I haven't been good ...

about keeping up with the blog lately. We've just been too, too busy, busy, busy. I'm always pleasantly surprised and grateful at how well our new releases are received .... and it keeps us running, trying to keep up with orders ... so there has been little time to sit and think and write, but finally I've found a few moments of calm before the On-line Needlework storm on Wednesday and wanted to use it to catch up a bit with friends and followers.


On the stitching/design front ... well ... my big Christmas sampler scheduled to be released next month (Good Yule) is now officially lost in the mail. I am heartbroken. The woman who stitched it is heartbroken. This design is 110 stitches wide by 350 stitches long and was not an easy stitch ... lots of over one, beads, specialty stitches. It was mistakenly sent to the wrong address. We contacted the people at that address and they say they have not received the package. The post office said it was delivered there on September 30th. No one seems to know where it is. It was insured, of course, but no amount of insurance can cover this kind of loss. We haven't given up. We hope it can be found, but it may not be released this year if it is not found soon. It takes quite a while to stitch a piece of that size, as you all know. I'm trying not to think about it and just praying it will turn up. Karma.


We have other things in the works that can be released instead, but we will have to work double time to try to bump them up the schedule. I do truly believe that everything happens for a reason. I live by that philosophy. It will be interesting to see, eventually, what the reason for this glitch is.


Meanwhile, a little sneak peak at our first biannual limited edition Christmas Ornament kit. Luckily I was working on this little guy even before I found out that Good Yule was lost, so he will still be coming to town even if Good Yule doesn't make it. We plan on doing two different ornament kits a year in a limited quantity, one for November release and one for "Christmas in July".  Why limit the quantity of the kits? Everyone is always curious about that. We don't do it to drive up the price. We try to keep the price of our kits as reasonable as possible. Limiting the quantity of kits we manufacture allows us to use unique or "limited availability" supplies in the kits .... things that we love and would like to see on a design but know we can get only get limited quantities of .... i.e. special buttons or ribbons or trims. We buy up what ever quantity is available and make as many kits as we can from that inventory ... and then ... when it's gone, it's gone.


I made a rule for myself, earlier this year, that I would never again use a Sunday to do anything I "had" to do or that "needed" to be done. So, I took Sunday to relax with my daughter who was visiting and to pursue some things I've been wanting to do. I don't have much time to knit anymore. I use most of my crafting time to stitch, but I always like to have a winter knitting project on hand for cold evenings in front of the fireplace (or TV) and I spent a few hours on Sunday going through the yarn stash and planning a project. Over the past few years I seem to have collected a plethora of small balls of hand spun yarn. I love the way it looks, the complex textures and mixtures of colors, but there is never enough to make anything substantial. Still, I buy a few ounces here and a few ounces there because it is impossible to resist. So Sunday I got all the balls of hand spun together, picked a group that would go together and finally found a pattern I thought would work with my potpourri of different yarns.

The pattern is a free pattern and I think I'm in love with it ... it is so adaptable to so many different yarns and sizes. Since you start by making a triangle (increasing each side) until the piece is the width you want, and then continue, on the diagonal with a decrease on one side and an increase on the other, you can make it as wide and as long as you like .... depending on how much yarn you have. You don't even have to worry much about gauge ... perfect for my collection of hand spun since I can just keep knitting until I run out. Of course, you have to make sure you leave enough yarn to finish the corner but I kept track of how much I used to make the beginning corner, so I know exactly how much I need to finish. Now I'm thinking about those 12 balls of a discontinued color of Noro Silk Garden I have stashed away for a shawl/stole out of the same pattern.

Meanwhile, back to the search for Good Yule. I have been calling the post office a few times a day. I will not despair. If it's gone, it was meant to be gone. If it is found, then we will release it on schedule. (sob sob :-( Maybe if everyone out there crosses their fingers for me ... it will turn up.


See you soon, ci vediamo a presto, à tout à l'heure, gauw tot ziens,

Cynthia