Spring is coming!

One of the tasks of late winter is finishing up projects.  That means finding all those bags with yarn, needles, half finished garments and often patterns as well…some are under the bed.  Some are at the store, under counters and tables.  In any case, all of us have several of these projects just waiting to be finished, in preparation for the Spring season of shows, where we need stuff to sell, and just to clear space in our homes, and maybe even have something new to wear, come April when the snow starts to melt.

AND, there’s all that new yarn that comes into the store in those luscious spring colors, that we have to resist buying until we make room in our homes for it, by finishing up a lot of those projects that are underway.

Last week, Sue went through some of her projects and started bringing them into the store to work on between customers. Betty’s been working on sweaters started and not finished: two sweaters and one poncho down, two sweaters and 3 shawls to go, not to mention socks, socks, socks.  Cindy’s bagged up her projects and vowed to finish one a month. In between she will make new stuff.  The list goes on…

This is as close to Spring Cleaning as many of us ever get!

As promised…

Here is a photo of the yarn of the month, which is called Atacama, is made by Arauconia, is 100% alpaca, comes in 50 gram balls, 110 yds, recommended size 7 needed, in 11 color ways. 20% off of usual price of $8, means it’s on sale for $6.40 a skein. In the photo there is a small hat made from one of the colorways. Sue will mail this to you, if you are prepared to pay for postage.

The Adventure continues…

Yesterday, I got to Hodge Podge early, and a few minutes later Rooterman showed up. (The local rotorooter).  It seems the tree in front of the store every couple of years, blocks the sewer pipe by sending roots into it, and these guys are supposed to fix the thing once and for all, through inserting a “bladder” into the pipe and that will seal it from tree roots. (Why do I doubt this?)  Anyway, they showed up on a Tuesday morning.  Sue was not happy.  “They can’t turn the water off today!  Not when there’s a group expected!”  Brian came in (who happens to be Shari’s grandson), and said, “Wait, wait, we’re not turning the water off today; we have Tracey and Paul with us and we need to take them down there to snake out the sewer pipe. (Tracey and Paul are DJ’s on the local country station, and are running a “take this job and LOVE it” campaign.  They are going to local jobs, on request, and trying them. The object is to get them to say they don’t want to do the job, and then you win prizes.  So, in the cellar of the store, we could hear laughter and “ew’s!” It seems they were trying out a plumber type job.  I went down and caught this photo of Tracey snaking out the sewer pipe.  “Ew, it’s wet..”says she.  Duh!  It’s a sewer pipe. To make it more amusing, Brian phoned up from the basement and had us flush the toilet, resulting in a flood of water coming out the pipe.  There’s always SOMETHING interesting going on at the store!

Here’s a photo of Tracey and her “snake”:

Apparently, they are coming back (rooterman, not Tracey and Paul) late this afternoon to do the real work.  So, if you are going to the store after 3, there will be no running water, i.e., no bathroom.  Forewarned is forearmed!

By the way, on my way in I noticed that Sue has started her new program of “yarn of the month”. There was a rack full of some kind of lovely variegated, handpainted, sort of, yarn, I think it was an araucania product, and don’t know if it was llama or alpaca: looked like alpaca, but since I’m allergic to alpaca and llama, I didn’t spend much time at it.  It was 20% off. Since I’m going back to the store this morning for an hour or two, I’ll check on this and let you know.  That’s a nice discount.  Check for updates later today or tomorrow a.m.

Always an adventure!

You never know who you’ll run into at Hodge Podge! Last week it was Winter Carnival in Newport. There was a parade…and after the parade, Shari brought her friend, Neah, into the store to meet people.

Soon it will be lambing season.  Quite often there will be a little lamb or two running around or spending time in a playpen in the back office.  Frequently, there are dogs.  Henry, the store dog, is there most days.  We promise you, if you come in, we will not shove ANY of these animals in your face, but you are welcome to greet them, if you want to…