Knitting with Company

Keeping the Fiber Level High

Neil — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:04:31 +0000

Festival and fun on the streets …

This is a dangerous week if you live in Geneva, Illinois and you try to exercise any sort of restraint with your dietary intake.

You see it’s Swedish Days – our annual “Midsommar Fest” – it runs from Tuesday through Sunday and culminates in the biggest small town parade you are likely to ever see with Shriners buzzing their lawnmower engined contraptions past your toes.

When Lesley and I first moved to the USA more than 20 years ago we stumbled upon Geneva while we were looking for somewhere to live in Chicagoland. The festival was underway when we visited and we were completely sold on the Fox Valley area in that one moment. We got lots of warm and fuzzies about what life could be like for our family in a community-driven town like Geneva. We were not wrong, Saint Charles, Batavia, Geneva and all the smaller surrounding towns have a wonderful charm.

Anyway, I digress, back to Swedish Days. Come down any day during the festival and you will find all sorts of activity going on. There’s a craft show, there’s a carnival, there’s shopping with lots of bargains, there are kids’ activities like the “Creation Station”, there are Concerts on The Courthouse Lawn, every evening there are concerts on the central stage – bring a picnic and camp out on the courthouse lawn that gives a great view of the stage … (You can get a full list of each days activities on the Geneva Chamber’s website).

and there are food booths up the wazoo …

Knights of Columbus, Lions Club, Viking Service Organization, the list goes on and on and they are serving all the traditional street delicacies.

Although I’m not a vegetarian, I do live in a vegetarian household and as I’m too lazy to keep the fridge stocked with meat, I don’t eat much of it … until Swedish days! Every lunchtime I head out to grab the delicacy of the day – typically a bratwurst – in one bun or another.

Now you don’t need me to tell you, but this diet is extremely low fiber, and I’m a high fiber diet kinda guy. So for breakfast I make sure I double up on my muesli … a little compound that I make myself from rolled oats and various dried fruits and nuts. Delicious when mixed with yogurt and topped off with fresh fruit (blackberries and raspberries at this time of year). You can’t beat high fiber foods. Added to that I spend most of my day surrounded by more natural fiber than anyone could ever digest – it just needs to be knitted or crocheted into something – of course you could knit it into a high fiber food.

Have I got the balance right? Let me know.

Meanwhile it’s almost lunchtime and I’m planning my attack on the food booths … I hear the Methodist Church is serving up a particulary mean chicken sandwich this year (0% fiber – sigh!).

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Sock Summit Portland Oregon August 6-9

Neil — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:26:23 +0000

Sock Summit 2009

We will be attending the greatest sock show on earth in August, and we are excited to be making our first trip as a yarn store to somewhere west of the Rockies.

We’ll be loading up the trailer and we’ll be reproducing our “sock corner” in Portland for the duration of the summit … and you can be sure that we’ll also have lots of other goodies to keep knitters of all types excited. That said the main focus of the Sock Summit is …. wait for it … Socks!

Why socks? Socks are practical, beautiful, interesting, historical, engaging and symbolic. Socks are circular, portable, structural and a perfect tiny canvas for almost any handknitting technique you’d like to put on them. No matter what you’re interested in when it comes to knitting, there’s a way that has to do with socks.

Granddaddy of Illinois Festivals

Neil — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:24:35 +0000

The Granddaddy of Illinois festivals is here again!

Swedish Days celebrates its 60^th Anniversary with even more fun, great entertainment and shopping than ever before. Need help planning your visit? Check out shopping and event highlights. Read the entire schedule of events. You’ll find out all about keeping the kids occupied by checking out the Kids Activities Schedule.

If all else fails, just show up in comfortable shoes! We promise you won’t be bored. Our abundance of varied downtown merchants will be featuring some of their best sales of the year. Don’t forget to take a well deserved break by visiting the many food tents or wonderful Geneva restaurants, too!

Visit www.genevachamber.com or call 630-232-6060 for more information.

Swedish Days Coming Up

Neil — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:54:41 +0000

Those of you who are local know that next week is The Granddaddy of Festivals – Swedish Days in Geneva. It is really a huge festival and celebrates the town’s Swedish Heritage in a big way. Because staycations are the order of the day right now, it is a lovely time to come and spend with your family and friends, enjoying great bargains, good food, crafts, carnivals and all kinds of other activities. Don’t miss it.

Before the madness begins come in this weekend. On Saturday and Sunday we are having a Pre-Swede Sale … all books will be 20% off, all Gedifra and Katia yarns are 30% off, all bags are 10% off and everything in the ‘Chicken Wire’ is Buy One Get One free.

Plus you can have first dibs on the Swedish Days Model Sale … come and nab some great bargains on finished goods that we can no longer use in the store ‘cos we are out of the yarn. These deals are only available from 10:00am on Saturday until 4:00pm on Sunday.

Identify the UUFO (Unidentified Un-Finished Object) and Win

Neil — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:26:32 +0000

Two chances to win a $10 Gift Card to Wool and Company.

Our friend and customer Teresa came by with a challenge – what the heck was the pattern? You see she started this about 3 years ago, put it down and when she came to pick it back up she couldn’t find the pattern. We searched our records to see if we could come up with an answer, but zilch! Here are a few clues:

It’s a child size
It’s knit with worsted weight (in this case Knit One Crochet Too’s Parfait)
It’s currently on US6 needles.

Take your best shot with a comment below and we’ll give a $10 Wool and Company Gift Card to the first person who correctly identifies it. Terry is the judge on this as she knows she’ll recognize it once someone comes up with the designer/pattern.

