Finally taking time to update

Last night I had a wonderful evening. My daughter, hubby and good friends went down to Toronto to Hugh's Room for an evening of fine food and music. The food, as usual, was delicious. Daughter had a salmon dish (she's getting very adventurous these days!) and enjoyed it immensely. Then she had a chocolate dessert that appeared to be almost orgasmic. Me? I had a chicken linguine dish and pumpkin cheesecake. Probably not as delicious as my friend Irene makes, but since she hasn't shared with me yet I just can't say for certain.

The reason for the excursion? Tanglefoot was having a CD release concert. Our general rule of thumb is that if the band is playing at a venue within a three-hour drive from home, we attend. Whether there's a CD being released or not. The music is so much fun, the regular attendees also a lot of fun, and we just enjoy getting out to see the guys.

Last night was no exception. The band was amazing. The addition of the new violinist, Sandra, has added an entirely new level of energy and excitement. They played all 8 songs from the new CD, titled "Dance Like Fire," and the music is ... words fail me. I've loved every piece of music I've heard the band perform. Every piece. But the new songs? They take my breath away. The musical repertoire now includes a bluesy piece called "Hard Work," a thought-provoking piece called "For the Day," as well as some downright fun songs like "The Whiskey Trick" and Boot Soup." Of course, we purchased the CD and got autographs from everyone. (The keyboard player, Bryan Weirmier, also has released a CD which was purchased last night as well. Haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but I anticipate it will be enjoyed as thoroughly as Rob Ritchie's and Terry Young's CDs.)

Now that things have settled down nicely with the shop, I have imposed a schedule on myself. In the mornings, I must do the book-work, organize myself, and do the little things on my shop to-do list. Like tidying up the desk area, getting my filing system set up, make up the next order(s) to be submitted. Busy work.

Afternoons? They are mine -- all mine! I get to play with the various yarns and wools, sketch out design ideas, try new colour combinations. It is the best part of my day.

Whilst unpacking and setting up the shop, I enjoyed looking at the alpaca yarns I brought in. One of my favourite yarns is a line called Atacama Alpaca--a fingering weight, hand-painted alpaca yarn. I have some in my stash at home, and plenty at the store. At home I'm considering making a Clapotis shawl ... but at work? Well, I found some little sheep buttons. See?They seemed to want to play with the purple colourway. And then there was this nice pattern in a book ... and it all came together nicely.

Here you see the very first display item knitted for my shop:


As mentioned previously, the yarn is Atacama Alpaca. The sweater is from the book Araucanian Moments, by designer Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton. The design is called Turehelm. I used 3 skeins of wool and 4mm needles.

The design itself is actually kind of neat. The lower back and lower fronts are knit up separately. Then stitches are cast on for the sleeve and knitted up, basically identical to the fronts. But at the shoulder area, you switch to an extended garter stitch pattern and continue. The pieces are then stitched together at the centre back and attached to the fronts. Rather ingenius, actually. The button band gets added, and viola! A sweater. Cute as the dancing sheep buttons!

Since blogger insisted on messing up my photo order, you'll just have to wait until the next post to see the other lovelies I've been working on. Suffice to say that this past week has been prolific.

See you soon!