Positively Magical! Faux Fair Isle Fairy Socks in Soxx Appeal yarns.

Aren't these the prettiest socks you've ever seen? Nicky Epstein designed them using Soxx Appeal yarn by Knit One, Crochet Too, and you'll find the pattern in her book, Nicky Epstein: Knitting on Top of the World.

I absolutely love the pattern she's created using the colorful Soxx Appeal Print yarn, and it really does give a fantastic faux Fair Isle appearance, don't you think?

If you want to thrill someone with a hand-crafted gift this holiday season, I think that these Faux Fair Isle Fairy Socks would be a much appreciated gift from the heart.

Bergere de France yarn is now at Yarnmarket!

Jan sent out our latest newsletter and in it was the fantastic news that we've added Bergere de France to our inventory. I absolutely love this line and am delighted that we're now carrying it.

You've probably seen their patterns in Vogue Magazine. I always look to see which styles they're featuring in their advertising because they have exquisite European style.

I think I might be tempted to make this pretty Trapeze Jacket in the Cocoon yarn... but there are so many fashionable choices that it might be difficult deciding which one to start off with.

Take a look at all the Bergere de France yarns and projects we've already got online. (Thanks, Stef!) I'm sure you'll find something you love.

If you want to check out our newsletter, you can see it here. Be sure to sign up so you'll get the next issue delivered right to your mailbox.

You've never met a cat like Sandi Pandi Smooch Pooch...the newest Fabulous Feline at Yarnmarket!

Sandi's Mom was delighted to tell us all about her prize-winning pussycat who has now been immortalized as a Fabulous Felines yarn!


“Horizons Fauna” was born on 17 April 2006 at Horizon’s Cattery in Whitby, Ontario. She is a Short Haired Champagne Burmilla. Her mother’s name is “Soliloquy” (a Long Haired Burmilla) and her father’s name is “Constitution” (a Sable/Brown European Burmese).

For six months I’d been searching throughout Canada for a female champagne Burmese or Burmilla kitten. When I initially contacted Horizons Cattery, Fauna was not for sale. The owners wanted to breed with her. Following her six monthly vet appointment, a genetic flaw was detected and it was recommended that she not become a breeder.

She came to us as a frightened and nervous seven month old with terrible table manners, ringworm and a bad cough. The first thing we did was change her name in keeping with our other two cats, Shelby Belby (Sable/Brown Foreign Burmese) and Sterly Whirly (Blue Himalayan). Her colouring, like that of a mountain lion, made naming her easy – Sandi Pandi. The second part of her name “Smooch Pooch” was added as her character developed, and she made her debut in the literary world in a book for my nieces entitled “Sandi Pandi Smooch Pooch”.

Despite her nervousness, Sandi quickly asserted herself in the Webb household as a princess. She made it quite clear from the get-go that she was the boss of humans and felines alike.

Sandi is a very loving, cuddly, sensitive, affectionate and beautiful-natured cat. Her fur is like cashmere or alpaca - luxuriously soft and thick. She and I love nothing more than for me to bury my face in her fur! She smells wonderfully, like the outdoors after a rain shower. Her meow is very high pitched and she is quite the talker. Her purr is loud and soothing. She adores having her tummy, back and chin scratched. Her favourite food is salmon, with beef running a close second.

I like to think that I’m her best friend in the world, but in reality I might be on the heels of Shelby Belby. Shelby and Sandi are inseparable. They sleep, eat and play together. They never fight, although when disagreements arise, Sandi does seem to always get the last word in! Sandi and Shelby sleep in a heated, velvet cat sofa – they both adore the heat and hate the cold. Everything is in chaos when Sandi and Shelby play, but when they’re sleeping, the house descends into a wondrous calm.

Sandi’s favourite toy is a “spring”. Over the years I’ve bought countless bags of springs for her. She plays with them until they roll out of her reach, and it’s only when I move the fridge, sofa or TV that I replenish her stash. Although the springs bring her playfulness to the forefront, when I want to send her over the edge, I bring out the big guns – her catnip toys!

Sandi is very well behaved when it comes to my knitting and my yarn. Experience has been the teacher, and when I’m knitting she steps carefully and purposefully, always watching for my reaction, between me and my yarn.

