Workin' Wednesdays

Wow, that week went by so fast! 

I finished the red wool pullover and the cotton horse sweater, and they are already shipped, so I can't show you pictures. I am just finishing up a black wool patch pocket cardigan, but I can't show you pictures of that either, because my camera batteries are dead and I don't have any backup batteries here at the store. I will try to get pictures of it before I ship it, though. I finished the punch card for the leaf, and as soon as I finish the black wool cardigan, I will knit some hats with leaves on them, as I try out various color combo's. 

I haven't been working on my hand knitting or my spinning much lately, as I should be, because I have been taking a reading break. I realized I hadn't read a book in about a year, so I have read The Lightning Thief and started the next book in the Percy Jackson series, something about Sea Monsters. Also I finally read the third book in the Tamir fantasy triad by Lynn Flewelling; the book is called Oracle's Queen, and it was a fantastic read. Lynn is such a fabulous writer! I would love reading her books even if she didn't go to college with me. She is amazing, I tell you. I think she's the next Anne McCaffrey. I loved Anne McCaffrey's dragon books, too. 

My "work" handknitting, such as it is, is still the short rows scarf made from Audrey, and I really must start knitting that Hard Alee pullover for the knitting cruise very soon. Yikes. 

Thworkin' Thursday

Wednesday blew right by me, so I am doing "Thworkin" Thursday instead of Workin' Wednesday. 

Today has been a busy knitting machine day. First of all, yesterday I finished a red crewneck sweater. Here is what it looks like at the moment:

When I finish sewing it together it will look like this:

I also started knitting a horse sweater for a customer. Here it is just starting to cast on, on the knitting machine:

In this picture you can see the mylar punchcard that I use to create the horse pattern on the knitting machine. Here is a children's version of what I am making (the adult version is the same, just bigger):

I also am creating a punchcard for a new leaf design. Ha, I guess that's sort of like turning over a new leaf? I will let you know how it turns out. 
 
   

Workin' Wednesdays

Not that I don't work other days of the week, heh heh.... BUT it occurred to me that probably quite a few of you who read my blog (assuming there are more than 3 of you out there) would like to know what I do most of my time.

I know that you probably read this blog for knitting-related stuff, hand knitting, designing, spinning, fiber in general, silly cat stories, and the occasional recipe. I tend to focus on my knitting projects because it is fun for me to talk about, and talking about my knitting projects in this blog creates a good record of what I have done so I can go back and re-read stuff, which sometimes helps me remember things.

However, Unique One is not just a yarn shop. And as interesting as it may be to see what it is like to work in a yarn shop, you might also like to see what else I do here.

Unique One is also a sweater shop, and we make our own sweaters. Like a lot of my local flesh and blood customers, probably a lot of you know I make sweaters, but I'm not sure you really get what that means.

Therefore, starting this week, I am going to try to devote Wednesday posts to something about the sweaters that we make at Unique One, and talk a little about the store, its history, how the sweaters get made, and feature a picture of some sweater that we make so I can tell you a little about it. I promise to try not to be too pushy about selling you the sweater, however I am pretty desperate for money, so ya never know. :)

Since this post is already getting a bit long, I am going to start this Workin' Wednesday with just a picture:

Here's my Cute as a Moose sweater for kids (hey, if you can be Cool as a Moose, why not Cute as a Moose??).
 We make these in both kids sizes and adult sizes, and they look the same, just bigger. We have always made them in both red and blue, and the adults sizes sometimes are available in vanilla or pearl (versions of buff or off-white), and also olive. This little pink version is new for Unique One. Putting the moose on a baby pink background was a customer suggestion, and I love it! So we will make a few moosies in pink this year. :)

My cotton sweaters, like the moose one is, are made of 100% domestic cotton that I get from a distributor in Indiana. We actually knit them a little bit big, because we shrink them in a hot washer and hot dryer so that you can launder them easily. Unique One cotton sweaters are machine washable and dryable! And very comfy. 

The kids moose sweater is available by phone (1-888-691-8358) and the adult size is available to purchase online on this page.