New DDIL, Alexa, and I got to visit Crafts Americana's office in Vancouver. Crafts Americana is home to Knit Picks and Connecting Threads and host to the Knitting Community and Quilt With Us. In the photo above are (from left) Jenny, Kerin, Alisha, me, Alexa and Alison.
Alison met us in the lobby and gave us the grand tour of the company. The ground floor entrance area was manned by the great people of Customer Service. We got to see how they have access to products and product information when people call with questions. We got to see where the designers hang out and got a sneak preview of some new products.
One nice surprise was a box of goodies, which I will be displaying as I work with them, such as this nice assortment of yarns for Mitts of Steal:
There are some great men's and unisex colors, which we need, all in Swish Worsted, and some Comfy Worsted, perfect in pink for ladies and open-minded men allergic to wool.
Another nice surprise was a couple of skeins of a new sock yarn. I couldn't wait to get started using it, with Sock Summit coming up. I CO a pair of socks adapted from the Bavarian Twisted Stitch socks in Cat Bordhi's Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles.
I was also presented with some yummy spinning fiber. I immediately dropped another spinning plan I had so I could give it a try and am liking it a lot. This was timely, coming during Tour de Fleece, a spinning activity to go along with the bicycle race "Tour de France." I'll post photos of my projects after the products come out.
There were some other nice little surprises in the box, including other sock yarn and some lace-weight yarn. I will review these as I use them.
Alexa and I also got to see the offices, the space where they do photo shoots, prop storage for photo shoots and where they check the catalog and website photos for color. A real treat was to get a peek at the room they use for the podcasts and where they do the videos for the website.
We got a peek at some new CT batiks, of interest to me because DGD1 has requested a quilt in red and eggplant for her new college apartment.
We had a great time visiting, and I really appreciate the time Alison and the others took to show us around and want to thank Jenny for setting it up. I hope to have more photos of some of them next week, after Sock Summit is over.
My contribution to cuteness this week is Rocky and Sunny, sporting their new summer haircuts. They have been out in the backyard jungle a lot already, but they still look pretty good, I think.
I leave Tuesday to go back to the Portland area for Sock Summit. I will be staying with the newlyweds, and plan to do some hiking with them, and Alexa and I will be participating in the Carmina Burana singalong, which should be fun!
What's on my needles: The sock, shown in the photo, and the Bees' Knees cardigan for Daphne. I'm doing the sleeves together, as in the instructions, after toying with the idea of doing them one at a time to avoid the steek. The sleeves are striped, so the steek helps avoid having a jog at the beginning of the round. I'm working them on two circular needles with steek sts between the two sleeves. Interesting technique.
What's on my wheel: The new fiber from KP. I finished the Wasatch Mountain Dusk fiber I dyed with Koolaid, so I couldn't wait to start with the new stuff.
What's in my hoop: The languishing applique quilt.
What's on my spindles: Same as last week, but I have been making progress with all three.
What's on my iPad: Still Shelters of Stone by Jean Auel from Audible, and I'm caught up on The Knit Picks Podcast and The Knit Wits Podcast.
What's my app of the week: How My Dog, which is a story for kids where you insert photos of the dog and the child. I haven't used it yet, but it looks pretty good, and someone on Ravelry recommended it.
What's in my wine glass: Sebeka Shiraz 2006. Nice!
Note: This blog post was produced entirely on the iPad. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, not even my MacBook, and no Windows were opened, waited for or cleaned.
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