Sunday Knitting

I'm still moving along my cabled socks, having begun the second one, and my Fountain Pen Shawl which I'm about a third of the way through. But my update isn't about those projects. I've just learned something that will change how I knit, how I plan projects, how I get yarn, forever.

My favorite yarn store is closing. Windsor Button just announced that their landlord hasn't renewed their lease and I've heard they looked around for another space and were unable to find anywhere suitable and affordable. After 75 years in business - 75! - they're closing forever.

It may seem a huge exaggeration to say that I'm devastated by this news, but allow me to tell why this is so awful, and why I love that store so much. Knitting is one of just two pastimes I engage in (the other being reading) so despite my apparently slow progress I do spend a lot of time on it.

Windsor Button is the only place around that has everything I need for knitting. It's the only yarn store that carries everything from Red Heart to Malabrigo, Lion to Madelinetosh, and everything in between. Sure, they don't have every brand, but whatever you are looking for, they have something like it. No other yarn store in the Boston area - of the very few that still remain - can boast the range of yarns that Windsor can. It's literally the only place I can go when I have a project in mind and know that I'll come home with suitable yarn in a color I like. It may not be what I originally was looking for, but it will be as good or better.

And buttons! Where else can you even buy buttons? And don't say "the internet" because you can't hold them up to your finished sweater to make sure they go with it, or push them through the buttonholes to make sure they fit before buying them.

The staff is friendly and helpful and the owner, Sue, is incredibly skilled at suggesting the perfect buttons to go with your sweater, buttons you would never have even given a second look at but at clearly the ONLY buttons that would even make sense. I may have to stop knitting cardigans altogether.

I don't know what I'll do now. I suppose I'll end up ordering yarn from KnitPicks and WEBS, and maybe take the occasional drive to Western MA to visit WEBS in person, but there's just no substitute for being able to go buy yarn TODAY or TOMORROW because I've suddenly decided to make a project. This is going to take a lot of planning from here on out.

In the meantime, Windsor is having a big sale starting Monday morning. Luckily, I'm working evenings Monday and Tuesday this week so I'll be able to stop by in the morning at the beginning of the sale while there's still a lot there. But I'm not buying for a particular project so I'll have to plan well. Oh, it's going to be tough walking into the store knowing it may be the last time!

Sunday Knitting

I'm limping along on my projects, but I won't bore you with photos of the two rows I've completed on my cardigan, or the toe of my orange sock. Neither of them look different enough since you last saw them to merit a post.

I'll just show you some yarn.

It's very difficult to take photos of dark colored yarn, but the one in the middle looks nice here, doesn't it? On impulse, I decided to go to Windsor Button for what I'm referring to as "practical-colored" sock yarn. The owner agreed that these are, indeed, practical colors. I explained about my orange socks and how I don't know when I'll ever wear them and she sympathized with my plight. I think anyone who knits socks understands how we fall into this brightly-hued trap.

Two of the skeins above are Cascade Heritage, my new favorite sock yarn. The bluish middle skein is similar to what I used for these socks (but more blue), and the black yarn in the front is a solid of the same brand. In the back is a skein of Regia, a well-wearing yarn I've used before. It's a striping yarn in a few different dark colors, including purple (a practical color which, of course, goes with everything.)

As you can see, I've already begun with the solid black. As far as I am concerned black is the most practical color for socks so I didn't want to waste any time on those, especially since my one other pair of black hand-knit socks may be close to the end of its life. Although I'm already knitting socks right now, the orange ones are too complicated to knit on the bus which is where I've been doing most of my knitting recently. Thank deity-of-your-choice and the good people at Overdrive for the few iThing-compatible audiobooks available to me. They make busride knitting so much more pleasant.

I'll post more about the black socks sometime soon when I've made more progress and managed to get decent photos.

Crafty gifts!

For Christmas I received a skein of lovely sock yarn from my friend at The Cable Girl. It is Dream in Color Smooshy in a shade of purple called Pansy Golightly. How cute is that? I love the Smooshy yarn – it is touchable and squeezable and comes in an array of beautiful colors.

As wonderful as it feels on my feet, my other socks made from this yarn have had to be darned a few times. While it may be worth it for such luxurious feeling socks, it's important to remember that one is not limited to making socks out of one’s sock yarn.

Which brings me to the other part of my gift: a copy of Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders. This book contains many, many patterns for a variety of items all made with one skein of sock yarn. Hats, scarves, fingerless gloves, mittens, baby sweaters, bags, shawls, ornaments, a lampshade (!), and yes, even socks. It’s gorgeous and I’ve already found a number of projects I want to start right this minute. I can’t wait to pick out a project to make with my new purple yarn!

