| Musings on the Art of the Cable | |
December 30, 2007: Looking Back . . . and Ahead Normally I don't get all sentimental at the end of the year, but I do spend a fair bit of time assessing how the year went for my business and making plans for next year. Overall 2007 was a darned good year, business-wise:
The year wasn't without a couple of low points, though: I spent a ridiculous amount of money on legal fees this year. Some of it was administrative: I changed the form of my business from a sole proprietorship to an LLC. Some of it was related to intellectual property. In November, I received an e-mail from one of my subscribers asking if I had seen the Holiday issue of KnitSimple yet, because the cover used the phrase "twists & turns" and an article inside the magazine also used that phrase in its title. Some of you may remember a few years ago when Knitter's magazine used "twists and turns" on the cover of an issue devoted to cable knitting. There was quite a hue and cry afterward and I was urged to trademark that phrase because it was the title of my newsletter. So I did. Trademarking something is supposed to provide a measure of protection and keep other people from using it. It doesn't. All it does is force you to spend money. Thanks to the husband's business and a partnership that went bad, I have had quite enough of lawyers, thank you (even as nice as mine is). After I got my hands on a copy of KnitSimple, I sent the editor of the magazine, Carla Scott, an e-mail in which I politely noted that "Twists and Turns" is my trademark and that I was sure they did not intend to cause any confusion by using it. I also said that I really didn't want to get lawyers involved, and perhaps this could be remedied by a brief explanation in the next issue. I got no response. My lawyer was insistent that I send a letter to Soho Publishing about the trademark infringement. If you don't defend your trademark against infringement, someone else can claim abandonment and start using it. He drafted the standard letter one uses in these kinds of situations and a couple of days later we recieved a response from a law firm in New York. They maintain that KnitSimple did nothing wrong by using "twists and turns" in the article and on the cover. I don't have an unlimited amount of money to spend on legal fees, and thus far I'd already spent several hundred dollars on this situation—money that I certainly could have used in some other area of my business. I had no choice but to let the matter drop. I'd done what I could from my end, but it left a really sour taste in my mouth. I'm not an indepedently wealthy knitting designer (is there even such a thing?) who can take another company to court and sue for trademark infringement. I'm a kntting designer running a small business and all I'd really like is a some respect from other people in the industry. (Respect in the form of a response to a personal e-mail would be really welcome.) And did the trademark protect me? No. Apparently anyone can use it with impunity, counting on the fact that it's unlikely that I would spend thousands of dollars going after them in court. This all happened about the same time that I decided to offer the newsletter as a digital download. The other low point this year was that I didn't handle that transition as well as I could have. So many of my subscribers have asked for the newsletter to be offered as a digital download that I really felt like I was back in the dark ages by offering it only in hard copy. I thought that perhaps only a small percentage of people would still want to get hard copy. I assumed that I would eventually (like in a year or so) stop producing the hard copy and go only to digital download. I WAS WRONG. Subscribers were very vehement in stating their preferences: the ones who want the newsletter in digital download format were effusive with joy and gratitude. The ones who want hard copy sent me some very strongly-worded notes indicating why a digital download format wouldn't work for them. Okay, that's fine. I asked for everyone to indicate a preference because I had no idea what percentage of subscribers would want digital download and what percentage would want hard copy. Sigh. It's that "road to hell is paved with good intentions" thing, I guess. I'm just trying to make everyone happy. The good news is that I now have a much better understanding of how my subscribers feel about the newsletter. Thankfully it's 99.99% positive, because this transition to digital download is a lot of work. So, looking ahead . . . the big item on the 2008 to-do list is getting Cables 2 done and launched. A smaller—but more immediate— item is getting the first issue of the newsletter out as both hard copy and digital download. Throw in a couple of teaching gigs and I'll have plenty to keep me busy for a while. And I think this will be the last blog post for 2007. Have a safe and wonderful New Year and I'll see you again in 2008! December 29: Not Quite Done Yet Okay, I lied. I have another blog post (or two) in me yet. I am going to talk about food. The rice cooker is fabulous. I made mulligatawny stew yesterday using a new recipe which calls for it to be served over rice. The stew was good, although I think I will double the amount of curry next time. I love curry and this recipe was a little light on it. It also called for shredded unsweetened coconut on top of each portion. The coconut added an interesting taste that I liked, but the rest of the family didn't (imagine that). The recipe is from this book:
