Jun
opening day
Posted by Shannon in the shoptwisted opened yesterday to what we humble proprietresses feel was a resounding success. the lead-up has been fun, scary, exhausting, exhilirating, and, oh, did i mention terrifying? at 2am friday morning, we took the paper off the windows and were finally able to see what our shop looks like from the outside (don’t worry - all that cardboard is gone, gone, gone):
butterflies in the belly at that point, and maybe a tear or two leaking out (not that we are completely crybabies, but it was touching, folks).
after sleeping for a few hours, we came back to twisted and did some last-minute cleaning, organizing, and polishing. we had some visitors, who also turned into our first in-shop customers, derrick and bob, our super-great contractors, chipped in and bought a chocolate milk. (bob opted out of the actual drinking of the milk).
the chalkboard was written upon…
and the yarn was admired…
at 10:55am, we had our first actual, during-business-hours customers, jolene and amy! whooo-hooo!
oh, and for all of you eagerly anticipating the answers for the contest, we do have winners, and will be announcing those lucky names tomorrow.
Jun
drum roll, please
Posted by Shannon in the shopbecause we are…
OPENING THIS FRIDAY
June 29
yes, you read that right, people. a mere month after our original opening day, twisted will be an actual, working shop, throwing our doors open, hawking yarn and crafts all over the place, and it’s all happening on our own little emily’s birthday.
what are our hours? you ask. well, we will be open tuesday through sunday, 11am - 8pm.
to celebrate both the shop opening and emily’s special day, we are having an open house from 5pm - 8pm on friday (but doors will be open at 11am).
and, please, PLEASE remember to enter the inaugural twisted contest. there is free yarn to be had, folks. free yarn.
Jun
Contest to celebrate opening
Posted by Emily in contestsYes, we’re opening very very soon. We don’t want to jinx anything or count our chickens before they’re hatched, but just one more inspection stands between us and utter legality… As soon as we’re good to go we’ll send out a newsletter with our official opening date.
To keep you busy until then, here is a special contest to celebrate our opening. In fact, we’re so excited let’s make it two!
Contest #1
The question: How many skeins/balls of yarn will Twisted have in stock on opening day?
The prize: One skein of the exclusive Twisted colorway from Zen String and a Skacel needle gauge.
Contest #2
The question: How many flavors of tea will Twisted offer on opening day?
The prize: One skein of the Twistini colorway from Yarntini and a Skacel needle gauge.
Enter the contests.
Entries will be accepted through Friday, June 29 at 11am Pacific Time. These contests will be in addition to our regular monthly contests (more on those later). One entry per person, por favor. Closest person will win (whether over or under - it’s not The Price Is Right). We’ll even mail it to you free if you’re in the US, but it will be via the postal service’s slowest snail.
Jun
creeping ever closer
Posted by Shannon in the shopwhew. what a week we twistedistas have had. as emily’s husband said today, twisted is one of those ’some assembly required’ type of places. we’ve been painting some more (yeah, i thought we were done, too), putting shelving together, finishing off the counters, cleaning, organizing, mounting stuff, cleaning some more, having inspections…this is a crazy ride we are on, people. a wonderful, exciting, stimulating, and dream-fulfilling ride, but a crazy one nonetheless. we are coming to the end of this part of it, and have realized how lucky we are to have generous, helpful, and talented folks in our lives. stefan, my hubbie, has been at the shop every night this week, sometimes until as late as 10:30 (after working a full day at his regular job). we also had a great lil group of guys today helping us out: stefan, good buddies erik and collin, and emily’s own matt. we busted it out, people, and twisted will be opening SOON. keep checking back to find out the exact opening date, and to enter our very first twisted contest (the details of which will be posted in the next few days).
until then, enjoy these photos from today:
and, if that wasn’t exciting enough, on thursday afternoon, my fantasticly wonderful brother and his gorgeous, fabulous wife had their first baby, so i am now aunt shannon. best.news.ever. she is perfect, beautiful, smart, and funny already, and she’s only two days old.
Jun
Twistini
Posted by Emily in yarnCheck out the fantastic custom colorway for Twisted by Yarntini!
Twistini is magenta, lime green and chocolate brown. It’s a delightful superwash wool in sport weight, perfect for whipping up a funloving pair of summer socks. I know that in some parts of the country you don’t wear socks in the summer, but around here mornings are chilly enough that my popsicle toes need a little lovin’.
Jun
moving along nicely
Posted by Shannon in the shopit’s been a while since we gave an update on the happs at twisted. there have been happs, though - the contractors are just about done, and we have spent the past three days painting. i don’t want to jinx anything, but i do believe we are done. with the painting, that is. there are oodles of things left to do, but, with the painting done, emily and i have both breathed a big ole sigh of relief. because of the construction, we hadn’t been able to do much at the actual shop, which has been frustrating, to say the least. what we really want is to throw open the doors tomorrow, but we are taking it one day at a time, and getting as much done in each of those days that we possibly can.
as far as painting goes, we went from this:
to this:
see all that dust on the ground? this is after mopping each area you see more than once. drywall dust SUCKS. but, our colors make me think, longingly, of mint-chocolate chip ice cream. yummy.
so what’s next for us?
shelving. ikea is great, fantastic, fabulous. the only problem? you have to assemble EVERYTHING.
