I am a lucky woman in that we have six acres in New Jersey and I can grow whatever I want. However, sometimes your eyes are bigger than your brain, or whatever that saying is. My first foray into gardening on our 'farm' was to have a friend with a rototiller throw it into the back of his pick up and come to my new house to dig up a huge portion of grass along the 150 foot driveway. That was ok, except we didn't know at the time that a little weed called maybe sheep sorrel would grow like wildfire if the little pieces of it's roots were chopped up......that was about 12 years ago, when I was younger, healthier, and a regular five day a week job. Back then, a 20'X150' garden seemed small. I dreamed about digging up all six acres and becoming a perennial plant grower. Now, after hip replacement, opening a store, getting tired and middle aged, I can just barely cut the thing down in the fall. A landscaper suggested we dig up the plants we wanted and let him bulldoz the rest of down. I just can't. Now, I may be the luckiest woman alive because I have the opportunity to do some real natural dyeing and some of the things in the garden will make wonderful dye plants. These pictures are of dyer's coreopsis gone rampant, two kinds of lycinis that are just pretty but may not yield color, about 100 square feet of black eyed susans, invasive rosa rugosa that are covered with bright pink flowers, acres of bea balm, Russian sage, artemesia, joe pye weed, St. John's Wort, day lilies galore, nettles, poke berries, black berries, Japanese willow, wild cherry, wild yarrow,sassafras and sumac. Most of the stuff can be used as dyes and rest smells nice. I think the sorrel may also be a dye plant.

I'll post pictures of our First Annual Dye Day which is happening Monday. Tomorrow, I plan on mordanting all the yarns we've skeined. We are trying to be good stewards of the planet and will use just alum, cream of tartar, and the liquid from a copper pipe I soaked in ammonia for six months as the mordants for wool and the sumac leaves chopped up and soaked as the mordant for the cotton yarns. The sumac leaves contain tannin. I'm going to try to get to the farmer's market in the morning to get some rhubarb so we can use the leaves, which contain oxalic acid, as an additional mordant.

In the meantime, some of the issues I'm researching are ways to recycle the water I use in dyeing. Anyone have any ideas, let us know. Leave a comment, for crying out loud!

Books, Glorious Books, Hardcover and Softbound!

Not only did Woolbearers go all out for yarn at TNNA, we ordered books galore. I can't remember when there have been so many exciting new titles to look forward to. I'll start with Interweave Press.
First, The Best of Interweave Knits, Edited by Ann Budd and due out in September, includes designs from the first ten years of the magazine. Showcasing 26 designs of more than twenty designers, this looks like it will be a favorite for years to come. At $24.95, it is a bargain with more than 100 photographs.
The Harmony Guides are updated versions of reference books of thirty years standing. Edited by Erica Knight, author of the Simple Knits series. Included are Knit & Purl, Lace & Eyelets, and Cables & Arans. Due in October, they retail for $22.95 per guide.
Folk Style edited by Mags Kandis, designer for Mission Falls Yarns is packed with global designs interpreted by designers which include Annie Modesitt, Pam Allen, Leigh Radford and Kate Gilbert.
Bag Style, yet another book in the Style series, is packed with twenty two exciting bag designs.
Lynne Vogel of Twisted Sisters fame has outdone herself with The Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters, A Knit-to-Fit Workshop. The sisters illustrate how to adapt the same basic pattern. Myra and I are discussing the possibility of using the book as a guide for a sweater fitting knit along. Let us know if this has interest for you. The book will be out in August.
Getting Started Knitting Socks is another wonderful sock book by Ann Budd. With basic instructions for socks, the novice knitter will find step by step fundamentals of sock knitting with clear illustrations.
Knitting Little Luxuries Beautiful Accessories to Knit by Louisa Harding is filled with quick and easy projects that are beautiful and use a small amount of yarn. If you are familiar with Rowan Magazine, you know Louisa Harding's designs. Wonderful. November release.
Several felting books include How We Felt by Carol Cypher, and Felt Forward by Maggie Pace. Cypher documents the felted works of more than twenty artists. Pace' designs for her company, Pick up Sticks, are fun, knitted felt and this book contains twenty projects to inspire you.
Crocheters will be inspired by Crochet Jewelry and Crochet Me. Chock full of techniques and projects that are trendy, stylish and beautiful, these books will excite even confirmed knitters to try their hand at crochet.
All time favorites new to Woolbearers include Fleece Dog, one of the cutest books I have ever seen. I bought it when it was only available in Japanese, but loved the little felted critters so much that I got the book just for the pictures. We also got one of the companion kits to try.
Fast Fun and Easy Needle Felting, and Indygo Junction's Needle Felting both give clear directions and great projects for needle felting.
Martingale, Potter and Sterling also have exciting new titles that I will list at another time. This is enough to meditate on now!

