This week's classes and events

Wednesday:
Kids Knitting/Crochet
Wednesday afternoons from 3-4pm.
Open to those just starting out and more experienced knitters who want
to learn new skills. $50 for 4 sessions, materials included. It's fun
and laid back. Classes also available Tuesdays 2-3pm and Fridays 3-4pm.

Yarn - Start to Finish
Begin with raw wool, and
finish with spun dyed yarn
made with your own hands
In 3 sessions, beginning
tomorrow, October 22 6:00
$80
Includes Oct 29th Spinning Class
call for details

Thursday:
Sewing Survival Skills
For men, or anyone who needs to know.
Learn to sew on buttons, easy repairs, etc
~Thursday, October 23 at 7pm~ or
~ Saturday, October 25 at 12:30 ~ $35

Friday:
Spanish Class
The first session will be held on
Friday, October 24, 2008 from 7-8:30 p.m.
The second session will be held on
Friday, November 7, 2008 from 7-8:30 p.m.

Cost per person is $20, with all proceeds to benefit the store.
And a tip jar for the teacher.

Study materials are provided at no additional
charge, and students are encouraged to take plenty of notes.

The material will be basic, every day Spanish to help folks get
by, and at least communicate with Spanish-speakers who may
not yet be fluent in English.

Teen Knitting
Teen Sit-n-Knit (free!) Fridays from 5-6:30pm.

Saturday:
If you like making socks, or would like to, we have something
of interest.
Sock Yarn Tasting of Skacel Yarns
Saturday October 25th, 2008.
It will run from 2 PM- 4ish.

A representative from Skacel will be there, so will sock yarn
and samples.
And if you'd like to hang out and share your own sock wisdom,
or need a bit of help with making socks this is your big chance.

Ongoing projects are still going

Still working on the Twist and Shout from knitty.

I wanted to have it finished by now, but I keep making mistakes, like not cabling or only cabling half a row.




















I've also finally started Jessamy's birthday present (her birthday was in September), it's a pencil case. I still have to do the zipper, which I'm not looking forward too. I've never sewn a zipper before and I attempted to do it last night, but it was late and I was sleepy and easily frustrated.

Two Things This Weekend

Saturday:

The Friends of That Yarn Store will hold a yard sale on Saturday, October 18, from 9-4pm at 4952 Vincent Ave. in Eagle Rock 90041. All proceeds will benefit our favorite LYS, That Yarn Store. Please donate items for sale - fyi, we're avoiding all clothing except for kids, vintage/retro, and high-end. Drop items off at 4952 Vincent Ave before 8am on the morning of, or at That Yarn Store sometime that week.If you can spare an hour or two to work the sale, that's great, too! Please contact Suzanne at sjbirder at roadrunner dot com or at 323-333-1630.

Tough economic times call for creative responses. Please help us keep this small, local business part of our community. Thanks!

and...

The music of Call and Response:
Saturday, October 18th, at 6:00 pm. Free
Dottie plays her music and Michael translates it into the language of trombone.

Decoupage Class today - decorating with paper

Yes, you heard me right, a Decoupage Class. Awesome isn't it.

Tuesday, October 14, 4:00 pm.$25

Learn this simple craft, perfect for decorating. Pick from a frame, or box or a flat square and we'll show you how to put together a cool, nifty design. Make mistakes, so that when you go home you have extra ideas on how to fix them. If you have any cool, light weight paper, please feel free to bring it in so we can add it to your works.

That Yarn Store
5028 Eagle Rock Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90041
www.thatyarnstore.com

Have we mentioned...

That we're having an open house.

Call it an excuse to hang out at the store at a later hour than usual, think of it as a time to ask Maggie some questions about her sewing classes, consider it as a time for people who haven't knit/crochet in a group to try it out.

Whatever way you want to think about it, it'll be here for you.

October 11th from 6-9 pm.

* See spinning demonstrations.

* Hear an explanation of hyperbolic crochet

* Meet our sewing teacher

* Learn about our classes

* Work on your projects on our comfy couches

Also,

Saturday Night Discount

Get 10% off on October 11, 7-10pm when you bring in the NELA artwalk map, http://www.nelaart.com/
For more information about the discount and to see a list of other businesses who are giving a discount please visit http://www.thatyarnstore.com

That Yarn Store
5028 Eagle Rock Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90041
(323) 256-9276
http://www.thatyarnstore.com

Sunday

Sunday was a nice clear day so Jessamy and I went walking.

