It's been a while

We were reminded that we had not blogged in a while.
We've been very busy since the store closed. Don't know how we found time to work!
We are teaching some classes that had been started at Miss Chickpeas. Many wonderful people have welcomed us into their homes and I have a class at the library.
Yarnmarket.com is slowly starting to carry our patterns using Malabrigo yarns.
We sold a lot of patterns to My Sister's Yarn Shop in Green. She has great yarn and is very nice.
We will try to get our patterns in other shops in the area and may do some more teaching.
Been busy shipping orders to Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, etc.
We are having fun designing some top down sweaters. We don't have any in our pattern line at the moment.
This coming weekend we are going to Stitches in Hartford, Conn. We will be taking classes and shopping at their extensive market. Should be good for the soul.
Miss seeing a lot of you and hope to see you in the future.

Kathy

New Ideas and Friends

Sometimes your friends will get you into all kinds of trouble. In the course of a conversation with a good customer at the store, two of my friends and coworkers, Janet and Anne, came up with the idea that I should do a Bavarian Christmas stocking (I finished the Aran one I was working on). They passed that on to me as kind of a joke, but the idea stuck in my head.
I have a book by Gisela Klopper with a variety of wonderful twisted stitches in it - a little work with the caculator and some swatches and presto - a new pattern is being born. All because of my friends.
I have to say - with friends like this, I will never lack for ideas.
Thank you, Janet and Anne.
Dianne

New Ideas and Developments

When Kathy and I first decided to start writing patterns for sale, we worried that we would run out of ideas. Here we are, 5 years later, and we have so many ideas for new projects that we are writing them down before we forget them. It's hard to know what to knit next - vests, top down sweaters, easy to knit projects - we have more ideas than brains.
Aside from all these new ideas, we are very excited about getting onto Ravelry. We have had a good response to the patterns we put on already. Now we just have to get more of our best sellers in pdfs and onto our site. This weekend we will be setting up a PayPal account for easier selling. Slowly it's all coming together.
It's time to decide what I start next - a new vest, a top down cardigan, a new Christmas stocking - decisions, decisions.

Dianne and I have a little bit of Christmas in July going on. She's doing a new Aran Christmas stocking and I finished a new Fair Isle stocking and am working on one with holly appliques and multiples of stitch patterns.
Just finished a top down cardigan for my grandaughter's birthday on Sat. Liked it so much that I'm going to do another one and make a pattern out of it.
Doing our One Skein Malabrigo baby sweater for a shower on Sat. It works up quickly and we do love that Malabrigo yarn.
Brought in to Miss Chickpea's a new pattern called the Anne vest. It sold out the first day. We were excited.

Christmas Stockings

Kathy has been working on a series of new Christmas stocking patterns that inspired me to get busy and work on a new Aran stocking that I've been meaning to do for some time. Sometimes it's amazing how everything comes together - I started on Wednesday and it's almost finished not quite a week later. It turned out to be a good travel project back and forth to St. Louis
I always marvel how knitting allows you to take some yarn and needles and create something brand new.

Dianne

We're blogging!!!

Kathy and Dianne are blogging!!!
Don't know if anyone will care.
We are putting our patterns on Ravelry. Think it'll be cool.
We have 4 new patterns that we are ready to bring into Miss Chickpea's.
Kathy is doing a whole new line of Christmas stockings and having fun.
Dianne is working on a sweater to duplicate a ready made sweater that Kim Wells, a good customer brought in. Pleased with the results so far.
Talk soon.