Tent Sale & Fleece Market Tomorrow!

Yes - it's that time again! That crazy wonderful, let's clear out as much yarn as possible time of year! The WEBS Annual Tent Sale! Our two day extravaganza kicks off tomorrow at 10am and runs until 5:30pm. We'll be back open on Sunday at 10am for Tent Part Deux! Steve has put together some incredible deals and steals under the tent, we'll have garments for sale, many books marked down 30% PLUS all of the anniversary sale yarns are still on sale!

Tomorrow has some extra fun excitement built in. First, we'll be recording our weekly radio show/podcast, Ready, Set, Knit! LIVE from the tent!! This will be the second time we've done a live show. If you live in the area or are on your way to the sale, tune into WHMP 1400 or 1240 at 9am! We'll also be interviewing a SUPER special guest! We've got a knitting rock star in the house this weekend!

We have our entire WEBS team working tomorrow - we'll have SEVEN registers running (5 in the store and 2 in the tent). In the store, the three regular registers will be running, plus three more in front of the windows. There will be ONE FEEDER LINE FOR ALL FIVE REGISTERS. Every register will have one person ringing and one person bagging. We should be able to keep up pretty well. We have staff on the store floor, in the tent and in the warehouse. We have a team of folks dedicated to just restocking the tent and the store.

In addition to the sale itself, Saturday always features our Annual Fleece Market! We have 12 local farmers/shepherds coming this year and they will be selling their fleeces, yarns, etc. I think we may even have a couple of alpacas in the house! I love alpacas, so this would particularly thrill me :)

WEBS Beads will also be participating at their location down the street. They have their own tent with special deals. Plus, we have a ton of new inventory! Alison and I attended a show last Saturday and brought back so many new items - more pearls, more semi-precious, more faceted semi-precious strands, wood, bone and porcelain. We also just added gorgeous lampwork beads from World Peas. We have beads and larger focal beads PLUS some goddesses! Be sure to stop into the bead store if you come by this weekend! They will be open both days as well.

We look forward to seeing everyone this weekend!

Kathy

SWTC

Last week on our podcast, Ready, Set, Knit!, we had the pleasure of interviewing Joe Raffino, owner of Southwest Trading Company (SWTC). It was extra special because Joe had just been at the NENA show, only 45 minutes from the shop so he was able to be in-studio with us when we recorded. He had samples of the new yarns they are introducing and not only did he share info about the yarns on the podcast, but he also allowed me to photograph the items he had for the blog!

The first new yarn they have is Therapi, which is a wool/silk/jade blend. Yes, jade. We had heard about this yarn and to say the least, I was skeptical. What the heck would jade add to yarn? What was it's reason for being, other than being an interesting conversation piece? Jade is considered the most valuable of precious stones and among other things is considered a symbol of tranquility. Knitting and crochet are known to be stress reducers (when we're not fighting with a project) so the theoretical link between the jade component of the yarn and the zen we achieve when knitting or crocheting (again, when not fighting with a project). The yarn itself is quite lovely - the silk and jade add a nice luster to the wool and the fiber has a soft hand. It knits at 5 sts = 1" on a US #7 needle.

Look at those beautiful colors!

Now I have to admit something - I left my other notes on the other yarns at work! Yikes! I guess we'll have to have SWTC part 2 tomorrow!

I hope all of you Moms had a great Mother's Day. I had a wonderful one myself. I got to sleep in a bit, I received great gifts from the boys' and then we went and golfed as a family. The weather was perfect and it was just a great day.

Jonathan presented me with this:

This is not your average bouquest of construction paper flowers. Look what you get when you pull each flower out of the vase:

A list of the chores he was willing to do so that I could relax on Mother's Day. Here's the only one that really mattered to me:

Jackson brought me this:

And this:

I particularly love #10. The reason? I did NOT get him an iPod. Dad did (sorry honey).

More SWTC tomorrow and photos of Pixie's Babette from our Crochet-A-Long!

Kathy

This and That

So, I think we've sufficiently recovered from the Harlot. I personally did not have much time to really recover before I had to prep for yet another major event. This one was not yarn-related, but equally important. Last Friday night was the annual fundraising auction at the boys' school of which I was chair. The event raises much needed money for financial aid and last year's event was a bit of a bust, so the pressure was on. Ultimately, the event came off wonderfully, but by Saturday afternoon I was ready to curl up in the produce section at Whole Foods. I consider myself someone who is a pretty tough cookie with good stamina, but this past week was just over the top. It's all behind us now with only things like Tent Sale, end of the school year, TNNA, Convergence, etc., ahead of us. Piece of cake after this past week.

