Local Doctor and Yarn Store Join Forces to Craft Healthy Hearts

Unique Knitting Event to Educate Women About Their Risks for Heart Disease  

Reno, Nev. (February 28, 2012) – Doctor Grant Anderson of Vascular Health in Reno and Jimmy Beans Wool, local retailer of yarn and fabric with a strong online presence, are coming together to educate women about their risks for heart disease and what steps they can take to live a longer and happier life with Stitch Red Knit Night. The free event will take place on Tuesday, March 6^th at 6 pm and is part of an ongoing educational series focusing on heart health hosted monthly at Jimmy Beans Wool’s retail location at 1312 Capital Blvd. #103 in Southeast Reno.

Stitch Red Knit Night is part of a high-profile nationwide heart disease awareness campaign, Stitch Red, founded by Jimmy Beans Wool and supported by a majority of manufacturers and retailers in the Needlearts Industry. The campaign is driving efforts to draw attention to heart disease, help women understand the risk factors for the disease and encourage the adoption of healthier lifestyles so they can protect their heart health.

“Heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States and the Needlearts industry is made up of 98% women, so we need to draw attention to this deadly illness and help make the fiber community and women everywhere aware of their risks and informed on how to lead healthier lives,” said Laura Zander, owner of Jimmy Beans Wool.

Dr. Anderson’s mission is to prevent heart attack and stroke for his patients by early diagnosis where risk isn’t apparent. He combines his knowledge of vascular health with cutting edge equipment to assess a person’s risk for cardiovascular disease and diagnose Atherosclerosis, a disease in which plaque builds up in the arteries and can lead to heart attack and stroke. He does this by performing tests such as the Carotid IMT, Endopat, Central Aortic Pressure Test and MCG amongst others. Depending on results from these tests, Dr. Anderson develops a treatment plan tailored to the patient’s specific needs.  

“Women present differently for heart disease than men,” said Dr. Anderson. “It is my mission to identify women who are in jeopardy of the disease by using these risk assessment tools and help them become aware of their heart health and understand what steps they can take to prevent a heart attack or stroke.”  

Attendees of the Stitch Red Knit Night will be able to preview and purchase official Stitch Red products for which a percentage of gross profits will benefit the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) in support of The Heart Truth^®, a national awareness campaign for women about heart disease, sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). For more information about the Stitch Red Knit Night and to reserve your spot, please call 775-827-9276 or email info@stitchred.com.

About Stitch Red

Stitch Red is supported by a majority of manufacturers and vendors in the Needlearts industry who are creating unique Stitch Red products for which a percentage of gross profits will benefit the FNIH in support of The Heart Truth^®, a national awareness campaign for women about heart disease, sponsored by the NHLBI. Additionally, Jimmy Beans Wool has written a book, Knit Red, which features 30 celebrity designers sharing patterns and personal stories and will be released in June of 2012. Stitch Red Knit Nights are being hosted by Jimmy Beans Wool and other local yarn stores across the country. A percentage of gross profits from Knit Red and Stitch Red Knit Nights will also benefit FNIH in support of The Heart Truth^®. 

About Jimmy Beans Wool

Jimmy Beans Wool is a yarn and fabric retailer offering knitters, crocheters and sewers worldwide a comprehensive selection of the finest yarns and fabrics along with the latest fashion trends. As a market leader in its multi-billion dollar industry, Jimmy Beans Wool takes an innovative, unparalleled approach to marketing. It is the first-ever official yarn, knitting and crochet supplier to U.S. Snowboarding and U.S. Freeskiing and is responsible for the national industry-wide Stitch Red campaign against heart disease in women. The store has been awarded an excellent rating from StellaService for its outstanding customer service reputation and has been named three times to the Inc. 5000, Inc. Magazine's List of Fastest Growing Private Companies in the U.S. It has also been featured on CNN, NPR, Forbes and in the New York Times.

About The Heart Truth^® Campaign
The Heart Truth^® is a national awareness campaign for women about heart disease and is sponsored by the NHLBI, part of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Through the campaign, the NHLBI leads the nation in a landmark heart health awareness movement that is being embraced by millions who share the common goal of better heart health for all women.

The centerpiece of The Heart Truth is the Red Dress, which was introduced as the national symbol for women and heart disease awareness in 2002 by the NHLBI. The Red Dress reminds women of the need to protect their heart health, and inspires them to take action.  To learn more, visit www.hearttruth.gov.

