Open for Business

I can't believe that two weeks have flown by so quickly. The shop is opening again tomorrow, looking forward to seeing some familiar faces. I admit that I haven't done a ton of knitting this summer. At first it was due to the extreme heat of Westport, but I can't say it was the same in France. Actually, the weather was horrible! Did someone fast forward us to November and not tell us? I thought this was supposed to be global warming! I never thought it was possible for August to be this cold. Despite it all, our trip was a huge success. I loved doing the drive, and being on the other side of the road in the wrong car wasn't a problem at all. Nathalies and my kids had a ball together, which made life pretty easy for us. What started out as evenings watching Lucy Neatby videos quickly turned into my latest obsession...Itunes! Yes, we caught the bug and downloaded our favorite shows, and watched TV. We started with Greys Anatomy, then moved on to Dexter, it was great. Nathalie was good and worked on her Log cabin blanket, but I was lazy and did alot of nothing! Oh well, we are all entitled to a knitting holiday sometimes too.

Upon my return, the shop burglar alarm started going off. I spent most of my week meeting the engineer there to figure out what is wrong. I even had to make a trip over at 1:00am the other night, that was alot of fun. I do believe he has figured it out now, which he had better have!!! I am not much fun in the middle of the night.

This week we should see a long awaited shipment. It shipped last Monday, and the UPS man left a slip through the door on Thursday. Since we are closed, I am hoping that he will redeliver on Tuesday. Can anyone guess what it is?

They're all here now

Its what we've been waiting for...what everyone has been asking about daily, and they both arrived on the same time day, nearly at the same time! Vogue Knitting and Interweave Knits!!!
I actually picked up a copy of Vogue in CT a couple of weeks ago, it is really a great issue. The first interesting thing is that it is the 25th anniversary issue, so they have published alot of patterns that were popular before, such as the circle shrug that I knit a while back. Another item of interest is that alot of the patterns are knitted in silver, as in "silver anniversary". I love the cover most of all, actually the multiple covers. There are several covers, each showcasing a different yarn company. Pick your own favorite! I found a photo of the top cover here



I know its a little blurry, but I didn't have time to take a photo of my own copy. Anyway, I love the scarf, though not sure how it would look on me.

Lets not forget Interweave knits. Unfortunately I couldn't find a photo, and am not at the shop. This is Eunny Jangs first issue as editor, so it should be one for the archives.

Don't forget that Stash will be closed for two weeks after this Saturday. Note, we ARE open on Saturday. The only weekend that we will be closed will be the Bank Holiday weekend. So see you back on the 1st September.

On to knitting... I finally have a project on the needles after the heat of Westport, and getting back into the swing at the shop. There have been so many orders to place, and other business items to take care of. I started the Icarus shawl in Camelspin, Amethyst from Handmaiden. After some swatching, I decided on 3.25 needles, which seems like what most people out there are using. I am only on the first repeat, but here it is



I like that most of this shawl is quite easy. It shows off the beauty of the yarn, and I don't have to concentrate too much. The complicated part, when I have to hide from my children will come later. Should be good for holiday knitting next week in France!

Back from the Heat

Sorry I don't have any photos from my trip to beautiful and sunny Westport, CT. I was really lazy this time, and didn't take many photos at all. As usual, we spent most of our time on the beach, which was good since it was so hot! My spot was pretty much on a chair at the edge of the water, feet submerged. Of course I did my share of shopping, and who wouldn't with the dollar at 2 to the pound! The first week I was able to get half a day to myself in NYC. I was able to make a trip to Seaport Yarns, where I had a nice long talk with the owner, and brought back a few finds, some of which might make it into the shop one day. I also got to go to Purl, which is such a beautiful place. I love the way that they squeeze all of the yarn in a small space, it is just bursting with color. I was able to meet up with an old friend for a while. Jackie and I used to work together, and lost touch since I moved to London. She actually found me through my blog by accident. I didn't even know that she was a knitter when we worked together, though we used to do needlepoints at our lunch hour. We even discussed her making a trip to visit London.

The second week was pretty much the beach. It was great... sun, sand, heat, but sadly no knitting. It was just too hot. Now I am back, and there is so much going on at Stash. While I was away lots of new stuff arrived. We now have KnowKnits pouches, Great Adirondack yarn, Rialto Aran, Noro Silk Garden Lite, and Knit Simple magazine. We also have some new chunky yarns that just came in, Malabrigo chunky, and Misti Alpaca Chunky, which is the softest yarn ever! We are expecting a few more new items that should be with us by the time we get back from our holiday closing, which by the way is from Tuesday 21 August until Friday 31 August.