Choosing Yarn!

Patrick and I met with the Cascade rep today!!  This was our first yarn rep meeting, and it went really well.  Unfortunately, it was a little like trying to drink water from a fire hose!!  So many yarns!  So many colors!

Here are some of the things I learned today:

1. There are about a zillion colors of Cascade 220.
2. I have expensive taste and would order ten times more yarn than we can afford if I didn’t have such a strict budget.
3. Cascade has some really high-end amazing yarns, but they also have some good quality affordable yarns.
4. I still don’t like the color orange.  (Although I did choose some orange because, apparently, there are more people in the world than just me.)
5. It is absolutely necessary for both me and Patrick to meet with the reps. 
   1. We can help each other as we choose yarns and colors. 
   2. As much as we try to communicate all of our thoughts about yarn to each other, there is invariably something one of us has thought about and hasn’t mentioned to the other.
   3. He keeps me grounded in terms of money.  We really can’t have every color of Cascade 220 and all the fancy silk blends.
   4. I have a migraine tonight and it was starting while we were in the meeting.  It’s important to have Patrick there to keep me from getting too overwhelmed, which is most likely to happen when I’ve got (or am getting) a migraine.
6. A $3000 budget goes away very, very quickly!!

We didn’t actually put in the order today – we’ll do it in a couple of weeks.  In the meantime, we’ll be meeting with some other reps and figuring out what other yarns we want and finalizing what we want from Cascade.

Patrick and I also did some talking about the structure of the shop this afternoon.  We haven’t purchased any of our fixtures yet, and we’re trying to get as much as we can used.  For example, we are putting the sofa from my mother-in-law’s house next door (that she rented for the last year – she’s giving up that place and will just stay with us or friends when she visits and she’ll keep her primary residence in Florida) in the front room instead of the back room as we’d originally planned.  We want to have a place where people can feel free to sit and knit and chat.  It’s also a good place where someone can knit up a bit of yarn to decide if they want to buy it.

We’ve got lots of other great ideas for the building.  I’m looking forward to it looking like a “real” yarn shop!

Next time: Fair Isle sweater progress!

More Wool!!

This afternoon/evening, the whole family went out to Lamb's Quarters to finish skirting wool. To be honest, the kids were just going because they didn't have anything else to do. Neither one was at all interested in working with raw wool. And, to be honest, the fleeces do smell like sheep, and a big part of skirting wool is removing the fecal matter that gets caught in the fleece. So, I guess I understand their perspective.


Today, we finished the last of the fleeces - 100 pounds total! And, here are the pictures that I promised in the last post:





We plan to take the wool to the mill in 2 weeks or so. After that, it will be about three months before we get the yarn. We are going to have a section of our wall with pictures and explanations showing the sheep whose wool we used along with the skeins of yarn. I'll definitely give you progress updates as we go!




Addendum: The shop now has phone and internet!! And we meet with our first rep tomorrow!!

Next time: Project updates

Skirting Wool

I love, love, LOVE wool yarn.  But, being something of a suburban/town girl, I don't know much about what happens before the yarn gets to the yarn store.  So, Patrick and I are rectifying that situation and getting some great local yarn for The Knitting Nest.

Today, we went to Lamb's Quarters where Jane Haase taught us how to skirt fleeces.  Skirting a fleece means taking out the really soiled sections of the wool as well as areas of excessive vegetable and fecal material.  The mill will wash the wool, but skirting needs to be done before it goes to the mill.  We chose our 11 fleeces that we're going to buy and then Jane showed us how to do the skirting.  I was a little afraid that I might be grossed out by the process, but it really wasn't bad.  (It probably helps that I can't smell really well and that I worked as a physician for 10 years which has it's moments of grossness!)  We got two fleeces skirted before it started raining.  We hope to finish the skirting this week so we can take the wool to the mill in a couple of weeks.

(I wanted to put some pictures right here, but I'm having trouble with this blog editing program.  Pictures will be coming soon!)

Patrick and I really enjoyed our time skirting the wool.  The work isn't hard, but it is important to do a good job so that the mill doesn't have to do extra work (which would cost us more).  We also learned an awful lot about wool and sheep.  I'd read about "staple length", but I got to actually see how it's determined.  Jane showed us the sheep, which were pretty skittish around us.  Eventually, I want to have pictures of the individual sheep whose fleeces are made into yarn.

Eventually, I'd like to teach the kids in the knitting/crochet club from the elementary school or the library about how wool comes from the sheep and gets made into yarn.  I also want to teach them about different types of fibers and why they are used for different purposes.

A serious advantage to working with raw wool is that the lanolin makes our hands nice and soft!

