wildflowerknits

Hi everyone,
I’m away from the shop this weekend and I thought I’d take some time to let you know who you’ll see from day to day until my return.

Thursday…

De McGlashon and Chaz.

They’ve come all the way from Kansas City this week to run the shop for me while I’m here in Columbus, Ohio at yarn market. De is one of the first women I met when I moved to Manhattan in 1991 and our friendship has only grown.  She’s been volunteering at the shop since it first opened 8 years ago. De’s a writer, editor, experienced knitter, rug hooker and iris gardener. Oh, and she loves Bostons!

And this is my daughter, Hazel.

She’s home this summer for a bit before moving into an apartment in Lawrence next week and continuing her studies at KU. She’s a jewelry major in the art department. I’ve written about her and her various knitting projects in previous posts here if you want to read further.

Friday…

Mal Hoover

Mal’s another regular in the shop, so many of you will already know her. I would have gotten a close-up but the reason for this picture was to show off those socks!

Mal’s a medical illustrator in the vet school at K-State. She’s also one of the kindest, gentlest souls I know. She helps out a lot at the shop, drops in to knit, and does all my ladder work (that’s important stuff like replacing light bulbs and hanging sweaters!) And besides all that, she’s very creative, totally hooked and a highly productive knitter.

Saturday…

Susan Berhow

Susan is another highly productive knitter. She most often knits for others (her husband keeps her pretty busy with requests) but one beautiful sweater she made for herself -and two others- can be seen here. Susan is the Assistant Director of Communications at  KSU Foundation.

I thank each and every one!

I have a few more peeps to add in the next post so check back soon- or better yet, subscribe to the rss feed, then you’ll be notified with any updates.

till then, have fun with your knitting, everyone!

-Kennita

Tags: chaz, de mcglashon, hazel tully, mal hoover, susan berhow, TNNA

I first read about excess access and matter of trust with a tweet from knitting fever. Many thanks, Knitting Fever!

And I just thought- “wow”. Since then I’ve signed on to send wool scraps, hair, nylons and/or fur to help fill booms for the oil spill. I missed the first shipping deadline, but it looks like they’ll still be collecting boxes until June 10th. If anyone has donations they’d like me to ship, please bring them by the shop before June 6th and I will pack up and mail for you.

There are a number of u-tube videos on the booms- here’s one for starters and this will lead you to many more:

hair booms

If you haven’t already clicked on any of the links above, here’s another that just might grab you!

Alpaca’s to help fight gulf spill?

Tags: alpacas, fur, hair, oil spill, wool scraps

Need some last minute Mother’s Day ideas?

Here are a few suggestions from Wildflower:

mother's day gift ideas

• serendipity needles- these are the fun needles with polymer tops; flowers, fruits, sheep, etc.
• baabs with or without cable needles and repair hooks- from Lantern Moon, baabs is the sheep in the lower left corner, holding the scissors and cable needle.
• 365 stitches a year calendar- and great calendar for every year.
• tape measures, sweater stones- shown here is a turtle, but again from Lantern Moon, there are many others available
• needle felting kits- not shown in the picture but a great idea for a gift!

All of the above are fairly inexpensive purchases ranging from $6-$25.

and lastly, here’s a recipe (that reminds me of “my” mother) you might enjoy…

CHOCOLATE OATMEAL NO-BAKE COOKIES

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
1/2 cup peanut butter

Combine sugar, cocoa, butter and milk in a saucepan. On medium heat, bring to a boil for one full minute.

Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter (optional), vanilla and oatmeal.

Drop by spoonful onto wax paper. Let cool for at least 30 minutes.

Tags: knit gift ideas, mother's day, recipes

These are the last of the show highlights. All of these designs are mine and are either available here at the shop or from various publications.

stripes and blocks, available in Creative Knitting July 2009

pehuen vest

nashua twinset

manos cardigan by Kennita, hat by Koreen Carlton

swinging vines from creative knitting january 2010

Tags: designs by Kennita Tully, fashion show, wildflower designs

I’m not doing so well with the positioning of these pictures but I’ll have another try; must be a little trick I haven’t learned yet.

shawl knit by cindy cronin

Dahlia design knit by Renee Martin

two sweaters knit by Diane McHugh

prism wrap

sonora cardigan knit by Sally Yahnke

Tags: fashion show, wildflower designs

Our spring/summer fashion show has come and gone so I thought I’d post a few images here for those that missed it. More coming soon…

bags and hats by Mal Hoover and Ronna Tyson

Renee Martin's felted bag

allegoro top with hat by Koreen Carlton

intarsia vest by Barbara Tully

back of vest by Barbara Tully

Tags: designs by Kennita Tully, fashion show, wildflower designs

This is a little after the fact, but I wanted to thank all who came to the 8 year celebration on the 6th of March. I also wanted to post a pic of my very first (legitimate) customer, Ozella Gillespie, and me. I qualify that with “legitimate” because the yarn shop part of wildflower really began slowly and by word of mouth, so it was mostly knitting and weaving buddies that were climbing the stairs to find me. Ozella just happened to see a knitting display at the Manhattan Public Library back in February, 2002 and sought me out. She’s been coming to the shop nearly every week since that first day. She’s become much more than the loyal customer I describe here, but so often I am at a total loss of words to describe those most dear to me. She’s become a dear friend over the years, too.

