Slackin' Already

Yup, 5 posts in and I"m already slacking. Not sure where the last five days have gone, but they are gone.

Happy 2007! Steve and I had a faboo time in Boston - all 26 hours of it (that's from departure time until our return, by the way). Did a bit-o-shopping, had lunch, napped, got all gussied up and went to a tres chic restaurant that was yummy but somehow I felt a bit out of place (read: old). Visited the site of our nuptials almost 12 years ago and had a drink the very hip lounge that back in the day was just a small function room that served as the site of many of our wedding pictures. We were down and out before midnight and slept through all of it. I worked on my Brooks Farm scarf to and fro and finally finished it on Tuesday night. May I present (imaginary drum roll please) my first FO of 2007:

Yup, I'm pretty darn pleased with myself. Now, I'm getting started on Jackson's hat from measurements which I am knitting in Valley Yarns Lenox (60% baby alpaca/40% merino). It's very soft. I"m using colonial blue and maybe a strip of black. Just a basic ribbed hat - maybe all rib, maybe not. We'll see how it goes.

I was also able to get the gauge I need for the hand warmers, substituting Lusso from my stash, rather than Berkshire Hand Dyed, so I'm going to get those cast on to knit on the plane to San Diego next week. I also think I'm going to dig a scarf or two that are WIP and bring them along as well. That trip across country can be a long one.

Tomorrow is the last day of our insane sale. The store finished up on Tuesday and we're slowly but surely getting things back to normal. This is how the poor classroom looked on Wednesday morning. Remember a few posts back when I showed you how pristine and organized it looked to start off?

I've spent the better part of this week wrapping up our spring catalog, which all of you should have in early February. It's packed and I mean PACKED with yarn - new yarn - new projects - fresh and new. I'm worried that we won't even have all of the yarn by the time the catalog hits. We're in the final proofing stages, which is the most painful for me personally. A proof reader, I am not. I know I am biased, but I think it is a really great catalog.

Steve and I recorded our next installment of our radio show/podcast, Ready! Set! Knit!. The show that aired on 12/30 is now available on our website and on iTunes for you to download. The guest was Clara Parkes, who founded and operates Knitters Review - one of the best knitting forums out there. If you have some time - give it a listen. We don't stink :) Plus, don't forget - we've got Yarn Harlot on 1/20, our faboo Berroco sales Rep Andra on 1/27 (she'll be talking all about Berroco Spring and some other cool initiatives that they've got going on) and on 2/3 it's Lily Chin.

I received a press release from Interweave the other day (publisher of Knits, among a zillion other mags, books, etc) and they have hired Kim Werker as the new editor of their Crochet mag. This is AWESOME!!! For those of you who don't know who she is, you are in for a great treat. She is young, hip, completely into crochet and will do amazing things with that magazine. Not that it was bad, but she has the ability to take it to another level completely. She founded crochetme.com (got to figure out how to make url's work/link). She was at the store in October with Shannon Okey and they were two of the nicest people we've ever had the pleasure of hosting. Hope she'll consider a return visit now that she's got this big new fancy job! I"ll have to work through her "people" now. So - watch for future issues of Interweave's Crochet - I know they will be great. And if you don't crochet - learn - fast - otherwise you will miss out on all of the fun!

Oh and last but not least, I was asked about my love of weather. It's more of an obsession actually. As a child, I kept weather journals - daily weather journals. I remember the blizzard of '78 (do not start figuring out any math) and staying up all night, power out and my parents' AM radio by my side listening to the non-stop weather forecasts. I love a good storm - blizzard, thunder - hail, oh, hail makes me down right giddy. Those dark green/black skies we occasionally get - love 'em. I want to take one of those tornado chaser vacations they offer out in the Midwest. Steve thinks I"m a lunatic and doesn't want me to do it - but I am going to do it someday. I would still love to work at the National Hurricane Center with Max Mayfield - I believe he just retired, but I love that man. The reason I didn't pursue meteorology as a career is simple. I had a "girl hating" Physics teacher my junior year in high school, who happened to be an old farty woman who liked the boys. She was mean and made me hate Physics, which is kind of important in the study of meteorology.

More yarn stuff soon - spring begins tomorrow :)

Kathy