Long Week

This has been a long week for Rita and Sue. We both had our challenges and crazy moments. We had traveling, company, headaches, heartbreaks and little sleep. BUT, we survived! We are moving along on the Hand Crafted in the hills Fiber Festival preparations. We have a bunch of vendors interested, we have classes forming, exciting FUN things to do together in the evenings planned and we are getting lots of interest from people. This is going to be so much fun!

And the Crafted in Rapid booths are coming along quite nicely too. We hope to have everyone in their booths and set up to sell by March 1, which is Friday already! We have such a wonderful list of vendors in the Crafted in Rapid booths, they are: Eagles Wings Enterprises, Yarnsanity, Chinook Winds Bison, SageRidge Mill and Critters, Native Life Designs, Backporch Fiber and Metalworks Studio, Spindlers Cottage and Fuzzbee Yarns. It is so nice to see the booths filling up with merchandise, knowing that the people who created these items have done this with their own hands and expertise, bringing age-old crafts to our midst.

Rita is feeling better and will be back in the shop, while Sue has to take a couple of days off for a funeral. Amanda is busily preparing items for the Fiber Festival while all of us are looking forward to seeing you in the shop.

Thank you to our Fiberly Community for shopping with us, sharing our lives and our passion about fiberly, yarny stuff. We appreciate you so much!

Sue

Wow! Technology is a pain!

Well, we have been off and on, mostly off, the internet for several days now. I did not realize how much I use the internet. I have a question in my mind, or I want to see how much something costs, or what it looks like and I am off to the search engine. I communicate with friends on facebook, through email and on blogs but only if I am connected to the internet.

I did more reading and knitting in the last few days than previously. I also went to bed earlier than usual, hmmm wonder if I am addicted to the internet? Ha! not me! I am not addicted to yarn either!

So, with all this non-internet time on my hands I paid more attention to the yarn and fiber in my stash. I found so many lovely yarns that I had hand-spun. Then there were all the unfinished projects lounging around in my multitude of canvas bags (can one have too many canvas bags?) I worked on knitting my mittens before summer and actually finished one. (I already have 3 "pairs" of one mitten each) And I helped my husband get ready to put his jewelry into his booth at Crafted in Rapid. And I worked at the shop.

I am amazed at how much time I spend online and how much I depend on the internet. Maybe I have been entertained by different things for a few days, but I am much happier that I have my connection to the world back.

Speaking of connecting, we now have needlepoint yarns at the shop called Waverly Wool by Brown Sheep. And the craft booths are slowly getting set up in the Crafted in Rapid area of the store. So come in and connect with us and see what we have going on in the back room.

Sue

CRAFTED IN RAPID, a new adventure in hand craftedness

Ah, yes, I am still making up words. My poor mother, who was a High School English Teacher is probably rolling her eyes at me from heaven right now! At least I am not making up math, just words!

We have a new adventure coming up at C R Yarn. We have opened up our back room, which used to be full of stock and other things (too messy to talk about), and are converting it to a vendor booth area. We have all hand crafted items from the Rapid City, SD area, with the exception of Chinook Winds Bison which comes from Bozeman, MT and Fuzzbee Yarns which comes from Minneapolis, MN.

We are so excited about this venture into more hand craftedness (sorry Mom). We will have hand crafted spindles, rovings, batts, yarn, hand woven rugs, metalworks, soaps, lotions, doll patterns, doll clothes (knitted and sewn), Native American jewelry, Silver jewelry, bison blend yarns, handspun yarns and more. We plan on opening as soon as possible, watch facebook and this blog for the actual opening date.

Our desire is to give hand crafters space so that they can share the beautiful items that they make with others. We want a designated place that people can come to and see exactly the workmanship that is put into these items. We love anything hand crafted and are certain that you will too!

You may come into C R Yarn and C the "hole in the wall" aka "door" right now, but the goodies won't be in the booths for a little while longer.

We love our customers and want to give you all something special along with our yarn. Thanks for shopping with us and learning with us, we soooooo appreciate you all.

Shops coming to Crafted in Rapid:

Backporch Fiber and Metalworks Studio
Chinook Winds Bison
Eagle Wings Enterprises
Fuzzbee Yarns
Lance Creek Jewelry
Native Life Designs
Spindlers Cottage
Yarnsanity

January is over and February is NOW.

January I am happy to see you leave! I noticed that the sun wasn't completely finished with the sky tonight until after 5pm. Yay! More light, means Spring isn't too far away. And remember, Spring ALWAYS comes back.

I found these the other day when I let the dog outside in 5 degree temps and thought, poor birdies, wonder if their feet get cold.

Well I won't get cold this February because I have found a new love. I want to cuddle with this love all the time. It is soft, strokeable and colorful. It is YARN! Cascade Heritage Sock Yarn in Paints and Solids have just been delivered by the UPS man. (Did you know that the UPS man is really Santa? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAgggyUdVw4) We have some lovely colors and the softness of this yarn is amazing. Merino of course.

And, we also have Cascade 220 Yarn which is Peruvian Highland Wool that knits up knicely and also is feltable. I love making up new words. You will find some lovely colors of both of these "new to our store" yarns.

