It had been a long day. When I finally left the shop at 6 pm, I stabbed myself in the leg with a knitting needle that had been poking a hole out of one of my many bags. OUCH. Today was so busy with so many customers and so many packages. It was like Christmas today!

First, the Fed Ex guy came with my new order of Jojoland. Besides more Swirl Shawl patterns and Melody Superwash -- I could not resist this new yarn. It's called Consonance and is 50% cashmere and 50% silk. What a combo! It's fingering weight and has 440 yards -- price is it's greatest selling point, believe it or not.

The UPS Guy brought a lot of stuff. First, the big box of Cascade. Then, we finally got our copies of the Winter 2008 issue of Interweave. When I first saw the issue, I knew I had to knit up the Positano Tote. I ordered the Lamb's Pride Superwash for it in lots of different colors. I did get the cactus green color that was called for in the pattern.I am going to use it for the bag. I barely got the Brown Sheep box opened when customers started looking through it for colors. Glad we don't have to put as much away on the shelves as we thought.

If you are looking for nice fibery notecards -- we got our shipment of notecards from Schaefer yarn. Each card has a different picture of hand dyed yarn.

I couldn't resist buying the cutest needlefelting kits ever. They are from Lorna's Wool and I bought several sheep, some Santas, gnomes and Frog and Toad.



Got in 0ur new shipment of Zuma Bags, once again I only have 2 left. I'm sure I will be ordering more. This time, I also ordered the mini cozies from Namaste and something called Oh Snap. These are 3 bags of different sizes to put all your Knitting chachkes in. The mini cozies are great for holding all of your dpns.

New Smooshy sock yarn -- need I say more

Over the weekend I finally made some progress on putting together squares of the Great American Afghan. Hope to have this sucker finished soon. Only -- where am I going to display it???

More progress on the Kauni sweater (not enough, though)

I do get to knit a few rows now and then on my Boku scarf!

Scary is how many people are describing the state of the economy. My son seems to be the only one I know who is enjoying the downward spiral of the stock market as he is playing a "virtual stock market" game with his high school class and he has shorted most of his stocks, so now he's in 4th place. If he keeps this up I will make him pay for college.

They say (whoever they are ) that yarn shops are recession proof. I just read an article in the New York Times last week that said Lion Brand was opening up a yarn shop in Manhattan and even though this did not seem like a good time for it, yarn shops were recession proof.

I was listening to one of the podcasts that I regularly download ---"Sticks and Strings". I just love listening to the bloke with the Australian accent. He always does an essay during the podcast. This one was about where to spend your money during the tight economic times. At first he said that using your stash was a good idea, but if you want to help the economy support your Local Yarn Shop. I think I'm in love.

Here's some photos of customers who have been supporting their local yarn shop, Woolbearers.

Pam is showing off her new Nashua sweater in Creative Focus worsted weight.

Jane finished her Einstein Jacket and wore it for the first time -- it looks smashing in person. Jane used Lopi and it was the perfect yarn for this project.

Brynn finished her February Lady Sweater made out of Cascade 220. Great job!

Kelly will be teaching a class in how to construct a Moebius scarf (see website for details). This one is made out of Manos -- I wish I had taken a picture of it on Kelly -- it looks terrific when you wear it.

Hannah is almost finished with her Great American Aran Afghan. She just has to put on the border and it will be done. Now, I know how much work this one is because I'm making one too -- with my class that meets once a month. Hannah's is done out of Cascade Eco Wool.

You must see this in person to appreciate all the work -- I hope Hannah can bring the afghan to my class next month.

I Hate the Yarn Harlot.. as if I don't have enough to knit, she has to blog about Brooklyn Tweed's Noro Scarf (from now on we'll call it the N-word scarf) and now I'm forced to make one. Not really. I love the Yarn Harlot and I can't think of anyone else who does done more to promote knitting than she has. And she is funny and witty while doing it. However, everytime she blogs about a project, one of Woolbearers' customers comes in and has to knit the project and of course, I get sucked in too. It looks like everyone got sucked in at today's knitting group.

