It’s always exciting when a new yarn store is born (they’re so cute when they are young). And even more exciting when that new yarn store is in my back yard! This past Saturday was the grand opening of Orange County, California’s fiber haven, KNIT SchTICK.

The doors opened at 11:00am, and by the time I got that at 11:15am it was packed. As you walk in the white marble floors and dark wood furnishings are the perfect backdrop to showcase the wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling displays of yarn. I knew there was going to be no way to take it all in this trip.

The Cascade 220 Superwash seemed to create the most buzz. I couldn’t help but smile as I heard an older woman and her friend approach the Cascade in awe, “Oh, Gladys! Cascade Superwash! You must try this dear. It’s wool that you can wash. Imagine that.” And yes, it was there, in a multitude of colors.

At the moment, the focus is yarn. They don’t seem to be stocked with accessories yet (e.g. hooks, needles, etc.), but given the fact that they only signed their lease twenty-two days ago, I was amply impressed with the amount of stock that they did have. I definitely don’t have to wait for them to get more for me to go back. I think I got off easy this trip. I walked out with (after I paid) only a cake of Filatura Di Crosa Fancy Semana Italian yarn and a bottle of Eucalan no rinse wash. But I’ve had a taste and now there is no telling how many times I’m going to have to go back.

KNIT SchTICK

355 S. Bristol Ave.

Costa Mesa, CA

knitschtick@aol.com (they are very good at replying)

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This year I was able to go to the Knit & Crochet show in Portland, Oregon. To be perfectly honest, I would go to a paper clip show if it meant a trip to Portland (love that city).

The trip itself was fantastic, but I’ll get more into that in the next posting. I had two crochet goals on this trip…shop and shop. I met those goals. I didn’t go to any of the classes while I was there, but I did make it to the Market Place, or should I say Fiber Wonderland. If I wasn’t careful I was going to need a government bail out before the day was done.

As I walked into the exhibit hall I was presented with my free goodie bag.  I’ve had co-workers shorter than this goodie bag. It was tall! This could only mean one thing…there was some serious shopping ahead and they knew it.

I managed to make it past two booths before my first purchase (a great crochet scarf kit from Foxyknits) and then made it two more booths and ended up with a beautiful mahogany crochet hook (resisting serious urges to buy an entire set…in every wood type they had). I had four more rows of booths to go and at the rate I was going, I was going to need four more goodie bags.

The hardest part was resisting the try-something-new urges. Drop spindles, spinning wheels, roving…argh! Heck, forget the bag, I needed a goodie bus!

In the end, I made it out with my wallet still in the green. But that was going to be short lived since the next stop was Yarnia!

Here are a few of my favorite booths at the Market:

Foxyknits  www.foxyknits.com

(check out the scarf kit here)

The Nantucket Bagg  www.nantucketbagg.com

(see photos of this great craft bag below)

RedFish Dye Works  www.RedFishDyeWorks.com

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Today, a dear friend of mine and co-worker is going in for surgery. I don’t know the reasons why, but what I do know is depending on how it goes she could be out today or in the hospital much longer. The other difficult part is that the recovery will be a minimum of two weeks.

Yesterday I started a Prayer Shawl for her. A Prayer Shawl is a simple shawl pattern that is crocheted or knitted while you pray, meditate, or think positive healing thoughts towards the person it is intended for while you create the shawl. You can learn more about the history of the Prayer Shawl and its ministry at prayershawlministry.com.

HOW YOU CAN HELP: There is something to be said for the power of knowing that people (even strangers) are thinking about you, even if it’s just for a moment. With that in mind, I created a Prayer Shawl pattern for my friend that incorporated the prayers, quotes and thoughts of those thinking about her recovery.

Please take a moment and make a comment here on her behalf. It can be a short prayer, an uplifting thought or as simple as “Get well.” All your comments will be transferred to the shawl, and when she receives it, she will literally be wrapped in the comfort of your words. When you are done, tell a friend to come here and do the same.

Once the shawl is completed, I will post the free original pattern here so you can use it for your friends that need comfort.

Thank you so much.

It was a dark stormy…um…day. Actually, it was. It was raining cats and dogs. I never saw the dogs, but the cat was staring me in the face. A coworker had found this patchwork kitten sitting at the front entrance of our office, crying to get inside and out of the rain. The LED “Sucker” sign must have lit up across my forehead, because before I knew it I was shutting down my computer and walking out of the office with my lunch bag, umbrella and… a kitten and going straight to the vet for a check-up. I’m not sure which of us needed it more at that point!

The problem now is a name. I have no clue, so I’m enlisting your help. There isn’t much of a back story on the kitten to help in naming though. Apparently, she had been seen many times under the cars of our office building over the last several days. She’s a jumper. At the vet she performed a four foot high-jump onto the examination table. It would be nice to have something that didn’t sound like “Tilly.” Tilly is the (now) big sister.

So, vote for a name for this newly rescued kitty. If you have a name that is not on the polling list, add it to the comments and I will add it to the voting list. Terms from the following interests are not out of the question: crochet, yarn/fiber, rollercoaster, Disney, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter (wow I’m a geek).

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 After just three days, the lost Elephant Baby Afghan pattern has been found!

