EXCITING NEWS!!!

We've been contacted by local and international news media to cover our shop hop!

The local media, is of course, The Oregonian. The international media is a famous knitting podcaster. I don't want to give away too much yet, since we don't know how this is going to work yet, and if we can get it arranged by Saturday, but just being acknowledged is incredible.

We do want to put this challenge out to all knitting guilds. It is a day of great fun, and a way to support our favorite stores, manufacturers, stockists, and vendors. It should be self-supporting and non-profit. Every dollar raised should go right back in to the Shop Hop.

The participants receive goodies that value at least twice what they paid to help defray the bus cost, the manufacturers get visibility for their products, the stockists get advertising, the stores are delivered knitters hungry for the newest yarns in their shops, and the guild has benefited from getting new members who pay a reduced price for the shop hop if they also purchase a guild membership. It truly is a win-win situation all the way around!

In other Shop Hop news, the Shop Hop Committee met last night and worked tirelessly for four hours on the bags, passports, and beaded wristlet kits. We laughed and cried (those beads really do love to jump out of the way when you're trying to gather them up!) but mainly I must admit I was so proud of the efforts we've all put in. This is truly going to be a monumental event; we even talked about how we'd top this next year...frankly, I'm not sure it's possible!

Update

Well, there were so many people who wanted to go, and we tried to find a way to make room for you all. We really do feel badly that not everyone who wanted to go can go. Unfortunately, we are full and just cannot find room for anyone else. We are terrribly, terribly sorry. This gives us ideas for the next shop hop though! We may be able to make it a weekend thing, where we have two busses going to the shops on two different days. This would also allow us to have smaller groups go.

I have to tell you, this shop hop is a lot of work. Please take a moment to thank the volunteers who really worked so dilligently to make this a day of knitventure for us all. Our volunteers are:

Diane, Michelle, Marguerite, Shelley, Judith, Laure, Wendy (treasurer), Juanita, and Heather (me!).

I had a goal of getting a raffle prize per person, and never in my wildest dreams did I think we'd do it, but we did! Some of these raffle prizes are just amazing too...they vary in value from $20 up to $200. I also want to give a huge thank you to everyone who sponsored us. All of the raffle prizes were donated. I will include in your bags a brochure that has their names, websites, addresses, and phone numbers. Please support them in return if you can.

Last year we had the people who received the raffles send thank you cards to the donator. This year I will be sending the thank you cards to the donators myself, because I had no idea that we would get this many contributions!

I look forward to seeing you all on the bus!

Kindred Spirit Studio

A local glass artist has generously donated 3 pairs of handmade glass stitch markers for raffle prizes. She is the talented woman behind Kindred Spirit Studio. (the website will be up shortly) Her stitch markers feature sterling silver, gold plating, swarovski crystals, dichroic glass, and of course, the handmade beads.

If you aren't lucky enough to have your name drawn for the raffle ones, there will be some for sale on the day of the shop hop. They are normally $28, but Shop Hop participants will be given a 15% discount, which would make them $24. Cash and checks accepted. For more information, you may email her.


A few that will be available for purchase:







The three chosen to be given away as raffles: