Yes, that’s right, 22 days since I blogged.  Where those 22 days went is a mystery.  The store has been busy, we did have the Tent Sale, we celebrated my b’day, we had the photoshoot for the next catalog, the boys’ spring sports schedules (baseball and lacrosse) are in full swing which means most nights there’s at least a game or a practice – sometimes both and neither are in the same town but usually at the same time.

I’ve had plenty of things to share with all of you and I often think, “oh, I need to share that on the blog” and I’ve been filing interesting tidbits in my blog folder as well.  I guess the best thing to do is to just get going again.  I won’t give you the complete update of everything all in one post.  I’ll give you a few select highlights and fit the rest in the coming days.

1.  One cool piece of news that is actually pretty current is that we FINALLY launched our new podcast blog.  You can check it out at http://readysetknit.yarn.com/ .  I’m pretty tickled about this.  I despised our old page.  When we relaunched the website it was one of the last pieces to be finished.  For anyone who has ever built a house or undergone a major renovation you can relate – the podcast page was our landscaping.  It’s common in a house build that by the time it’s all done and the landscaping is all that is left, folks tend to run out of steam or money or both.  We were out of steam and needed to launch the site and although we weren’t out of money, we had spent enough.  You always say “oh, we’ll get back to that project and finish it up” and the WOOOSH – a bunch of time passes and what was once a not so big project turns into a huge one – like migrating 170+ podcast episodes and show notes, etc.   It’s got a few kinks we need to deal with.  The Disqus comment software needs to be added and there are a few other things but all in all, it’s done and I’m really pleased with it.  Be sure to check it out!

2.  Our home computer has been dying a slow, painful death.  I can honestly say that it contributed to my lack-o-blogging.  It was sooooo sloooow and froze often and was just a big royal pain to deal with.  I hit the wall with it while Steve was at Stitches South.  I emailed IT and said “I don’t care what you get me, it just needs to be fast, smokin’ fast, lightening fast – fast, fast, fast”.  I have no idea of the technical specs, nor do I care.  It’s fast.  REALLY fast.  I am happy.

3.  My new super fast computer does not have any ports in the front for my camera cards (but it’s fast and I bet when those get added my pictures will load really fast).  I finally found my thumb drive thing that works with my card so I can now upload pictures again.  Which means I can talk about the Tent Sale!

4.  Tent Sale was awesome.  The weather was picture perfect!  We kicked off Saturday with our traditional live broadcast of Ready, Set, Knit!  It’s the only “live” show we do all year and when I say live, I mean it.  Our show originates as a radio broadcast on WHMP so from 9:00am-9:30am on the Saturday morning of Tent Sale we are 100% broadcasting live.  It’s always a great show.  Be sure to check it out at http://readysetknit.yarn.com/ – it’s show #176.

Saturday of Tent Sale also features our annual Fleece Market.  I think we had a total of 14 or 15 vendors this year.  We sorely missed our dear friend Barb from Foxfire Fibers.  She was dealing with a serious health issue with one of her beloved dogs and a joint infection in one of her lambs.  The good news is Mishka and Mistral are both doing better which is a huge relief.

We had great crowds all weekend and at times on Saturday we were walking a very fine line between control and chaos.  Thanks to everyone who came out to shop!  A big thanks to our amazing staff who were simply awesome!

Don’t let this shot fool you.  We have a 10 x 2o and a 10 x10 tent side by side set-up.

Thanks for your patience in my absence!  Did you make it to the Tent Sale?  Let me know in the comments what your experience was like!

Kathy

Tags: Fleece Market, Tent Sale