But, many times we CAN do something unusual. For example, our circulars can be made to any unusual length.  In the past few weeks we had 2 unusual requests that really jumped out at us.

A customer who has been very supportive and purchased many things asked us if we could do a special circ for her. She wanted one side to be a size 5 and 1 side to be a size 7. When I emailed to ask why here is what she said:

 Since it is the right needle that controls gauge, it is helpful with certain types of knitting if the left needle is smaller — since you are always going in the same direction with circs, the left is always the left!  A smaller needle on the left lets the yarn glide by more easily.  This is especially helpful when the knitting involves stitches like k1,p1,k1 in same stitch, or kf&b — or any other kind of knitting where things can get a bit tight.  Stiletto points are great for this kind of thing (as mentioned by many people who love their Sigs), so I thought it’d be even more perfect if the left needle is smaller!  This is a great benefit of exchangeable needles because you can attach different size needles to each end. Other than the ability to do this, I don’t really like exchangeables but this is a big benefit! I really like my Signatures so since you offer some customization, I was hoping you’d be able to do this!  

I think you’ll find many knitters interested in this; as I said this is not my bright idea, I’ve seen it talked about in many blogs by many knitters and Ravelers.  Cat Bordhi mentions this technique in her moebius cast on video – 

Just to be absolutely clear, this only works when you’re actually knitting in the round, not using circs to knit flat. 

And then I asked our Canadian Cousin and designer/teacher extraordinaire Kate Atherley (www.wisehildaknits.com) and here is what she said:

And on to the question.  Yes!  There are actually two scenarios – some people do naturally have different gauge on knits vs. purls.  You can see this on the back of stocking stitch – two of the purl bumps are close together, two of them are spaced apart.  It’s called “rowing out”.  People do compensate by using two different size needles, although two sizes does seem an extreme difference. 

  - the left needle – is a bit smaller than the needle you’re working them with – the right. 

 Some of you very observant readers noticed these on the blog from the 4th of July.

 A second email came with a heartrending scenario.  Can we, will we, replace a set of circulars which has been chewed by a cat? The answer is yes and before you read further you will all be glad to know that Little Ted still is among us.

 This sad email arrived:

         I am devastated!  My adorable four-month old kitten called     ‘Little Ted’ managed to get hold of my circular needles and has chewed the cord (in two places the cord is virtually severed).  Is there any way that I could return the needles to you to have a new cord put on please.  It’s a good job that I love him so much, nobody else would have got away with doing that to my beloved Signature needles.

 Our answer was YES that we could do the repair at a reasonable price and she replied:

            Oh, you don’t know how relieved I am to read that you might be able to repair       them.  No, fortunately, he hasn’t damaged the metal needle stalks.  If you would like ‘Little Ted’ to do any ‘destruction testing’ on your products, please just let me  know.

Of course I emailed to ask if her story could be part of this blog and she answered:

            I have no problem with you using the story, hopefully it will be a warning to other Signature circular needle users who have cats and I am sure it will bring a smile to      readers’ faces – even when the trauma brought tears to mine.  Little Ted is blissfullyunaware of all the problems he has caused and I am sure he would be excited if he    knew that he was about to go “global”. 

 Here is “Little Ted”—who may not love Burger King sandwiches, but does love Signatures.

 We didn’t get a picture in time of Little Ted but we found this one:

Our friends Jeff and Mary recently had a special birthday in their family of baby Abigail. I wanted to do something special for her and found a pattern I had been saving for a sweater with a “smocked” top. I really like the way it looks and will most likely become one of my repeat little girl patterns.

As you know my straights and dpns are my favorite needles but I did use some of the Signature circs on this so I can try and expand my horizons. Of course those Stiletto points were terrific for the smocking section which was, in actuality, a lot like cabling without a cable needle.

A birthday present TO Signature arrived a few days ago and the joy that seeing this was obvious as people came into my office to find out what was in the box.

Of course how could it be anything but good when the package front says
“SENT WITH OUR LOVE AND PRAYERS”.

As you can see the box was filled with the most wonderful candles. The natural smell of the honey and the beautiful color is just astonishing… as is the source of the gift… the fabulous Mother Seraphima and the nuns at her convent.

When I see something that strikes me on an order I often email. People who are in the military, or who live in far away places, or the order is very unusual get an email. The first order from Mother Seraphima was one of those and started a long distance thread between her convent and Signature.

