut Tree” in Vacaville, we noticed the tiniest theme park ever with a carousel, choo-choo train and other fun amusements.  Of course we had to pose for some pics. :)    

Ringing people up for their yarn and needles!

We finally arrived in San Mateo with just a few hours to spare before the Knitter’s Market opened.  Luckily the three of us are expert display-cube builders and we managed to get our booth ready with a tiny bit of time to spare.  We also had the help of our good friend Cliff from Skacel.  He was imperative to the booth building process!  

Our awesome booth!

It was busy!  Really busy.  So busy in fact, that we actually forgot to take some decent photos of our booth!  Everyone who stopped by was so excited about the new Knitter’s Pride needles and the Lana Grossa Lace Lux yarn.  By the end of the weekend, our bodies were exhausted but our hearts and minds were full of fun memories of all of the wonderful people we met, customers and industry folks alike.  

Cat and I!

For example--we met Cat Bordhi and I had my picture taken with her!  She stopped by our booth for a few minutes to film a video interview with me and talk about her books.  Thanks for stopping by Cat!  It was so nice to meet you.  Your video will be up on the website soon. :)   

Thank you to all of the awesome designers and yarn company experts who stopped by to film some videos with us.  We didn’t have time to do too many videos, but we definitely had fun when we did.  Thanks to Sandra McIver (author of Knit Swirl!), Diane from Tahki Stacy Charles Yarns, Jan Horowitz from Tahki and Jade Sapphire yarns, and Kirstin Muench from Muench Yarns and Knitter’s Pride.  All of your videos will be up on our site soon!

Yarn shot!

Thank you also to Courtney and Kate from the Fibre Company, Nancy Marchant (author of Knitting Brioche and who's shawl I am still totally in love with), Stefanie Japel (from Craftsy.com and also a phenomenal designer), and Cookie A (author of Sock Innovation and Knit.Sock.Love.) for stopping by the booth and being willing to film.  Sorry we weren’t ready for you-- it was just so busy!

Lastly, an extra special big thank you to Cliff from Skacel for helping us build our booth, hauling around our equipment, bringing us In-and-Out burger sustenance in our time of need, and being our all around manly-man and comic relief.  You were a huge help to us Dr. Skacel! :) 

Kristen


P.S.  Have you seen our latest catalog yet? It’s 48 pages of pure, 100% Rowan.  Visit www.jimmybeanswool.com/catalog to sign up for your free copy!

In my post about the alien take over of my closet, I talked about my Hemlock Ring Blanket and the fact that I was going to frog it - well, I finally took the plunge! However, as I was ripping it out, I had a thought (scary - I know) that I could salvage the center medallion which is just what I did! I decided that it will make a lovely circular pillow or a bag. I want to say that I will knit the Hemlock Ring in its entirety one day but sometimes it's just best to move on. I am sure that Jared Flood would agree with me (I hope) and his pattern is amazing - it really was me goofing up in this one section...sigh!

What will I be next?

I have learned, after a few years of knitting, that for whatever reason a pattern will flummox me with no fault of the designer. However, when I go back to it later on, I will be ready to work it up without frustration or tears.  My expectations can work against me when I'm knitting or doing just about anything else in life. So until I can let go of my perfectionist ideals (yea, right!) I just won't be able to tackle some things. I humbly submit that this is all true and while I know this from lots and lots of experience, I still get stumped by things that should be easy for me.

One of the comments left on my original post asked why I thought I would frog my Shoal Water shawl (was the pattern difficult or did I just lose interest?) and I have to say that the pattern is phenomenally written and it is simply the knitter that has changed. While I have yet to actually frog the project (there is always room for a U-turn) I think that I want to use the yarn for a Knit Swirl sweater. I will most likely have to add to the amount of yarn I currently have, but I think it is really a possibility. I guess the point of sharing my missteps in my knitting is to hopefully give you the confidence to rip out when needed and move on.

Isn't that why we knit to grow and learn? I truly believe that every stitch I rip out has taught me something more than just how to avoid making a mistake but how to make a mistake and learn from it.



As always, happy knitting, crocheting, and frogging!!


Jeanne


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My sweet smelling Freesia!

We dug, moved, shared cuttings, cleaned, planted and just generally made serious headway on the garden. I want to incorporate edible plants in amongst my wonderful flowers and have to figure out exactly what to put where. My front yard can be a very shady spot so I need plants that don't require full sun to thrive and ones that are able to tolerate the high desert weather extremes

Sierra has the best seat in the house!

There is a Paiute legend here that says to not plant until the snow is melted all the way off of Peavine mountain and for this native Nevadan, it has shown itself to be a good one to follow. If I do plant, I take the precaution of covering if needed. We do have a very short growing season here but with some careful planning, we can make the most of that time.

Let's knit, swirl!

In other news, I had the most wonderful visit from a fabulous designer, Sandra McIver, and got to see her new book, Knit Swirl up close and personal!! We became immediate friends and had so much fun talking about our passion for knitting.

I enjoyed my visit with Sandra and her husband Bill and am looking forward to doing some fun things together that I know you all will enjoy being a part of!




This new way of looking at the one piece jacket is truly amazing and I can't wait to work one up. Sandra has created four basic templates that lend themselves to some very creative outcomes for the hand knitter and there is truly an infinite number of ways to go with these great designs!!

You all know what a terrible tease I can be and this new book is not quite out for purchase BUT will be really soon! The reason I am giving you this tantalizing sneak peak is to get your creative juices flowing!

Sandra's site says that the current release date is June 1st, but I happen to know that we may have it available in the shop sometime around May 5th, so stay tuned! Of course June 1st isn't that far away either and I can tell you that this book is going to be worth the short wait!

As always, happy knitting and crocheting!

Jeanne

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