World Dancing Badly

This is wonderful video on You Tube about a guy named Matt going around the world getting people to dance with him. This little movie proves people the world over able to connect even while dancing badly. It is indeed a small world. We should all take care of one another and have some fun.
I'm not savvy enough to figure out how to embed the You Tube screen, so just... Check it out.

Fall '08 At The Lake Fiber Arts Retreat

I'm gonna quit apologizing for being so slack at posting to my blog and just accept the fact that this is how I function in my life. Living in the moment, semi-organized, surprised by how time flies when one has ADD. OK, on with some shop happenings.
We (meaning At Loose Ends, Prairie Needles, Crates of Yarn and Prairie Yarns) are pooling our creative and organizational skills to present you with an improved version of At The Lake Fiber Arts Retreat. It's happening Nov. 14-16, 2008 at Weslake Resort, about 15 miles NE of Fergus Falls, MN. I have a link to the brochure that you can download on my website www.atlooseends.com, plus a link to the resort website. Just look on the right side of the page a little ways down. Please check it out. We have 4 mini-classes: Holiday Scandinavian Pillow, Afterthought Heel, Bead-Knitted Amulet Pouch, and Crochet Socks, plus meals, and great accommodations. Registration deadline is Nov. 1.

Time Flies When You're Chronically Disorganized

The summer is whizzing by at the shop. I'll try and catch you all up on what's been happening. I was going to make one lo-o-ong entry, but I've decided to make an entry for each brilliant idea/activity/happening/new product arrival that has taken place here at the "Ends" since my last post. So here's the first installment.
On June 14, At Loose Ends was a host site for WWKIP Day (that's World Wide Knit In Public Day when, all over the world, knitters, crocheters and other "fibery" people get together to show the world what a great time knitters have when they gather together. That Saturday, 15 knitters and crocheters gathered in the yard at the shop for a fun day of knitting in the sunshine. Besides the regular crew from Perham, Dent, Detroit Lakes and Hawley, there were visitors from Ottertail, St. Paul, Alexandria and even South Dakota! We even made it onto the front page of the Perham Enterprise-Bulletin! Must have been a slow news day. :-) At Loose Ends provided coffee and water and a restroom. All you needed to bring was a project to work on and a chair. There were lots of snacks and treats to share, including a delicious pasta salad by Ruthie. We had a great time!
We'll do it again next year for sure! I'll be a little more organized and get the notice out to more of the area papers so we can see even more of you next year! I've got a pretty big yard here at the shop to accommodate a lot of fiber people. We could do Strut Your Stitches and show off our latest projects, have a service project that we could bring to donate to a charitable organization - Snuggles, Afghans for Afghans, Sheila's Shawls, the Teedy Bear Project just to name a few. We could even play a lawn game of some kind. Remind about all my great ideas next year, will ya?
See you at the shop.

News from the "Ends"

Spring is here! The grass already needs cutting at the shop. Yes, the shop comes with acreage and trees. I just planted two hybrid elms, since the old box elders already here are on their last legs and will probably need to be taken down in a few years. They're host to carpenter ants which migrated from the tree that fell down in the front yard last year. I need to contact the Extension Office to find out how to take care of THAT little problem so they don't migrate to the shop. The building is over a hundred years old and was lived in as a home until about ten years ago. There's still a clawfoot tub in the bathroom. No longer used for baths, boards straddle the sides of it, and it's been christened the "Tub O' Savings" where I put all the marked down merchandise. Hey, with only about 800 sf, every inch of space needs to be put to good use.

Speaking of merchandise, I've got some lovely new goodies in the shop for you:

Spinners, the Great Wall of Fiber will be restocked very soon so you can choose from lots of lovely blends and colors. In the meantime, take a gander at these lovely 8 oz. hand-dyed, Blueface Leicester rovings from Frabjous Fibers. They're selling quickly (even at this very quiet time of year) so I will be reordering soon. They are so pretty to look at and so soft to the touch!

Weavers, I've started stocking more colors of 22/2 cottolin from Louet, and 8/2 cotton and 5/2 perle cotton from UKI. Great for dishtowels and table runners. The Harrisville Highland is all stocked up and I've gotten some more cones of Harrisville Shetland. Check out Weaver's Craft or Handwoven (available here at the shop) for some great ideas for projects to put on your looms. Got a request for a color, please let me know and I'll put it on my next order.

Knitters and crocheters, there's some great summer yarns to choose from - Classic Silk and Bamboo Cotton from Classic Elite, Kertzer's On Your Toes Bamboo blend and wool blend sock yarns in both fingering and DK weight, some gorgeous colors of Comfort and Comfort DK. For you wool-lovers, I've just ordered some Brown Sheep Lanasoft in the handpaints. Can hardly wait to get it in the shop! Plus there's Peruvia (100% Peruvian wool) and Ultra Alpaca (an alpaca & wool blend)...both wonderful to work with.

I finished knitting a couple hats from Deb Stoller's Son of Stitch 'N Bitch -- the Half-Pipe Hat (done in Peruvia) and the Ski Beanie (made with Dolly). Will get pics on the website, but for now you can see them on my page on Ravelry (mcspin50). There's also a sweater in that book knit from Berroco's Ultra Alpaca that I'd like to make, as well.

