Tilt-a-whirl

Once upon a time in Lafayette...

We moved inland through the tunnel to Lafayette from Oakland, just about 25 years ago. We left our home town and the arty farty community around Piedmont Avenue to give our kids a chance at better schools, with the help of my parents. It was a hard hard transition for all of us, moving from the funky flat with the Perfect Weather Veggie Garden out to Hotter Than Hades Lafayette With The Clay Soil. I felt like a freak with all of the buttoned down types but slowly realized that my neighbors shared my love of art and knitting. My next door neighbor, who was at least 20 years my senior became my willing companion many times when I needed to go into Berkeley to prowl a wholesale yarn company's loft. We found something in common.
  I conditioned my soil year after year, turning a huge plot of crummy grass into a funky, eclectic garden and I turned my love of knitting and color into a business that grew into what it is now. The garden, chickens and ducks grew on the outside and the children, fiber business and art collection grew on the inside. The children are the age of so many of my customers now and so the circle of older friend is complete now, with me being the senior in many equations. It is all good, as someone told me the other day.

  When we moved here, there was but one yarn store in town. Betsy's knit N Stitch was the friendly yarn and needlepoint store in what was the old LaFiesta Square. (now it is a really ooh lala place with fancy anchor stores) In the back of this square was a funky little fabric store called The Cotton Patch. I frequented both places. Then came the revolt. The landlord at the time was a Snidely Whiplash who made it so difficult for these woman owned businesses that they did something radical...they found a way to turn some little homes that had been zoned for business into what I soon called the street of Rebels. One block of Brown Avenue became the home for both Betsy and TCP. I frequented both and loved it more. Betsy has since retired but the Cotton Patch is a well known destination for quilters...right down the hill.

I bring this up because while I was claiming Betsy's as MY LYS, where I would go buy a ball or two of foo foo yarn to supplement my handspun, there was another little store opening in town, in the Clocktower building. It was a TINY store owned by a European lady with a very different sensibility and focus. I did not go there too often but would remain loyal to Betsy. As Betsy's time in the yarn business was winding down (an old woman plowed into the front of the little house with her car and things were never the same) another woman opened something yarny in another spot down town. She was Lisa Daniels, who moved to this small spot to have a design studio and ended up running a too tiny yarn store with a big following. Three yarn stores in our little town and me being a yarn MAKER. Too funny and an embarrassment of riches.

Betsy closed her doors, the European Lady sold her business and Lisa Daniels (the OTHER Lisa in Lafayette) opened a really big high end shop right on the main drag, across from the little yarn store in the Clocktower Building. The person that bought The Yarn Boutique was Marianne Adams...a very nice and enthusiastic woman that I met several times at TKGA or Stitches West. I wished her well but wondered how anyone could carve out much of a go in such tiny quarters, especially across the street from the fancy schmancy store.

Here is the thing and why I am bringing all of this up. I have finally found a place to call MY LYS again. Marianne found a spot in the same La Fiesta Square (in the funky part) where BOTH Betsy and Lisa got their start. It is right next to the old Cake Box bakery in a former art gallery. I went in to give her my support and some of my $$ and was happy and comfortable and knew that I could honestly say that Marianne has made this a very smart move.  Go check out the new digs and give her your support.  Check out her website   for the new address. See? Another circle of sorts. While you are there, stop into Papillon for coffee, buy some fabulous pastry at the Patisserie, shop for fancy dog toys at Nitro Dog and don't forget the Lafayette (co-op) art gallery. It is worth a stop and if you are hungry...well...there is Chow . I guess that Lafayette has finally caught up to the place that I left 25 years ago...a little funky and kind of arty farty. Took long enough, sheesh.

Of note, I got my copy of More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch yesterday. I was telling Tom the other day that this book was something that was seeded over a year ago and to see my yarn transformed into a beautiful sock and the link in the back was just thrilling. Charlene contacted me a long time ago...back when I had just found my first sock yarn. Now look. More circles.

