Lavender Festival Trip

I visited HEAVEN Friday, in the form of the most beautiful purple, white and pink scented flowers! Friday Nancy and I along with 48 of our customers and friends travelled to Sequim-Dungeness Valley and enjoyed the 11th Annual Lavender Festival. http://www.lavenderfestival.com/

What a fabulous day, we met at Kent Station and boarded a Starline Motorcoach with our Tour Director Matthew and our driver Dominique, a couple of great guys who made our adventure that much more enjoyable, huge thanks to them both! We headed off to Edmonds and caught the Kingston ferry run, travelling through historic Port Gamble, crossing the Hood Canal bridge and off to Sequim. We arrived at our first stop the Cedarbrook Lavender & Herb Farm which features the historic Bell House gift shop and wonderful grounds with little nooks for you to sit and knit and take in the wonderful sights and smells. http://www.cedarbrooklavender.com/

Our next stop was Purple Haze Lavender Farm, another beautiful farm with beautiful gardens, home and gift shop. Here we enjoyed all that in addition to wonderful music and craft/art vendors throughout the grounds. Shopping was at a fever pitch! If the name of this farm is familiar we sell their wonderful sachets in our shop and they were the farm that helped us with our Anniversary Sachets and our thank you gift to our fellow lavender travellers. A special thank you to Vicki! http://www.purplehazelavender.com/

We then visited Jardin du Soleil. One of the most visually appealing farms, the wonderful gift shop sits up on a slight hill and when you look over the hill you see these fabulous mounds of lavender! They too had wonderful music, a french bistro area with food and vendors with wonderful handcrafted items. Unfortunately we didn't have much time here but I would love to visit this farm again! http://www.jardindusoleil.com/

By this time we were all getting hungry so off we went to the 3 crabs restaurant and had a nice lunch. With this opportunity to refuel we were ready to head to our final farm http://www.olympiclavender.com/ They too had music and we found a spinner at this farm.

From there we headed to our final destination on our tour the Lavender Festival Street Fair in downtown Sequim. Here we found the usual street fair booths and foods, unfortunately downtown Sequim lost power which prevented us from getting our Lavender infused espresso drinks!

From there we headed home and our return trip was just as enjoyable as our destination trip. We look forward to taking this trip again next year. Thank you to all of the wonderful women who joined us along with Pete, Al, Matt and Dominique!

Road Trip

Subtitle: Headin' for the highway.....lookin' for adventure.....and whatever comes my way.


Well can I just say what came my way was a fun filled day participating in the 2007 Destination Yarn LYS Tour. With capable employees manning the shop, Nancy and I along with our husbands set out in the early morning hours Sunday to visit the shops on the northern part of the tour. We began our journey with a clear trip up I-5 to Bellingham, taking a detour to enjoy the scenic Chuckanut Drive (although in the back seat of the Scion XB with performance tires, not the smoothest ride and if you are like me and have issues with motion sickness, well let's just say I welcomed getting out of the car).


We started at J&J Needle Art and ran into Carol Quilici a fabulous crocheter who frequents our shop and joins us for Friday night knitting regularly. Carol was having a fabulous time as noted by her armload at the counter, she's so passionate about her crocheting and enjoyment was written all over her face!


We then headed to downtown Bellingham and found NW Handspun www.nwhandspunyarns.com. We had been drawn to check out this shop particulary by their picture posted on the LYS Tour website, and we were not disappointed! They are in a 100+ year old building with a loft area that has the most fabulous window seats that called to me and all I could do was imagine how fabulous it would be to sit at one of these seats with cushions and my knitting overlooking the downtown streets. Owner Nancy Bjerke is so warm and friendly and was a joy to talk with, we look forward to another visit in the near future.


From there we headed to Burlington where we visited Becky at Knot Just Yarn www.knotjustyarn.com. A small shop, but she's done a very nice job and has a great selection for her small space. We saw many finished socks from the Interweave Favorite Socks book that they use for a sock of the month club and she had the cutest Tulip Bootie pattern modeled by Becky's granddaughter Emma who is so adorable.