She is a worthy woman who manages her convent and makes money to support their efforts by selling candles which the sisters make. The quality is unbelievable—no smoking or dripping and all natural. Of course I was impressed by the fact they have a website to help sell their products.

But that is just the beginning of the story.  Mother Seraphima also has her sisters knitting for charity. She has told me that this is good for them as a stress reliever and the products of their knitting go to a good cause.

Most of you know that our standards for quality here at Signature are very high which means that from time to time we have needles where the coloring might be a bit off, or a cap on a straight is dinged. Nothing that would affect knitting in any way but that we would never sell or have out in the world.

Mother Seraphima and sisters recent told us “Along with the great blessing of our new addition, we were able to establish a permanent craft room at the convent. Our craft room houses  a lot of yarn, our knitting needles, spinning wheels and several looms 
of various sizes. Of course, our needles of choice and our pride and  joy are our Signature needles. We started with a few knitters and our  numbers grew to over half of the sisters. I’m so happy that they have  this craft as an outlet for their creativity, a little relaxation from  our busy schedule, and a source of making gifts for those who show us  kindnesses, the sick and others. They enjoy making hats, scarves, triangle shawls, mittens, gloves and sweaters – one sister has even branched out into little knitted, stuffed animals. The recipients treasure these handmade gifts from the sisters and so both sides are happy. We first ordered signature needles because of their beautiful colors, the fact that they could be individualized, the stiletto tips were recommended by the Arthritis Association … and because one 
sister was knitting so tightly that she was breaking the wooden needles!”

The perfect solution is for us to be able to provide the sisters with needles so they can continue their work. This is a blessing for all of us and we feel like we can say we are the “official knitting needle of the Holy Nativity Convent”.  And packages coming with prayers and love—what could be better.

And of course every single one of us should be saying a sincere “Happy Birthday” to our country. We need to remind ourselves what needed to happen –the sacrifice, the joy, the pain so that we could have our 4^th of July celebrations.

See, we even have some red, and blue needles here—watch next week for the explanation. I have to go home early and get ready for the birthday party!

 

Today is Signature’s 3^rd birthday. We use June 18, 2007 as our “birth” day  because this is the date that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel printed an article about us even though our website wasn’t ready, and so many other things were undone. And then the orders started and we have been blessed to have them continue as we made more and more different products.

 Everyone has heard of the Terrible Twos and since our 2^nd birthday that has been true—our struggles getting the circs to be as lovable as our single point straights and double points have been well known to you and about killed folks here. For the first time I had times when I wanted to throw in the towel, and I know there were others here who wanted to strangle me with that same towel if I said the words “Not good enough” one more time.

Now we move forward to getting all the sizes to you. We are working on the next batch which will be the US 3 and US 4 circulars.  Then comes the big fight—and we will be asking you to weigh in:  do we go to the US 1 and 2 OR to the US 8, 9, 10 in circs? In my mind I see a big jello pit with combatants from each camp wrestling for their choice. OK, maybe instead we will just ask you all to vote.

Many of you are parents but even if you aren’t you know the joy of having an “outsider” say your child is cute or smart. In this past month we have had two stars in the world of knitting say great things about the circs.

First, Clara Parkes from Knitter’s Review said  “If Montblanc were to stop manufacturing fountain pens and turn its attention to knitting needles, I imagine the results would be similar to a set of Signature needles.”    in her most recent review of the new circs.  If you ever get a chance to meet Clara you will find that she is the most humble and kind person, but if you know her work you know she is an expert in all things knitting. Her books are part of my own reference collection and even if she had never reviewed our needles I would take her recommendations without reservation.

Then, to top off a really great month Wendy Johnson from Wendy Knits and all her terrific sock books also tried and reviewed the circs. Turns out Wendy and our family have only 2 degrees of separation—she and Laura’s sister-in-law have mutual friends who helped us get in touch with her.   We were honored she reviewed our needles in her blog  Seriously Simple Shawl and Seriously Fabulous Needles.

I know most companies say “blah blah blah we love our customers”. Of course we do—without customers we wouldn’t have a business. BUT I have learned that Signature customers and the bonds we have go beyond the buying and selling. There are those of you who offered us a kind word during our troubles and you will never know what that has meant. We had people saying they would pray for us from their convent, people volunteering to help and give up huge amounts of time to test, and just plain kind people.