We had just missed the great north run which is a big annual marathon, but that did mean that we could walk in the middle of the bridge without being hit.

Open House on October 11

Join That Yarn Store for an informal Open House on October 11th from 7-10.

How can my children learn a new craft? Is it easier to learn to knit or crochet? What's with the sewing machine?

Get your knitting, crochet, and sewing questions answered. The owners of That Yarn Store and their sewing teacher will be on hand to answer questions and give advice. You'll also hear an explanation of hyperbolic crochet geometry and see spinning demonstrations. And if you've ever wanted to crochet or knit in a group this is a great opportunity to try it out - we have comfy couches just for this purpose.

*See spinning demonstrations.
*Hear an explanation of hyperbolic crochet
*Meet our sewing teacher
*Learn about our classes
*Say hi to the owners
*Work on your projects on our comfy couches

End of Vacation

Vacation is officially over. I had my second day of temp work today, and Jessamy had her first full day of school.

I'm doing general clerical work. Jessamy has received two new conservation items to write about, so she's excited about that. But apparently they doing some crazy cuts in the department, including not having any secretary on site, so even though they have a 9am class, their passes won't let them into the building until 9. Normally the secretary would let them in, now a teacher (called tutors) might have to answer the doorbell.

Any social networks we aren't on?

We now have a facebook page -
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Los-Angeles-CA/That-Yarn-Store/25781369442

I've also signed up with Twitter (soon we will have something on all kinds of social networking sites...). We are on there under this email, that.yarnstore@gmail.com. So now you can find out how I spend my time on the computer...

Other social networking sites we are on: myspace http://myspace.com/thatyarnstore
Ravelry: Thea's username is fibrous, we also have a group
And I think that.yarnstore@gmail.com is on linkedin.
and Gina has started a photo album, for us on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/groups/925206@N22/

Soda Pop night and first kids class tomorrow

Soda Pop Night
For our next happy hour we will be drinking soda pop!
September 26th, 7pm. Free
Stop by Galcos (over on 5702 York) beforehand (I think they close at 6:30) and pick up a few bottles of something interesting to share. John, the owner, is always happy to give suggestions.

Starting September 26, we will have afternoon kid's classes every
Friday from 3 to 4 pm.
Starting October 14, we will have Tuesday afternoon classes
from 2 to 3.

$50 for 4 classes, which includes materials for projects we will
be teaching.

On Fridays teens can come in to sit and knit from 5 to 6:30.
Feel free to bring muchies and music. No charge.

Houses made of brick

We live in a neighborhood with row after row of brick houses.

Our hallway has a door with old and bulging stained glass.

Our bedroom was probably once a living room. It has a large, now boarded up, fireplace with tiles along the edge and this on the ceiling.

The living room therefore must have once been the bedroom. We like the wallpaper.

The bathroom is bigger than the kitchen (sorry, no pics of bathroom, that would just be weird)

And here's the washing machine, which is the same size as the last two places where I've lived, so this might be the normal size.

Twist and Shout in purple

Naw, I wasn't the clever one who thought of Twist and Shout for a cable sweater, it's the real name of the pattern from knitty.com. It's so weird having something sizeable to show for a few hours of work. It's been so long since I've done something from an actual pattern and therefore did not require me ripping half the thing out like the argyle sweater that I left at home because I needed a nice long break from it. It's also a bit weird working on size 7 needles - the past couple of projects have been socks with #2s, though neither of the last two socks projects are done yet either, the pirate socks need a complete redesign, I actually left them at home too, and I got bored with the other cable socks.

Anyway, I'm of course not entirely happy with it, my tension is wonky and the yarn isn't perfect for it, but I had already ordered the yarn for another project, a sweater in interweave, and decide to make this one instead. Hopefully the tension will even out with blocking. But, all is not lost and I think it will still look nice. If you do make this sweater though, don't use a DK! I would go with Suri Merino instead.