Sandi Pandi Smooch Pooch – she makes me laugh. When I think of Sandi, I smile a million smiles. She’s one of a kind and I love her to pieces!

Be sure to see all our gorgeous Fabulous Felines yarns at Yarnmarket. They're hand-dyed by the fabulous Iris Schreier using the highest quality wool yarn.

Meet the Fabulous Feline Stuie....a sweet ol' guy who avoids the Paparazzi.

Here's a handsome fellow who comes to us in gorgeous shades of gray. He's Stuie, a 17-year old sweetypuss who would rather lounge than pose (unlike the diva, Sandi Pandi).

His mother wrote to us about how much Stuie likes to be babied...and where he likes to snooze:

He most enjoys sleeping late and -- most of all -- sleeping next to me at night on the sofa. He cannot wait for me to relax and sit down. Stuie will follow me around until I sit down so he can sleep on me or next to me.

Stuie stopped sleeping in my bed when his buddy Joey died after 15 years. I made him a bed from Joey's sheep skin bed, but Stuie didn't sleep on it until a year later. I got him a baby blanket from the thrift store.

We thought that Stuie would make a perfectly wonderful Fabulous Feline because he has such beautiful coloring, and we were really touched when we received his entry for the competition. The very last line of the letter simply read, "I love Stuie."

Yeah...we know what it's like to love a pussycat. Congratulations to Stuie on becoming a Yarnmarket Fabulous Feline!

Let's be thankful!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and on behalf of all the Yarn Martians at Yarnmarket, I'd like to thank you for letting us serve you throughout the past year. We get enormous pleasure out of helping our knitters and crocheters find the perfect yarns, books and patterns...and we love the challenges you throw at us when you need a specific dye lot or a magazine from earlier in the decade.

In the past year we've said goodbye to one much-loved employee, Brenda, who moved to California to help care for her brand new twin grand-babies. But we've added Mary and Janice to our staff and we're delighted they're here to help us fill orders for our customers around the world.

We're thankful for Stef and Michele who work so hard to get projects, yarns and patterns online for you and who are happy to show customers around our showroom whenever they drop by for a visit. Stef's our Fashionista who helps select patterns to promote, and Michele is our wonderful photographer whose work you see in our newsletters and online.

We're thankful for Susan who scans all the yarns and is so persnickety that she checks them out on all sorts of different computer monitors to ensure that what you see is as close as she can get to the real color.

We're thankful for Pat who keeps BargainYARNS filled with oodles of great buys, helps with the BargainYARNS Alert so you'll know what's in store, and who does such a great job organizing the BargainYARNS warehouse.

We're thankful for Jan who works tirelessly to create the Yarnmarket newsletters and bulletins that you love so much...and who, as our walking Yarndex, helps Alex select the yarns he's going to put into Yarnmarket.

We're thankful to Susie and Sharon and Jill who keep Yarndex updated, answer customer queries, help prepare yarns for inventory and do a myriad of other jobs necessary to keeping our customers happy, our yarns in-stock and our products online.

We're thankful to Lori for managing our inventory because we know what an enormous task it is to keep on top of over 800 yarns! She amazes us with her ability to juggle so many tasks.

We're thankful to Lynn who is so wonderful with our customers and who ensures that our orders are shipped out as quickly as possible. Lynn is that friendly voice you hear when you call us with your phone orders.

We're thankful to Jenny, our Web Mistress, who helps us develop wonderful new things like KnitchMagazine. We know we drive her crazy with our requests.

We're thankful to freelancers like our precious Amanda who designs our ads, Jared who makes sure we're at the top of the search engines, and Jerry who performs miracles on our databases.

We're especially thankful to Amy, Lisa, Tina, Mary, Julie, and Janice without whom none of this would be possible. They're on our front lines everyday -- picking and packing the orders and sending them out to you as quickly as they possibly can. They're the ones who are never seen because they work so hard behind the scenes.

To all our Yarn Martians, thanks for another wonderful year.

And to all our customers, we hope that you have as much to be thankful for as we have. We wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Learn all about Glitz & Glamor Yarns!

