The Gang's All Here

(Lots of pictures)

When I discovered Hooks & Needles (my new LYS) I was thrilled, as you well know. I was even happier when I heard about the Wednesday KnitNight, i.e. Girls' Night Out. What I didn't realize at that time (silly me) was that Wednesday nights were not necessarily going to be useful knitting time for me. I know this will come as a huge shock to all of you, but I got very busy minding other people’s business on Wednesday night.

See, I was helping Lisa crochet and so I didn’t want to dive in to knitting on my socks because I knew I was going to have to stop and show her the next step. So I got up to take pictures and then I had to look at what people were working on and someone had a new book (No Sheep for You. I must have it.) and then I had to help a new knitter fix her purls – she couldn’t understand why she was getting extra stitches every time she purled so I explained to her about holding the yarn in front – and then UPS had delivered some new yarn so I needed to look at that…Ya’ll know how that goes.

Thus very little knitting accomplished BUT – I did get pictures. Without further adieu, let me introduce you....

To the merchandise.

I didn't get a picture of them but in addition to all the wooden needles you see in this pictures, she also carries Addis, which makes up for all the wood, in my opinion.

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If you look into the back of this picture (below), you can see a lady standing there. Beyond that is the "family room". There are couches and tables and chairs and birds (yes birds - in cages, mercifully) which is where everyone hangs out. To the chicks...This is (l-r) Kaylee, the Hooks & Needles proprietress, and Julie, excellent knitter extraordinaire and mother of Amanda (who you will meet in a minute.) Julie teaches several classes at the shop and I am 100% certain that when the time comes for me to at long last figure out the attached i-cord, one of these two will be able to show me how.

Here we have (l-r) Judy and her friend Rosemary (who goes by Ro), Suzie who is learning to knit socks (hurray, Suzie!) and her son Joseph who is learning to knit (double hurray, Joseph!) and Anita, who works at the shop and is very funny. You see that pack of yarn under Judy's protective hand? That's the new stuff that had arrived and we were admiring it. It was actually for Julie (above) but she was slow on the grab so the rest of us got in a good fondle before she was able to claim it. (Sorry, Julie.)

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Next up we have BL and Ursula. BL, coincidentally is the mother of my husband's best friend. I was so happy and surprised to see her Wednesday. She came to visit me after my last ankle surgery and while she was at my house, she was looking at my KnitPicks catalog and told me she was planning to do some knitting one of these days. You can imagine my excitement when I saw her come in the door Wednesday. She is a natural knitter - next week I will get pictures of the excellent progress she is making on her first scarf.

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As for Ursula, I just wanted to put her in my pocket and take her home with me. I met Ursula the first night I visited the LYS and she was bummed because she couldn't find the yarn for this blanket she is working on in the picture. She was short 3 balls and no place in town had the yarn. I introduced Ursula to the wonderful world of online yarn shopping and she was able to find what she needed - in the right dye lot, even - from Lisa's Yarn & Thread. Now she is zipping through this lovely afghan.

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Remember Julie, mother of Amanda? This is Amanda. (see the birds' cage at the end of the couch?)

Amanda just finished knitting this teddy bear. This teddy bear is her second knitting project ever. Ever. Her first was a stripey baby blanket for her the baby she is incubating (a girl, as I understand it). If she takes to mothering even half as well as she has taken to knitting, that will be one lucky baby!

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And in this corner....Deb and Lisa (yes, Lisa of the thinly veiled crochet project). Deb just returned from two weeks in Alaska (me = so jealous) where she bought beautiful local yarn that she is thinking about knitting up into the ever lovely Clapotis. And then there is Lisa. Lisa who needed a graduation gift for the daughter of a friend. Lisa who wanted to learn crochet....a lei.

As modeled by her darling daughter, Vikki. Lisa assured me she would bring her completed lei next week for pictures.

Today's Quote:

"Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends, never lose a chance to make them." -Francesco Guicciardini