Business was super slow all month - not unusual for August, but hard not to get anxious after the financial losses I took in July from a disappointing trade show. However, sales are now picking up - was interesting to see the noticeable increase in orders once schools started this past week. Obviously, many families were now home from vacation and getting back into the groove.
Besides spending time with Alex, I also got a little more time to spend in my favorite LYS -- Nine Rubies Knitting (http://www.ninerubies.com/) . There are a number of other great stores on the "Peninsula", but the gals who run Nine Rubies - and those who shop and knit there - are my dearest friends, and walking into that shop is like walking into my own home, but better (because all I "need" to do there is sit and knit and talk).
Last year, I put together a class on knitting socks (top-down) on two circulars, but when I started up GKD, and started doing shows, I couldn't keep up with the teaching, so Sudha - one of the Nine Rubies owners - took over the class. It has been an ongoing success ever since we started it and I think that Sudha and I have helped create at least 50 or 60 sock knitters in San Mateo in this past year. :-)
However, I realized that I missed the teaching and with my show schedule winding down, I resumed teaching there again. I am so happy I have done so, as it is really a joy to teach and it's fun having an "excuse" to focus on sock knitting again.
Hey! all you sock knitters out there! have you seen Cat Bordhi's new book, "New Pathways for Sock Knitters:Book One"? It is amazing.... Cat has created whole new sock architectures and they are just incredible. My new dream is to make every sock in that book! The book is listed on Amazon but is not discounted and is not shipping for another 2 to 4 weeks. HOWEVER, almost all of the good LYSs have the book ... Nine Rubies sold out their first shipment within 1 or 2 days, and was able to get another shipment very quickly. Last week, Cat Bordhi came to the Bay Area to Purlescence Yarns in Sunnyvale, CA (http://www.purlescenceyarns.com/) for a book signing. She is such a genuinely nice person, and she truly enjoys hearing everyone rave about her designs.
Another fun thing that just came up is that I may have an opportunity to design a sock exclusively for the sockweight hand-dyed Baywood Yarns produced by my knitting friend, Joanne. Check out her blog at http://baywoodyarns.blogspot.com/. Can't say more right now, but I am excited to have my first design opportunity in the works.
The one thing I love about Baywood Yarns is the amazing collection of colorways that Joanne produces. A good example is the shawl I designed with Knitware and crocheted from her sock yarn held double-stranded throughout:
This color is called Ollalieberries! When Alex was little, we'd go picking ollalieberries and she'e eat almost as many as she picked. When we were finished, the various berry stains on the shirt would be the same shades that Joanne reproduced in the yarn!
I am going to "announce" my blog to the KnitwareUsers list tonight... and post a link to it on the GKD website tomorrow. Also tomorrow: my upgrades go up in price - some people are not happy about it, but it's over 2 years since the last official release and I think it's been enough time for people to take advantage of the formerly low (VERY low) price that Janet had established.
Okay... off to cook dinner!
