Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Have you finished all of your gift knitting--not much time left!! I've got all of mine done for the first time in a long time!

We've got something new going on at the Yarn Market. For the first time, we are hosting groups to participate in a knit along. Skacel is sponsoring a knit along to celebrate 20 years of Trekking and we're gonna play, too. There will be a new project each month from January to June, will clues released on the 1st, 8th, 15th and 22d of each month. You may participate in any or all of the projects. Our January group dates will be on Mondays, the 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th from 1-3 p.m. So don't be bored this winter--come join us for some fun and technical support.

Winter classes have been scheduled and include gloves, entrelac, thrummed mittens, and the Great American afghan. My website has a software glitch that I'm trying to resolve, and as a result, the schedule is not up on the website yet. If you want the dates and times before it's fixed, give me a call or e-mail, and I'll get them to you. As always, let me know if you have a specific request for a class!

At this time of the year, I set new goals for myself to try to keep myself on track! After inventory is done, I will add a shopping cart to the website and a page on Facebook. Once those projects have been completed, I will return to the Master Knitter Program, Level 2 and finish it. In between times, I will complete some of my UFO's and I will try to resist the temptation to start something new! How far do you think I'll get with that?

I'm wishing you all a wonderful holiday season, and a healthy, peaceful New Year.

Earlier this week, a customer came in and told me I needed to update my blog, that I hadn't entered anything since April. She said that she read my blog to see what's new so that she knew what to shop for when she came here. So I get it, the message is: you read my blog.

The reason that I haven't kept up with the blog this summer is that I've been interrupted. In May, my son and daughter-in-law were vacationing in Texas when they were involved in a serious accident. Bethany was killed. I had talked to her that morning, and then she was gone. I've spent the summer helping my son, attending the multiple memorials, and just generally being in a fog. But earlier this month, we kept our 14-month old grandson for a week, while his parents went to NYC for a vacation (my other son). This little guy is athletic, smart, and strong-willed with a great sense of humor. During the week of watching him, I felt my fog lift. I still grieve for Bethany, and tears are still quite close to the surface, but I can shake them off more easily and get back with the business at hand.

So, with that explanation aside, here's what's new in the shop!

NEW YARNS

Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool XL. The same fiber content as the original Silky Wool, but in a worsted weight. Gauge is 3.75-4.5 st/inch on a size 7-10 needle. 104 yds. $9. Nice pattern book.

Euro Yarns Quick & Thick Merino. 100% merino. Bulky. One skein knits a hat and a scarf. 176 yds. 2.5-3 sts/in. Size 13-15 needle. $30. Patterns available for a sweater, and coat, as well.

Viking of Norway's Balder. 100% superwash wool. 137 yds. 3 st/in on a 10-11 needle. $11. Check out other knitters' projects on Ravelry. The top picture is a sample of how the fabric looks.

Yesterday, our first supply of local alpaca yarn arrived. Our local vet, Dr. Dave Nelson, and his wife, Chris, own an alpaca ranch. They've won lots of awards for their fiber, and it is really beautiful. They've had it spun in Michigan at the Stonehenge Mill in East Jordan. We're not really sure of yardage or gauge, but I'd estimate it at 150-170 yds of dk or sport weight. It is undyed. The white, fawn and brown colors sell for $19, the black for $20.

NEW PATTERNS

Several new patterns from ChicKnits. Connie is knitting a sweater from one of these patterns, and tells me that they are really well-written. They are classic designs with figure flattering shaping. Check out her website: www.chicknits.com.

Unpatterns are "recipes" for knitters. With these patterns you can use any yarn, any gauge and make any size. You can easily modify the patterns for fit and for stitch pattern. We have them for pullovers and for socks. We have the unpattern for adult pullovers and socks. Check out their website at www.unpatterns.com

We also have some new children's sweater patterns from LisaKnits.

NEW NEEDLES

We are now carrying Hiya-Hiya needles, in addition to the Addi turbos. Hiya-Hiya needles come in stainless steel and bamboo tips. Their cables are just as flexible and the joins are just as smooth. They are about 1/2 the cost, but they are not guaranteed.

From Hiya-Hiya, we also have puppy snips (little teeny tiny scissors with a puppy face cover) and the interchangeable sets in the smaller sizes. Dumpling kits are back-ordered.

OTHER STUFF

My work on the Master Knitter Level 2 has been put on hold. I hope to get back to it soon. Since I've stopped work on the project, the directions have been revised, so I may have to do some revisions in my swatches.

Our Book Club continues every Thursday evening. Our current selection, the Swan Thieves, by Elisabeth Kostova, is an unusually long book. We listened to Chapter 67 last night. It is a wonderful story, craftfully written, lots of twists and turns. I would encourage you to read or listen to this book. Our next selection hasn't been made yet, but I'll let you know.

I've made a decision to add a shopping cart to our website this fall. It's a complicated process, and I'll be doing most of it myself. I will start with just a few items in the catalog. As in the past, you may still do telephone orders for items from the brick-and-mortar store!

I made another decision to close-out the Debbie Bliss line. It hasn't been a good seller for us, and I'll need to make room for other selections. All Debbie Bliss yarns and patterns are 25% off.

So, I think that's about all of the news for now. I'll try not to wait so long for the next post!

Well, I haven't stopped knitting, just blogging. The slow winter days in the shop helped me to make progress with my New Year's Resolution: finish all my started projects.

