Monthly Archives: September 2013

What I (wish I was) Reading Now

I haven’t had much time to read in the past few weeks but I have a stack of new books on my bedside table and in my Kindle that I can’t wait to get to.

It's All Good

It’s All Good: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great *

Okay, don’t hate. I am not a huge Gwynnie fan by any definition. Yes, she is pretentious. But I’m trying to eat mostly whole foods these days and this book has some kick ass recipes. The Salmon with Sriracha Sauce and Lime is a great recipe from the book that you can try for free, but there are many others I want to try.

Superfood Kitchen Superfood SmoothiesIn the same vein, I am pretty excited about these two books, Superfood Kitchen and  Superfood Smoothies. Author Julie Morris’s recipes are packed with nutrient dense “super foods” that are busting with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytonutrients. You probably don’t have acai berry powder or cacao nibs in your pantry, but all of the super foods are available online, most of them from Amazon.

Extra Virginity

Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil

Before we get away from food entirely, Extra Virginity is probably my favorite book I’ve read this year. My friend Suzy Q told me about this book a couple years ago but I have only just started it. I know a non-fiction book about Olive Oil probably doesn’t sound un-put-down-able but this one totally is. It will completely change the way you think about this pantry staple.

Raven Black b Ann Cleeves

Raven Black: Book One of the Shetland Island Quartet (Shetland Island Thrillers)

I haven’t started the Shetland Island Quartet yet but I cannot wait! Mystery! Sheep! Scottish Islands! What’s not to like? Also, there are three more books in the series!

Pilgrim's Wildreness

Okay, this one is a little weird, (and there may be some triggers for some people). I don’t even know how to begin to describe this non-fiction book so I am going to cheat and quote from the Booklist review by Dane Carr:

“This strong work of reportage starts in 2002, when Papa Pilgrim, his wife, and 14 kids buy a 420-acre mining claim embedded in Alaska’s Wrangell–St. Elias National Park. Papa bulldozes a 13-mile road through the park to tiny McCarthy, and land-rights groups stick with the Pilgrims even when it is revealed that Papa is Robert Hale, born and raised in upper-class Fort Worth. Hale was the only witness when his pregnant high-school girlfriend, daughter of future governor John Connally, shot herself in the back of the head with a fingerprint-free shotgun. Hale’s life brimmed with bizarre murkiness—named in an FBI file on JFK; his mother helping Lee Harvey Oswald get work; squatting for 20 years on Jack Nicholson’s New Mexico ranch; and hints of a dinner with Charles Manson. In Alaska, it turns out that for decades Hale has used physical, mental, and sexual abuse to brainwash his whole family. His intriguing past crumbles in comparison to his excruciating cruelty and to the inspiring grace and strength of his children.”

What are you reading now?

*All the links to Amazon on this blog are affiliate links. When you make your purchase via a JMF affiliate link, we earn money which is donated to Heifer International each year in December in the name of our blog readers. So you may think you’re only buying a book, but really, you’re buying a water buffalo or maybe a flock of sheep and a llama.

Our New Website is Coming

With our shop finally settled in from rearranging the shop and getting ready for fall, we're finally ready to get the new website launched.

Why the big deal?
We're changing who's hosting the website to make it more aesthetically pleasing and user-friend for all.  No run-around to try and find the color or yarn or even the shopping cart.  When we finally "push the button" to make the switch, the internet will need to catch up.  That means the site will be down for about 24 hours and so will email communications (hence, trying to push this out as far as possible).

