Our food drive is winding down, and we have decided to double the savings through Saturday.

Bring any non-perishable food item for our food drive and save 2% for each piece donated (maximum 30% savings). So all you need to do to save 30% is bring 15 items of food to either SWAK location. Offer ends Saturday 5/29.

All sales final. Discount cannot be combined with other offers, is available for in-stock merchandise only and cannot be applied to special order merchandise.

HOLIDAY HOURS
Both SWAK locations are open Saturday from 10/4, and will be closed Sunday/Monday.

We’re having an attic sale this Saturday above our Guthrie store. I’ve been clearing out one of my upstairs apartments that is full of furniture & stuff and decided to have a big sale. We don’t have a yard or a garage here, so we decided to call it an attic sale.

So come see us Saturday morning from 8am to noon for bargains on
furniture - antiques - piano - baby furniture - and more!
109 1/2 E. Oklahoma • Guthrie

Truth is I love Doris every moment of the year. Yes, I am a huge Doris Day fan. Back in the days when you could count the number of TV stations with both hands (and have a few fingers left) I fell in love watching her movies on the off-station movie specials.

Naturally you just have to love her classics like Pillow Talk and That Touch of Mink, but among some of my favorites are With Six You Get Eggroll and The Glass Bottom Boat. I also love the thrillers like Midnight Lace and Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much.

I have to thank my Uncle Ben for turning me on to her music. Every gal needs an uncle who loves the theatre and collects show tunes, and mine graciously gave me his Doris Day CDs. He’s no longer with us and I miss him like crazy, but I still treasure those CDs.

One year they surprised me at the store with a Doris Day birthday party. That was a real treat! Check out the cake…

We had this awesome lady who made awesome cakes, but made the mistake of telling everyone we knew how great she was and well, she just got too busy. So if I get another awesome cake maker, I’m not giving out her name.

And while my husband doesn’t get it right all of the time, he does have a knack for coming up with some incredible gifts for me from time to time. This is probably my favorite gift he’s ever given me (short of the rock on my finger that I waited forever to get, but that’s another story)…

It is a boxed set of CDs that I adore from a collector in Germany. I now have a Doris Day tune for just about any occasion and then some. Happy, sad, in love, holiday, religious, children’s tunes, movie themes, and for car trips through Ohio (why-o-why Ohio). I threatened to play it for one of my teen companions on a trip through Ohio one time if they didn’t straighten up, and boy did it do the trick.

Included with the CDs is a book full of pictures. Here are my favorites, and it’s easy to see why.

OMG! She knits! How cool is that?

Mason has discovered my Doris tunes on the MINI’s iPod. As much as I love my Doris tunes, I do have to admit that listening to them every time we’re in the car is getting a bit old. It is especially driving Keith nuts. I’ve tried to steer him towards Patsy Cline for a change of pace, but so far the song he likes best is Tra-La-La-La-La-La Triangle and that gets old quick. I also sing Doris to him before he goes to sleep. His favorite is Shanghai (one of my favorites too). He knows what number on the iPod it is and now simply requests that I sing #29. I think I’ll be ready to go on tour soon, appearing at a nursing home near you.

Now for a bit of Doris Day trivia. The internet has spoiled stumping you folks anymore, so I’ll just give you a hand on figuring this one out. What is the connection between Doris Day and Charles Manson? Here’s the answer. You too can now stump people at parties with this one.

Any other Doris fans out there? What are your favorite movies/songs? Hopefully I’ve converted a few new fans!

TODAY ONLY SAVE 25%!

May not be combined with other offers or discounts. Hand Painted Knitting Yarns and special order merchandise excluded.

Call or come in to save! Tell us you want the Rainy Day Special to receive your discount.

Always wanted to learn to knit? We can teach you how!

Learn 2 Knit
10am this Saturday (May 22)
@ SWAK in the City

Class is FREE - you just need to buy the supplies.

Give us a ring at 405.600.9276 or sign up online.

