New Year

So….once again, the blog has gotten away from me again.

It's time to recap 2013.

Looking at my Ravelry project page, I think I completed over 30+ projects.  I know that there are some that aren't listed, like my plain jane socks that I knit and some weaving projects that are done but just aren't hemmed yet.

The highlight of my year was the trip that I took out to the Pacific Northwest with my husband.  I attended a week long weaving course in Coupeville, WA, and my husband did sightseeing off by himself while I was in class.  We stayed at a refurbished firehouse which was like an apartment - it was our "home away from home".  The weaving class with Madelyn was great, I fell in love with the area and we are starting to make plans to move out there someday.

One of the things that I never mentioned on the blog is that I got another loom.  I added a Louet Megado to my herd of looms.

This is a 16 shaft, electronic dobby loom with a 44" weaving width.  So Much Fun - but I really need to find time to be able to work on it (that may be happening this summer!).   I have a second warp beam on order, but that hasn't arrived yet.

We had to do some room shuffling again, so now I have two studios upstairs.  Right now, I have an 8-shaft Mighty Wolf, a Wolf Pup, and a 4N4L Baby Wolf (at the shop) in addition to the Megado.  

I haven't done much spinning since the Tour de Fleece this summer and my spinning fiber cabinet is pretty full with some beautiful batts, so I will be getting back to that soon also.

My youngest daughter got engaged over the Christmas holidays!  So, I am knitting her an Evenstar shawl for her wedding veil.

We had a health scare with Josie in December.  She was diagnosed with a Mast Cell Tumor, but luckily the pathologist's report came back ok.  It's not benign, but they were able to get nice, clean margins so we should be ok.

Otherwise, I'm working (too much), Wilson is working, and there's not a lot of time for other things YET.  As I alluded to earlier, that might change in the near future.  We'll see.

Getting Something Off My Chest

I try to stay upbeat and positive, I really do.  But man, retail is HARD.

Yesterday, I had a father and daughter stop into the shop.  I greeted them and told them to let me know if there was anything that I could help them with.  They all but ignored me (that's fine - I'm used to that), and the daughter grabbed two skeins of yarn (both Angora blends).  The father questioned her on whether that is really what she wanted and she told him that yes - that's what she needed.  Now, all of our yarns have a price tag ON EVERY SKEIN.  I rang up the transaction and told him what the dollar amount was (again - there should not have been a question on how much the yarn was).  He handed over the credit card, I chatted with him and his daughter as I was bagging up the yarn and they went on their way.

Fast forward about 10 minutes and in walks the husband, daughter and wife and they are wanting to return the yarn.  I inform them that I would be happy to do that for a store credit or an exchange, but that it is our policy that we do not issue credits back onto their credit card.  We have this policy posted on our counter, on the wall right behind the register, and on the receipt.  We are a small business.  It costs us money every time we swipe your card.  There was a fee that we incurred when you made your purchase, and now you want us to LOSE money on the transaction because you want to bring it back?  Swiping your card again for a credit incurs us yet another fee.  Get it? - WE LOSE MONEY WHEN YOU ASK US TO DO THIS.  We don't break even, it is a loss.  That is the reason that we have this policy.  The big box stores can afford to credit back the money onto your card - they have thousands of transactions and deal in volume.  Your little small business down the street?  Not so much.

And really, being nasty and telling me that you are going to go out on the "blogosphere" and let everyone know what kind of business they would be dealing with if they purchased anything from me isn't going to sway me.  Go ahead and blog away.  I don't care.  Rant and rave all you want - that only makes me stick to my policy even more.  Nastiness won't win you any brownie points from me.  And, by the way, way to teach your child how to handle conflict.  What did she learn?  That you make threats when you don't get your way.  She was all ears and eyes as you and your wife were throwing threats at me.  I politely pointed out to you where our policy was posted.  Really, I should have this policy posted on my door?  How many businesses do you go into and the store policies are listed on the front door?

And people wonder why retail is such a hard job.  The majority of the customers that walk into the door are angels, but there are a few that make you question just why you are doing this.

Kind of counting down the days........

Long Time No Post

Looks like it's about a year and a half since I last posted on the blog.

A lot has happened and a lot has stayed the same - but for the most part, it's all good.

My pug, Koby, is still around.  We ended up trying acupuncture as a last resort for him last year and I'm very happy to say that it worked for his back.  We were just days away from putting him out of his pain, because it was SO bad.  As of today, he has some good days and bad days.  His back seems to be much better (fingers crossed), but he has had some nerve damage so his back legs don't work quite as well as they used to.  He can be quite wobbly.  We're trying to help this as best we can - we have rugs down on our hardwood floors since he gets better traction on carpeting.

I'm still knitting and spinning, but I've also gotten into weaving in a big way.  So big, that I even took a weaving vacation to the Weavers School in Puget Sound.  W went with me and he did some exploring while I was in school and in the evenings we went out to dinner and did some exploring also.  I love the area, the weather was fantastic while we were there, and I want to go back so badly!

Top photo is our amazing instructor, Madelyn van der Hoogt and her dog, Huck.  

The other two photos are some of my samples that I wove there.  In all, I came home with 11 beautiful samples, tons of information, knowledge and inspiration and memories of a wonderful trip.  

Our stay in Coupeville on Whidbey Island was amazing.   I will be back!  

