TO RUSSIA, WITH LOVE

When you spend your days in a yarn shop, you are bound to be approached with strange requests. Here is an example:

Last week a customer came into the shop with something quite specific in mind. She and her husband were preparing themselves for their long trip to Russia. They are in the process of adopting a baby boy and they were going to meet him for the first time on Saturday.

Her friend had gone to Amsterdam and had fallen in love and purchased this adorable crocheted stuffed Dachshund.


Our mission, if we chose to accept it, was to duplicate this dog, adding our own creative, artistic variations, of course. She wanted her new son to have a specially made gift from his new parents.

Well, Tasha, in her kookiness decided that this was surely something that she and Dottie could recreate, with NO pattern.......and a Friday, 4:30pm deadline!! Notice the word kookiness because it definitely applies! After putting their heads and their bustling hands together, here is what Tash and Dottie came up with:

Our version.

The original.....

The impostor!!!

Here are the Dachshund buddies! (Actually, they look like they're snubbing each other!)

Needless to say, she came in on Friday and practically jumped out of her sneakers! She loved the end result and we were so happy that we were able to help her make this really exciting moment in her life a little bit more exciting! We wish her new family great fortune!

And we wish happy knitting and crocheting days to you all!

SHOW AND TELL SUNDAY

Sunday is here and hopefully all of you are relaxing and getting yourselves mentally prepared for another week. We believe that if there is a day to be lazy, Sunday is probably the best day!

We have a few finished projects that we want to show off to you. After all, being lazy on a Sunday doesn't mean we can't show and tell!!

Paula, who never lets me take pictures of her allowed me to drape her beautiful seventy inch lace scarf around her talented neck......and snap this picture.....very quickly!

She used Jojoland Cashmere and it works up beautifully!!BFeast your eyes on the detail work!Sheri Kroll's daughter is a HUGE Harry Potter fan. To add to the frenzy, her Sheri's mother made up these very authentic looking Harry Potter socks for her granddaughter's upcoming birthday! There is no doubt in our minds that there will be a happy, smiley birthday girl once she opens up this package!

Christine came in to show us her newly finished sweater! This gorgeous top was in Chris' UFO pile for quite some time, and she finally decided it was time to finish it up!

We are very glad she did! Awesome job, Christine!

We're proud of all of your accomplishments, everyone! Keep up the good work! Happy knitting and crocheting, my friends, and enjoy your Sunday!

REASONS TO SMILE

The wonderful thing about being able to create with your own hands is that when you have completed the work, you most surely put a smile on someone's face.

Don Frechette loves to knit intricate projects. What he loves even more is his granddaughter Sophia and this is only one of the ways that he shows her how much a Pepere can love his little one.

This is Shirley, Sophia's pet dragon!

We love the fact that she is so girly and has a sassy attitude! Look at those hands.

She's kind of perfect, isn't she? Sophia loves her Shirley.

Looks like she's ready to fly, fly, away!Paula made these beautiful, delicate baby socks from Knitting Traditions. She made them up on size 0 needles. I wanted to say "Better you than me, Paula".......but they are so awesome, I might have to bite the bullet and cast on some stitches!Here is a closeup.

Another gem from Knitting Traditions......whipped up again by Paula, of course.It's a great accent to any woman's sock drawer.

It's inspiring to see these great finished projects. Hopefully they inspire you as well. If it's just one of those days and you want to put a smile on your face, come and spend some time at Woolworks. It's a candy store for fiber artist.......only we're calorie free! (just ignore the bowl of assorted chocolates we have on the front counter!!

Happy Knitting and Crocheting, my friends!

STILL RAINING.....STILL KNITTING

Today is a great day to do a quick rendition of Gene Kelly's "Singing in the Rain".....happily skipping and frolicking through huge puddles on Main Street (although Gene Kelly was actually tap dancing through puddles of milk because it showed up better on camera.......a little movie trivia for you).

But it's cold, so we've decided to sit in the shop where it's warm and work on our projects.

The Great American Aran Afghan crew is still busily working on their squares and Dottie is still cranking out her squares so that she is well prepared to help anyone who needs it. Here are a few more of her squares.

This poor fish is caught in a cabled net! Oh well! He'll be immortalized in a fabulous afghan!

Beautiful cabled hearts.....

A yummy cluster of cherries!

These blocks are lovely. We can't wait to see them all put together.

And here's a funny little story that hopefully makes you chuckle this dreary day. The Congregational Church across the street from us holds blood drives for the Red Cross. As a thank you for the generous life saving donations that people make, they were handing these out.

Red Cross Red Nail Polish. A lovely color.......

We're still trying to figure out how Sister Judith is going to work that into her daily wardrobe!!! She remedied the problem by giving the nail polish to Tasha!!

I hope that made you laugh as much as it made us laugh! On that silly note, Happy Knitting and Crocheting!!