There are more than one of us who has done some personal growth in realizing that companies are made up of people who want to do the best they can and don’t want to make customers mad. We have learned the value of a quick, supportive email after a day of troubles.

 So with friends like Clara and Wendy , and more importantly, customers like you how can we not have a great birthday?

And a small present for all of you: we will have Free Standard Shipping on all orders over $50 through Monday June 21, 2010 CST with the free  shipping code HBDAY3.   Click Here for the full details of this promotion.

As many of you know, we try and monitor the emails to customer service even at night and on weekends in case someone is having trouble finding something on the site, or has an easily answered question about what they should choose. We can’t guarantee 24 hour service but enough of you may have heard from us in off hours to know we do the best we can.

So…2 Saturdays ago in the evening I saw an email that was the kind I NEVER want to see whether it is day or night— an angry email, but one that was totally mystifying from a customer who had placed her first order a few days before for 2 pairs of single point needles:

There are a few of us at Signature who monitor emails even after hours and yours certainly got my attention. I am completely amazed at what you describe. We make all our needles and every single one is metal. We have NO bamboo, or wood, or anything not metal in our building.
Do you have access to a digital camera and could you send a picture? Did the package look like it had been tampered with? Honestly, I need to discuss this with others on Monday but please understand that there is NO way that bamboo needles left our shipping department. Simply impossible.  Please forward any other information or observations if you would please.  Once we hear from you we will be able to try and solve this mystery. 

 I slept very uneasily with this problem on my mind. What?? Who? How? Bamboo??? The next morning (Sunday) I saw another email from her. When I read it out loud to my husband Kent he started to laugh so hard he really was red faced and wheezing:

Thank you for your quick response.  I was out of town yesterday and did not have access to a computer.  On Saturday when my husband discovered that I had e-mailed your company with my complaint, he advised me that HE AND MY DAUGHTER had replaced the Signature needles with bamboo needles!!  They knew I was VERY ANXIOUS to receive my first pair of Signature needles so when your package came, they carefully opened the package and replaced your needles with bamboo needles as a prank on me. 

Unfortunately, they were not home at the time I opened the package and did not realize that I would react immediately and in the manner in which I did – they thought I would wait until Monday to call customer service and by then they were going to make sure I knew about this supposedly joke. I SINCERELY APOLOGIZE FOR THIS CONFUSION AND INCONVENIENCE!

 

I really felt bad for her having been on the wrong end of family practical jokes myself and so I emailed her:

Good morning ,
 First, thank you for solving the mystery. Several of us last night were trying to figure out what had happened. First consensus was that “going postal” had a new meaning and that some rogue post office knitter saw the package and made the switch. I really appreciate you letting us know. I shared the email with my husband who got to laughing so much he was wheezing. As the recipient of some practical jokes from my family I can really appreciate your reaction.  My conclusion about my own family is that the creativity/imagination shown means that they must be quite intelligent. You can take some consolation that yours is smart too!So…enjoy your Signature needles and enjoy being part of such a creative family. 
PS I wonder if my wheezing/laughing spouse would feel if I replaced his Snap-On screwdrivers with some from the Dollar Store? HMMMM.

I thought this was the end of the story, but unbelievably it was not. A final email came with “the rest of the story”:

I am soooo glad someone got a good laugh out of it.  Since your husband sees the humor in it, I can come clean and say that your Signature needles were actually replaced with CHOP STICKS!!!  I was so upset at first that when I saw the wood, I automatically assumed they were bamboo.  I then immediately went to the computer and did not realize that they were chop sticks until after I calmed down and took a closer look.
 
I don’t know how smart it was of my husband playing a joke on his wife!  Believe it or not my daughter is very smart and is doing an internship as a Physician’s Assistant.  She takes her boards next year.  I guess in the end they got me good!
 
Again, thanks for all your understanding and compassion. 

I don’t really have any moral to this story except that when we want our Signature needles, we want our Signature needles!

Have a great Memorial Day weekend. Remember those who have done so much for us and our country. I think I am going to turn off my Blackberry.

And….. this blog is being put together on Thursday the 27th of May which , by chance, is my birthday. It started out quite spectacularly when I looked at my Blackberry only to find this fabulous review from the equally fabulous Clara Parkes at Knitter’s Review

Laura and I flew in and Daniella and her wonderful fire fighter husband, Mark drove the van with all the needles and booth stuff and set up. We just had to waltz in and wait for the customers to arrive. Mark took over the duties my husband Kent did in the past—getting us cool drinks, food, and whatever else we needed, hauling and carrying without complaint. I was glad he could see in person how huge this festival is and why we are so tired when we get home.

