Thank you all so much for knitting or crocheting a scarf for one special girl struggling with an eating disorder this holiday season.

With all of your help I received 120 scarves. I was able to send 27 to Virginia, I delivered 60 to the girls staying at Timberline Knolls in Lemont, and 33 to the girls staying at Linden Oaks in Naperville. I received so many hugs, warm smiles and even a tear or two. I had the perfect amount to send one scarf to each girl or woman staying at all three treatment facilities.

When I picked up the scarves from the Wool and Company, I was astounded with the generosity and support from all of you! I could never have been able to send these scarves without each one of you choosing to knit one or two or three scarves.

This has been one of the best Holidays, I have learned how much better it is to give than to receive. The feeling you get each time you give to someone else is indescribable, thank you for allowing me to give to as many girls as I was able to this holiday.

I wish you all Happy Holidays. And I look forward to seeing all of the incredibly unique scarves again next year.  If you would like to email me, or have any questions, feel free to use the form below.

PS We continue to receive scarves which is fantastic as it gets us a jump on next year!  Thanks again.

Put Tuesday December 29th on your calendar – we (along with lots of other LYSs) are designating that as National Helmet Liner Day. As you may know, some 30,000 service men and women will be deploying to Afghanistan and they need hand-made helmet liners because the ones they are issued with are not close fitting and warm enough.

Our goal is to get 100 liners knit or crocheted by the end of January, and I know we can do it.  We will be here with patterns, yarn at a discount, and hopefully some donated yarn that will work, and lots of encouragement.

I know many of you have made these in the past, so if you have any good tips or advice let us know. We have a wonderful new pattern that seems to be just right, and is available in knitted and crochet versions. They must be made out of 100% wool, worsted weight (Cascade 220, Patons, etc) and need to be in black, brown, tan, olive, dark gray or brown/tan variegated. For the knit version, you will need to have size 8 16″ Circulars and DP’S and size 6 16″ Circulars for the ribbing.

If you can’t come in please make a few and send them to us, and we will send you a little thank you surprise!  Here’s a copy of the helmet liner knitting pattern and the helmet liner crochet pattern.  You can send your completed helmet liners to the address on the pattern, and we’ll make sure that they get delivered.

The spirit of knitting has never been stronger than it is right now, and there is nothing more worthwhile than letting our service men and women know they are cared for, so let’s get it done.

Annual End-of-Year Sale
Sunday, December 27th Starting at 7:00 AM

aka, “If you think we’re counting all this, you must be crazy”.

The earlier you get here the bigger the discount. What do you think – could you be first in line this year and beat Cris and Natalie who have claimed pole position for the past 4 years?

• 7:00 – 8:00 AM 40% Off Most Yarns
• 8:00 – 9::00 AM 30% Off Most Yarns
• 10:00 AM – Close 20% Off Most Yarns

All Day Long

• 50-75% Off Some Yarns
• 15% Off Almost Everything Else

Exclusions

Certain items (not many) will be excluded from the sale …

These yarns are excluded from the sale … Brown Sheep, Noro Silk Garden, All Lorna’s Laces, Art Yarns, Qiviuk, Cascade Greenland, Rowan Kid Silk Haze, Rio de la Plata, Classic Elite Fresco, Peter Pan Tinkerbell, Crystal Palace Mochi, Zauberballe, Berroco Blackstone Tweed.

These accessories and gifts are excluded from the sale … Lantern Moon needles and accessories, All Knit Happy products, all Marie Osmond Products, all Addi Needles, and all consignment items.

No Sale Pricing on Special Orders or Previously Held Items.

We will open the doors at 7:00 AM and let people into the store in manageable groups. Dress appropriately, you could be waiting outside for quite some time. Please leave your bags in the car (you might want to bring your wallet with you), and if you can drop your warm outer shells before entering the store – you may feel more comfortable when shopping.

There will be no returns or exchanges and all sales are final.

Our penultimate podcast from the sock summit 2009 in which Gretl takes you on a tour of the sock museum and the market, and manages to snag a little yarn along the way.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Even if the forecast is for lots of snow today, wasn’t it pretty yesterday morning with that light dusting of white on the ground? I can say that because I don’t have to battle the traffic to get to work at the crack of dawn, and can stay in my jammies and knit for a bit. Ahhhhh, sanity time. And that is a good thing because I am having a serious case of finishitis, and just want to start new things. I blame the new books, they are too full of great projects designed by some evil knitting force just to make us all want to cast on, instead of finishing what we already started. But I do love them and I think you will too.

Thank you so much for all the scarves you have been sending in and dropping off for Kristina to share with the girls who will be in a treatment center for eating disorders over the holidays. She has already picked up a huge box filled to the brim and will be picking up the rest on the 19th so you still have a little bit of time if you want to bring one in. Once again, you have shown the incredible generosity of the knitting community and I just love that. Read more about courageous Kristina, and how she was inspired. Finally, we’ve just sent out our newsletter with the Knitters 2009 Holiday Wishlist. Read your copy to get some great giving ideas.

A little belated but better late than never.

Here’s Gretl’s podcast of part of the Sock Summit 2009 proceedings. She describes the registration process and how she helped to crash the servers – then she describes a couple of the workshops that she attended.

Carson Demers – KnittersRX.  By day, Carson is a physical therapist who runs an ergonomic program for a San Francisco Bay Area medical center. Every other moment, he’s knitting, spinning, designing, or otherwise up to some fiber fun with a watchful eye toward ergonomics. His passion and experience in fiber arts combine with his expertise in physical therapy and ergonomics to create a unique skill set that he eagerly shares with the fiber community to keep us all creating healthfully ever after.

In KnittersRX Carson teaches us that knitting is not a “no pain, no gain” activity. Yet many of us take better care of our favorite stash fiber than we do the fibers that allow us to knit—our bodies. Tired muscles, sore joints, and aching backs and necks needlessly plague too many knitters.  Listen in to hear what Gretl had to say about this workshop.

Also, hear about Lucy Neatby’s, “Discover the Sock Toe Chimney!”.  Where Gretl learned to understand stitches and how to graft joyously without needing to refer to a book.  This method of grafting (a.k.a. Kitchener Stitch) involves no loose stitches and gives two neat corners regardless of your style of knitting.