A NIGHT OUT WITH THE HOMEGROWN STRINGS

Saturday night knitters united through music. We were invited to join the Homegrown String Band at the Vanilla Bean to knit and chat and listen to their music. This great band is comprised of Georgianne and Rick Jackofsky and their two daughters, Erica and Annalee and they have been playing music infused with blues, bluegrass, country and folk for the last thirteen years. They are refer to themselves as the "1oo% Natural Organically Grown" Band and they most definitely are a family that know how to play together! You can learn more about them and listen to some of their tunes if you visit www.homegrownstringband.com

Their banner

We gathered around six to secure the comfiest section of the Bean! By the time the music started there were around fifteen of us knitting and tapping our feet to the upbeat rhythms.Here are just two of their beautiful instruments. Between the four of them they play guitar, fiddle, dulcimer, mandolin, banjo-ukulele (or the "banjolele as we call it), harmonica, jawharp and doumbek, just to name a few. They also knit and crochet, which is why they made the special invite to local knitters to join them before the show! Annalee is crocheting an afghan (above).Her sister Erica is a prolific knitter. In fact she will be published in the newest issue of Yarn Forward and was asked by Shanon Okey to become a regular designer!Rick handcrafts Navajo drop spindles to help facilitate his daughters' fascination with yarn and other yummy fibers......when he has time between playing shows, that is!Here is Georgianne filling the room with sweet dulcimer sounds...The joy that they obviously have playing together was infectious!They even enhanced their performance with dancing! The sharp sounds of their dancing feet had the room clapping in time!If only I could hope around like that!

Between the fabulous food, the great music and the camaraderie between knitters and new found friends, Saturday night turned out to be quite a treat!! I wish you all a fabulous, fabulous day! Happy knitting and crocheting!

FUN CLASSES FOR APRIL

As promised we have a fun class list lined up for anyone who's ready for the lighter side of knitting! All of these projects are the perfect size to fit in a downsized version of your knitting bag, so you can tote it to baseball games, upcoming camping trips.....you know, anywhere you feel like knitting!

Tunisian Crochet is making a strong comeback and Tasha designed a very springy collar (reminiscent of the Flower Scarf which was featured a few weeks ago) to give everyone a quick way to get started. You can make it wider or thinner, depending on your personal preference.

A graceful butterfly button perches on the crocheted flower.

Tunisian Crochet, which is also known as the Afghan Stitch creates a very tight, grid-like motif and proves to be versatile, as we will demonstrate in the upcoming months.

The Hat Heel sock is in the house!! This sock takes the self striping yarn to a whole new level because it's worked from the heel OUT!!

Here's the blinged out version of the Hat Heel sock.

The heel.......looks like a little hat, doesn't it?The right side gusset.

The Knitting Traditions Magazine was a huge hit. We were all drawn to the wonderful articles and the historical patterns that jumped from every page. These beaded cuffs are very popular with our knitting family.......so popular in fact, we're running two classes.

This is an example of what the traditional cuff looks like using Ellyn Coopers fab colors.

And don't forget Sue's Two at a Time Socks........from the top down, this time!! We will never let you get bored with making socks EVER!

Here is our friend Christian with his new Tamoshanter! He came in the other night and asked me to make one for him. He was very specific......he wanted a black tamoshanter with a white Pompon! And that's what he got!

He looks really handsome with his new hat

So, my friends, we can't wait to see you at our table! Happy Knitting and Crocheting!

WITH THE WEEKEND COMES MORE FINISHED GOODIES

The challenge to turn our UFO's into Finished Objects has been taken pretty seriously by many of our knitting family. We have had the pleasure of seeing many wonderful creations come to fruition in the last few weeks. And as we put the finishing touches on our upcoming class list (which will be posted tomorrow), we couldn't think of a better time to get those occupied knitting needles and crochet hooks free so that they can be busily working on something new!

Take a peek at some of the lovely things our friends have shared.

Lauren LeBlanc had attempted a felted bag some time ago and she hated the process. Because she's persistent, she tried again and came up with this beautiful bag! Now she wants to make another one, although she insists that a size 12 needle would be better! If only they made a size 12 needle!

Jeannette Bibek has a special baby in mind to give her fabulous double sided crocheted afghan to. The colors bring thoughts of spring and Easter and joy! Her granddaughter is a lucky baby to have such a talented Memere!

Beauty up close

Jeannette also whipped up this cutie patootie hat for her friend's grandson. See!! Knitters and crocheters give thoughtful gifts to EVERYBODY!!

Splendid job, Lauren and Jeannette!! What's next, I wonder??

So, make sure to check in tomorrow for the upcoming classes for April! Have a wonderful day! We're supposed to have record breaking temperatures today and I think we deserve it! Enjoy! Happy knitting and crocheting to you all!

THE EASTER EGG FIELD TRIP

If you were to drive by Woolworks at around 6:15 last night, you probably would have caught a glimpse of a happy group of knitters heading out the door to embark on their pysanka adventure. It was a perfect day for the ten minute drive to Nancy Shay's beautiful studio, and she greeted us with her usual smile and exuberance.

After the ten of us settled in, Nancy treated our eyes with a basket of her own hand designed pysanka.Basically the room exploded with oohs and ahs, which was quickly followed by an underlying worry that maybe we were completely out of league!! Nancy ensured us that she would walk us through every step of the way and that we had to trust our inner creativity.Nancy showing us our canvas.......the egg.

Heating up the kistka to load it up with beeswax.

Drawing the initial lines

And we're off!!

Applying last few layers of wax.

This is pretty much the look we all had......

Once we started melting the wax off our pysanka! You bet we were careful!!

Very delicate work.

A finished pysanka!!! Beautiful!

Thank you so much, Nancy for inviting us into your studio and teaching us this amazing art form! It was a wonderful way to spend the evening and we look forward to doing more of this! Thank you again!! We will be posting more pictures of finished pysanka as the week progresses!

Happy knitting and crocheting and egg dying to all of you!