Connections

N. came in the shop a few months back speaking very little English and a lot of Japanese. She is on an extended stay in the states as her husband is in school. Knowing knitting basics, she decided to fill some of her time here with the craft. Jan helped her through her first cabled scarf and hooked her up with another of our regular customers which she knew spoke Japanese. R. gets to work on her Japanese while helping N. with her English and knitting.

She has become a regular at the shop and is quite proud of her first garment. She should be. It looks great on her. So great that I had trouble choosing which of the many photos I shot to include in flickr.

Connections like this are made all the time at the shop. When you get to know your customers not only can you make educated suggestions for their knitting but hook them up with other people as well. We've had people get recommendations for getting into grad school as well as find employment. Opera students have found teachers and patients have found doctors. Mothers have found babysitters and artists have found buyers. It gives me warm fuzzies when I think of all the wonderful people that have come in to my life through Linden Hills Yarn.

Fair Isle Challenge Finals

In case you are wondering about the winners of the Fair Isle Challenge gift certificate drawings, here they be:

having knitted has won the $25 gift certificate for the closest guess without going over of the weight of Jan's fair isle sweaters of which there were eight in the shop.

having finished knitting had probability in her favor when her name was drawn for the fifty dollar gift certificate. K is very gracious and actually had the closest guess for the guess the weight challenge but resigned her second prize to the gentleman that was next in line.

If you look closely at the photos of the work you will see that although they chose to use different yarns, they are both knitting from same pattern.

The whole challenge was a blast! Thank you to all who participated. Especially those of you who climbed out on a limb and learned a new skill. If you didn't get a chance to participate but want to learn to knit with color the door is always open at Linden Hills Yarn for you to learn for free.

People began asking about the next challenge before the previous challenge was even over. I'm in the planning stages and will announce it in early April. If you have any bright ideas or requests for me to consider, please leave me a comment here on the blog.