Yarn Expressions

New Saturday hours, more great yarns on sale, an opossum, a leaky water heater, a new special order policy in process and so very much more......

New Saturday Closing Time More Classes are coming - please be patient And More Yarn on Sale! Another Update on the Expansion... OK, you all know how sometimes, it's just one of those kinds of weeks? Many of you know that in addition to the shop, I have a private tax preparation/financial planning service. Small yarn shops don't make money and Tasha and I do have to eat. And pay for my yarn habit.... Anyway, this was just one of those weeks. Tax season has snowballed, as all my clients who couldn't come in early all want appointments at the same time, which of course they can't get. And then this week happens!! About 2 weeks ago, I discovered that I had a rodent in my garage. Something had started chewing on a bag of bone meal left over from last years garden, and then had dragged the bag to shelter under my car. A few days later, I saw the rodent - a lumpy waddling opossum. Becky, who is now helping us in the shop with stock work after hours, loaned me a humane trap, and Larry who fixes our computers, set it up for me. 36 hours later - trapped opossum! Well, it turns out that Huntsville Animal Control won't take them away unless you deliver the critter to them. If they come to you, they just let it back out on your property. And it's tax season, so I don't have time to haul the poor thing anywhere. So, there I am, in between clients, frantically trying to find someone to move the poor furry thing for me. Even if she's not exactly pet material, she still was a critter in need. Which meant feeding her while I had her trapped until she could be relocated. Did I mention that she hissed very loudly when approached? No one was going to mess with her or her babies!!  That night, my water heater started leaking heavily. The next day, Tasha decided to eat a large large large (toxic dose size) bar of70% cacao bittersweet chocolate and had to be rushed to the vet to empty her stomach, etc. etc. Before and during a client appointment - fortunately a dog loving understanding client. Water heater had to be replaced. It was past saving. I have a good plumber, for which I am grateful. I got lucky on Thursday - the very very nice people from North Alabama Wildlife Rehabilitators came and took her (and her 5 4 to 6 week old babies - the reason for her waddling and being lumpy and hungry) off to their new home. So, it's been that kind of a week. To thank the wonderful volunteers at North Alabama Wildlife Rehabilitators for the selfless work they do, all of the Animal Rescue funds we collect in April are going to be donated to them instead of the Pet Rescues we usually support. They need it for the care and feeding of the critters they rescue until they can be rehomed safely in the wild and they do not have the high visibility that the Pet Rescues do. And we're going to keep luring you in with surprise sales (see the section below for the additional stuff we've put on sale) so that you can keep stuffing the donations jar. Other news: we've got some more school color mesh yarns coming in - possibly by next week; we've got lots of wonderful new spring and summer yarns and pattern books in and more coming. Have you seen the new Spring Summer edition of Knitwear? We sold all but one copy so have more coming in this week - I think shop staff bought them before you folks could see them. We have more Knitter's Pride needles heading our way, and summer colors of Berroco Vintage. We just got another twenty or thirty bags of Berroco Comfort, including the much needed and long out-of-stock everywhere Black, and we've started restocking Cascade Ultra Pima - our favorite midweight cotton. Have you checked out the Kersti (DK weight) from Koigu or the pretty new yarns we have from Noro? I sincerely hope your week wasn't as crazy as mine. I just realized that even though I was in the shop working last night (Thursday) for some reason, I was thinking that today was Wednesday. Katherine New Saturday Closing Time! For the time being, we're calling it Summer Hours, but if you like it, we might keep it into the fall - we're gong to be staying open on Saturdays until 5pm. We're still going to open at 10am on Saturdays, and we're not changing anything else on the schedule, but we're giving you one more hour to come and spend with us every Saturday. More classes are coming - watch for your next newsletter! We'll be offering Crochet Essentials 101, our introductory crochet class, in April - flyer in a few days, and a round crocheted lace shawl class and a knitted shawlette and a few other classes, but don't have all the details worked out yet. Opossum, dog and water heater ate up my time this week. Knitting Essentials 101, our introductory knitting class will be held starting in late May due to scheduling issues. So, watch for your next newsletter for the details Upcoming classes planned for later this summer include a Christmas in July knitting class to get started on holiday gifts and accessories, a 2 color techniques class that does not involved carrying any yarn anywhere, a crocheted baby surprise jacket class, and more. We are also considering a repeat of the Knitted Baby Surprise jacket class, and possibly a class on learning how to spin by hand.

And yet More Yarn on Sale! Select Plymouth Encore and Taria Tweed are now 35% OFF!! Other select Plymouth and Jojoland yarns are now 25 to 30% OFF DreamBabyDK Mulberry Merino Baby Bunny Nazca Wind Worsted Merino SW JJL Tonic JJL Rhythm (but not the Superwash) JJLHarmony & JJL Consonance And we've added Cascade Casablanca and Berroco Pure Pima and Aslan PimaClasico to the 25% OFF Sale! The sale is limited to in-stock merchandise only. Once it sells out, it's gone. Special orders will not be accepted at the sale prices. This is a "what you see is what you get" sale - we've gotten a lot of new spring and summer yarns in and need to move out some of the yarns we are discontinuing (no, we're not discontinuing Plymouth Encore, just these colors). Please Note: InStock yarns from these vendors not listed here are not included in this sale event. . Expansion Update and Misc. Other stuff: Contractor problems are not quite resolved yet, but we're close. In the meantime, the same bathroom that has been the customer bathroom for years remains accessible to all of you as needed - and probably more so as we've moved stuff from the classroom into the storage room. Furniture is mostly in it's place, although we're still waiting on stacking tables for the sitting area and have a few book and magazine racks to rearrange. And we're still working on the patterns. We're probably going to move them into smaller notebooks but exactly how is one of those unresolved details we're still working out. We are developing a formal special order program because we've recently gotten stuck with several bags of yarn that were special ordered for good customers who changed their minds and didn't tell us until after their yarn came in. We're not sure of all the details yet, but we will be requiring pre-payment. Since we don't know when you come in or call about a yarn if that specific color of that specific yarn is available, and if available, actually on-hand in the supplier's warehouse, we will need you to come in and pay for your order once we determine availability and lead time, if you do want us to order it for you. There are some companies we cannot special order from, at least not on short notice because they require a substantial order, and won't sell a bag or two at a time. Others are simply ridiculously popular and you have to get in line and wait. For example, we are currrently in the queue at MadelineTosh for an April order. If we are lucky, we will start seeing the yarns in May, but it could be fall before the order is completed. Our September order from them completed in February. And we are still waiting on 2 colors of Venezia Sport from Cascade since September. Additionally, our normal lead time for merchandise the vendor has in stock is typically at least 3 to 4 weeks, and sometimes longer, if it's coming from one of our West Coast suppliers. Orders from Cascade, Skacel and Muench take a full week to arrive, once they've been shipped. If you want it sooner than that, we can get it, but there will be a minimum 10% rush order surcharge to cover the shipping costs of bringing in just your order by itself. Anyway, we're still working out the details, so be patient with us. And since the question has come up, we do not take credit cards over the phone because the higher costs associated due to chargebacks (the merchant service companies charge more) when the card is not physically swiped through the terminal and the greater potential for fraud. We know that none of our regular customers would dispute a legitimate charge and claim they didn't make the purchase, but unfortunately, we have to have the same policies for everyone, whether we know them or not. So, we are not set up for transactions where the card is not physically present. But you can always mail us a check.