Next we headed to Wild Fibers www.wildfibers.net in downtown Mt Vernon and visited with owner Sara. She has a beautiful shop off the main street area and has done a tremendous job with her displays and space. We also met pattern designer Karen Agen of Blue Flower Knits www.blueflowerknits.com who designs awesome felted bags using flower embellishments, we look forward to possibly carrying her patterns in the future.

We then drove up to Anacortes and here I spent more time reminiscing about the year I spent visiting my husband Derrin via the Greyhound bus from downtown Seattle to Mt Vernon each weekend before we were married. Neither of us had been back to our stomping grounds for at least 15 years. It was nice to see not to much has changed, Commercial street looks about the same although there are the added fast food joints and Starbucks of course. We stopped for a much needed stretch and coffee infusion before heading back to the open road towards Everett.


Unfortunately, I-5 was not as clear as it had been coming up, the rain had begun and all of you fellow Washingtonians know what that means........ACCIDENTS and BACK UPS. We saw quite a few but kept going forward and enjoyed a break from the road at our next stop Great Yarns www.greatyarns.com in Everett. This is a wonderful shop in an old home with some very friendly and inviting people. They have a wonderful selection of Vivian Huxbro kits and Tilli Thomas silks with beads and sequins.


From there we jumped over to Mukilteo and visited Let It Rain Yarn Shop www.letitrainyarn.com which is in a Live/Work complex that was very very nice. Owner Patience had just moved her shop two weeks prior to the tour, it's a lovely new shop and it was so nice to be able to visit with her for some time out of the rain.


The clock was winding down and we only had about 40 minutes until the clock struck 6:00 so we decided to check out the Mill Creek shop Main Street Yarn located in an open air urban village similar to Kent Station. Owner Marie was behind the counter and we had a nice visit with her, she has a beautiful shop with a great selection of yarn and books.


That ended our tour and by that time we were indeed exhausted and started heading for home, back on I-5 we continued to encounter slow downs due to accidents but made our way through and headed to Burien for a fabulous dinner at Angelo's Italian Ristorante www.angelosofburien.com!


Thank you to Derrin our driver, Al and his GPS as navigator and to all of the wonderful women who like us breathe their heart and souls into their shops, it was such a pleasure to be able to visit with them in their shops. They are all very creative and inspiring women who are pursuing a passion that brings us together as a group and I am proud to be a part of that group. I look forward to many other opportunities to get to know them better and share our success.

Happy Mother's Day

I am really looking forward to Mother's Day, it's the one day a year I can count on both of my children being in the same room with a common desire to spend more than just a few minutes in passing with me. I have two teenagers and let's face it, there is always something more exciting than spending time with your mom. Although I must say that my nearly 16 year old daughter has come back to me and I do get to enjoy shopping and hanging out with her again!

I want to wish all of the mother's I know a wonderful day with their families. I am in awe of the many talented, compassionate, intelligent, respectful, loving young men and women you are raising. Take a moment and savor the work you have done.

****Live, Love, Laugh****

Happy Anniversary!!!

May 9th marked the official one year Anniversary of our beautiful shop Renaissance Yarns. Nancy and I have enjoyed getting to know a wonderful group of women and men who share our passion and have become a second family to us both. I'd like to thank everyone for their support and encouragement throughout this year. In addition I'd also like to thank our families and friends for all of their support and most importantly LOVE, without them this would not have been possible.

I am filled with so much anticipation and excitement for the upcoming year, we have many events planned as well as continued local community involvement and some surprises along the way! Of course we will continue to explore new yarns and products to inspire your creativity.

Most importantly I would like to thank my dear friend and partner for her committment to our adventure. I am so proud of what we've accomplished together and I am looking forward to another year of continued success and fulfillment. Thank you Nancy, I love you!

Whirlwind Month

~ All I can say is WOW! April started off like any other April, both my brothers celebrated birthdays (the baby turned 40), my mom, sister in law and uncle all celebrated birthdays as well. A certain bunny came calling and left far to much chocolate and goodies at my house, some of which made it's way to the shop, thank you to all who helped it leave the building! Then momentum began to build and before I knew it the month was over.
~ We started our month of events in the shop with Tastings featuring Louisa Harding's Spring/Summer yarns and it was another success, we'd love to see the finished Fringe Purse's from the many kits you purchased in various colors, please bring them in for photos!

