Yarn Blog | Adventures with Yarn

Good morning,

Well I did all the shops in the first Sacramento area Yarn Shop Hop and it has taken me a couple of days to recover. I was lucky enough to have a few days off from work so that gave me the opportunity to spread the stores over three of the four days. Actually it was four days because I worked at Filati all day on Thursday which was the first day of the shop hop. I finally turned my passport in on Sunday around lunch time at Cameron Park and then relaxed.

It was nice to see all the stores in this area carrying a wide variety of yarns and also supplies for other crafts as well. Now when we get calls at the store for non knitting supplies we know which names to give out instead of just the box stores like Beverleys and Michaels!!! I always support the speciality stores first no matter what I might be looking to purchase. This was a great opportunity to get all the information needed to keep the clients within the small business network.

I did use this shopping time to buy of course. My goal was to purchase a” Christmas gift” to knit in each of the 12 stores and yes I certainly achieved that very easily. I will of course need all the time between now and December 1st to get all the gifts completed for overseas friends and family members.

Just before leaving Cameron Park on Sunday I called in at a Quilt store to satisfy my other hobby needs. As I made my purchase I was handed a flyer for a Quilt Shop Hop in October. Although I might not have the time to do that one is was nice to see it advertised so far in advance.

Sally

Have I been knitting up a storm with the discontinued yarn by Sirdar called Kool Kidz. In the past week I have knitted two sweaters for our friend Devlin who was born in February this year, and one cardigan for his sister Bliss who will be four in September. I just started a new sweater for Bliss this morning and with any luck will have that one completed by the end of this week. The two for Devlin are age 6 – 12 months, and I decided to knit age 5 – 6 years for Bliss, because if they are far too large they can be stored until the following winter. When Devlin was born I had knitted a lovely top down cardigan in hand dyed pure wool yarn for him which Craig and Karen were thrilled with. However I decided that with the Kool Kidz yarn being completely machine washable and dryable why not make some quick easy sweaters for both Devlin and Bliss while the yarn is still in the sale area of Filati.
The Sacramento area Yarn Shop Hop is on this weekend running from Thursday through Sunday. Fortunately I have my long weekend off starting from Friday, so will attempt to go to all of the stores on the passport while I have the chance. The quilting world has been holding these fun weekends for many years and are they very well organised and extremely successful. Let’s hope this “copy” works well for the knitting stores and knitters when organizational problems have been overcome!
For those of you who knew him and those who didn’t know him, Filati’s greeter, Max, the german shorthaired pointer passed away on May 4th 2006. He had been a staff member for about 10 years and is missed by everyone. We have a new greeter in training at the moment called, Molly, a three year old Golden Retriever. She has always been described as a terrorist because she can and does cause havoc at home, but so far after three full days at work she is fitting in well with both the staff members and our customers. Obviously she has large shoes to fill and will never replace Max, however it is lovely to have her in the store and she is certainly bringing much laughter and joy back again.
The warmer weather in this region puts a halt on sweater knitting for a lot of people, however we are already seeing the fall range of yarns and patterns…… I am going to start knitting lace scarves and shawls over the next few months and may even try my hand at some of our new felted bag patterns with the idea of getting on top of my ever growing gift list for both Christmas and birthdays. All small projects which can be knitted in the warmer months and are quite portable too.

Sally