I have a couple of cookbooks that I use a lot. This is one of them. Soups and stews are so easy and I think they make great winter comfort food. By the way, when the UPS man delivered my rice cooker, I was outside attempting to blow 8" of snow off the driveway—Accuweather.com said we'd get "a coating up to 1". Of course Chester is beside himself with delight, because all of the I started a Big Sky Knitting Designs group on Ravelry if anyone is interested in participating. We're having a discussion about which yarns Yesterday was a pretty productive day, the snowblowing part notwithstanding. I got the scarf/hat pattern formatted and a great picture taken. Today I'll drop the models off at the shop for them to display to encourage class sign-ups. I also scanned in half a dozen swatches for Cables 2, worked on the Mystery Afghan (which is coming along nicely), pulled out some yarn to swatch a design to be sent out for test-knitting, and started organizing my and the husband's 2007 files to be put in storage. Today we're having some friends over for Chipotle Beef Chili with Lime Crema and to watch the football game. We don't do a lot of entertaining but I like to have the friends over every once in a while. December 28, 2007: Winding Down I really like this time of the year. I like the relative calm between Christmas and New Year's, before I have to contemplate putting together all the tax stuff for the accountant and getting ready for the fire department auction (needless to say, January, February and March are my three least-favorite months of the year!). We're supposed to get snow all weekend—how much, I have no idea, but the conveyor belt of Pacific storms is rolling and we could get a few inches or a few feet. I am eagerly awaiting this, which is supposed to be delivered today barring a snowstorm:
My sister-in-law got me a Williams-Sonoma gift card for Christmas, and I spent it on this rice cooker. I couldn't decide between the rice cooker and the immersion blender, but the blender was on backorder for six weeks so the rice cooker it was. We eat a LOT of rice. I am never satisfied with the way it turns out and everyone who has one of these things just raves about it. I have a couple of rice recipes picked out to try this weekend. I've been neglecting the business too long, too (this always happens around Christmas), so today's to-do list includes (in addition to 6 loads of laundry):
If I don't get another blog post in before the New Year, I want to wish all of you a happy and healthy 2008! Thanks for being such great blog readers! December 26, 2007: Wives and Power Tools We opened our gifts yesterday morning. I have barely been able to contain myself for the past three weeks because I got the husband the most phenomenal present. My mother always bought tools for my father for Christmas, so when the husband and I got married, I was all prepared to carry on the tradition. He, however, came up with this dumb rule that women shouldn't buy tools for their husbands (he claims I have no idea what he wants). For 17 years I have been trying to figure out a way around this rule and this year I finally did. In a big way. Although the husband does concrete for a living, he loves to weld and does a fair bit of it on the side. A few weeks ago I was driving past the welding supply place in town and noticed that their reader board said they had new "auto-darkening welding helmets" in stock. I thought, "Wow, that would make a great Christmas present for the husband and I know he doesn't have one." (I pay the bills and keep his tool lists up-to-date, so I know what he has and what he doesn't.) When I got home, I flipped through his welding tool catalogs and educated myself about welding helmets so I would be sure to get the right thing (that's not too hard—he always buys himself top-of-the-line equipment). I went back to the welding supply store and told them what I wanted. The guys there were all impressed and one of them told me I was "a great wife." (I know.) I wrapped the box and stuck it under the tree, and for the past three weeks I've been on pins and needles hoping the husband wouldn't figure it out—or worse, buy himself one. About a week ago I answered the phone and it was one of the guys from the welding supply store. I had a small moment of cardiac arrest thinking the husband had found out about his present, but they were just calling to tell me that a new welder he had ordered had come in and was ready to be picked up. Whew. So when he opened the box yesterday—well, the look on his face was priceless. He said it was a "wonderful" present and he couldn't wait to use it. I also (sort of) got him to admit that maybe it is a dumb rule—because I do know EXACTLY what he wants. Men. Just because they're so clueless that most of them can't figure out what we want doesn't mean we're equally clueless