~ The following week we were joined by a nice group for Knitting with Purpose, in addition many of you who were not able to join us that Friday brought in beautiful hats throughout the week, THANK YOU!

~ The following day we had our Skacel Trunk Show which was well attended and a big success. A special thanks to Michelle, Marie and Ann our beautiful models they did a great job.

~ This past Saturday Connie from Cascade Spindle Company joined us and held a Drop Spindle class, we had 13 registered students who all did a great job and all spun their own one of a kind first yarns. Liz and I also gave it a try and I have to say I think I've got the bug. I'm already eyeing the beautiful spindles and of course the fiber.

~ In addition to the many events we held we had two surprise visits in the shop this past week! Debbie Macomber www.debbiemacomber.com, author of the Shop on Blossom Street as well as many other great books, stopped in and brought Nancy and I an autographed copy of her newest book Back on Blossom Street. Today Susanna Hansson www.oneofsusannas.com , designer of one of our favorite patterns the Two-Thirds Sachet, came into the shop, I wasn't able to spend much time with her but it was lovely to meet her.

~ Tomorrow Nancy and I are off to the final meeting for the LYS Tour www.lystour.com, we are so excited to be participating and looking forward to meeting many new knitter's from Western Washington.

Intro to Lace

Most of you know that I'm a fairly new knitter and everything is exciting and new to me, but I'll be honest, sometimes things just seem completely out of my league! Lace work is one of those things, I truly admire the beauty and work put into these beautiful things and then I think to myself, there is no way I'm there yet.

Well, with that said we just got the new Addi Turbo Lace needles in from Skacel and suddenly the soft muted shades of the Rowan Kidsilk Haze began calling to me. I found some projects that peaked my interest in the Rowan magazine as well and thought to myself, I must do something with this NOW!

Here's a peek....it is a simple, understated, narrow scarf pattern (Fiber Trends - Lacy Accents) in its infancy. I absolutely LOVE the needles and am enthralled with this soft, elegant looking piece. I will definitely be doing more lace work in the near future! Perhaps the gorgeous Lace Shawl in Romantic Style by Jennie Atkinson.

Creating Community & Knitting with Purpose

Many people have asked me what Knitting with Purpose means. I came up with this title for our "Charity" knitting, my thought was simply to give the knitting of kindness that our customers have been doing in knitting healing hats, a title. I am a strong proponet of living life with purpose, finding ways to make a difference, being an active citizen of ones community. Building community can be one of the most important things we as human beings do with our lives. I heard something like this as I was growing up from my grandmother, who practiced what she preached. My dear sweet Nana was a long time Kent resident and she gave to others throughout her life, always feeling it was just part of being a decent human being. She volunteered for many years at the Kent Food Bank and felt a deep connection to her "community" of fellow volunteers, friends and neighbors. As a knitter you instantly become a part of a bigger community and I wanted to build on that and provide a purpose to the ever growing community of Renaissance Yarns http://www.renaissanceyarns.com/

One of the most recent endeavors into creating and nurturing my community has come through the desire to knit hats for women who have been affected by Breast Cancer and have lost their hair due to chemotherapy. This desire was welcomed with open arms by the wonderful women who frequent our yarn shop. An idea became a reality and we gathered over 80 hats to donate last October during Breast Cancer Awareness month. Since that time I was asked by the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance volunteer coordinator if we would continue to knit hats not only for women, but men and children who are also battling cancer and have lost their hair to chemotherapy too. Nancy and I are thrilled to honor their request and have dedicated a regularly scheduled time each month to Knitting with Purpose.

Please join us the 3rd Friday of every month, beginning this Friday March 16th from 5-8 pm. Light refreshments will be served. Healing Hat pattern is available in the shop or via the Community link on our website.

Renewal

It's that time of year when renewal is seen everywhere, the trees are awakening buds swelling the tiniest of flowers emerge from the depths of the earth and open themselves to the brief and fleeting moments of sunlight. The birds can be heard singing and the nesting begins, lawnmowers will not be far behind and our neighbors will begin the rituals of spring cleaning in their yards and homes.

