knitwitzinc.com Blog

Meeting Stephanie Pearl-McPhee was a thrill – arranging to have her come to Jacksonville, an even bigger thrill.  It was so exciting to see so many of you at the Ramada Conference Center last Thursday night.  That’s one thing I love about knitters – always so excited about knitterly things!  If you missed the Times-Union article last Wednesday, you can read it online here.  Thank you, Angela, for a fantastically thorough job – I’m sorry you couldn’t make it.  We’re also on a Florida podcast, Knaked Knits, that you can download either on iTunes or online here.  Thanks for making that drive, Sydney!

Speaking of driving, I know that so many of you who attended came from a distance.  Thank you for that.  To the gals who came from South Carolina and Georgia, and flew from Tennessee, hiked over from Gainesville, Tampa, and Tallahassee, and drove up from Orlando and even further south – just goes to show how very popular is the Yarn Harlot.  Thank you for being part of this – it was so much more than Jacksonville, we just had the pleasure of being in the middle for once!

If you missed the visit, I do have signed books at the shop.  And it’s a very good book!  Let me try to share a bit of what you missed – or refresh your memory if you came – Stephanie spoke about public speaking, about herself and the world, herself against the world, the world against her, and who can’t relate to that?  She shared her reeling schedule, spending just 10 hours at home the weekend before – which included Canada’s Thanksgiving.  She conveyed that she’s a regular person who just happens to write and love knitting – reading an essay about the personal satisfaction of a beautiful sock from Free Range Knitter, The Yarn Harlot Writes Again.  In particular I loved hearing about the contact with her editor after she handed over the manuscript, waiting and waiting and waiting for their response.  The impatience she conveyed was palpable.  Her editor’s response, key.  “Stephanie, it’s been 4 hours.”  I haven’t laughed so much in a long time.  Stephanie’s got an ear for comic delivery and was so very entertaining.  I know that getting to meet a celebrity, one who’s so much like us, was a treat for everyone.  A lot of you thanked me, but I’d again like to thank you as well.

We had a gift for Stephanie that included what everyone got from KnitWitz on their way in and also a skein of yarn from Luxe Knits, dyed by Natasha especially for the occasion in Jacksonville teals.  This yarn is still available in the shop and it’s gorgeous!  Kate also had a sock bag, niftily constructed to not interfere with yarn, and more sock yarn in Mangrove (Kate, have you got anymore of that?).  I hope Stephanie comes back to Florida – maybe in the winter, as many of you cheered her to do, when it’s in the 60s for us, and the 60s below back home for her?

I want to thank in particular everyone who attended, you helped make it possible, and also Kathy H., certainly a wonder publicist at Andrews McMeel, Dolly for her generous assistance and advice, Teresa, Kate, Marilyn, Linda, Jolene, Becky, Barbara, Randi, Lory, Lisa, and Gwen the Master Drawing Assistant who, for all her 7-year-old protestations of stage fright overcame them anyway!  All of these amazing women helped me handle everything with as little freaking out as possible.  Especially I want to thank Maura from The Yarnery in Saint Paul, Minnesota, who taught a class at the Needlearts Market last June on Event Planning.  The class was subtitled “How to Host the Yarn Harlot” – and I credit Maura and the class she taught with bringing this dream to life.  Thanks lastly to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee herself, for stepping outside her comfort zone and mixing it up with knitters online and in person and in print - I think you totally rock.

Now on to the results!  Last Thursday we were able to give away over 50 prizes in drawings.  These included items from Berroco, Checker Distributors, Colinette-Unique Kolours, Muench Yarns, Universal Yarns, and Westminster Fibers, as well as from KnitWitz!  We also started 3 raffles that evening.  As you may know, every fall KnitWitz urges you all to give to a cause.  But we also try to make giving fun!  This year it’ll be Knitters without Borders (Doctors without Borders), and you’ll have a chance to win one – or more - of three prizes each containing over $150 worth of yarn and supplies from KnitWitz.  I’m pretty sure that 2 of those prizes also received the same niftily constructed sock bag that was given to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee!  The raffle tickets are $1 each, you choose which fishbowl to drop your ticket(s) in, and the raffle will run through to Saturday, December 20, when we’ll draw the winners.  This will give people who couldn’t attend the kick-off a chance to win a prize as well.

After all was said and done on Thursday, we took in about $600 over and above our expenses, which includes a contribution from another yarn shop.  Thank you, Hanks in Gainesville!  For your information…

• The venue, without which we would not have been asked to host this event, cost $749.
• The printing of the tickets cost $212.
• The total number of tickets sold was 153 (the numbering of these tickets started at #100).
• Net receipts is therefore $569, plus a donation from Hanks brings the total to $619.

So KnitWitz will be sending $1,000 this week to Stephanie for Knitters without Borders.  But remember, our fundraiser is going through December – so stop by to inspect the raffle prizes, and please buy more of those blue tickets for your chance to win!  Watch here for photos of the prizes!  We’ll update the total for the raffle in December, and be keeping track of it in the shop.  Thank you to everyone for your gracious support of this wonderful charity that brings the blessing of medical attention to those who risk being forgotten.

If you took photos at the event, and are willing to share, please send them to me at kathe AT knitwitzinc.com.  I’d love to post them here so everyone can see.  I had to borrow a camera because of batteries (wouldn’t you know?) and I know there are others who’d love to see if they got into a shot or two.  So mine are a bit delayed.  Thank you in advance!  I’ll start posting them as soon as they come in!

UPDATED MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2008, 15:18.

