Second Time Around - This Time in a Heat Wave!

Gathering Yarns is the featured yarn this week. Yes, I know it's sweltering out. Yes, I know the majority of their products are wool. I also know I only have two more opportunities in this Farmer's market season to showcase ALL my yarns for you before they are only available through the online store. Take advantage and strike while the iron is hot (as the air outside) so that you don't have to pay shipping this winter. Besides Gathering Yarns, there are also a few offerings from other yarn companies such as Zen Yarn Garden, Sweet Paprika, Fibra Natura, and Ancient Arts.

As you can see from the list to the right, I have everything from lace weight to bulky on the shelves this week. Fibers range from Flax to Bamboo to 16 micron Merino! I have worked with a few of the yarns and I'm sure I'll work with a few more if you leave them in my possession for too much longer. Help a girl out! I already have too many projects on the go! 😉

written by Lori, thankful TCL owner, who is happy to say she didn't die from heat stroke while rearranging the 'furniture' this weekend. Even the house electrical system didn't want to support the RV AC! The ice water and teeny tiny USB powered fan sufficed. YAY!

 

This Week - a Hybrid!

This week I get to try something a little different with the pop up store. So far, I've been indoors with my kits in Stettler and outdoors with the full service rv in Wetaskiwin. This Thursday I get to set up my indoor layout outside under the awning of the rv at Leduc. Thankfully, that means I won't have to carry everything as far as I normally do and it will be nice to be out in the fresh air with everyone else.

I don't mind making up the kits and selling my patterns and yarn that way but the people who visit the markets where I do that to fit into the 'handmade' 80% miss the weekly changes in the retail setup in the rv.

I mean, just look at the needle and hook selection alone!

For those of you who will be joining me at Wetaskiwin (on Wednesday) and Red Deer (on Saturday), the offerings will include cotton, cotton blends, bamboo blends, silk and most of the Berroco lines I have in stock. And let me tell you how happy I am that I have from Saturday afternoon to Tuesday morning to swap out the products every week! I got a head start this week because I still had Friday and Saturday free. I won't be so fortunate for the next few months.

written by Lori, sleepy TCL owner, who hopes to see you at one of the four locations this week.

Nuna, Nuna, Nuna - Isn't That Fun to Say!

I am in a quandary.

A few weeks ago we got Nuna in. Nuna from Mirasol is a sportweight yarn made with 40% merino wool, 40% mulberry silk, and 20% bamboo viscose.

This stuff is gorgeous darling (say that with Barbra Streisand's voice). The colours are brilliant, vivid, jewel tones. Not neon. There's a definite sheen to it. And it's soft. It is so soft. It is throw it in a big pile and sink into it, dreaming of cloud puffs on warm sunny days with gentle breezes soft.

So what is my quandary? I can't decide on a colour.

Do I pick one of each and make a gradient shawl using that technique where you knit with two strands and gradually blend them along.

Or do I pick one exquisite colour and make a beautiful lace scarf? Except - which colour do I pick? I can see all of these colours in a beautiful lace scarf.

L-R: Lapis, Emerald Jade, Gold Rush, Campfire,
Cherry Bomb, Orchid - $12.00 175 m

Look! Not an ugly colour to be found! Do you see my problem here? First I decide on the green. Then I go "no blue!" Then I think, but that red is gorgeous! And even that yellow or that orange would make a lovely, colourful, lace scarf - and let's not forget that pretty pink. 

I can't decide! Other women have definite colours that they love, and know which colours work for them and they are faithful to those colours, But me, when it comes to colour, I can't be faithful..

I am colour promiscuous.

There I said it. I am Anna and I am colour promiscuous. 

Oh sure, it started innocently enough. I gravitate to what I call peacock colours - blue, green, purple, but I also have a great love for reds and pinks, and even for neutral shades like browns and grays. 

Then I started working here.

I am surrounded by colour! It entices me. It wrapped its evil, elegant, tendrils around me and pretty soon I was swooning over orange. Orange! I was never a huge fan of orange, believing it was fine for oranges and carrots but not much for anything else. And yet - I want to drink in some of those oranges. And yellow! I have embraced yellow again, a colour that was a childhood favourite but lost it's way because it got muddied up by other colors. But now? Show me a brilliant sunshine yellow that makes me long for warm sunny days, or a soft delicate butter and I'm toast for that butter.

As long as I work here, colour is my drug and there is no known recovery. I will have to revel in colour and repent later. 

As for the Nuna, sigh. What shall I do? What shall I do?

Posted by Anna Maria Junus (happy employee who is also colour promiscuous and admits it)