about what they want. He bought me a very nice leather coat, by the way. In knitting news—over the past couple of days I designed and knit a scarf for a beginning cables class I am teaching at Camas Creek Yarn next month. I need the class sample, but I also wanted to give the store something to display to generate interest in the class. I had a skein left over so I started a matching hat. I have to stop and pick up another skein and a 16" size 11 circular needle today so I can finish it. My mother-in-law knocked out a couple of baby strawberry hats while she was here and I grafted the toes of her socks closed (she has trouble with Kitchener stitch so she just brings them with her and lets me do them). I really like the scarf and hat set. I don't need it for the newsletter—instead, I think I am going to make it available as the first downloadable pattern in my store. I'd like to add others and this one will be a good start. It'll let me work out the bugs before the newsletter goes digital. December 23, 2007: Ode to Cables I was noodling around at 4:30 yesterday morning and came up with a poem (which I think is pretty darned good). I am going to put it in the foreword to Cables 2:
December 22, 2007: Holiday Fun and Games We're having a grand time here at Chez Big Sky Knitting Designs. Chester and Rusty have a cousin. This is Peanut, the 2-pound chihuahua (no, I did not knit his sweater, unfortunately).
Here is Rusty decorated for the holidays (Chester doesn't do antlers):
We were worried that Chester would expend a lot of energy trying to get at Peanut. Nope. Chester is mostly oblivious. Rusty (who, the husband reminded me, is the rodent-eating varmint-killer around these parts) keeps looking at Peanut as though he is an appetizer. Needless to say, we don't let the big dogs anywhere near the little dog. And here are some of my kids' cookies (yum):
Some knitting is happening, but not much. But that's just fine. We're all having fun. December 19, 2007: National GeoBee I have to brag for a moment: DD#2's school held their annual Geography Bee yesterday for the 4th through 8th-grade kids. DD#2 was one of four kids representing the 5th grade. She finished in second place!—coming in behind an 8th-grader! (And she only lost to him by one question.) I just think that's phenomenal. Third place went to a 7th-grader. She gets a gift certificate at the awards ceremony today.
I stopped in at Camas Creek Yarn yesterday to pick up some Addi Lace needles that they ordered for me and to schedule some classes in January and February. I'll be teaching a beginning cables class and a finishing class, so getting those class descriptions together today is on my list of things to do. Melanie, the owner, says that business has exceeded her expectations. I am thrilled! I now have at least one of each size of the Addi Lace needles in every length they make. I think I need to write and ask if/when they plan to make them in 16" lengths. I use my 16" needles a lot for swatching and smaller projects. I was never a big fan of the regular Addi's (disliked them intensely, in fact), but these Addi lace needles are my new favorites. I'll be so happy when the holiday season is over and the US Postal Service stops losing my packages. This happens EVERY year—beginning in November, at least a couple of packages go missing and I have to re-send them. I know they do a huge volume of mail this time of year, but some of us depend on the mail system for our businesses and I don't think it's fair that I have to take a loss at the end of every year—not only am I out the cost of the postage, but when I have to fill book orders again because the books never arrived, I lose the profit on the books, too. Arrrggghhh. My in-laws and my sister-in-law arrive tonight for a week-long visit. Also on my list of things to do today is a last-minute sweep of the house to make sure everything is in order. And we're upping Chester's prednisone dose just a smidge starting today so that he can cope with the stress of having visitors in the house. What a doofus. I am glad you all find him so entertaining, 'cause we do, too! December 17, 2007: I Love My Football Team Did anyone see the Cleveland-Buffalo game yesterday? I only saw highlights because it wasn't broadcast here, although DD#2 and I went out and sat in my truck during the 4th quarter so she could do her homework and I could listen to the game. I think that's what I like most about my satellite radio—listening to the Cleveland Browns Radio Network and hearing all the ads for Giant Eagle and Ohio Savings Bank and WMMS. It almost makes me feel like I am there at the game. And those poor Buffalo players: their plane couldn't leave last night because of the weather, and when they tried to leave this morning the plane went off the runway and got stuck in the mud. Last I heard, they were on a bus back to New York. But I am glad we won—the husband can no longer gloat that his team (the Pittsburgh I can't believe I married someone who roots for them Steelers) is on top of the division. We are now tied, although they have an advantage because they beat us twice. But that was early in the season. Wait until next year when we kick their butts.