Our Yarn Martian yarn experts have just released the newest issue of Just My Type. This edition is all about Glitz & Glamor yarns that you'll want to consider for holiday projects.

Learn what makes a glamor yarn and then see the gorgeous ones we have at Yarnmarket. We carry the top brands...and have oodles of yarns in stock for fast delivery just about anywhere on the planet!

Just released! Another interesting and informative video from CAT and Let's Knit2Gether!

Join Cat and her husband as they travel to Rhinebeck, NY for the 2010 NYS Sheep and Wool Festival. See how Cat did on her contest entry, and check out the new, unprocessed fibers she's added to her stash!

New Fabulout Felines yarns are on the way. You can win a skein!

Take a good look at this pussycat. Her name is Sandi Pandi Smooch Pooch.

I'd love you to take a guess where she comes from. The person who guesses the closest will win a skein of her gorgeous Fabulous Felines yarn created by Iris Schreier of Artyarns. But even if you don't get it exactly right, you can win a prize!

Here's how it will work. From now until Friday, I'm asking people to put their guess up on this blog. If someone guesses the country correctly, I'll let you know. That means your assignment is now to guess where in that country. If someone guesses the state/province/territory correctly, I'll let you know that, too. And then your job is to guess what city/town/village. We'll keep going an going until we get it right. If people are really good guessers, we might have to get right down to the street.

No cheating!

The person who guesses the closest will receive a free skein of Sandi Pandi's color.

Everyone who guesses correctly will win a Yarnmarket bag. It's a cloth bag with our logo and you can use it for carting projects around or just for your grocery shopping.

So...get it? One person will get a skein of the yarn. Everyone else who correctly guesses the country/territory/city/etc. (to however granular we can become) will win a Yarnmarket bag.

I'll start off by guessing Earth. It's up to the next person to guess the country.

Welcome to my world. Goofy, yes. But not boring.

Every so often, someone will look at me, shake their head and comment, "You're in your own little world, aren't you?"

I beam back at them, "Yes, I am! And I like it here."

My own little world might not be luxurious, but the way I see it, it's the best place I can be. Here's why.

In my world...

1. There's always something to laugh at...even if it's only me.
2. There are sometimes home-made marshmallows. And when I'm lucky, they're served on hot chocolate at Les Deux Magots in Paris...if the TSA guys don't think they're plastic explosives and blow up my suitcase.
3. People are really, really, really interesting. Take Vinny Pinto, for example. How many of you can say you communicate with a shape-shifting minion of the uber-spy and assassin rag doll cat named Katrinka?
4. Everyone wears underpants. Even animals.
5. Nice people always win.
6. When the phone rings, there's a good chance it's someone calling to tell you something amazing. Like maybe David Bowie or Rupert Sheldrake or the lead singer for the Killers to tell you that they want to stop by for a fresh, home made marshmallow.
7. There is justice for all -- even if you get totally screwed by dirty rats like Airfare.com who sell you a ticket when there's no seat on the airplane but they won't refund your $500 or even respond to your emails. You meet a really nice guy like Michael Tremblay at Air Canada and he sees the injustice and does his best to fix it for you. (In my world's justice system the people at Airfare.com will end up in jail for fraud where they'll be loved by the guys in Cell Block C. I mean really loved. Loved within an inch of their deeply discounted lives.)
8. If your email goes down and you've lost years of hard work and all your contacts, you get to write a song about it.
9. When your friends say you're crazy, they're complimenting you.
10. You get to hang around monasteries and seminaries and read books by guys who are so much smarter than you that it almost makes your brain explode.
11. You get to hear the greatest music from the past 400 years -- like stuff by Monteverdi and Gabrielli and Beethoven and Supertramp, ELO, Yes, Genesis, the Fray and Snow Patrol.
12. You can remember really neat stuff like Fizzies, Space Food Sticks, Six Finger, Polaroid Swinger, Creepy Crawlers, Incredible Edibles, The Smothers Brothers, The Carol Burnett Show, Ed Sullivan, Beany & Cecil, Rocky & Bullwinkle, underpants that covered your entire bum, Hockey Night in Canada, riding your bike for miles and miles without anyone even thinking you'd be kidnapped, Mr. Ledrew's garden filled with moonflowers, getting excited about a lift-off, climbing trees, catching pollywogs, and sharing Bonomo Turkish Taffy with a friend.