What will change?
  • The look and feel of the site - It's been set up to have a more boutique atmosphere online!
  • Promotions and rewards are much easier to administer - That means, no more manual gift certificates, you will have the choice to have it emailed to your recipient or even a physical mailed to them!  There's also a feature that will allow us to carry over the customer rewards that we offer in store to be offered online (again, no manual calculations).
  • Some items will be available for purchase via Facebook - If we do a deal of the day or a limited time promotion, it's available to purchase right from the Facebook social store.  We can select those items and change them as frequently as possible.
  • Consignment items can be sold via Facebook or the website - Believe it or not, the previous website solution didn't allow us to list products on an "ad-hoc" basis.  So consignment items or products exclusive to Midwest Yarn couldn't be added.  That's all gonna change and it's awesome!
What will NOT change?
  • No worries, we wanted to make this transition seamless, so domain/URL (www.midwestyarn.com) will stay the same.
  • Email addresses will stay the same.
  • Our dedication to customer service will continue to exceed expectations. 
  • Paypal will continue to be our main payment portal.  You don't need a Paypal account and you would be able to pay by any method of payment that Paypal accepts with the same information and transaction protection that you'd get with any other secure payment system.  (We use Paypal, because they offer both customer and business protection and they also have wonderful customer service)
    Other things you may notice
    • New items will "go live" much faster (because it's easier to post them)!
    • A few sections may not have any products listed yet, because we're still working on getting them functional, inventoried, or working on a good way to make them available (free patterns, books, and needles/hooks/accessories fall into that category, but we'll let you know when they're available).   
    If you have any questions, make sure to send a message on Facebook (so the email doesn't get lost in cyberspace when the switch gets made) or give us a call at the shop during shop hours.

    Enjoy!

    Packed!



    All packed up!  I'm scaring myself...I feel so organized.  

    Last Friday my back decided to act up again.  I was a little concerned but decided to just do all I could do to fix it.  I had (have) enough pots for both the upcoming shows so I only needed to do a couple of firings...In the last 6 days I have gone to my massage therapist twice and the chiropractor twice.  I've been SO good about avoiding too much lifting.  I even set each empty bin in the back of my truck and loaded it there and slid it into place. Tomorrow my wonderful friend Linda is going along with me to set up at the festival and help with the heavy lifting.  I've never set up the day before the weekend before.  It sure will make Saturday morning that much easier!

    So if you are coming to the Shenandoah Fiber Festival in Berryville this weekend look for me!  I'm booth number 12 in the Lion's Pavillion.  The weather is going to be fantastic!


    Tyrian Loop, Knitscene Winter 2013

    Tyrian Loop is a lace beaded loop that was just published in Knitscene Winter 2013!  I'm really happy to be included in this issue along with two of my super designer friends, Dilettant Knits with her lovely pattern, Black Cherry Pullover and Rock & Purl was the featured designer with several patterns, Stereo Mittens, Hi-Fi Pullover, and Victor Shawl!

    Here's my own photo of the loop focusing on texture...


    And from the Knitscene site...

    copyright Knitscene/Harper Point, 2013

    A bit about the Tyrian Loop:
    It comes in two sizes 48 (21 1/2)” circumference and 7 (10)” tall; shown in size 48”
    Yarn 
    Malabrigo Arroyo (100% superwash merino; 335 yd 305 m/100 g): #872 purpuras, 1 skein 
    Gauge
    21 sts and 38 rows = 4” in Geometric Lace patt 
    Tools 
    • Size 4 (3.5 mm): 32 (16)” circular (cir) needle 
    • Size 10 (0.75 mm) steel crochet hook 
    • Marker (m) 
    • Tapestry needle 
    • 180 (112) 4 to 4.5 mm Rocaille beads with silver centers

    This loop (or cowl) has a fun geometric lace pattern, uses an i-cord as a foundation and bind-off, and includes beads that add eye-catching pop.


    And, just a bit of pride in my pals' work...

    Dilettant Knits, Black Cherry Pullover

    copyright Knitscene/Harper Point, 2013


    Rock and Purl, Featured Designer in the issue designed a whopping 4 projects for this issue...