ozella and kennita

I love my iphone…

I recently read an article in one of my trade magazines that listed some of the knitting apps, so I thought I’d share them and a quite a few others with you here. I’m not including reviews, because I haven’t actually used any of them.  I’ve tried to post links to credit the developers where possible. Most can be found by doing a search in the itunes app store. I’ve listed them in order of cost:

Yarnphone by ravelry locates yarn shops; free from yarnphone.com

KnitMinder Lite: keep track of knitting notes, projects and more; free from Quilt2go

KnitCounter Lite: multiple stitch counters; free from Cordless Dog

Needles: a needle inventory system; free from Zan Thrash

iLocate-Wool & Yarn: just what it sounds like- find yarn shops near you; $.99 from Brighthouse Labs

Knitting Yarn Calculator: could be very handy as it calculates yarn requirements for basic projects based on gauge; $.99 from Vlad Stamat

Knitting Lessons: tutorials on how to knit; $.99 from LoL software

Knittin Tutor: tutorials on how to knit; $.99 from LoL software

Craft Video: Knitting: knitting tutorial videos, $.99 from InterAve Media, LLC

Craft Video: Crochet: crochet tutorial videos, $.99 from InterAve Media, LLC

Nici McNally’s Complete Guide to Knitting: knitting tutorials; $.99 from NexStudios.jp

ConvertKnit: coverts needle sizes from metric to US to UK to JP among other conversions; $.99 from Cordless Dog

Knitting Guide: beginner’s guide to knitting; $1.99 from NexStudios.jp

Easy Stitch: learn to embroidery, knitting and crochet; $2.99 from Technical Made Easy, LLC

KnittyBag: keeps track of your knitting needles and crochet hooks; $.99 from Michael Lynn

KnitGauge:  measures gauge between 2 digital needles, $.99 from Michael Golden

iKnit Needle Sizer: this could be a keeper- sizes needles and hooks; $.99 from Michael Golden

Ewe Stash: organizes your stash by yarn and tools; $2.99 from Treeness, LLC

ForgetMeKnit: powerful and fliexible stitch counter; $2.99 from Nathan Davis

Stitches: crochet stitch patterns; $2.99 from VectorBloom Technologies

Knit Buddy: inventories your stash, needles and hooks includes row counters; $2.99 from David Ross Software

KnitMinder: project notebook; $2.99 from Quilt2Go

StitchCounter: counts rows and pattern repeats for multiple projects; $2.99 from ClearForce Consultancy, LLC

KnitCounter: allows you to customize and link multiple counters; $3.99 from Cordless Dog

StitchnCount: another stitch and row counter; $3.99 from LMF Designs, Inc.

JKnit: Guides you through complex stitch patterns row by row; $5.99 from Julia Kroyan

that’s it, my friends!

Enjoy!

Tags: iphone, itouch, knittin apps

Our dear De and Chaz made a trip back from Kansas City and joined us all at Knit Night last night. I know I’m not the only one in this community that misses them – Kansas City peeps- you are very fortunate to have gained these 2 in your part of the world.

de and chaz

Now that was actually a picture from before they left; here are some from last night:

de's return

chaz "at home"

They look pretty happy, don’t they? De met up with her grandson to have dinner across the street and Chaz slept on! For those of you that don’t know them, that’s his spot (and blanket) in the shop window. We look forward to their next trip back.

Here are a few more pics of the crowd:

knit night at wildflower- front table

knit night (back table)

Tags: chaz, de mecglashon, knit nights

We had our first finishing days last month at Wildflower.

I originally planned to have a finishing day when I realized how many sweaters I, myself, had piling up in need of various stages of “finishing”. This is very unusual for me. At any given time, I don’t think I’ve ever had over a couple waiting to be blocked, trimmed, sewn together and suddenly I had 6! I think I know how it happened. I have a growing number of designs that need to be written up, photographed and printed and I think- not entirely on a subconscious level- I was not allowing any more to be added to the list until I felt a little more “caught up” with the pattern writing. Sound familiar? I think it’s not unlike comments I hear in the shop: “oh, I couldn’t possibly start another project…”

stack of sweaters to be

But the truth is, I can’t “not” start new projects. I can’t “not” think up new designs. So we will be having 2 finishing days a month from now on- the second and third Saturdays of every month will be designated to getting projects done. Here are a few pics from the February days:

mal finishing a lucy neatby design

Kennita's vest awaiting blocking

sewing the pieces

March finishing days will be the 13th and the 20th from 11am to 4pm. With a little luck we might get these done in time for the fashion show on the 21st!

Tags: classes, designs by Kennita Tully, finishing