Can’t come Saturday? Check out our schedule for other dates & times.

The Hand Painted Knitting Yarn trunk show continues @ SWAK in the City through Saturday.

Don’t miss out - it is truly fabulous!

SWAK has teamed up with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma and is hosting a food drive now through the end of May. Bring non-perishable food into either SWAK location and save 1% for each item donated (maximum 15% off)*. There is no limit on how many times you can donate throughout the month!

Any non-perishable item is appreciated, and the most needed items include:

Canned Meats
Meat-Based Soups
Canned Fruits
Canned Vegetables
Peanut Butter
Beans
Rice

please no homemade or glass items

Help fight hunger in Oklahoma and save a bundle on yarn too!

I might have to get a part-time gig at a grocery store - building a canned food pyramid was really fun. I’m hoping we get enough food so I can build a mongo-pyramid. I must have some sort of display obsession.

*Discount good for in-stock merchandise at either SWAK location and cannot be combined with other offers or discounts. All sales final.

We’ve given you a sneak peek, then posted some great original patterns so it’s about time that we give you the official presentation of these fabulous yarns from HPKY.

We fell in love with these yarns, especially the Giant Skeins when we first encountered them back in February.

This is a small company located just outside of St. Louis. The beautiful combinations of fiber and color are the work of Bjorn Coordt, master hand-waver and textile designer.

The company also hires mentally disabled women from a nearby center. We always love stories like this!

The multi-color shades are all named after operas and are available in rich and pastel hues. We put together this little presentation to show you the colors.

They also have gorgeous semi-solid shades!

The Giant Skeins contain 12 yarns all hand-dyed together. They are available in DK & Worsted weights, and in a variety of sizes ranging from 10oz-32oz. I have knitted with both weights and have found each yarn quite delightful to use.


Information on each yarn and its fiber content is available on our website.

HPKY also offers several free patterns including this really cute Circular Yoke Open Jacket. I’ve already started an Einstein Coat and think I am going to have to make one of these too.

This jacket takes 16-24 oz of the worsted weight for most sizes.

Included in the supply list is a deck of cards and a pair of dice. You assign a playing card to each yarn, pick a card to choose your yarn and roll the dice to determine how many rows to knit. A really cool concept!

HPKY patterns are not available unless you purchase their yarn to make the project (sorry!)

Last but not least is HPKY’s Donegal Tweed sock yarn - absolutely gorgeous!

I am happy to finally get this presentation together for those of you who live too far away to make it by to one of these trunk shows. If you do live nearby, we are wrapping up this show tomorrow at SWAK in the City. I’ll be there too so try to make it by! We do have more things in the works from this fabulous company so stay tuned.

The trunk shows we had on hand during the Knit Out were such a hit, we’re having a command performance at SWAK in the City! The shows will arrive tomorrow and run through Saturday, May 15. Here’s what we have in store for you…
Hand Painted Knitting Yarns
Our bathtub is overflowing with magnificent Giant Skeins. Need ideas on what to make? How about a shawl, throw, striped jacket or even an Einstein Coat. Yes, Sally Melville’s marvelous jacket will be our fall sweater project and I have already started my twist on this classic jacket using these gorgeous yarns. Now is the time to be thinking about what color you want!

Included in this trunk show are “Little Giant” skeins in four weights ranging from sport to bulky. A great way to experience this fabulous yarn at only $58/skein.

We also have kits for this unusual Triangle Shawl that was a big hit this past weekend. Sorry I don’t have a better picture to share, but you get the idea.

Hanne Falkenberg
Check out the trunk show from the Danish designer who blew Jared Flood’s mind while he was here last week!

The Hanne Falkenberg trunk show is on display, along with the color cards showing all of the color options. Her designs won Brooklyn Tweed over and we think they’ll win you over too!

Available only as kits, these classic garments are well worth it!

Knit One Crochet Too
The new Cleopatra top from Knit One Crochet too was a huge hit this weekend! Of all the shows this is probably the most picked-over, so if we are out of what you like we are taking orders and expect them to arrive soon.

