Recent Events & Random Information...

A couple of weeks ago, we had our very first Pajama Party at The Yarn Haven. It was a lot of fun and I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the photos. Barbara even came from Nova Scotia to join us. We made felted soap, ate pizza, and watched "The Tooth Fairy". It was a lot of fun and is the reason we've scheduled some Chick Flick Movie nights during the summer.


Jasmine joined us during the Pajama Party. We tried to teach her to knit, but she spent most of the time just sleeping. Isn't she cute in her little nightgown!


Another fun thing that happened was when Girl Scout Troop 723 came to visit the shop. They are working on a badge and came to learn all the ins and outs of running a yarn shop. They were a great group of middle school girls from Cedar Bluff, Karns & West Valley Middle Schools.

This past week was a week devoted more to family. We went to Memphis to see my niece, Bekah, get married to a wonderful guy, Joe. It was good to catch up with family and see some faces that we only get to see a couple of times a year.

Then some more challenging news came to our family when my husband, David, got laid off from work last week. He has worked as a computer hardware specialist with this company for 10 years, but the poor economy finally caught up with him. So we are entering another chapter of our life as we seek to find him another job and keep everything afloat financially in the process. We would appreciate your prayers during this stressful time in our life.

And before I close, I have to share with you some of the finished projects that folks have brought in.

Leigh brought in these fingerless gloves that she made from a free pattern on Ravelry. The yarn she chose was Mountain Colors River Twist...one of my favorite yarns.

Monica made this Moose hat for her hubby. It was her first project in double stranding and she did a great job!

Paula finished an Evelyn Clark shawl out of J. Knits sock yarn. The colorway was called Reno. Wonder if she has plans to go there?

And finally, Ginny's vest out of Noro Silk Garden was so pretty on her. She did a nice job as well.

Don't forget our Summer Club is starting up next week. If you want to keep improving on your knitting skills during the summer, this would be a great class to join.

And on Thursday evening, June 3, from 6-8 pm we start our Rockin' Knockers Night as we make breast prostheses for women in our area dealing with cancer. It's a way to support the Knoxville Knockers Club that Sue Klipsch has started. It's a group of Knoxvillians that make Knockers for women dealing with Cancer. I hope you'll join us that evening as the yarns we are using for this charity project will be 20% off that night. We'll be meeting the 1st and 3rd Thursday evenings from June - October.

We have a mascot...

Some of you know that I've been wanting to get a dog for a while. The psychologist that I've been seeing for my PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) thought that having a dog would help lower my anxiety level. Well, this past weekend we adopted a boston terrier/chihauhau mix from a rescue group. Jasmine just turned 7 years old and is the sweetest dog. Some of you who came to the shop yesterday got to meet her and love on her a bit. She will be coming with me most days to work, so I guess she'll get to be our mascot. I realize that not everyone is a dog person. So if you are not comfortable around dogs...or have dog allergies, please tell one of our staff and we'll make sure she stays in the back office during your visit. That's where she is most of the time anyway while I am working. I hope you'll come by and meet Jasmine. Her name means "God's gift" and that has been so true. She is God's gift to me and is helping me get back on the road to recovery.

We've had a couple of garments lately that a lot of people have been knitting. The first one is one of Lisa Hackman's designs. It's called the Primetime Shawl and can be made out of different bulky/chunky weights of yarn. Here is Aggie wearing Lisa's Primetime.

And here is Jan's Primetime shawl out of Ironstone Sky yarn. The Sky yarn is a good choice for this shawl as is the Plymouth Jungle yarn. We have a sample of the Primetime knitted up in the Jungle yarn in the shop.

Another popular design has been the Liesl sweater by Ysolda Teague. We have the pattern for this quick-knitting sweater. Here is Karen wearing her Liesl made out of Malabrigo yarn. A lot of the students in Mimi's Weekly Classes are making the Liesl.

I hope you used the pattern in our April/May newsletter to make a butterfly dishcloth. Dianna brought her dishcloth in to show us. It turned out very nice. These dishcloths make great housewarming gifts. Just tie a wooden spoon together with a couple of dishcloths and you have a very useful gift to give.

Hope you are enjoying our beautiful spring this year.

Show and Tell Saturday...

All day yesterday I kept thinking I was forgetting something. It wasn't until today that I realized that I had forgotten to do Show and Tell yesterday. Well, Saturday's as good of a day to share with you some finished projects as Friday. So, today I'm going to share with you some finished socks.

Kori made a pair of socks from Swedish Yarn Raggi. This is a great yarn to use when making thicker socks because it has nylon added.

Aggie made TWO pairs of socks. One from Berroco Comfort....

and one from Lang Jawoll yarn.

Kim made some socks with a lacey design out of Cascade Sock yarn.

And Jennifer made her very first pair of socks out of Opal yarn. She learned how to make socks in Mimi's Weekly Class.

Didn't everyone do a good job! We don't believe in second sock syndrome here at The Yarn Haven!

Celebrate Earth Day today...

Today is the 40th anniversary of the very first Earth Day. It was started by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as a way to educate students about the Earth's environment. Earth Day is a day to celebrate this incredible planet on which we live.

I think the slogan "Reduce - Reuse - Recycle" sums it up for me.

Reduce...

• I try to turn off lights when I leave a room.
  
• Fill a large glass jar with water and put in the tank of your toilet. It will save water every time you flush.
  
• Our Go Green program is designed to reduce the number of paper bags that we use. It has been a huge success and folks have enjoyed winning gift certificates just for not taking a bag when they make purchases.

Reuse...

• When my printer misprints...or prints a page I didn't intend to print, I use the back side of the paper as scrap paper...and then put it in my paper trash can to recycle.
  