July is when Alison's book comes out but you can join me by pre-ordering this one as well! Wrapped in Comfort is filled with lovely lacy shawls and stories from this woman who knits in as zen a way as a nice Mormon Lady can, giving and giving and giving. Spreading the Love, baby.

Alright, I don't know what came over me this morning but I am done being The Town Cryer and need to go dye some yarn and fiber for some patient people.

When last we met...

You see, 16 months or so ago, we were going through what The Husband's friend calls The Perils of Pauline. This was when Prophane Industries was cutting him loose and we were going to cut and run out of the Bay Area. Prophane hired him on as a contractor for stretches, always renewing his contract, keeping us here and hunkered down. We kept moving forward in life and what was manifested during the time of great stress of a Too Early Retirement was that I would rise to the occasion and go from an artisan to a artisan AND businesswoman. Well, they are at it again. His contract has been renewed in only one 30 day bumps for the last couple of months and he is down to 5 days of "what's going to happen this time". The difference is...if they decide that they want to pay him less money or just dump the extra workload on the two poor schlubbs left in the office (one is going out for hip surgery, so it will all be on ONE poor schlubb) we will be ok. The test came this weekend.

  When last we met, I took a picture of a skein of that new colorway, Giverny, framed by the blossoms of the Nectarine tree and open space. We did something to that open space this weekend. On Friday, after the second gutter dude came to survey the mess that the first gutter dude made, we decided to fire up The BAV and take a run to Costco, to buy the three ginormous boxes from Israel that contained the parts to our newest addition to the property. The Shed. We wanted to buy it right then so that this seasonal thing would not slip from our grasp. That was the plan. He was going to do weed whacking and I was going to dye yarn and refurbish a little garden that since losing its canopy of branches had some sun. He whacked and I sneezed and dug (me in the front and him out back). When I came in to yap on the phone, I saw that his whacking has stopped in a particular area and the weeds were gone and so was some soil...and so it began. A trip to Home Depot started our Saturday and then it REALLY began. He was once again a very very happy camper, sawing and hammering his way into a foundation platform for The Shed. Sweaty and tired but grinning like a Cheshire Cat. My husband was coming back to his old self.

  Sunday morning started with me dyeing and him sawing and hammering. We took a couple of hours off to shop for my blind shut-in mother and seeing to her bills and the like. We got home and had lunch. I went out to work some more in the dye room and he went outside to saw and hammer. By the time I hung up the second batch of yarn in the breeze, it became apparent that some assembly was going to be required because he had put the floor down and rain was forcast for our near future. Late in the afternoon we began the puzzle of putting this well engineered thing together and finished off our day in the dark, with me holding the flashlight while he installed the roof and windows to seal it up (still need to do a lot of screws and finishing) against the rain. You see...we will be fine. If Prophane wants to dump him, well...look what we can do in two days.

Oh yeah and this is the Beautiful Garden To Be. We are expecting rain today and so perhaps Mother Nature, who will not allow me to swing yarn in the breeze, will give this odd mix of old and new plants and boost. I know, it doesn't look like much NOW but it WILL. I paid dearly for this planting day...sneezing my face off. I know that it will be worth it when the plants take hold and the flowers bloom. Yes, that is Conan the Barn Raiser, heading off to Prophane for the day...hey, baby...remember what you can do when you aren't working for The Man.

Knitty N Stuff

I had a lovely long conversation with a customer from Montreal yesterday and after talking with her, I realized that not everyone that buys yarn on the internet has a clue about Knitty.com. She was asking me about patterns and I told her that a customer, Judith Brodnicki, had a pattern  in this issue using my Supersport and that she should check it out. The weird thing is that I did not pay one bit of attention to which yarn Judith had used for the pattern until she sent a really cool card with the photo of her foot on the manhole cover, where she identified the yarn. DOH! Slow down and smell the vinegar, Lisa. Sheesh. Now then, people...if you have a skein of such an animal in your stash...there you go...a nice free pattern, designed by a nice lady. :o) Of course the last 100 pounds of that animal is still sitting on the porch of the Dye-raj, waiting to be deposited inside. Now that the last remnants of the heavy plastic that protected everything from roof poo is gone, this precious cargo can be installed in its perfect resting place.

