The Wonderful Welted Fingerless Gloves

Well, by now you know I am a Churchmouse Yarns & Tea pattern junkie. Really. I intend to knit every one of their patterns...that's how great they are. Like their other patterns, this one is easy, correct (not always a given), and clearly written. Best of all, it fits! The yarn I used from top to bottom, is Habu's silk mohair and Pagewood Farms' Tundra knit together. While the mohair is so fine it barely makes an appearance, it does soften the silk and make the gloves a bit warmer. The vintage mother-of-pearl buttons are the perfect finishing touch.

P.S. The backdrop for this display is one of judi patuti's beautiful home dec fabrics in Robin's Egg blue. Nothing could say "Spring" in a louder whisper.

Chubby Carrot Sweater

This is Hop's sweater. It's amazing how long it takes to knit little things because you're using double pointed needles and with such few stitches, you can't really get any momentum going. And there's a lot of detail work. I'm not complaining, just making an observation that I knit the loafer slipper in the same amount of time! This sweater has raglan sleeves and kitchener stitch is used to seam the underarms. It is truly a miniature. I was not pleased with the carrot colors I had on hand in Skinny Dyed. But I did have the perfect ones in Blue Sky's Organic Cotton (worsted weight v. dk weight). When I finished the carrot, my husband said, my what a chubby little carrot you have there! Hah!

I wish I could fit in this sweater and wear it today because it is raining hard. One of the disadvantages of having a cool old brick building built in the early 20's is that we get water intrusion with heavy rains. Luckily, only in the back two rooms and not the main sales floor. But still, it means that we pull out the wet vac and in between customers, try to suck up what we can. It only happens a handful of days out of the year, so overall, it's worth the price of "cozy" which is also what the Grove is on a day like today. Charm does have its price.

Loafer Slippers Rock!

I'm wondering if I'm starting to develop a foot fetish. After knitting 3.5 pairs of the Turkish Bed Socks, I am now on to Coco Knits loafer slippers. Good lord, you can't imagine how cozy they are. This one is a store sample. I knit it in one night. That's how quickly these knit up because you hold two strands of worsted weight together and use a 10.5 needle. The octopus on the top makes it scream! Gotta run and open the shop, but I'm bringing this puppy with me, so if you want to see it or try it on, c'mon in! Check out our latest newsletter (link is to your right). We're teaching this pattern in March.

We've Got It Goin' On!

In the past week or so, we have had some marvelous classes at the Grove and the energy and camaraderie is so wonderful, I'd chose to be there even if I wasn't working. Susan Schlesinger from Bonita Knit & Sew has joined our staff and taught her first beginning crochet class for us last weekend. What a pleasure it was to have her. She is, well, professional in every sense of the word. And fun to boot, too, as you can see by the smiling faces in her class. (Okay, I told everyone they had to smile for the camera or they would fail the class, but still...she is a lot of fun!) I'm working on finalizing our March calendar and she is going to teach a wonderful baby afghan class, hold a crochet clinic, and of course, teach another beginning crochet class. So keep an eye out for our newsletter which will be posted on my blog by mid-week.

To our great delight, we also had Valerie Hebert teaching needle felting last Saturday. Oh, I wish you could see the fibers in these heavenly kits by Pagewood Farms and see what these wonderful students produced. One could have worn hers home! She was done in 2 hours and she did a beautiful job. We're hoping Val will teach more needle felting classes for us. It's amazing to me that such a wonderful artist can be as outgoing and articulate as Val. Not every one who "does" can "teach" so she is a rare bird! Check out her website and you'll see why I chose the word "bird"!

And then, of course, we had another wonderful judi patuti sewing class. This time, she taught Amy Butler's Gum Drop Pillow class and her students were so good that they all but finished in the first session!

When you look at the collective talent at the Grove, between the teachers and the students, it is downright overwhelming. How blessed are we to be in each others' lives?

Some Bunny Loves You

Happy Valentine's Day! This little guy was knit with plenty of love by Kimberly, a customer of the Grove, who (lucky for us) is crazy about knitting toys. Some Bunny was knit out of Spud & Chloe from one of Susan Anderson's free patterns called Rabbit. The tennis ball tummy makes Some Bunny a solid little guy with no need for props so you can place him just about anywhere. While he is here to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day, he would make a perfect Easter bunny. With Easter being April 7th, there's plenty of time to bring him to life before then!

P.S. If you don't see the link, just place your cursor over the word "Rabbit" and it will take you to the page with the free pattern.

Reflections

Almost every morning, I sit and knit while the coffee is brewing and when the sun is shining, I watch the reflection cast by the stained glass window. It is absolutely mezmerizing. It's the same feeling I get from sitting in front of a fire place watching the flames dance. And this morning, I was sitting here thinking of how much I loved to start my morning this way, especially when there's a sun dance going on. And I wanted to share this moment, realizing how important it is to acknowledge the small things that make our days joyful.

A Proud Knitting Moment

You no doubt recognize Gail in this photo but you may not know her beloved husband, Joe, who is holding the other side of the afghan. Joe is Valiant for a bunch of reasons, but most recently for completing some very aggressive radiation treatments which have left him cold, literally. We keep close track of him through Gail and we couldn't bear for him to be cold so we all decided to knit him an afghan out of Chunky by Misti Alpaca. Each one of us knit one strip and Gail assembled them. I think we had it done in less than 2 weeks from start to finish, grateful to be able to do something for Joe during the healing process.

Joe was so appreciative that he took us all out to lunch yesterday at Brockton Villa! We were overwhelmed by his offer and looked so forward to the day. Here we are, smiling from ear-to-ear in our own little room at Brockton. I only wish Gail was in the picture instead of taking it.



And to beat all, Joe gave each of us a beautiful silver bracelet hand-crafted by Carol Brown! Can you imagine?!# The thing is, we got so much pleasure out of knitting this afghan that no thanks were necessary. It's like we wanted to thank him for giving us the opportunity to do a joint project with love that binds us all closer together. And that's how we started out 2010. We actually began knitting on New Year's Eve. With a start like that, how could we not all have a great year?