June 2008 Archives

Have you ever become so obsessed with a project that you do nothing but knit, casting aside pesky things like other long-term projects, sleep, meals, and family obligations? That is how I feel about my Apres Surf Hoodie.



This is one of those projects where the yarn and the pattern have come together so perfectly that I just keep thinking I'll do a "few more rows" because I am so eager to see more of it knitted up. The yarn arrived in my mailbox on Thursday evening, and I've already finished one sleeve and cast on for the second. Despite having other ongoing projects, this one has become my immediate favorite - the lace pattern is interesting but also instantly memorizable, so I don't have to constantly refer to the magazine but the knitting is not at all monotonous. It's also one of the few patterns where I have managed to get gauge and have measurements roughly approximating one of the listed sizes, so there is the added appeal of not having to do any calculus to sort out the shaping and placement of the lace pattern. And then there is the undeniably fact that I am hopelessly in love with this yarn and the colorway, Sundara Yarn's fingering silky merino in a limited edition colorway called Serengeti that makes me feel a little like I was sitting at the dyepot with Sundara telling her exactly what color I wanted because it is so perfect for me and this project. I know we don't sell it - I wish we did of course, but the lovely Sundara sells all of her own yarn - so I hate to tease everyone, but I am so into this knitting that I would be remiss not to blog about it.

Aside from sending out the orders from this weekend, I'll be taking tomorrow off to celebrate my birthday (!), but on Tuesday, we should have new Malabrigo Worsted, Silky Merino, and Lace, and our shipment of Shibui Knits is scheduled to arrived! And in case you missed it, we got some new Unique Sheep colors last week, and will be getting in a bunch of their new cotton yarn hopefully this week or next - you won't believe how soft this yarn is!

I'm taking a break from yarn-related blogging today to make a very special post for my dad. I'm reminded every day of how lucky I've been to have the parents I have. My dad is the dad that everyone else wanted to have - loving, supportive, and incredibly generous. As kids, my dad took my sister and I to spend all day at the beach, created frosting masterpieces on our toaster strudels, took me to the bookstore three times in a weekend, indulged us with an endless stream of pets we "had" to have, and a million other things. In high school, mine was the house where all of my friends hung out, mine was the dad who would spend his weekend taking us to the mall, and mine was the dad who made sure that both myself and sister were able to do anything we wanted to in life. As we transitioned to adulthood, I can not even count the number of times the two of us made mistakes both big and small, and my dad was always the one to step in and help us out however he could, financially or otherwise. It all works out in the end, of course - here is my favorite picture of my dad and I from my wedding in March 2006:



So, Dad, Happy Father's Day - I hope you are doing something fun for yourself today!

I feel like it has taken ages to get around to writing this post - you all have been keeping us quite busy catching up with orders and e-mails! (That's a good thing!) As so many people have already blogged about this weekend, the single best thing about TNNA is that everywhere you go, you are completely surrounded by people who not only understand your borderline-unhinged infatuation with yarn, but actually share your obsession. The convention floor is row after row of soft, squishy, gorgeous skeins of yarn in every color and fiber and weight, and everywhere are people petting it rather unabashedly. Most surrounding hotels are taken over by knitters, and even our hotel, which was a little off the beaten TNNA path, had enough knitters that when they asked why we were in town, "yarn convention" didn't seem to alarm them. And since blogging is a huge part of the yarn and fiber community, everywhere you see faces that look strangely familiar - then you go back to your hotel room and try to figure out who that is. At one point, I was standing at a booth right behind Amy Singer and apparently forgot that while I know her, she definitely doesn't know me, so I said "Hi!" like we are old friends and I think she wasn't sure if she should know me.

Cool moment of the weekend - we met Jess, Casey, and Mary-Heather! To echo everyone else who met them this weekend - the Ravelry folks are so nice and enthusiastic and excited to hear about everyone's Ravelry experiences, so it was really cool to get to talk to them. (and they gave us daily dose of fiber stickers, and Ravelry buttons!) I happened to be waiting for my friend outside the bathroom at precisely the right moment and got to talk to them for a few minutes and tell them how much we lovvve Ravelry and advertising on Ravelry, and they recognized our store name from our ads and said our ads are pretty, which was nice of them. (Did you know I make all of our Ravelry ads myself?)

We also got to stop buy the Malabrigo booth and meet Tobias and Antonio. They are doing quite well and are really upbeat about their situation, and it looks like we may actually be able to get a little Malabrigo to hold us over until they are up and running again. Meeting our vendors was really fun, because all of our communication has always been over the phone or e-mail. We also met Nancy from Dream In Color (and got a sneak peek of some top secret upcoming projects!) and Beth and Amanda from Lorna's Laces, where we got to see the four new colors just released!  We actually ordered these sight unseen the week before TNNA, so hopefully they will be in the shop a little sooner - we weren't at all surprised to find out that all four are gorgeous. I can't find any photos online yet, and of course no photography inside TNNA, so you'll have to see them as they arrive!

The big question most of you are probably wondering about is if we bought any new yarns - of course we did! We've got several new yarn lines from five new vendors coming in over the next couple of months, and we're bringing in some non-yarn items as well! Over the next few weeks, we'll have yarns arriving from:

• Shibui Knits - Sock, Merino Kid, and Silk Cloud
  
• Misti Alpaca - Handpainted Sock and Lace yarns in every color
  
• Pagewood Farm - Yukon Bamboo Sock, Worsted, Laceweight, and their newest Merino/Cashmere/Nylon blend Sock yarns

There are a couple of others, but we're keeping them under wraps for now since the shipping will take longer - you'll just have to be surprised!

One of our favorite things about having Eat.Sleep.Knit has been all of our lovely customers, and your enthusiasm for new products, new colors, and new games to play. So I'm not sure why, when we sent out a newsletter on Wednesday evening about new stuff, we didn't realize that we would be completely swamped with orders on Thursday! We tried our best to keep up, even adding a trip to the post office after the postman came to pick up most of your orders, and still a few of the orders that came in after noon didn't make it out, unfortunately. We did pack them up and bring them with us to Ohio, though, so if we can find a nice post office, they may be mailed out tomorrow. Just to put things in perspective, we received more orders yesterday than in the entire month of January - I think that's pretty impressive!

This morning, my husband and I rolled on out of Georgia at 6:45 (we were aiming for 6, but that was a bit ambitious) in hopes of making the drive to Columbus, OH in time to attend Sample It! at 5 PM. Nine hours and 550 miles later...

And then we got on line to get into Sample It! - this is my first time attending TNNA. Suffice it to say that this line alone is overwhelming, and then all of these fiber lovers are let loose into a small room filled with goodies to purchase.

We also got a glimpse of the main floor for tomorrow, which is the official start of the market:

Now we're back at our hotel - by the way, if you're headed to Columbus, OH, I heartily recommend the Residence Inn. For the same rate as a room at the Hyatt or the Holiday Inn or the Hampton Inn, we've got a room with a fully-outfitted kitchen, separate living room with extra bed and recliner, and a bathroom that is far swankier than our own. My favorite part though, is the free wireless. And now that we've logged in (if you have e-mailed us since yesterday, our apologies, we are SO behind now), it looks we have a first place winner of the Yarn Marathon! Congratulations to Melanie in Canada! We'll still be marathoning through 2008, and we'll start a new "race" in 2009, so keep knitting your way to the finish!