See? Isn't it a nice world?

And I'll bet that your world is just as wonderful as mine. All you've got to do is look at it that way.

And then make a list.

I've got my "Happy List" that includes all the fantastic things I've seen and done in my life. It includes everything from "Jumped off the Kawarua Bridge" to "Touched the Rosetta Stone." (Yeah...I know. You're not supposed to touch it.)

This Holiday Season you should give yourself a gift: make your own Happy List. Then when you're moping around and feeling sorry for yourself, you can pull it out and say, "Holy cow! I've had a pretty good life."

That's what I like to do...while I'm feasting on home-made marshmallows and wondering why my underpants no longer cover my bum.

Where have all the turkeys gone? Maybe their Animal Planet fame has beckoned them to Broadway.

As many of you know, we've been lamenting the disappearance of my Mom's turkeys. One minute they were standing at her kitchen window demanding to be fed, and the next minute they were gone. My step-father has been driving the country lanes of Caledon Hills in search of his wayward flock.

(Have I ever mentioned that Ralph's sign at entrance to their house says, "Hawk's Moon Hill"? Ha! We all know the truth. Ralph just didn't believe that "Turkey's Moon Hill" had quite the same panache.)

I think that my Mom's turkeys read about themselves on the Animal Planet blog and have high-tailed it to the big city lights of Broadway Avenue, Orangeville.

Yes, one minute they were just a bunch of pretty birds in somebody's back yard. The next minute, they'd wandered down the country lane in search of fame and fortune...and perhaps some corn and a drink of water.

I just hope they don't do what all the other famous chicks do: start strutting around like guttersnipes and abandoning their underpants.

Ever thought of visiting Yarn Martian Head Quarters? Read about someone who did...and who lived to tell the tale!

I just received a Google Alert about an online article that included mention of Yarnmarket. As you can imagine I clicked right to it to see what was said.

You never know...it could be something like, "David Bowie is planning to visit Yarnmarket to pick up some yarn for his lovely knitting wife, Iman," or "Today, police in Pickerington, Ohio were called to Yarnmarket where a woman leapt on top of David Bowie, screaming, 'He's mine...all mine!'"

Well, it wasn't either of those stories...but it was just as good!

Please visit AudKnits to read about her trip to Yarnmarket and why you ought to stop by the next time you're heading along Interstate 70 and wondering, "Hmmm...where could I find about 4 million balls of yarn?"

It's a great article, and I love the website. I think you will, too.

If you've been thinking of coming to Yarnmarket, please do! I can think of a lot of reasons why you might be on Interstate 70 over the next few weeks:

1. You're going to watch a football game at OSU;
2. You're going to visit our lovely Hocking Hills to enjoy the serene natural beauty of a catastrophic glacial event;
3. You're going to Jeni's ice cream because you saw the CNN report that said Jeni's ice cream in Columbus is the best ice cream in the known universe;
4. You're fleeing from the police and you want to knit yourself a beard disguise;
5. You and the hubby are heading to the airport with a bottle of champagne and some chocolate dipped strawberries to celebrate your anniversary by engaging in a little naughty foreplay with our very friendly TSA Agents.

Jan's November Bulletin features new additions to Yarnmarket from Ella Rae, Cascade and Berroco!

This morning Jan sent out her November Bulletin with lots of great project ideas for the winter season. She also featured new additions to our inventory from some of our favorite yarn manufacturers -- Cascade, Ella Rae and Berroco.

If you don’t already receive a copy of our Bulletin, you can view it here.

Be sure to sign up for it because you’ll also get our Spotlight that is packed with interesting information about our yarn vendors.

Of all the projects featured in this month's Bulletin, I was most taken by this shawl from Aslan Trends. The Invernal Oblique Shawl uses their fantastic Invernal yarn. I like that this shawl has an interesting closure that holds it secure.

Jan also mentioned that we've added Peaches 'n Creme to our BargainYARNS sale site. We're always searching for new bargains for our shoppers so be sure to check out BargainYARNS!

