41 hours in the waters of Lake Ontario!!!

He did it!
Our friend and fellow knitter, Jay, made it to the beach in Toronto at 3:10 this morning after spending 41 hours in the cold waters of Lake Ontario.
Truly, how many of us could swim in an indoor pool for 41 minutes, never mind over 2 days and an overnight and into the wee hours of the next? Not I!

Those who know Jay and his love of joke telling will appreciate his sister's words:
"Now, we need some good punchlines for: -Why did the swimmer cross the lake?"

GO FOR IT, Jay!

We are so proud of Jay Serdula, a faithful customer for many years who is now in the final leg of his swim across Lake Ontario to raise funds and awareness for Asperger's Syndrome.

Jay has shown all of us who have met him, what it takes to be a real champion - and a pretty funny and prolific joke teller too!

We are still accepting donations for the swim at the WOOL-TYME Kingston store, where we are proud to be corporate sponsors for the swim4aspergers.
Click on the title of this post to link to the site that keeps you updated on Jay's progress throughout the swim. At this point (10:30am) they are expecting him to arrive in Toronto between 7pm and midnight.
Things have been a bit crazy this summer but I plan to get back to some fun knitting posts soon. Probably next week.

Let the games be prepared for...

I'm sure that most of you know of the tremendous knitting excitement generated by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's musings, just before the last winter Olympics, about how it would be fun to choose a knitting project to challenge oneself with, to complete during the events. Well, 2 years seems to be enough time for many in the knitting community to recover from that explosion of creativity, and many of us who didn't get in on the last wave of fun are up for it this time around. The link to the Ravelympics, registered on Ravelry is to be found at http://www.ravelry.com/groups/ravelympics-2008, where you can join Team Canada and be part of this extraordinary event of knitting prowess.

As for me and my store, the WOOL-TYME Kingston contribution to the Olympic watching effort will officially take place at Jakk Tuesday's (the sports bar next to the WOOL-TYME store, which has a 120" screen television in their back room) on each of the 2 Wednesdays of the Olympics -Aug. 13th and 20th from 5 to 8pm. I will be there eating natchos and knitting and will feel really silly if I'm the only one there -- so please come and join me to cheer on the beech volley ballers, or the wrestlers, or whoever happens to be on the screen while we're there.

Speaking of crafting and sports events, just one more week for anyone who wants to order their tickets to the Stitch n Pitch game in Toronto with the Blue Jays and Oakland A's on Aug. 5th. Just $20 for the game and goodies and lots of fun.

OOPS! and no OOPSIES from NORO.

Well, do I feel just as silly as Elvis looks here.

Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if I weren't always saying that I am one of the world's worst counters...when it comes to large numbers of stitches. But you would think that I should be able to count to 3 - as in the 3rd Tuesday of the month, which is when the Kingston Knitting Circle always meets at Chapters in their Community room.

So yes, thanks to Kathy for pointing out that the 3rd Tues. of this month is JULY 15th at Chapters 7-9pm (not July 22nd as I put in the newsletter).
Hope to see you there!

I've been meeting over the past few weeks with sales reps from our different suppliers for the fall lines. (A daunting but wonderful task.) When speaking with the woman who sells us our NORO Yarns, she was saying that in response to some of the comments that the company had been getting re the uneven thickness of some of their yarns and the bits of "stuff" that are sometimes found in the fibres, NORO published a wonderful explanation of how their yarns are made, which goes a long way to reassure us, the consumers, that these slight "imperfections" are in fact positive aspects of what makes NORO Yarns so special. Here are a few excerpts taken from the back cover of the new NORO Magazine Number 24:

-About the raw material: NORO Yarn has always been particular in selecting raw materials from nature...Impurities in the raw wool are carefully removed by hand, without the use of chemicals or machines. This process prevents damage to the fibre, though it makes it impossible to remove impurities as completely as chemicals and machines do.

-Making of the NORO Yarns: The basic principle for the manufacturing of NORO Yarn is "Spin yarn by hand," use machinery only for what cannot be done by hand. This hand-spun yarn is made from finely dyed wool, lined faithfully according to colour and weight, carefully maintaining the slow spinning speed by our craftspersons. Since the human hand is used in the spinning process, the natural luster and texture are obtained without considerably impairing the wool fibre. Lining up the yarn by hand results in irregular arrangement of wool, thereby giving the yarn more bulk...Because it is a handmade yarn...there are areas that are thick and areas that are thin. There are areas where the strand is tight and where the strand is loose, so please knit gently and discover the joy of knitting NORO Yarns.

I was very interested to read these details about one of my favourite yarn companies. First of all, it obviously surprised me that their yarns were spun by hand but more importantly, I had always thought that , like "space dying" in general which has brought us so many new looks in yarn from socks to coats, NORO used the same technology to create the glorious colour repeats in their yarns. Well knock me over, the "computerization" of the dying process, which seems so much a part of our knitting world, is nowhere in sight with NORO. The workers actually arrange the different repeating colours by hand. However they do it, it works great!

