The amazing nieces!

Guess who came for the weekend? The girls from Honey Bunny's side...and was it ever a great time. They are so different from each other (and from raising little boys) that I just crack up constantly.

Here is a sweet story. Yesterday I was making pancakes and the older of the two said "My mom doesn't make pancakes very often. She mostly makes those kind you put in the toaster, but when she does she makes faces in her pancakes". I looked at mine and thought "Uh-oh"....so I asked her if her mommy made them with chocolate chips and she said "Nope!". I explained that I never quite mastered that whole faces in the pancake thing and that mine always turn out more like monsters in the pancakes but I would still do my best for her. A few minutes later she is taking a bite and gets really quiet, she whispers "Auntie, these taste like love".

Does it get any better?

Adventures in Kayaking!

We all know there are things besides knitting (*gasp!!*) and one of them is new to me. Kayaking! It never looked that interesting to me but I caught the bug this summer after borrowing some from the folks.

Wow! The first time out was a make-it-or-break-it experience. Honey Bunny and I went to Monterey and gave it a whirl. Not only was it cold, windy and rainy that day but I wasn't feeling well....translated: not so nice to be around.

Still, we had a blast and the only complaint I heard from him is that I took off like a bullet and I could hear him calling to me through the storm "Hey, I thought we were doing this together!" (That is me in the lead, once he caught up!)

In my defense I was terrified. We had spent the day before learning all about what lurked under the water at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and I was scared of looking like food to something if I sat still too long. Not to mention that the weather was not cooperative and the ocean swells were growing larger. I just wanted to get 'er done! Know what I mean?

Yes, I am Wild About Otters! They are the cutest stinkin' creatures I have ever seen!!

We have moved past that to the point of buying a double kayak a.k.a "Divorce Kayak" to those in the know. Our first day out on it together we found out why it is called that, but persevered and had a great time.

I humbly present our "home travels".....LakeTahoe, Stampede, Donner Lake and Truckee River.....



And so many of the pictures look the same....Life IS Good!

The new shop is amazing!

Well, all my trepidation was for nothing. I know, I know, I should just trust Jimmy. I do trust her but there is something about closing a shop you dearly love to move to the Big City...where you have to drive a long distance and spend more time in the car and gas money and well...whatever! I love it! The people still come and I have met new friends to boot. One of the nicest things is not working in a LYS alone. I have other gals to spend the day with and they are wonderful.

Meet Ashley and Gertrude!


We were so excited with the latest addition to our staff that we couldn't help dressing her up in anything we could find and dancing around a bit. Amanda and I having some fun....

All is well, the mice have settled down and the shop is constantly adding yummy new yarns, needles, bags, books, displays....it really is a good life here at Jimmy Beans Wool. Come and visit us!

The day Love came to town....

I like the idea of blogging but "the time" is what I need to have more of to do it well....if at all. Oh well, I take comfort in friends like me who barely get this done, and yet I still enjoy reading their occasional posts. Besides, there are so many other great blogs to read that I prefer the reading to the typing. I am not nearly so clever as Wendy!

Mexico was amazing, by way of catching up. The first day we arrived at our job site we were greeted by two little girls holding hands. Sisters!! Well I do love that! Reminded me so much of my own sister and I, and her two little girls (my nieces) that I was nearly in tears the first moment.

We had made a sign that said "Free Hugs" in Spanish.

I held it up so they could see it, then put it down and held out my arms...these beautiful girls came running down the hill, into my arms, and into my heart forever. We were literally joined at the hip all week with affection and games and charades to communicate. It is amazing how well you can with just a few words of Spanish, and they were so darn smart and curious about everything.

The thing that amazed me the most was at the end of it all they had a place to live. In spite of all our fun! Our group of highschool kids took 4 days to build 3 houses, joining 2 cultures under 1 God!

I would highly recommend this sort of trip to anyone and everyone. It really makes you step out of your normal life and see we are not all that different. The extra "things" we have are different but love and family is the same. These kids were happy with sticks and a pile of sand, and my kids were changed by it. I saw 45 highschool kids affected in a profound way, right along with me.

I can't wait for next year!