Nancy and I felt a need to renew ourselves this last Monday and took one of our days off to trek up north to Woodinville and visit one of our favorite places on earth MOLBAK'S nursery www.molbaks.com. We were in our element, full of hope and promise, gardening has a way of bringing out the best in both of us. The beauty found in the plants this time of year is unbelievable not to mention all the fabulous ideas they display in containers as well as patio and entertaining departments. We felt like we had died and gone to heaven. We found some beautiful colors to bring back to the shop and a few treats for ourselves!

We then went and visited a fellow local yarn shop and enjoyed our time there with owner Deb, tried some Mango & Red Raspberry Iced Tea, enjoyed seeing some yarns we do not carry and again we were in our element. From there we enjoyed ourselves at one of our favorite lunch spots, came back to the shop to drop off our goodies and headed to Suburbia for a couple of latte's and some knitting. It was one of the most enjoyable days we've had in a long time, we realized how much we miss spending time together doing those things we use to but just don't get much time to do anymore. I highly recommend grabbing a friend and heading out for a day of renewal, connecting with one another and enjoying each other's company. A special thank you to Nancy for making my day a fabulous one, I love ya!

She's done it again!

Angela our favorite sock sister www.aswellyarnshop.com was in yesterday with her latest delivery. Check out the St. Patrick's Day Duet Sock color combo's! Do you have a favorite Irish man/woman you'd like to present with a special gift for the holiday? This should do the trick!

Irish Blessing:

"May your day be touched by a bit of Irish luck, brightened by a song in your heart,and warmed by the smiles of the people you love."

Alternatives to Wool

The fibers available today are to say the least extraordinary and what appeals to me is a lot of new fibers are renewable resources. Bamboo, hemp, flax, cotton, corn, linen just to name a few. Some of these fibers have antibacterial properties which are great for sock making. For those of you that are allergic to wool there is no shortage of fibers you can work with to make beautiful garments. You can find many of these fibers in the shop, Bamboo, SoySilk and A-maizing from Southwest Trading Company www.soysilk.com, Hempathy from Elsebeth Lavold, Hemp for Knitting www.lanaknits.com.

A new book recently arrived in the shop "No Sheep For You" by Amy R. Singer, founder of www.knitty.com and details information regarding the above mentioned fibers as well as many others. The book has some wonderful patterns for sweaters as well as accessories and socks.

Why not try a new fiber for Spring, plant based perhaps to welcome the season of renewal.

Happy Knitting!

I love my socks!

I finished my Duet socks in Valentine colors on Valentine's Day!

What can I say that hasn't already been said about the Duet Sock Yarn created by our new friend Angela from A Swell Yarn Shop? Not only does the girl have a knack for color, but this is such a wonderful yarn to work with, it feels so good.

The excitement and enthusiasm for this yarn is overwhelming and has created quite a following in the shop. Please be sure to check with us often as we continue to offer Angela's yarn with new arrivals every few weeks and special surprises along the way.

If you've considered learning to make Toe Up Socks, this is the yarn to do it with, the coordinating solid heel and toe really set these socks apart. My guess is they will inspire you to be creative and come up with your own designs and color combinations.

I'd also like to add that this yarn is not exclusive to making socks, stay tuned while we whip up some ideas for you in the shop.

Knit and be happy!

Spring Fever

It's another beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest, I noticed the crocus coming up in my rose garden this morning, which means I will be tending to the rose pruning soon. I love this time of year, when nature begins awakening. It also means the Pacific Northwest Flower & Garden show http://www.gardenshow.com/seattle/index/index.asp is almost here! If you're a gardener on any scale you will find the most wonderful inspiration at this beautiful show now in it's 20th year.

I have had a wonderful time incorporating the colors of nature, inspired by my garden with my knitting and this time of year creates a heightened interest in the many shades of green and now the first inklings of violets, pinks and yellows. The Spring palette is well represented in the shop and you won't have any trouble finding yarn inspired by the colors of nature.

One of the best examples of nature inspired yarn is Noro "the world of nature" made in Japan. If you've never had the good fortune of knitting with Noro yarns this weekend is the perfect opportunity. We are having a yarn tasting with Noro yarns in the shop beginning Friday February 2nd through Sunday February 4th. Try each of the Noro yarns we carry and enjoy a 10% discount on all Noro yarns throughout the weekend.