Thursday, April 24, 2008

Seen a play

Hello.

I had a nice weekend (I can't believe it's already Thursday!).
We went to see a play, Pitman Painters by Lee Hall, who also did Billy Elliot. It's about a group of coal miners from Ashington (not far from Newcastle) in the 1930s-40s when coal miners had very little formal education and largely started in the coal mines at age 11. A group of them started off with an art appreciation course and end up as painters.

The acting as so-so, but I thought they did a great job with the accents.

The theatre was very interesting, it's tiny, about 150 people, 50 in the balcony, 100 downstairs, with the first 50 seats placed around tables so that people can have a drink while they watch the play.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Meet David B Adams, (hand-turned needles)

If you've admired David B. Adams, and the needles and crochet hooks he
makes (like his double sided hooks), we are going to showcase him and
his work on Saturday, April 19 (tomorrow!), from 2 to 5 pm.

Come and meet David, see the woods he has and designs he has
been creating, and maybe treat yourself to one of his beautiful
crochet hooks or knitting needles. His needles come in a variety of
sizes, woods, and prices. He also makes them to order. We hope you'll
stop in and say hi.

Date: Saturday, April 19
Time: 2 to 5 pm
Place: That Yarn Store
5028 Eagle Rock Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90041
www.thatyarnstore. com
(323) 256-9276

Stitch n Bitch books (and Denise Needle Set) are in

Hi.

We've received a new shipment of:
Denise Needle Set (what I'm currently using, it's very handy as it
has needle sizes 5-15 in one handy kit. I bought it for a gift for
Jessamy, but it turns out that it was really something I had wanted)
Stitch 'n Bitch: Handbook
Stitch 'n Bitch: Nation
Stitch 'n Bitch: Happy Hooker (it's all about crochet)
and the newest of the group, Son of Stitch 'n Bitch: 45 Projects to
Knit and Crochet for Men


In the last newsletter I said we were not accepting requests for a
movie, it was a typo (I had proofread the rest of the email, but sadly
not that part), I meant we are now accepting requests for the movie.
What a difference that letter makes. The movie (April 25) will start
at 7:30.


The dates for Yarn: Start to Finish were incorrect in the last
newsletter, it is really April 18, 23, and 25.


We now have a good number of vendors for the May 10th (1-5pm) craft
fair. It's looking like it will be an eclectic and interesting bunch.
I hope you can come (and pass the word).


We're expecting more yarn by the end of next week, if not before. Woho.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Live Music Tonight

Live Music featuring Call And Response

April 12, 5-7

On Saturday, April 12th, from 5-7pm, Dottie Grossman and Michael
Vlatkovich, also known as "Call And Response" will be performing at
That Yarn Store. The concert is free, although donations are accepted.

Critically acclaimed, the duo has performed across the US, and
routinely opens the Potter Valley Jazz Festival. Though music and
poetry may have beatnik associations for some, rest assured that this
is no bongos and beret affair. Grossman's poetry covers a wide range
of emotional territory, and Vlatkovich is always right there with her,
whether to reinforce the sentiment of the poem, or completely turn it
on its head. It is not uncommon to be close to tears at the end of a
poem, and rolling with laughter during the response... and vice versa!

Friday, April 11, 2008

Happy Hour Tonight

7pm.

Don't know what libation has been chosen, but does it really matter?

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

New yarn

Rio de la Plata (this stuff is great, we were afraid for a while there as they were having some sort of stock issues, but I guess it was resolved because we have more!)

Encore Worsted (A free pattern online:
plymouthyarn.com/index.php?nav=cPatterns.freePatterns&pattern_id=000015)

Encore Colorspun (very popular, there are some socks on our voila page, http://thatyarnstore.com/voila.html made with encore colorspun. You can find a free pattern for socks (not the same socks) at this address:
plymouthyarn.com/index.php?nav=cPatterns.freePatterns)

Alpaca Grande (everyone's favorite, and has been selling like hotcakes according to David (maybe we should get into the hotcakes business))

Suri Merino (a personal favorite, and coincidentally I used some this weekend to make a felted ipod cozy (yes, I did pack Suri Merino in my suitcase))

Suri Merino Paint (I think this is a new one for us (at least I haven't seen it), but I just looked at the Plymouth website at the yarns, and my mouth is watering, I'm guessing it will sell also like
pancakes(?))

