Hat Phactory Sighting

So I'm at REI trying on new hiking shoes. I look over to the wall of footwear and spot a beautiful head of red hair. On top of this hair is a great gifted project made by P., a.k.a Hat Phactory, which I modeled for this photo. How cool is that?

"SALE SALE SALE"

Jan and I decided to have a Spring SALE. I decided we needed a big SALE sign. After three stops looking to purchase a sign that said merely SALE, I did what any Missouri Mule would do and made it myself. If you come by the shop to marvel at my "artwork" you might notice the sign tagged Old School Products by cmrieffer. One should really have a ventilated area when applying that much Sharpie. My father would be proud of my sign crafting ability ;)

What's in a steek? or You're cutting my sweater!

For those of you not in the know, a steek is a group of extra stitches made when knitting a garment in the round for which the sole purpose is to provide a selvage edge around a cut opening.

Pictured here (click for more) is one of my many side jobs. We provide this service for a fee to our customers at Linden Hills Yarn. Sometimes the customer only needs the machine reinforcing stitches. In this instance, the whole process was desired. This involves machine stitching around the armhole, seaming the shoulder, seaming the armhole and covering the steek selvage with the binding which was knit as part of the top of the sleeve. This customer did an outstanding job on her traditional Norwegian pullover. Thus making my job easier and minimizing her cost for this service.

New Yarn at the Shop

New stock is always fun. There is the challenge of figuring out where to put it. Looking at the new designs and imagining which customer will look fabulous in which garment. Sometimes we just know who will go gaga over what. Similar to knowing who in your book club will like which book.

I've photographed the new yarns from Misti International and Berroco.

The Little Leaf scarf from Classic Elite is knit out of Soft Linen. Sadly, we only have one color available at the present time. More should arrive any day. This yarn has a great feel.

This is not a joke!

Mother nature provided us with mounds of the beautiful but heavy & hard to shovel white stuff as an April Fools "gift."

In other news, I love my newly finished sweater!