Speaking of yarn, as I usually am. You know that I just got the first big shipment of Hardtwist and was jumping for joy. I think that the Universe just likes to keep me off balance at all times so that I don't go all SOFT. Yes, the purveyor of the yarn that I use for Sock! Merino has not only quit carrying the Supersport but is having trouble coaxing more of the fine stuff out of the mill. More delays...he says now that the shipment SHOULD reach him by the second week in April (haven't I just been through this?) so I am going to limp through the dwindling yarn stock, get out the orders that are still on the board (very very few, now) and you can either have original Sock! or go on the white board and back into the same old roller coaster ride.

I futzed around in the dye room the other day, while working on a light blue for a friend and came up with a new colorway. While it won't be on the site until Holly the Web Fairy comes back from vacation, if you would like something dyed in this delicious watery colorway, simply ask and Giverny can be had in your favorite yarn.

Here's hoping that I can get out into that sneezy place today and put in a pretty new flower bed. We had our big Peppermint Gum thinned and so there is suddenly a lot more precious sunlight in the front garden...time to vist my favorite Nur$ery and turn some of your yarn dollars into growing things. Magic.  Thank you.

Happy Spring

I have been feeling sooooooo crappy lately, fighting through the pain of some sort of creeping crud that has of course been elevated to a new high by the beautiful and toxic Spring that is littering pollen all over the place. I coughed myself so silly yesterday that it felt like I blew out a vocal chord or some other DRAMATIC visual, so needless to say, I was afraid to eat or swallow pills this morning.  This means that no allergy med went down the pie hole (worried of it lodging in my craw. ewwwwwww) so by the time I got back from chauffeuring my ever failing mom to the dentist, I was in full on sinus meltdown. The ONLY thing that could have made me grin through the head-resting-on-shoulders pain was the sight of This.

Yes, this is one of three boxes drop shipped from the mill, something that will bring relief to the stress of making people fall in love with something and then telling them that the mill is lollygagging. No more lollygagging. They are sending the next three boxes right away and then we have an order for another big pile after that...PLUS, I am having them make this AWESOME Hardtwist Merino superwash  in a lighter weight as well. Who needs money...I can sleep on cones of yarn, right? Nah, you guys will relieve me of it very very soon. Those of you that have been so patient, the winding will start tonight so that I can get after the orders on the board. I promise that it will be worth the wait.

All the while that I was waiting for this yarn, I have had something else in the wings, just there in a big 100 pound pile for me to get after. The Whiteboardfromhell is starting to see more white than ink and so when I begin dyeing the Hardtwist, I will begin dyeing THIS as well. I give you Sierra, here in this swatch of South Pacific. It is yummy and 4 stitches per inch in a Alpaca/merino/silk combo that is bouncy and as you can see, takes the color SOOOOOO beautifully. When Holly comes back from her vacation, I promise to be a good girl and get this yarn and some other things up on the site. :o)

 

The Gutter Dude is back to re-do one of our new bits and so I will leave you with this picture.

She married into it...

So, I have a lovely and talented daughter-in-law. I have told you about her. She is a new knitter and when she was here for the burial, we spent an evening in the kitchen with me coaching her on the art of cable knitting. Well, why not? She had learned to knit AND purl and had made a lovely 1x1 rib scarf, so the move to cable seemed natural, didn't it? Sure! It helped that I had a new cable knitting book hanging around the living room and so we began. We had one little teaching session when she got back to Connecticut, with me trying to explain something in front of the video feed but who knows if I confused her. Since then, she has been knitting the way that I used to knit...nonstop. She moved from cables to knitting in the round, making a hat for her husband. Cool. So I sent a care package recently, which included a "kit" for The Italian Job, which is a wonderful fast cap pattern knitted with one little skein of Fat Bunny...the most cushy and luxurious angora/merino yarn that I have worked with that was not spun by me. I guess that she cracked open that package, wound the yarn and knitted up the cap in a blink of an eye. I loved getting the photo of it today. Here you go.

