Spiritual Retreat

This past weekend I spent 72 hours on a Spiritual Retreat called the Walk to Emmaus. It was one of the most powerful events I have ever attended. Tomorrow I go in for shoulder surgery which will leave me significantly incapacitated for at least a week or two. The rest of March is going to be strange for me and I anticipate that April will be only slightly better!!

I am not sure where God is leading me right now. I don't know if knitting will continue to be a primary focus. I cannot even be sure if I am properly equipped (education and skill wise) for my upcoming journey. But I am going to utilize the down time to try and figure it out.

I ask for prayers and thoughts of clarity of purpose and quick healing!!

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I am a Knitting Goddess

At least that is what came out from the Quizilla site see:


You appear to be a Knitting Goddess.
You are constantly giving and are unconcerned with

reward, you simply want others to love

knitting as much as you do. If someone wants

to knit miles of novelty yarns, you are there

for them. If someone wants to learn short row

shaping, you can help. There are no taboos in

knitting, only opportunities to grow.

Everyone should have friend like you around

if they want to learn to knit, and there's a

good chance that your passion has rubbed off

on a few others.
http://marniemaclean.com


What Kind of Knitter Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

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Stitches West 2006

So I am back and starting to get myself together after Stitches West. This was an interesting show for several reasons, a) for the most part we only sold patterns in the booth, b) I had two other designers featured in the booth and c) this was the last time I would be doing a retail booth.

Only selling patterns is WAY easier to prepare for, but you have to sell a lot of $5 patterns to pay for a booth. The flip side is that dropping $5, $10 or $15 dollars is an impulse buy and thus easier to make the sale. I also think it helped that all three designers samples were mixed together. However, we found it interesting that even so, as customers would jump from one piece to the next, they would still be looking at only one designer. This was particularly interesting given that they were not marked in any significant way and although our styles are somewhat different, there is not a drastic or what we would consider obvious difference. Even though the process was interesting and much easier than before, I am still glad I am done with trying to do both a booth and teaching. Teaching is my passion and it is just too hard to try and do both.

I wish I could tell you about some new something or another, but I honestly did not get ANY time to wander the show floor. So we will both have to wait until August for Stitches Midwest. It will be here before we know it. Tomorrow it is off to Tahoe for a ski trip -- need to get in as many days as possible before shoulder surgery later next month!

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Math versus Verbal

So once again I was just over visiting my good friend Annie Modesitt's blog and was once again thrown into a deep depression. Well, actually, it is probably more a fit of jealousy than depression. Let me explain!

Most of our lives we hear (and see evidence of) that people tend to be strong in math and science skills OR they tend to be strong in language and verbal skills. Although I believe it to be more of a cultural thing, men fall in the math camp whiled women fall in the verbal camp. I always thought that it was cool that I was "unique" being female and very strong in math skills.

But then you meet people like Annie and I just want more! If I were to ask her, she would probably say that her strength is in the verbal arena, and it is clear from reading her blog, but I know her math skills are nothing to sneeze at. And then with all that, where does creativity fall?

So the question remains, are we really math or verbal dominant, or can we have it all?

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Whatever Happened to Arsenio Hall?

Does anybody else remember Arsenio Hall? I would not say that I was a big fan, but I always loved "the things that make you go - hummmm?!" When I first tried blogging, I would end my post with a question, something that would make me go - hummm?!

Being one who likes to have a plan, the whole free-form blogging thing is a little bit hard for me. So I think that I have decided to go back to my original format and end with a question. I don't know if it will really work, but there is no harm in giving it a shot.

My big news is we were able to upload the website changes last night. There are always more things that need to be done, but honestly, if you wait until it is perfect, it never gets done! Now my goal is to at least perform minor updates at least once a month -- it will be interesting to see if that actually happens!

So whatever did happen to Arsenio Hall?

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