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Steeks

I finished the main portion of the knitting in the Fair Isle sweater that I'm making!! The sweater is knit in the round with a steek in the front for the button band and steeks on the upper part of each side for the sleeves. (Here is a great article from Knitty that explains steeks and steeking. From what I can tell, the term "steek" is used for the section of knitting that is going to be cut as well as for the line of stitches that keeps the knitting from unraveling when cut and, as a verb, for the entire process. Yes, it's confusing.)

The pattern also had me make the sleeves as individual tubes most of the way up and then to attach them with steeks so the top is one big round tube. I'll cut the sleeves apart at the steeks then sew them to the sleeve steeks that I've cut in the sweater.








After I finished the knitting, I did a line of crocheted chain stitches at the edge of each steek (after I took the picture). My next step will be to cut (gasp!) the steeks and then sew the sleeves in and pick up stitches for the button band. Yes, this is very anxiety-producing, but I think the finished product will look wonderful.

Unfortunately, before I can cut open the steeks, I need to bind off the very bottom of the sweater. I used a provisional cast-on (with bright pink yarn as you see in the pictures) with the plan to put the stitches back on the needles and then bind off. The provisional cast-on lets me add more length to the bottom of the sweater if I want.

However, I'm seeing that this may not have been the brightest move on my part. The bottom band of the sweater is the right length, so now all I'm doing is putting the stitches back on the needle and binding off - steps that I could have skipped if I had just done a traditional cast-on. What's the big deal, you ask? 300 stitches with size zero needles! That's the big deal! Sooooooo, after a couple more hours of work on the bottom of the sweater, I'll be ready to take a big deep breath and cut this sweater up!

Have you ever done steeks? How did it work out for you? Any helpful tips (besides not using a provisional cast-on when I don't need to)?

Progress - June 21, 2011

Things are definitely moving along with The Knitting Nest. However, we're also leading a knitting/crochet club this summer with the local library, which is also tons of fun.

Patrick has been diligently working to get all the utilities for our retail space changed over into our name. He's also been working to get our phone and internet service set up.

Today, Patrick and I met with a graphic designer who is going to make our logo and set up our website. We had a great meeting with lots of ideas shared and can't wait to see the final product!!

The library knitting club met for the second time yesterday. We had one adult woman helping and another who came for the club. We also had three elementary school girls there, two of whom had been in our elementary school knitting/crochet club.

Last week, one of the girls who had been in the club at the school did a bracelet (their first project) with minimal help. She remembered how to cast-on and knit, and I taught her how to bind off. This week, she started a hat. She's going to knit it flat and then sew up the seam in the back. Her biggest challenge is not going be the actual knitting, since the only new skills she will learn are decreasing and sewing a seam. The most important thing she'll learn from this project is persistence - she can't make a hat in one session.

Another of the girls was not at the group last week, but came this week. She was in the school club in the spring, so remembered how to cast on and knit. She made a bracelet this week and is ready to try another project next week. I guess I'd better get busy and find patterns!

The third girl in our group was new last week. Patrick taught her how to cast on and how to knit. She started a bracelet last week, so I taught her how to bind off this week. This bracelet was great for a first try, but it was clear that she had added stitches on some rows and dropped stitches on other rows. (Our motto is "just keep knitting". We will teach them how to fix mistakes later. Right now, we just have them keep knitting through their mistakes.) After she bound off her first bracelet, she started another, needing very little help with casting on and knitting. By the end of the session, she had another bracelet, but this one with nice even rows and no dropped or added stitches. She put one bracelet on each wrist so that she can show off her progress. I definitely need to find patterns for these girls.

One of the other really fun things that happened yesterday is that Linda (a friend who is helping with the group) and I got to spend about twenty minutes unraveling a very large tangle of yarn and then reballing it. I think I might take my handy ball-winder next time. It's not all that helpful for unraveling, but it makes putting the yarn into balls much easier!

That's where we are right now. I'll try to keep taking pictures and posting when I can. This week, we are a little occupied because my parents are visiting. Next week, we are going to learn to "skirt" a fleece (get it clean enough to send to the mill). We are going to purchase some wool and take it to the mill for processing. I am excited about learning more about wool and about being able to carry local wool in The Knitting Nest.

OK, more later!!

Progress–June 17, 2011

We signed the lease today!!  Our shop is at 131 East Main Street in Weyauwega.

 

We have a retail space, now we need to get fixtures, computer, phone, email, and, of course, YARN!!!!

Our landlord said that our mailbox was across Pine Street (crosses Main Street) and pointed in that direction.  I didn’t really understand what she meant, so when I drove up there later today, I looked again for the mail box, but couldn’t find it.  When I went home, I looked again and found that it’s actually on Alfred Street, which is parallel to Main Street and a block behind our store.   The Post Office is actually closer to the shop than the mailbox!!

Current Projects–6/16/2011

We got our bank account set up today!!  And tomorrow we get the keys to our retail space!  Yippee!

