In store news, we attended our first vendor’s night!  I had alot of fun setting up the display and wish I had had a camera to take pictures of it.  Hopefully there will be more festivals and fairs in our future filled with wonderful pictures.  We have updated the store will wonderful Three Irish Girls Yarn and Fiber and will be listing more Yarn Love very soon.  Thinking of trying for a baby, rumor has it that TIG and YL are spreading around baby dust.  Not interested in babies?  We also have gorgeous hand painted needles from Peace Fleece, Yarn Bowls from Rising Sun Earthworks, and spots open in all our fun Yarn and Fiber Clubs.

We also have been approved to start carrying Dream in Color yarns and Hitchhiker Spinning Wheels!  These will both be available in October along with a few other exciting surprises.  To celebrate I am running a contest here on my blog for a free skein of Dream in Color.  You have 3 ways to win entries into this contest, each one you do will earn you an entry in the contest:

1. comment here on my blog with your favorite Dream in Color colorway

2. make a purchase from my store during the month of July

3. spread the Pulling at Strings love through Facebook, Ravelry, your Blog, etc. and send me a link.

I will announce the winner during the first week of August.  :)

<3 The Yarn Lark

In other news – MD Sheep and Wool is coming up soon!  I am so excited!  This has to be one of my favorite weekends of the year where I drop more money than I would ever like to admit lol.  Last year’s festival was great and I fell in love with the fabulous artwork from Sheep Incognito and the hitchhiker spinning wheels that I saw in one of the booths.  I cannot wait to see what goodness will be there this year, that is if I can make it through the festival.  Walking has become very difficult for me lately thanks to my lovely 29lb weight gain so far.

As for pregnancy news – we’ve got genders!  Baby a is a beautiful baby girl and Baby b is a boy!  I am a little over 20wks and am already browsing knitting patterns and selecting yarns.  I definitely plan on making a modified Sidar Baby Vest or two using YL Bayfield Apple, Chartreuse, and Brown on Elizabeth Bennet.  Also on my list are two SMSS gift wrap rompers on Family Roots willow merino and two SMSS small things rompers in some handspun MM woodland in spring on targhee.  I am also going to try to modify the Never Not Knitting Spring Garden Tee into a nb size.  Any suggestions on more good NB knitting patterns?  I’m excited to start knitting!

<3 The Yarn Lark

So what exactly does this mean for Pulling at Strings….

1. Should I be placed on bedrest, orders will most likely ship out once a week, when I can get help packaging.

2.  I will be taking August and September off, but all my yarn clubs will still be active.

3.  I may update the blog with pics of nb knit items and stuff that makes my heart pitter patter….you’ve been warned.

More on store updates coming soon!

<3 The Yarn Lark

I have also enabled gift certificates!  You have a choice of $10, $25, $50, and $75 amounts.  In a week I will be adding some kits as well as information about the 2010 clubs.  We will have a YOTM club, Fiber club, and Sock Yarn club.  The Sock Yarn and Fiber Clubs will rotate months.

In other news, its a blustery blizzarding day here.  We have almost 2ft of snow on the ground!  So I am off to finish baking my daughter’s birthday cake and hopefully warm up in the process!

<3 The Yarn Lark

Here’s Vita:

My name is Vita. I lived in Italy for 3 years (I was born and grew up in Riga, Latvia), I am married to a French man and have an amazing 2 year old son.

2. When and why did you start designing?
Since I learned to crochet and knit – I was a child at that time. I enjoyed learning all these things.  Of course at the beginning I was using someone else’s patterns. But quickly, I found I was always trying to make it my own way.  But serious designing I started not to long ago – when I became a housewife! While I was single I always kept myself very busy.  I was working, studying, traveling and meeting friends; at the end I had very little time for crocheting and knitting. But when my life changed, I moved to another country where I didn’t have to work (thanks to my husband ) and I finished my studies (although I had to learn a new language) I finally had more time for my hobbies.

3. What do you use for inspiration?
My biggest inspiration is my little son. Of course now he is already too big for tiny baby booties, but when I think about him, how to dress him, what would be comfortable for him, I always find some good ideas for designing. 
But also inspiration can be anything I see around me. I like to walk on streets and watch shops, watch how people are dressed, what kind of accessories they have and so on… it can be just a small detail which attracts my attention and voilà – something new is born.

4. What is your favorite item you have designed and why?
The very last one. Always while I am working on new pattern and finally it is done, and I am ready to list it in my shop – it becomes my favourite… till I make new one… Probably some special feelings I still have about my very first pattern I ever wrote – Crocheted Baby Booties. Before I was designing just for myself but this was the first pattern I was ready to share with other people.

5. What are your favorite colors?
Difficult to say, it depends very much on season… in summer I love bright colours – green, lilac, orange. In winter I prefer grey, beige, brown.

6. Tell us one secret
I buy too many shoes and too much yarn…

-Vita, Mon Petit Violin Designs

http://www.etsy.com/shop/monpetitvoilindesigns

Thanks Vita!

<3 The Yarn Lark

Remember you still have a chance to be entered into the drawing for the $10 gc.  That drawing will stay open until we have reached 100 orders

Keep your eye out on the blog for another meet the artisan and a fabulous new FREE pattern as well!  We will also be posting new instock fiber from Fibers 4 Ewe very soon! Now off to pack up for our trip back to MD from MA.  Wish me luck!