® The Heart Truth and The Red Dress are registered trademarks of HHS. Participation by Jimmy Beans Wool, Dr. Anderson and Stitch Red partners does not imply endorsement by HHS/NIH/NHLBI.

Making Heart Disease Nothing More Than A Memory

Lorna's Laces decided to get involved with Stitch Red when I found out that heart disease is the number one killer of women in this country. If you'd have asked me, I would have bet it was cancer. I would have lost that bet.

I'm pretty lucky, there isn't much heart disease in my family. My mom is 94 and my grandma lived to be 98. But that doesn't mean it hasn't touched my life. A childhood friend and next door neighbor, Lorrie, came home from school one afternoon to find the paramedics unsuccessfully trying to revive her 44 year old father. He'd had a massive heart attack. It wasn't my dad but it was right next door. It's had a lasting effect on my life.

Lorna's Laces has earmarked our best selling red, #11ns Bold Red, in Shepherd Worsted as our Stitch Red product. This easy care, superwash merino is a great choice for your next project.

I'm a firm believer that not much happens with big Eureka! moments. Most important discoveries happen as the sum of many small events. That's one of the things I find so attractive about Stitch Red. It gives us all a chance to place one piece in the puzzle that will one day make heart disease nothing more than a memory.

In the meantime, we have to eat. We have pasta at our house a couple of nights a week. Just before the pasta is finished, I toss a couple of handfuls of veggies (broccoli is a favorite) into the pot right along with the noodles. Everyone gets an extra serving of veg and there are no extra dishes to wash. 

- Beth Casey, Lorna's Laces

Love is in the air...

It certainly is today. Not just because it's Valentine's Day, but also because we are feeling so much love from amazing designers, manufacturers and retailers around the country who are supporting the Stitch Red campaign to stick it to heart disease. Today, we are reminded to show love to those we care about the most. We must also remember to show love to our own hearts, today and every day, and do all that we can to take care of them. To find ways you can give love to your heart and prevent heart disease click here.  




Now, let's see how some of our Stitch Red partners are showing their love for healthy hearts...  



First, you can't miss this sneak peek of a gorgeous pattern by Kieran Foley that will make its debut in the Knit Red book coming out this June. The yarn used is Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace.  The talented Sandy at Jimmy Beans Wool did an amazing job knitting the sample you see here. In fact, that's Sandy to the left modeling the beautiful piece!  

Also debuting today is the free pattern for this super cute Healthy Heart Hat by Meg Myers. It's made with Classic Elite Yarns' Stitch Red product, Magnolia, and can be downloaded here. Tiffany from Jimmy Beans Wool talks about this lovely hat and what her plans are for Heart Health Month in Classic Elite's Web-Letter that came out today.

With happy hearts, we at Stitch Red wish everyone a wonderful Valentine's Day and every day the best in heart health!


 - xoxo
  

What Stitch Red Means to della Q

Heart disease? 

I am an active person who eats fairly healthy. I shouldn't have to worry about heart disease. After starting to work on the Stitch Red campaign, I suddenly remembered that my grandmother had some sort of heart issue. What was it? I called my mother to learn more. Yes, she died of congestive heart failure. Do I need to worry? Maybe - if I stop exercising or eating less healthy. I need to remember this when I am thinking of skipping one too many yoga classes or eating too many dinners comprised of nachos. We all have times of less attention to physical fitness or a healthy diet. The key is to get back on track. Thank you Stitch Red for encouraging me to have a conversation with my family and physician.

Developing a Stitch Red product was a no brainer for della Q. Our popular cotton drawstring bags were shouting out to be a part of Stitch Red. Do you have your knitting in a Ziploc® bag? Why? You have a beautiful project in the works. Does it not deserve to be stored in something fun and beautiful? Our popular cotton print drawstrings and Edict drawstrings with cheeky knitting sayings allow you to store and manage your projects in a beautiful bag. Get rid of your plastic bag, store your current project in a della Q Stitch Red bag and fight heart disease.

My heart healthy tip? 

Get outside! Too many of us leave our house through the garage, park in a parking garage and fail to breathe fresh air during the day. Too cold or too rainy? There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad gear. Get a rain-proof jacket, a hat and a pair of boots. Walk to lunch, walk to the grocery or your friend's house. Get a dog that requires you to walk. Lucky keeps me walking every day!

