Saturday, November 28, 2009

Save 20% Off Your Entire JLYarnworks.com Order!

From now through Monday, save 20% off your entire purchase at JLYarnworks.com. Just use coupon code THANKS when checking out.

Offer only good on in-stock merchandise and does not apply to custom orders.

Happy shopping!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Shhhh....No Peeking!


Today I am scoping out potential Christmas gifts online. Trying desperately to hide the screen whenever Miss Kate rounds the corner. I thought the above picture said it all very well!
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I can't believe it's only November 25, and our Christmas pictures are done already! I'm actually feeling semi-prepared this year! Christmas pics are done, Christmas knitting has commenced, and I've even managed to do a little shopping. Only a bazillion other things to do in the next month, but today, we're not thinking about those things. You can't panic about Christmas until after the turkey is cooked, right?
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Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Monday, November 23, 2009

And The Winners Are....

Congratulations!!!

BathNBeads
arizonaknitter
Retequilts
Knitcave1
amylane

You have won your choice of a free PDF copy of the Diamond Cable Fingerless Gloves or $5 off any of the Diamond Cable Fingerless Gloves Kit Options.

Please contact me with your email address and which prize you would like!

(Winners were determined using a Random Number Generator after assigning each entrant a number by listing them in Excel.)

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Fingerless Gloves Pattern Giveaway!


Welcome to JL Yarnworks' first giveaway!
Prize: a free copy of the PDF file pattern for the Diamond Cable Fingerless Gloves shown above. Retail price: $4.50 OR $5 off the one of the kits available.

Winners: 5 winners will be drawn randomly from entrants by logging users in an Excel file and using a random number generator to choose the 5 winners.

How to Enter:

1. RT the Twitter post that brought you here. Or, tweet this:
RT @jlyarnworks Knit Pattern Giveaway: Diamond Cable Fingerless Gloves. See blog post for how to enter. http://bit.ly/5geREz

2. Write up a quick blog post sharing this giveaway and linking to this blog post. Feel free to use the above picture in your post. Once your blog post is live, leave a message here with a link to your blog post.
3. Do both 1 and 2 and get two entries!

Deadline: Midnight Central Time Sunday night (November 22, 2009)

Winners will be announced on this blog and contacted on Monday, November 23, 2009.

Good luck everyone!!!

New Pattern And Kits Available Just In Time For Christmas!

A couple days ago I listed a new pattern in my Etsy store: Diamond Cable Fingerless Gloves.

The pattern is available as a PDF file that will be emailed to you within 24 hours of payment received.


This is also available as a hard copy pattern with 50g of yarn.


Or, if you're looking for the perfect holiday gift for your favorite knitter, we have kits that include a hard copy of the pattern, 50g of yarn, a fully-lined drawstring bag, 5" double-pointed needles, a cable-needle, and a set of stitch markers.





Later today, I'll be posting about a pattern-giveaway for Twitter users and bloggers! Watch for it!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Now Carrying 5" Double-Pointed Needles


I'm so excited! JLYarnworks now carries 5" DPNs sizes US 0-5.


Friday, November 13, 2009

Cards, Cards, and more Cards

Yesterday, I was feeling a bit under the weather. Just a cold. The sniffles. Just enough to not want to do much except curl up in my chair and watch television all day.

But you know me; my hands need to be doing something. So I continued the weekend's theme and created some more cards. I used tiny colorful crochet thread and made mini granny squares and adhered them to some pre-scored cards. I managed to churn out 16 of them (4 of each color).

I added those to the cards I made during my weekend getaway. Here are some little sheep gift tags. They still need a hole punched in them and some ribbon, but otherwise, they're done.

And when I saw this giraffe stamp, I just had to have it. As a knitter, I know how often we give scarves as gifts. Someone would have to have a mighty long neck to wear them all! ;)

Of course, sock monkeys have fast become the cornerstone of my business. So they get some time in the spotlight.



And some nice, simple sheep. Very country.