Of course, we are also working on other projects.  My big one right now is a Fair Isle sweater from a Knit Picks kit (Dogwood Blossoms – cardigan version).  I got the sleeves done a couple of months ago and then put it aside to work on my sweater for Easter.  Now I’m working on the body of it.  The body is worked in the round with a steek in the middle for the button band.  I’m up to the sleeve section now, so there are also steeks for the sleeves.  Between the color changes every couple of rows and the decreases for the neck and shoulders, it’s a pretty tricky pattern.  Hopefully, just a few more weeks and I’ll be ready to start sewing it together.

I’m working on a pair of socks for my daughter from the book Sock Innovation.  They are worked on size zero needles.  I started them on a long circular, but am now working them on some size 0 carbon fiber double point needles.  These needles are much stronger than the size 0 bamboo double points and are a joy to work with.  They have a square shape and the surface is smooth, but with enough texture that the yarn doesn’t slide off.

And, can I just say how much I love the Sock Innovation book?!  The first part explains the basic construction of socks and how to make your own pattern.  The rest of the book is wonderful sock patterns – cables, lace, etc.  Definitely one of my favorite books.

I picked up a book called Module Magic a couple of weeks ago and have been playing around with mitered squares.  I’m not making a particular item, but playing around with shapes and getting used to how they work.

Patrick recently finished a hat for a friend that was his first project in the round.  He’s now working on socks.  It’s his first time to turn a heel and graft a toe.

I’m also learning crochet.  I’ve made several washcloths and am now learning granny squares.  Patrick is definitely the crochet expert around here.

Patrick is also learning more about working wood on his lathe.  He hopes to make Harry Potter wands as well as knitting needles and shawl pins.  I can’t wait till he turns his first pair of knitting needles.

What are you working on these days?

Getting Started . . .

A couple in their 40s is starting a yarn shop despite having absolutely no retail experience.  Sounds like a mid-life crisis to me!

But, it’s not.  Patrick and I have been married for 19 years this month.  Until five years ago, I was practicing medicine (Family Practice) here in Central Wisconsin – and I loved it!  Unfortunately, I developed debilitating migraines that make it impossible to practice medicine.  After I quit working, we moved about 6 miles down the road to Weyauwega and I have been a stay-at-home mom homeschooling my two kids.  (Patrick was the homeschooling parent when I was working full-time.)  Patrick got a teaching certificate for secondary math and set up MathTools, a tutoring business.

I learned to knit a couple of years before I quit working.  At first, it was just scarves and hats.  When I took a three month leave from work, I made my first couple of sweaters.  Since then, I have been absolutely hooked!!  I love fibers – my current favorite is Alpaca.  Patrick and I have jokingly talked about opening a yarn shop, but I never took the idea seriously because I know how much work it’s going to be.

Patrick brought it up again about six months ago, but this time he was serious about it.  He knows how to crochet and is learning to knit.  He’s not quite as passionate about fibers as I am, but he enjoys working with them.  He also loves wood-working and is planning to learn to turn knitting needles and shawl pins.

So, we’re starting a yarn shop!  And, it’s the best of all worlds.  Patrick will manage the day-to-day “gotta get done now” stuff, while I will be involved mostly with choosing what to sell, how to decorate the store, etc.  Basically, I can work when my headaches aren’t bad; I can sit in the shop and knit when the headache is moderate; and I can stay home with an ice pack on my head when it’s bad.  When I can be in the shop, Patrick can use his extra time to do his wood-working, some of which we can then sell.

Where are we now in shop planning?  Good question!  We sign the lease on the shop space tomorrow.  We have the LLC set up as “The Knitting Nest”, so Patrick will probably open our bank account tomorrow.  We have an appointment to talk with someone about artwork and a webpage (that will link to this blog).

We are talking to someone about buying some local wool and having it spun into yarn at a Wisconsin mill.  We want to visit the mill and see how the wool goes from fleece to yarn.  In the shop, we plan to have pictures of all the steps in processing wool to educate our customers.

We’ve also got an idea about fixtures (shelves, etc.).  We will be meeting with the accountant to learn to do our bookkeeping. 

And, eventually, we’ll order yarn!!  The locally produced yarn will probably be 10-15% of our inventory.  The rest will be high quality brands of all different types of fiber.  And we’ll have all the other things that knitters/crocheters need – needles, hooks, stitch markers, etc.

As you can see, there’s still a good bit to be done, but we think we can open in early Fall.  Keep an eye out for blog updates!

Tomorrow – my current knitting projects and some pictures (I hope)

The Knitting Nest!!

The Knitting Nest in Weyauwega, WI will open in fall, 2011 at 131 East Main Street. This is where I will blog my current knitting/crochet/fiber arts projects as well as our progress on opening the shop. I hope you join us for the adventure!