I told her to get ready for that cap to get more and more fuzzy as she handles it and wears it on a regular basis. Yup, it is about a two hour project, people. Hers is Mars Quake in a particularly red version. Love it and the photographer's self portrait. :o) My son should be VERY happy that she is such a voracious knitter (she gets the family discount) because she is keeping his California born and raised head warm as well, over there in Connecticut where there is a REAL winter now and again.

Now then, I told you that she is talented. You can see her beautiful photography on her new website. I give you the work of Victoria Souza. Yeah, we get to claim another artist in the family.

Work has been keeping me bleary eyed. I have, with the full-time help of Tink the Wonder Fairy, been able to make a HUGE dent in the mind boggling whiteboardfromhell that faced me every morning in the dye room after Stitches and then with the  onslaught of orders. I thank you all so much for your orders and your patience. Some people still think that there is a small army of people here at the Dyeworks but it is me working 16 hours a day, trying to catch up, doing emails in the morning, dyeing all afternoon and then finishing up with getting the orders ready for the next day's pick-up. Not complaining, mind you...just trying to figure out how one more body could fit in here to help me. And so it grows.

I got the word from my favorite crack luxury fiber/yarn dealer that the mill is drop shipping the first 150 pounds of my long awaited big order of Hardtwist. This will save a few days and I am grateful to her for offering that to me. I know that some of you are waiting for this yarn and as soon as the DHL man muscles it to the porch, we will fire up the skeining machine. I SWEAR, I do not get what is going on with the mills these days but I am back to rationing out my last box of Sock Merino while I wait for another couple of hundred pounds that is long overdue. It is making me crazy but anyone that comes here these days will be walking through a labyrinth of boxes...as I told the you know what dealer...just call me Scarlett O'hara..."Ah will nevah go yahn hungry again". Nossireebob.

Destressing

You know what? Yesterday was an excellent day.The Daughter and Schicklefritz came down for a visit because Thebabydaddy went skiing with his buddies. Yay! We all piled into the car and went to San Francisco for fun and frolic because it was a most excellent and beautiful day. Our destination was the Marina district where we visited The Daughter's pre marriage haunts and then headed over to Fort Mason to visit with old friends at The Contemporary Crafts Market. You see, for a few years I had a foot in each of two worlds...juried craft shows and the fiber shows that now take all of my time. I miss my artist friends, each with their own vision of the world and  personality to match. It was delightful to visit the show as a Civilian, with hugs for the Hawaiian Sisters of the Promoter who are the big hearted crew. We got a lovely welcome and it was so good to see them when there is not the stress of worrying about "doing well", which is the heartache mantra of artisans. Of course I had to visit my friend Robin Senour of Sacred Laughter, whose work I just adore. She told me that she was thinking of me when she created this. I think that you all need one.

Yes, I told Robin that I think that she should bring her one ring circus to Stitches next year because if I was stopped ONCE, I was stopped 45 times when wearing her pins. Little works of art.

After visiting with friends at the show, we took the Schnickle to the super dooper playground there in the Marina so that he could go go go go go go go with his new walking power.

I failed to take pictures of the heir apparent last week and so I have a couple of cute things to show you. He has been living up to his Triple Sagg potential by wanting to go Outside all of the time. He has very few words but they include a version of outside and dog. We must honor these obsessions. He and Grampy were going in and out and in and out and in and out of the doors yesterday when Schnickle discovered The Brooms. He is too much, this kid. He picked them both up (he is a new walker, you remember) and brought them out front to work work work. He kept this up for 15 or 20 minutes.

  I don't know where he gets these ideas but he is going to be just like his Grampy, so there will have to be tools in his future.

I will leave you with a new favorite shot. Yup, I am smitten.