Yum

I bought this yarn at Windsor Button this week, and it is so luscious! It is Malabrigo, and amazingly I've never used this yarn before. I can't show you the project yet, as it is a gift and not yet ready for public consumption (but if you're on Ravelry, check my projects page - I am threegoodrats - and there is more information and a project photo).

The colors are a bit off in this photo, and my camera has left the building so I can't retake it right now. It should be a little darker, more jewel-toned than it appears. But what the photo does capture is the shiny, lofty, lusciousness. It is a dream to knit with! Don't you just want to touch it?

A bit of this, a bit of that

Remember my post-apocalyptic booklist? Well, it seems that Booklist magazine has totally copied my idea! I opened the 5/15 issue to find "Core Collection: Before and After The Road" which contains many of the same books on my list. Hmm. Very suspicious if you ask me.

Have you seen this survey on the value of an MLIS? Please go fill it out!

In related news, and to further substantiate my belief that librarianship is becoming deprofessionalized, I recently found a job posting here in MA for a reference position that doesn't require an MLS. To their credit they say "MLS or extensive library experience" (emphasis mine) but still, you are just opening a can of worms there, Nevins Library!

Also - I've won more sock yarn! I know, crazy, right? Just a month after winning some Dream in Color Smooshy Sock Yarn I have now won...more Smooshy Sock Yarn! Unbelievable luck, and it happened on the last day of work before vacation just when I thought I'd lose my mind. Thanks so much, Heather!

That's right, vacation! I'll be gone all week, whisked away to the woods of Maine with very limited internet access. So no updates from me, but hopefully when I return I'll have lots of book reviews and knitting progress to show you. Because, you know, there's not a lot to do up there.

Puzzled by sock yarn

Since I began knitting socks, I've been frustrated by the fact that many yarns do not clearly state on the label that when knit up the colors will form stripes. I know there are some beautifully variegated yarns out there, but every time I think I'm buying some it turns out to be striped. For example, the Tofutsies I used for my Monkey socks. There are so many colors that not only didn't I realize it was striping yarn when I bought it, I didn't even notice it as I was knitting. I'm so daft that I first noticed the stripes when the socks were completely done and I tried them on.

I have nothing against yarns that stripe, but I do like to have some idea how a yarn will look knit up before matching it to a pattern. Yarn stores are full of swatches of their various yarns so you can see how they'll knit up, but sock yarn remains a mystery. No swatches. Do the yarn manufacturers and yarn shop management think that because the yarn is just for socks, we care less how it will look than if we were knitting a sweater?

A couple of weeks ago I was at Webs and saw what I thought was a bunch of swatches stuffed on a shelf, but turned out to be Flat Feet, sock yarn sold in knitted flats. Hey, I thought, what a great idea! Finally, I can see what the yarn looks like knit up. But no, that would make too much sense in the bewildering world of sock yarn. It doesn't look anything like the flat once it's knit up. Why, you may ask, does it come as a piece of knitted fabric?

Because it is portable.

Just think about that for a moment.

I mean, it is such a BURDEN to carry around sock yarn that is wound into a ball, right? Seriously, a ball is more compact than one of these flats which presumably must be folded to fit into your knitting bag and thus will be *more* annoying to unwind than a ball (what with having to unfold it), so I fail to see how one could argue that it is more portable.

Also, "no tangles!"

So, same as a ball, right? There are no tangles in balled yarn until you pull it OFF the ball to use it. Just as this will tangle once you pull it out of the flat. Plus it's all crimpy from being knit up already.

You know how you feel when you're the only person who doesn't get the joke? That's how I feel about sock yarn, especially Flat Feet. Perhaps I just don't truly understand sock knitting yet. In all fairness to Conjoined Creations, the colors are lovely. I just think they could have done without the silly gimmick.

Smooshy Sock Yarn!

Remember my mention of fabulous prizes for the February sockdown? Guess what? I won a fabulous prize!

Two skeins of Dream in Color Smooshy Sock yarn:


They were donated by Sonny and Shear (tagline: "I Got Ewe, Babe") and were packaged up very nicely with a lovely card and a couple of packets of yummy herbal tea. The pink colorway is called Petal Shower and the green is Spring Tickle. They also include a small sample of a colorway called Chewy Spaghetti. They are quite lovely - take a closer look:


This is perfect because I have so many sock patterns in my queue, and for some strange reason the local yarn stores just don't have the variety of sock yarns that I require. This is a real treat!