The Cleopatra top is knit with a combination of the new Ty-Dy Dots and Ty-Dy cotton. The Bella Cardigan was also quite popular - it’s knit from the top down with no seams in TyDy cotton.

We also have BabyBoo, a great summer blend of Bamboo & Nylon, along with their most-popular Crock-o-Dye and Ty-Dy Sock yarns.

Come and see all of these fabulous things at SWAK in the City, 3124 N. Classen, Oklahoma City. They’ll be gone after next Saturday so don’t miss out!

the classes…
The main event began on Friday afternoon. Sally Melville was scheduled to warm up the crowd with her Creativity workshop on Friday afternoon. In her absence, Alissa taught one of her crowd pleasers - Intelligently Substituting Fibers and it was a hit! Jared’s Seamless Sweater Workshop was so full, he offered his encore performance on Friday afternoon as well. What a great jump-start to the weekend!

Nine more incredible workshops continued on Saturday and Sunday, and Alissa, Cookie & Jared were on fire! If you didn’t learn something really cool this weekend it was because you weren’t here. The knowledge and information these pros had to share enlightened even the most seasoned of knitters.

friends & fun…
The Knit Out always brings old friends together and new friendships are created too. This year we hosted knitters from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, New Mexico and even Minnesota. The biggest contingency? TEXAS!

When everyone was not busy expanding their knitting knowledge, we dined on delicious meals, gave away fun prizes, hobnobbed with our celebrity instructors, and enjoyed a fashion show too.

Planning for Knit Out 2011 is in the works. As soon as I catch up we’ll begin putting it all together. I have more photos on Facebook if you’d like to check them out. If you have photos, please share them there too! If you attended this year, a huge thank you from all of us here at SWAK for helping make this year such a huge success and we hope everyone can join us next year.

I leave you with a parting shot - this is taken at the shop while everyone is in class. It is one of the few I can find of me actually standing still. I think they made me stop long enough to take a picture.

This is the most incredible post Knit Out report yet! The chain of events leading up to the Knit Out are about as incredible as the Knit Out itself.

8:37am…Monday…04.26.10
I receive an email from Sally Melville, one of our rock-star instructors giving me a heads up that she returned from her last teaching gig with total laryngitis and unable to speak. The first stage of catastrophe begins - DENIAL. She’ll be fine by Friday, sure she wlll…

11:00am…Tuesday…04.27.10
After a visit to the doc, Sally calls and attempts to tell me that she will not be able to come. By email we discover she has severe laryngitis and bronchitis. The second stage of catastrophe kicks in - ACT. I start working my network of people looking for a solution. At one point I have half of Canada scouring for a replacement.

8:00pm…Tuesday…4.27.10
9 hours later we not only have found a solution, we found the PERFECT solution. Thanks to Sheryl in Dallas, Alissa Barton agrees to come to our rescue!

11:00am…Wednesday…4.28.10
24 hours later a complete plan has been organized, and with great aid from my team we begin contacting everyone about the change. Expecting the worst, we were pleasantly surprised by the outpouring of support and excitement about the sudden change to Alissa. She is quite the rock star in the Dallas area! It’s time for the third stage of catastrophe - REJOICE!

10:00pm…Thursday…4.29.10
The current rock god of knitting, Jared Flood arrives in OKC. Our night owl Kary gets the lucky job of picking him up at the airport.

11:30am…Friday….4.30.10
With less than 48 hours to prepare, Alissa appears in Guthrie ready to go. We replaced two of Sally’s classes with similar offerings from Alissa’s repertoire and Alissa bravely stepped up to teach the other two classes for Sally. Sally Melville is an incredible woman, working tirelessly to prepare Alissa for taking over her workshops.

12:00pm…Friday….4.30.10
Mary picks Cookie A up at the airport and it’s time to get the party started. By the way, we think the “A” stands for AMAZING.

This concludes my first report. Stay tuned…there’s more to come!