After much cajoling (i.e., begging) it’s finally happened!  :::Insert Happy-Dance-a-la-Snoopy-with-ears-a’flapping here!:::  Stephanie Pearl-McPhee will be coming to visit Jacksonville on Thursday, October 16.  SAVE THE DATE for her book tour stop in Florida (a first!), brought to you by KnitWitz.  I’m so excited to be able to share this event with everyone.  A huge thanks to everyone who has supported KnitWitz over the four years we’ve been here, enabling us to do this for you!  This event will be an evening one, so we should have a great turnout.  It’ll be a ticket event, and I should have more information on that early next week.

Additionally, KnitWitz chooses a charity each fall for which to work or knit.  In the past these have included Fisher House, our troops overseas, underweight babies in third world countries, and Heifer International.  This season will be no different.  We’ll be working for The Yarn Harlot’s own “Knitters Without Borders“!  For more information on Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s visit and the Knitters Without Borders fundraising drive, please stay tuned to this blog and to the KnitWitz mailing list, which you can JOIN HERE!

It was a lot of fun to have this blogtest (contest-on-a-blog).  These are the colors that the winner has to choose from.  Let’s call the red at the top: noon, and going around the circle clockwise: 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 o’clock.  I’ll announce the winner in this post, but first… the Midnight Knit-In!  We had a lot of fun on Saturday night!  We’ve never done a make-and-take before, either, but nearly everyone did their own felted soap.  It’s a relatively quick fiber project that makes a super gift.  And with the holidays right around the calendar-corner, it’s time to start thinking present-ly.  Handmade felted soaps sell for a lot more than the time usually involved to make them – unlike our handknit garments!  If you’d like to know how to make them yourself, just let me know next time you’re in the shop.  It’s easy, and fun – especially for kids or the kid-in-you! 

Okay, now for the winner!  This was a very precision event.  Never having done a cyber drawing before, and with a handful of entrants, I decided to let everyone speak for themselves.  I printed out the comments, cut them into similar sized strips, folded them up neatly and….

Once in the hat, we needed a volunteer hand…

And the winner is….

Congratulations, Ellen!  You’ll indeed get to “try this yarn” – I hope you enjoy it.  I’m awaiting your reply with your color choice!  Thanks to everyone who entered (I’ll be doing this again!) and to everyone who attended the Midnight Knit-In!

KnitWitz brought in Cascade Heritage Paints sock yarn last week… and it’s already popular.  Rich colors, lovely smooth yarn, 437 yards for 100 grams.  Not all of the colors we have are listed at the link to Cascade Yarn’s website, however.  Do you want one?  I’ll give you one, in the color of your choice, if you reply to this post and if you win the drawing.  We’ll pull a winner out of the hat on August 2, in the shop during the next Midnight Knit-In.  This drawing is open to all, not just KnitWitzers.  We’ll get the yarn to you if you’re out of state (we’re in lovely, rainsoaked, Jacksonville, Florida – come visit on your way to the Mouse).  I’ll put up a photo next week of our colors.  Please don’t forget to leave your email in the space provided so I can contact the winner.  Good luck to the entrants!

The first time I ever used a self-patterning yarn, it was for a pair of Opal socks. The socks are special to me, because I finished both of them. The shop, you see, only needs one sock at a time. It only has one foot. I’m notorious for hanging a half-finished sock. But these self-striping Opal socks… while I finished both of them, they didn’t match up. The stripes and jacquards were so long in the yarn, and so seemingly non-repetitive that it was very tough to see any sort of pattern. I was also using US0s. Gulp. It was suggested that if I really had to have the pattern align, I should simply raise one foot about an inch off the ground. For someone who likes correlation, that was just so not helpful. Those socks were close, but close only counts in horseshoes and handgrenades.

I really like things to match. Socks come in pairs, they should look alike. Sleeves are two – they should be the same. But self-patterning yarns present a challenge to overcome! So when Inspire arrived yesterday, a surprisingly soft yarn from Wisdom via Universal – I took the yarn at its name and cast on to the challenge.

Inspire is a 75% acrylic / 25% wool blend, with 220 yards for 100 grams. It’s affordable, and everyone who’s felt it so far had trouble believing the fiber content. The pattern is called Christine, and is a pullover with a deep ballet-wrap-like vee front. It calls for Tapestry, which we also have in the shop. But the pattern arrived with Inspire – so it’s a happy coincidence. The back of the sweater just flew, what a fast yarn! Thank you, enthusiasm – and it got done around lunchtime today. The first front is where I had to pause… and consider the problem of matching. Or MISmatching. The ribbed band had to line up!  So I pulled out some yarn and cast on in what I thought might be the same place. It sort of worked out…

Then I started the sloping edge and realized that the front won’t – can’t - match the back. Because the rows get shorter and shorter – resulting in wider and wider stripes. Since it’s beyond my control, I’ve resolved to simply not stand sideways. And since “One Size Fits Wall”, the Wall doesn’t much care. It never stands sideways.

The second front looms on the horizon. I’m trying to prepare myself for the non-matching of it to the first. They don’t match in the photo on the pattern, and it leans to the right – so it’s not like a pair of socks anyway. Mirror images aren’t identical, right? The sleeves, though. Yeah, the sleeves… I need help there. I usually knit both sleeves at the same time and can see this might be a problem. What sort of things do you tell yourself to overcome the discordance of mismatched sleeves? Should I just get over it (when, let me tell you, it’s very tough to let it go), or is there a trick you can share? Thanks in advance and I’ll keep you posted on the progress.