It looks almost good enough to eat ... if a little heavy on the fiber.
Colorful Stitches co-owner Bonnie J. Burton designed and knitted a variety of fast food and traditional summer fare for exhibit at the specialty yarn store at 48 Main St. in Lenox.
The yarn sculpture food — "Knitted Taste of Lenox" — includes hot dog and hamburger, pizza, cake, a bottle of wine, ice cream, full lobster dinner and more. (We particularly loved that lobster dinner, although the layered chocolate cake looks good, too.)
"Little did I know how addictive this project would become. I just kept coming up with new subjects to knit, but finally had to stop adding dishes so the exhibit could actually be installed," said Burton, in the announcement the store sent us. "I didn't get all my ideas created yet. The list goes on. My husband even suggested I could knit the Thanksgiving dinner this year and skip all the cooking."
Burton said the exhibit is the latest in a string of "yarn bombings" started last year when the store's staff covered its porch and entry with custom designed and knitted fabric. They say that led to further "yarn bombs" around Lenox, including Shakespeare & Company.
Burton has been knitting for more than 50 years and is often a contributor to the collection of custom fashion designs/patterns for hand knitters exclusively found at Colorful Stitches. Check out the shop's website here.
Best Buy at Berkshire Mall Staying Open
By Larry Kratka On: 05:52PM / Monday April 16, 2012
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — It looks like the Best Buy store at the Berkshire Mall will be staying open.
Best Buy is reeling from online competition and announced last month that it would be reducing the number of locations in an effort to cut costs. The company has just disclosed the list of retail locations it plans to close this year, which will come to a grand total of 50 stores in the United States.
Boston and Wareham will lose one store each but that's it for Massachusetts. No stores are closing in nearby New York or Connecticut.
The hardest hit states were California, Illinois and Virginia. Best Buy officials said they expect most of these stores will permanently close by May 12. Three additional locations are expected to permanently close later this summer. Best Buy operates 1,400 stores across the nation.
USA Today reported the electronics retailer is also cutting 400 corporate jobs. CEO Brian Dunn stepped down last week. The company has said it will be opening some 100 smaller and more profitable "mobile" stores.
Walmart Buys Curran Highway Site for $7.35M
Staff Reports On: 04:09PM / Monday January 09, 2012
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The final step in the development of the Walmart Supercenter was completed in December with the sale of the former gravel bank on Curran Highway.
Wal-Mart Real Estate Business Trust bought the property and an adjacent parcel at 1519-1525 South State St. for $7.35 million on Dec 19.
The property includes the gravel bank on Curran Highway and land formerly used by Berkshire Concrete Co.
The retail giant filed plans for a 160,000 square foot store last fall but purchase of the 23 acres was put off until some site preparation and cleanup was completed. Buying the land means the company will begin construction soon.
BVS 5401 Investors LLC, developers for the shopping plaza, purchased the property from the city in 2007 for $700,000. The parcel was one of several bought by developers Nigro Development LLC of Albany, N.Y., and Starwood-Ceruzzi of Connecticut several years ago. Nigro has since dropped out, leaving Ceruzzi Properties of Fairfield, Conn., in control.
Ceruzzi, acting as BVS 5401 Investors LLC, also purchased the Dellaghelfa properties at 1519 South State St. and West Road for about $2.2 million in 2007, and the former North Adams Plaza in 2004 for $2.5 million.
North Adams Staples Closing By Year's End
Staff Reports On: 06:13PM / Friday November 18, 2011
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Staples in the downtown will close at the end of the year.
The closing, rumored since last week, has been confirmed by Staples, according to several media outlets. Calls to Staples corporate headquarters on Friday were not returned to iBerkshires.
The store opened in the newly refurbished Kmart building in 2006, along with Peebles department stores and North Adams [Garden] Cinemas. Since then, Oylmpia Sports, Planet Fitness and, most recently, a Sears Homestore were added.
Mayor Richard Alcombright said Thursday night that he had spoken with several Staples executives on how the office supply store could stay open but was told the bottom line was the reason. "It was losing money," he said, adding he did not believe the chain had announced anything yet.
Staples also has stores in Pittsfield and Bennington, Vt.
The closure will leave a hole in the Steeple City Plaza but Alcombright said owner Neil Ellis of First Hartford Corp. was "fairly confident he can get something in there pretty quick."
Ellis, contacted on Friday, declined to comment on Staples' plans. "I can tell you we have a waiting list for space," he said.
Other vacancies in the plaza, which includes the L-Shaped Mall, have filled fairly quickly. The former Movie Gallery and smaller adjacent space that had hosted several different businesses, including a kids' clothing store, is now occupied by the Dollar Store. The Fashion Bug, a mainstay for a quarter-century, was replaced by Label Shopper.
Only the old Kmart garden center seems difficult to fill.
Alcombright said signage to better highlight the plaza has been a discussion point but would likely not go forward until next year when the Hadley Overpass is completed. He said he had been assured the other tenants in the former Kmart were doing OK, including the movie theaters.
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Local potter Daniel Bellow is being featured in the new Anthropologie catalog.
Bellow says he made some 1,600 pots (and mugs and bowls) and packed them off this summer for sale through the high-end chain's website and stores. Bellow is one of five featured artists on Anthropologie's online catalog and has a "full-page spread" in the paper version.
The former journalist was entranced with ceramics as a youth and returned to his passion nearly a decade ago, setting up shop in a carriage barn (as Daniel Bellow Porcelain). He exhibits and sells locally and still does some freelance writing on the side.
In an email missive announcing the availability of his kitchen-worthy work, Bellows thanks Anthropologie and "the studio crew, you know who you are, Sheffield Pottery, Stockbridge Gas and the art department at the South Kent School. And to my family, who put up with me doing my best work between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m."
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Local potter Daniel Bellow is being featured in the new Anthropologie catalog. 