I have a few random items to share, so here goes:

1. On Monday Steve and I attended NENA - the New England Needlearts Association annual tradeshow. This is sort of a mini-TNNA. Many of industry's vendors show here, but on a much smaller scale than at TNNA. Although we've done a majority of our fall buying already, we still go to see some smaller vendors, follow-up with reps and just be supportive of the show. It's only 45 minutes from the shop, so it would be rather strange to not go. I scored a couple of skeins of yarn from J Knits:

This is a hand-dyed line out of Amesbury, MA that we currently do not carry. Not sure where we'll end up with this, but I grabbed a couple of skeins of their new sock yarn (the bottom skein) not only to consider for the store, but also for Melissa, who was unable to attend the show and just might have a need for sock yarn for some project involving knitting socks and lots of words, compiled together.. . . .at some point. I haven't given her the yarn yet, you like MMO?

It's 60% superwash merino/15% bamboo/15% nylon and 10% silk.

2. Speaking of sock yarn, in the madness that was last week, our newest Valley Yarn arrived. Huntington is a 75% wool/25% nylon with 218 yarns on a 50 gram hank. It knits at 7-8 sts to the inch on a #2 or #3 needle. It's available in 11 solid colors and it is just scrumptious! It's soft, it has a lovely twist and it knits like a dream. Huntington retails at $4.29/hank which means you can have a pair of scrum-dilly-icious socks for $8.58!! Don't forget - sock yarn is not just for socks! Huntington would be great for handwarmers, baby items or even a lovely shawl/wrap for the summer months.

3. So there appears to be a theme going on here - unintended, but still a theme. Steve and I see a lot of yarn. We see yarn from our wholesale partners, we see yarn from mills, we see yarn from small independent folks who may be hand dyeing yarn or raising their own animals and spinning their own yarn - I am talking a TON of yarn. We see amazing yarn and some yarns that make us say "what were they thinking?". Every now and again, a very memorable yarn comes along. The skein I am about to show you was shown to me at least 8 months ago. At the time, the producer was not in a position to take us on as a customer due to the scope of her operation. Well, the sales rep was in the other day and put this skein of yarn in front of me for a second time. This skein has stayed with me since I first saw it - it was love at first sight. Primarily due to the colorway. It takes a lot to make me stand up and take notice of a yarn, but this skein did just that and did it again yesterday when it was pulled out of it's bag. I *heart* this skein:

The even better news? This little company is ready to start doing business with us. Now, I'm going to be a bit of a tease and not reveal the source until the yarn is in the house. Sorry, I know, not totally nice, but I'm so excited I had to share so you could all be excited too. It should only be a couple of weeks until the yarn is here and then I will reveal all.

Tomorrow/Friday I'll be updating the blog with our current Babette CAL from Ready, Set, Knit! with pictures of Pixie's beautiful creation and, well, shots of the yarn that I chose (I am such a laggard). Plus, I've got some info on the newest yarns from SWTC that I can also share with you. Joe Raffino joined us this week for our podcast so be sure to listen this weekend to the show!

Kathy

Unbelievable

What else can I say? Yesterday was simply amazing. I'm not even sure where to begin with this post, so I'm just going to type it all out and if it's less than cohesive, my apologies.

First - I have to say a huge, HUGE thank you to Stephanie. She was gracious, funny, patient and entertaining. Not that any of that surprises me or anyone who has ever had the chance to see her in person, but knowing how tired I am today and knowing she didn't get to sleep in her own bed last night and had to be up before 6am to go to the airport to do it all over again, I am in awe of how she does it. I am so tired today my eyeballs hurt.

I knew we might be attaining a new level of craziness when I arrived yesterday morning to not only find folks already in the parking lot and waiting for the store to open, they had brought chairs and were hanging out. Some of the first folks through the door were two of my favorite whom I had not seen in awhile. Itsapurlman and his lovely wife made the trip for the event. As great as it was to see them, it was even more exciting when they pulled out this:

This is the Hupah from their wedding last fall. The yarn is our own Deerfield. Guido and his then fiance came to WEBS to interview Steve and I for his podcast. I had the honor of helping them select the yarn. I had not seen the finished product, though I had followed it's progress on Guido's blog and those of his friends. It is truly breathtaking and is now a lovely, cozy blanket that they use in their home. Thanks so much for bringing it along!!

Here's a couple of shots of the "calm before the Harlot":

By the time Stephanie arrived at 11am, the store was in fully engaged in controlled chaos, but by about 12:15, I was starting to panic (quietly, inside). I was EXTREMELY worried we weren't going to have enough books, I was PETRIFIED that Stephanie wasn't going to make it through the line of knitters waiting to get their books singed before she had to leave for the Calvin (although I did institute a plan B and ultimately she did get all of the knitters through the line) and there were so many people shopping and waiting to check out and the lines were getting all knotted up and confused that I was really worried. Not that anyone seemed upset, I just didn't feel like we were in control anymore:

(Note: check out http://www.splityarn.com/ for an even better shot of the store)

Seriously - I went over to Steve, who was working one of the registers and whisphered to him "Honey, I think we're on the verge of losing control". He grunted at me - this was not a good sign. I was looking for reassurance, I was looking for a "Don't worry Kath", but instead, I got a grunt. After being together for as long as we have been, I know that grunts are never a good sign. We've done a lot of events and have proven we have the ability to handle really large crowds, we handle ginormous crowds at Stitches in much smaller space than we have in the store and it never even phases me. I'm not quite sure why I didn't think we'd be okay - maybe my slight claustrophobia was getting the better of me.

I went back over to Steve shortly before I left for the Calvin and things were still wild and I said "We're never going to get everyone out of here in time for the event" and this time he said "I have a plan." I wasn't 100% sure it would work. I left WEBS and headed to the Calvin not knowing if (a) I would be opening the show on my own without Steve and (b) if all of the knitters would get out of WEBS and to the Calvin on time. In the end, Steve's plan worked and he was at the Calvin to kick off the show and all of the knitters made it there too.

Although there was one woman, who came in a bit late, a bit frazzled and explained to me that her friend found a bat on the sidewalk and was going to miss the show because she was standing over the bat since it was highly unusual to find a bat, on the sidewalk in the middle of the day and who should she call about the bat. I suggested the police - who could put her in touch with animal control. The woman left and I can't say I ever saw her return - I have no idea what happened there. If there's anyone with an update on that, please post in the comments.

The show was awesome, the crowd was amazing and Stephanie truly out did herself. As one person said to me "I laughed so hard I was exhausted when I left". That about sums it up. Justonescarf (from Ravelry) was there and an entertaining addition to the post-show Q&A once again this year. I'm going to be trying to schedule him for the podcast in the coming weeks, so stayed tuned for that.

Back at the store, there was more signings, more shopping and more knitterly fun. Steve addressed some of the issues we encountered while Stephanie was speaking and although the afternoon proved just as busy as the morning, we definitely were on top of things.

What really made the day, besides having the privelege of hosting Stephanie, was our most amazing staff. They handled everything flawlessly and are simply the best. Thanks to Mary, Karen, Jenna, Cirilia, Tina, Jaz, Leslie Ann, Gail, Elisabeth, KT, Dena and Pixie. Plus all of our wonderful customers who came and really made a great time for all of us! Thank you so much for coming to the shop and the event! Besides having the best yarn store staff on the planet, we definitely have the best customers.

Here's a couple of shots I took:

The first one is Leah, who is a knitter (wearing a sweater she knit - quite talented). The second two young knitters were just super cute!

I didn't take all that many pictures. In fact, as we were heading to dinner with Stephanie, Jess and Splityarn and her mum, I said to Steph, "I never got a picture with you" and her response was "Kath, I think people will know we were together today".

Kathy

Harlot Day is Tomorrow!

I have been composing this post in my head for the better part of today as I've been running errands, getting ready for the event, attending J2's first little league game of the season, etc. I even took a couple of cool pictures to share, as teasers. . . . .

Before posting, I decided to see how things went at SPM's Chicago event last night. I knew she was having some weather issues - I spoke with Amy at Storey mid-afternoon yesterday and she shared what was going. I never, in a million years, thought things would turn out as they did. I just logged onto the Harlot's blog and in matter of seconds thought I was going to throw-up. SHE NEVER MADE IT TO CHICAGO!! No event, no Harlot. I am sick for her, I am sick for the owner of Nana's Knitting Shop - the planning, the work and quite honestly the expense that goes into an event like this is beyond words. Then there are the knitters, who have all been so kind and understanding in the comments, but for sure were all heartbroken. I can only imagine how Stephanie must have felt, sitting at Pearson, as the realization that she was not going to make the event began to become a reality. There are no words.

So, I feel as if I really can't be all rah-rah excited right now (well, I am excited, but I feel it inappropriate to gloat).

For anyone who has not read the email we sent out, the Ravelry posts I've made (and got in trouble for posting the same thing in three different forums - oh well) OR the information on our website, please go here so you know what's happening tomorrow.

