One of my good friends reads my blog, when I take the time to post. One would think that a pandemic would give a girl plenty of time to do so ... and to be absolutely honest, I really do not know how I lose so many hours of my life. Yes, I understand that the silly computer games I play are a complete waste of time, and I will readily admit that I play entirely too much. Having admitted this, however, I am also going to say that knitting and keyboarding properly are prone to the creation of carpal tunnel syndrome, so too much of those activities may not be healthy for me either!
In any event, I did spend a fair bit of time this summer out on my little sailboat. Feeling the sun and wind on my face, listening to the swish of water past the rudder prove to be balm to a troubled soul, and this accursed pandemic has created more than a little disturbance in my soul. I hope this winter to substitute cross-country skiing for the boat ...
I absolutely love having a wool shop to call my own (well, my half of the partnership in any event). It turns out that there are benefits to owning said shop, as well as pitfalls. One pitfall is that sometimes, thankfully not often, a customer will fling yarn at us that we cannot resell. It has been wound, knit, frogged and rewound into a ball. Of course, it is still usable ... so in the early days of lockdown I knit hats. Ten of them. In an effort to not enlarge my stash, I gave the remainder to Barb. I guessed there was enough for two or three hats. She will get to them ... some day.
Another not-so-terrible pitfall of owning a wool shop is that sales reps often give us samples of wool and yarn to work with in the hope we will fall in love. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it does not. The skein below is one such gift. Sadly, I have absolutely no label and so I cannot tell you anything about it except that it is green, and wool. It is scheduled to be one of the next ten projects I make, so any suggestions would be welcome.
Sometimes we look at yarns and fall in love with them, but are not certain that our clientele will love them the way we do. We purchase a bag, split it between us, and plan to plan to knit something glorious, tempting the clientele as we do so, of course. Or perhaps it is just yarn that we love. One never knows. Anyway, we split a bag of Pollock from Juniper Moon Farms a long time ago. A very long time ago. In an effort to reclaim my knitting corner, I have designated this to be in the upcoming rotation. Again, suggestions are welcomed because at the moment I have no idea what it wants to be when it grows up.
Next are two skeins of Rylie from Hi-Koo. A customer really, really wanted to make something with this wool. Sadly we had disappointed her previously so we brought in a bag for her. Not so sadly, she did not need the entire bag ... and someone’s stash grew again.
Another day we had a customer who dropped by with donations for our charity knitters. There was this Shirley Brian yarn that seems to have started the colour-changing craze. It is not really suitable for the various charity projects happening, so once again my stash grew. It did not come with a pattern, though, so I will get to play a bit with it.
I swear the picture was not this blurry when I looked at it after taking it! In any event, this is a skein of Louet Euroflax ... again, a gift from a sales rep.
Have I mentioned that sometimes Barb and I just cannot help ourselves and we buy things just because they are beautiful? This is a gradient set from Manos del Uruguay in their Alegria Grande base. Sigh. Too beautiful to pass up. And time for it to become something.
I have made afghans for all of my children. Sometimes two ... My step-daughter is dear to my heart and well-deserving of an afghan too. One weekend while she was visiting, I handed her an ancient McCall's Super Afghan book and asked her to choose. She selected an aran-style afghan ... my heart just grew two sizes that day! Took a while for the right colour yarn to arrive, but it finally has.
Every year we do inventory at the wool shop. Sometimes we bring treasures home with us. This is one such treasure — Sublime Merino Lace. I knit with this previously and loved it so I decided that it was time for this wool to find a home.
So those are the projects that will be moving through my fingers. No time frame as yet ... after all, I still need to do some holiday knitting. In the process of sorting these out and filling project bags, I also turfed a couple of,projects. Again, as the owner of a wool shop I seem to have a lot of projects that I “should” be working on. You know what? Life is short and uncertain, and I decided that “should” knitting is not gonna happen unless it is also something I WANT to make.
In that vein, let’s move on to my current projects! This is an afghan that my mother started many years ago. She is gone now, and the afghan has been residing in a corner of my room waiting. Waiting oh so patiently. This is something that my mother’s hands touched, something she was making for someone she loved. It has taken me some time to be ready to proceed ... I am there. I know what row to start with, what colour, and cooler weather is approaching. This will be something that stays at home as it is a large project already.
One of our vendors gifted us with some balls of Brook Farm. Cute, little balls of wool perfect for colour work. The pattern is the Advent Cowl, available on Ravelry. I started this last winter, before the pandemic. Turns out that wearing a face mask changes where my glasses sit on my nose, making chart reading interesting. I may have found some masks that fit better so I am hoping to go back to this.
Another long-lived project is this beautiful lace shawl. Carrie gave me the alpaca yarn ... I have struggled with the chart as it is in a book which does not lie flat, making the magnet board difficult to use. Being the clever girl I am, I have FINALLY had the brilliant idea of getting a copy made. Flat page, no binding, and a flat magnet board should make this much easier. I could even have the chart — gasp — enlarged!
My daughter was engaged this summer to a delightful young man. we are thrilled with this development. Of course, I instantly decided to make something special for her and that day whenever it may occur. Having learned not to make surprise projects for her, I showed her my idea, she approved and I cast on. I
love knitting lace ... this is a full circle shawl inspired by Elizabeth Zimmerman. i am having SO much fun knitting it. Very soon I will be adding the border and able to start spreading it out. I can hardly wait!
I think this is enough chatter. There are still new projects in the queue, but they can wait. After all, there is lace knitting to be done!
