NEW COUNTED NEEDLEPOINT CLASS

I'm looking for counted cross stitchers who are looking for new horizons and needlepoint folks who are looking for an alternative to hand painted canvases. Class will meet on two consecutive Sunday afternoons from 1 - 3:30, January 30 and February 6. The class materials are $84.50, including your tacks and stretcher bars and the class fee is $25. Please stop in to see the class model in person. Other color ways are possible. Registration closes on January 18, as I need time to assemble your kits.

Call and reserve your spot.
(978) 486 -8330

PRINCESS AND ME is here!

CLICK on these to enlarge!
We have Christmas, baby, spring, halloween, sports and all canvases come with a stitch guide.

There is an ascending discount that corresponds to quantity purchased!!!

LE SCISSORS AND NEW HP SOCK YARNS

We have received sets of limited edition scissors from Wichelt Distributing. Now you can keep a pair with every project. Don't tell me that you only work on one thing at a time. These photographed lighter than they appear in person. They are a near black and come in a lovely faux velvet presentation case. It's part of their celebration of forty years of business in our industry. The set is only $42.

With this heat, our knitters are looking for smaller projects that don't fill their laps. We have received a shipment of PUNTA hand dyed sock yarn (463 yards of washable Merino and Nylon). These will also make lovely shawls, and we have two skeins of each color, should you wish to make more than a shawlette.

I'm knitting a jacket composed of 14 different yarns, and I've reached the "too much in my lap" point, so I shifted my attention to one of the pieces of my large Shelly Tribbey nativity set. I hit the wall right after dinner last night. The compensation of the Oriental Stitch in an eight thread by about 30 thread patch did me in. There was absolutely no mental capacity that I was able to draw upon to get me through it. I'm blaming it on low blood sugar, having tackled it immediately after dinner. Maybe you're supposed to wait a half an hour after a meal before stitching?

BABY TRUNK SHOW GARMENTS

As most of you already know, I cooperate with some other yarn shop owners on a private list. We periodically organize little trunk shows. The people who agree to participate put in one or two items, one of the participants of the show organizes it and sends it off on a tour of the US.

It's here! If you are left handed, click on the left photo and conversely if you are right handed. How well did you follow directions?

DICHROIC GLASS NEEDLEMINDERS

Be the first to come in and pick out your new DICHROIC GLASS NEEDLEMINDER. These magnets are strong enough for a plethora of needles, and if you opt for the larger magnet in the back, it will take care of your scissors. I, of course, was playing with them, and realized I was missing one on the board. When I went into the office my metallic necklace slammed up against the metal front of the desk drawer. The lost was found. Some days it is clear that I need a keeper! I need to redo that display. It looks like it needs help.

Here's a close up of one of them. My camera really had trouble focusing on it. Now that I look at it, I can see that it picked the surface of the stretcher bar as its focal point, and not the glass button.

Don't forget that you can click on these images to make them BIGGER!

And, if you come soon, there are still Twizzlers and Starbursts left from Saturday night. Apparently someone thought we needed more sugar! YUM!

GREAT IDEA

Saturday, July 10, was our first "All Day Stitch-In (and into the night)". Cindy M. announced that she was ready to make a photographic record of the day...which prompted me to go get my camera. I looked across the table and saw a strange accessory on the Dazor lamp.

I saw what we in Massachusetts call a "Wicked Good Idea"!
All of Cindy's threads were bagged, placed on a ring AND hooked onto the lower arm of the lamp, just where one can easily access them. (Cindy M is on the left and Linda T. is on the right)

And then the cameras were put aside and forgotten. No more pictures! We had a really good time and lots of food. We had Dunken Donuts doughnut holes first (breakfast of champions), pizza for lunch, a beautiful fruit platter from Donelan's in the afternoon, and we went off site to Daniela's Cantina in Nagog Plaza for dinner. Then it was back to work for the evening. We accomplished a lot and shared lots of laughs. You all missed a really good time. Watch the newsletter for the announcement on the next one.

MORE ROSEWOOD MANOR PICTURES

ROSEWOOD MANOR TRUNK SHOW

Here we go - the longest trunk show ever at TWIS. These beautifully stitched and finished models are from ROSEWOOD MANOR. Karen Kluba will be sending three more pieces when she gets them back from her model stitchers. Phebe Warner Quilt, My Token of Love and My Two Ducks will be coming later.