This is what started it all. Here's Debra's Boku stash -- I think she's going to make 3 scarves - she's saving the skein of Tilli Tomas beaded silk for another project.

Well, then everyone had to get in on it.

Here's a close up of Linda's Punta Yarns' Merisoft in two different colorways.

Gwen's doing hers out of Ringspun -- can't wait to see it. Of course, Gwen will have hers done tomorrow.

Judy decided to use some Boku also -- she just loves blue. Is there any other color, Judy?

I Succumbed with some Boku and I have to say, I really like how it's knitting up.

Brooke is the only one who didn't fall for the Harlot's ploy. Here she is showing off her bounced check jacket, done out of Jamieson DK weight yarn. Love the color combination.

MORE KNIT TO FIT.....The Knit to Fit class is over and all the students are either finished with their sweater or well on their way to finishing. It was a great class with so much to learn -- Karen has agreed to teach it again; so if you missed the first go-round, do sign up for the next session which begins Jan. 24th (see website for details). Here are some of the finished and almost finished projects.


Thanks, Karen for a great class -- we look forward to the next one!

STEEKING. I finally finished the body of the Kauni Cardigan, after having to rip down to the armholes, because apparently I can't count. There it was. Waiting for me to cut into it. I put it aside because I couldn't bear the thought of making another mistake in counting and then cutting it and having to knit all over again. Folks warned me. Some said they would never cut into knitted fabric. But I must be brave. Besides, I really want to wear this sweater sometime before the summer.

OK, so before you steek, you need to sew a zig zag line up both sides of where you are going to cut, just in case the yarn decides to unravel. My sewing machine was only zigging when it should have been zig zagging. This was my excuse. I couldn't bear it any longer. One day I decided to try and figure out what was wrong with the sewing machine. After fiddling around with some of the knobs I got it working again. I took a deep breath (oh yes, I always tell people that a glass of wine is mandatory in the steeking process). I zigzagged up either side of the middle steek stitch. There it was.

Then I took another even deeper breath, got out my ginghers (I was a quilter in my former life and would only use my ginghers on my very best fabrics), and then I cut all the way up where the armhole is supposed to be. And guess what -- nothing unraveled and all was right with the world. I counted correctly this time.

Here, I am starting to pick up the

armhole stitches. Now I am on the third row of the pattern. The sleeves are knit from the armhole down -- lots of decreasing and I should be finished in no time! I'll post more pictures as I progress.

Knit to Fit. This class has surely been our most popular class. Karen Jenkins teaches the class for 5 sessions during the fall. She is a fount of knitting information. Karen says that she learned all about knitting to fit while knitting with a group of ladies in Minnesota years ago. She has definitely honed her skills and never uses a pattern for her projects. Patterns are only used for inspiration; her students will tell you they can now look at a sweater and use just about any yarn and stitch pattern to get the look they want. Here are some of the sweaters in progress

This is Dori's -- she is the only one brave enough to make a turtleneck (out of Malabrigo, of course). One of the neat things about knitting "top down" is that you can try the sweater on as you go. Here, Dori was discussing picking up stitches for the sleeves. She decided it was too bulky and needed to pick up less stitches. More frogging ....

Elda is making hers out of Cascade 220 and is ready to do the sleeves

This is Justine's first sweater, out of Cascade 220 Tweed

Cathy's sweater is out of Nashua Creative Focus worsted, also ready for the sleeves

Robin has already started her sleeves and likes the roomy feel her sleeves give her.

Josephine finally figure out some solutions to her buttonbands, .

while Lisa may just be making a vest to go over another knitted top she has

Our other Lisa is making hers out of yummy Malabrigo in a gorgeous stitch pattern that really shows off the yarn.

This is Anne's first sweater. It's hard to believe that we first taught Anne how to knit less than a year ago. She is just zooming along

Last, but in no way least is Jill's sweater made out of Wool around the World 8-ply. I also just had to get a shot of the scarf she knit up from a Mac and Me pattern out of Kid Silk Haze and Punta Merisoft.