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Winner upon Winner

Winner upon Winner

Jan 29th 2014

When Super Storm Sandy hit everyone here felt so bad for all the people affected. We even had a direct link since we were working with the final steps of the Lacey Arches pattern by the famous designer Shirley Paden Bernstein and getting the sample to be finished and delivered. She and her helpers live in New York and had some damage themselves. We wanted to do something just as so many others all across the country and decided that we could raise some funds by auctioning off the beautiful 100% cashmere sample. It was wonderful to see how many people were interested. And we have a winner…. Jean E from Michigan!

Even though we have a huge number of customers I really do “know” some of them. One of the things I do is to email customers from time to time and Jean and I have been in touch for several years so having her get the sweater was wonderful. I wanted to find out a bit more about her—things I had not thought to ask and here is what she replied: “I live in Kalamazoo, Michigan. My three sons are grown but still live in the area. I work at my family’s business, Top Hat Cricket Farm, but I am also lucky enough to have time to work part time at Stitching Memories, my local yarn shop. I love my signature needles. Currently, I am knitting Christmas stockings for my family. Since it is only January, I will surely have time to finish them in time for next Christmas! The cord on the circular needles is perfect for the magic loop method.”

Of course the part about the Cricket Farm grabbed my attention—was it just a cute name or was it really Crickets? Turns out it is really crickets and that they sell in the US, Canada and even Europe to pet stores and zoos. You can go to www.tophatcrickets.com to learn more.

And people don’t understand how very interesting knitters are! Here in Kenosha we have another winner. Laura absolutely shocked her father and me last October. I mean slack jawed, stunned, amazed when she announced that since Jan. of 2012 she had been in secret training so that she could run a ½ marathon at Disney World this January. In our family and at work we all love and respect Laura for her multitude of talents, her character, intelligence, and kindness but she has never, ever really done anything athletic. She is a fantastic parent, community member, citizen but has never been on a single team or had any sport as a hobby. So you can see why we were actually speechless when she told us the reason she and her husband and kids were going to Disney World. Also, those kids can try for jobs in the CIA—in all those months with all the Sunday dinners and vacations together and even a long car trip they never even hinted at what she was doing. She was training on a treadmill and running around our town and not a word. I know that Vicki in our office was a real inspiration—another mom who did the training and the two ½ marathons at Disney after not ever doing any running before. This is an excellent time of year to when we are making resolutions to consider that what we do (for good or ill) can turn into a resolution for others around us. Saturday Jan. 13 was the day at Disney World and we have another winner:

We are so proud of her and what she did so “out of the box” for her. Maybe that is the best prize—to be an example for others that you CAN do something you never did before and, of course, that you can keep a secret from your parents.