Happy spring and be sure to stop in soon and say hey.

Spring 08 At The Lake Fiber Retreat

Well, I hope you weren't holding your breath waiting for my next post. If you were, my condolences to your family.

Andrea Everts, of Prairie Needles in Battle Lake, and I finally worked up the nerve and found some time to organize a retreat. Andrea had been to Weslake Resort for other retreats, so she was in charge of lining up our accommodations. And what accommodations they were! We stayed in one of the mini-lodges - 4 bedrooms, each with 3 twin beds, 2.5 baths, lots of light (I never plugged in my Ott Lite all weekend), great kitchen, heated floors, and lots of comfy seating space both in the main living area and the fully enclosed and heated porch on the lakeside of the lodge. Somebody, pinch me!

Andrea was there at noon on Friday, Feb 29, to greet our first participants. I didn't get there until about 7 as I had my shop open until 5:30. But let me tell you, those doors were locked at 5:30 and I was outta there! It's an easy drive from Perham to the resort, even with the blowing snow that was happening at the time.

When I arrived at the resort, Joanne was patiently waiting in her car because she didn't know which building we were in, so next year we'll have a nice big flag or sign to direct people to the lodge. We'll also have the resort phone listed so those of you who might take a wrong turn (Ruthie), can call for directions. Cell phone service isn't very good there (at least my Sprint phone didn't work until I walked to the top of the hill and stood just there...no, no, wait a minute...just there!

Supper was hash brown hot dish, a glass of wine, and ice cream sundaes, then back to spinning, knitting, weaving, and relaxing!

The beds were comfy - three twin beds to a room, and each room had a sink. There were two full baths by the bedrooms and a half-bath by the kitchen. And the kitchen! Double ovens, microwave, dishwasher, fridge (second fridge on the enclosed 4-season porch- great for wine or beer). I brought ALMOST all the parts to my espresso machine, so unfortunately is was just a counter ornament all weekend :-( but the IKEA coffee saved the day. I just made it good and STRONG!

Saturday arrived and we rolled out of and into our beds whenever we felt like it. No dogs or cats to let out and in and out, no errands to run, no laundry to do, no bathrooms to clean...aaaah! Continental breakfast--no espresso--whenever you felt like eating.

We all worked on projects and/or sat an visited. Karen spun up and plied a whole bag of fiber that she bought from the At Loose Ends "satellite store" set up in the entryway. Jane was our only "day camper". We watched some videos - both entertaining and educational - like Monty Python, How To Make An American Quilt (open-minded of us), and a great sock video by Lucy Neatby. I finished three projects, and forgot yarn to finish a fourth. Andrea and I demonstrated the horizontal knitting stance for everyone (see pix).

Joanne and I took a walk around the resort where the snow depth would allow us to go. There's lots of improvements going on, and by fall, there should be new living quarters for the owners, a new office and meeting area all in one building. Next spring, if there's snow, I'm going to bring my cross-country skis. It looks like it would be fun to take a tour along the shoreline.

Lunch - There was fixin's for sandwiches and we had two kinds of homemade soup. Andrea brought her famous Funeral Soup, and I made Chicken Wild Rice Soup. (I left half of it at home on the entry rug when the handle of my crockpot just broke off as I was heading out to the garage to put it in the car. Way to go Rival!)

Supper - Ruthie brought lasagna to cook, salad fixin's and croutons, homemade garlic toast, and homemade mocha ice cream. Yummm! Unfortunately, she wasn't there to enjoy it as she felt ill in the middle of the night and decided to head home to recoup. She didn't want to risk missing her upcoming flight to Arizona with her sister-in-law. (Update: She felt better after 24 hours. She figures it was an allergic reaction to the anchovies in the very 'sassy' Bloody Mary mix she bought at the Fergus Falls liquor store during her roundabout trip to the resort.)

Saturday evening - more knitting, spinning, weaving, luceting (Sara has volunteered to teach the ins and outs of luceting - pun intended - at our next retreat.) She and Anna brought some fun card games, like Dutch Blitz and Apples to Apples, and we ended the evening with a few rounds of each.

Sunday - kinda like Saturday morning, just with the little cloud of knowledge that we would have to leave that afternoon. Continental breakfast, coffee--no espresso.

Then back to our projects. Andrea and Sara tried their hand at weaving on my Knitter's loom. There's nothing like getting a little help finishing those projects that have been on your loom too long. ;-)

Lunch was a smorgasbord of leftovers. Then packing up and heading out. But not before Andrea and I reserved the lodge for next fall. We're excited to do this again, and again. We'll just be a little better organized and not forget things like the espresso filter and filter holder, dish towels, baggies, can opener, etc, etc., AND be better able to plan some fiber activities for us all now that we know "the lay of the land".

SO MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW FOR NOVEMBER 7-9. We want to give you lots of time to prepare for a wonderful retreat at the lake in Otter Tail County next fall.

Keep playing with fiber!