Extravayarnza

Well, my backroom (AKA the Class room...) had become swamped with new Fall yarns. I super excited about the yarns I choose for this Fall. However I thought I had staggered the shipments more than I did, everything came in with in a week & a half!

So, what did I do this weekend? Reorganize the store. I figured that as long as I was limiting down our novelty selection & putting out more yarn than I could describe that it was a good time to apply some organizational skills & make the shop make sense again.

I now have almost all the feltable yarns up front by the couches (basically everything except Peace Fleece, Malabrigo, and Creative Focus which stayed hanging where it was).
The back corner where the eyelash was now houses alpaca & mohair blends (Rowan Felted Tweed...Shetland Deluxe... all that good stuff)
Then starting where the ribbon was I've moved all the machine washable wools along that wall sorted by gauge (from Rowan 4ply to Cashmerino Chunky).
Next up along that wall is non-feltable (but hand wash...) yarns like Kathmandu, Silk Garden etc. and then cottons.

The other area that's different is you'll all find the new Mirasol yarns are all hanging across from the counter where the cotton was.

So, yes, everything is different, but I think it all makes much more sense where it is now. I hope you all find that true as well!

Oh, and if anyone is looking for some really good deals on eyelash or ribbon yarns, we're auctioning off tons of novelty yarn on ebay (really I've got 4 boxes I can barely carry to auction off). Look for the user name Extravayarnza!

So, I'm not dead... Life just had to take over for a while. Life is still sucking up most of my time/energy, but I think balance is soon to be restored. (big breath of relief)...

Should I start with the big news? It's not official yet (still waiting for papers to be signed & the loan approval from the bank...), but I'm in the process of purchasing a building for the shop!!!
We'll be just around the corner from our current location, right near Emil's Italian Restaurant, Magdalena's Tea House, Gone Wired Cafe, and lots of other really cute shops.
This move will triple our floor space, give us more storage than we'll ever possibly need, and hopefully make finding us & parking a whole lot easier.
I will feel a whole lot more at ease with the whole thing once we get the official word from the bank (we have a "I don't foresee any issues", but until we get officially approved I can't be completely comfortable).

What else?... Oh, I redesigned my shops website! It looks a whole lot like my website, but with a different header picture.

We also had heath issues, big birthdays (21st birthday of my little brother), visitors from both coasts & Europe, plus a couple of big parties (Knitterpalooza!) and well over a dozen romps in the new dog park.

In between all that I've been knitting. Knitting a lot actually... maybe more than I've ever finished in a month before. Be prepared, from here on out this is a very photo heavy post. I've got a whole lot to cover!

First off, all those swatches... In total the pile of swatches grew to 30. I will continue to knit up more of them until every yarn in the shop has a swatch, but I feel good that the new yarns are covered & I can lay off those for a while.

I taught a Baby Surprise Jacket class last month & knit up another ultra cute sweater. This one is knit in Nashua Vignette. I used 5 balls total, 3 colors, switching colors when the ball ran out, and ended up with a 12-18 month sized sweater. (btw, this yarn is super stretchy when knit up ).
The colors are pretty far off, but I had to just give in and edit these at work without Photoshop...just picture it with a less saturated red/purple.


Most recently I finished up a couple of lace scarves I started back in June or July.
First up is my Agrosy in Noro Cashmere Island. I used 2 skeins & can I just say this yarn is super super yummy!

The second scarf is my Beaded Silk Lace Stole (from the book Lacy Little Knits). This used 1 skein Art Yarns Beaded Silk & 1 skein of Silk Rhapsody. I think this was a good balance to dilute the amount of beads & make this scarf one I could wear every day.
I knit till I was almost out of Beaded Silk & my stole blocked out to 13x48 inches.

Since I've been gone I also knit one of those fabulous Hemlock Ring Blankets!
Mine is in Nashua Creative Focus Worsted (Alpaca & Wool Single Ply). I ended up using 4 skeins and size 9 needles. I knit to row 101 & my finished size is 4 1/2 feet across.
I think this might be one of my all time favorite projects I've knit. In fact I've ordered a couple of books of Danish knit doily patterns to convert into blankets as well. I just want every couch & chair I own to be neatly draped with one of these.

I also knit on a variety of socks, including knitting up one of these cute little Rowan Slippers from Cat's new book~

Finally I'm almost done with a rather large project, a Wrap Me Up Stole from Knitting at Knoon.
I only have 3 more blocks and the edging to knit (plus lots of ends to weave in). My only issue with this project is that every single skein of Silk Garden had a knot in it, exactly one knot, in every one of 11 skeins. Grrrr....
I've knit several other projects with silk garden in the past and rarely encountered a knot before, I suppose this batch was just um... special...
I'll detail this more when I finish the project.
But it is lovely isn't it?

One last note.. I haven't forgotten about the blogiversary contest, I just need a few more days to regroup..

I think Fall is finally settling in on Michigan. We're still having typical MI weather (ungodly hot and humid one day, frost the next...), but the leaves are changing and the coolish days seem to be outnumbering the hot.
Plus I have a huge desire to cast-on for a sweater and seem to be addicted to knitting blankets. Yep, I knit another one (yes in like, one week). But it's so pretty!
src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1100/1466132900_53d8018845_m.jpg" width="180" height="240" alt="Falling Leaves Blanket" />
This time the doily pattern is from a book, a Danish book, called Knitted Lace. The best place I've found to get it so far is directly from Lacis, but I'm hoping to get it into my shop later this Fall.
The yarn is Rowan Pure Wool Aran. I used 6 balls to get a respectable 6 foot wide blanket.

I've been busy making last minute preparations for my knitting retreat this weekend.
Nothing makes thinks feel more official than picking up the tote bags...

Oh, and Robin says hi, he's been kept pretty tired out at the new dog park.

Okay, I'm attempting to watch the entire first season of Dexter before Thursday, so I'll see you all later~