Journey-along | July Giveaway

How is your Journey-along knitting coming along?

I'm terribly ashamed to say that I've been sluggish on my Onward, but I did finish another Journey project! Woot!

This is the second time I've knit Climb and, even though these are also a shop sample, I'm still super excited because they'll be waiting for me this fall when the weather cools. This is seriously one of my all time favorite toe-up sock patterns!

Pattern: Climb by Jane Richmond

Yarn: Tough Love Sock by SweetGeorgia Yarns (color Lakeshore Drive)

Raveled: Climb - Lakeshore Drive

Climb has been the star of the class schedule at Firefly Fibers as our two-at-a-time toe-up sock class with classes filling well before the start date (we only have a couple seats left in our next session beginning in August). Two classes have alreday 'graduated' and there are a lot of Climb pairs coming out of the shop - maybe I should do a Climb Round-Up post? 

As we celebrate sock knitting season - sock knitting in the summer is the best - and approach the 6-month mark of our Journey-along, I think it's time to have another giveaway!

If you're a fan of Spud & Chloe, you won't want to miss this giveaway! The winner will be randomly selected on Tuesday, July 15th, and the prize will be AWESOME! To be eligible for this and all giveaways, just make sure you've filled out this form and have cast on a Journey project. Don't forget to check in on our Journey-along Ravelry thread and tag your projects with the hashtag #journeyalong. Full Journey-along details can be found here...

Cheers!

Alisa

Moments | The Good Stuff...

It's been awhile since I posted... things have been crazy and May was relentless. Our little family had a lot happening in our lives - good and bad - and we seem to have come out on the other side with our smiles intact. Making it through especially trying times feels good - it's never easy, sometimes life throws a whole lot at you all at once, and it's a lot of work that sometimes can feel like you're just treading water. But... like I said, our smiles are intact and here are a few of the reasons why: May had us celebrating our 4-year anniversary at Firefly Fibers! The 4-year mark is quite the milestone and this last year has been our busiest yet. I am so proud of our little shop and am so lucky to spend my days working with such wonderful people that constantly inspire me. Many thanks to all of the awesome Firefly Fibers enthusiasts for the last 4 wonderful years and here's to many more!

This weekend was the high school graduation for Beaver Dam and our friends were kind enough to invite us to their son's graduation party. The company was wonderful, we met some great folks, hubby got to play Xbox games with some guys that were *gulp* half his age and didn't die first, and (as an added bonus) there were animals. These are just a few of them:

Not pictured: Frankie the pig, Otis the cat (who slumbers with Frankie), Picasso the angora rabbit, several chickens, and 3 dogs  - all of these animals stole my heart.

Today was also quite a day for "the good stuff". This last Christmas, my father-in-law gifted his 1969 Dodge Charger to hubby. Yeah, kind of amazing, right?! After months of waiting, today was the day it came home with us and it is one beautiful car. Here's hubby driving it on our way home today:

There's sure to be more about this car (and more photos) in the near future, so stay tuned.

Along with this fabulousness, we also launched CustomFit at the shop (more on my first CustomFit sweater is coming soon), I cast off another Journey-along project (there will be a fun giveaway happening this month), and we have some really awesome stuff on the horizon at the shop (that *always* makes me happy).

Cheers and I'll be back soon! I promise...

Journey-along | Are you signed up?

I've been busy planning what seems like an overwhelming amount of awesome all at once and today it dawned on me... it's last day of April - where did the month go?! I assume I'm not alone here as spring seems to be flying by for everyone. The response to the Journey-along has been humbling - thank you everyone that is participating online and in the shop and for keeping the group motivated as we knit our way through Journey! Some knitters have completed several projects already and some have ALL six  projects on their needles - yes, it might sound like a lot, but all of the projects are fabulous and we are leisurely knitting through November so there's plenty of time to finish. I must say that I'm impressed with the number of sweaters that are being cast on AND finished - the two sweaters in the book are both simple in construction and beautifully executed, making them so very hard to resist!

I currently have 3 Journey projects on the needles - Climb (shop sample), Onward (shop sample) and Inland (for ME!). We have a 5-1/2 hour drive each way to TNNA this weekend and I plan to do my best to wrap up the 2 Firefly Fibers samples so I can get them out on display. Here' s a peek at the new Climb shop sample:

I'm using SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock in Lakeshore Drive for this pair and I love how the colorway is working up! Last night, I had my teaching had on for a two-at-a-time sock class featuring Climb - the knitters did a great job, their socks look great and it was fun to see how some of the other colorways knit up!

Just a reminder.... I'll be doing little giveaways from time-to-time throughout our Journey-along (one is coming up very soon) and we'll wrap up in November with something special. So...Are you asking what you need to do to enter? If you already joined the Journey-along by filling out the 'official' form and cast on a project, you're set - just keep knitting! If you cast on, but haven't filled out this form, you can still sign up to 'officially' join and be eligible for the giveaways (don't worry... your information is kept private).   

I guess I better get back to working on the ever-growing list of things to do: TNNA prep (it's this coming weekend), CustomFit launch, summer class schedule, putting away new arrivals, ordering more awesome, and then there's the bookkeeping. I think I'll be a rebel today and do the fun stuff first!

Cheers!