Monday Morning Meltdown

(to the tune of, "Bye, bye Miss American Pie)

A long, long time ago...
I can still remember
How that email used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my Mac
That I could Google "heart attack"
And, maybe, I'd stay online for a while.

But November made me shiver
My emails could not be delivered.
To Toronto or Hoboken;
My IMAP link was broken.

I had a meltdown and I cried
When I couldn't reach my Russian bride,
I was troubled deep inside
The day my Fusemail died.

So bye-bye, to my Internet High
I'd better write a letter,
To the tech support guy
They told me they could fix it but I know it's a lie
Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I cry.
"this’ll be the day that I cry."

Did you write the book of Code,
And do you have a local node,
Does your doco tell you so?
Do you believe in Steven Jobs,
Can email save your mortal soul,
And can you teach me how to type real slow?

Well, I know that you’re online right now
But I can't reach you anyhow.
I might try to IM you.
Man, my email won't go through!

I was a hostile mid-aged fat-assed chick
With a big computer and a memory stick,
But I knew I was almost sick
The day my Fusemail died.

So bye-bye, to my Internet High
I'd better write a letter,
To the tech support guy
They told me they could fix it but I know it's a lie
Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I cry.
"this’ll be the day that I cry."

Now for ten years we’ve made friends online
And we email them all the time,
But that’s not how it used to be.
We used to just pick up the phone,
And ask if our friends were at home
In a voice that came from you and me.

Oh, but then Road Runner came to town,
We went online, the lines went down.
The servers just got burned;
An ERROR was returned.
And while someone wrote a Dummie's Guide,
The tech guys all played iTunes songs,
Said they'd fixed it. They were wrong
The day my Fusemail died.

Now I'm singing,
"So bye-bye, to my Internet High
I'd better write a letter,
To the tech support guy
They told me they could fix it but I know it's a lie
Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I cry.
"this’ll be the day that I cry."

Helter skelter in a nervous swelter.
Everyone's running to take shelter,
I'm really low and falling fast
My email's gone and I'm aghast
I don't know long I can last
I'd like to put that tech guy in a cast.

Now the monitor gives me commands
To do things I don't understand.
I think I'll just reboot it,
Or get a gun and shoot it!
`cause my email will not be revealed;
The files are missing or concealed.
Can you imagine how I feel?
Today my email died.

I started singing,
"So bye-bye, to my Internet High
I'd better write a letter,
To the tech support guy
They told me they could fix it but I know it's a lie
Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I cry.
"this’ll be the day that I cry."."

Oh, my files were stored all in one place,
A server somewhere lost in space
I think I'll hit "Restart" again.
So come on: Techny Nerd Guy fix it quick!
I've gone offline and feeling sick
I can't send an email to my friends.

Oh, and yes I tried the Online Chat
But I knew I shouldn't count on that.
No tech guy born in hell
Could break my satan’s spell.
As he tried to help from Bangalore
I couldn't take it anymore,
I called the Geek Squad to my door
The day my email died

They were singing,
"So bye-bye, to my Internet High
I'd better write a letter,
To the tech support guy
They told me they could fix it but I know it's a lie
Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I cry.
"this’ll be the day that I cry."

I called a guy who worked for Fuse
And I asked him for some happy news,
But he just laughed and went away.
I went down to the Apple store
Where I’d bought a laptop years before,
But the man there couldn't fix me up today.

So in my blog I blew off steam,
I vented rage, I yelled and screamed,
My email still was broken;
But I felt good I'd spoken.
And the men that I admire the least:
The techie guys who made this beast,
They all logged off and had a feast
The day my email died.

And I was singing,
"So bye-bye, to my Internet High
I'd better write a letter,
To the tech support guy
They told me they could fix it but I know it's a lie
Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I cry.
"this’ll be the day that I cry."."

I was singing,
"bye-bye, to my Internet High
I'd better write a letter,
To the tech support guy
They told me they could fix it but I know it's a lie
Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I cry.
"this’ll be the day that I cry.""

Have you checked out our latest bargains at BargainYARNS? We always have great savings on Berroco, too!