What gets my heart racing?

My heart loves the outdoors.

My heart loves the color red. Really!

My heart loves red wine. It's good for your heart, right?

My heart loves nachos. Oh wait, I do love them, but my heart doesn't!


- Della Quimby

Cooking for your Heart: Yosemite Chicken Stew and Dumplings

I love to cook. No, I mean, I really do love to cook. The process, the satisfaction of a home cooked meal—there is nothing else like it in my mind. I'm an especially big fan of cooking everything from scratch. No short-cuts for this girl!

The main reason I make everything from scratch is all of those pesky ingredients on the labels of so many foods. They often contain so many un-pronounceable words, tons and tons of additives and preservatives, and more sodium then anyone really needs. That's why to me it is so worth it to take the time to cook from scratch when the result is food that tastes amazing, and is so much better for your heart.

My family learned the hard way when at 52 years old, my father was told that he needed a quintuple bypass surgery. His doctor told him that if he didn't drastically change his lifestyle, particularly his eating habits, he would not to be around to see his children get married or meet his grandkids. His own father (my grandfather) died of a massive heart attack at the age of 59 and never lived to meet his grandkids, so naturally this was a huge wake up call for him and my whole family. We immediately started to make changes in the way that we ate and as a result, my father is healthier now than he was 10 years ago when he had his surgery. He was there when my brother and I graduated college, got engaged, married and bought our first homes. (No grandkids yet, but we keep telling him there is no rush since he's going to live to be 100.)

So, with my family's history of heart disease in mind, I am always on the hunt for heart-healthy from-scratch recipes. Naturally when I found out that The Heart Truth has a recipe resource online and a cookbook, I had to check it out! Now, once a week I will be sharing my adventures in the kitchen with you and cooking up some heart-healthy goodness!

This week's recipe was inspired by a friend of mine who visited us last weekend. She teaches kids about nature and science in Yosemite National Park, so when I hosted a potluck in her honor, I thought Yosemite Chicken Stew & Dumplings would be the perfect dish to serve. It was absolutely delicious! The cornmeal dumplings really did make it the perfect meal, and with very little oil or salt, it was a super healthy and nutritious too! Here's how you make it (I made a few substitutions which are noted with an *, I also made a double batch to serve 12):

Yosemite Chicken Stew & Dumplings (serves 6):

Ingredients:

For the stew:

-1 lb skinless, boneless chicken meat, cut into 1-inch cubes

-1/2 C onion, coarsely chopped *(Used 1 whole small onion—about ¾ cup)

-1 medium carrot, peeled and thinly sliced *(I doubled the carrots)

-1 stalk celery, thinly sliced *(I doubled the celery)

-1/4 tsp salt to taste black pepper

-1 pinch ground cloves

-1 bay leaf

-3 C water

-1 tsp cornstarch

-1 tsp dried basil

-1 package (10 oz) frozen peas

For the cornmeal dumplings:

-1 C yellow cornmeal

-3/4 C sifted all-purpose flour *(I used whole wheat)

-2 tsp baking powder

-1/2 tsp salt

-1 C low-fat (1%) milk *(I used Soy Milk)

-1 Tbsp vegetable oil *(I used Canola oil)

Directions:

For the stew:

1. Place chicken, onion, carrot, celery, salt, pepper, cloves, bay leaf, and water in a large saucepan.  Heat to boiling; cover and reduce heat to simmer. Cook about 1/2 hour or until chicken is tender.
2. Remove chicken and vegetables from broth. Strain broth.
3. Skim fat from broth; measure and, if necessary, add water to make 3 cups liquid.
4. Mix cornstarch with 1 cup cooled broth by shaking vigorously in a jar with a tight-fitting lid.
5. Pour into saucepan with remaining broth; cook, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil and is thickened.
6. Add basil, peas, and reserved vegetables to sauce; stir to combine.
7. Add chicken and heat slowly to boiling while preparing cornmeal dumplings.

For the dumplings:

1. Sift together cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl.
2. Mix together milk and oil. Add milk mixture all at once to dry ingredients; stir just enough to moisten flour and evenly distribute liquid. Dough will be soft.
3. Drop by full tablespoons on top of braised meat or stew. Cover tightly; heat to boiling. Reduce heat (do not lift cover) to simmering and steam about 20 minutes.