In honor of our grand opening we  will be running 3 contests starting on opening day:

1. The first 100 customers will be placed into a drawing for a $10 gift certificate towards a future purchase from Pulling at Strings
2. Anyone who signs up for the Pulling at Strings newsletter between October 31st and November 7th will be entered into a drawing to win a free pattern of their choice up to a $7 value
3. Comment here on my blog between October 31st and November 7th with your favorite item in my store to be entered into a drawing for free shipping on any future order from Pulling with Strings

Now, its time to meet one of our artisans, Katie of Wool Food Market.  I have long admired Katie’s work and have quite the collection of her wool food for my little ones.  When she wrote her wool fruit felting tutorial earlier this year, I knew that I definitely wanted to carry it in my store.  Luckily for me, she agreed.

Here’s Katie!

When and why did you start felting?

I’d been introduced to felting by an on-line friend and fellow crafter.  However, she was a needle felter and I preferred the wet-felting process.  I had a rather large bag of wool roving that I started rolling into balls.  As I stood at the sink rolling wool in soapy water, I lingered on what I could make from the balls.  Most of the colors were fruity in nature and wool food was born.

What do you use for inspiration?

A farmer’s market or the produce section is where I get most of my inspiration for food.  I try to replicate the hues and variations of the fruits and vegetables.  Pineapples still escape me.

When I make playscapes, I love to create what one might imagine is hiding on the forest floor.  A gnome, troll, critters…a secret home in the base of an old tree stump.

What is your favorite item you have felted and why?

I really enjoy felting up wool tree stumps.  What exactly emerges from the water bath is always a surprise.

What are your favorite colors?

Orange and avocado green

Tell us one secret:

Tell us one secret: A washing machine is more forgiving than your own hands when wet-felting.  It’s not discriminating and felts evenly on all sides.  Our heads, via our hands, try to manipulate the wool.  A washing machine allows the wool to do what wool does…felt.  My greatest works would have never happened if I’d hand felted them.  Unwrapping them after a run through a washing machine allows the wool a certain amount of freedom that usually works.

I also understand that I’m working with a natural element so it’s not always going to work out as I envisioned.  I go into it every time understanding that some days the wool just isn’t going to work with me and I have a willingness to scrap disasters.

Here’s Lindsay!

My name is Lindsay Baker and I live in the Puget Sound area of Washington State.  We moved here one year ago from Oregon when my husband got a job at the Naval Shipyard working as a Healthy Physicist.  Together we have 4 wonderful children: a 10 year-old son, a 5 year old daughter and 3 year old twin daughters.

When and why did you start dyeing?

I began dyeing yarn for my custom knitting business 4.5 years ago.  I started selling my dyed yarn along with custom knitted items about 2 years ago.  Initially I dyed my own yarn when all of the real yarn dyers were unable to keep up with the demand for their Artisan dyed yarns.  I found that I really enjoyed the creativity that dyeing yarn gave me, so I kept it up!

What do you use for inspiration?

I use anything and everything around me as inspiration.  I am often inspired by all of the children’s books that I read to my 3 little girls.  When I spend a lot of time reading their favorites over and over a new colorway is bound to emerge!  I’m also a movie/tv series/fiction novel addict.  I get many of my colorway ideas from fictional characters who inspire me and the made up worlds they live in.

What is your favorite colorway you have dyed and why?

This is a very tough question to answer!  If I had to choose, I would pick “Chocolate Rose”.  I think I love it so much because it is rich and has great contrast while still being very feminine.  I love working with girly colors, but I still prefer bold, bright and rich tones.

What are your favorite colors?

Brown, pink and turquoise.  “Marilyn” is my second favorite colorway.

Tell us one secret:

I’m an open book.  That’s my secret

So here’s Sharon:

Married to the World’s Greatest Husband, mom to three of the World’s Most Beautiful Children, high school teacher, yarnista.

When and why did you start dyeing?

I had a custom knitting business, and a customer asked me to make something for her that we couldn’t find anywhere. You can read the whole (long story) here: http://threeirishgirls.com/blog/?p=285

What do you use for inspiration?

I keep huge files of things for inspiration. I will often see the colors in an image before seeing the image itself, and I draw from different types of print publications, art books, and textiles. I also love working with concepts — if someone asks me to create something called “Mulled Wine,” I find it challenging to come up with something that evokes the feeling of the concept, not just the colors.

What is your favorite colorway you have dyed and why?

I can’t do that to my babies! But I will say that most things with brown and turquoise have a special place in my heart.

What are your favorite colors?

Easy. Saturated turquoises, purples, browns, pinks, and greens. I could spend the rest of my life working with that color palette.

Tell us one secret:

I love to eat with chopsticks, and actually prefer using them in many cases.

]]> http://www.pullingatstrings.com/blog/2009/09/18/being-an-irish-girl-myself/feed/ 1 http://www.pullingatstrings.com/blog/2009/08/29/look-i-have-a-coming-soon-page/ http://www.pullingatstrings.com/blog/2009/08/29/look-i-have-a-coming-soon-page/#comments Sat, 29 Aug 2009 19:48:45 +0000 Jenn http://pullingatstrings.wordpress.com/?p=81 The website design is coming along wonderfully thanks to Cicily of August Afternoon Design who has been fantastic with creating my vision.

While working on the site design has been fun, shopping for the store has been even more exciting.  I have started placing wholesale orders these past weeks, and actually had my first show up on my doorstep this morning!  I will have some pictures for you soon as well as another Artisan reveal.  Hope you all have been having a great summer!

<3 The Yarn Lark