Beans Beans, the Magical Fruit

Here on the homestead the nights are turning colder and the leaves are changing colors so that means Harvest Time! Today I harvested the heirloom beans. We have 3 varieties, all from Seed Savers Exchange; Kentucky Wonder Pole, Cranberry, and my favorite, the Christmas Lima Bean. You may recognize the Christmas Lima from the cover of the book Animal Vegetable, Miracle by, my favorite author, Barbara Kingsolver. If you have not read this book, I highly recommend that you put it at the top of your reading list.

An important lesson was learned: if the pod looks beautiful and rich and vibrant then the bean is immature. If the pod looks like cat-yak, there is one sexy bean inside.

I haven't quite decided what to cook with the beans. Right now I am just admiring them in a cobalt bowl on my kitchen table. Truthfully, I find the look of them satisfying enough all on their own.

The Waupaca Fashion Gallery

I'm working on improving my HTML image formating skills, So please be patient. I'm testing out a new concept where I post alternately text-heavy and image-heavy entries. This way, I am hoping to create a more code-friendly back end for myself and a more reader/viewer friendly blog. Please comment or e-mail me with your opinions!

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!

Yaks and Yarns and Yucks (their title, not mine)

image courtesy of Denver Post

BijouSpun yarn is one of the lines I carry. Eileen over at Bijou Basin Ranch, home of the yak yarn, just sent me this link. The Denver Post did a piece on the Ranch that I really enjoyed. If you have a moment, I highly recommend that you watch this video. The yaks are so sweet and the fiber; so luscious!

Surgery Update (No Photos, I promise)

Warning

If you do not want to hear about my insides, kindly disregard this post.

The surgery was a success! That being said, I feel like I survived the most punishing ab-bootcamp ever invented by the U.S. armed forces and have nothing to show for it but 4 small stab wounds. They removed my gallbladder laprascopically, through a 2 inch incision in my belly button and made 3 more small incisions around my abs for sport. You can watch a video filmed by my doctor if you dare. Turns out, not only was the duct blocked by a very large gallstone, but I had several more small stones in there too. It was all so infected that it had adhered in a whole bunch of places not only to my liver, but also to my stomach. This stinking gallbladder had actually pulled my stomach out of place! I will not even describe to you what they found inside the thing, but my doctor was pretty shocked. Apparently I really should have been so jaundiced that I glowed in the dark for the last year or two. I guess I am so pale that nobody would have noticed!

I spent one very, very long sleepless night in the hospital. I gave the hospital staff quite a scare when I had a bad reaction to the anesthesia several hours after I woke up. Turns out that because I am such a good girl (I don't smoke, drink, eat a lot of processed food, take medications etc) my body could not process all the chemicals from the surgery. I suddenly couldn't breath, started convulsing, and lost feeling in my arms and legs. They took an emergency EKG that showed a heart arrhythmia. That was petrifying, but it passed. My nurse, who has been in the field for nearly 15 years, said that I was the only time she ever saw anyone have that reaction.

After a day, my mom took me back to her house I spent two days being a lump on her couch. Each day I have been getting a little stronger. Last night I was well enough to come back to Grandma's house and sleep in my own bed and see my bunny-babies. Now I am sitting around, hoping people will visit me. I not supposed to leave the house or get out of bed much until my follow up appointment on Wed.

When all is said and done, I do have the gallstone in a little jar. I think I should make a necklace...

Wish Me Luck

MYSTERY SOLVED!

After several years of mysterious and debilitating nocturnal pain attacks I have finally gotten a diagnosis. Turns out I have at least 1 inch-wide gallstone lodged in some sort of duct near my liver. Tomorrow I am going to have my Gallbladder removed. I will be in the hospital for only one night (hopefully) and then will be stuck in bed for about a week. Wish me luck.

In the mean time, here is a photo of my bunny-girls discussing important bunny issues.

Gifted Purl Spectacular!

Thank you to everyone who came out to the Gifted Purl for the Fashion Event on Friday night! It was so much fun and I felt so welcome there. I would like to extend a very special thank you to Mollie, the shop owner, and my 4 volunteer models; Jeanette, Allie, Casey, and Lindsey. They were total pros and such good sports. Here are some photos of our fun from Friday.



