Knitting Olympics

Posted on August 10, 2008 by Suzanne

I’m not doing this “officially” because I didn’t manage to get signed up at Ravelry, nor did I even decided to actually do it until late in the afternoon on the 8th, but nonetheless: my “Knitting Olympics” event. The idea? I cast it on during the Opening Ceremonies, and I’m going to try to bind it off before the end of the Closing Ceremonies.

I took the picture outside because the sky looked weird, so I grabbed my knitting in order to get the knitting picture and a sky picture:

Turns out that was a big ole’ rainstorm. Soaking rainstorm – more than an inch of rain. Sent the festival-goers scurrying for their cars. APparently the policemen that had been patrolling the festival had been getting weather updates and had warned everyone that big rain was coming, so I don’t think people got too wet.

Back to the knitting project:

It’s a new felted bag, pattern is by Noni designs.

I’m making the middle size bag (shown in red), but in the colorway of the big bag. The base is done, plus the first stripe of the bag body. I figured out this moring that I have to knit about 1 and a quarter stripes everyday in order to get the bag done. I want to eventually make a flower, too, but I’m not even going to try for that.

Wish me luck! LOL

I posted a whole gob of pictures of the shop on the shop blog so you can take a virtual tour if you are interested in seeing what it looked like over the weekend. I don’t want you to feel like I’m trying to sell to you here on this blog, as this is supposed to be more of my personal adventures in quilting and other fiber activities. For that reason, I’ll try to limit what I say about the shop, and keep updates over on the shop blog.

Take a virtual tour of Knots & Bolts

Thanks for all of your support and best wishes. I thought I was going to take today off, but couldn’t do it copmletely — today’s the day that MQX teacher proposals are due. This afternoon, though, we are headed to a baseball game. I wonder if I can get some knitting done while I’m there….

Suzanne

Here we go!

Posted on August 8, 2008 by Suzanne

The shop:

http://www.knotsandbolts.com

The shop’s blog:

http://www.knotsandbolts.com/blog

Grand Opening Blog Coupon

8% off your order over $20.00

promo code: Blog080808

Orders might not ship until Monday or Tuesday. We’ve had lots of visitors today, a little quiet right now. I suspect tomorrow will be busier.

If you have any questions or problems with the shop site, please drop me a note, everything should be working, but there’s probably always SOMETHING. LOL

Things I have forgotten to do

Posted on August 7, 2008 by Suzanne

There will always be something else to order or look at or do….and I accept this. However, at least one of the things I forgot to order is pretty funny. Read on.

I mentioned the other day that I never remembered to order any pins. I’m confident that no one is going to walk in and say “OMG, She doesn’t have pins. I am never shopping here again.”

Well, if they do say that, I probably don’t need and or want them as a customer.

Anyhoo.

Last night.

Mark asked me “Do you have any thread to sell?”
OMG!!!! THREAD!!! My dear beloved Internet friends, I forgot to order THREAD!!!!!

I was going to order some Masterpiece thread directly from Superior Threads…and…I forgot.

Here’s hoping no one walks in and says “OMG, She doesn’t have any thread. I am never shopping here again.”

I’ll just tell everybody it’s on order. Don’t give away my secret, OK?

Bring caffeine. And chocolate.

Posted on August 6, 2008 by Suzanne

Y’all are invited to my Grand Opening, but if you could bring caffeine and/or chocolate with you, I’d much appreciate it.

It doesn’t even have to be fancy chocolate. Plain M&Ms would do the trick. And I take my caffeine in Pepsi or Coke format. None of that coffee stuff.

Any minute now I’m going to invite you to the grand opening of the website, too, but I’ve…just…got….a few more things to do. I was hampered today by the fact that the INTERNET WAS DOWN. Seriously. I thought I was going to cry.

Instead, I called my sister and screamed a bit. And then I went shopping, which took longer than I expected, as I traipsed around still trying to find galvanized metal pails. Hobby Lobby used to sell them. Lowe’s has them in sizes bigger and smaller than what I want. Actually, they did have the size I wanted, but it was $15 and had the ISU Cyclone logo on it. Now, I’m a Cyclone, and we are huge fans, but…not really what I was looking for to have at the shop.

I ended up with something else to use a in-store shopping baskets. I can’t believe I didn’t take pictures of them. Sheesh.

So, back to the Grand Opening. I thought I’d post an official invitation for anyone in Iowa that reads my blog and wants to come visit this weekend. We’ll have lemonade and cookies! Not to mention the fact that the Winding Stairs Festival is taking place, so there will be lots of yummy food tents (pork producers, beef producers, funnel cakes, several churches have food booths…)

Here are the details:

Knots & Bolts
549 2nd St
Traer, IA 50675
319-478-2049

You can’t miss us, look for the red and white checkerboard. It rather stands out.

Grand Opening Hours:

Friday and Saturday 10AM to 5PM

Back to work -
Suzanne

Staff

Posted on August 5, 2008 by Suzanne

After my comment about needing t-shirts for my staff for opening weekend, I received a couple of suggestions that aprons would be better than t-shirts. Theoretically, yes. However. When your staff consists of yourself, your mother, your husband and this guy and his brother:

A t-shirt is probably a better idea.

I might have gotten the word staff a little big….

After my post the other night, I got buys on CafePress and ordered these shirts. I think they turned out pretty well. They didn’t get the order 100% right (I wanted two women’s ladies v-necks in 2 different sizes, plus 1 XL men’s and the 2 smalls, I got 2 men’s XL, my ladies v-neck and the boys shirts. thankfully, the extra XL will still work).

Making progress. Got a few more things via UPS and FedEx today. Some more notions and patterns. Some more fabric:

(11 bolts of stuff from the Empress Woo collection by Robyn Pandolph, plus that one stray dogwood with the red background). Nearly all of the fabric I’ve got in stock is closeouts, that I’ll be selling for $4.99/yard. I’ve got some yummy stuff. Some interesting stuff, too. LOL

Every time I place an order wtih Checker I think “This will do it for now.” And then 10 minutes later I think of something else I was planning on ordering that I forgot. Oh well. For now: we’re done. What’s here is what is here and so what if I never remembered to order any pins.

Back to work.

Have a great Tuesday.

Suzanne