Live Stitch @ Little Knits

If you have not, you have not been to our Ravelry discussion board!  Just a quick stop will let you in on the secret.

And, while we did announce the winner of the last Live Stitch give away I thought I would mention it here too – it is the 23rd comment by Cathcart that was picked by the random number generator.  Enjoy your Madeline Tosh Kimberly!

Louis says, have a good week everyone! 

I know, it has been a long while.  I was simply not able to do it all between Ravelry, Twitter and Facebook.  What to do first and how much and when.  There has been offers of help and to those who offered many thanks!  Let me try my hand at this one more time and hopefully this time I will be more consistent.  And, if I know that you are reading I promise I will write often.

I will start with a bit of quick news: did you know that we have started Ravelry Coupon Mondays?  Just join Little Knits’ group at Ravelry and watch for coupon announcements.  Every Monday it will be something new.  When you join us on Ravelry please share your projects with us and let me know what you would like to see at Little Knits next.

For tomorrow we have a new yarn that will be posted on the site that was requested by our Ravelry members, Berrroco’s Blackstone Tweed.  And even better the colors listed will be on sale at 45-50% off.  This is a surprisingly soft tweed by Berroco with a wool, superkid mohair and angora fiber blend.   Here are the two colors we have in stock that will be on sale:

And a personal find on etsy, Grey Drizzle Fibers.  This is a fairly new dyer with a great feel for subtle color combinations and color-on-color variation.  I do know the dyer but we have no financial affiliation, meaning there is no profit motive for this post and I will not benefit from it.  Simply put I love the colors created by this small indie dyer.  I got two hanks of her 4-ply DK weight merino just to play in colors that are not really characteristic of my favorites including a beautiful green called Leaf and in a warm honey amber called Doubloon.   The merino is soft and smooth with a tight-but-not-too-tight ply but what makes this yarn so special is the dyers’ colors with their subtle color-on-color variations and rich hue saturation.

I also asked Ms. Grey Drizzle to do a special project for me and she was kind enough to agree.  We have been testing a super fine single ply merino from Italy at Little Knits.  So I asked her to dye the lace weight of this lovely merino in a deep deep blue-red for me and she did!  I call this red Drop-dead Red and it is goooorgeous!  I have about 2700 yards of this super soft merino in Drop-dead Red and I cannot decide on a project…I do need help so your suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

That is it for this post.  I am off to bed so that I can get up early tomorrow and start photographing some new yarn.

Just a quick blog entry to let you know that our retail location will be closed on Saturday the 21st in preparation of a large end-of-year inventory sale.

We will reopen on Sunday, the 22nd at 11 AM for the first day of our sale.  New and old inventory from lines such as Debbie Bliss, Mondial, Katia, Cherry Three, Louisa Harding and Rowan will be reduced from 50-75% including books and magazines.

We hope to see you at Little Knits in West Seattle this Sunday and during the rest of the year when you can make it over.

I cannot leave you without a little eye candy.  We have new and beautiful color lines in for Handmaiden’s Sea Silk.  Here is Boreal and The Ozarks in all their beauty:

                 

 

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. 

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 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.

May I cheat a little tonight?  Just a short blurb and a cup of tea?  Well the cup of tea is right by my keyboard and I am typing up my entry as quickly as I can.

I collect knitting magazines.  I use them when I can and then they go back into their boxes or shelves.  When I see a gap in my issues I am sad.  This is why I called Interweave, to see if they had some of the issues I was missing.  I scored on a few dates and failed on some but I brought in every back issue they had in print.  I listed a mix of Inteweave magazines, including back issues of Interweave Knits, Knitscene, Spin-Off and the new Weekend Knits.   I hope you can find something that you need or an issue you have been wanting.

Have a great weekend and see you here again tomorrow.

I am going through Tilli Tomas and posting all the lines we have received albeit a little slowly. 

Tonight I was able to get in Pure & Simple   and the Beaded Lace lines.  

There is more.  Tomorrow I hope to be able to get everything in, which includes Sequin Lace and Beaded Silk with Sequins.  Tilli, as usual, is beautiful so while these lines and the colors we have gotten in are closeouts I think we should have at least Pure & Simple and may be the Rock Star at Little Knits regularly.  What do you think?  If you have any other suggestions please let me know.

On a completely unrelated matter, school year starts for my 6 year old tomorrow.  And then there is my 4 year old.  For those of you who know the story, I still have not been able to find a preschool for him.  We did try a preschool/daycare that came highly recommended and it was an absolute disaster. 

Both my sons have nut, dairy and egg allergies (nut being the most extreme).  During the first few days of my son’s attendance I found out that none of these facts were communicated to the day care staff appropriately by the administration.  Or if they were, no one stressed the significance of the matter and I guess the epi pin I brought in with my son was not enough of a clue.  They were/are nice folks but to say that the place was a mad house is a very accurate assessment.  Everyday, while at work, I expected my phone to ring with the news that my son had to be taken to the ER.

In his second day my son broke out all over as he came in contact with an allergant – what, we have no idea.  In his third day I went over to deliver lunch to find three kids eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at the same table and when I expressed concern a solution was found: my 4 year old were to sit at a small table away from the other kids and eat on his own. 

During the month my son attended this daycare/preschool I kept him home for a total of 5 days out of concern for his safety for a number of reasons (and paid for those days).  Toward the end of his attendance my 4 year old was given a cheese cracker by a very nice and well meaning teacher who forgot about his allergies (he did not like it, spit the cracker out and did not have a reaction).

In their defense, I would like to say that at the end of the month they made an effort to keep the room nut free and attempted to sit my 4 year old with the other kids (pursuant a request from me).  By then I was scared, had lost my confidence in their ability to take care of him and he did not want to go. 

On the bright side, my older son goes to a school that is supportive and has taken care of him.  His classmates and their families have been simply wonderful and they all have done everything they can to create a safe environment for him.  Last year, one of his classmates made sure that the treats she brought into the class for her birthday were OK for my 6 year old.  I cannot tell you how touched I was.  I acknowledge that my son’s allergies limit his classmates’ choice of food and we do infringe on their rights.  With all that l am very appreciative for everything they have done.  I hope that I can find a safe environment such as this for my 4 year old.  What makes me smile is the fact that despite his allergies he is a healthy little boy who is a rascal and has absolutely no fear.

If you are reading this post, my apologies for the above narrative.  For some reason I felt the need to write, I hope you do not mind.  For those of you who have kids in school, here is wishing all of you a great school year and healthy kids.  And for all of us I wish for scrumptious yarn, beautiful projects, many FOs that may be enjoyed in good health with a smile.

It was a beautiful Saturday in Seattle.  Not too hot, not too cold, a little bit of rain and lots of fun folks stopping by the store.  

We did have a yarnplosion and there were boxes and bags everywhere but we are working on it.  Mr. Little was kind enough to bring the gorgeous Divine in to the store and a few other surprises that were still in their boxes.  I opened one of the boxes and then suddenly all the boxes were open!?   

Sometime during the day we had a gentleman come in with his wife/girl friend/the main knitting party or so we assumed.  And, boy were we wrong.  It turns out they both knit and the gentleman in question, David, knitted his own kilt-hose as shown in this photo. 

We all though he was pretty crafty until he showed us his blog, Sweater Project and from there took us to VisiKnit.  VisiKnit allows you to type in your cable pattern, one click and presto your chart is ready to be viewed in jpg.  Thank you for sharing VisiKnit with us David and for allowing me to take your photo!  Please make it so that we can use VisiKnit for our lace patterns. 

I am off to go get a cup of tea and then work on some photos.  Good night everyone (or good morning)!