I made about 30 of each type. Currently, my cards are only available at shows. They make a nice addition to my product line and I do fairly well with them, even though I only make them a couple times a year and then stash them away. I've been toying with the idea of also offering them in my online stores, but I can't decide. Sell them individually like I do at my shows? ($2.75 for the smaller ones and $3.75 for the hand-knit and hand-crocheted ones.) Or sell them as sets or assortments? I find myself unable to answer these questions, so I end up just stashing them again for shows. At least if I only sell them at shows, I don't have to make them year-round. I absolutely love making them, but with all the other things I do (dyeing, beading, resin, sewing, etc.), there's just not a lot of me to go around. Welcome to my internal dialog. ;) What are your thoughts?
Today my oldest is off from school in observance of Veteran's Day. Our resident veteran went out last night and is now sleeping in, so I'm taking the girls out for some special Mom time. I hope you're able to squeeze in some quality time with your families today too. They make all the other stuff worthwhile!


Monday, November 09, 2009

A Much Needed Getaway

This past weekend was absolutely heavenly.

I had a huge blog post worked out in my head. But now that I'm here, I somehow feel that talking about it too much would take away the magic. So I'll let the pictures tell the tale.

The fields at sunrise.

This is us.


We are a wild and zany bunch.


But we also work hard. (Scrapbooking and other papercrafts.)



Finally, we were there for three sunsets....each different.


Can we go back next weekend? Please?

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Miss Kate's Sock

As I shared in my last post, Miss Kate (age 3) has been begging me to knit her a pair of socks. I needed a bit of a palate cleanser (as Kathleen Taylor would say), so I cast on over the weekend. Of course, I still need to make another. But Miss Kate is VERY excited. Can you tell?


Info:
-Yarn: Patons Stretch Socks [50g, 239 yards, 41% cotton/39% wool/13% nylon/7% elastic]
-Colorway: Sugar
-Needles: Size US1 DPNs
-Pattern: Yarn Harlot's Basic Sock Recipe from Knitting Rules! (easy peasy...quickly becoming my favorite for plain socks)

The first sock only weighs 0.5oz, so with a 1.75oz skein, I'll have plenty left over...just not enough left for another pair. Maybe socks for my new godbaby? We'll find out gender in December, so maybe! Though I suppose I should wrap up this pair before I get ahead of myself. ;)

Miss Kate is such a ham!

This, dear friends, is why I knit.

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Halloween Weekend

It's been quite a week at Chez Yarnworks. For the past 2 months I've been working on this new pattern and a corresponding kit.


Forgive the photo quality...it was a quickly cell phone picture. (Please disregard the random foot in the picture. At least now you know why I will never model my sock patterns. hehe.)

The pattern and kit were set for release today. But, sadly, ONE crucial item that will be included in the kit was misdelivered and cannot be retrieved. (Darn college boys who live in my old house!) So I need to reorder this item. My best guess is that it will all be ready to go in 2-3 weeks, depending on delivery speed. I will keep you posted. The kit, for those who are curious, will contain the pattern for the above fingerless gloves, enough hand-dyed yarn to make them, a drawstring bag, 5" double-pointed needles, a cable needle, and stitch markers. If you want to claim one now, feel free to email me and I will let you know when they're available for sale.

So after trying frantically to figure out a way to get these to market, I decided to take the weekend off and do some personal knitting. Something I haven't had a lot of time for lately.

Miss Kate has been asking for socks, so these will be for her. This is the third cuff. The first two didn't fit her honkin' feet. Hoping it goes faster now that I have the right size. I think if I'm diligent today, I can get the pair done. But, again, she has huge feet for a 3 year old, so I'm not making any promises!

Size 1 DPNs, 56 sts around...now they're a tad big I think, but 48 stitches wouldn't fit over her ankle. Wish me luck!
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And, what I'm sure you've all been waiting for. Halloween pics! Miss May was Tinkerbell and Miss Kate was a pink fairy princess.





Mr. Yarnworks helped them carve Jack-o-lanters Friday night. On the left is Miss Kate's design. A nice, friendly, smiling pumpkin.
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On the right is Miss May's pumpkin. A bit more to the Halloween theme...much like my old pumpkins looked when I was a kid.
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This is such a great town for trick-or-treating too. From the one family that sets up a haunted house to the retirement community where the seniors sit in a semi-circle and encourage the kids to take more...

It was also beautiful weather for South Dakota in October. Lately we've had lots of rain and even snow. Last night was probably in the high 40s with very little wind. This was our street at 5:30pm.


Even the kids oohed and aahed at our sunset.



Geese flying south... A sign that it's not quite winter yet.


And a nice spooky moon to finish off our Halloween evening.