We’re always adding new yarns to BargainYARNS, Yarnmarket's sale and value site. This is where we put our ends-of-lines, special deals and the value-priced yarns that so many knitters and crocheters love for afghans.

In the past few we’ve added:

Peaches ‘n Creme by Pisgah
Bernat Baby Jacquards
Bernat Baby Coordinates
Filatura di Crosa Kiss
Ancient Threads Sockittome
Ancient Threads Tri
2Di4 Duo Cherry Tree Hill Alpine Lace
Cherry Tree Hill Silken Mohair
Bouton d’Or Ksar
Bouton d’Or Norma
Bouton d’Or Songe
Bouton d’Or Spiga Bernat Baby Cakes
Bernat Mosaic
Kertzer Meadows Multi
Kertzer Meadows Solids
Kertzer Tiara

BargainYARNS always has a good selection of Berroco yarns on sale, too. Right now we have:
Berroco Icon
Berroco Keltic
Berroco Lavish
Berroco Mosaic FX
Berroco Plume FX Colors
Berroco Softwist Colors
Berroco Ultrasilk
Berroco Vibe
Berroco Zap
Berroco Zap Colors
Berroco Zen Colors
Berroco Zoom
Our Berroco yarns tend to go quickly so be sure to order yours now while they last!

When you shop at BargainYARNS you get the same superior service and fast delivery that you always receive from Yarnmarket.

Fun with Fusemail

Geez...all I wanted was to retrieve a letter in my Mailbox files so I could get Karin Strom's phone number. She's the new editor of Interweave Magazine.

I tried connecting with Fusemail's "Online Chat" for the help desk but no one responded after a very long time and several attempts. But I did receive a message asking if I'd like to speak online to their sales team. Sure, I thought. They can wake up the guy on the Help Desk.

This transcript is short...but it occurred over a lengthy period of time as I awaited responses.

Kate: Hi, my name is Kate, I'm in the Sales department. Before we get started, may I please have your name, email address and phone number, just in case we get disconnected.

Me: Deborah, deborah@yarnmarket.com xxx-xxx-9276

Kate: Hi Deborah, how can I help you today?

Me: I'm trying to get your Support Help but no one is connecting. I see that you're all set up to sell the product, but is there anyone who can Help me figure out why I can't open my emails? When I do, the entire content area is blank.

Kate: Very sorry to hear that you are having difficulties.

Kate: Let me try to look-up your account while I also try to get someone in support to help you out.

Me: Thank you.

Kate: When did you last access your email and it was working properly?

Me: Probably a couple of weeks ago -- at least. These days I get messages that my Mail Files don't exist when I try to save something in Outlook. I've been ignoring it and hoping it would fix itself, but now I need information from an email sent to me in September that I filed and I can't open it.

Kate: Of course, that sounds very inconvenient

Kate: Let me transfer you to support right away, unfortunately this is something I am not capable of resolving myself.

Kate: Thank you so much for your patience.
You have been transfered to Bruce, one moment while your chat is being reviewed.


SEVERAL MINUTES LATER

Me: Bruce...you finished reviewing yet?

Bruce: I apologize for the delay. What web browser are you currently using.

Me: I use both Mozilla and IE -- and need to switch constantly because Fusemail doesn't seem to like Mozilla.

Bruce: I apologize for this issue. When using Mozilla FireFox, it works for me.

Bruce: I'm taking a look at your account right now to see if I can recreate on this end.

Me: Good one! You can read my emails but I can't.

Me: I am now getting a message in IE. When I click on the email title to read the email I get the message Internet Explore cannot display the webpage. What you can try: Diagnose Connection problems.


SEVERAL MINUTES LATER

Me: How about this, Bruce? You go into my email...in the Inbox under Magazines is a file called Interweave. There is a letter from Karin Strom on 9/27. How about you read it and give me the contact info I need?


SEVERAL MINUTES LATER

Me: Bruce. You there? Shall I call 911?


SEVERAL MINUTES LATER

Me: Bruce...I can see that you're typing...but nothing's coming through. And it's taking a long time. Are you having a stroke? Has someone broken into the facility and they're holding you hostage? Shall I call the police?

SEVERAL MINUTES LATER

Bruce: I apologize for the delayed response. I am currently applying fixes on my end to your account.