Why are we so lucky to have it so long? Someone who was signed up for the July slot was unable to follow through, so we gained an extra month. The show will be here through Saturday, August 28.

The pieces came encased in seven oversized (by UPS standards) boxes. The next show site is half way across Pennsylvannia. I can probably drive it to the next location for half of what it will cost to ship it.

Anyone up for a 13 hour ride in the truck? I promise to give you your choice of books on CD for entertainment!

OOPS! Blogger is preventing me from inserting the other photographs. I'll just open a new post. Two posts in one day - that's a record!

WHY NEEDLEPOINTERS HAVE LEARNED TO USE SHORT THREADS

Unfortunately, knitters use very long threads. Many of them miss the fun of having an anchor sitting on their working yarn!

ALL THINGS SANTA!

The good news is that today is June first. The bad news is that all the counted thread and needlepoint Christmas finishing has to be at the finishers four months from today.

The other good news is that the vacation season is about to begin so you'll have time to pick up another treasure of a project to take with you on your holiday. If you miss the deadline, you can always hit the next one.

Good news! It's CHRISTMAS IN JUNE at TWIS

AND ANOTHER TRUNK SHOW!

We have a very large trunk show of hand painted canvases from the clever mind of Carolyn Barrani. Her style is very unusual. Aside from the beautiful floral, she has series of canvases that mimic mosaic tile illustrations, and she has stitched models that will give you the depth of a real mosaic. She also does a lot of canvases in a stained glass format. Please pay special attention to the monogram canvases whereby you can choose the color and the tapestry design in the background. She also has a very quick, easy stitch to deal with the intricate tapestry backgrounds. We have a good selection of 13 and 18 count pieces, so there is something for every set of eyes. These will be on display through Saturday, April 17.

Please come in and visit, as these pictures in no way represent the entire collection.

THE WONDERS OF SILK GAUZE

We are so lucky and proud to be displaying 24 framed pieces from ERICA MICHAEL's silk gauze collection. Most of the quasi kits (chart plus silk gauze and you furnish the thread) are priced at $15. There are two at $18 and one at $20. I can't emphasize enough how beautiful these are. They will be here through Saturday, April 17. Hurry in for the best selection.

To give you an opportunity to try your hand (and your eyes) at doing this, and to get some helpful suggestions from Heidi Curtis, you can sign up for a class on Saturday morning, April 10 at 9:30 AM for $25. No registration is considered to be complete until you have paid for the class. Since I need to prepare little kits for the participants, I would appreciate if you could decide promptly. Please call (978) 486-8330 for any questions that you might have.

AND THEN, THE YARN FAIRY SHOWED UP!

Welcome to Corporate Hell Week! At least we have canvases and yarn to make up for all the bureaucratic nonsense. I have had to pay to file my annual report. Then the state and federal filings had to take place. Then, lucky me, I was given the opportunity to pay my corporate excise tax. If that wasn't enough, I was allowed to wallow through endless health insurance plans because my present plan's premium increased by 29%. Of course I chose to do it on line, but couldn't get anyone on the phone to answer my questions!!! To add to the excitement, an installment of my business insurance and workmen's comp gets to be paid.

This is just too much excitement for me! Nonetheless, when I close the store and go home, I'll finish OH MY STARS! I had to stop and graph out signage for the right-hand bottom corner or I could have finished last night. The Big Guy is so excited. I don't know why - because the piece is coming to the store after framing. Maybe he thinks I will stop and clean up my corner of the family room.

We invite you to come in and squeeze the new yarn.

THE TRUNK SHOW FAIRY CAME TO VISIT

When she came to visit, she dropped off beautiful scissor case canvases from WHIMSY AND GRACE. If that wasn't enough to cause heart palpitations, she also brought needle cases to match.

These are no ordinary scissor cases. Each canvas comes with a beautiful tassel to hook to your scissors.

The show will be here through Saturday, April 17.

OH M'GOSH; OH MY STARS

I'm in the bottom of the ninth inning on this project and I don't want it to end. I sense that I am stitching more slowly to "make it last". I really want to knit a couple of things, but the compulsion to continue on with some counted needlepoint is really strong. I wonder if I could find my Portra ODYSSEY which is only 5% completed!?!