It's been a productive day so far! I have a sweater blocking upstairs (knitted by a test-knitter, not me—it looks so nice!), I finished up a couple of swatches, wrote up and submitted half a dozen class proposals for a conference next fall, filled a bunch of orders, and got the rest of the Christmas presents on their way. Now it's time for some lunch and then more knitting. When I took DD#2 out to the bus this morning I noticed that all of the other snow hills in the yard had been decimated by Chester. He seems determined to leave no December 16, 2007: How Chester Drives the Husband Nuts We decided Chester must be feeling really good, because this is how he entertained himself for hours yesterday morning:
The husband is very meticulous about snow removal. Our driveway often resembles a perfectly-groomed ski trail when he's done. I only get to run the snowblower when it's absolutely necessary because my goal is to remove as much snow in as short a time as possible, not make the driveway into a work of art. A few days ago, the husband blew the snow from the circle in our driveway into a nice, neat pile around this tree. Chester decided it would be the perfect place to practice search and rescue with the DD#1 babysat yesterday, and the family she babysat for lives right outside Kalispell. I figured there was no point in dropping her off, driving all the way home (Kalispell is 17 miles from our house), then going back to get her, so DD#2 and I went shopping while she babysat. The husband couldn't believe that it could take us five hours to get a "few things." (The husband studiously avoids having to shop EVER, unless it's for new tools, so how would he know? This is the man who will not go to the grocery store during the entire three weeks I am on the east coast visiting family. If he ran out of food, he would eat grass rather than go shopping.) I knew Kalispell would be mobbed and sure enough, it took us ONE HOUR to get through one store. I never even got to Costco, which was one of the stores on my list. We did get some good deals, though (I had lots of coupons): the girls' Christmas outfits, the perfect pair of shoes to wear with my outfit, a grill light so I can see what I am cooking out on the porch, a new table pad and tablecloth for the dining room table, and the Sundays at Moosewood cookbook. We ran into DD#2's godparents at the bookstore and made plans to drop by and see them next week (they belong to our previous—Lutheran—church so we don't see them much). We finished just in time to grab some fried chicken at the grocery store and pick up DD#1. I've got tomorrow and Wednesday to get some work done before my in-laws arrive. I want to get a bit more done on Cables 2; yesterday morning I scanned in some swatches but there are quite a few charts that still need to have patterns written to go with them. So that's on the schedule for tomorrow. And thanks, everybody, for weighing in on your preferences for the cover cable for Cables 2. I'll let you know what the graphic artist and I decide! December 14, 2007: Is There a Miss America Competition for Cables? I present to you the three finalists for the cover of Cables, Volume 2: Intermediate Techniques.