The festival was jam packed with wonderful customers and just plain packed with long lines for anything cool. The heat was a real shock for us who are used to Wisconsin Mays which may include snow flurries.

Every aisle was filled and we were so glad to see many old friends and get to meet  so many new folks. Early on Saturday Clara Parkes from Knitter’s Review stopped by. Now you should know that this is like having a rock star come by. She is the most unassuming and kind person. Actually she took some great pictures.

We had the new circulars with us and it was amazing seeing how people reacted to finding they could find a needle “stalk” that fits their hand or style of knitting. At first when someone came up I would try and size them up—look at their hands to see if they had very large or small hands but I soon realized that after trying the different length of needle “stalks” that what the knitter found perfect might not just be what seemed obvious.

The first thing that folks said was that they had never thought about it. I replied that this was because with other companies “you get what you get”—no choice allowed. However, once they tried the 3 lengths it was obvious that one was much better than the others.

After a while I was able to say with complete certainty that they would never pick up any circular needle without the thought of “do I like the stalk length or not?” coming into their head. After gleaning the many comments here are some thoughts of why you would like one over the other.

4”— People with small hands OR really large hands who want to “cup” the needle completely within their palm. The majority thought this was too short but if a very short (i.e.20” ) overall length is needed it had to be the choice even if it is not the most comfortable.

5”—The most popular length by far. Most felt this would work and be comfortable.

6”—Knitters with large hands, or those with arthritis on the sides of their hand where a short stalk just hurts but some surprises: There was a woman in a wheel chair who said she had tendonitis. She couldn’t believe the diminished stress on her hand/wrist/elbow with this length.

A Faire Isle knitter came up early on and said that this longer length would be perfect for that sort of work because more stitches stay on the stalk for easy visibility in case their might be an error. After that I mentioned this to others and every one who did Faire Isle work agreed. Actually one told me that when we have the size 3 needles ready they would be very popular for them.

Since I am not a great knitter and even though I have very small hands, I love the 6” stalk because I can see what I just did. If I have an errant stitch that is wildly large I can just fix it before it drops off onto the cable.

It seemed to me that lace patterns would also be visible for enough stitches to be able to see if there are any mistakes. I mentioned this to Clara Parkes and she agreed. OK, for me to have someone like her agree is like having Itzak Perleman agree with an observation by a 5th grade violinist!

By the way if you go to the Spring-Summer issue of Knitty.com you will see a pattern called Gams which may be just what our Hot Pants used.

For those of you who may not have heard of this festival—it is the largest in the nation with upwards of 90,000 attendees who come to see the animals as well as an incredible array of dyers, spinners… and needle folks.                                      

We had no idea when we applied how lucky we were to get in on our first try. The crowds are really unbelievable—even when the weather is bad like it was last year:  cold, windy, rainy. That didn’t stop the intrepid shoppers though!

For many people it is a wonderful way to get to see and touch a fabulous selection of yarns. For Signature customers they can see and try all our needles and take them home on the spot.

 It has been “all hands on deck” for folks here to get as many circs and other needles built, packaged and packed. Maryland is a bit unusual because a vendor can’t really ship the booth furniture and product and have a trucking firm drop it all off at the booth and pick it up when the show is done.

At a quick meeting this morning a comment was made about “making so many needles my hands are bleeding”—which is an exaggeration, but not much of one.

We have to pack everything in a van and drive the 16 hours (one way). Every evening we have to pack up all the product and schlep it to the van for a trip back to the hotel—which is about 30 miles away. This year Daniella and her husband will be doing the driving and Laura and I will fly. Her husband will be the one helping carry all the heavy stuff in and out and Kent can stay home and relax.

He has done his part in the past 2 years—driving, carrying, and worst for him listening for 32 hours to me “helping” him drive. For any of you who know us, you know that I am not kidding. I have saved his life thousands of times with my kind suggestions of how he might improve his driving. I know that deep in his heart he believes that should he snap and kill me over some “help” no jury would convict him.

 For those of you who will NOT be in Maryland the circs WILL be on the site on Saturday May 1 BUT we will not ship until we all return on Tuesday May 4.

 As we told you earlier we have had some tough testers trying the latest revision of the circulars and have asked them for some comments. Remember they were chosen to test/evaluate because they were objective and we knew would be honest with complaints or concerns.

