Noro magazine has arrived...

As you would expect, this magazine is full of colours, gorgeous patterns and beautiful scenes.

We even have a few of the Noro Premiere issues on hand for those of you who didn't get the first issue.

Preview the mag details here:  http://www.noromagazine.com/

10th Anniversary celebration...

It’s our 10^th Anniversary – Come Celebrate with us!!

SAVE 10% on all yarns ( June 10 – 14 only )

It’s Knit in Public week all next week

Join us Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - Noon – Four

Join us for a bit of fun!!

We’re making Monster hats – use your imagination

If making Monster hats isn’t for you – no worries drop in with your knitting and celebrate with us!!

Lots of in shop deals happening….  

 

Knit Scene special "super sized" issue just arrived

Who said it's too early to knit for Christmas?? Wait until you see this new Knit Scene mag.

It's full of 33 accessory items just right for anyone on your list. 

 Practice your colourwork skills. Show off your lace work, modular knitting or an array of striped knitting, perhaps.

What ever your choice, it will be fantastic!!

 Have a preview here:
 http://www.knittingdaily.com/blogs/knitscenemagazine/archive/2013/05/16/knitscene-accessories-2013.aspx

Sally says it Best!!!

Here's Sally's latest blog post. Doesn't this hit home. Supporting a local business has more sides to it than one would see.

 Thank you Sally for shedding light on this very important situation!!

saving the world, one yarn shop at a time

We all find ourselves making decisions these days--for financial and ethical reasons. Whether food or shoes, we are thinking differently about what we buy, how much we buy, and where we buy it.

So, with this in mind, I'd like to share a sad story with you.

I was recently in a wonderful yarn shop (doesn't matter where). I spoke to the owner about what fabulous yarn she had, and she shared with me a not unfamiliar story . . .  that there are a significant number of customers who enter, fondle, leave, and buy the same yarn elsewhere--for a few dollars less.

So these were not people who had to buy online (those poor souls who do not live near yarn shop): these were people who

1. wanted access to the yarn shop so they could check out the yarn but
2. chose to buy it online for a reduced price.

I understand stretching dollars when times are tough. But we need to think long and hard about how we are doing this. Are we doing so in such a way that we undermine and threaten the viability of a much-needed business?

When we buy from a local yarn shop, we are supporting one of our community's entrepreneurs. And everyone tells us that the solution to economic growth is small business. These shops are essential to the well-being of our communities.

In addition, I will share with you some thoughts from The Watchman's Rattle. This is a book that lists the beliefs that hold us back from solving our problems. One of these beliefs is extreme business practices, which she defines as

• the need for profit
• the need for speed and efficiency.

So, to solve our problems and to save civilization as we know it,  we need to reject the need for profit and reject the need for speed. Neither of these motives will help us solve the huge issues that keep us awake at night.

Well . . . knitters are role models for this behavior! Given how expensive knitting is, nothing we do  can be done for the profit motive! Given how labour-intensive knitting is, nothing we do can be done for expediency! We should be rewarded for our rejection of business practices that don't serve the world!

(I would also guess that anyone who reads a blog about knitting is a role model for this behavior, so I am likely preaching to the choir??)

In addition, we could probably agree that pretty-much everything of value executed by human beings (art, family time, music, solutions to climate change, architecture, volunteer work) is, or will be, done without profit or efficiency as motivating factors.

So, back to the LYS. We absolutely must reject the need to go elsewhere to save a few dollars!!! The profit motive that drives us to do so might not be good role-modelling and does not serve us, our craft, our communities, our civilization.

Again, those ethical considerations we bring to bear on everything else we buy should be turned to knitting. Buy less? But buy local!

Grey Heron yarn shop joke: 
Have you heard the joke about the so called "Christian" women who used to frequent a yarn shop and left to order on-line - tempted by the wolf in sheep's clothing!!

Mother's Day gifts for knitters...

Yarn bowl + Gadgets

Knitters are an easy group to please ... We have tried to make shopping for Mother's day an easy job here... Beautiful kits for sock knitters, lace shawl knitters, hand crafted yarn bowl with gadgets, great books and of course - walls of yummy yarns... So, stop in this week and pick out something wonderful for your Mom

Lace Lovers Kit

Sock Lovers Kit

 

 

Coffee + Sock Lovers Gift

Collaboration Is Key To Business success;

Collaboration Is Key To Business success;

What Is collaboration And How Will It Help Me?
Collaboration is a working practice whereby individuals work together to a common purpose to achieve business benefit. It is the ability to work together as a team and support each other to have a stronger chance to improve business performance and outcomes.
Collaboration is the key to Empower your business and take it to the next level. Collaborating with other business women with similar target audiences to you will help boost sales, website traffic and your reputation, but in order to ensure collaboration success you will need to follow these basic rules and collaboration practices.
According to research and best practices, the combination of several factors may help steer collaboration to achieve business results,
Empowerment - Empowerment is the attitude needed to unite together in a direction and vision for your joint campaign. In order to achieve the best results all parties involved must agree and share the same excitement and commitment to achieve a powerful positive vibe.
Culture - The collaborative culture of a business stems from its’ shared beliefs, values, and business practices. Collaboration is about creating value. You can also choose to collaborate with another business to improve your value, for example if your business was a hair dressing salon and you had no experience with writing for your blog, you could collaborate with a business that shares your target audience and exchange services for blog entries and share each others audience to achieve more value for both of the parties involved.
Technology - Social intelligence these days is a major factor which helps everyone stay on top of the collaboration success and improve the effectiveness of your campaign with ease.Platforms like Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and many more are helping businesses share and keep track of how collaboration campaigns perform and play out. Reports are showing cost efficiencies, speed to market, and greater pool of ideas and innovation through collaboration, which are passed on to the customer through cost savings and better products.
Don’t overlook the many features of collaboration tools. Like the endless conversations online, microblogging, commenting, and @mentions (similar to Twitter) gives everyone a chance to be responsive to new relationships and share what they know.
It’s interesting to hear stories like this about how emerging companies are still actively engaged in marketing but they’re saving costs. Instead they are looking for innovative ways to collaborate with partners and the community. I believe strongly in collaboration and find that once an agreement is made & all parties are committed to get results then it is highly effective.



Work together and build lasting relationships, once you have joined our network you can collaborate as many times as you like.  
Have fun!! as read in talkingmumsmagazine.com

Where are the like mined yarn shop owners??

Baa Baa Black sheep have you any wool?

Baa Baa Black sheep have you any wool? We will - this fall... Presenting this marvelous British thru and thru 4 ply oh natural gorgeous wool.

 Introducing - "Titus", a stunning, luxurious natural 4 ply yarn that's Yorkshire through and through. They've taken the beautiful long locks of the Wensleydale in a natural grey shade, mixed it with the finest of all British Breeds, the Bluefaced Leicester and then added another little Yorkshire surprise, which gave us inspiration for its name.
Limited supply will arrive in late August just in time for fall knitting. 

50% Grey Wensleydale
20% Bluefaced Leicester
30% UK Alpaca
320m/ 350yds per 100g hanks
Hand wash.