These are the pics (out of 25 or so) that are my favorite candidates for use on the cover of Cables 2. I'm sending the disk off to the graphic artist today. We'll see what she does. I'm thrilled with what she came up with for ASD and Cables 1, and I am sure that Cables 2 will be equally cool. She has great stuff to work with because my photographer does such a spectacular job. The holiday program went off without a hitch last night, although we had the biggest crowd we've ever had and it was a bit tricky fitting them all into our gym. I am glad the programs are over, though. I fell into bed after a glass of wine and slept like a rock. I don't do well with non-stop activity, and that's what December always feels like to me. January is always such a relief. I'm staying home today; perhaps I can get some actual knitting done. One of the girls (I think DD#1) ordered Raising Helen from Netflix, so I took it downstairs with me on Wednesday and popped it into the DVD player to watch while I exercised on the elliptical. I enjoyed it so much that I exercised for 40 minutes without realizing! I'd like to watch the rest of it today (while exercising, of course). December 13, 2007: Unfinished Objects and Lone Trombones I am very careful not to let startitis take control here at Big Sky Knitting Designs. I've long stuck to the rule that I cannot have more than one Work In Progress (WIP for you non-knitting blog readers) at a time, although sometimes my WIPs get I have a very large basket sitting next to my knitting chair, and the other day I noticed that it was, um, overflowing. So I pulled everything out of it and this is what I found:
Hmmmm . . . I am beginning to see that all my issues with these WIPs have to do with sleeves. Isn't that interesting. Yesterday I blocked a bunch of swatches and I also washed and blocked the Park Avenue pullover. I am hoping that seeing it in an almost-finished state will compel me to finish those darned sleeves. I respond to all forms of motivation from my knitting. This is Holiday Program Week at our elementary school. This year the music teacher split the upper and lower grade programs; we used to try to get it done in one night and it was too much. The upper grade program was Tuesday night, so we had a dress rehearsal Tuesday afternoon. I usually don't rehearse ahead of time with the kids—the music is easy enough for me to sight-read and because this is my fifth year with the bands, I've played most of it before. However, I was unaware that the band director had cut measures 37-53 out of Stray Cat Strut. I was playing merrily along when suddenly I realized that I was the only one playing. "Hmm," I thought to myself, "this must be another trombone solo section." (That piece has a lot of measures where I am the only one playing.) Then I saw the band director waving her arms at me and realized that all the kids had stopped playing and were looking at me. They had all ended the song! I was still back at measure 42! We all laughed. I marked my music accordingly and during the evening program, I ended when everyone else did. Tonight is the lower grade program. I don't have to play my trombone tonight, but DD#2 is doing a saxophone duet and I will accompany the singalong on the piano. The first-graders will perform their play and that should be really entertaining. December 12, 2007: Newsletter Nuts (and Bolts) Part of the reason I've been so reluctant to offer PDF downloads of the newsletter is the additional administrative burden it puts on me. I'm a one-woman show, and even though I multi-task 24/7, there is still only one of me. A number of people have written to me to tell me that the form for specifying PDF vs hard-copy can't be found. I'm not sure how to respond to that—I get an average of two dozen form submissions every day, so obviously that URL is working for those people. If you're one of the subscribers who was frustrated by not being able to get to the page, I apologize. Please feel free to send me an e-mail at Janet at BigSkyKnitting dot com and let me know your preferences. I'd love to be able to offer all of my patterns and back issues as PDF downloads right now, but again—I am a one-woman show. It's going to take some time to get the whole backlist converted over to digital downloads, and frankly, I want to go slowly so that I can tackle any bugs that might arise. I have thousands of subscribers and right now I am in the midst of dividing the database into those who want PDF and those who want hard copy. That's taking a tremendous amount of time, and I haven't even provided the first digitally downloadable newsletter yet! In the meantime, I still have to plan for future issues of the newsletter, get the next book done, fill orders, and take care of the husband and the kids. I know I probably sound cranky about this and I don't mean to. I'm just asking for a bit of patience from everyone as we go through this transition. I'm thrilled that so many people want to be able to access my patterns and newsletters electronically. However, there are a lot of behind-the-scenes things that have to happen in order to make all of that a reality, and they (obviously) are not without glitches. And someone just asked me recently when I planned to start the next Aran knitalong. Well, it probably won't be this