 “The earlier circs had the same perfect weight and coolness to the touch as Signature straights and dpns, and of course the same wonderful points.  The test circs had all these qualities, PLUS the join was now perfected.  It used to snag a bit, and now it does not, it’s as simple as that.  And the joins swivel, and I have a choice of needle lengths!  I can’t imagine how it could be better.  As soon as you have it out there again for sale, I’ll be putting in my order.  Thanks for caring enough about your product to take it back, and improve it!”

 “Of course the needles and tips are incomparable, but now the joins on the new circulars posed no problem with even the most temperamental yarn.  Even more pleasing was seeing how responsive Signature Needle Arts was to the specific recommendation from users that the join be more tapered than the first generation needles had been.”

 “The long stiletto point makes execution easy. I knit several dozen nupps and they came out perfectly.”   

 “I love the cable on these needles; it’s soft and flexible but doesn’t develop the permanent curl that many circular needles have.”

 “The stiletto tips make these perfect for lace knitting.  I think I need every size!”

 “I have not seen a company so dedicated to providing top notch customer service, a superior product, and the willingness to listen to the needs of their customers and make modifications when needed. 

“Signature has been tireless in their pursuit of the perfect circular needle.  Countless hours of testing and design have led to a new generation of precision knitting tools any knitter would be proud to use.”

Not in common: I have a wonderful husband! No tattoos or girlfriends—with or without tattoos.

The challenge for everyone here at Signature has been those darn circular needles.

As you know when we started Signature our single points and double points have been successful beyond my wildest dreams because customers LOVE them. . From the manufacturing end it was no problem to make fabulous products. BUT, everywhere we went and in daily emails we heard…”and when will you do circulars?” 

Even though I am one of the tiny minority who, by choice, never use them I recognized that there was a huge percent of people who never use anything but circulars.

We can all laugh at our first attempts—we call them the “Frankenstein needles”.

We have been refining the design and fixing some issues with the first batch and the new design is quite different. What we didn’t do at first—and this was complete hubris on our part– was to do enough testing.

Now we have assembled a group of testers who were chosen because we felt they would be honest, and even brutal, if they had to be. As a side note: it was not easy finding people who like us and our products that but who would be scrupulously honest even if they found issues. The results are in, but even those testers don’t know that what they tested and really liked have been even further refined.

We have tried so many different things and one of the most heart-wrenching was seeing our shop floor manager, the person who did all the drawings, and one of our best machinists in my office bringing me the “latest and greatest” and me having to once again say, “Sorry this is not good enough.” I knew that they were all SO stressed out wanting to find the solutions we were looking for but which were so elusive. So many days we went home feeling very discouraged but somehow we came back to try again and again and again.

Many of you have met Paul Bothe at shows and I have asked him to help fill you all in on what we have been doing:

It’s funny that Cathy chose to compare our “issues” with the circular needles to Sandra Bullock’s recent troubles.  When Cathy showed us her introduction, and asked us to write a few words, the first thing that came to my mind is that I, too, feel like Sandra Bullock.  In the 1994 movie, Speed.  In this otherwise forgettable film, Sandra Bullock plays a heroine who is unwillingly thrust into a situation in which the city bus she is riding on has been rigged by a villain to explode if, and only if, the bus reaches a speed less than 50 miles per hour. 

Like Sandra Bullock, we have been trying to keep the Signature Circular research and development at top speed while we try to iron out the issues that some of our customers have had regarding the functionality of our needles.  We have not ceased or slowed down since we first released the circulars, and we will not rest until we have something that is up to our standards and the standards of our customers. 

Since we at Signature have built our company around providing superior products in terms of functionality and aesthetics, we had to do the same when it came to our line of circulars.  We have been working long hours both night and day to improve our product, but a lot of the difficulty has come from our area of expertise and areas that were completely new to us.  As a long time manufacturer of CNC machined parts, the aluminum straight needles and DPNs came easy to us, since we know metal and how to make “things” out of metal.

However, from day one, we constantly heard, “These straight needles are great, but when will you have circulars?????”   Cathy mentioned a certain degree of hubris on our part in that we had a relatively easy time in creating and launching the straight needles and DPNs, and we somehow assumed it would be a breeze to create a superior set of circulars.  We were wrong.  Very Wrong. 

