Cynthia writes:

Along with writing an entertaining blog and knitting amazing garments, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee produces her knitting books with breathtaking speed. Every time a new one comes out, she does a book tour. I kept missing the opportunity. Finally last weekend I decided it was time to go.

From State College it's an easy drive to Pittsburgh, where I got to see her at Joseph Beth bookstore. Kevin went with me and also enjoyed her talk. Even though we got there early, he stood in the balcony so that he would not be taking up a closer seat that a knitter might want. (That is why I love Kevin so much.) You can see him in Stephanie’s balcony photo. Go ahead and look at him in her photo, top of the page. I'll wait. He is the small blue speck standing just to the left of the big blue post. Find him?

And here is his vantage point:

I'm there too! I am the person dressed in black on the lower-right corner of the photo, immediately next to that display of books. See me?

Stephanie calls herself the “Yarn Harlot” because, she says, she will knit with any yarn--but I have to say that I did notice the word “merino” coming up a lot. I appreciated that.

When she finished, I lined up for the book signing. Here, I had an ulterior motive: To get a signed book for Kirsten, who works in our store on Saturdays and saves our lives over and over again.

So I stood in line. A long line. When it was my turn, we had an awkward conversation about hamsters--the kind of conversation that you might have when you are one of a hundred people in a line--and then Kevin took our picture. I am smiling in the photo because I am relieved to be moving away from that awkward hamster conversation and holding onto some hand-dyed sock yarn:

If you ever get a chance to see Stephanie talk, please go. She is even more inspirational in real life than she is on the blog, and it's a lot of fun!

We're loving our clubs! We started three monthly clubs in January--one for crocheters, one for knitters, and one for quilters--to keep you excited and making great projects. Every month we make things that are more and more exciting. Let's start with our crochet calendar club. So far, we've made...

A felted purse, designed by Kim for the crochet club, out of Southwest Trading Company's Karaoke:


A hook holder, with alternate rows of puff and V-stitches, crocheted in Tahki's Cotton Classic:


And we're about to do a Tunisian crocheted scarf.

The knitting calendar club is doing some pretty cool things too! We started with a pattern from Debbie New called a Scribble Scarf, which combines kid mohair with thick-and-thin or nubbly yarns:

And went on to a more complex piece of lace out of :

And we're about to work on a cabled purse from this--Mango Moon's Viscose:


And finally, we're working hard on the Quilting Block of the Month. First up was this block:

Then this:

And then this:

You'll just have to wait to learn what the next one is!

Some of our clubs have openings and others are full--but we run them every year. You can look ahead to the new year next January. In the meantime, we're working on our summer schedule and will have plenty to keep you busy!

Ready for a Challenge?

Hey quilters! It's time to enter our third annual block challenge! You get to express yourself, have fun, and donate to charity. Best of all, if you win (either by vote or random drawing), you will get a $75 gift basket of quilting goodies!!

All you have to do is stop by and pick up the challenge pack, which contains the rules (they're easy), entry form (it's quick), and a fat eighth of one of the most beautiful (and interesting!) fabrics in our shop:


It's one from our extensive Paula Nadelstern collection.

Use any technique that you like that will finish at 12" square. Be creative! You have until June 2 at 5:30. We'll save up all the blocks that come in, and hang them during our 4th anniversary sale the next week. Everyone who comes in will vote on a block, and the winner gets a $75 gift basket! Think you can't win? Think again! Another winner will be chosen at random--so everyone, whether a new or experienced, has a great chance at winning!

Whew.

We are finally back to blogging. We have never had a busier day than the Super Sale earlier this month, and it's taken us a while to recover!

In the meantime, here are some new treats. These are new fabrics that just arrived from Kona Bay's Emperor Collection II. They are not only beautiful, but they will go with any decor!




Stop by today to see them in person!

Are You Ready to Party???

We're getting ready for our big sale on Sunday! We thought we'd give you a few previews of what you might find. All we're going to do is show you a few pictures of just a few of the items that will be on sale. We'll tell you about the deals and show you even more items when you come in on Sunday!

Remember to come prepared with the team that you think will win. If you choose correctly, you'll get a coupon for 25% off the fabric or yarn for one project. If you lose--well, you'll at least get a consolation of 15% off!

We'll have special hours that day between 10 and 4.

In the meantime, here is just a little taste of what's to come:





















May the best team win!

People often think that since we own a knitting and quilting store, we knit and quilt all day--but most of what we do in our store is help to solve problems for people. The other part is administration-- bookkeeping, working on the newsletter, coordinating classes, ordering merchandise, and putting it away when it gets there.

This past week, we made the executive decision that we desperately needed to get a new desk. You may not have noticed this, but for the past 3 years, we had been using an old desk from Cynthia's parents' basement, with TV trays for our computer keyboard. It was not the most efficient (or comfortable) system, but our space requirements were pretty specific. We couldn't buy any desk because it had to fit our space.

Cynthia found the perfect desk at Staples in Altoona. She ordered it and we had to wait for it to arrive and make the trip to Altoona to pick it up. Now that we had a new desk in plan our old system (the one we had lived with for 3 years) became nearly unbearable.

Finally we got our desk and we began the setup at noon on Thursday. The desk came in one big, very heavy box; we were shocked to see the huge assembly booklet with 29 pages of instructions for building the desk.

The instructions assured us that two people could put together the desk in approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes. This is an unretouched photo:
We figured we'd be done well before 3:00 or 4:00, assuming that it would take us a little longer because there would be people coming in. (You know where this is going, don't you?)

And so we began to work. It took a long, long time, and there were thousands of little pills of styrofoam everywhere, with a particular concentration in Kim's hair (she is apparently the one who is "attractive"), and what seemed like hundreds of pieces of desk with thousands more little fasteners.

We hammered and screwed and nailed, for hours and hours: 3:00 and 4:00 came and went. It began to get dark. At about 6:30, the desk was finally together. But then we had to move it. The old desk was heavy and wedged in hard. We took a break for dinner.

Kim rounded up her husband and nephew during dinner, and they moved everything around, putting all of this:


into place, and left.

We were not done. The store was still littered with thousands of little pills of styrofoam, and all of the stuff we normally use to help people solve problems (see sentence 1) was scattered to the winds.

And so we kept working. By 10:00 that night, the store looked like this:


And we were ready to start helping people.

So if there are days that we look at you with tired eyes, and we drift off into a fog as we talk to you, forgive us. It's not you. It's probably a day where we were putting together a desk in a dark store the night before.

And now, we're off to do some quilting, crochet, and knitting!

January is in full swing here at Stitch Your Art Out! Here are some of the highlights for you.

• There are a few spaces left in the 7:30-9:00 Knitting Calendar Club and in the Crochet Calendar Club. Call or stop by to sign up now!
  

• A couple of sessions are full, but there are still spaces available in this year's Block of the Month, Stepping Stones!

• Excitement is building over our Mystery Quilt, which will start Wednesday, January 24th. This year's mystery is suitable for comfortable beginners through advanced quilters. Sign up now to crack the case!
  

• There is a new page on our website that lists ongoing specials and sales! Check this periodocally for the latest offers.