Baby Alpaca Worsted Paint (dito the description above)

Alpaca Boucle (it's been so long since we've carried this that it's possible it might be new to you. We used to have a stripey hat made from it in the store somewhere, you might have seen it. Another
pattern: plymouthyarn.com/index.php?nav=cPatterns.freePatterns&pattern_id=000004)

Boku (Self striping goodness)

Happy feet (new spring yarn from Plymouth. Multicolored sock yarn. David says it was recommended by Suzanne. I don't know if that last comment was supposed to go in the newsletter or not, but there it is anyway! Just looked at it on the Plymouth site, it's a 90% Superwash Merino Wool, 10% Nylon, in nice colors, including men's colors (as Jessamy pointed out in a deep voice) though I don't know if the guy colors were ordered or not, but you would always place a special order with us)

Royal Bamboo (speaks for itself)

Royal Llama silk (You didn't know that Llamas made cocoons, did you? 60% Llama, 40% Silk)

Ms?

I just got a call from an employer who had my CRB (criminal background check) form returned because I failed to put down my previous surname. Yes, I was as confused as you are. Apparently Ms means to some people widowed or divorced.

If I had been in the room by myself when I took the call I might have thought that it was just me being ignorant about the actual meaning of the term Ms. Fortunately Jessamy, who knows everything, was sitting next to me and she was as amazed as I was. We decided that it was probably just another example, like the term "you all right," where the British and American language differ.

So I looked it up online (how I love online), and found an article about the term Ms from The Guardian, a UK newspaper. The guardian seems to agree with me, that the term means I decline to state my marital status.

Since both the woman who called me and the CRB people who returned the form both believed it meant widowed or divorced I looked some more, and saw the question "Meaning of Ms, Mrs, Miss?" on
yahoo answers. Most seemed to think that it mean "declined to state" but there were a few who said widowed or divorced.

Oh well, seems like I'll either have to ask everyone who wants to know what their personal interpretation of Ms. is or write in longhand across all the tick boxes the words "None of your business". Sadly I'm not that antagonistic and I'll just go with Miss from now on.

Saturday, April 05, 2008

For the love of grafting


cat
Originally uploaded by atheame
I was intending on making a little black dress for etsy. It started off as planned, but I started intently listening to a radio program (oddly enough I can't remember what I was listening to) and forgot to do the neck line at the right point, then ended up grafting the opening without really realizing what I was doing, I'm guessing this was because three of my 5 other ipod cozies had grafting on it. In any case, instead of just ripping it out I made it into a cat credit card pouch instead.

I love grafting! It's almost as fascinating as fixing drop stitches, when knitting stops becoming manipulations of tools and yarn, and becomes a language.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

It's April!

April is looking busy so far.

Today was spent in a temp job, lots of counting and lifting.

Yesterday I started my script for Script Frenzy, a "competition" (there's no money involved, just a challenge) of doing 100 pages of a script during the 30 days in April, one of the rules is that you can't start writing any of the story before April 1st. I have 5 pages so far, which isn't much considering I have been thinking about the story for the last week.

Instead, I spent a good chunk of yesterday starting an etsy account, well, two actually, to sell the iPod cozies I've been making.

And now it's back to the script!

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

More april events!

A few updates:

If you've admired David B Adams, and the needles and
crochet hooks he makes, we are going to showcase him and his
work on Saturday, April 19, from 2 to 5 pm.
Come and meet David, see the woods and designs he has been
working on, and maybe treat yourself to one of his beautiful
creations.

A personal note from Thea: His hooks are truly amazing! I have a j/k double ended one, and I use it whenever I can.

*****************

We are going to be getting new yarn in soon. Cotton, linen,
sheep, alpaca, dinosaur, and llama yarns.
They will arrive when the mills send it, and when
the UPS gods will it so.

*****************

Movie Night on April 25!
En popcorn veritas.

*****************

Happy hour has moved, this month it's:
April 11, at 7:00 Libation yet to be determined.

*****************

Julia Hiser will be teaching a two-part class covering all your
sock-knitting basics - Heels, toes, the whole-shebang!
First-timers and the newly sock-conscious all welcome.
Learn to make a pair of lovely foot-coverings or improve upon
your techniques.
Items required: Set of size #3 double-pointed needles and
Sport weight yarn.
Bring them, or buy them here.
Wednesday, April 9, 12 pm
Thurs day, April 10, 7 pm
$45