Josephine was kind enough to comment that she recognized the pattern immediately from the 1987 Susan Bates book¹ Learn to Crochet in 8 Easy Steps.

Rose, thanks to Josephine you are one step closer to getting your pattern. For an easy way to order, so to the Store section of this blog. It’s a dedicated crochet and knit Amazon resource so you don’t have to worry about odd things popping up in your search. Type in “Learn to Crochet in 8 Easy Steps” in the search bar and you’ll see your pattern book come up immediately.

This just made my weekend!!!!

1. What would we do without Susan Bates? Seriously, she’s been around FOREVER. It was her little crochet kit  My Crochet Teacher  purchased at Michael’s oh those many years ago, that got me started down this road. Freakin’ Amazing.

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I love projects that have a double meaning. Like scarves that look like a sushi roll when you roll them up, or scarves that show the color spectrum of a chemical element. My good friend at work (you remember, Content Pig) is a Guitar Hero “super star,” so I was pretty jazzed to see that someone created the Guitar Hero Scarf and posted it on Craftster.org. Not only is it a great representation of a Guitar Hero display, it actually displays the note chart for Knights of Cydonia by Muse.

The designer gives very general instructions, but it’s pretty easy to do it yourself using the pictures as a reference. To customize it with a song of your choice you can use the .png files for Guitar Hero 1 or Guitar Hero 2. Or do a Google search for “Guitar Hero Note Charts.”

Freebird! Freebird!

If you have been following The Crochet Dude or Vickie Howell, you know that they (with a few thousand others) were just recently at the Craft and Hobby Association’s trade show in Anaheim. What you didn’t get to see (since it was closed to the public) is the amazing booth wall that was hand crafted for The Taunton Press display booth. You may have seen glimpses of the wall in photographs taken, but nothing that gives the full impact of what their team accomplished together.

As I was browsing today I noticed that CraftStylish (part of Taunton Press) not only posted great pictures of the wall, but a complete how to section with detailed instructions on how to create it yourself.

It makes me want to do this to a wall in my house REAL BAD. Anybody have a few hundred extra magazines they don’t need?

Check it out here.

With the Craft & Hobby show in town some of the biggest names in the crochet and knit community are around. But I never would have guessed that one of the premier male crochet designers, Drew Emborsky (aka The Crochet Dude) would be spending the evening with me. Actually, I’m quite certain that he never would have guessed it either.

I think he was lured over by the possibility of playing on the Wii, but we never seemed to get passed the hor d’oeuvres¹ and martinis. The absolute highlight for me was the moment he asked to see the Perfect Fit V-neck sweater vest I made based on his pattern in Crochet Today. It’s one thing to get complemented on your work from other people, it’s quite another to get complemented by the designer himself. Now that I think of it, I guess he was complementing himself too. I mean really, he did all the hard work, I just followed along. So in reality, I was being complemented as a great follower. That works for me!

If you haven’t purchased Drew’s latest book, The Crochet Dude’s Designs for Guys, I highly recommend it. There are twenty-six highly fashionable crochet designs devoted to men, but not exclusive to men. It sells out quite often, so secure your copy as soon as you can.

You can keep track of Drew on his website, http://www.drewemborsky.com/, or his blog http://blog.thecrochetdude.com.

By the way, send Drew olives. I think he got hooked on Dirty Martinis.

1. I’m totally going to post for you one of the best meatball recipes in the world.

My favorite city is Portland, Oregon. My favorite crochet designer is The Crochet Dude (Drew Emborsky). When my favorite designer told me of an amazing yarn store in my favorite city, I wanted to go through the wardrobe real bad.

Yarnia, nestled in Southeast Portland, is a whole new concept in a yarn store. YOU get to design your own custom blends of yarn from the extensive selection of fibers and colors they stock. But the best part is you get to watch it being made right in front of you.

From wool, cotton and silk, to bamboo and hemp, they have a huge selection of fibers that you can combine to make any weight yarn you need. The yarn is sold by the pound, so there is little chance of purchasing more than you need, but there is a distinct possibility of buying all that you want.

With the Spring Knit and Crochet Show coming up in Portland, I know one of the first places I’m going to visit while I’m there…Yarnia!

Check them out at their website:  yarnpdx.com, or keep tabs on all their events via their blog.

It’s time to do your part. NHS Leeds (formally known as Leeds Primary Care Trust) in the United Kingdom is facing a problem of Size D proportions. They need imitation breasts to assist teaching expectant mothers how to express milk. Due to the enormous expense of simulated latex breasts, and the lack of realism that balloons and elbows give, health officials are requesting the knitting (and crochet) community to create breasts in all shapes, sizes and colors for their classes. There are no comments if pierced nipples are an option. But I would assume not since there is a high risk of the ring chipping the baby’s teeth. Maybe a teething ring would work.

The NHS website has a free pattern from the Lactation Consultants of Great Britain. You can download the pattern here. Though they don’t have a crochet pattern listed, I was able to locate one here. If you end up finding or creating other patterns, please comment and let us know about it. Remember that they need a variety of shapes and sizes. Sally Mills from Leeds Primary Care states, “It is good to have a variety of shapes and sizes, just as women do (very flat, very small/large, inverted, etc).” Now I’m no breast expert by any means, but how does one have an inverted breast?

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