    Stereo Mittens
    copyright Knitscene/Harper Point, 2013
    Hi-Fi Pullover
    copyright Knitscene/Harper Point, 2013
    Victor Shawl
    copyright Knitscene/Harper Point, 2013
    and Quadraphonic Cardigan
    copyright Knitscene/Harper Point, 2013


    Peaceful Reflection …

    DSC_0049

    Grounds For Sculpture – Hamilton, New Jersey

    - by Joan -


    Thoughts of Yarn and Hay

    Sorry that posting on the blog has been so light this week. As you can imagine, we are up to our eyebrows in yarn shipping right now.

    Drowning in Yarn

    It’s not quiet as easy as just sticking the yarn in an envelope. Each skein has to be tagged, and before that can happen, each tag has to be strung. It turns out that the awesome tags we bought don’t come with the strings in them. That may not sound like a big deal, but multiply a little deal x 7500 skeins and you’ve got a big deal. (That’s The Shepherd & The Shearer plus our Cormo CSA Shares and our Colored Flock shares.)

    DSC_1375

    Although we’ve be at this for a week now, the giant mountain of yarn in Amy’s house doesn’t seem to be diminishing. And can I just take a moment to say that Amy and Paul have been AMAZING about the fact that we have taken over their house, their children, their friends and their lives. Two more gracious people have never lived.

     

    DSC_1380

    Yesterday, we have a little break from the monotony when Lucas and Emily- the farmers who we buy our hay from- came by with a truck load.

    DSC_1378

    Looking at the hay, I got a little teary thinking about how much hay and how much effort had gone into growing the wool that we were tagging indoors.

    DSC_1389

    It changed the way I think about those giant bales. Now when I look at them, I think about next season’s yarn, and all the warm sweaters, scarves, hats and mittens it will become. That hay represents so many hours of joyful knitting and so many seasons of comfort.

    This world really is a magical place.

    Pumpkin Answers …

    My creation

    My creation

    My creation

    My creation

    (** To update the above answer ….

    according to the Guinness World Records the world’s heaviest pumpkin was grown in 2011 in Canada and weighed 1,818lb 5 oz)


    Best or Favorite?

    btt button

    Are “best” and “favorite” the same thing? If someone asked you “What’s the best book you ever read?” would the answer be the same as for “What’s your favorite?”

    Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!


    Book brief: Night Film

    Night.filmMarisha Pessl's sophomore novel, Night Film,  is a hot ticket; I had to keep it hostage from the library to finish it, and my $1.50 in fines for the nearly three extra weeks was more than worth the book's wild ride. I loved being the first one to check it out, in its first week of publication, and indeed there was a hold on it when I turned it in today (complete with the review from NYTimes Book Review I'd clipped one Sunday while I had the book). At first, I feared that the tale might be too creepy; horror is not my genre, but I can enjoy a mystery. Night Film proved to be a psychological thriller, and I read it in big gulps, sailing through a dozen tiny chapters at a sitting. (There are more than a hundred chapters in its 624 pages.) Its innovation is the use of reproduced (fictional, but with permissions) web pages, magazine clippings, and records, which I found effective in pulling me in and giving a feel of primary-source material. Apparently, there is also a digital component, but I decided not to go down that rabbit hole in the wake of my recent iOS7 update. One may be able to access the "real" Cordovite Blackboards, but I don't want to. While I recall really enjoying Pessl's first book, Special Topics in Calamity Physics (2006), I don't remember it all that well. My sense is that book was more "literary" in both style and content; I wasn't dazzled by the writing in Night Film, nor was I put off by it in any way. Mostly the story compelled me forward, maybe because I'm a film fan, or because I love New York, or because Scott's dogged pursuit of the truth captured me. Pessl has crafted another amazingly inventive tale.

    Superlatives: Character I'd most like to hang with: Nora. Character I'd most like to hear more from: Inez Gallo. Most honest character: Nora. Most caricatured character: Marlowe Hughes. Most throwaway character: none. 

