Live Stitch @ Little Knits

Today was one of those days where I kept trying to get things done, picking up one thing and getting distracted by another, and not getting much done.  While this can be rather frustrating I like it, most of the time.  First because it makes for a fast paced day and I am never bored.  And, second because once things start getting done it is like a great Tetris game, pieces start falling in place all at once and your box is suddenly empty (I love Tetris).

Here is the good – I can tell you that we received over 700 pounds of new yarn that I think you will like.  Here is the bad – we recently lost some storage space and therefore have a bunch of big boxes in our retail space.  So if you come in to our retail store be ready for an impressive array of boxes.

I am off to bed.  My apologies for the lack of photos.  I promise there will be plenty of eye candy in my next post. 

Hope to see you here tomorrow.  I have decided to continue posting to see how long I can keep the streak going. 

I am almost done with my 30 posts.  Technically speaking this post should be the last one but I am going to go on until the end of the month just to lock it.  Especially given that I have already given away 1/4 of my promised funds. 

In the interim, I have been doing some research in order to figure out where to donate the remaining amount and some of the information I have found has left me astounded.

By doing simple research online one can learn quite a bit about charitable organizations.  What astounded me was the financial disclosures made by some of these organizations.  Here is an example, a small local charity that has approximately $5M in contributions paid its executive director $140K a year.  That is a 3 percent expense right off the top.  Does that seem high to you too?  Their overall rating is one out of four stars, not surprising. 

While I thought the above example was bad, I found another Seattle charity with annual revenues of $1.7M that paid its executive director $105K.  That is almost 6 percent and here is the kicker this charity had a $130K deficit at the end of the year!  I am blown away.

Please don’t get me wrong, I think these folks should be compensated for the work they do but I think if the organization is running a deficit and the director is being paid 6 figures there may be something wrong.

But then I found that organizations like the above two were in the minority and there is a large pool of great charities out there.  So I am still deciding and I will most likely stick to local charities given that we have limited funds and I think our donations would make the biggest impact with small charities.

And, my friends have thrown down the gauntlet once again.  I have been told if I can do a blog entry everyday for another 11 months they will multiply their pledge by five and then find corporate donors that will match their donation.  While I would love to do this I doubt I have the stamina.  Can you imagine, a readable, somewhat interesting new entry every day for another 11 months.  My head hurts just thinking about it. 

Well, rain is back in Seattle.  But we had a great summer so I am not complaining.  Plus rain makes Deb happy and a happy Deb is a good thing.

Hope to you see here tomorrow.

I have been taking photos of Classic Elite’s Alpaca Sox , which means that I have to handle all the hanks, see the new colors and appreciate the feel.  This is usually when I get in trouble with stash related issues.  This time no such thing.  I did pick a hank and put it away into a basket intended as a house warming gift.  Hah, how is that for not feeling guilty!

And, of course, there are some new colors.  Here is my favorite and it happens to be a solid color.  We call it Velvet Plum and it is lovely.   I would rather wear this color near my face so I would most likely opt out of socks and go for a hat or a scarf but that is just me.  Of the new multi-colors I think the Moss-Malachite  and Lapis is lovely.  And then there is the rather unique Fall/Winter color line that we have named “Please name this color.”    That concludes the yarn related portion of this post and I go on to the next topic where I ask for your help. 

I need to come up with Halloween themed snacks that are healthy and fun for kids.  Minimum baking and cooking would be great.  A smoking bowl full of eyeballs would be lovely but how can I achieve that with healthy food that is actually edible?  Anything gruesome and/or funny and edible would be great.  And one final note, no candy allowed.

Hope you are all well and knitting and crocheting with a smile.  And, hope to see you here tomorrow. 

Other than getting up early in the morning to go for a run I did not accomplish much today.  How about you? 

It was a beautiful day to do a run even though it was windy and a little cold.  I did get a lot of knitting done, which was great and so was the run.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  I am also hoping that a short entry would be OK for this Sunday. 

So tomorrow morning I run my first race in a while.  I signed up for the Alki Beach 5K Walk/Run at a moments notice and with no preparation at all.  I am excited and a tiny bit nervous.  Wish you could be there with me.

On another bit of news, more Kauni made it to the store.  We opened the box and…new colors!  The first new color is a combination of cinnabar  earth and chocolate browns,

russet and oatmeal hues.  And the second new color comes  with

pinks of all hues and white. 

We also had another surprise and got a new lace weight Kauni in EQ color line that is a single ply yarn with more yardage per hank.   

I am off to bed early tonight.  Hope to see you here again tomorrow.

We received our first shipment of Kauni (after a long break), and we could not wait to open our boxes.  And once we did out came beautiful new colors.  My new favorite, EMC, has deep reds in combination with black.   Isn’t she pretty?  And for some reason it make me think of one of my favorite shows, True Blood.  Then there is the EI with its beautiful lavender, wisteria, deep purple and beige combination.   And, there is the russet, deep rich tangerine, mustard hued EX with occasional hints of deep amethyst   for those of you who prefer autumn tones. 

There is more but I am beat.  I took advantage of the beautiful early fall weather and went for a somewhat hard run.  Must go to bed.  I hope you like the new Kauni colors.

Hope to see you here again tomorrow. 

We are working on our most populated sock sale ever with new lines and additions such as Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock and many new colors of Schaefer Anne.  I have over 250 frames of photos; wait till you see the lovely color lines.

In the interim I have listed Mondial Ciao (one of the softest sock lines ever),  Fortissima Mexico Colori (beautiful colors and a great pattern),  and many OnLine Supersocke yarn lines including a line with aloe  under the All Socks All the Time category. 

Working on it as fast as I can.  Uh oh, I just remembered a few more but I am going to keep those to myself.  There has to be an element of surprise right…just a little bit?

Just a quick post to let you know of this lovely new yarn.  Indie III is a 70% Merino Wool and 30% Seacell fingering weight yarn with a beautiful drape, stitch definition, and a subtle silky sheen. 

 

Indie III comes in GIANT 400 gram hanks that has plenty of yardage for a shawl, stole, a cardigan (if you shall so desire), and/or 4 pairs of socks.

This lovely yarn also makes a great base for dying.

 

 

 

 

We had a beautiful sunset here in Seattle.  Everyone keeps telling me that fall is here but today sure did not feel like it.  Good night all.  Hope to see you here tomorrow.

And an early entry.  I have no t-shirts (lol), so with no planning and/or training I signed up for the Alki Beach Run 5K.  Check-in is at 8 AM and the run starts at 9 AM this Sunday morning.  I forgot most of these things start early in the day. 

I plan on “running” a really bad time.  Possibly stopping to chat with people, take photos and get some fish and chips to eat during the race.  If you feel like hanging out with me please sign up and let’s do it together.  It may be fun and the weather is supposed to be good.

I promise to post another entry with much more knitting content.

I know I am not quite done with the 30-entries-for-30-days just yet but I already donated 1/4 of my funds to the Seattle Public Library.  Just recently the library was closed for about a week due to budget cuts and shortages.  We use the library extensively and I know plenty of West Seattle residents do too.  So I decided to give a part of

my “winnings” to them. 

I have yet to decide where the rest is going but this was an easy one as we love the library and I feel having a good library system is a wonderful thing for a community.

Wishing you all a great week and hope to see you here tomorrow.