Yield: 6 servings--Serving size: 1-1/4 cup stew with 2 dumplings

Each serving provides:

Calories: 307
Total fat: 5 g
Saturated fat: 1 g
Cholesterol: 43 mg
Sodium: 471 mg

Happy Heart Healthy Cooking!

- Kristen Ashbaugh-Helmreich

  Jimmy Beans Wool

  Social Media and Marketing Team

My Heart Belongs to Daddy: Stitch Red = Heart Health

I've always been my father's daughter.  We loved the same kinds of foods; had the same passion for life; were both Type-A personalities who started our own businesses. But one thing that I'm determined not to have in common with my father is heart disease.  When he died at 79 of congestive heart failure, I decided then and there that I was going to take very good care of my heart. He would have wanted me to.

So I lost 25 pounds, found an exercise routine that I truly loved (NIA and yoga), started eating more fruits and veggies (see one of my favorite root veggie bake recipes below) and am almost a vegetarian. I also dumped my addiction to cookies and chocolate and discovered that my acid reflux no longer exists!  One more thing: I take time for myself (hot baths, quarterly vacations to the beach so I can float mindlessly in the Gulf of Mexico, massage therapy and a struggling but growing meditation practice. Oh yes, and I laugh a lot!   

When Leanne Pressly from The Wool Wide Web, a social media marketing consultant to the yarn industry, first told me about Stitch Red (it was TNNA 2010), I knew that this campaign to promote women's heart health to the stitching community of knitters, crocheters, spinners and weavers was for me! My father would have been proud!

But the big question was: How was I going to do this?  Who could I reach and how? 

Cotton Clouds' website (www.cottonclouds.com) reaches over 2,000 readers a day, our newly updated and fastly growing Facebook page is approaching 3,000 friends, our monthly e-newsletter goes out to over 5,000 dedicated Cotton Clouds' customers.  I take personal interest in each of my customers and care not only about meeting their fiberarts needs, but in their general welfare as well.  Some customers have been a part of the Cotton Clouds' family for all 34 years we've been in business. They are friends. If I could wake up just one person to the warning signs of a heart attack and heart disease my mission would be a success.

Cotton Clouds launched our own online Stitch Red campaign. On January 10, 2012 our Stitch Red e-newsletter went out to over 5,000 readers.  Click Here to read a copy. If you do only one thing, please Click Here to watch the video “Just a Little Heart Attack” by Emmy winner Elizabeth Banks. It might save your (or a loved one’s) life! Do it now!

But we didn't stop there.  As a way to celebrate women's heart health, Cotton Clouds has designed five Stitch Red kits for:

Knitting (A Ruffle Scarf in TuTu)

 Crochet (A Market Tote in Cotton Classic)

  Weaving (A Red Chenille Scarf)

 Rigid heddle weaving (A Multi-Textured Scarf)

   Spinning (A Hand Dyed Red Sliver & Spindle)

Of course they're all in Red!  Each kit includes a Czech glass heart bead that can be sewn on the finished project.

We really wanted to make a difference, so we are donating the requested 5% of sales and another 5% on top of that to The Heart Truth from sales of these kits. 

If my Stitch Red campaign saves just one life by alerting my customer to good heart health, I’ll consider my efforts a huge success. Together within the fiberarts community we can support each other and live long, happy and productive lives.

What gets my heart racing? I love that feeling of hiking up a really steep hill and upon reaching the top, looking out over a beautiful vista and feeling my heart furiously pumping in my chest. It's the combination of "I did it", the physical sensation of blood pulsing through my body and the beauty of nature that surrounds me. I guess you can say what get's my heart racing is mind, body and spirit wrapped up into one!  It's great to be alive! 

- Irene Schmoller

My favorite heart healthy recipe: To the Root of It Veggie Bake

2@ large carrots

1@ large rutabaga

2@ medium turnips

1@ medium sweet yellow onion

1@ medium sized yam

1@ tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1@ tbs garlic powder

1@ tsp sea salt

1@ tbs fennel seeds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Peel and dice vegetables to approximately 1” cubes.

Mix vegetables together with olive oil, garlic powder, salt.

Add fennel seed.

Line a baking pan with tin foil or parchment paper.  Spread vegetable mixture evenly on pan.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Stir. Bake another 15 minutes until vegetable are soft.

Serve hot as a side dish, or add cold to salads.