year. Now it's back to the office to get some work done. December 10, 2007: Let's Talk About the Weather One thing I can't manage to figure out is how—with millions of dollars of equipment—the weatherpeople can't seem to get the forecast correct. I've noted this phenomenon over the past couple of winters: we'll watch the evening newscast and the weatherpeople will predict a large storm with lots of snow and wind . . . and we'll get three flakes and a slight breeze. Or they'll predict a calm couple of partly cloudy days . . and we'll be buried in the white stuff. This has happened so many times now that I don't really pay attention when someone tells me the sky is falling. As I was making lunch yesterday I said to the husband, "Oh look, it's snowing—were we supposed to get a storm?" (Hey you, pay attention—the sky is falling.) A quick check at Accuweather.com indicated "flurries with little to no accumulation." Hmmm. Within half an hour the ground was covered, and it kept coming down. I don't know about you, but 6" of snow does not fit my definition of "little to no accumulation." It was really nice, snow, too, and it made me wonder where the husband stuck my cross-country skis last March. I really should get out and ski a bit. We had a busy weekend here, with lots of holiday-related activities. By last night I was wiped out. I got a little knitting done and that was it. Part of the reason I was so tired is that I've been experimenting with lowering my dose of thyroid meds; I had labs done last week and one of the values was a bit high. What I discovered, though, is that the dose I've been on is great—and as soon as I lower it even a bit, I lose all stamina again. So I'll talk to the doctor and see what he thinks. Obviously he's not overly concerned or he would have called me. I don't put a whole lot of stock in thyroid lab results, anyway—my primary care doctor neglected to treat me for three years base on the fact that my thyroid levels were "in range." I could barely function, but they were in range so I must have been normal, right? I think that I'm going to stick with the dosage I am on, because that's where I feel the best. I've always been the kind of person who gets a lot done. That was one of the most frustrating things about my thyroid going downhill—having days when I only had enough energy to get from 6 am to 10 am. If I ran out of energy before finishing something during those four hours, it didn't get done. Now I can get through my to-do list on most days. I am exercising again and I enjoy it instead of dreading it. I get a restful 8 hours of sleep every night. I feel good and healthy again and I don't want someone to take that away from me based on some numbers on a piece of paper, especially when it's obvious that lowering my dose of medication has an adverse effect on how I feel. Anyway . . . this week's plans include a day at home today working, errands in town tomorrow, the upper grades program tomorrow night (I'll be playing my trombone with the bands), another day at home on Wednesday, nursing home and knitting with the 5th-graders on Thursday, the lower grades program Thursday night (no band, but I'll be accompanying on piano), and another day at home working on Friday. I should be able to get a lot accomplished this week! The in-laws arrive next Wednesday night and I want to have most of my work stuff done so I can focus on their visit. December 7, 2007: Where Has the Week Gone? Here it is, Friday already. What have I done this week?
. . . plus all the other miscellaneous stuff I have to do to keep things running smoothly around here. I did receive some knitting goodies in the mail:
I got The Best of Vogue Knitting 25th Anniversary Book, some tea from Dawn (thanks, Dawn, and everyone else who offered to help me out in my tea search!), and Kristin Nicholas's lovely new book, Kristin Knits. Buy Kristin's book—you won't be disappointed! I ordered it from her and she wrote a lovely inscription in the front. My sister sent me a book on hypothyroidism and also a gift card to Borders for my birthday with which I bought myself a "behind-the-scenes" book about Doctor Who and The Assassin King, the latest in a series of books by sci-fi writer Elizabeth Haydon. I'm such a geek. So I have this stack of books by my bed and I haven't had much time to look at anything. I've only gotten about 10 pages into the Haydon book, both because of time constraints and because her stories are so convoluted that I can't just read them—I have to think about and digest what is happening and try to remember what was in the previous five books in the series. Kristin's book is the most amazing eye candy. It cheers me up just looking through it. Tonight DD#1 is spending the night at a friend's house. Had I planned better, I would have figured out where to farm out DD#2 so that the husband and I could have a date night. But because I said yes in a moment of weakness, DD#2 is having two friends sleep over instead. Oh well. We'll build a fire and I'll make some tea and maybe I can get some of these books read. December 3, 2007: Swatching Maniac A storm blew in yesterday so I put on a pot of beef stew to simmer and plopped myself down in my chair to knit and watch football. Over the past two days I've gotten half a dozen new designs swatched and I love every single one of them. One of them particularly tickles me; when the yarn arrived, I had a heck of a time figuring out what I wanted to do with it. None of the stitch patterns I chose seemed right. I stuck the yarn in time-out in the stash for a while. Yesterday I pulled it out again because I had a sudden flash of inspiration and what do you know?