I Love What I Do!

This evening while eating dinner in our office, I turned and looked at my husband and said, "This is really gonna happen..."  We were eating at the table I purchased for classes in the shop and it just hit me that starting a yarn shop was no longer a dream, it's a reality!  I have all of the larger "fixtures" for the store, and the rest will all be incidentals.  Of course, there's all that fun business stuff that needs to be taken care of before we open, but that's just a matter of time (and paperwork).

My goal is to get a lot of things second hand or "found" in nature.  I've come across things like hat boxes, interesting dress forms, some cool artwork, or even pieces that speak to me.  I a battered suitcase for decoration, a metal milk jug, and plenty of baskets.  My mother is also giving me a lot of her old baskets that she used to make when I was younger!

In the mean time, I've been knitting like crazy for both Sock Madness and what is to be the first knit along.  Round 1 for sock madness started out with a pair of socks that require a set of dice to choose at random whether or not you will C2F every 4th row.  The result is a pair of "mismatched" socks with cables randomly happening along the instep and leg.  I took (bad) progress pictures along the way and to submit at the end of the round.

I dyed the sock yarn with
Black Cherry Kool-Aid!

At the end of each day of frantic sock knitting, I'd spend my evenings "resting" by starting the All the Stops dress, a great pattern in Juniper Moon Farm's Findley Dappled booklet.  I'll be able to post a few pictures in a few days, as we've got terrible lighting in the house and pictures are not turning out quite right.  I want to be able to do this yarn justice because the variegated Findley Dappled is breathtaking, no matter what colorway you're using!  It feels like pure silk as I knit (it should, it's 50% silk and 50% merino wool).

Peanut, my son, checks out the shelves I plan
to use for Juniper Moon Farm yarns.  :)

It was first hard to imagine how this dress was going to turn out, but it became apparent quickly that the two stitches surrounded by stitch markers are where the shoulder seam is to be.  From there, you work your way down in three sections - left front, back, and right front.  I am now to where dart decreases are made.  I've sewn darts before, but have never knit darts, an interesting concept, but they serve the same purpose - to tailor the bust line. So far, it appears that I may be the only one who's documented doing this pattern (other than the tester), so I hope someone joins me in this project soon.  My dress, once complete, will be displayed in the shop and I'll also be wearing it on a cruise in January 2013, assuming I don't gain a massive amount of weight before then.

 Last, but not least, I got permission to share an appreciation photo from the layette set I designed and made for my hubby's boss.  I know I posted it on Facebook, but here's the little boy wearing the hat and socks from the set.  I was also told that they're giving me a copy of him in the whole outfit once they get the pictures from the hospital photographer.

Don't forget: Noro Ayatori yarns are here in 6 great colors!  It's DK, 60% wool, 40% silk and absolutely wonderful. I almost felt like it was my birthday 3 months early when I got the big package on Friday.  It ships same day and you won't want to put this yarn down.