Off to Mexico!!

How does a trip with 60 highschool kids, on a bus for over 12 hours (each way), camping in "roughin' it" conditions, and building houses for needy families sound? It sounds like Spring Break baby! And that is where we are headed in just a few short hours!

We are a Young Life group headed down to Mexico to build 3 houses this week. This will be a first trip for me, as I have never done this particular thing before. Usually it is Club and Camp and all the other fun stuff. I have to say, though, that I am more excited about this than anything we have headed off to do so far.

What does this have to do with knitting? Not too much. I do have a Silk Shrug I am taking for the bus ride. It is a simple mindless pattern with no fancy anything. I can pick it up and put it down at the drop of the hat, or whatever it is that a teen can do to make you put something down and run to them....The other cool thing is that I can teach whoever wants to learn. We will have a knitting circle at the back of the bus for as many that care to participate.

Send your thoughts and prayers our way this week! We will certainly need and appreciate it!

Happy Easter! He is Risen indeed!

Town Mouse, Country Mouse

Remember that story? I want to say it was on Sesame Street, or Aesop wrote it but I can't recall off the top of my head. There were the two mousie cousins who went to visit each other and each had ideas about where they came from and the advantages of where they lived...well I think of myself as a Mountain Mouse going to the City. I don't always like the City but it does have it's perks. I have to occasionally venture down off the mountain for things like cheaper gasoline and trips to Costco. Now it looks like I get to hang out with City Mice much more than I have been used to and I sure hope they like me....gulp!

The 'ol yarn barn is closing. I shouldn't exactly say it that way, but it is what it is and....well... it's closing. Try as I might to be happy I just can't seem to muster it today. (I will blame that on being sick for the past week). I put in my final hours, others are putting in theirs, and tomorrow the shop is officially closed in our little town.

I should clarify here that we are not actually closing. We are simply combining two shops into one bigger better store. The decision from a business perspective is a smart one. We will have all inventory in one place and online orders will be even more quick than they are now.

I get it. I really do. I have spent the past month convincing people that the move is truly for the best. That the new shop will be amazing (cause it is!) and that the service will be great (cause it is!) but the truth is that I don't know. I want to believe this is the best thing going, yet change is like that.... such mixed feelings. I am really excited about working with cool people I don't get to normally work with, I am excited about more yarn of course, but I still have this sadness of missing "my shop".

I love my customers! Oh, I surly have stories to rival the best of them but the truth is that the vast majority of folks who wander in are the BEST!! People I know by name, people I have helped, people who have helped me, people I have met from literally all over the world, and even folks just needing change for the parking meters. I adore this town and all of the tourists and locals alike. My job feels like I am in heaven most days and my fingers are crossed for the move to the City....

For now we pack up the yarn, take down cubes, and pull out for what I hope will be an even better ride than the past year has been.....I am thankful for both directions, the future and the past!

Vroom, Vroom!!

I love my nieces'.....and nephews too. There is something about these kids that I so adore, I almost feel guilty about it. I think it is in part because the wait was so long for them. My husband and were both the oldest in our families and so we were first to have kids. We got straight to it too! The rest of the sibs took longer to get married and have families. Good things are worth waiting for!

My sister took this early one morning while I was there visiting....

I am especially close to my sister's girls. Surely this is because my sister and I are incredibly tight. We had a rough go of it in childhood and we always had each others backs. I think one way of expressing my love for my sister is the privilege of spoiling her girls rotten. Their personalities are such a blend of her and I that we get to smile, wink, and secretly nod to each other all the time when we watch them interact.

Here they are...holding on to each other already. Yes, they fight like crazy but they also make each other laugh and that is what matters.


This is for my youngest niece. I say she is my twin. No one believes me but I see it and no one can convince me otherwise....my sister will just smile and pat me on the back. What does she know anyway?

This is Drive-Thru from Wendy Bernard at Knit and Tonic

I prefer the working name of Quicko-Cheapo but that's just me. I will slowly cruise my way through these and knit one for all my nieces and nephews. This first one is knit from Tahki New Tweed. It was a sale yarn from Jimmy Beans Wool and I love how it knit up. It is a wool silk blend and it so soft with nice even stitches. I added a bit of Tahki Rialto to the yoke. I fiddled quite a bit with color combo on this and ended up knitting it double every other stitch on a solid row. Not too much but just enough color and fun for a 4 year old spit fire who is just like her Auntie!