The hammering has stopped

So...yesterday I took my life into my hands, masked up and went out to get some dyeing done. It was a stunning time, I must say. I kept having to call people to share the sounds that were ricocheting around in my noggin..."hear that? Yeah, they are right above me now." You know, stupid stuff like that. It is a good thing that I am a little rock n roll deaf, I'll tell ya (why do guitar players NEED to have their dials at ten?). I digress...what's new?

I got the word yesterday that the adorable and really brainy (seems to go along with this whole podcasting thing...don't let Miss Lime and Miss Violet's raucous yammering fool you...these are two serious Smarty Pants) new Podcasters Jenny & Nicole of Stash & Burn have put up their two sets of interview laden Stitches West entries. I have heard that I do not make too much of a fool of myself but then like an actor shielding her eyes from the screen, I have not listened yet.

I am trying to get my brain to catch up with my body and I have to tell you  that I got a wonderful email from a Toronto man by the name of Danny Oullette a few days ago. We first met Danny in Michigan when we were in Grand Rapids for the Handweaver's big Convergence and then when someone sent me a clip of a program about male knitters, here is Dan talking about his knitting while riding the metro or something. I tell Rod...HEY! There is that nice young man that we met...look! Well, we caught his eye at Stitches and got a kick out of telling him that we had seen him in the clip. He bought some spinnable fiber that day and then went home and did some remarkable spinning. I was going to put in the link but just saw that he had the word PRIVATE in the address...imagine, if you will, some handsome Olive Tones handspun. :o)

Speaking of people going home and getting busy with their treasures... Miss Barb has begun knocking out pairs of socks in the new Hardtwist and she makes it look like so much fun that even *I* of the No Time Brigade might be ready to go for it. I got word from my Crack cashmere and yarn dealer that the mill has sent the gigantamundo shipment of this yarn and so we'll how long it takes to get it driven to HER house and then on to MINE. Of course when Shnickle next visits, we can just build him a fort...a REAL fort with the boxes and boxes and boxes of yarn piling up around here. I told you before, I am being Scarlett O'Hara and will not go Yarn Hungry again. (word came from another yarn dealer that I got the last 100 pounds of Supersport and so I will happily dye it for you until it is, like The Python's Polly...No More.

Catching up on some more wonderful things that people have made. You should see Nannette's beautiful Wensleydale Earth Birth yarn and mitts . She says that she feels quite firey when wearing them. I say...brava. Speaking of BRAVA...I had to wait until Angelia Sharp had completed her sock swap before being able to show you her fabulous socks made from Garnet and Gold Sock!. Aren't they maginificent? She tells me that she used the Birdfoot pattern from Red Bird Knits . Fabulous job all around.

One last thing. That Barb...I forgot to tell you what she did with some Sock! and some of the stuff that she calls HEAT and of course I took her idea and dragged a bundle of this stuff to Stitches. (Heels, Embellishments And Toes) Not only did she make these cool socks...she gave them to me and they are my all time favorites to wear. She now knows that I have big feet...a good base to stand on. :o) Thanks Barb...I love ya.

New Roof

So, we are pulling into Folsom on Saturday morning when the cell jumps for attention. It is Victor, the man who is to be our foreman for the roofing job. Our time in the queue has come up and he says that it is Monday. MONDAY. Good looooord...I am just back from Stitches, got embroiled in a little drama and now this. This is what we did to the dye room when I did my last run of the day on Sunday. It is a very very good thing that we did this because when we went in there last night to pull down SOME of the plastic so that I could get some work done this afternoon...whoo wee CACA City. We are going from shake to asphalt.

I am trying to wait patiently for Victor to tell me that I can go back in to get to work. Send me some dye vibes, will ya??? Here is the proof of what is going on. Whatta mess.

Tink and I were stuck in the house yesterday, victims of hammer syndrome. Hammer hammer hammer hammer hammer...where is the frickin' headache medicine??? We decided to finally join our neighbors and eliminate the cedar shake roof that was derigeur for this kind of neighborhood for years and years and get the much safer asphalt shingle. I actually don't think that any new construction can have a shake roof. Victor and his crew have been working SO hard and I want to get back to manual labor too!