More TNNA pictures
1. Sally Melville
2. Lily Chin
3. Cherry Tree Hill folks (we got tons more of their lace weight hand paint, and lots of bulky and worsted Pot Luck wool.
4. Donna, our Skacel rep with Frog Tree Alpaca folk.
5. Gals from Swallow Hill. Remember those wonderful beaded scarves we couldn't keep in stock? More are on the way!

Lace Knitting is something that I tried with worsted weight yarn a while ago, but suddenly have an interest to knit lace in something much lighter. Meghan and I are knitting the Pi Shawl in the XRX book, The Best of Knitters Shawls and Scarves. Meghan is using a gorgeous, pink merino cashmere blend called Mericash from Punta Del Este. I'm using Woolbearers fingering weight hand dyed. Sabra is knitting the Pi R2, also by Elizabeth Zimmerman, and using Cherry Hill Tree Lace weight. Lace knitting customers include Gwen, Debra and Cate.

Lace weight yarn was everywhere at the TNNA Convention in Columbus, Ohio. We bought a lot of it, from old timers like Cherry Tree Hill and others, and some beautiful hand painted silk from a new Australian company.

The above pictures are of Peggy Wells from Brown Sheep. She is modeling the shawl named after her and designed by Jackie of Heartstrings. It is done with one skein of Wildefoot Sock yarn.

We had a great time at TNNA and one of the reasons was getting to spend time with old and new friends. Cindy and Kim are fellow yarn shop owners who happened to have a booth next to us last summer at the TKGA show in King of Prussia. They were so helpful and friendly to Myra and I. It was our first show together as Woolbearers. They gave us advice about things like processing credit cards and what to do with the cash box during the show.

We hoped we would see them in Columbus, and not only did we see them, we spent two lovely evenings having dinner with them. It was great fun and also therapeutic having other retail buyers to talk to. Their shop is a combination knitting and quilting shop! I cannot even imagine the work involved. Anyway, meet our friends.

Loads of New Yarn are coming to Mount Holly. Here is yet another rare photo of my partner Myra sitting among the many catalogs, samples and order forms that we picked up as we traveled the isles of TNNA (The National Needle Arts trade show) this past weekend. In the picture, it is about 11 pm Sunday night in our (seedy) hotel room, sorry Red Roof Inn, and she had just added up our total for the day. Gulp. Monday was yet to come. And we found even more wonderful things to buy on Monday.

In the coming days, I will attempt to describe in vivid detail all the yarns, books, kits, needles, fibers, you name it, that we saw. We came, we looked, we bought. It was unbelievable. Add to that the fabulous classes we took with Lily Chin, Lucy Neatby, Sally Melville and Margaret Fisher.

Just to titillate you, we will be loaded up with all the new sock yarns and hand painted lace weight yarns that are being released soon or this fall.

Opal, probably among my favorites, is now being distributed by my favorite yarn company, Simply Shetland. I LOVE the yarn and books, and now add Opal Sock Yarn to our stash. It was next to impossible to choose which colorways we would buy. My favorite is Peacock in the Rainforest line. See pic up next to Myra.

