Crafting for Chapters "Love of Reading" program.

One of the great things about having a blog is that it can get the word out about some pretty wonderful work, events and people in the community. Here are a couple of things that might be of interest to you.


Chapters in Kingston is planning some fun things for their 10th anniversary celebration, including - as mentioned in the previous post - welcoming Stephanie Pearl-McPhee on June 4th at 6pm (yes, it is at the Chapters Store in the West end of Princess St. ) To go along with Stephanie's presentation, on the crafting theme, they are also planning a Craft Sale, which will last all day on June 4th. The proceeds from the sale are to benefit Chapters/Indigo's "Love of Reading Program" (link at http://www.loveofreading.org/ to find out more about this great effort.)



I told the organizers that I would post a request here to appeal to all of our amazing crafters in K-town who may be willing to donate some craft items to this worthy cause. They are looking for any type of handmade craft that can be sold on that day. Do you have some mittens that are hanging around waiting for next year's Mitten Tree? Have you got time to whip up a pair of slippers or a hat before June 4th? What about a stash of fashion scarves that you've made because you can't resist the yarn but have run out of recipients for them? Check out our free patterns at http://www.wtkpatterns.blogspot.com/ for some ideas for quick projects.

All donations can be dropped from Monday to Friday at the Chapters Store, with a note clearly addressed to "Pam - craft donation", or you can bring it to the WOOL-TYME Kingston store on Gardiners Rd anytime before June 3rd and Pam will pick it up there.

The other news that I wanted to share with you is from the Get Well Gang in Gananoque, with whom we've been affiliated since they began making and distributing knitted and crocheted hats for chemo patients. Gretchen Huntley, the main force behind the whole operation, was in a couple of weeks ago and was telling us that they have now passed the 9 000 hats mark in just a few years. That obviously shows an amazing amount of dedication on the part of many people.

Link at http://getwellgang.ca/ourstory.asp to find out more.

You may remember that we had a visit at the WOOL-TYME Kingston store from some of the members of the Montreal Knitting Guild a few weeks ago. I received a lovely thank you card from them that showed the afghan to the right. It was called Claire's Memory Afghan and was made as a charity project by the guild in memory of Claire Bennett who died of breast cancer in 2003.

The afghan cosisted of 347 different sized rectangles, all knitted with vegetable dyed Australian merino wool. It took 5,200 meters of yarn and 342,000 stitches to complete.

The afghan also required over 250 hours of finishing and assembly, not counting the 6 months that it took to pick up and knit the border stitches. The final step was the Indian silk backing that was applied.

Now that is a mega-project. Although they sent me a great informational description of the afghan, I never heard what they did with it. I can only hope that it has found a home among deserving admirers.

The Yarn Harlot Cometh...

Just wanted to let everyone know that we got a call from Chapters today confirming that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee will be coming to their store on Princess St on Wednesday, June 4th at 6pm. It's always a good time when Stephanie is among us. Don't miss out.

A note re another knitting celebrity: Last night I saw an interview with Ringo Starr who apparently spent a lot of time in the hospital when he was a kid and that was where he was not only introduced to percussion instruments and started playing the drums, but also where he learned to KNIT! Can you imagine, if the drums had not arrived on the ward he may have been another Kaffe Fassett!

Let the Sock Wars Begin!

I don't often get a chance to sit down and read the paper, but yesterday I found myself having a bowl of soup in a coffee shop that had a copy of the Toronto Star. I never cease to be amazed at how matters of interest can find me. First I read an article about the Acadians in Nova Scotia (and those of you who heard about my trip to the Cheticamp rug hooking museum last fall will know that there in lies my own heritage.) Secondly, I saw a beautiful pair of hand knit socks on the front page of the Living Section. These socks were advertising the "Sock Wars" competition, which is beginning world wide today . It was started a couple of years ago by Julie Gardner, a freelance TV and film manager in Belfast. You can read more about it at http://www.sock-wars.com/

I have my own sock issue that is kind of nice. There is in fact nothing like exposing oneself in public to have the universe change the way you think things have to be.

I recently posted that it is the plight of the LYS owner to be doomed to knit single socks as we need them for display but don't have the time to put into making the second one as there is always something else that needs to be knitted. Well after that confession, for some reason I just couldn't let go of this other half ball of Primo sock yarn and as you can see, I do have the second one on it's way to completion. (It occurred to me as I was taking the picture that the presence of the first/completed sock beside the in-progress one was a bit like a photo of a kidnap victim holding up a current newspaper to prove the date. The completed sock proves that this is a current picture and not a photo of the 1st sock in progress. How sick my mind can be.)

