March 2008 Archives

My Sunday afternoon looks like this:

Every year, my husband and I run off to a cabin in the North Georgia mountains for a few days for our anniversary. We pack up the dog, groceries, and plenty of yarn (of course), and spend three or four days doing nothing but reading, knitting (me, not him, sadly!), and wandering the various hiking trails around us. It's peaceful, gorgeous, and, oh yes, relaxing. We almost didn't do it this year (I hate being out of town on mail days now that we have the shop), but I am oh so glad we decided to go anyway.

I've been working on a couple of knitting projects at home, but I picked out something special to knit just for the trip - Anne Elliott Spencer, with the Yarn Love Elizabeth Bennett yarn we got in on Thursday in the Strawberry Shortcake colorway.

This yarn is so soft and subtly beautiful that I felt it was begging me to knit it into a little shrug. So far, this is a great knit, but of course I've only gotten an inch or so in!

Our other big update this week was the much-awaited restock of Dream In Color Classy, and just before we left for the weekend, we got in some new colors of J. Knits Charming that will be photographed and added to the site on Tuesday. Since we are out of town, no orders will go out on Monday, but they will go out first thing Tuesday when we get back, so no worries!

I know, I know - we decide to start updating on Sundays, and then we miss the first one! There was so much new yarn arriving and getting the first marathon prizes ready that we just plain ran out of time.

This week, we got in a brand new order of Dream In Color Fatty, and just in time, because it's a Power Boost yarn for the month of March! You'll now find all colors of Fatty are available on our site, including the new 400 series.

About a month ago, I finished the Vixen Camisole I mentioned planning to start in January - it uses one skein of Dream in Color Smooshy and one skein (okay, half) of Fatty in the same color, and it's incredible! Spring is officially right around the corner - don't you want one of your own?

And if you're wondering what a Power Boost yarn is, let me fill you in - because the Yarn Marathon naturally gives sock and lace knitters a boost, we wanted to help out those of you who prefer sweaters and chunkier projects. So, we came up with Power Boost yarns - each month, we'll select a handful of yarns that will count for more yardage than is actually in the skein. You'll be able to see the percent of "boost" you get on the yarn detail page - so, for example, Fatty is 100% Power Boost for March, so each skein gives you 240 yards instead of 120.

Also new since our last update: two brand new yarn vendors for us. Mmmmmm Malabrigo and Yarn Love! Here's the brief scoop - you can now find Malabrigo Merino Worsted, Malabrigo Lace, and Malabrigo Silky Merino in our store, and all three are truly unrivaled for softness. If you haven't tried this yarn, you should - this has been a favorite of mine for years now!

We've also just received a small shipment from Yarn Love, with more on the way, we promise! For now, you can find several colors of the gorgeous DK weight Marianne Dashwood and the merino/tencel sock yarn, Joan of Arc. We should have more colors and yarn lines from this company by the end of the week.

As a final note, it seems as though there have been some problems with the newsletter recently, so we have actually moved our newsletter service. We'll be sending out a newsletter update later today, so let us know if you're signed up and don't get it!

Out with the old and in with the new - we've replaced our old, boring, dollar-for-dollar rewards program with something more fun - and more interactive! We'll track the yardage of all of the yarn you buy at Eat.Sleep.Knit and track your progress down a 26.2 mile (that's 46,112 yards!) virtual track. At each milestone you reach, you'll earn a special prize and/or store gift certificate. You can check out the current race results on our participants page, and meet your fellow "runners" - maybe you'll find some new blogs to read or even a new friend!

The rewards are better too - you'll still rack up gift certificates along the way (every time you complete another 5K), but you'll also get special surprise loot in your orders! Once you reach the 10K mark, you'll gain entry to our 10K Club, where you'll be invited to members-only sales, discounts, and even have early access to new products. At the half marathon milestone, you'll get free domestic U.S. shipping on all orders for the remainder of 2008 plus a subscription to the knitting magazine of your choice - and the list continues! And, while everyone earns the prizes listed, just remember - this is a race, and the first person to complete his or her Yarn Marathon will win the grand prize, a collection of yarn and fiber-related goodies worth more than $200.

We'll also be updating the blog more regularly - every Sunday, we'll post updates on the store and the Yarn Marathon. I'll also try to do better about posting knitting-related entries - photo-ing WIPs and FOs is a lot trickier than skeins of yarn!