Nest, by Gabrielle Duggan, is made of alpaca fibers. See it at the Torpedo Factory through May.
I feel like it’s ridiculous to keep putting “Yarn Giveaway” in the headline, and yet I want you guys to know that there’s yarn to be given away in this post, so…I’m torn. Anyone else have a preference?
The winners of the three yarn opportunities last week were Becky, Carolyn, and Lynn (Carolyn, if you have a blog or Twitter account, let me know!). Funnily enough, I know each of these people personally. As always, I used the Random Number Generator to pick the winners from among the post’s commentors (leaving my own comments out). The next yarn giveaway will be explained at the end of this post. Scroll down if you must, but consider reading about some amazing woolen art first.
Mr. Trask and I took his mother to the Torpedo Factory a few weeks ago. It’s a special place for us; we got married there in 2006, and (before that, obviously) bought our rings there (from the illustrious Tony Man, a wonderful artist who, like Carolyn, has no internet presence). In the Target Gallery, we found The Nest Project, which included two pieces made of wool. Artist Gabrielle Duggan made them as part of her “spectrum” series of garments made of animal fibers, in which she strives to “honor the beings [the garments] are sourced from and connect the wearer to this source and the natural world.”
Gabrielle Duggan's Wooleg is made of sheep's wool and is part of the Torpedo Factory's Nest exhibition.
As knitters, we know more about the source of our clothing than most people. It’s not just wool; it’s alpaca, or cashmere, or merino. It’s that gorgeous blue we saw and knew we had to have, or the charcoal kettle dye that meant we had to alternate skeins. We know who made some of our clothing, because it was us – and we know how we did it, and how long it took. This is one of the aspects of knitting I really love – the way it slows us down, and helps us remember that everything is created by someone, somehow (even if they’re running a machine). It gives us the pleasure of creation, too – that’s something our modern society doesn’t have all the time.
The Nest Project is interesting in general; several of the Torpedo Factory’s individual artists are building nests in their galleries, and there are ten outdoor installations as well. The exhibition is meant to ask the question, “What Does Home Mean To You?”
A friend and former colleague gave me a great tip long ago. GG of GG/SG starts out interviews for articles by asking, “So, where’s home for you?” As he explained it to me, this gets the person to open up, to talk about a place that’s important to them, and to reflect a little bit on where they came from. At the same time, it’s a fairly casual question, one you almost could hear at a cocktail party, so it sets the subject at ease. Sneaky, right?
Particularly as Mr. Trask and I prepare to leave the DC area, this is an interesting question for me. I’ve lived on the East Coast for most of my life, and that looks pretty limited when I type it out. Home, though, as GG’s question highlights, is a flexible concept. For me, it’s what makes me feel safe, and loved, and known. This blog is home for me, and so is Mr. Trask, and so is (you knew this was coming) knitting. Writing is home to me, and reading, and tea, and a nice fire in whatever fireplace I’m close to. These things will be even more important to me next year, when we’re all the way across the ocean without most of our belongings. As we find new homes for the items we love, I’m reminded more of what’s really important: not the couch we bought when we first moved in together, but the person with whom I share the couch when we watch a movie. That kind of thing.
This week's yarn giveaway: Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton and Crystal Palace Mochi Plus. Comment for a chance to win!
This brings me, in a roundabout, silly sort of way, to some of the belongings we’re letting go, namely…yarn. This week’s yarn giveaway has two parts. From left to right, we have a skein of lovely Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton in color 632, a beautiful blue, and two balls of Crystal Palace Mochi Plus in Neptune Rainbow. Both yarns are gorgeous – soft and shiny, with beautiful deep blue tones. Both have lived in our one-cat, smoke-free home in an airtight plastic box since I purchased them at fibre space.
Comment on this post for a chance to win, and let me know if you contributed to the Cooperative Press Kickstarter campaign, too – a contribution of any amount will get you an extra entry in this drawing. I’ll select two comments at random from those made on this post between now and April 26 (Tuesday) at noon EST, and mail the yarn off to those people. Easy as pie!
So, tell me – where’s home for you?
Knitting in Public, and Other Surprises
Knitting in Oxford: Come September, I'll be there.
People, I am back. I am so pleased to be back. The deadline has passed, and spring has arrived. Moreover, Mr. Trask and I had some exciting news last week – we’ll be moving to England in the fall. We’ll be there for three years, probably. I’m going to be doing a DPhil program (similar to a PhD) in 18th century poetry. Mr. Trask and I have been hoping to have the chance to make this move for a while, but only last week did we find out that it’s really happening. I am a bit overwhelmed, but here’s what I know so far:
- We’ll move in the fall.
- We can’t take all the yarn with us.
So, hey, my loss is your gain! I’ll be posting a lot of yarn giveaways in the coming weeks and months (see below, in fact).
[Want to know what I’m doing in the photo to the left? Read here, here, and here.]
Meanwhile, an update on what I did in the last month: I knit on deadline. Quite a bit. Particularly since my school was on spring break for two weeks, I had time to knit and knit and knit. At the movies, on the telephone, lying in bed at night unable to sleep…you get the idea.