Me: So that means it was broken.

Me: Thank God you're alive. I was beginning to worry.


SEVERAL MINUTES LATER

Bruce: I reset the cache and did a folder fix, but am unable to find the folder of Magazines.

Bruce: Could you please log out of the account and log back in for me?

Me: I will do that right now. When I just checked my Interweave File (sorry...in the Inbox under Media, Magazines, Interweave) it was empty. I'll be right back. Don't go away or get kidnapped.

Me: Bruce, now the Interweave folder is completely empty. The message is "This Folder is Empty." Have all my emails been wiped out with the fix?

Bruce: I don't believe so, but it sounds like I need to create a ticket and send it up to our system administrators to have them look into this further. What is a good email address that we could stay in contact with you at?

Me: Bruce, I am now seeing that NONE of my emails are visible. How about it if you try to reach me by my Fusemail Account? Oh...I know...that's a good one, isn't it?

Me: Seeing as how Fusemail doesn't work...maybe your tech people could reach me through xxxx@gmail.com.

Bruce: I will create the ticket and send it up to them and as soon as we know something, we will let you know.

Me: Dhanyabad!



Okay, it looks like it's going to be a while before I can get into my email to find Karin's phone number. If anyone out there has it, can you please send it to me?

Oh...and I don't suppose I have to tell you that I wouldn't recommend Fusemail.

My grand-daughter the Canadian Air Cadet

Gee...it seems like only yesterday she was learning to ride a bike. Now she wants to fly airplanes! At all of twelve years old, Madison has decided that she wants to become a pilot. This shouldn't come as a surprise, I guess. When you live in Canada, your instincts to migrate southward kick in every autumn.

I remember when I lived there, I'd watch the geese as they passed over my house on their way toward the welcoming, warmer climate of Buffalo, NY. Oh, how I longed to join them...to spend winters lounging on the tropical beaches of Lake Erie...sipping a Pabst beer and nibbling on chicken wings. (Okay, I confess. The first time a flock of geese flew over my house in V-formation and making a terrible racket, I phoned my Mom, screaming, "Honky birds! Honky birds!" She almost choked to death, laughing at me as she listened to the birds in the background and informing me, "They're geese." It was at this point my Mom realized that her children were city kids -- not from the countryside like she was -- and we didn't know a goose from a pigeon.)

Madi's Mom sent us these photos of our little grand-baby in her new uniform. Judging from these shots, I think she's going to do well in the Cadets. She's already got that steely-eyed gaze, perfect posture, and look of cold composure.

I wonder if she'll end up joining the Canadian Military one day? Boy, that would be weird. She's all pink and sparkles and lipstick...a real "girly girl." She's not like her Grandma who skated like a hockey player, had her very own Six Finger toy gun/spy toolkit, and who beat up Billy Berkovich when he insulted her step-brother, David.

I'll bet a lot of Canadians will sleep better tonight knowing that Madison Skylar Snow is now learning to protect The Truth North Strong and Free.

And to think it was only yesterday that she wanted to become the next Madonna, Lady Gaga or Paris Hilton.

Congratulations to Jennifer L. of Stowe VT for winning our Spotlight on Rowan Contest!

Lucky Jennifer has won a terrific Rowan gift package worth over $150. It includes 10 skeins of Purelife Renew yarn, Crystal Palace needles and a selection of Rowan pattern books.

Be sure to read our blogs and friend us on Facebook so you'll learn all about our contests and promotions.

Who knows? You could be the next winner!

Congratulations to Allison, winner of our Kristin Nicholas Contest!

I'm elated to announce that Allison A. of Cardiff by the Sea, CA is the winner of our Kristin Nicholas "Get Stitched" Contest. Allison correctly guessed that Yarnmarket has 33 colors of Julia Yarn so she'll receive a gift package worth over $100!

The package includes an autographed copy of Kristin Knits AND skeins of Julia yarn by Nashua.

We accepted two answers as correct -- 33 and 34 -- because our inventory can change on a day-to-day basis as new colors come in and existing ones sell out.

Be sure to watch our blog and become a friend on Facebook so you'll learn all about the contests we're running. You could be our next lucky winner!