• I also reuse bags...plastic, paper or cloth...until they go into the recycling bin.

Recycle...

• Did you know that every box that arrives at The Yarn Haven goes to the Goodwill Recycling Center at the intersection of Cross Park Drive and Park Village Rd.? We break them down and once a week take them to the Recycling Center. If you ever need boxes for storage or moving, then Saturday is the best day to come by and get boxes from us. Then once you are finished with the boxes, please recycle them. Besides cardboard boxes, they also accept plastics, aluminum and steel cans, glass, mixed paper, household batteries and reuseable household goods. Why not make a habit of stopping there to drop off items each time to come to The Yarn Haven?


• We have trash cans set up at the shop for you to divide out your mixed paper, plastic, soda cans, and garbage. Please make sure the items get in the appropriate can. This really helps us on recycling days. You can do this at home as well.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. There are lots of other ideas! So what are YOU doing to help save our planet?? We'd love to hear your ideas.

My Weekend...

My hubby and I went this past weekend to Johnson City to see our daughter and son-in-law. It was a gorgeous weekend with a nice spring crisp to the air. When we arrived on Saturday, we got right back into the car and went to Jonesborough...the oldest city in Tennessee. I loved walking down the streets of this historic town as my ancestors were the first white settlers to Tennessee. It was a very surreal experience for me.

While there, we visited a new yarn shop that had opened up this past summer, A Novel Yarn. Tara, the owner, was very nice to talk with us and show me and my family some of her wonderful yarns and fibers. They loved the sheep pictures on the wall and thought that having some pictures of sheep would be a good addition to The Yarn Haven. But then Tara explained that those were pictures of her sheep. Way cool. But I don't see any live sheep in my future. Not sure the neighbors in my subdivision would care for that very much. If you're ever up in the Jonesborough area, you should stop in and say hello to Tara. Her shop was a little hard to find, but just look for the log cabin and it's right across the street.

Speaking of the Log Cabin, it was Christopher Taylor's house and was built in 1777. He was a veteran of the French and Indian War and a major in the American Revolutionary War. Andrew Jackson actually lived in the house for a year in 1788 while he was practicing law in Jonesborough.

We loved seeing the courthouse and visiting some shops on Main Street.

I even tried out the stocks in front of the courthouse, but didn't really care for them.

On Sunday after church Sarah and Ryan took us to one of their favorite sandwich shops...and then for some italian ice.

And then after having a full tummy, we went up to Buffalo Mountain and hiked up a short trail to a spot that overlooks Johnson City.

We sat on the bench there and just soaked up the sunshine and felt the breeze. Isn't this a gorgeous view!

We had a wonderful weekend together and I got to get lots of puppy kisses from my sweet grandpuppy, Daisy.

We also got to meet our grandkitten, Luna, for the first time. She doesn't like to be picked up, nor have her picture taken, but she does like to be petted. I think it will take me a while to warm up to her as cats are just not my favorite pet.

Overall it was a very enjoyable weekend...and a good break for me. I hope you had a good weekend as well.

Show and Tell Friday...

Last month we had quite a few folks join us for our Mystery Crochet-a-long to celebrate National Crochet Month. Here are the doilles that folks made out of the Presencia Perle Cotton.

Pat did a beautiful job using a rust color thread.

Karissa chose a pale blue thread for her doillie. Very dainty looking.

Kristina's made a diferent edging on her doillie, but it still looks great! Love the color.

Annhara's brown doillie will look great anywhere in her home.

Laura chose a real pretty blue for her doillie.

And Sandra's fuchsia doillie really stands out. Very pretty.

It was amazing to see how the doillies came out different sizes according to everyone's gauge. Thank you to all these gals for joining our CAL. We'll do another mystery CAL next March. And who knows, we might even do one sometime else during the year. I've had several requests to do another one, and I think that's a great idea!

On a different note, I was driving back to the shop one day last week and saw the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile ahead of me. I was surprised to find them pulling into our shopping center. I just had to take a picture...because it's not every day that you see a giant hot dog going down the road. Some of the Lace KAL gals suggested that we go out and have our picture taken with it, but that idea got voted out rather quickly.

Well, have a wonderful weekend and enjoy this beautiful summer weather we're having so early. Hope this doesn't mean that this summer is going to be unbearably hot. Pray for some rain or we might be in for another drought soon.

Blessings!

Smoky Mountain Fiber Arts Festival...and Easter with the Family

A couple of weeks ago Melissa and I went to the Smoky Mountain Fiber Arts Festival in Townsend. It was fun seeing a lot of our wonderful customers there! I think this is going to be an annual event, so be sure to watch for it next year. It's really nice having a fiber arts festival in our neck of the woods. We got two new vendors from the festival...River's Edge Fiber Arts...and Handpainted Knitting Yarns. We already have the roving from River's Edge in stock. Come check out the wonderful merino yarn with nylon added. Would spin up some great socks! Smoky Mountain Memories Portraits came around taking pictures of all the vendors. Check out our photo here.

Yesterday we celebrated Easter...as well as our youngest daughter's birthday. Here's a photo of me, Sarah, and Ariel together. Can you see the family resemblance??

And here's a photo of Ariel wearing the twirly skirt that I had made for her birthday back in March. It was a beautiful day and just perfect to have an egg hunt. I had told my hubby to not mow the back yard so there would be lots of places to hid eggs. I'm sure the neighbors were not pleased, but the kids loved the challenge of finding the eggs. I hope you and your family had a great Easter together celebrating our risen Lord.

One last note...check out this article that was in the Wall Street Journal on how truckers have turned to knitting, quilting, etc. Thanks, Bernie, for sending this to me!