This is called a "Knitter's Handshake".

Here are Mollie, the shopowner and gracious hostess, and Kat, my special guest, the General Manager of Southwest Trading Company.

I have two fashion events planned for October. 1 at Montoya Fiber Studio in Evanston for Thursday, 10/8 and another at Sister Arts in Chicago for Thursday, 10/15.

If you would like to have a fashion show in your area, Please leave a comment or send me an e-mail! I love these shows and they are a great time for everybody!

No Call, No Show

Currently I am sitting on a bench, outside of a yarn shop in a quaint Chicago Suburb. I will not tell you which suburb or which shop. I am at my first of hopefully very, very few, No call-No Show appointments. I have no cell phone number to contact the shop owner at, no voicemail at the shop itself, no nothing. Luckily it is a lovely day to be out on a bench. And luckily, I did not have to drive terribly far or rent a motel room or any other some-such. This is purely an accident, an oversight I'm sure. However, consider me a little miffed.

That being said, I have further not-so-good news. I picked a very, very bad time to get sick. I have been dealing with an increasingly nasty heart burn problem for the past several years. I haven't seen the need to see a doctor up until recently because things are getting out of control. Well, long story short, I am now seeing a specialist and having a lot of tests done (both invasive and not so invasive). So, to say I'm a little bit stressed is, well, I'll leave it at "I'm stressed".

Sorry for the Negative Nelly post. I'll post something upbeat when something upbeat happens!

A Knit-Night Spectacular

To begin with, I should have taken photos. I really should have.

That being said, after a brief sales call out in Joliet at The Perfect Touch, I headed into Chicago for a very special Knit Night at Sister Arts Studio. We were celebrating (...and celebrating and celebrating...) Donna's 50th birthday! There was pizza and knitting and wine and great company and a fantastic time was had by all! If anyone has photos please e-mail them to me to post at a later date.

On the repping front, I have good news brewing and will share it when everything is official.

I also have 2 particularly friendly and fabulous yarn shops to recommend.

In Dunlap, IL I went to Knit 4 Together (no site) where I got to hang out with Nancy and Marilyn. Be warned, Nancy has a wicked sense of humor! I had such a good time and am hoping to have a fashion event with them. They are even looking into renting out a church hall for it!

From Dunlap I continued on to Knoxville, IL where I visited Sit'n'Knit (no site), a yarnshop-slash-HAIR SALON (Oh how cool!) I have been to a few cafe-yarn shops, but this was totally new and fabulous. Maureen, the shop owner, was just as sweet as pie and we had such a fun time looking at yarn. However, I did not take any photos, so bad blogger: no cookies.

I don't have much planned as far as appts for next week, so I'm hoping to get a lot of cold calling done, and perhaps even some knitting. (GASP!). Wish me luck!

The Yarny Yarn Empire Announcements

To start off with, I have a big announcement. I am now the President and CEO (and secretary and janitor and sole employee) of my VERY OWN CORPORATION! Knest Inc. has been officially registered as a corporation with the Illinois Secretary of State. Very exciting, if only this was a corporation that made $$...

Anyways, I have yet more exciting announcements. Ladies and Gentleman, get out your calenders! I have booked SWTC fashion events that you all truly must attend!

Friday, 9/11 @ 6 PM-Gifted Purl (120 W Main st, West Dundee, IL). A Stitches Celebration with Surprise SWTC Guest!

Thursday, 10/8 @ 5 PM- Montoya Fiber Studio (2566 Prairie ave, Evanston, IL). The Central Street Shopping District, a fabulous destination any day, is having an event called "Retail Therapy". There will be fun stuff happening all over, most notably the SWTC roadshow!

Thursday, 10/15 @ 6:30 PM- Sister Arts Fiber Studio (721 W Wrightwood, Chicago). This store is most near and dear to my heart. Please join the funniest, knittiest, wine-iest group of ladies in Chicago for an evening of, what else, wine, knitting, and SWTC fashion!

I hope to see lots of you there! And remember the SWTC motto: "Expect the Unexpected!"

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.