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.