—I was spot-on with my idea. The yarn and the stitch pattern are perfect for each other. I have no idea why the design floodgates opened all of a sudden, but I am not complaining. I'll ride this wave as long as it lasts. I've been concentrating so hard on Cables 2 that it's nice to know the other side of my brain is still working. Now I need to get patterns written and decide which projects are going off to test-knitters and which I will do myself. One design I'll likely do myself because the stitch pattern is tricky (I also love the yarn). And I need to start thinking of some cooler-weather designs—all but one of the swatches I've done recently have been in warm-season yarns. I was interviewed yesterday afternoon for the Stash and Burn podcast (it'll be aired December 11). One of the questions Jenny and Nicole asked was along the lines of "How do you design?" I am sure I sounded like a complete idiot, but I tried to make the point that there are many ways to "design" something, and those of us who come at it from a technical angle are just as "creative" as those who come at it from another angle. I try not to analyze it too much. It reminds me of the time the husband went to a weeklong timber framing conference in Vermont. A Very Famous Timber Framer was there, and according to the husband he liked to spend the evenings discussing the "philosophy of timber framing." The husband is about as pragmatic as they come, and this kind of analysis drives him 'round the bend—he said all he wanted to do was build, not talk. So I try to accept it for what it is, and right now it's a gift. Tomorrow I sub for the office lady at the school (I've been there so much this month that the husband asked me if she and I were "job sharing"). I plan to take all my swatches with me and get those patterns written for the test-knitters if it's a slow day. And on Wednesday I am going shopping at Camas Creek Yarn! December 2, 2007: Artwalk and Camas Creek Yarn First, I want to respond to Linda's comment from the November 30 post: I will still print hard copies of the newsletter. I never planned to switch over to PDF-only, and all subscribers have been given the choice of format for their subscription. If you want a hard copy of the newsletter mailed to you, you can get it that way. If you want it via digital download, you can get it that way. I'm trying to please everyone, and believe me, this isn't an easy process! <G> It's actually an administrative nightmare, which is why I haven't done it before now. Okay, onto other news: The Kalispell Artwalk was Friday night from 5-9 p.m. I wondered about the attendance, as temps had been hovering in the single digits all day. Montana folk are hardy, though, and everyone just put on their warmest clothes and headed out. Melanie, the owner of Camas Creek Yarn, had several different fiber artists set up at various spots in her shop. I thought I really lucked out, because I had the table in the big bay window and got to see everyone coming in and going out. Artwalk coincided with the grand opening of the store; as soon as the door opened we were treated to a rush of knitters and the crowd stayed steady all evening. Knitters in Kalispell clearly are ready to spend money at this store! Melanie gave me a ball of Sublime to play with so I sat at my table and knit up some swatches for her and visited with customers. One couple stopped by my table and the lady said she was so happy to see the store, because she and her husband had just moved to Kalispell and she was worried about not being able to find yarn. I asked her where they had moved from, and she said, "Cleveland." Hooray! And they live out near us. So here is a picture of the store from my vantage point at the front:
The picture doesn't do it justice, and I got some pretty bad reflections off the copper ceiling, but you can see the amount of yarn she has in there. To the right of me (and not in the picture) is a whole wall of Manos. And here is a picture of me being very serious, taken by my friend John who is on the fire department with the husband and is doing Camas Creek's website.
I had on a pair of black wool pants and the Granite Cardigan—I was glad I was dressed warmly because even with all those people in there, it was still chilly by the front of the store. I've been thinking about why I liked Melanie's store so much. We have three other yarn stores in the valley and I try to patronize all of them. But Melanie's stock is low on glitzy novelty yarns and heavy on solid-color yarns which are good for texture and colorwork. I came out of her store with ideas just spilling out of my brain because I could see the opportunity to work with some new and different yarns I have not been able to try before (like the Sublime I swatched up). So I am really looking forward to getting in there again this week—as I suspect most of the knitters in Kalispell are as well. |
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