The Contest Continues...

Many of you have heard about Fox 43's "Best of Knoxville" contest. The Yarn Haven was nominated in the Arts and Crafts section. The contest was originally scheduled to end last Friday...but they have extended the contest until May 1 at midnight.

I'm always telling folks that I have some of the best customers in Knoxville. Now it's your turn to tell everyone that The Yarn Haven is YOUR best Arts and Crafts shop in Knoxville. Go to the link below and vote for us!

Fox 43 "Best of Knoxville" contest

Currently we are in 2nd place, but it would be nice to be voted the #1 place in Knoxville for Arts and Crafts. If you've already voted for us, thank you! I appreciate your support. Be sure to tell all of your friends and family to vote for us as well. If you haven't voted yet, then you've got a second chance to do so.

Whether we win, come in 2nd place, or end up at the bottom of the list...I still have the best customers in town and I appreciate all of your support. You all are very loyal and I am truly blessed to be able to help you with your knitting and crocheting projects.

On a more personal note...I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend with your family and friends. My youngest daughter and her husband came into town for the weekend and all of the other kids and grandkids gathered on Sunday for a meal together. I so enjoyed cooking a big meal for them as I rarely get a chance to cook these days since I'm so busy at the shop. Sunday for us was a great celebration of what the true meaning of Easter is all about.

Show and Tell Friday

We recently had a Girls' Night Out Workshop where we taught how to make a Clapotis shawl/scarf. Pam made a scarf out of Plymouth Royal Bamboo and did a beautiful job.



Nonie also used the Royal Bamboo, but did a full sized shawl. It looked gorgeous on her.






And Amanda did a crochet version also using the Royal Bamboo. This clapotis scarf was done using the broomstick lace technique. Very pretty.

We'll be having another Girls' Night Out Workshop on the fifth Friday night in May...May 29 from 6-8 pm. This workshop will be on Judy Pascale's Shapely Shawlette. There are 3 versions of this shawl and we'll show you how to make different looks with them. We will have models of all 3 in the next week or so. Stop in and check them out. They are great shawls that really do stay on your shoulders. So mark your calendar and plan to join us. Details are in the newsletter.

Family Time...

This past weekend we celebrated my youngest child's birthday. She turned a quarter of a century old. She kept talking about how she couldn't believe she was that old. It brought back memories to me of when I was 25 years old. That was the year that my first baby was born. My, how time flies.

We decided to enjoy the beautiful weather and head up after church to the Chimneys for a picnic. It was a gorgeous day and we should have known that the picnic area would be packed. We had to actually park our cars at the entrance and lug all of our picnic items up the hill to find a spot. We found a table fairly quickly, but the grill was swarming with what looked like baby yellow jackets. So I told everyone to stay put at that table while I went on up the hill to find another table. I finally found one that folks weren't using, but everyone was out of shouting range, so I had to go back down the hill to get them. The lady in the car at the table was getting ready to leave, but she said she would stay there and hold our table until I got back. That was really kind of her considering she had to endure the wrath of another person when they learned that the table was reserved. Unfortunately, the grill at this table also had swarming bugs. As we got a closer look, I think the insects were really sweatbees. Still not fun, but no where near as dangerous as yellow jackets can be. So we went ahead and put on the charcoal and started a fire hoping that the fire would encourage the bugs to go elsewhere. It worked enough for us to put on some hot dogs and roast marshmallows for s'mores. The grandkids went down to the creek and all three of them got wet at one point or another as they jumped from rock to rock. We had a wonderful time, but were missing my son and one of my son-in-laws as both of them had to work that day.

It's hard to believe that we had 80 degree temps on Sunday and below freezing temps a day or so later. You just have to love this crazy East Tennessee weather. I'm looking forward to getting our spring temperatures back.

Show and Tell Friday

I have some items to show you today that the gals in the Weekly Classes have done.

First of all, Jan made this sweater out of Berroco Comfort yarn. This is the henley pattern from Knitting Pure and Simple. I love the teal colors. :-)

Next we have the beret that Melinda made out of Farmhouse Lumpy Bumpy yarn. I believe this pattern is from the One Skein Wonders book. Very cute on you, Melinda.

Then Reba made her this Basic Knitted Ascot out of Berroco Comfort yarn. This is one of Hand Jive Knits patterns.

And finally, Linda made this shrug out of Tahki Angel yarn. She enlisted the help of Harriet to model it for us.

Nice job, ladies. I think everyone is learning a lot and growing in their skills in our Weekly Classes. Want to be a better knitter? Then come sign up for one of our classes!

Show and Tell Friday

I hope everyone has enjoyed our beautiful spring days lately. The rain has made everything green up and I love hearing the birds singing in the morning.

Today Darlene shares her finished Block of the Month afghan. It's hard to see in the picture, but she used the cable on one of the blocks to section off each block. Darlene, it's absolutely gorgeous! If you want to join our knit or crochet Block of the Month, there's still room. You can start any month you want. And at the end of twelve months, you get a beautiful afghan like this.

And Leigh made this sweater out of Berroco Comfort yarn. Looks great on you, Leigh!

Everyone in the Weekly Class knows that Donna is a Noro Silk Garden fan. She has made several projects from Jenny Watson's "Designer Mini Knits" book. First she made, a top with short sleeves.

Then she made gloves out of Silk Garden Lite. Both of these projects are from the book.

She also made a jacket out of Noro Silk Garden. Donna's learning a lot in the Weekly Class. And one of these days, we'll get her to knit with a different yarn. :-)

Look Who Turned Six!!

My granddaughter turned six years old last week. It brought back memories of the first moment that I held her in my arms exactly six years ago. We have so enjoyed having Ariel live with us. She has such a sweet spirit and rarely gives us any trouble. For her birthday I knitted her a couple of dinosaurs. She loves dinosaurs and already has quite a collection. I used the Knitting at KNoon pattern "Prehistoric Pals" and made the T-Rex and Stegosaurus. Here's a photo of them. They were really quite easy to make. I've already promised Ariel that I'll make her the other two...the Triceratops and the Brachiosaurus.


And here is my sweetie with "Rex" and "Steggy", as she calls them.

Ariel went to Florida last week with her daddy and her cousins, so I didn't get to spend her actual birthday with her. So when she got home late Saturday night, she told me that she was now six and then said..."I've moved all the way to the other hand". I thought that was so cute...but then I AM her grandmother. :-)

Have a wonderful day today and enjoy this beautiful spring weather we're having!

Show and Tell Friday

For Show and Tell today I wanted you to meet a couple of the gals who help me out here at The Yarn Haven. Leigh is our Saturday gal since she got another job as a MRI tech. She brought in her neckwarmer to share. She made it out of Malabrigo Silky Merino yarn.

She also brought in her scarf using Farmhouse Lumpy Bumpy yarn. She used 2 skeins and knit 200 sts in garter stitch. Leigh has a gift for picking out beautiful colors.

Then we have Melissa who works a couple of days each week. She brought in the vest she made in the Weekly Class using Tahki Bunny yarn. I think she did a great job and I appreciate her desire to increase in her knitting skills.

Maybe we'll get a photo of Diane and one of her projects in our blog soon as she also works a couple of days each week. Any of these gals will be glad to help you with your knitting projects if you need help. I'm thankful to have them all as part of our team!

I also wanted to share with you the sweater Karen made for her daughter using Muench Family yarn. She used Trendsetter pattern #3037. I love the c

cupcake buttons she found to put on it.

Well, that's it for the first day of spring. I'm sure I'll have many more projects to share with you in the coming days.