The Waupaca Fashion Gallery

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The Waupaca SuperModels; Doris, Anita, Victoria, and Karen	One Rowdy Crowd!
The Big V Vest Strut	A Peri-Fairy
Waupaca's Answer to Vana White	One Chic Suit
The most lovely Therapi Braided Wrap	The Belle of the Ball

"I Survived Waupaca Wisconsin!"

And I loved every minute of it!

I just got back from my first roadtrip since my surgery. First, I was at the Sow's Ear in Verona, WI, where I met with the lovely Heather. The Sow's Ear is one of my favorite shops I've visited yet. It is a combination coffee shop/yarn shop and does both beautifully! I am hoping to get back there soon for a Fashion Event (details to follow).

From Fair Verona, I hit the trail northwards to Waupaca, Wisconsin. It was a lovely 3 hour drive through farm country during harvest time. The leaves are starting to change color and the sky, for the most part, was deep and endless blue. I could not have asked for a more beautiful drive.

Once I arrived in Waupaca, I was greeted by the warmest, most welcoming group of artists at the Waupaca Arts Center. The Arts Center is home to a shop run by 5 artists; each with their own specialty. They have Yarn, weaving and knitting supplies(Lamb's Quarters), beads, pottery, baskets, recycled clothing, photography, etc. You can find the Waupaca Arts Center on Facebook at "Waupaca Arts" and the yarn shop portion at www.lambs-quarters.biz

<---Anita, Jane and Victoria from Lamb's Quarters

At the Arts Center we hosted a Fashion Show and we must have been the talk of Central Wisconsin! Women drove in from over 60 miles away to see the show!

Extra-Special Thanks to shopowner Jane, Photographer Byron, and Models Anita, Victoria, Doris, and Karen!

Fashion Event Updates

Since being back on my home turf I've been hitting the phones pretty hard. I went on a call to Montoya Fiber Studio in Evanston today. Cathy was already a well stocked shop in terms of SWTC products. I am happy to report that I will be holding a fashion event there on Oct 8. It should be a spectacular night for it because the shopping district there is having a "Retail Therapy" night with all sorts of other events. Everyone who can show up, should show up!

It was a good week for booking fashion events. I also (finally) booked an event during Stitches Midwest. I will be at Gifted Purl in West Dundee! In fact, SWTC's general manager, Kat will be there as well so you can check two SWTCGirlz off your must-see checklist. We are that cool, you know.

It looks like I will be on the road again the week of 9/14-9/18. If you are in or around the Twin Cities and would like to meet with me on the 14 or 15th please leave a note in the comments! If you are in or around Madison, Wi and want to meet on the 16, 17 or 18, again, leave a note in the comments.

Back on Home Soil

I am back on home soil now. When I last posted I had just pulled off the road somewhere near St. Paul, MN. After hitting the hay (hard!) I woke up to start fresh in a new city. First thing I did was get an oil change on the car (it was flashing and dinging at me back in La Crosse so I figured I better not push it). After that I began systematically visiting every yarn shop in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. To begin with, there are A LOT!! and on top of that, they are all HUGE by my puny, cramped, Chicago standards. I visited 11 shops while I was there. I even made 2 sales. It was not enough to cover the expenses of my trip, but I knew this was an introduction tour, so I would not be pulling in big bucks. So, special kudos to the ladies at Borealis Yarns

And The Fiber Studio!

My day in the Twin Cities was certainly more pleasant than I was anticipating after the night before. The weather was dreary but the people were so kind and warm! I even stayed a night longer than I anticipated and left early Friday morning.

I spent all day Friday on the road. I made a stop in Eau Claire, WI to visit Dixie at Yellow Dog Knitting. We had a nice chat and it was so nice to see her store. After that I had quite a time tracking down Fiber Garden in Black River Falls. My GPS took me off the highway, then off paved roads, and then dumped me at this:

"You Have Arrived at Your Destination." I think not.

Then the bridge back onto the interstate was out, so I spent a good 30 miles circling the highway, looking for a way back on. Then I stopped for gas and saw this:

I am not amused. I found my way back to the interstate and decided to forgo future stops. I will be out there again soon, no worries. I knew I was on the road too long when, upon arriving in IL, just 10 minutes from DC's house, I made a wrong turn while trying to be clever. I ended up in Libertyville. What a clod... I finally figured it out and thank goodness.

So, the Final Stats on this trip

Total # of Shops Visited: 29

# of shops found to be Out of Business:8

# of sales: 2

# of miles put on Lola: 1053.2

Thank You Officer Mark!