I have to stop now but will write more later. In the meantime, make sure that we know which yarns YOU want us to look for now that we have the most current color cards and catalogs.

Debra's Bounced Check Jacket is different because she used several of our handpainted yarns in the mix of Shetland. Ten colors in all, it is a really vibrant, exciting piece. The yellows are much more golden than they appear in the picture.

Gwen's Bounced Check Jacket
1. The first photo at the top shows the finished jacket with trimmed sleeves. Note the cool joins on the sides.
2. Front view of finished jacket.
3. Picking up stitches for trim
4. The last two photos show picking up the stitches at the shoulders and doing the three needle bind off.

Inspiration comes from many places. Our Fed Ex guy Matt, has great tattoos. Note, with the nice weather, we get those bare arms in our store on a regular basis. So, look for a new colorway soon, called simply, Matt's Tattoo.

SURPRISE SURPRISE, BABY SURPRISE I've been wanting to knit Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket for a long time. We finally got the patterns in (as well as some other great patterns from Schoolhouse Press). It took me a while to figure out the yarn I wanted to use -- I knew I wanted to do it in handpaint. I figured that I could get gauge with our Cestari Sock Yarn and dyed some up in pastel shades of pink, yellow, lavender and chartreuse. This is great baby yarn, because it won't felt. Now, one of the gals on one of my lists wrote out a "cheat sheet", so I had row by row instructions, which made it very easy. When you are knitting this, you have no idea what the end product is going to be. Hence, the Surprise part of the pattern title. It was fun, a quick knit and now I'm thinking about the next one. My girlfriend is having a boy and that would give me something fairly easy to knit while I'm on the plane to TNNA next week. Can't wait!

The other jacket, well, one of the other many jackets that I want to knit up is the Adult Surprise Jacket. I thought that would make a great knit-a-long. I'll be willing to do the "cheat sheet" for it -- any takers?

Here are some pictures I took of today's dyeing session. (and you thought I had a day off. Ha!) The picture on the left is mohair in "Purple Pansies", sock yarn in "Don't Leave and Alfresco in green/gold. On the table is our Ringspun in "Don't Leave".

-myra

Rug Hooking With Yarn The new Knit 1 Magazine, published by Vogue, has a great advertisment for a hooked bag. It's a large bag with wonderful looking handles and is hooked with what appears to be yarns in shades of red. (It could be fabric.)

We have all the supplies in the store to hook. Meghan, the accomplished young woman who works at Woolbearers, pointed out the bag to me and we decided we would try making one.

We sell a high quality linen burlap that won't deteriorate like hemp burlap. I was surprised at the effort it took to push the hook through the burlap to catch a loop of yarn. I stapled strips of carding cloth to stretcher frames. Carding cloth is a heavy base of a rubbery material that has sharp bent wires embedded into it. The purpose of using carding cloth on the stretch frame is to secure the linen burlap to the frame so it won't slip. I must not have done it correctly, because I ended up stapling the fabric to the frame. I'll just have to remove the staples to move the fabric and restaple.

The hook is what I have been told is the usual hook for hooking! Only $3, sturdy and easy to hold.

The yarn was just stuff we had around the store; hand dyed rug yarns that I unplied, bulky thick and thin felted New Zealand wool, also hand dyed, and worsted weight silk and rayon blend for the center of the flowers. I drew sort of whimsical flowers in Sharpee pen on the linen before I stretched it. The drawing is really helping me.

I found the bulky New Zealand to be a little too bulky, but it looks really good as the flower petals. The picture looks a little like something you might see on an operating room floor, but I wanted to document my progress and will take a another photo when I've done more.

Husbands, Daughters, Boyfriends and Dogs

Saturdays in the store are great because you get to see all the customers who work during the week and can't come in until Saturday, and many times they are accompanied by their lovers and family members who are willing to tolerate a side trip to a yarn shop if it means they can sit down for minute in a day of shopping.