Stitch 'N Pitch 2008

The following message is taken from a Ravelry post from Knitomatic in Toronto.

At WOOL-TYME Kingston we will be selling tickets and taking orders for those who want to pick them up at the stadium. Anne

Fellow fibre arts enthusiasts,
It’s time again for Toronto’s annual Stitch ‘N’ Pitch! Stitch ‘N’ Pitch is a fun fibre arts event which gives needle arts enthusiasts a chance to practice our art while cheering for the Blue Jays. A group of tickets in the 200 level are offered at a discount of $20 (from $26), and the first 1000 people will get a free Blue Jays tote bag filled with yarn and needlework materials valued at $40. You’ll rub elbows with famous Canadian fiber arts designers, authors and bloggers! Even if you aren’t regular Baseball fan you’ll find that it’s really enjoyable, not at all boring, when shared with friends and colleagues. It’s like going to a party where you don’t know anyone and having a great time because you have a lot in common with everyone there! Its also fun for spouses and children to attend (plus you can keep their freebie bags for yourself!).
Where & When?
This year’s event will be held on Tuesday August 5th, at 7:00 pm, when the Blue Jays host the Oakland Athletics at the Rogers Centre (formerly Sky Dome) in Toronto. For directions on how to get to the Rogers Centre visit their website at http://www.rogerscentre.com/inaround/visitors/directions/index.html
How Do I Buy Tickets? PLEASE NOTE: If you want to sit with your friends from your fibre arts guild, group or Stitch ‘n Bitch you should purchase tickets through your local fibre arts store! (WOOL-TYME Kingston)
Purchase tickets at your local fibre arts shop (knitting, crochet, quilting and other needle arts). They will collect $20 in cash from you, take down your contact information and contact you when the tickets arrive in the store.

My Busy Week.

People who have been talking to me over the past few weeks have heard of our weather issues, which necessitated the postponement of plans to go hot air ballooning - 4 times. Well as you can see we finally made it on July 2nd, leaving Kingston at 3:30a.m. to make the 6 a.m. take off. It was a wonderful experience, not scary at all. I got lots of pictures. (More pictures on facebook if anyone is interested.

This picture of the beaver dam in the Ottawa River is the last one that I took and it's the one that intrigues me the most. It was taken when we were flying about 10 feet above the surface of the water. When you think about hot air ballooning, you imagine sailing through the skies but it was in fact the very low flights that were the most breathtaking.

I would heartily recommend this experience to anyone's "Bucket List".

Speaking of accomplishments, our little trip is a joke compared to our customer, Jay Serdula's bid to swim Lake Ontario later on in the month to increase awareness for Asperger's Syndrome (a form of autism) and to raise funds for a group of organizations which help support children and adults with special needs and their families. We are so proud to know Jay and to have watched him work so steadily towards his goal for the past couple of years.

WOOL-TYME Kingston is also incredibly honoured to be a corporate sponsor for the Swim 4 Asperger's, which is scheduled to take place on July 28th. We would like to encourage all of our customers and friends to join in the fun by pledging for this swim. Donations are accepted at the store and tax receipts are available. Check out Jay's website to see how things are going, or if you are interested in volunteering to help in any way. http://www.swim4aspergers.wordpress.com/

Finally, we've had so many people asking when the On Your Toes bamboo sock yarn would be in again and I told them that I'd post it here when it arrived. Well BAMBOO SOCK YARN HAS ARRIVED, and we're really happy; it's such a great yarn for summer wear and I think it will build a following throughout the year.

"Perseverance" is the name of the game of life.

Isn't this a beautiful afghan. Joanne, one of the ladies who comes regularly to the Tuesday class, brought in her latest completed project. I wanted to post it here -- so many of our customers have seen it in various stages of completion that I thought that they should see the magnificence of the finished product.

This afghan is from one of my favourite knitting books; I frequently recommend it to knitters who want to improve their pattern reading skills, or to beginners who just want to knit fun things without being intimidated by having to make it "fit". It includes 60 different patterns for 12" squares. To make the afghan, you choose and complete 20 of those patterns and assemble them into a glorious work of art. It involves knitting skill, crochet skill, pattern reading skill, lots of yarn but most of all, perseverance, of which Joanne has proven that she has plenty.

Over and over people have asked her how long it took to knit the afghan, and she shyly responds that it did take a long time but mainly because she was working on many other projects during the same period. But what she has told me was that it was the most pleasant project that she has worked on because at each level (learning the patterns and completing the individual squares, crocheting around those squares, sewing them together, finishing the afghan off by crocheting around the perimeter and blocking it) there was something to be learned and none of it seemed too difficult when taken step by step.

What an excellent metaphor for how we can approach any challenge in our lives: break it down into steps, learn the skills, accomplish the tasks and persevere. And you end up with something that you can be proud of producing, or accomplishing or overcoming.

That's why I love coming to work each day. I see people so excited about something that in the greater scheme of our daily existence, is as inconsequential as knitting a blanket, yet each person recognizes that it acquires a wealth of meaning when they can take such pleasure in the time they spend "recreating", and pride in the success that is the completion of any project.