Bonnie and Clyde, Sacajawea, and Ivy

Hey, it’s March 4th. Let’s all march forth and accomplish great things today.

If you read these stories, you probably have noticed the stories are written about a family-owned yarn store in Northern Colorado. OK, not all of them. Ok, not very many of them.

Believe me; I try to write about yarn. It’s tough. Ivy reminds me, “You didn’t write about the store.” Ivy suggests I read blogs from other stores and follow their lead. I try! I’ve read yarn blogs from all over the United States.

Those blogs talk about what new yarns the store is getting. Some of the store talk about their “knit night”. The blogs mention who is teaching fiber arts in their stores. Some blogs have chocolate chip cookie recipes.

Well, Your Daily Fiber has new yarns. We have a “knit night”. We have teachers, really good ones! That recipe thing is a problem. I guess, if I need to add chocolate chip cookie recipes, I this one,

Buy a bag of Chocolate Chips

Follow recipe on back of the bag.

Eat the cookies.

We have something in our blog I haven’t found in any other blog. High-school aged twins!

I promised Ivy, I would tell a story about the store today, and I will. Just not yet.

Raising my second batch of children gives me a great deal of pleasure, frustration and confusion. I find myself comparing the old days to today.

Kids today have issues that I could not have imagined when I attended school. Kids now need to know things like how to “vape” in class and not be caught. Kids today need to know where they can make-out (or more) and not be seen by the surveillance cameras. (Yes, Girl Twin knows of a fifteen-year-old girl that will have a baby of her own this summer. OK, that happened in my high-school, also. I guess the only difference is we didn’t have surveillance cameras.)

I loved history and civics in school. My twins don’t seem to be fans of either.

Girl Twin was telling me a story about a couple of teenage lover acquaintances of hers. The story was about some of illicit and possibly illegal activities these kids were involved in. After listening to the story, I said to Girl Twin, “These kids sound like they want to be Bonnie and Clyde.” Girl Twin just stared at me. I could see her mind was racing. Obviously, something was wrong. (This is the history part, I'll get to civics another day.)

Girl Twin: Why would they be like Bonnie and Clyde? Me: You don’t know who Bonnie and Clyde are, do you? Girl Twin: Yes, I do. Me: Tell me who they are. Girl Twin: They were the people walking around America. Me: People walking around America, I’m going to need more information. Girl Twin: Yeah, you know, the people that walked around America with Sacajawea. Me: OH MY GOD, you have a smart phone in your hand, look them up. Girl Twin: Oh, they were gangsters. Well, they still walked around America. Who was Sacagawea with? Me: OH MY GOD! Use your phone!

This kid has “A’s” on her report cards. I’ve seen them! I’m not blaming the schools. Yes, I am, I’m blaming the schools. Who else is there?

OK, it is time to tell a story about the store. More specifically, it is a story about Ivy.

Elaine taught Ivy to knit at a very young age. Ivy hated knitting. She liked chasing butterflies and throwing rocks through the windows of passing vans. (OK, she says her friend threw the rock, but I wasn’t there. Can we really be sure?) Running from irate drivers with broken windows kept Ivy entertained.

I know, so far this story is not about the store, but it is about Ivy.

As an adult, Ivy decided she was interested in accounting. Accounting was safe, but not exciting. Accountants are seldom chased by irate drivers. Ivy was given a chance to work on a dude ranch. Good-bye accounting.

At the dude ranch, Ivy became the kid coordinator at the ranch, Ivy's kid coordinator position which gave her the opportunity to be around kids, teach them to ride horses, and not drive their parents crazy while the parents pretended to be "cowboys." (Oh yeah it is 2018, I mean cowpeople.) The dude ranch position ran its course. (How many years can you live in a log cabin without a bathroom with three other cowgirls?) Ivy found herself working as a nanny for a well to do family in the mountains of Northern Colorado.

The nanny job watching a toddler gave Ivy plenty of free time. With all this free time, Ivy started knitting again. (Here come the knitting/store part.)

Skipping a few steps/months/years here, Elaine and I were finally successful in talking Ivy into managing Your Daily Fiber.

At the store, Ivy found she really liked knitting again. Ivy started writing knitting patterns. Last year Ivy designed and knitted a neckpiece that won a national competition held by a yarn importer/distributor. Excited at her success, Ivy designed a shawl pattern that was bought by an international knitting company. That pattern will be feature in a book and online that will be released this month. Contractually, I can’t say anymore. Rest assured, we’re proud.

Recently, our store started carrying a new line of yarn. Ivy loved this new yarn. As Ivy will do with most of our new yarns, she decided to knit a sample. Ivy searched the internet for a suitable pattern. She could not find a pattern she liked. Elaine suggested Ivy write a pattern.

For the next month, Ivy was knitting and putting little “X’s” on graph paper. Ivy finished the pattern and shawl and decided to self-publish the pattern. This past week, a yarn company purchased a copy of the pattern from the website Ivy used to self-publish. This yarn company will promote Ivy’s pattern in a book and at national yarn trade shows.

Not bad for an irate driver racing, dude ranching, gun-toting nanny (Yep, she had to carry a gun.), yarn store managing kid from Northern Colorado. I’m pretty sure none of the other yarn store blogs have that.

We’re proud of you Ivy, you are on your way.

Feel free to share Ivy’s good news. Next week, I hope to write with be being more of a central figure. I have a hard time sharing the limelight.

Our crazy lives!

Monner