The one thing I have to share with you all is this - I saw it this morning as I went to the bank:

The folks at the Calvin wouldn't indulge me last year and I insisted on it this year - threatening them with me on a ladder, with a big Sharpie, in the middle of the night. I guess they took me seriously.

See you all tomorrow - it's going to be an absolute blast.

Kathy

Harding and Harlot

A big thanks to everyone who joined us on Friday evening for our event with Louisa Harding. What great fun we had! Unfortunately, I left my camera sitting on the desk of my home office, but luckily Skrillaknits was armed and at the ready. I'll posting pictures shortly, but did not want to let too much time pass before posting.

We've also introduced a new Valley Yarn - Springfield. It was in our Spring catalog and we're working on a couple of patterns to support this great new yarn. Springfield is 88% cotton/12% acrylic and has a textured "crimp" to it. It's super soft and knits at 5 sts = 1" on a #6 needle and has 110 yards. Springfield is available in 11 colors and is $3.49/ball - oh and it's made in Italy.

The focus of our world right now is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's return to WEBS this Sunday, April 27th. Full details of the event are now available at www.yarn.com. Just click on the button on our homepage for all of the details. It is going to be a great day!

Kathy

Hello Cleveland

Steve and I are just back from a quick road trip to Cleveland. What's in Cleveland you ask? Well, besides one of the easiest airports I've ever navigated, good food and nice spring weather, there is Beachwood Studios. What is Beachwood Studios? It's a major production facility for PBS. Why, you may ask, were we there? A few years earlier and my boys' would have asked if we were visiting Clifford The Big Red Dog or going to Dragonland with Max and Emmie. This trip was all fiber related - we were there for the inaugural taping of Interweave Press' new show - Knitting Daily TV. Knitting Daily TV is the new incarnation of Shay Pendray's Needlearts Studio, which has been on the air for several years. Interweave has taken over production of the show and is evolving it into KDTV. WEBS is one of the underwriters and we were asked to participate in several segments. So with lots of work in advance and some crazy last minute knitting (thanks Kirsten, thanks Melissa), Steve and I ventured off to Cleveland.

It was a blast (I can say that now) but it was also very stressful. Steve refused to participate in any on-air segments, so I was on my own. Fortunately, each segment included a host - I got to work with Liz Gipson, editor of Handwoven Magazine and Shay Pendray herself. I participated in 7 different segments within the 13 episodes that were being taped this week. I had lots of props and such, which all had to be set-up in advance in the "green room" (it really is green - look at the walls in the background).



I have to also say a big, huge thanks to Mary, who packed up everything I needed for the show, in bags, labeled with which segment they were for and what she had included. I had everything I needed and it was really, really, REALLY easy to set-up my segments. Mary rocks!

I also had to have seven different outfits - one for each segment - which would not normally be an issue since I'm a bit of a clothes horse, but PBS has rules - rules that basically excluded my entire wardrobe (no black or white allowed). Also, no big prints, polka dots or skinny stripes. . .no red, preferably no pastels, nothing too warm as the set can be hot, but no short sleeves or sleeveless because they can be "unnattractive". Plus, whatever I wore had to be able to have a microphone attached to it. I did figure it out and did not have to appear naked (I'm sure that would've broken another PBS rule, although it was not clearly stated).

Knitting Daily TV will air this July. If you previously were able to get Shay's show in your area, there's a very good chance you will get KDTV. If you didn't, now may be the time to get all of your fiber (and non-fiber friends for that matter) to contact your local PBS affiliate and encourage them to pick up the show. Interweave has done a great job of restructuring the show, hosts include not only Liz and Shay, but also Eunny Yang and Kim Werker. They have all sorts of fun topics and interesting guests (if I do say so myself). I"ll pass more information along as it becomes available and if you aren't a regular subscriber to knittingdaily.com, go there now and sign-up!

This was an incredibly nerve-wracking experience, but I am so glad we did it. If you don't challenge yourself, you'll never know what you are capable of (or so they say). What really reassured me that this was the right thing to do, was this sign on the inside of the door to the elevator at our hotel:



Seriously, where have you ever seen a sheep sign on the inside of an elevator door before? Steve and I were both a bit stunned and tickled at the same time, to say the least.

Kathy

P.S. Don't forget - Louisa Harding at WEBS tomorrow starting at 5:00pm! Don't worry if you can't be there right at 5 - pop in when you can. I saw Louisa in Cleveland and she's really looking forward to her visit with us!

P.P.S. Be sure to listen to this week's Ready, Set, Knit! radio show/podcast on Saturday. Before Steve and I left we interviewed the Yarn Harlot and Melissa filled in for Pixie! It was a fun show - enjoy!