Mother's Day

I come from a family of six kids. I always try and call my mom the day before a big holiday. I figure it's nice for her to have the calls spread out a bit instead of spending the entire day with her ear glued to the phone. Before I figured that out, I spent too many holidays frustrated by a never-ending busy signal. It's nice to find simple solutions isn't it?

The weather here yesterday was atrocious. When I woke up it was raining sideways. I love a great storm. Especially when it's one of those rare days when I don't have any pressing obligations. It was easy enough to text my running buddy Edward and cancel the run we had planned and hunker down for a nice, long day of knitting and cable movies. Ahhhh, perfection.

If it hadn't been so ugly out, I would have spent the day doing things. The run, meeting folks for brunch, maybe a movie in the afternoon. (The husband wants to see Iron Man.) But the truth is, I desperately needed a day with nothing on the agenda. I have been working alot of Saturdays and if I'm honest, I needed some time to myself. Yesterday was the perfect antidote.

A few WIP's

Here are some things that were being worked on around the lunch table today. This is one of several Fabulous Filigree Scarves from One Skein Wonders that Emily is making for holiday gifts. Does anyone else feel like an underachiever? Holiday gifts? In May? Please!



Next up is a sock that Stephanie is knitting in our Shepherd Sock yarn in Cedar. It's just a little twisted rib design that she's making up as she goes along. She knits so many socks, I should probably find out if she's got a favorite heel or toe. I bet she does. I heard a rumor that she actually has a sweater on needles at home. I won't believe it until I see it!



Last is Sam's Baudeliare sock. It's a Cookie A design that Knitty published awhile back. She's also working on the Ernie sweater. I'll have photos of that soon.

Speaking of Knitty, they recently had their 50 millionth individual site visit. Fifty million. I have trouble imagining numbers that big. I couldn't be prouder of Amy. Along with a few other folks, I think she's gone a long way to transform the knitting world. The site was like nothing we had seen when she launched it. Kudos!

A Little Perspective

I have been feeling kind of crabby today. I've been dealing with a particularly fussy customer over the past few days and it's been wearing on me. Mind you, I embrace any opportunity to complain and she's given me plenty of fodder. But still, I could have done without the headaches she has provided.

To add to my woes, I got a call from the vet this morning. Pearl's coat has been a little off lately. A little dry skin, a little thinning of the fur. She also had some sagginess around her belly. When I took her for her annual check-up the other day, we did extra blood work. Turns out one of her liver enzymes and her thyroid numbers are low. This would explain some of her symptoms. None of this would be a tremendous issue but it is in addition to another chronic ailment we manage with her. New meds will require something of a balancing act. She's no spring chicken either. I'm afraid we have reached that time in her life where more and more small things will start adding up. I'll have to remember to give her an extra kiss every day. She's a good dog.

On top of it all, at some point during this conversation with the vet I realized that today is the one year anniversary of the day we put Hank to sleep. Wasn't he handsome? I still miss him. I guess I will have to give Pearl his share of kisses too.

The upside of the less than stellar news about Pearl was that it made me forget all about the fussy customer. Somehow I even started to wonder if something had been going terribly wrong in her life that made her react the way she had. Maybe she needs a kiss on the nose too.

Flying Carpet Socks

These are the Flying Carpet Socks that Cat Bordhi designed for the Duets series of patterns that we're collaborating with Mountain Colors on. Could they be any cuter?!

The model shown is knit in Lorna's Laces Gold Hill and Mountain Colors Wilderness. There will be 5 other color combo's:

LL Mixed Berries & MC Winter Sky
LL Sassy Stripe & MC Sun River
LL Tahoe & MC Mountain Tango
LL Rainbow & MC Meadow
LL Iris Garden & MC Wildflower


We'll start shipping them on Monday, May 5th so they should be in shops by the end of next week. You can check with your LYS to see if they have them coming.

Color Series

A few weeks back a very popular blogger, Grumperina, had been showing us how to make stripes in socks without jogs using four shades of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock and a spiraling technique. Even though there were lots of pictures, I had trouble envisioning how it would work, but once I put yarn on needles it all made sense. Very cool! I am a sucker for the technical side of knitting.

I thought the colors she was working with looked very nice together, so I contacted her and asked if she'd like a special Grumperina colorway. She said YES! And a new colorway was born. It was a huge success and we've been dyeing like crazy for Birds 'n Yarn to keep up with the demand.

I got to thinking that it might be fun to collaborate with a bunch of bloggers on colorways and turn it into a series. I've contacted three or four and they all said yes! My scheme is to bring a new one out on the 15th of the month starting in July or thereabouts.

Sound good?

I have several bloggers in mind that I'm planning to contact about getting involved, but I'd love to hear who some of your favorites are.

Naked Face

I suppose it is in bad form to scream (just a little) upon seeing one's husband after a long day at work. I did just that yesterday. It wasn't really my fault though. He shaved. I have never seem him without a beard or goatee and we've been married twelve years. A little warning would have been nice.

I sent off a check to Living Beyond Breast Cancer today. I was a little late getting it out this time, I usually try to do it as soon as I close the books each quarter.

One of the nice things about these donations is being able to do them in honor of someone. The woman who owns Millea Furnishings, Anna, is a survivor. She used to be in the studio right across from us until she moved to St. Louis. We are both early birds so we would have coffee together most mornings before we started in on our workdays. St. Louis is where her family is, and the move made sense, but I sure do miss her.

A Fond Farewell

With a very heavy heart, I wrote Becca's last paycheck today. She'd been with Lorna's Laces since the fall of 2004. She is already sorely missed.

Becca has been working on her masters degree for the past couple of years. She's doing her work in gerontology and has another semester of classes and then her thesis to go. She decided to leave Lorna's Laces because she wanted to have some experience in her field under her belt before she finished with school.

Before she left, she designed a colorway for Jimmy Beans Wool's series of limited edition colors. It will be available starting May 1. She sent a short message to go along with it.

Leaving Lorna's Laces is bittersweet for me. It is hard to leave an environment that has become like a home to me. With the good friends, the bright colors, the dance parties and lots of memories it is hard to believe that leaving is the best option. But, sometimes you have to jump into change with both feet and trust that you will land safely. So, thank you to Beth and everyone else at Lorna's for nurturing me (and putting up with me) for the past three and a half years. I hope that you all like the color that I created, and I hope that it encourages you to jump into change with both feet.
Lots of love,
Becca

I am honored to have worked with her for as long as I did. Good luck Becca!