Oh yeah...I was so excited to go have some Shnickle sighting that I forgot to bring the camera...typical of me...I want to have fun and roll around instead of taking pictures. He took his time to become a walker and now he is off like a rabbit, pushing his walking toys down the driveway with his head lowered and his lower jaw jutting in determination. This kid is going to be one of those little guys who are fearless. The Daughter is just trying to keep up with his little Sag determined go-power. It was a blast seeing him so mobile and calculating. He is taking his time with verbalizing things but I have a feeling that as with walking, when he is ready, he will babble on in full sentences, all of the stuff that he has been thinking about. He has been caught waving at the great grandparents who are floating in for a look at him. The daughter goes...Baba was here because Shnickle was babbling at thin air and waving.  I think that the Sag great grands are duking it out for attention, now that they are back together at the table, on the Other Side. My SF and Rod's mom used to go at it at the holiday table, vying for the most attention. Hah!

Meeting of the minds

Thanks everybody. I appreciate your support of Brenda in this situation and thanks especially to Miss Violet for knocking on the blinders (we never look at each others work so that we will only hear our own artisitic muse) of a couple of ethical dyers/business women. I had a long heart to heart with Tina Newton of Blue Moon last night and it seems that we are kindred spirits, glad to have "met" one another on the phone. Yes, she fell in love with the purloined pattern (who wouldn't?) but she was horrified to hear the story about how this stolen property was marketed to her, just as I would be if something like this came to me. The bottom line is that she will NOT be buying this particular pattern from this woman. The good guys win and there is a big lesson here. Stand up for yourself or your friends. Speak out. I was told that the offending scarf and reference to it has been removed from this person's blog. Good.

Now that this has a period at the end of the sentence, I am going to take the day off and go hug me some Schnickle. It is time that I witnessed the Simian Toddle of a little walking man for myself. I want baby hugs and kisses and time away from business. I promise to go full tilt boogie on your orders from Sunday on. This whole drama took time and was very very important. Now it is done, I have yarn and will dye.

Brenda Patipa

So, those of you who read the blog know that I have a helper who calls herself Tinkerbelle when she gets in my face to help me get ready for shows and order avalanches. Sometimes she can be like a gnat but most of the time, she is right on with her ideas and help. This is Brenda Patipa, a very talented designer who just happened to fall into my life and business. Brenda is not a newbie designer. She did work for the grand masters and grand fathers of hand painted yarn; Dyed in the Wool. She knows fashion, has a degree in design from what is now called California College of the Arts, which was my alma mater back when it was called California College of Arts and Crafts. She designs in many mediums and with fashion, she has a keen eye and thinks ahead about things. Her designs are very different from anything that I knitted during my days of designing garments and that is very cool to me.

What I am leading up to is Brenda's designs. A whole bucket load of you have bought and enjoyed her scarf patterns, especially the fabulous Twist & Lace which was announced on the blog way back in August of last year and then made available on the site soon after. It is wonderful and jazzy and was designed with a stripey sock yarn for a wonderful effect. Heck, you can look back a few entries and see it knitted by someone using Violet's Pink Ribbon. Now I have found that someone has bought the pattern from me and done a couple of little alterations and is marketing this as her own design to be sold to a large competitor. I am not going to name names but when asked about this, this person told me that although it looks the same, she made some alterations to make it different and would be happy to say that she was "inspired by Brenda". When you see it, you see Brenda Patipa's intellectual property. My main concern is that when people see this other pattern marketed by this larger company, they will think that Brenda is the one to copy, as opposed to it being the other way around. I just have to speak up about this. This is not MY work, this is Brenda's work. She gets great pleasure from rooting around in my yarn bins and coming up with all kinds of interesting things. She is original and talented and I am glad that she is my friend. This thing is just not OK...