That's me, in my gym clothes, about to leave for workout-while-knitting. I was less excited than I look. The photo may be fuzzy because I was vibrating with stress. Also, note how messy our house got during the Knitting Deadline National Nightmare.
At one point, I brought my knitting to the gym. So ridiculous, but I needed to work out, and I also needed to keep knitting.
Usually, while suffering through my workout, I watch reruns of Grey’s Anatomy (embarrassing admission) to distract myself from the evil Cross Trainer. For this particular workout, which was supposed to distract me from the knitting deadline, I had sticks, string, and Grey’s…and coincidentally the episode in question was the one in which Meredith decides to take up knitting as a replacement for dating. No escape, people, no escape.
[Choice quote from the episode: “You’re knitting. In a bar. You can’t knit in a bar – you’re scaring the customers.” That bartender obviously had not yet seen the brilliant Pints and Purls.]
I also knit on the way to and from a glorious opera and in various restaurants around town…including, of course, St. Elmo’s, which is across the street from a nifty craft shop that wanted to let me know that March was National Craft Month.
Tea at Elmo's; National Craft Month banner across the street.
It certainly was National Craft Month for me. Here’s a not-so-surprising secret: as stressful as knitting on deadline is, I loved it. An excuse to knit 24/7? Not too shabby. What about you all? Did you know that March was National Craft Month? Did you find yourself knitting more last month, either coincidentally or on purpose?
And now – the giveaways for this week. That’s right – I said giveaways. I’m posting two – that’s how much yarn we need to get out of the house before August. And here’s something else, something I hesitate to mention. I’m putting a Paypal donate button on the side of the blog. A few people who received yarn suggested this, and since I’ll be sending out a lot more yarn in the next few months I’m going to try it. Please understand that you do not have to donate; you are not paying for the yarn; etc. I am hesitant about doing this, but willing to try. Please feel free to post your opinions about this, positive or negative, in the comments (and, hey, that will enter you in the giveaways for this week!).
Cascade Fixation: Comment on the blog by noon on April 12 for a chance to win!
First up: this beautiful Cascade Fixation, a fascinating blend of cotton and elastic. Four balls of this lovely yarn, all purchased at WEBS, all still shrink-wrapped, are waiting for you to make ’em into something stretchy. You can use this yarn to make some spiffy socks, or even, ahem, intimate apparel (as Kate Gilbert and Annie Modesitt have both proven). My vote would be for the fancy panties, but it’s your call.
Second in order, but not in niftiness: one skein of Natural Dye Studio Dazzle HT Sock. This sock yarn is made of Bluefaced Leicester wool, and sports the prestigious British Wool label. The green and purple blend together in a lovely colorway that sings of spring. Make this into socks or a fun shawlette – or even just a light scarf.
Natural Dye Studios Dazzle: Comment on the blog by noon on April 12 for a chance to win!
For either of these, I’m offering a sweetener. If you donate to Shannon Okey‘s Kickstarter campaign for her brilliant Cooperative Press knitting imprint, and post in the comments letting me know you did so (honor system!), I’ll give you an extra entry into the drawing. Cooperative Press is a very exciting publishing company for several reasons. They give a higher percentage of royalties to designers than mainstream presses to; they support indie yarn companies; and they use models who reflect the bodies of real women. Plus, their next release is called What Would Madame Defarge Knit?. What’s not to love? [So, to recap: giving me money does not result in any preferential treatment; giving CP money results in an extra entry into the drawing.]
For a chance to win either yarn, comment here by noon on April 12. Good luck!
Knitting at Nixon in China
No, I would never knit at a live performance. Not at the opera…not at a musical…not at a play. But I did find a lovely way to combine two things I enjoy: knitting and opera. On Saturday, Mr. Trask and I went to the AMC Hoffman, one of many movie theaters across the country where a live performance of John Adams’ Nixon in China was broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera…in HD.
Mr. Trask has been listening to the music from Nixon in China for quite some time, and I have loved the opera since I was a teenager (yes, another nerd alert), so – this one was a no-brainer. We bought a couple of tickets and some Junior Mints, and settled in for a lovely afternoon. I brought my deadline knitting and (since I was on a nice stockinette part) got a lot done.
[Aside #1: I googled “Nixon knitting” for this post, but didn’t get anything relevant. Google did ask me whether I meant “Dixon knitting,” which I admit would have made more sense for most knitting blogs.]
If you’re planning to knit at the movies or the opera, I suggest a few things:
- Bring a pattern with which you’re fairly familiar. I’ve knit simple ribbed socks, several versions of the Child’s Knitted Scarf from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, and several other patterns I know well. You may have to count stitches in the dark, so it’s good to have knit the item before.
- Cast on and knit several rows before the lights go down – either get there early and do this during the silly slide show of entertainment facts, or do it before you leave home.
- Be prepared to use your phone as a flashlight occasionally.