Before I say anything else, this is Officer Mark and he is Awesome!

After my only sales pitch of the day, yesterday, the yarn shop owner was walking me to my car, helping me carry some yarn. We put it in the trunk and began discussing routes to St. Paul... I was so focused on the conversation that when I went to close the trunk I didn't notice that my keys were in there. SO Yes, I locked my keys in my car in front of a client. After trying a few tricks I had up my sleeve, I called non-emergency police. They sent officer Mark who deftly pried open the door, hit the unlock button, and retrieved my keys and saved the day! Yay for Officer Mark!

Now on to the rest of the day. Back in Madison I visited Lakeside Fibers, a combination coffee house and yarn shop. What a simple but brilliant partnership. This shop really is right on a beautiful lake so you can buy everything you need for a new project, order a coffee drink, and then sit out on their back porch overlooking the lake. Wow!

I also visited the Knitting Tree in Madison, who has a fantastic selection of alpaca and noro yarns. Certainly worth a visit if you are ever in Madison.

From Madison I worked my way out to the suburbs. Muriel over at 'Tis the Season Christmas and yarn shop was kind enough to take a look at my full collection of yarns. She was also kind enough to walk me to the car, see "Officer Mark" story above.

In Verona, I visited what might be one of my top 3 favorite yarn shops, The Sow's Ear. It is another combination yarn shop/coffee house. This one just felt so welcoming and had such a phenomenally well edited selection. I had half a mind to rent an apartment right there and ask for a job. I probably should have... the rest of the day was less fun.

I was stunned at how quickly I moved from moderately sized suburbs to true outright rural-ness. Mind you, I am a city girl. I can cope with bad neighborhoods, traffic, pot holes, jay walkers, confusing tangles of city streets. Being in the middle of nowhere terrifies me. All I can think about is "if something happened, nobody would know how to find me. Even if they did, I am so many miles from a hospital..." and those thoughts are really bothering me. Plus the weather was looking less than promising.

When I finally got my foot in the door at "Gone Knitting" in Richland Center, The shop owner turned on The Weather Channel for me. Sure enough, tornado watches and red swirls all the way across my route. Not good news. I decided to venture forth through Viroqua and on to La Crosse. I should have stayed in La Crosse!

I listened to local radio for most of the route to keep an eye on the weather. In La Crosse I decided to skip the rest of the shops on my route and just go straight to St. Paul for the night. I crossed the Mississippi (which I always forget is SO SO SO BIG) once, made a wrong turn, crossed it again, and then crossed back again. I was getting tired of driving. Once firmly on the Minnesota side, the weather really started to trouble me. For one thing, I am not comfortable driving around geography of any kind. This highway wound and turned around rocky hills and cliffs. There was construction funneling the highway down to a single lane with a rocky drop-off on either side. No shoulder, no wiggle room. That is when my radio went crazy with "tornado alert, get under ground" warnings. Then suddenly I was driving through total White-Out Conditions. Truly white knuckle driving ensued. Once out of the storm I saw the whole storm system from behind. It was unlike anything I have ever seen before. Bright blue sky ahead and then charcoal grey wall of storm behind me....I just learned that 12 tornadoes hit my route from that system.

Final trial of the day was my ignorance of just how much nothing was in between St. Paul and La Crosse. I started feeling pretty lonely and scared. I stayed on the phone as much as possible, but about 10 miles out of St. Paul I finally pulled into a Microtel for the night. I was grateful to be off the road.

The Cheddar Curtain

This week I had my first foray across the state line with my rep kits. I had two appointments up in Milwaukee. Being unfamiliar with Milwaukee I sought out a native guide. Lucky for me, my college buddy Katy stepped up.

Her best friend lives 1/2 mile from my first appointment and her parents live down the block from my second appointment. So along with hitting a couple of sales calls, I got a first class tour of Milwaukee.

While I always miss the sign that says "Welcome to Wisconsin", I never miss this one. I think it's better anyways.

We also bought some Appleby's Gas. And you thought Applebees only did mozzerella sticks and burgers!

We passed Miller Stadium, home of the Brewers.

And here's Katy and her parents after we has a delicious dinner. Katy's mom had her very first Falafel!

When in Milwaukee I visited the Knitting Knook, a charming shop in a converted house. Her selection was beautiful and very high end. They will be expanding soon to gain some much needed space!

I also visited Fiberwood Studio, the first shop I've been to that had actual looms set up in the store. This shop is a fantastic destination for any weaver or multi-fiber arts interested crafter. This shop had a clear and unabashed natural color aesthetic that I just loved.