The first two weeks of the KAL have passed and beautiful progress has been made...

 It all makes me want ot start another......

 

Brown Sheep sored in Orange and Tye Dye cotton was a hot   pic, but Schaefer's Judith Alpaca and Kureyon were stunning as well.



But my absolute favorite was..... Schaefer's Miss Priss , it is fantastically bright.... and yes I did give it back ( regrettably) to the customer after this pic!



Hope your shawl's moving along and can't wait to see all the progress next week!

        

Okay,....... so this Shoulder Shawl inspired us all, ........I mean look at it .... Susan you did a marvelous job!



And I have to admit, I've been excited ,,,,, I am ready to divide the shoulders... and I am loving my yarn choice.............but




But.....YARN CAME IN TODAY!!!!!!

THE BEAUTIFUL NEW DUETS KITS FROM LORNA'S LACES AND MOUNTAIN COLORS! I am really sort of yelling/squealing this out right now.... They are gorgeous colors.  Five colors combos, simple pattern and great price. Get your knit on baby!

 
And of course there was some additional skeins of Bearfoot in the mix!

                                             
                                                            And these new little cuties from Frabjous Fibers!
                                                                                 I love opening boxes!

                                                                        

                                                                                        Super fun and happy homes for our notions or change!

        

The Entwined Shoulder shawl KAL started.
It was super fun... and lots of people filled the living room at YLYS.
.

There was lots of sharing and talking....


And so many different yarns were used...



 
I got to start my Entwined Shawl too!  While I was waiting for the Jojoland yarn to arrive, I spotted some Tahki Shannon tweed and so I started mine! ...which really means... I GOT TO KNIT!!! I am loving the way it is knitting and the pattern by the O/Cknitiot is fab! I,m now ordering her next pattern ...Isabella. Back to my shawl....I get distracted easy from all the fiber.

 




So many choices , so little knitting time...... Oh yeah Baby Magnus wanted me to share with you his thoughts on all the new stuff on its way in to the store.....

 The pic says it all!

        

Just a quck note to let you know the new Winter '09 class list is posted HERE!

Hope to see you around the shop soon!

        

He's three months old now and so is the store..... If you haven't been in lately, we have been moving things around and are almost done with getting the store together. Lots of great things to knit with.... and quite frankly..... I need to knit vicariously through you, as little Magnus does not allow for much knitting these days.

Pics to come, but as I sit here and try to tell you about the cool stuff I want to knit....it hits me like brick, it is almost Xmas....insane knitting will start to begin soon! Here are 10 great things to knit, even of you want to procrastinate!!!!

1. Any Knitting Pure and Simple top down Sweater. If you begin now, you will have it done!

2. Felted clogs, I promise these are the best gifts ever.... boy,... do we ever have loads of color and wool for felting!

3. Cashmere scarf....or hat! Every year I see a lot of you on the move ready to commit to the man scarf with great cables or pattern..... it can happen, even without the cables/pattern..... and while we have the cashmere...Alpaca will do the trick and help the pocket book!

4. A favorite for the whole family... Ann Norling's Head hugger pattern covers every size, and weight. You can knit a hat for everyone you know and have time to donate a couple too!!! or KalamazooKnits Spiral Snuggler, with one skein of Lorna's Laces Shepard's worsted you can knit a hat for both Mommy and child or daddy and child......these are also great for Chemo Caps!

5. Need something sparkly? Check out the Artyarns one skein lace scarf, easy to knit and the yarn is silk, mohair, with sequins and beads!!!! A one skeiner that is to die for!

6. New on the knitting scene is polarknits! This is polar fleece yarn, and all of their hat patterns are free on-line at polarknit.com..... check it out.... great for machine washing and all the kids in your lives!!!

7. A personal favorite of mine.......Socks!!!! Knit someone you love that great pair of socks! Do we have sock yarn......YES WE DO!!!I would say the best selection around! Mist Alpaca Socks, Alpaca socks (solid&handpainted),Soxx Appeal, Dream N Color, Mountain Colors, Opal, Panda Silk, Panda Soy, Panda Wool, Panda Cotton, Maisy, Interlacements tiny toes, Artyarns, Shibui ( every color) Jitterbug ( every color), Anne, Heather and Lola from Schaefer, Lornas Laces, Tye Dye Socks, Berroco Sox, Trekking XXL, Ella Rae, Aracaunia, Berrocco's Ultra Alpace Fine, Ambrosia and there is a few more that I haven't mentioned! Knit Socks!!!!!