We usually aren't too thrilled about dogs in the store, but this guy, Winston, came in his own pink and green suede carrying case, didn't say a peep, and was unusually observant as the other shoppers slowly walked the aisles and fondled yarn. He is smiling while showing his lower teeth. Very Cute! By the way, Winston came all the way from Piscataway to buy yarn with his mom.

Judith, a prolific sock knitter, lives far enough away that I don't get to see her too often, but it is always great when she comes in and occasionally she brings her husband. They are up in the right corner, Winston in the left...

Jessica spun the yarn for this luscious shawl and finished in the store while her great boyfriend sat and talked with us. Read more about the shawl by clicking on 'Jessica's Blog' in the links section along the right side of this blog.

Tina came in with her family today and here is a great picture of her with her daughter. Tina lives in my rural neighborhood and has battled the great water situation this past month along with all of my other neighbors. We are not having a drought in Springfield Township, if anyone asks. Just ask my sheep and their rotting hooves.

Podcasts

Finally, I got an IPod for my birthday. I've been wanting one, so that I could download all those neat knitting podcasts I've heard so much about. A great thing to listen to on my way to the shop in the morning. Now I can be as cool as my 13 and 16 year olds. The one podcast I've heard mentioned the most is Lime n' Violet. So, I was especially pleased when a customer, Sydney, came to the store yesterday and told us that Lime n' Violet mentioned Woolbearers on their latest podcast. Here's the URL http://limenviolet.libsyn.com/index.php?post_year=2007&post_month=05&post_day=16 . It's episode 36, entitled "Bellybutton Funk" and about 58 minutes into the podcast, Woolbearers is mentioned as a donor to Jessica's Sock-along. They looked at Woolbearers' website -- they made a big deal of .net vs. .com, but finally found it and said some complimentary things about our yarn. So --- thanks to Jessica we're getting noticed. An even nicer birthday present than the IPod.

Beauty Is As Beauty Does

A few years ago when Myra and I went to The National Needles Arts trade show in Columbus, Ohio, I took a business class called something like Making the Most of Your Customer Contact, or maybe not, but it was in that vein. The instructors gave some good advice to novice and experienced store owners alike. Both were beautifully dressed and coiffed. Toward the end of the class, one of the gals, someone from Michigan actually, made a rather strong statement about store owners' presentation. She felt it was appalling the way some store owners wore jeans and t-shirts, hair pulled back in a ponytail, no makeup.....unfortunately, all the ladies sitting at my table and one of the men had jeans on and my hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

Our store has always been a working store. Until we moved, I did almost all of the dyeing I needed to do for the store right there. We usually have some project to do that requires getting dirty. The store isn't static. Moving things around, stashing things away, and now that we are still getting settled, painting furniture, repackaging fibers, and hauling cardboard is a daily occurrence. I wear makeup because I don't want our customers to think I'm sick and then feel too uncomfortable in my presence to shop! But I can't see wearing an 'outfit' and then digging through an unwashed fleece that a new spinner brings in for us to ogle, or cleaning out the refridgerator.

Hopefully, no one has been offended by our casual dress. Gail Trautz found these absolutely fabulous rubber gloves and gave them to Myra for her birthday. Aren't they fun? So now Myra can dye her yarn while protecting her hands and still look fabulous, Darling! Maybe I'll look for some embroidered jeans like the ones we had in the 60's and 70's. Do they make them in women's sizes?

Feast For Your Eyes Things are shaping up at the new store. We are working pretty much from the outside perimeter in and front to back. Like the grocery store, the meat and potatoes are on the outside and real goodies are on the inside. It just sort of worked out that way. Most of the hand dyed yarn found it's way to the center of the floor, with the exception of the Alfresco, which is sort of a staple for many knitters, and that is hanging on the wall.

Cottons, linens, silks and blend start out the march down the left side of the store. Interspersed with the basics are some luscious things you couldn't even see in the old store, and hanging there as they are now, they look like jewels. The Punta Del Este linen and alpaca blend is one yarn that just calls out to me.