Rather Huge Carpetbag....nice!

Ever since I laid eyes on this pattern I have wanted to knit the bag. Exactly as shown in the picture too. I could not think of one thing to make it better, and as a huge Mary Poppins fan this was just practically perfect in every way!

This is pre-felting, and I will add that was giant. I knit it in the car while my son was driving. SO easy! Totally a beginner thing, in the round, straight up to the top. I had to be able to keep an eye on the road and knit away without paying much attention to what my hands were doing. This was the perfect project for that. By the time we came home I had a bag to felt.

Another day to knit the flower and put it all together and I have a nice bag for MORE knitting projects, or for traveling. I am not happy with the handles so ignore those. I am waiting for the ones I really want to come back in stock.

Am I back?

I don't know. I have been trying to live life, read blogs, work, homeschool and of course KNIT :-) The problem is that I don't have time to learn how to drive this blog thing. I do all sorts of things on the net, and never seem to have the trouble this has given me. I have been pondering other sites for blogging and wondering if they are more user friendly.

In the end, I have come back to give this one more try. Lo and behold I find that there are upgrades and google is involved and perhaps I can sit tight right here.

I will see how things go in trying to post and then get busy, hopefully, with adding new projects including another Noni bag. Ya gotta love those Noni patterns!

Bobbles, bobbles, everywhere!

It is finished and I couldn't be more happy. I think it turned out great. Not just the bag, but the whole experience. It was time consuming but it was also easy. The time was lots of small increments that you can fit into a day as well, so this is a great project if you don't have a lot of time at once, but little bits here and there. That is perfect for all the bobbles!



I used a really stiff interfacing that I found at our local quilting store. It is actually quite thick and she said you can use it for the inside of basball hat brims and that sort of thing. It was not fuseable so I used a double sided fusing to secure the fabric with the interfacing, and then set that bag within a bag into my felted purse. This made a world of difference! The bag is so top heavy that you really need to go with a nice lining to make it stand up.



I will add that in one day of using it, the comments are overwhelming! It is a real eye catching bag, and Jimmy Beans will have it as a kit soon. This is nice so you won't have to buy all those skeins for colors, you can simply buy a kit.

Well, the journey is nearly over. It has been a new experience for me in my journey with knitting. The first time I have ever wanted to finish something so badly that I couldn't stand it any longer. I say all the time (to whever will listen) that for me, knitting is the "process" not the "product". I lied!





I was up late at night, then back to it early in the morning, all in the drive to get this silly thing finished. I was thrilled when I finally got the bobbles down to about 5 minutes each. The bag itself was not the hard part, it actually went quite fast, but it was those bobbles that were weighing me down. They were everywhere, and I was constantly knitting them and yet they never seemed to end. I knit during dinner with company, I knit before bed, I knit in the carwash people!! I only wish I had a photo of the day I was standing outside the car, knitting bobbles, while Thing One and Thing Two (my wonderful kids) vacuumed and wiped down the dashboard with Armorall wipes...sort of giving me funny "Are you going to help us or stand there and knit?" kind of looks. All I will say is that I finished three bobbles while they worked and they got an ice-cream cone for their trouble.




I am not sad to see it end. In fact I may have turned a bit of a corner with my whole process/product theory. I like the product! I want more product!! I have a shawl screaming to be finished, and a sweater tank that must be done and worn at least once before fall hits, and those are just the big ones. I will always have a sock in my purse and my family will just have to live with that.






All I am saying, is that I get it. I know it is normal to have multiple projects going and with rare exception this is how we knitters are. I like to think that I make progress on something everyday, but sadly all that progress doesn't show up well with so many things going. I have nearly finished something really cool and it is just the boost I need to commit to something else all the way and maybe, just maybe, I will have a huge surge of Off the Needle product.






*Snif, Snif*....my husband will be so proud....