8. Speaking of Sock yarn ..... take your leftover sock yarn and knit KalamazooKnits Sock ornaments for all that you know...

9. Desperation is starting to set in....... take more sock leftover and knit any of the KalamazooKnits ornament balls!!! Deck the balls baby!!! This is a couple hour project for anyone and a great for present decoration, for tree trimming, and as a little buddy to #7!

10 No time to knit, but time to buy........ Check out any of the Lantern Moon tape measurers, A bee, a lamb, a ladybug, a cake,  a leaf with ladybugs and for the Holidays!!!!! Peppermint candies!!!! these are to cool!!!

Now I am in the mood,   which number should I begin with?????

        

OK I know it's been pretty quiet around the old blog.  As many of you know having a 6 week old takes up a whole lot of time.  But rest assured we will be back blogging regularly soon. 

The store on the other hand is extremely busy and the new fall yarn continues to arrive daily.  The real challenge it turns out is getting it out of the boxes an on to the shelves.  Stop by...you'll be amazed!  While your there pick up our new fall class list.  If you can't make it by, you can check out the classes here

        

If you haven't seen it yet please take a look the new look to our WEBSITE.  While I will still maintain that it is a work in progress...it looks much better than before.  Let me know what you think...suggestions are always welcome!

Fiber Fidelis,

MJ

        

It has been a whirlwind of a last 5 days.  But Mom and Mags are slumbering peacefully downstairs as I write this...yes we decided to go ahead a keep the little guy...and name him Magnus George.  Grand Mo wasn't so happy about the Magnus part but has since caved a bit as the George part was to honor her late father. 

It turns out that Mags was a little jaundiced, well more than a little jaundiced, enough so that he needed to be sent home with this funky contraption called a biliblanket.  It's light therapy to help process the bilirubin and get it out of his system by way of poop (which we are now terming "Make Big" thanks to Oma).  It sounds simple enough, cram a large rectangle pad up his onsie for just 22 hours a day and then make big to poop away the bad bilirubin...oh and go back to the hospital everyday and poke another hole in his heel and squeeze enough blood out to see if we have to start the process all over again.  Not so fun...but it all seems worth it since in my admittedly biased opinion he is just so flippin' adorable.




Stop by the shop in a few weeks to decide for your self.

Before I forget...one last thing, I have to say a huge thanks to so many people for their support and kind wishes.  There are a few I want to thank by name: 

Erica, Logan, Candy and David, Connie, Jan and Steve (and whoever at Zazio's that made the garganelli possible), Linda S, Mary Ann, Susan C, My Torrent Colleagues (Domestic and Abroad). 

Last but not least, thank you Mom, Kelly and I are very blessed to have you as a part of our lives.

Oops I took to long to write this...sounds like the little guy just made big... 

        

Well...I don't want to steal too much thunder, but I can resist.  

I'm so excited and it's waaaaay too good of news to keep to myself.

We welcomed our little sprout into the world yesterday evening a little after 9pm weighing in at 7lbs 8oz and measuring 20 inches.  Now if you have seen Kelly lately you will have a hard time beleiving that he was ONLY 7lbs 8oz and that there was only one sprout and not a pair or four.

Mom and Baby are doing very well, thank you

The name you ask?   93.4% sure it is Magnus (It's a good strong Viking name)

Pics to follow soon...

        

I have to show you some great pics of one of our classes. Partially because I was asked about it, and partially because you got to try this! We offer yarn dyeing here at the store, yours truly is the designer of the pattern that is published through Kalamazoo Knits. It was a little obsession of mine to try my hand at color/dyeing without all the mess and expense of the acid dyes..... If you have any desire at all, you should try this workshop. No one has ever been disappointed, almost all are surprised at how easy this technique is, and how bright the colors are versus Kool-Aid dyeing.. Check out the pics and them come dye your own sock yarn with Erica in one of her upcoming classes!




Many colors....



Let the dyeing begin...



Cook and enjoy!





Take this class!