Cascade Heritage Sock Yarn

Cascade 220 Wool Yarn

Have you ever wanted to add a little color to your knitted item and couldn't find just a "little bit" of yarn to make that embellishment? We have had some requests for little bits of yarn that could be used to crochet a flower, or add a tassel and we have made some up for you. They are 99cents a "skein" which is between 3 and 8 grams of yarn. We even have a lovely book that gives you patterns for such "Oddball Knitting".

Why don't you give up the January blues and come in and C R Yarn? We are open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and have Knit Night on Thursday evenings from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m.

Hope to C U Soon!

Sue

Hand Crafted in the Hills Fiber Festival

We have some changes in this event that we would like to tell you about. We have changed the venue to the Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City, instead of the Holiday Inn-Rushmore Plaza. The room at the Grand Gateway is bigger and much nicer. We can also get a block of hotel rooms for $69 a night. AND it is right next door to a Perkins Restaurant; down the street (going both north and south) from 2 Malls, other hotels, other restaurants, Wal Mart; and is a few yards from the Interstate. We think you will like our new location.

We are still looking for vendors so contact Kim Haibeck at yarnsanity@gmail.com. Contact Rita Nauman c_r_yarn@yahoo.com if you'd like to teach a class.

More info coming as soon as possible. Check back here or on our facebook pages c r yarn (group) and C R Yarn Shop.

Sue

Hand Crafted in the Hills Fiber Festival!!!!!!!!!!!

C R Yarn has a tradition of hosting a Spring Fiber Retreat called Handcrafted in the Hills. We have out grown our space and the original idea of the retreat. So, this year, 2013, we are expanding! We will be hosting an annual Fiber Festival called Hand Crafted in the Hills Fiber Festival (Hand Crafted for short) on April 26, 27 and 28 (Friday evening through Sunday) here in Rapid City. The venue is the Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn (next to the Civic Center) and we will have classes, vendors, demos and hanging out time. We want to make this a fun event and one that you will be able to enjoy every year. The Holiday Inn has a restaurant (with breakfast menu), bar, coffee shop and is close to the downtown area where C R Yarn is located. We have reserved a large room for vendors and demos and a smaller room for classes to be held. We are working on the cost, the classes and the vendors at this time, so if you are interested in teaching a class or being a vendor, please contact Rita at 605-791-5648 (shop phone) or c_r_yarn@yahoo.com noting that you are interested in Hand Crafted. C R Yarn will have a booth there also so you will have lots of choices for "shopping" or "gathering souvenirs" if you are from out of town. :)  The Holiday Inn will also have a block of rooms with a discount for this event. We will keep you informed through the blog and on Facebook.

We hope that you are as excited about a Fiber Festival in the Spring as we are. We have had retreats in the past and it seemed like a great time to open up our fun time to everyone that wants to join us. We hope that the Rapid City location will be convenient to you and your friends. Please let your friends know about this great opportunity.

Sue

Husbands and Other Helpers

I love my husband, we have been married for 33 years and we still like each other! He has been instrumental in getting me going in my fiber adventures. He helped me untangle balls of yarn when I first “re-learned” knitting. He encouraged me through the  down times when my knitting would go astray (as in many mistakes, “this is a sock?”). When we lived in a small town in South Dakota years ago I was having trouble coping. He sat me down and asked the proverbial question, “If you had all the money in the world what would you do?” I said, “I would buy a loom and weave.” He was surprised and commented on how big a loom is and how small our house was! Then he asked, “what else would you do if you didn’t have a loom?” I said I would like to spin. He encouraged me to find a spinning wheel and a teacher and we would save up the money to purchase the wheel and the lessons. I went to work at the local library for a few dollars each time I was there and saved that. I saved birthday money, change from the grocery store, every penny I could get my hands on. We went to Colorado for school every summer from this small town and I found a spinning wheel and bought it with my savings and part of the money he needed for schooling. Being poor is hard. BUT, that was 15 years ago and I am still spinning. I have purchased a small loom now, and am using that on a daily basis. My husband says, “that spinning wheel has made you so happy and peaceful.” He advocates fiber arts to other husbands, “it really makes a difference for your wife if she is doing what she desires to do.” One time he bought a computer and I was feeling funny about his purchase. I never said anything. When the computer arrived, he came to me and said, "I fell guilty. I bought this computer and you didn't get anything. Would you like another spinning wheel?" I laughed, hugged him and said, "I love it that you fell guilty. Other husbands wouldn't have thought anything about it. I would like a drum carder. Thanks!" I got my drum carder, he insisted it cost as much as his computer, No Problem! :)

My other helpers are my friends. I have so many friends to be thankful for and especially to thank for helping me in my fiberly pursuits. Connie taught me to spin, Ernestine keeps me honest in my knitting, Rita gives me the opportunity to weave daily, Cindie gave me pleasure when she showed me her weavings, Amanda helps me with knitting customers, then there are Jen, Sharon, Gayle, Sandi, Wendy, Kim, Kelli, Cindy and Pat who are my fiber friends. There are so many friends who knit along with me, challenge me, encourage me, laugh with me, cry with me. The fiber world is filled with friends.

My pets TRY to help me, but they are the “helpers” that are cute, but not really helpful! Zoey and Gracie just undo the things I have done, so I suppose they are the challenge in my life, teaching me how to untangle things. 

Do you have “Helpers” in your life that challenge you, encourage you and teach you? I hope you do, they are invaluable.
SUE