Most of us like to think that our lives run relatively smoothly, sure, we all have hiccups but the day to day routine we can handle. But let’s plan a vacation and it all goes out the window. There is the planning stage with lots of possibilities and picking out too much to do or visit, daydreaming of fabulousness and in general wanting everything to be as grand as possible. Then there is the interruption of routine. You suddenly realize that your life will not be on hold while you are gone. All the paperwork, monthly chores and errands still have to happen… and now they have to happen before you leave! When you get there your vacation is indeed fabulous but when you get back, your life is still sitting there waiting for you. If you’ve ever experienced this, you have an idea what it’s like coordinating one of our booths for a show and why my desk looks like this….
As you can see, my desk is a “little” out of control right now. I’ve been planning what we will be selling in the Pacific Fabrics & Crafts booth at the Seattle Mariner’s Stitch and Pitch for several months and now all the yarns are rolling in. Just like planning a vacation, I wanted all the best and most fabulous things to be there as well as some comfortable favorites we all know and love, but how do I fit it all into one tiny booth!?
Sock yarns are always a favorite, right? I found a place in Springfield, Ohio (my dear Mother-in-Law asked me if I wanted to visit their yarn shop and it turned out to be a mill!) called Yarn Smiths where I fell in love with a yarn called Mazu, 70% Merino Superwash and 30% Seacell (which is naturally anti-bacterial - made from a variety of sea weed). We had to have Pagewood Farms in the booth - Robin Page lives in California and hand dyes wonderful colors, including a specially commissioned "Mariners" colorway in deep blues and greens. Then there is local company Cascade Yarn’s Heritage Sock. At the Northwest Needle market last weekend, we discovered Paca Peds HT, wonderful richly colored alpaca yarn with coordinating yarn twisted into the skein for solid heels and toes. Well, you can never have too much alpaca, right? The Paca Peds made me think about all of our knitters who never get a chance to feel Alpaca Sox from Classic Elite, since we only carry it at our Northgate and Bellevue stores. So with all that, what do you leave out? You guessed it… none of it.
Martin and Larissa Brown are coming to throw out the first pitch and sign copies of their book, Knitalong, at our game night booth. One of the most enchanting projects in the book is the Meathead Hat, an easy pixie pointed cap in bulky wool that only takes two hours to knit on straight needles. I thought it would be a lot of fun if we could knit a long at the game, so we included a note in our goodie bags to bring a long a set of size 15 straight needles, so the search was on for a fabulous bulky yarn. I found two in oiur own back yard at Cascade Yarns. One Meathead Hat takes two skeins of Bulky 109 (knitted double stranded) or one skein of Magnum. We’ll have the ball winder and swift at the game if you want to get some supplies and knit a long with us!
I don’t think I have time to go into the cute kids yarn- a “cheater” Fair Isle style yarn from Spinrite and the amazing new Minnow Merino superwash from Jil Eaton or any of the other wonderful yarns like Classic Elite Moorland, but I’ll post a PDF of a free pattern for a ruffled headband made from Premier yarns Flamenco and Cascade 220 after the weekend!
Jennifer
Recent Comments