Superwash and washable wools are next, Mission Falls, Dale, Louet, Jo Sharpe (you can hardly call her meat and potatoes, but come on, it's just for fun!), Jamieson, and so many more I can't remember them all. Cascade and Lopi are across the isle.

That rainbow in the first picture is Rowan Cashsoft.

More Yarn Tasting Photos

Three Generations

Our customers who keep coming back with friends and family in tow are the backbone of the business. They read our newsletters and go to the websites regularly to see what is new, or what they have missed. If they get an itch for something fast to knit, they drive to us, rather than a closer big box store. Shevann is a regular customer. We see her during lunch some weekdays, and on the weekends. When her mother, Virginia, from Arizona, and daughter Kristin from Reading, PA came to visit, she brought them to Woolbearers.

When grandchildren are born, weddings planned, and sadly, loved ones die, we are often among the friends who get the news. I realized this weekend that many of my friends are those who came into my life via Woolbearers.

Our three year anniversary was on Saturday. We celebrated by continuing the monumental task of putting away a stash of yarn that I am still in awe of!

A Taste of Silk

Last Friday, we hosted a yarn tasting at The Robin's Nest in Mount Holly. The Nest is known in the area for their delicious desserts. All the gals who attended said they had a great time and also enjoyed knitting the little sample balls we wound of our silk yarns. Following is a letter that good friend and customer Doris Cote from Bergen County wrote to knit U about the yarn tasting. She was one of several people who drove over an hour from the north country to be with us.

Knitu -----
Hi,
I wanted to share with you a wonderful idea my not so local yarn store
had. I travel an hour and a half each way on the NJ Turnpike to go to
Woolbearers in Mount Holly. These gals arranged a bus trip to Stitches
East last Fall and just keep coming up with great ideas! They "invited"
their customers to a Yarn Tasting Friday night, at a great restaurant in
Mount Holly known for its over the top desserts. For $25, we got dessert
and a beverage and a lot of fun. They booked the upstairs room and each
place was set with a plastic martini glass. Each chair also had a bag
with a thank you gift. Mine was a handy purse sized chart where I can
list all my needles types and sizes. Great idea! In the glass was a
cello bag with many little balls of silk and silk blend new yarns for us
to sample. Each little ball had a tiny tag with the name and you got a
print out cheat sheet with all the info on each yarn. The work that went
into all those little balls must have been unreal.The cheat sheet was so
helpful.

There were about 43 ladies all prepared with needles ready and we knit
our samples, switched to the next ball and discovered which were our

favorites, talked, laughed and made new friends. It was a lot of fun.

Door prizes were skeins of some of their own hand dyed silk blend yarn.
( to dye for) I was surprised at what turned out to be my favorite
because knitting with it was such a pleasure. One poopy color was so
beautiful when put next to a midnight blue. I'd have never given it a
second thought on the shelf, so this opened the door to get out of the
same old, same old color choice rut. I know that there are many shop
owners who read this list and thought you might like to try your own
spin on this idea.
Doris, at the other end of the Turnpike

I also have to mention that Sabra, one of the talented women who work for Woolbearers, arranged the evening and put a heck of a lot of work into planning it. Many thanks to her and the customers who spent time rolling many little balls of yarn.

One Picture Speaks a Thousand Words

If you were wondering why there have been no posts for the past two weeks, this image should explain. Note the mountain of clear bags piled along the wall; how did that much yarn ever fit in 750 sq. feet? Truly, I had no idea we had that much. So now the task at hand is putting all of the beautiful stuff away. We are taking our time. It's the one job we have in front of us that allows sitting and pondering. Everything else is lifting and shoving. I feel like I was hit by a tank. So choose a bag, pull up a stool, and arrange colorful eye candy. It's therapeutic!

I'll post pictures of the Silk Yarn Tasting later.