Jun
instant gratification
Posted by Shannon in the shop, yarn, swatching
we have had very little lately that has been instantly gratifying. everything seems to be taking a quazillion times longer than it should. we are inching our way toward opening, but we wish we were running toward it. one thing that is easily, quickly, and satisfyingly completed is a simple, small, sweet swatch. what an innocuous little thing a swatch is: a small piece of knitted fabric, so perfect, so fast, so…bewitching. one can finish a swatch, maybe even two, in an evening. i can see why nona does it.
Jun
Car talk
Posted by Emily in UncategorizedCar Talk is one of my favorite NPR programs, and that’s saying a lot as I’m an NPR junkie - pretty much listening to it every waking moment. I also have warm memories of it being on the radio every Saturday morning growing up. In any event, I got a huge kick out of their puzzler this week… because it’s about knitting! Well, sort of. They’re not quizzing listeners about how to do intarsia or aran sweaters or anything. But, I think it’s a good example of how knitting is taking over the world!
Click here to read the puzzler, or here to listen to it in Real Audio player (if you’re on a PC).
Jun
a craft for every person
Posted by Shannon in craftingas we practice the fine art of patience, emily and i have had a little time to reflect on our crafting lives, and to explore just a bit more fully the path, and crafts, that have lead us to where we are today.
crafting has always been in my blood, and, as my mom says, i come by it honestly. my family has always been the crafty sort - for many years, my parents spearheaded a home-made christmas present for every attendee of our family christmas party (not a small feat, as my mother has seven siblings, and i have at least 30 cousins, all younger than me). many of the projects were made from wood, and all required a great deal of work, from creating patterns, to cutting, sanding, assembling, and painting. growing up with a stay-at-home mother also inspired my craftiness, as well as having a paternal grandmother who was a whiz at sewing and quilting.
i have long tried to get my husband crafting. years ago, i taught him knitting. it didn’t stick. he loves my knitting; he wears socks i have made him almost every single day, and in the winter, is never without one of his handknitted hats; he has been begging me to make him a sweater for years, but there has never been a strong desire on his part to take part in any craftiness of his own. his creative endeavors are of a more literary sort. so imagine how surprised i was when, when getting ready to iron on some of jenny hart‘s fab designs, he said to me “i think i might like embroidery.”
we quickly found the perfect pattern for him: a race-car complete with speed-flames shooting out from behind, and he got to work. you know what people say about the speed with which men pick up crafts? i am here to tell you that it is a true story. his embroidery is pretty freaking tight, yo. he’s doing some amazing things with the colors, and the textures…i am so very proud. my dear sister also got the embroidery bug - stop by the shop when it’s open and both will be proudly on display. a few weeks ago, we three spent the weekend embroidering together. what a fabulous thing. mine was a decemberists pattern, j did a bowling bettie, and s the race-car.
Jun
twisting business and pleasure
Posted by Shannon in the shop, yarn, socksalthough we are not yet open, and, frankly, can’t do much work at the physical shop, we are constantly amazed at the amount of work there remains for both of us. entering inventory, for example, makes me think of a data entry job i had just out of college, working through a temp agency, slogging away for 8 hours a day, typing in meat orders for grocery stores. boring, hellish job, that.
it’s not all rote data entry, though. twisted, being a craft shop, is able to work with crafty vendors, who are clever and cute and fun.
who else would name a yarn ‘lipstick lava’ (dream in color)? how about ’spritz’ (frabjous fibers)? ‘get your feet wet’ (southwest trading company)? that’s not even mentioning the clever yarntini names, like 4-8-15-16-23-42. i could really go on all the live-long day, but i won’t.
there is also crafting to do. and crafting we have been doing. a lot of swatching, that’s for sure, which is great in its own way, but swatching is really not all that interesting, either to write or read about. but this next project, the one i completed this weekend, this is interesting. fun. gratifying.
emily and i have decided to write a line of twisted patterns, to complement the yarns we are carrying and to fulfill that deep need to delve deeper into our craft. many of you can relate to this - it is what leads crafty gals and guys to pick up spinning, weaving, embroidery, sewing, the list can go on and on and on. since we are both sock knitters, we need to write our own sock patterns, right? the first pair of socks to come from this new endeavor is finished, and, if i do say so myself, they are fabulous. i used the zen string twisted colorway, a twisty lace-cable pattern, and a short, sweet, picot top. the written pattern is not complete, but the socks are.