We’ll award a second $10 Gift Card to the person who comes up with the funnest idea for the future this garment – whether or not the pattern is identified.

Cashmere Being Auctioned

Red Charcoal Black

Cashmere – the fine, soft wool or down hair from the undercoat of the Kashmir goat. Each goat produces abut 4 ounces of this valuable fiber each year – this makes it one of the most expensive and most sought after fibers in the world (after qiviuk which we stock in our store). We’re currently auctioning 2 goats-worth of the collectible Jaeger Cashmere, which is 90% cashmere and 10% polyamide (gives it extra durability).

An exquisite yarn that is perfect for accessories like scarves and gloves.

Make your bid at the right.

Let’s talk about some new fibers …

Lesley — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:48:59 +0000

June … not usually synonymous with knitting, but overnight the temperature drops to 30-something and it almost feels like winter again.

Come by the store and see some of the new yarns we have received. At last Mini Mochi is here for your socks and shawls, and to my delight lots of Kureyon sock yarn. Our rep had told me that it was to be discontinued and there was no more available so I was disappointed because a) I love it, and b) we have several models in the store that use it. Anyhoo, I saw him last week and as soon as I heard it was not going away I ordered tons, so come and get it while the getting is good. We also received some more of the yummy Hundertwasser from Opal in gorgeous new colorways.

The new Knitter’s magazine is in, as are plenty of new books so there is plenty of inspiration for your summer knitting.

For more ideas come and look at the great models on our class wall. Even if you don’t want or need a class, it will give you plenty of ideas for your next project, and if you are good, Neil will even let you try them on.

Need some company or extra discipline to get your projects done? Come in on Sunday afternoon (3:30 ’til 5:30pm) to our Knitting with Company session, and we will help you whip your knitting into shape.

Drinking and Knitting

Neil — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:45:43 +0000

Some fun new books have just arrived … how about Pints and Purls, Portable Projects for the Social Knitter – a book with patterns that are “Drink Rated” from those that require a minimum level of concentration and skill (4 drinks allowed) to those that require no distractions!

Other goodies include:

Swimming with Sheep

Neil — Thu, 21 May 2009 19:36:59 +0000

I have two older brothers and a younger sister. When we were kids our family would take an annual holiday to the seaside – always the last week in July and the first week in August. Whitley Bay, on the coast of Northumberland was always our favorite destination winning out against competitors like Redcar, Seaton Carew, Bridlington and Scarborough. Each “resort” had its own caché and fans.

If there was no rain, we would spend our days on the beach at Whitley Bay, or in the amusement arcades if we had nasty weather. The Spanish City was one of these arcades, and it was later immortalized by Mark Knopfler and the Dire Straights in their song “Tunnel of Love”. I have lots of stories about the fun me and my brothers would have there – my sister was always too young to hang with the “big boys”!

In the weeks leading up to our holiday my mother would be preparing and packing. I remember this one year she was knitting new swimming trunks for me and my brothers. They were a rusty brown color – very appropriate as they would be able absorb the effluent from the local chemical plants without leaving too many stains.

Now, bear in mind that it’s the beautiful North Sea that laps the beaches of Whitley Bay and other coastal towns on that part of Britain. Even at it’s warmest, and despite global warming, I doubt that the temperature of the water there rises much above 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

So we were all prepared. The beach routine went something like this.

Find your spot, and plant your equipment – at a minimum a windbreak and rented deckchairs.
Spread out the towels – I have memories of these being about the thickness of cheesecloth.
Change into your swimming trunks while your parents made a modesty screen with the towels. If (wicked) Uncle Gordon was there, and he often was, he would always make sure that he whipped away the towel at a moment that would cause you maximum embarrassment.
Make sandcastles, go crab hunting, play some football (soccer) or cricket.
Hit the sea, and splash around until the blueness spread to the end of your nose and then run back to the spot and get a towel wrap and rub from my mother.
Drink a hot cup of tea (there were tea stands strategically located along the beach).

Then we’d start again at the “make sandcastles” and repeat until the blue wouldn’t go away anymore – and everyone was exhausted and crabby and ready for a nice plate of fish and chips. In fact I think they used to make the tea greasy to help stimulate that appetite.

The Reveal

So there we were on the first day, all ready to hit the water in our new swim trunks. Run! Fun! Splash! Fun! Splash! Brrrr! Let’s go get warm. This was a moment of revelation and learning – DON’T EVER KNIT YOUR KIDS A SWIMSUIT MADE OF WOOL even if you do reinforce the seams!

My brother and I abandonned our dignity as we made our way back up the beach to the warming station while trying to pull our 20 pound trunks up from our ankles. I remember that we provided quite a show for all the other holiday makers, something that they almost certainly forgot by the next day, but something that has blighted me forever, and will remain embedded in my psyche until my dying day.

Chicken Wire – What’s That?

Neil — Thu, 14 May 2009 01:54:47 +0000

We hear people everyday come into the shop and ask, “what’s the chicken wire”? Well it’s our clearance section in the store. Named “chicken wire” just because the backs of the bins are covered with chicken wire – it stops the skeins flying the coop.

It’s a great place to find a bargain yarn that we are discontinuing. And because it is so popular we’re extending on line with our Chicken Wire Auction (over to the right of this article) to give those who can’t make it to the store a chance to get a bargain. Every week we’ll have a clearance yarn available in our Chicken Wire Auction. This week we have some Araucania Atacama – you could get as much as 85% discount off retail! So check it out – you could complete all your holiday gift knitting with a single bag (about 2000 yards) of this super-soft alpaca.