A Love Letter To The LYS

I was fortunate to get out of the humidity outside and the crazy young children inside my home this past weekend and collapse in one of the comfy chairs at Yarns Etc. 

There is something about walking in through the swinging glass door.  Every time, I find myself inhaling and exhaling deeply the moment my foot crosses the threshold.  Probably getting a much needed, concentrated dose of wool fumes.  My eyes take in the square footage stocked with cubbies full of many different types of fibers in hundreds, thousands of hues. 

What I like so much about the place is that it is jam packed with potential.  I find myself wondering how many projects could be cast on with all that lovely yarn.  I am an avid reader, and when I was a kid I used to daydream about getting "accidentally" locked in the library overnight.  Lately I find myself daydreaming about such a happy accident happening to me but maybe somewhere a bit more fiber-y. 





Why, I just didn't know what to do, so I just...cast on...a little something.





This time I watched the knitters come and go.  I saw how many of them were as tactile with the yarn as I am.  Going to the yarn store for me is a lot like a kid going to Chuck E Cheez.  It's not just the colors and how they look.  It's touching them.  Giving them a squeeze, and I was pleased to note that I am not the only one who sort of...cuddles...the yarn against her cheek when she finds a really good one.  Seeing what newcomers are in the baskets around the shop.  What new colors have arrived in the good old standby yarns like Plymouth Encore and Cascade 220 and Rowan, oh my, Rowan, among many many others (like Berroco, Malabrigo, Blue Sky, Elsebeth Lavold, and Three Waters Yarn, just to name a few more).   

Some of you have some fierce willpower, folks.  I was impressed by the whopping two knitters who were able to shake off the grip of some gorgeous yarn, declaring they couldn't get it just yet because they already were working on a project.  I tried to be subtle about picking my jaw up off the floor.  A project. 

A project?  Singular????  Like, only one?  Wha?



That was me.  Except without the suit. 


There was plenty of hustle and bustle, too.  You knitters were not letting the warm weather slow you down.  You know it's going to wind down soon.  The crisp winds of autumn will arrive, and your needles are already clicking away on knits for cooler weather.  I watched two knitters laugh when they realized that they each had fallen in love with the same pattern, but will be knitting it in two different yarns. 

In other knitting news, I'm still trucking away on my Twenty Ten Cardigan.  I am still loving it, but I feel like I need a miner's headlamp in order to properly be able to see what I'm doing while I'm knitting it in the black Cascade Yarns Eco + wool.  Moss stitch is really pretty simple, but with the black yarn, I've done a double take or two, since the purl and knit stitches look awfully similar in it.  Maybe next time in yellow?

As for my Elizabeth Zimmermann sweater, I had been toying with a V-neck and three quarter sleeves.  I have decided to keep the three quarter sleeves idea, but I can't wrap my mind around how to do the decreases for the shoulders, make the V-neck while on a circular needle, and keep the whole thing from gapping ever so unattractively or, conversely, having an accidental V-neck that would get me arrested for public indecency.  Instead, I'm going for raglan decreases and a crew neck from The Opinionated Knitter.  I'm not quite done, but the sleeves are attached and the decreases have been started.




Just imagine this all joined up and slightly larger and you have it. 

 I think I'll finish it up today (knock on wood, throw salt, and burn ceremonial sage as a nod to the capricious whims of the Knitting Muses).  And after that?  Who knows!  Perhaps another trip to the yarn store?

I'm sure there's a yarn store closer....

The time has come for our annual visit to Cincinnati to visit my husband’s family. We drove. The two kids with their car seats, their toys, and me in the backseat, and Steve up in front. Do you know that you can drive fast on the highway, only stop three times, get snarled in traffic twice, get a flat tire once, and have a nine hour drive take 12 (TWELVE!) hours???!! Please hold your applause, but I will take my Purple Heart medallion now. Both children were great and very excited for the first hundred miles, and then it was just that grit-your-teeth-and-drive experience every parent knows about and shudders to remember.

