wip: Fuzzy Lamb and some other stuff

Whew, it's been a while!  I've been busy teaching classes, running a busy shop, trying to catch up on paperwork (ARGH PAPERWORK), and training a new employee.  I'm definitely creating though.  My current favourite project is one I just started on Saturday, but that's been on my brain for a while now.

Fuzzy Lamb is a ridiculously adorable pattern by Fuzzy Mittens, and I've been itching to knit it ever since a customer came in looking for yarn to knit it a year ago.  When I opted to bring in Drops Alpaca Boucle, I knew I had to knit it up into this cute little lamb!

Though I have to tell you, the boucle is a nightmare to work with.  Cripes, I keep catching up those little loops, decreasing and increasing is a mess, and forget reading your fabric!  It's so ridiculously soft though, that it's worth the effort.

As you can see, I've got the body and legs done.  Two more limbs and a head, and I'll be able to start stuffing and sewing this adorable little stuffy.

Guys, I'm so stoked to have this little buddy in the shop.  I'm definitely going to have to knit a wee little sweater for it, and I can see working on a bunch of clothes and accessories for it.  EEEE so fun!

In other news, my sock class finished up this afternoon.  LOOK AT ALL THE SOCKS!  Almost everyone finished up at least one sock in the 3 week class, and a couple finished both today.  :)  I also finished up my pair, but I'll post about that another day, since I need to lengthen on and sew in about a thousand ends.

Also, Lady Aurora was stunning the other night, dancing right over-top of Whitehorse.  I should have driven up Grey Mountain for a view of the northern lights over the city, but instead I hoofed it down the path behind my house to get away from the streetlights and oogled the light through the trees.  Sorry for my crummy photo; I refused to deal with finding my good camera and just used my camera phone.

In a way, it's easy to forget how lucky we are here.  People make the trip north just to see the lights, and I often don't bother to go out to watch them.  But sometimes, you just need to go out and appreciate just how stunning our world is, and what beauty can be found, even in your backyard.

Ever seen the northern (or southern!) lights before?  I grew up watching them in Manitoba, but the displays are stunning up here.  You should definitely come up to see them (in the winter only - we don't even see the stars in the summer, with 20+ hours of daylight), and definitely pop in and say hello to me at my shop!  <3

An Update on Yarn Shop Ownership

Holy Hannah guys, apparently running a yarn shop is a life-consuming business!  I now mentally roll my eyes a tiny bit when I hear people talk about me "living the dream" and how "it must be so amazing to be able to knit at work if you want to".

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Apparently 12 hour work days AT LEAST 6 days a week (and I try to enforce one day off a week because I've been through Grad School, I know how easy it is to burn out) and the only knitting time you take is in sacrifice of things like "laundry" and "making a real meal".  And when you find time to knit?  It'll probably be consumed by sample/commission/repair work - forget about your own projects.

Short Notice baby sweater by Taiga Hillard Designs, knit using Diamond Luxury Simpatico yarn.  LOVE how this turned out - the yarn was pretty and the sweater knits up in no-time flat.  Seriously, if you need a baby gift on short notice, this is a good choice in pattern! 

This probably sounds like complaining.  It's really not.  I knew exactly what I was getting into when I jumped into this new career because I'm a scientist and I totally did my research.  But I do have to laugh at those comments above because it's obvious that they hadn't.  That's okay though - it is a dream to many people and I certainly don't want to burst it.  (Except...I sort of did to you folks...erm...)

Aspyn Hat by Melissa Schaschwary, knit out of ...well you can see.  Fun knit, though those massive cables looked like garbage for the first few repeats.  The yarn is SO SOFT AND SO TWEEDY, I'm in love.  Honkin' big pompom (the photo doesn't do it justice) was added to help pull down the hat so it's more slouch and less cone-head.  Those big cables be stiff!  Also, make sure you use MUCH smaller needles for the brim, because I made a mistake and used 4.5 mm instead of 4.0 mm, and it wasn't enough - WASN'T ENOUGH.

But anyways, I will say that I was a little unprepared about how consuming this would be.  I've been wanting to write blog posts for a while now, but I have no energy to do anything at the end of the day.  The only reason I'm writing this one is because I'm forcing myself to, because dammit I wanna blog!

I also wanna go for a run, but between a few ginormous orders at the shop and evening events every day this week, that's totally not happening.

Entrelac Cowl from a not so great pattern (I had to rewrite it and I've never knit entrelac before).  This deserves a post all on it's own because I'm THAT DAMN PROUD OF IT, but alas that probably won't happen. Knit using Noro Kureyon yarn (2 balls of it) and in the round, I learned how to knit backwards (i.e. knitting stockinette without turning to do purl rows) to speed up the process.  I'm plotting to do an entrelac class because there's just so much to learn from this technique!  :D 

But don't you worry about me (as uh, all my friends seem to be doing if the amount of assistance they're offering is any clue). Part of the reason I'm working so hard is that I'm trying to get everything in place to make my life much easier.  It's been a learning curve (HA - more like a series of vertical learning cliffs!), but it's getting better all of the time.  The store is nearly where I'd hoped to have it months ago, and I'll be giving you a little tour soon.  And I'm getting some creative outlet in the samples I'm making up - many of them shown here in this post.