Kids Knitting Classes

Kids Knitting Classes
Ages 6-up
All levels welcome
$50 for 4 classes (includes all materials)

Fridays 3pm-4pm (starts Sept. 26)
Tuesdays 2pm-3pm (starts October 14) - take advantage
of LAUSD's early dismissal on Tuesdays!

Teen Sit-n-Knit -FREE! - Fridays 5pm-6:30pm

Pre-registration requested - contact
That Yarn Store
5028 Eagle Rock Boulevard, Los Angeles 90041
(one block south of Colorado)
phone: 323-256-9276
email: that.yarnstore@ gmail.com
www.thatyarnstore. com

Settled in

Well, almost. But we picked up all our stuff from one of Jessamy's classmates yesterday, and bought some other essentials today (decided not to get the bacon rack since we don't eat bacon, a frugal move on our part). Jessamy walked to the city centre, took her 30 minutes to walk, she's planning on walking to school when that starts in a week. I took the bus into the city. We had some nice shakes at a small shop. I had Lemon Curd, Jessamy got a Turkish Delight, I don't know how she made mine, but Jessamy's was a milkshake with some peices of Turkish Delight blended together.

If weather permits we hope to bike along part of Hadrians Wall next week...

Back across the pond

I've arrived safe. Very tired, but safe. The entertainment options on the plane this time wasn't so good. I ended up mainly watching part of Ms. Pettigrew in Spanish and playing one of thoes memory games (on the console) where you flip over cards and try to match them all. The apartment is big, but the neighbors are going to need some taking used to since we were spoiled in the last apartment and weren't sorrounded on all sides by ajoining walls.

Meet me at the fair

Hi.
Last Sunday I judges the men's knitting competition for the county fair. I'll be there again this Sunday to put together squares for Warm Up America. I'm not sure what time yet, but if you want to meet me there and hang out gice me a call at the store - (323) 256-9276 - on Saturday and I should know the time by then.
If you can't make it on Sunday, the fair has a knitting corner where you can come in at any time and knit.

Featured yarn - Encore

We're going to try and highlight a different yarn every two weeks, to coincide with the newsletter.
We'll be starting with the ever popular Encore.

Encore, made by Plymouth, is 75% acrylic and 25% wool. It's very popular for baby
blankets (washable), but it can be used for anything, Thea is currently working on her argyle shirt with (see the last blog psot). On the voila page of our website, you can see two projects made out of it - a blanket and some socks!

If you're wondering what to make, here's a free pattern from knitting pattern central for a no sew sweater using Encore.
http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/patterns/easy_no_sew_sweater.php

No Socks, no shirt, no done

I haven't gotten too far on my shirt as I keep noticing mistakes and have to rip a lot of it out.


But I have gotten to the arm pit area, so that's something.


I'm also working on a pair of socks for Noah for his birthday (in two weeks). It started off as an entrelac sock, but my brother tried it on and it was too small (I was only on the second row of triangles) so I ripped it out (the two of them actually since I try to make the two socks at once) and decided to do little cables instead because the entrelac was getting tedious.

For this sock I casted on 68 stitches, and as you can see it does diagonal stripes. At 52 stitches it did the normal self striping, which I wasn't expecting.

Hyperbolic Crochet tonight!

Tonight, at 6:00
Hyperbolic Crochet.
A lighter verson of our ususal
workshop. Come in and show
what you've done, or learn
how to make these blends
of yarn, art, math, and fun.

also this week:

Spin a Yarn.
Friday at 7:00
Come share a story, a poem,
a song, an editorial, or anything
that you'd like to share.

Slides and alpacas and bears oh my

I hope you had a nice weekend. My mother took my two brothers and me to Big Bear where we went on the alpine slide and Noah caught some trout at a trout pond. On Sunday I went to see alpacas at Twisted Lock in Sunland. The owners are super nice and spent two hours with us, showing us the ranch and the alpacas. We were able to feed them (if I remember correctly their sharp teeth are located at the back of their mouths, so there was no loss of fingers involved in this trip) and learned about the density of the fiber, and what makes a prize winning alpaca. Anne, who owns two alpacas and will be keeping hers at this ranch very soon, was kind enough to organize the visit. They will be having an open house type of night in late September, I'll post about that when they have more information on their site. I highly suggest it. The alpacas are really cute and adorable animals.