Tomorrow will be a big counted cross day, as a lot of the new literature from the trade show should be arriving. I'll have to process it fast because tomorrow night is LAST FRIDAY and attendees will want to have access to it. I'd like to just put the boxes out, and sit down and work on OH MY STARS! but that would not be appropriate behavior.



Here's some quickie alpaca/cotton at 4/inch that I could use and just fly through a garment, but there is another color coming and I can't remember what it is and what if I would start something and the missing color would come in and I would like it better? Take a deep breath! It's not a Mona Lisa!




More people ask after Jack than inquire about other members of my family. I am ashamed to reveal that Jack runs our household. He has certain activities that he enjoys when he is not resting. When the need to be massaged arises, he heads directly for The Big Guy's lap and stretches out and the massage magically commences. When that lap goes to bed, the second-best lap option is taken. I'm sure that at least 10% of the stitches taken in OH MY STARS involved the thread draping across Jack's side, gathering up some of that other luxury fiber, cat fluff. It's going to take a four hour session with the Dazor and a tweezer to remove all the cat hair before framing.


The FLAT FOLD FINISHING CLASS was an amazing success. Everyone in class seemed to be quite pleased with their results. Customers began to come in and I became flustered and forgot to take pictures of the class and their pieces, so in lieu of that, here's my little Shepherd's Bush piece. Heidi is definitely going to be invited back for another performance.

DON'T WEAR THIS TO THE BANK!

This photo shows that I have zero vanity (and possibly no pride), but it might help you remember that we are participating in a helmetliner program for the soldiers in Afghanistan. You need to go to Tari's website:
http://www.yarnheaven.com/knithelmetliner.html
and print out the pattern. You will need a 16 inch circular in both a 6 and an 8, plus a set of doublepointeds in 8...dependent on your swatch. Gauge is paramount for these as they need to be tightly fitting under the helmet. They also have to be made of all wool; even partial acrylic or nylon additives will disqualify their use because they will burn/melt on the skin. We have lots of black GALWAY and tan and chocolate superwash from Cascade which we will sell to you at a discount when you sign up for the program. If you are finding yourself in a financial tight spot, BROWN SHEEP sent us some heathered tan as a gift for the program. I initially intended to order their superwash but they were so very quickly honest to disclose that use a petrochemical process to generate their superwash, making it unsuitable for the liners for our soldiers. Kudos to them for their honesty and generosity, providing us with 8 pounds of a heathered tan. Special thanks also to Nancy H who helped me wind most of it and still managed to maintain her good humor.

HOLY COW! It's election day in Massachusetts. I went to my polling site with a highly inflated sense of responsibility, knowing that the eyes of the nation were on us today. I'm so over it now.

This darn snow today makes me want to knit more than just helmetliners, and the mail and the UPS shipments brought some small project temptations:

TRUNK SHOWS and more!

We are loaded with treasures to see at the shop. For our pointy people, we have a trunk show of handbags from WHIMSY AND GRACE. There are eleven finished handbags dangling from the little tree in the curio cabinet. Hopefully the photo is just inclusive enough to hook you into scooting (today I believe that sliding would be the appropriate term) into the shop to get a better view.

A few of the canvases hanging on the wall are in the next image, but we have many more. I chose not to hang some of the larger ones for tote bags, so if that is your interest, please ask to see them. This show will be here until mid February, so hurry on in for the best selection.

The other trunk show is for the customers who have been so anxious to have a selection of crewel and embroidery kits. Carolyn Barrani of TAPIS-TREE has sent us a large show of her beautiful kits. This show will also be here through the middle of February.

Heidi Curtis will be running a FLAT-FOLD FINISHING CLASS at 9AM on Saturday morning, Feb. 6. It's early, so we will have coffee and doughnut holes to get you jazzed up. This is a wonderful finishing technique to use for pieces that are on display in your home for only short periods of time, and then you need to put them away for storage. This display/finishing technique allows you to fold it flat so it will scarcely take up any room in storage, since that seems to be at a premium in so many homes. Here's an image of Heidi's piece to help you visualize what you will have at the end of the workshop. If you have no small pieces ready for finishing, the newsletter describes how you might just buy fabric and go through the steps in class along with the rest of us.

I have stopped stitching on my counted needlepoint piece as I broke my floor stand and we are waiting for a shipment at the store. Here's a shot of my progress. In lieu of stitching, I am knitting HELMETLINERS like crazy. I finished a black one in GALWAY and I have a tan one underway in Cascade 220 SUPERWASH.