I did a little knitting on the drive up, when both the children were asleep for approximately four minutes. I’ve been having a little love affair with simple knits for the kitchen, namely scrubbers. I get some good old cotton yarn, cast on 33 stitches, and knit in seed stitch until it is approximately square, and then bind off in pattern. It makes for a wonderful dishcloth, and something about the type of stitch makes the yarn long lasting.

For me, one of the fun things about travelling is visiting funky and cool places you can’t find at home. Granted, I live in Chapel Hill and with Carrboro nearby, it is near impossible to have a shortage of funky and cool. But, when it comes to yarn stores, I find that, the more I see, the more I want to see. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of visiting the yarn store, and the fact that they’re all over the globe, not just in my neighborhood, means that (thank god) I am never in danger of running out of yarn. I don’t think that will happen, but I want to be prepared, you know, just in case.

I visited a yarn store I’ve never been to before.

Fiberlicious (http://www.fiberlicious.com/) is located in Madeira, Ohio, and owned by the slightly flushed Cindy, whose air conditioning had conked out the morning I had visited (I’m sure it’s functioning wonderfully right now).

She has a wealth of novelty yarns, eye-catching and beautifully dyed, and she was very friendly and lovely herself. She told me how they were ordered from all over, but all dyed in the USA. She will sit with you and help you design your own knits as well. There were also button and carved rosewood hooks, skeins with wooden beads and cloth-cut leaves strung on them, and clothing for sale as well as purses and knick knacks. A very interesting and eclectic collection, and I left with some interesting cocoon-shaped bobbly yarn to make into a scarf, and some lacy yarn that ruffles when you knit it, and a wee gorgeous skein of (gulp) cashmere, my first. It was a single skein, all by its lonesome, and I felt like it really needed a friend. So, it was more of a philanthropic venture than an impulse buy. And it was “souvenir yarn”, so I think I’ve done well at rationalizing that purchase. I’m hoping I have enough to make a lacy, airy cowl. The other yarn purchases are going to be knit into Christmas presents.

I am also attempting to knit a duckling.

That may be the weirdest sentence I’ve typed in recent memory, but it’s true. My son is in love with a children’s book: Duck, Duck, Goose (by Tad Hills), and there is a little, gray, know-it-all duckling named Thistle. My son loves Thistle, and has been begging me to make one. I selected an alpaca/wool blend yarn...

(Valley Yarn Stockbridge from our very own Yarns etc, to be exact), and so far I had juuuuust enough time to cast on 30 stitches, knit three rows, and then knit in the front and back of each stitch to bring me to a total of 60 stitches. I have a theory that some double knitting might be the way I want to go on the body and head of this duck. But of course, I’m hardly an expert knitter, and I might find (shortly) that that isn’t going to work out. Stay tuned….

An Introduction

How did I get here? Well. My name is Erin, and I used to be a regular, non-knitting individual. But all that changed about four years ago. Before then, I thought yarn was vaguely interesting…sort of. Somehow, mysteriously, I got sucked in.

I started knitting when my son was eight months old. I learned from a book, and while I wanted to throw the yarn across the room and use the book as kindling for a fire (I was a leedle frustrated at first), I kept at it. When I had a strip of something that looked like knitting, I felt almost as I did when I first became a mother. “See that? I made that! Isn’t it cute?”

At first I could take it or leave it. I didn’t need to knit all the time, and I didn’t miss it when I had a few minutes’ time and nothing to do. It took me seven attempts to knit a purse. Seven agonizing cast-ons, hours and hours of grinding concentration to make the simple in-wrap-out-off motions of knitting, and seven fraught bind-offs, including my personal favorite, when I figured I could cut the yarn an inch in length after I’d finished, and I watched the entire thing frog itself in .087 seconds. That was attempt #6, by the way. Weirdly enough, I kept at it.