And talking about newspaper articles...when I returned from my lunch of reading the Toronto Star, to find a copy of the front page of the Kingston Whig-Standard on my desk, in which was featured a picture of the shearing operation going on at Topsy Farms over on Amherst Island. Funny to think that those curly locks might soon be on our shelves in their lovely blue heather or green tweed 2ply fine knitting yarn.

The story reminded me that a few years ago we went over to visit the nice folks over at Topsy Farms about this time of the year when there about 1 000 new lambs in the field. Now that was a sight that over-extended the cuteness quotient!

And finally, while we are on cute, we've had quite a few comments about "Borka", the book about the featherless gosling mentioned in WOOL-TYME Kingston's May Newsletter. One of our readers did a bit of research and found out that there is a 40th anniversary edition of the book that is available through Chapters/Indigo. Borka has been quite a minor celebrity in the store with the most comments of any feature in quite a few months.

Happy Mother's Day. Happy Sock Knitting!

I miss you guys...

It seems like it's been forever since I've had a chance to write anything here. It has been a busy couple of weeks getting the newsletter out and with 2 off site show & sales there hasn't been much time to get on the ol' computer. So I've been keeping track of things that I think of and want to let you in on. The first thing is that I finally got a new camera that actually takes sensible pictures without having to invest 1/2 hour trying to find just the right light to get a photo that is actually usable.

Last Saturday we had 6 ladies from the Montreal Knitters' Guild come to visit and we all had a lovely time getting to chat (them and me), and shop (them). Unfortunately, I hadn't had a chance to master the camera yet so I don't have a pictorial record of the visit but it was fun - with 3 kinds of muffins.

I was looking for something in the store to photograph so I could show off the new camera and thought that I would take this opportunity to announce that we got our new shipment of Yarn Harlot - Things I Learned From Knitting books. I was surprised at how quickly our first order sold out and when I reordered, our supplier had sold out too and we had to wait for their new shipment. Anyway, here they are...

And to further emphasize the advantage of having photos, I wanted to let everyone see some of the amazing new yarns that I got a great deal on and am passing the savings on to you. Throughout the store there are baskets of lovely quality yarns that are discounted. In these pictures, you'll see on the left a gorgeous 100% silk beside a mohair boucle blend. To the right is a picture of the bin of Noro yarns that have been discontinued but are no less wonderful. You really should pay us a visit and see if anything strikes your fancy. We have a lovely cotton/wool DK blend on the sale table and a few fine cottons too. Just to name a few.

Finally, for those of you who have linked to the site at the bottom right in the sidebar of this page where it says: My other self, you will have discovered that my novel, "Dancing with Silence" was being posted over the past year in somewhat regular installments. Well I am thrilled to let you all know that after exactly one year of working at it, the whole thing is up on the site and is ready to be read from beginning to end. Writing is my other passion and although it was a wonderful experience writing the book, it's been equally fun and rewarding to re-edit it this past year for internet publication. Hope you enjoy it if you get a chance to read it. For those who have asked, it may be available in paper version in the near future if you can't imagine (as I couldn't) spending the hours that it would take to read an entire novel in front of your computer. The link to the book is http://www.dancingwithsilence.blogspot.com/

The LYS owner's lament: My single sock!

Despite the fact that I haven't been able to upload much to my Ravelry space, it isn't for lack of trying. But when I see all the beautiful things that people are working on (and completing), I'm a bit embarassed to show my little swatch of glorious Luxury Bamboo Cotton that I finished last week. Or this lovely (single) sock for instance, which I made over the weekend to show off this great pattern repeat from our latest Lana Grossa sock yarn called PRIMO, which I will be bringing with me to the Cataraqui Guild of Needlecraft Arts show this weekend at St Margaret's church. There are diehard sock knitters who will try anything that has nice colours, but most knitters want to know that they will like what those colours are going to do in their socks.

So many of the knitting projects that I work on are either jobs that need to be finished for people who got stuck at a tricky place, or they are tests for patterns that I'm designing for the store, which by virtue of the types of free patterns that we put up on our website ( www.wtkpatterns.blogspot.com) are essentially quick, easy and a good gateway for beginners who want to try something a bit different. Consequently, I seldom get to try out other people's patterns, much as might admire them. (This however does make me an eager appreciator of whatever other people do accomplish.)