Fell in LOVE with kureyon while knitting this.  Lovely and soft with beautiful colour ranges, and the finished project has such heft that it stands up nicely on it's own.  What a great cowl for keeping your neck and face warm for the winter!  May need to steal this for the really cold winter days that are coming way too soon (seriously, I'm scraping the windshield almost daily now).

The very best part though?  I love what I do, every single day.  Oh sure, there's some trying bits - but there's nothing like seeing a person's face when the light-bulb moment happens when they figure out a new stitch, or assisting a new knitter find their first project, or fixing a problem that's stumped someone (and bonus if they learn how to fix it themselves!).

Alpaca mittens I knit on commission for a customer who needed some help.  Well, I say commission, but these took so long to get done that I did the work for free.  They turned out so lovely though, and beyond soft! that it was a joy to knit.  <3  No pattern - I just made it up as I went.  The yarn was a challenge since it was hand-spun locally raised alpaca, and the yarn went from fingering to bulky and back to fingering through the entire ball of yarn.  Progressively.  ANNOYING.  But they turned out so cute, despite being reknit ...more times than I want to count, and the fingertips reknit 4 times (no exaggeration!) the last night alone.  ARGH next time I follow a pattern!  I couldn't stop putting them on though, so I'd call that a winner!

This is a hard career I've taken on - but it's one that I'm loving, despite all of the challenges (or likely because of them).  And while I'd caution anyone else looking to do it to put their research in and understand what they're getting in for (seriously guys - this job is all about customer service!), I'd sing the praises of this career to anyone wanting to tackle this challenge.

Just please don't open another one in Whitehorse - I think we have all the yarn shops we can handle with the two of us.  :)

Exciting New: Now Live!

Guys, I just bought a lot of yarn.  Like...a lot.  As in, an entire store's worth of yarn.

THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS!  I'm now the proud owner of the Itsy-Bitsy Yarn Store in Whitehorse, Yukon!

That is totally the face of a serious and experienced shop owner, right there.  

I officially took over the business this morning, and opened the doors to chaos and confusion as the former owner ran out the door to catch her flight about 3 seconds after we signed all the final documents, and I was left with a float all over the coffee table, paperwork all over the couch, yarn strewn everywhere, a crowd of tourists pushing to get in, and no debit/credit machine to be found.  It was a glorious!

Luckily I've been actually working in the store all week so I wasn't completely in the dark, and everyone were so patient and understanding.  I even charmed a slightly grumpy lady from Chicago, who left the shop smiling despite the hassle of not being able to accept credit cards.  GO ME!

How did this happen, you ask?  Well, back in February, I was facing my government job running out in June and trying to decide if I should apply for more jobs I'm capable and very competent for but not necessarily qualified for or retraining.  (As it turns out, there's just not a demand for less-experienced geos who aren't willing to relocate.)  Then an email from the LYS owners landed in my email.  And there might've been some hyperventilating after reading that they were looking for a buyer, because YES OMG YES.  A VERY immediate response, a whole whack of meetings, and months and months of business plan writing and some last minute panicking yielded this!

Guys, it's been SO HARD to keep this under wraps, and it's entirely the reason behind all of the 'ZOMG SO BUSY' comments here and there.  Holding down a full-time and very mentally exhausting job while also trying to plan for purchasing a business is HARD holy cow.  I've nearly spilled the beans so many times, but it's been a bit tenuous and uncertain and I didn't want to jinx it!

Don't worry, this won't become a store blog.  I'll be posting just as irregularly as usual about all the stuff I make (and I've really got to get some rock posts up here - the title is starting to become false-advertising), they just might host better lit pictures within the shop, and possibly some comments about being a store owner.  

I will be starting up a separate store blog though (still hammering out what I want it to be), but I'll let you know when that goes live in case you want to follow along. 

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I'm so excited about this adventure.  I've wanted something like this since I was a kid, but never thought it could become a reality! It's only starting to sink in that it's real, and while the panic I sort of expected is present, I feel so much at home at the store and like it's exactly where I'm supposed to be.

Granted, that doesn't mean I'm not feeling a little crazy right now!

Look what Sophie, the former owner left me!  (She's the one for whom I made the little going-away gift.) She said she got it when they first opened up in their original 138 sq foot location (can't really get more itsy-bitsy than that) as a blessing for the shop, and she decided to pass it on to me to keep up the blessing. That little banner is hanging up on the tiny storage closet behind a screen, and it's going to stay there for as long as I'm in that space! Isn't it lovely?

Anyways, I'm not sure how to end this. My heart is so full right now, and I feel so thankful to have this opportunity. I'm looking forward to the hard work it's going to take to keep this adorable little shop going, and I can't wait to give back to the community like Sophie and her husband did before me.

Wish me luck, folks! I'm going to need it.