Sometime after that, I don’t know when, I morphed into a knitter. I started visiting the local yarn store, Yarns Etc, more often. I started planning ahead, buying yarn for those “future projects” I had planned (the slippery slope of yarn addiction is very subtle), and sometimes I just bought yarn because it felt too good to go home without it. I started new and daring things like…hats, socks, sweaters. Things meant to fit a human body, and sometimes the results were tragically comic. What better way to underscore the importance of gauge than to spend two months knitting a nightgown that would work better as a cozy for a tractor tire? That little label on the yarn is trying to tell you something, chica!

My son is four now, and I have an almost four-month old daughter, too. My knitting time is scarce, but now I would say I am a Knitter. It is a rare day that I don’t knit for at least a few minutes (I knit while I waited in the hospital to have my daughter—the nurses were very amused, and I think some of them wanted me to get a psych consult). I buy knitting magazines, I’m on a knitting and crocheting social network (Ravelry holla! If you haven’t been there, you must go), and one of my most favorite moments in life right now is the second I walk in the door at Yarns Etc, and just look from wall to wall at all the cubbies full of fuzzy skeins that scream, “take me home!”



When did you become a knitter, Knitter, or knit enthusiast? Or even...a crocheter???

I don’t get to come to Yarns etc as much as I’d like to lately, but I am always greeted like an old friend when I show up with my wee people. My son loves Mary’s thoughtful assortment of toys (and I appreciate them, too), and has even knit a little bit. My daughter is becoming alert enough to see all those beautiful colors on the shelves…perhaps she will become addicted to the art of knitting and crochet, too?

A few days ago, Mary had asked me if I would be interested in writing for the store’s blog, and I leapt at the chance. Hmmm, let me think…talking about yarn, knitting, my favorite store, and do it weekly. Gee…um…YEAH!

So that's how I got here. I want to talk about yarn, fiber, cool stitches, beautiful projects, and all the fun things that are arriving at Great Yarns and Yarns etc. I want to make your mouths water and your fingers twitch with lots of beautiful pictures of projects and yarns.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

What an amazing year!

Since the beginning of winter last year, my life has grown in so many new dimensions.

I became a married lady, made wonderful new friends, improved my communication skills and became a better person for my human family and my planet.

Somewhere along this path I became a Knitter (uppercase) real and capable. I can knit most anything I want, teach, design and find my way out of many messes; my own and others, real and imagined! 

I have been blessed worlds over with the best people to resource for any task I would like to take on, blessed with friends and family that appreciate, request and praise my knitted accomplishments and most of all BLESSED with the most supportive and phenomenal husband ever!

I will call on all of your help as I am expanding my skills again... my super husband is so many things to me and he is also an instigator, a troublemaker and an accomplished expander of my world!

So here I go, back to kindergarten again...

I am NOT good at this, but it sure is FUN!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Peaceful Solstice, Wonderful New Year and THANK YOU to you all!

Life is so rich and astonishing, I am grateful!

ONE SOCK, TWO SOCK, THREE SOCK... FOUR!

Stray Socks Around The House.

I started a new sock at Knit Night on Thursday, something special for a friend's birthday coming up soon. I finished it last night, much faster than I had planned.  It is Three Waters Farm, but I can't tell you the colorway in case it would ruin the surprise.

I figure that I'm ahead of schedule, got me thinking about the socks that are already waiting for me, I could have a little affair with this flashy red sock that was already on the needles, right? 

Oh sweet, sweet Jitterbug, your bouncy and bright deliciousness!

I turned the heel and started the cuff!

In my search for this little temptation, I found another PAIR just waiting in my backpack... yes, the one I took to Maine... in July, and still haven't fully unpacked. Oh, the guilty feelings!

Three Waters Farm- "Late October" Ah, cool weather, Fall colors...!

I'm not even sure that this is all of them, there might even be more socks sneaking around my house at night! Just so you know that I'm not trying to fool myself, I have dozens of other beautiful skeins calling my needles, and that doesn't even include the new yarns coming into the shop that I must have! 

Hint- Misti Alpaca Handpaint Sock... OK, I already brought it home. 

It is hopeless, I've given in... 

Knitting, I'm all yours forever! 

At least my husband understands.