Sale's Over

Phew!  That was our best sale ever!  Thanks to everyone who stopped by.  Considering how much stuff we sold, I'm amazed at how much is still here.  I've been trying to expand the shop inventory over the years and I guess I succeeded.
The yarn business is very cyclical, this time of year being one of the slowest.  I like it, though.  I'm planning to use this time to catch up on paperwork, do a bunch of knitting and generally relax before all the new yarn starts showing up in mid-late July.  I can't even believe how much new stuff I ordered.  Holy cow!
But, meanwhile, we relax.  The shop will be closed for vacation for the first part of July.  I haven't decided exactly when, but I'll let everyone know as soon as I decide.

Hope for the Gray Sweater

I still haven't found the bag of leftover gray yarn but I did find a skein of the right gray on the shelf.  I'm almost certain it is not the right dye lot but definitely not complaining. I'm going to ravel back the collar a few rows and do the alternating row thing to smooth the transition. 
Also, I'm almost ready to turn the heels on Wren's socks.
Oh, just a note on comments.  I'm moderating all the comments because I've been having comment spam.  So, if you post a comment and it doesn't come right up, you didn't do anything wrong.  I just haven't gotten to my email yet.

What a Week and It's Only Thursday

Sorry I haven't posted for a couple of days but I've been have a crazy week.  First, the sale is going very well.  Thanks to everyone who's been in.  If you haven't made it over here, you have until 5pm Sunday.  There's still lots of wonderful yarn left, though the Malabrigo Lace Weight gave us our first empty shelf of the sale.  Don't worry, I order a ton of it for fall.
In other news, we've had truly ghastly plumbing issues yesterday and today.  I nearly asked the plumber to marry me when he told me everything was fixed.  Indoor plumbing is such a wonder and a joy when it is working correctly.  Also, clorox is my new best friend.  'Nuf said.

Sometimes You Aren't Knitting For The Person You Think You Are

So, I have these socks I'm knitting.  They are out of some yarn I got from Webs and dyed ages ago.  My idea was to try it out to see if I wanted to add it to my line of hand dyed.  It is a regular wool/nylon sock yarn and I had two skeins to try.  I dyed them both in greens and blues.  My friend Wren fell in love with the color but someone else got the extra skein and I kept this one to try knitting myself. 
First, I cast on the socks for myself.  I got the toes done and they languished.  I then unravelled them a bit and changed the size to be for my cousin's wife and they languished.  Sunday night I picked them up to finish them but they were fighting me.  I pulled off the toes I'd started and cast on again.  This time I got the toes done but slowly realized that these socks are not for my cousin's wife.  These socks are for Wren!  Since I realized this, they've been coming right along and should be done by next week. 
Hi Wren, I'll call you when your socks are ready.

One More Down, One To Go

I'm home taking an unplanned day off from biking today (yucky tummy all night but better now) and I just finished the third of the four unfinished pairs of socks I had on needles.  One more pair and I can start a new pair!  I am inordinately happy about this (see previous day's start-itis). 
I'm still working on the gray sweater.  I finished one side of the collar and have started the other.  Unfortunately, I'm going to run out of yarn and I can't seem to find the rest of it.  When I started and unravelled this sweater the first time, I saved the unravelled yarn and put it aside to wash before using it again.  The ball I'm using now is from that batch but I can't seem to find the rest.  This is a problem.  I see at whole bunch of tearing apart of my house in my near future.  Aaargh.

Start-itis

Suddenly this morning, I've been struck with a raging case of start-itis.  Everywhere I look, there's yarn I want to knit.  This is a problem when you live in a yarn store.
Must. Resist. Must. Finish. Gray. Sweater.

Blocking or Where the @%&! Are My T-Pins?

I know all the physicists say matter is conserved but I'm not convinced.  I swear matter enters and leaves the universe in the form of stitch markers, double pointed needles, and t-pins.  And I'm also pretty sure tape measures all go to conferences to for a week at a time and then suddenly come back.  I think scissors do the same thing.  How else can you explain it when one day I can't find a tape measure to save my own life knowing full well that I own at least ten and a week later, I find them everywhere.  Something has to be going on here. Anyway, I finished the Annie shawl out of the Noro Sekku.  I couldn't find my t-pins anywhere but I did have a bunch of common pins and they actually worked just fine.

Yes, I pinned in out a little crooked.  It doesn't bother me that much.  Once I took it off the blocking board, it was just fine.  I'm pleased with how it blocked out.  It got just enough bigger to be a nice wearable little shawl.  If I were going to use the Noro again, though, I'd use a pattern that started at the back of the neck and worked down.  That way the pattern and the striping would be going the same way.  It's still pretty this way though I hadn't realized how 70's those colors look together.  Eh, retro is in.

Next up, my sister's gray sweater.  It is the Farmer's Market Cardigan from Interweave Knits last fall. 

It was fun to knit the body but the finish work is getting on my nerves.  The collar is just hard enough that I'm having trouble working on it in the shop.  Unfortunately, that's the time I have to work on it so I'm just muddling though.

Speaking of the shop, the sale starts tomorrow at 10am and goes through June 13.  Be sure to come in and pick up some of your favorite yarn for 25% off.