Monday, May 31, 2004
7.5 Minutes of Fame
I'm two thirds through my first three days off since my life became all yarn all the time. I've rollerbladed 10 miles, watched three movies (Jackal, Confession, and Stuck on You), had grilled swordfish with a wonderful friend, chinese food with a couple more friends, and knit two and a half socks. Who says I don't know how to party down? While searching for the names of other knitting stores within two hours of my little town,I stumbled upon this. Maybe if I read it twice it will count for my full 15 minutes of fame.
Jennifer @ 10:23 PM link
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Making The Most Of The Son
I enjoyed an incredible day off, one that included a few things that I love (trip to the gym, lunch with Deb) and culminated with dinner at Down the Hatch with Janet. It was wonderfully warm and sunny (in the 80s). We even saw a guy on a jet ski?! Afterwards, we went to Sony for this week's Ben Stiller movie, Envy. We were the only people in the theater which may have been because everyone else has already seen the movie. Or one just like it. Envy is kind of like Duplex only you replace Drew Barrymore with Jack Black and replace the apartment with a business... or if you saw Starsky and Hutch and replace Owen Wilson with Jack Black and the Torino with Vapoorizer...Thank God Ben was in The Royal Tannenbaums because I want to like continue to like him, I really do.
Jennifer @ 7:30 AM link
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
MPG Player
MPG???? No, I haven't lost my mind or committed a technology-spoonerism. It's an MP3 player loaded up with Guster. So it's All Guster, All The Time. What better way to say, "I'm a pop tart and I'm full of Spring fun!"?
Monday, May 10, 2004
More Questions to Answer
As I was driving Alle to chorus as 6:25 this morning, we passed three CT network news trucks, the kind with the satellite dishes on the tops of them. I love New Milford and think that it’s a hip and happening place, but really? What could have happened here at the crack of dawn that would warrant three news trucks? Olivia and I turned on the news and waited. It will be in the 80s for the next two days. There are a lot of disturbing pictures of prisoners being humiliated that are getting just a bit too much air time if you ask me. Katie Couric’s hair looks cute, albeit a bit overly blonde. Van Helsing took the box office by storm this weekend, even beating out Mean Girls (which we saw on Mother’s Day) and the new Mary Kate and Actually Olson flick. More news. More weather. No Nuevo Milford…I turned my attention to the trusty internet. Channel 3 Hartford had this as their first headline story, “An explosion rocked a church hall Sunday evening…” Arson is being investigated. It happened during a bible study meeting. Olivia wants to know what this means in the context of The Universe As a Logical Place. Are the Powers That Be against Bible Study? Is that bastard child of the Catholic Church, the Episcopalian Church, being smoted? Or is the word, “smited”? Where will Tumbling Tykes be held if that part of the building needs repairs? And in what logical universe does Walmart stand unscathed while our semi-historical stone church is surrounded in crime-scene tape? With all these questions to answer, I just don’t understand why Katie and Matt are tormenting us with endless photographic evidence that the line between good and evil is kind of fuzzy. We already knew that.
Jennifer @ 10:58 PM link
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
My next college entrance essay
My life was empty and meaningless. I did the one sure thing to turn my life around. I headed the the Prescriptives counter in Macy's. I was introduced to a wonderful plum-colored eye lining pencil. Now my life has meaning. I am a better person as a result of this experience.
Jennifer @ 9:46 AM link
Monday, May 03, 2004
All Knitting, All the Time
Yesterday, I went to the New England Needlework Association trade show in Springfield, MA. It was a real trip. One of the first people I had a lengthy conversation was Jim Bryson. He’s the guy who owns Bryson Distributing and makes Bryspun needles. He was very nice and we talked about the needle crisis knitting store owners face (I know you have been up at night worrying about where your next pair of size 19 needles will be coming from). He told me that the Bryspun needles are made from casein, a milk by-product and that, unlike Swallow needles, they are not processed with formaldehyde, a known carcinogen.
I also met Emily and Linda Krag of Denise knitting needles. I swear, it’s like meeting rock stars. That’s how I felt. I love these needles and I was so thrilled to have a chance to talk to them about yarns, knitting and their fabulous needles. Just for the record, they are incredibly nice people and I hope they continue to be wildly successful.
I reconnected with most of the yarn company reps that Wendy and I have been meeting with all along the way. The most exciting thing I’d seen from any of the yarn companies was R2, a new line being put out by Rowan. It is very fashion forward with fibers of varying composition (there is one that is like torn tee shirts, and another like woven paper) which can be torn, knitted, glued, sewn. The accompanying book has “recipes” rather than patterns, the idea being to entice fiber creatives who might feel constrained or intimidated by traditional knitting patterns. I found this line to be very exciting although I do not think we will be bringing it into the store during its first release this May. We are still finding out who our customers are and although we are developing a strong base of young, hip knitters, I don’t think there are enough of them to warrant the investment into this new line at this time.
One of the things that really struck me about this show was the viewpoint of the average buyer. There were flocks of women who were hyperventilating over lashy-furry-glittery yarns in eye-hurting colors for scarves. They couldn't buy them fast enough. After working with Wendy, what I noticed is that the color sense of most of the hand dyers is off. The colors are not subtle in any way, or mature at all. I also noticed that a good part of the buying appears to be done emotionally. Women get hyped up by the frenzy...it was like when you buy a car, "if you don't buy it now, you won't have another chance." I'm very grateful that doesn't work for me. I ended up placing my book order there (which has been on my desk for the last week anyway). It was great to be able to pick up a book, see if it fits with our store, and have Von of "How To" scan in the bar code and hand me a printed purchase order.
Once I was back home, I finished the knitting of the green and pink lunch sack in Knit One, Felt Too and dropped it into the washing machine. It smells like a wet dog (I've got two of those, so I know what I'm talking about). It's cute, so far, but it weighs a ton. I'm trying to finish up the few random projects I've got going for the store (two scarves and the finishing work on the sleeveless turtleneck in Rowan Cork) so I can dive into the Absolutely Fabulous Throw from Colinette.
I told you it was all-knitting, all the time.
Jennifer @ 8:27 AM link