Many of you may use knitting needles every day, but probably do not have to consider how you would go about making them, or why the manufacturer makes certain decisions.  One of our priorities was to find a cable which was an improvement upon the stiff nylon cable found in some of  the circulars on the market.  Our PTFE (commonly known as Teflon) cable was just right for so many reasons…flexibility, lack of memory, resistance to kinking, low coefficient of friction, as well as aesthetics.  Unfortunately, the very traits that made this cable desirable made it very hard to work with.  Teflon is known not to stick to anything, right?  So we had to find a way to secure the Teflon cables  to our needles.  This alone caused us headaches, catalyzed arguments, and lead to days and weeks of manufacturing pains.  An easy way out would be to go with a stiffer cable, but we were committed to improving upon the circulars available in the marketplace.

Another issue we have been fighting with is the “join” area where the cable transitions to the needle.  In many ways the join is like a mattress: if it is working properly and doing its job, you might never notice it or think about it.  However, when it is bad and giving you discomfort it seems to become the only thing you can think about and is a constant source of annoyance.  For some knitters, the join became an issue that outweighed all other positive points of the Signature Needles.  From a manufacturing standpoint, the difference between what felt “good” versus what felt “bad” was only a matter of 2 ten thousandths of an inch (.0002”).  To put this tiny number in perspective, it would be like cutting a human hair lengthwise into 15 pieces.  The difference between a smooth and a rough transition came down to 1/15 of the thickness of a human hair.  Ouch! 

Luckily, even though we are a small company, we have the right machines and the best people to help create a superior product that will satisfy and please a vast majority of knitters.  We have admittedly become a little gun shy after our first  releases of the circulars, but we have finally arrived at a design which we believe will make our customers happy, and our testing has confirmed this. 

In many ways, this too has mirrored a Sandra Bullock movie: Hope Floats.  In this painfully sappy film, Bullock’s character is publicly humiliated and lambasted when her personal life becomes public in a small town in which gossip and word of mouth spread like a wildfire.  When we were receiving some negative word of mouth comments and complaints via sites like Ravelry, we felt like Bullock’s character, Birdie, who was publicly embarrassed and chided, but instead of a small town, the people whispering and screaming about Signature were the vocal and active knitters on Ravelry and other knitting sites.  Fortunately, if you can make it far enough into Hope Floats without getting nauseous, you will also learn from Birdie that if you “give hope a chance to float up..it will.”   We are finally confident in our product, and sincerely HOPING that you will love the newest rebirth of our Signature circulars as much as we do.

And so… drum roll please… here are the first official pictures of the circulars that we will have on the site very soon. Again, we will be starting with sizes 5, 6 and 7 with others to follow.

FINALLY… we can answer: 12:01 am Saturday Dec. 19, 2009—the birthday of Signature circulars!

Everyone here knows that the new big question will be: “Why not interchangeables?” Honestly, we have considered this but to get the long lasting tool that our customers are used to we felt our best bet was the “fixed” route.

We know you will like the cable. We had literally hundreds of different cords that we considered from nylon fishing line (which is what many of the lower cost needles on the market now use) to custom blends of polymers. I know that you will understand how hard it is to sit across from a panel of chemists and try to tell them what we wanted: very slick, not “kinkable”, not too soft, not too hard. After one such session I wanted to just say: “go read Goldilocks and follow that model—we need something ‘just right’ and we can’t settle for less.”

The other issue we are considering is the education that needs to take place since we are offering an option that has never been seen before: you can choose a LENGTH for the hard needle part. We know that hands come in lots of sizes and that one length does not fit all!

4” needles  – If you have small hands or other circs with that length stalk that you just plain like or you are working on a small diameter piece.

5”  needles - If you have medium hands or like that length from other needles.

6”  needles  – If you have larger hands or are always being hurt at the side of your palm with your current needles. In addition a lace knitter told me that having a little longer stalk to hold the stitches rigid to see if there is a problem with the lace pattern before it leaves the needle and gets scrunched on the cord.

Of course since Daniella put the news on the site and at Ravelry we have had lots of calls and emails. We decided to put out a few sizes rather than wait for all the sizes to be done. I know this is a disappointment for those who want a whole set but we wanted to be able to keep our word that we would have some sizes by the end of 2009.

We have had a lot of anxiety here in anticipation of midnight. Laura brought up the point that when we first started the biggest paper in our state (“Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel” )did multipage article that started the phones ringing about 2 months before we THOUGHT we would be starting. We were thrown into the fire with no time for worry.