I've also been working on Master Knitter Level 2. All of the swatches are done and are available at the shop for your perusal. The projects for Level 2 are a fair isle mitten, an argyle sock and a vest. I've made several fair isle mittens and I've not been happy with any of them, so I've set them aside for know until my frustration level dies down! I've knit one argyle sock, using a duplicate stitch for the lines. I'm now working on a second sock, this time knitting in the diagonal lines. The knitting-in method is definitely much more time efficient, but I'm thinkin' the duplicate stitch looks better. Stay tuned!

Here's some pictures of my finally-finished projects:

The one on the left is the "Fair and Square Wrap" by Inknitiative. Fairly simple, lots of fun, and a contemporary design. It could probably be made using stash yarns that were compatible in weight and texture.

The middle photo is a pair of gloves. I designed the pattern myself after working several other patterns and taking the best qualities from each. I used a fingering weight self-patterning yarn, so the gloves don't exactly match, and each finger looks different.

The project on the right is my double knit scarf. I designed the motif, a heart-in-a-heart. I used two different colorways of Noro's Silk Garden Lite. The background color changes gradually and the pattern color changes gradually, but the colors are different. Double knitting is one of my favorite techniques. Self-striping yarns invite color play. So when you put the two of them together, voila!

Do you remember more than a year ago when we started the Tech Afghan class? The goal was to knit one sqare per month. Well, the class is over and we have two beautifully knit afghans. A year is a long time, and life gets in the way. There are several other afghans in different stages of completion, and we hope to share them with you when we can. These two were completed by Carol Papineau and Shirley Henning.

Check out the website for our new class schedule, http://www.theyarnmarket.com/. Book club continues, we start a new book next week. We'd love to have you join us.

I'm going to market in June in Columbus. Let me know if you have any suggestions for additions to our product lines.

And last, but not least, baby Bradley is growing. Crawling, almost walking, he has 5 teeth, and loves to eat. And sometimes, he has ATTITUDE!

My e-mail account has been stolen

My e-mail account was stolen this week, by some aweful person in Wales, UK. He/she stole my password and changed it and locked me out of my account. Then this criminal sent an e-mail to all of my contacts, as if it were from me. The e-mail stated that I was in Wales, had been mugged, and lost all of my money and credit cards. When people replied to this e-mail, they received a second one asking for money to be wired to a certain place.

I am setting up a new account and believe me, it is a process. So for now, if you need to contact me, do it by telephone. The shop@theyarnmarket.com mail is forwarded to my old personal e-mail and therefore, goes directly to the criminal. When everything is reestablished, I will let you know what my new e-mail info is.

In the meantime, please don't send any money or credit card info. It is also possible that the criminal can send you another forged message from a different person in my contact list. Please be very careful, and very suspicious for at least a while.

While I'm tempted to throw my laptop away, and go back to the Stone Age, I realize that this is not an option. I am re-educating myself about internet security and trying to find out if I am responsible for this breach in any way. I'm also trying to determine if I can prevent this from happening again in the future. So far, I haven't learned anything I didn't already know and practice. So other than changing my e-mail account and all of my passwords, there's not much else I can do.

Stay happy, and keep on knittin'!

Good News! I've passed Level 1 of the TGKA's Master Hand Knitter Program, and I'm on to level 2. You can peruse my submissions and the committee's comments in the shop.

The economy has hit Michigan particularly hard--so I've been looking for patterns and ideas that can help you use up your stashes. And what I've discovered is that these patterns are really very interesting to knit, stimulate your creativity, and produce an item that is "art".

One of the patterns was introduced to me by a customer, called the "Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf". It is a free pattern on line at http://douma.net/Karen/knitting/Accessory-Scarves/Multidirectional_Diagonal_Scarf.htm. I knit this scarf with the left overs of three different colorways of Noro's Silk Garden Lite. I knit a little swatch with a solid colored yarn, and it is also quite attractive, although the stitch pattern isn't as striking. The scarf can be knit with any weight or texture of yarn, so a little bit of novelty yarn might add some whimsy!

"Carol's Clever Little Shawl" is a pattern that was e-mailed to me by a rep. It was made available to her at a knitting group, and we have permission to distribute it. I knit the model on Noro's Yuzen, because I needed a model, and because I wanted to play with it! The yarn has its good points and bad. As always, the Noro colorways are fabulous, but the striping may detract from the lace pattern a little bit. Also, as I wore the shawl, the yarn tended to stretch some, leading me to believe that it needs to be knit into a firmer fabric than this pattern creates. The shawl is quite simple to knit, a series of short-row wedges. The ends of the shawl become the ties, which are drawn through a tube that is knitted in. It can be knit with sport weight or worsted weight yarn. I believe it would be great to knit this with your own patterning of stripes, using remnants or small amounts of yarns in your stashes. Again, a little bit of novelty would add some whimsy. The shawl is very comfortable to wear, because of its closures. We may offer this as a class in spring/summer.

Cottage Creations has a (fairly) new pattern: "Kyler's Kardigan". It is a top-down, in-the-round cardigan version of the wallaby. It provides a different treatment to the edge of the optional hood. You can choose a button or a zipper closure. Fun and fast to knit on worsted weight yarn.

As I complete inventory, I decided to place several yarns on sale--so watch for the notices in the near future.

I'm hoping that you all have a wonderful winter, be safe and healthy and have fun! Keep on knittin"!!!! Watch for our new class schedule, which will be published in February.