Here's a link to my flickr photo set for the Weavers School trip.

I will also try to post to the blog a little more frequently.   I have a new loom that I'm attempting to learn how to weave on.  This has led to more rearranging upstairs in the studios - yes, plural.  I'm very lucky that my husband is so nice and supportive.  I now have taken over 2 of the bedrooms for all my crafting.  Once things get a little more organized, I'll try to add photos of the two rooms.  And I hope to be weaving some amazing items, so I hope to also be able to add some great photos of my weaving as well.  

Hello??? Hello???

To say it's been awhile since I've posted is an understatement. Apologies, although I don't think anyone reads this blog. (That's actually OK, the blog is actually more for me to get things out of my system more than anything else.)

I'll do a catch-up post sometime soon, but right now, all of my thoughts, energy and concern is directed to my dear best friend - my pug, Koby. He's been doing badly the past month and I fear that he won't be getting better without surgery. Roughly put, he has a bad back. He's had episodes in the past where he's been in pain and his rear legs haven't been acting as they should. Well, this one has been bad. No amount of pain meds has cut it for him. We've tried laser therapy treatments on his back and haven't had any luck.

My heart is breaking. I can not say just how much I love this dog and I fear I'm in for quite the battle with Mr. W. regarding surgery for him. The estimate is anywhere from $2000 - $3000 and of course, there are no guarantees. If Koby was older, it would be easier, but my little guy is only 8-1/2 years old.

If anyone still reads this, can you please send good thoughts and prayers Koby's way? Please????

Back (again)

Once again, too long between posting. Between all the postings that I do for the shop (Blog, Website, Facebook, Ravelry and Twitter), I seem to stall out when it comes to my personal blog.


Anyway - here we are at almost the end of July. It's been a hot and steamy month (which I don't like). As usual, I've been knitting quite a bit and we just finished the Tour de Fleece. I ended up with a sweaters' worth of a heavy worsted weight yarn in a marled blue colorway.



Lots of lace and shawl knitting has been going on this summer including Rock Island by Jared Flood.



I did accomplish knitting up a Swirl Jacket - and absolutely love it. I will definitely make at least one more of these. Such easy knitting, alot of knitting but easy.



Our pond is thriving, although we lost some fish this year to the Great Blue Heron. Here's a picture of him sitting on our neighbor's rooftop waiting for me to go inside so he can have breakfast. He was one determined bird. I think we lost at least 4 fish to him this year.



I also ended up adding on to my tattoo that I got last year. LOVE it, but I can safely say that I am done! :)



Wilson is on a waiting mode regarding a new job. I hope he gets the final word soon. I know it would make him much happier.


Anyway, that's a brief recap of things so far. Hope to get back to posting more here.

Spring - Finally!

It's finally starting to warm up and that means getting the fish into the pond for the summer!

Last weekend, Wilson moved them all out to the pond.

If you look closely, you can see one of "our" ducks enjoying the pond with the fish swimming underneath him! We have a pair of ducks that come every spring and are getting a little tame. They aren't bothered by my pups, and I can get within about 3 feet of them before they waddle away. Now that the fish are in the pond though, we are on Heron watch, so we have a motion-activated sprinkler set up which, unfortunately, also scares off our ducks.

I finally did get the Mighty Wolf loom warped and am currently making some more Fiesta towels - this one with a different draft from my first set that I had done on the Baby Wolf.

I'm currently on the 2nd towel (the blue one). The blue line that separates the two is my cutting line for when they are off the loom and will need to be cut and hemmed. I'll probably get one more towel in this warping. I've already got the next project in mind - I'm going to do some holiday colored table runners.

And I've been knitting up a storm too!
I finished a cabled cardi a week or so back. I had knit this one in case I decided to go to Shepherd's Harvest, so I would have a new sweater to wear. Well, the day that we were going to go wasn't the best weather-wise, so we ended up going to the Mpls. Farmer's Market instead. Oh well, I'll have a great sweater to wear come fall.

I've also been on quite a lace knitting kick lately and finished this lovely shawl. The pattern is Baltic Blossoms and the yarn is Tanis Fiber Arts Pink Label (laceweight) in her Peacock color.

This was a fun project! Lots of nupp action going on!

Long Term Absence

I truly didn't mean to be away from the blog for so long.

Suffice it to say, it was a long winter with some not-so-blogworthy happenings (or people that I would soon rather forget), but there were some nice things too!

I became a "Gamma" again. This time to a darling little baby boy, Mason James. We've been lucky enough to have to babysit him on a couple of overnights and he is charming and delightful!


I got another tattoo late fall. I'm thinking that I need one more.




I also figured out that I love weaving. Of course, that means more equipment! I am now the owner of a Schacht Mighty Wolf. I brought the Baby Wolf into the shop (which was the plan from the very beginning).


I'm so into weaving right now that I even signed up for a class later this summer. I'll be traveling to Puget Sound, WA for the 5 day class. Wilson is going to come with. We are planning on driving straight through there and back, but we have a lovely cottage reserved for us while we are there. I'm excited! I haven't been anywhere for so long.

Of course, there has been LOTS of knitting over the winter also. Not quite so much spinning, but with the warmer weather and longer days, I have a feeling that I'll be back to the wheels in no time.

And SPRING is here, finally. I don't mind winters, but this past one was LONG.