    From the publisher's page

    On a damp October night, beautiful young Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley’s life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive cult-horror-film director Stanislas Cordova—a man who hasn’t been seen in public for more than thirty years.
    For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence. Though much has been written about Cordova’s dark and unsettling films, very little is known about the man himself.
    Driven by revenge, curiosity, and a need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova’s eerie, hypnotic world.
    The last time he got close to exposing the director, McGrath lost his marriage and his career. This time he might lose even more.

    Pattern Ideas for Share Yarn – The Everything But the Sweater Post!

    Hello friends! It’s pattern-browsing-addicted Sarah again! This year’s CSA yarn is in the process of being shipped, so I’ve been thinking and dreaming about what I might make (I bet you have, too)! Today’s post is full of pattern suggestions for non-sweater things that you might like to make from your Juniper Moon yarn share. (Looking for sweater pattern suggestions? Cardigans here and pullovers here!)

    Maybe you have enough sweaters in your closet, maybe you just like making accessories, or maybe your home could use some wooly pep! I’m also including some projects requiring less yardage today, for those of you who might have half shares, or anyone who wants to spread the share yarn goodness around instead of making one big project. Hopefully there’s something in this list that sparks your interest!

    Let’s start out closest to sweater-land. Maybe you like garments, but want something quicker to make. How about a vest? There are some gorgeous vest patterns out there, and vests can be a great gateway to sweaters for nervous knitters.

    Something simple like Bracken in DK by Katya Frankel would really let share yarn shine. I can totally picture it in coloured share yarn, too!

    Bracken

    Julliana Lund’s worsted weight Eria Vest is simple, too, but has some memorable details – like the cowl neck and faux-buttoned sides!

    Eria

    If you’d prefer a more detailed vest, Alicia Plummer’s Splitstone Vest (in worsted weight) has some lovely cables.

    Splitstone

    “Give me even MORE cables!” you say – done!! Debbie Bliss’ Catriona, in worsted weight, is a total stunner.

    Catriona

    If you’d rather make an accessory out of your share yarn, there are some gorgeous options. The Kouyou shawl, in worsted, by Angela Tong, would look great in any of this year’s share yarn colourways.

    Kouyou

    If you’re into lace, maybe the Stockholm Scarf by Julie (knittedblissJC) will tempt you! In DK weight, it would make great use of a half share.

    Stockholm Scarf

    Or, with cables AND lace, Kirsten Kapur’s Lispenard cowl in DK weight would be really fun to knit – and keep you warm!

    Lispenard

    How about something a little bit unexpected? I would love to have Norah Gaughan’s cabled, worsted weight Dickson skirt in my closet.

    Dickson

    What’s that? You’re feeling really adventurous and bold? How about some amazing shorts? Katie Canavan’s Bombshell shorts in DK weight are completely unforgettable, aren’t they?

    Bombshell Shorts

    There may be some knitters who would prefer not to make a garment at all. If that’s you, I bet the Snap, Crackle, and Pop pillow covers (worsted weight) by Lindsay Ingram would be right up your alley!

    Snap, Crackle, and Pop

    Smaller blanket patterns would also be a lovely way to make sure your share yarn has a long life – and is seen and enjoyed by many people.

    In worsted weight, Tanis Lavallee’s Smooth Sailing throw would look great in any living room.

    Smooth Sailing

    In DK weight, the Heirloom throw by Madeleintosh is equally lovely!

    Heirloom

    I wonder if some of you are already thinking about holiday gift giving. Perhaps something for the children in your lives? With a half share you could *almost* make one each of Ysolda Teague’s adorable stuffed animals – Elijah, Sophie, and Otto! All in DK weight.

    Elijah

    Sophie

    Otto

    Actually, I can think of a lot of adults who’d be thrilled to get one of those lovely knitted friends as a gift, too!

    Whatever you choose to knit with your share yarn, enjoy it. For me, there’s just nothing like creating something with yarn that I know came from happy, well-cared for sheep!

     

    Now that it’s fall, Sarah eats oatmeal and cinnamon toast for breakfast, snuggles her cat, and piles on the handknits every chance she gets. She blogs now, too!