This time there has been months and years of prep work with people here like Bob, and Paul, and Brian, and the other Brian, and the other Paul, and Luis, and Bruce, and Kent who have worked tirelessly to make me happy. And that was NOT easy.

Time after time new versions of things would be brought in—things they thought were wonderful that were categorically rejected. This time it is different. We have so many customers who know our single and double points that we want to love our circulars. I had a call this morning from a repeat delightful customer named Margery. I told her about the anxiety and said that, for me, it must be based on some childhood disappointment at not being invited to a birthday party. She just laughed and told me that she and her daughters Stephanie, Jennifer and Elizabeth were ALL coming to the party tonight at midnight. She couldn’t have said anything that could have made me feel better.

Of course I did email others that they don’t need to stay up but can order any time after midnight. But count on it, I will be awake for the party!

The sock blocker is upside down on purpose—it is the new international sign of distress for knitters.

On Tues. December 8 we woke up to find that some X@%!@ robbers had come into our house and taken lots of things. The police had a horrified look on their faces when they realized Kent and I were upstairs, IN THE HOUSE, in bed. So, the silver lining was that we were not killed.

I had to really concentrate on that silver lining as I spent most of last week just trying to take care of stopping all the credit cards, getting new drivers’ license, replacing phones, laptop, etc. The prime officer told me to just take my time thinking about what they took because she recognized I was in shock.

If this has ever happened to you the biggest thing that was stolen was our sense of any security. Of course we also spent time upgrading our alarm system, getting new motion detector lights, and looking for really BIG guard dogs at rescue groups around the country. Paul did the research and found several breeds that seem to fit the “will eat the burglar” but have some other issues like: lots of slobber, will not go outside without digging holes everywhere etc.

As the 1st day and then the 2nd passed we realized more and more things were missing—like several bottles of liquor.

AND THEN….. OH THE HORROR! I looked under a counter near the liquor where I had squirreled a whole year’s Christmas knitting and IT WAS GONE! The bottom of the big tote had many pairs of socks and other things which it would seem served as a great carrying case for all the loot the X@%!@ robbers had taken.

Honestly this was the worst—all that work gone, and since none of the socks had been finished since I thought I would do all the Kitchener stitching at one time to finally get some good muscle memory of how to do it—I knew it would all be thrown in the garbage. All my beautiful Lorna’s Laces sock yarn, my special cotton blend for the allergic, and the crazy colors for the creative. All GONE!

There was one special project that I worked like crazy to find replacement discontinued yarn. I had UPS next day air coming and damn the cost—I just needed to try and get something back.

AND THEN… The miracle. I hazily had remembered that the tote was so big that I wanted to take it in the basement to my stash room but when I looked it was not there. BUT on the first day of Hanukkah (Friday) when I went down to the basement pantry to get a Christmas table cloth there it was! On the floor-in a room in which I would never have put it! I can only think that some family member must have taken the bag down and put it in the wrong place, or it was elves, or I just don’t care—it is back.

Mostly everyone takes some time on Thanksgiving to think about the things for which they are thankful. As I started to do that my first thought was “Oh brother, same thing every year:  wonderful husband (who will celebrate 43 years of sainthood on Thanksgiving):grown kids who each make us proud; delightful in-laws; fabulous grandchildren; job I LOVE; terrific work family; true friends: the luck to live in the United States and the chance to buy the BIG turkey.”  Of course my second thought was, “WOW, the same wonderful blessings for another year!” Nothing better than that.
Today as I was ready to leave, Bill who is a vital part of the work family, had his two grandchildren come in. He is just crazy about those kids: darling Paityn who is his daughter Courtney’s girl and is 11 months old and the newest member Adian who is just 4 weeks old. Bill’s son Nick is his father and Nick is in our prayers while he is in Afghanistan serving in the Air Force. Aiden’s mom is also in the service and we all have to be thankful for families like this who sacrifice a whole lot.

Here is one work thing I am thankful for: getting my office cleared out from all the cables we DIDN’T pick for the new circulars. I hope you can see how many roads we went down. Paul found literally hundreds of things to consider. Who knew how many different possibilities there were. More at a later date on the “road to cablesville”.

Of course I would be remiss in not thanking all the wonderful people we have met since there was a Signature Needle Arts. Honestly, some of them are like family to us and I am more than thankful for every single customer. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I wish I could share the leftovers with you.