The other thing that I seldom get to do is to learn new techniques, but in reading the SON OF STITCH N BITCH book earlier this spring, I found 2 great techniques that I've been coveting for a long time and am determined that I will learn over the summer. The first is the reversible cables where the fabric shows a nice set of cables on both sides. The second is the 2 layers/2 colours of knitting that I think could be an answer for so many people who want to make scarves with team logos on them. I will investigate further and report back.

The reason that I'm committing myself to learning these new techniques is that I have really decided that I love teaching and am going to be doing more of it throughout next year. With the success of our Sock-In-A-Day class that we have now run 4 times (and sells out each time), I'm encouraged to offer other knitting skills that can be learned in an intensive class and applied to a whole new range of knitting projects by the participants.

It seems odd to be thinking about the fall as we are basking in the warmth of this glorious early spring weather, but such is the way of the retail world. And I'm glad to be part of it so that we can bring new and exciting things to our customers with each new season. I'll keep you posted!

United way swim on APRIL 18th????!!!!

This is Jay Serdula, one of our regular participants in the Kingston Knitting Circle that meets at Chapters each month, and he is also a regular fixture at the Thursday evening Knit and Chat at the store. He is in the process of training for a swim across Lake Ontario this summer to raise money for the study of Asperger's Syndrome, but as part of his training he is doing a swim this Friday, (yes, tomorrow!) across Navy Bay which is the body of water between Fort Henry and RMC. This chilling experience is in support of the United Way and Jay will be leaving from Fort Henry at noon (sharp) and will be arriving at the SE corner of the RMC peninsula, at St Lawrence Pier. The entire swim takes about 5 minutes so if you're interested in going to cheer Jay on, be sure not to be late.

If you're interested in knowing more about Jay's summer swim across Lake Ontario, we have a poster at the store which has contact information.

WOOL-TYME Kingston is proud to be participating in the Canadian Liver Foundation' s newest fundraiser. They are putting on a great afternoon and evening that would be a treat for every woman in the city: "What a Girl Wants" is an afternoon filled with fashion, demos, health and wellness info, door prizes and gift bags topped off with a dinner, fashion show and dessert. We will have a sales table and will be teaching and demonstrating knitting and needlefelting.

It all takes place on Sunday May 4th, 2008 at Zorbas Grand Ball Room from 2-10pm and tickets are available at the WOOL-TYME Kingston store or by registering at http://www.whatagirlwantskingston.ca/ . You deserve a little luxury and it's all for a good cause.

And one last reminder that we will also have a table at the upcoming Needlecraft show and sale of the Cataraqui Guild of Needlecraft Arts on Saturday, April 26th at St Margaret's United Church Hall across from the Kingston Centre Loblaws. It's a real treat...hope to see you there.

Repairs - One of the things that I learned from my store.

We just received our first shipment of the Yarn Harlot's new book "Things I Learned from Knitting..." and I've been really enjoying it. And it got me thinking about some of the skills that I've learned, not necessarily from knitting but from running a wool store.

This is a picture of a beautiful old afghan that has been brought in for repairs. The knitter is now 99 years old and is still alive although, sadly no longer knitting. There are 77 garter stitch squares made of what appears to be a fine 4ply yarn (26sts over 4") in many bright colours, done on fine needles. Now that is one honking pile of knit stitches, and each one of them perfectly formed with precise tension. Someone had to be unbelievably persistent and dedicated to the cause. It really is something and well worth preserving.

The picture shows the worst of 3 holes. As it is here, the hole is actually 1/2 of the size that it originally was. The lower needle holding the dropped stitches is actually at the line where the pink and the blue meet. and I'll be reforming the stitches up the rows to meet the other needle. And all of this happened because one little stitch in the centre gave way and started unraveling sideways and then in both directions outward.

When people bring their prized knitted posessions in to be repaired, I often have to tell them that there is only so much that we can do; it will never be perfect again but I'll do my best. We can however assure them that it will be secure and nice and usable. But the reality is that if we can't do anything with it, the option for most people is often the garbage bin. Because I'm one of the few people in the city who has had the opportunity to play with these disasters with which we have nothing to lose, I've been able to learn a lot about the construction of knitting and what works best to camouflage the least and the worst of the problems. But most of all, what I've learned is that there is nothing like having nothing to lose to make one bold in looking for solutions. Sometimes it works, sometimes they end up in the dust bin. But at least I've learned something for the next problem that comes through the door.