Friday Insider #1

Friday Insider: A weekly post documenting all the fun and wacky things that we get so excited about while running the yarn store.

This week we probably DOUBLED our inventory, with huge shipments from Lantern Moon, Skacel, Cascade, Crystal Palace, Frog Tree, Alpaca With a Twist, and perhaps most notably (ahem, Karen!), a SNEAKY trip to the Twisted Sisters factory! And our custom Clever Knits tape measures came in -- they are TOTALLY ADORABLE. We think they're so awesome, we're giving one away free with any purchase of $50 or more.



Every time a package arrives, it's like Christmas. I always manage to forget that I even placed an order by the time it arrives. This is probably why I tend to order thrice as much yarn as I need (and how we ended up with SO! MUCH! YARN! this week).

We've doubled our colors in Cascade 220 and their luxuriously soft Pima-Tencel (which is amazing for baby items), and bunches of Baby Twist, which is used for a pattern in the brand new Interweave Knits. We also got all five colors of Zitron Noblesse, also used in the Fall IK (and it's lovely!). I am so impressed by the Mini Mochi and Mochi Plus, which knits up in beautiful color blocks (much like Noro), is machine washable, and comes in the most AMAZING colors. I may have to make myself a pair of socks out of the Mini Mochi.

Wednesday I spent the entire afternoon meeting with a sales rep (wholesale shopping is awesome, by the way -- I get to do it from the comfort of my own yarn store!), setting up orders for beautiful organic cotton yarns roving from EcoButterfly, a selection of awesome things from Kraemer (including sock yarn that is 2% STERLING SILVER -- the only sparkly yarn that I carry will be real silver!) and Alpaca Yarn Co. By this point I'd seen so much yarn I was ready to crawl into someplace dark and cool to hibernate, and the rep pulled out the Twisted Sister. I was so overwhelmed by color that I didn't think I was going to be able to order anything, but Karen had just walked in to the store and was so amazed by the colors that I couldn't NOT place an order. All the yarns I ordered will be arriving over the next several months, so there will be a steady stream of new stuff arriving all the time.

Karen was supposed to be on vacation this week, but she showed up at Clever Knits every day anyway. On Thursday morning I was in San Diego and she sent me a text:

"Which kind of Twisted Sister did you order? I went by the factory. Yes, Trouble. I bought yarn."

That's right. She went to the factory. AND BOUGHT YARN. Because clearly the TEN BOXES we received this week weren't enough. So we have Twisted Sister NOW, and we'll be getting even more later. I'm going to have to make a trip out to the factory one of these days, because she says it's positively mind-blowing. Some of the colors she picked are brand-spanking-new, and we are the first yarn store IN THE WORLD to have them, which is awfully effing exciting. As a family-run local business, it's a delight for us to be able to support another family-run "cottage industry" -- particularly one that is in our own backyard, and that makes such AMAZING product!