- Don’t try to eat Junior Mints and knit at the same time. One thing at a time! One thing at a time.
The Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series continues through the spring; why not join in for some culture with your knitting? Take a look at the News Aria in the video above, and see if it doesn’t strike your fancy.
Knitting Out in the World
Hey! That old lady is knitting a guitar!
Like any obsessed knitter, I perk right up when I see knitting in the Real World, whether it’s depicted positively or not. Therefore, when I saw this DVD cover for Young@Heart (apparently a documentary about a seniors’ chorus in Massachusetts that covers Jimi Hendrix and Coldplay), I snapped a shot, even though obviously knitting (“for old people”) is being contrasted with guitars (“for young people”).
It’s so exhilarating that old people, who usually knit, can instead sing songs by Sonic Youth! Hurrah! Music has freed these sad old people from their knitting lives and released them to lead lives that have meaning!
Or perhaps I am reading too much into it. I did take film classes in both undergrad and grad school. Those things can scar you for life.
[An aside: as I get older, I am forced to come to grips with the fact that my knitting is no longer a quirky habit that makes me different from other young people, but rather an expected habit that makes me the same as lots of other English teachers. Sigh.]
When I saw that Boden USA was using knitting as an activity for their young, hip models (is Boden hip? Please, world, let Boden be at least semi-hip), I was more pleasantly surprised:
Hey! If that super-skinny girl can knit, maybe I can too!
Now, see, this is more like it. She’s wearing a knit hat and she’s making…well, it’s some kind of square. Maybe she’s knitting for GarterStitch100, or the Red Scarf Project? Anyway, she’s knitting, and although she looks a leetle bit confused about how to insert the needle there, at least they’re trying.
The Onion, now? The Onion is complex. They give us a genuinely funny comic about knitters here, and then they give us a fairly easy (read: low blow) image about crochet here. The only answer I can come up with is that there are knitters on The Onion staff…but they’re the kind of knitters who don’t like crocheters.
What knitting have you seen out in the world lately? Share it with us! Did you think the comic about a knitting emergency kit was funny (or at least the “only brought the one pattern” mouse-over text?)? Do you think crochet is contributing to the grandmotherization of your neighborhood?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we have a winner of the divine possum yarn: Consuela! Consuela is one of my students from Fiber Space, but I promise that the winner was once again chosen by the Random Number Generator. Consuela did get two extra entries into the drawing by knitting two squares for GarterStitch100; grab a ball out of your stash and try it yourself!
Alchemy Wabi Sabi wants to come home with you. Comment on the blog for a chance to win!
This week’s giveaway is six (that’s right, 6) skeins of Alchemy Wabi Sabi (rav lnk) in a gorgeous shade of orange called Joshua Tree. [Aside #2: I spent a lovely week rock-climbing in Joshua Tree National Park when I was a junior in high school. This may be why I bought the yarn in this color. I am nothing if not suggestible.] Purchased at Knit Happens in June, this yarn has lived in its plastic bag in our non-smoking, one-cat home ever since. Comment on the blog between now and Tuesday, Feb. 14 for a chance to win this lovely yarn! As always, knit a square for GarterStitch100 and let me know about it and you’ll get an extra entry into the drawing.
Knitting on the iPad, Part II (also, knit some squares!)
The iPad and your knitting: a match made in tech heaven. Plus, in the foreground is some yarn we're giving away!
It’s been more than six months since Mr. Trask presented me with my glorious iPad as a birthday gift. In that time, I’ve taken the iPad to England, used it to read patterns and draft essays, and generally made it my new best friend. I’d say it took me a good month to figure out how to make the iPad work for me: what it does best, what I need it to do, what I need to leave to other devices. Meanwhile, the knitting world is edging, ever-so-slowly, into the iPad arena. Given all this, it’s time for an update about Knitting on the iPad.
[Hey, want to know who won the last stash giveaway? It was Lee of Knitting Is Gluten-Free! Since I was diagnosed with gluten intolerance in 2007, Lee has a special place in my heart…but I still used the Random Number Generator to select the winner. Want to know about the next stash giveaway? Keep reading!]
First of all – no, there isn’t a Ravelry app yet, nor can I find any indication that one is in the offing. Ravelry does look pretty good on iPad’s Safari software, but there’s a gap here – if someone finds a way to get the yarn, pattern, and other information on Ravelry to be available in the sleek format offered by iPad apps, they’ll make some money and/or some friends (depending on their business plan). Until then, what iPad fun is going to make your heart sing? Here are a few possibilities…
- UK Knitting Magazine The Knitter is available on the iPad magazine reader Zinio. You can subscribe and buy back issues. I’m trying my hardest not to buy every back issue there ever was. Zinio uses images of each beautiful page of this magazine, so you don’t miss any of the content (but occasionally have to zoom in to read). Since The Knitter is already a beautifully designed magazine, it translates well to the iPad.
- The Knitting Daily iPod app. It’ll work with the iPad – the app will just use an iPod-sized amount of space on your pretty tablet. You can zoom in on that space, althoughit looks a little blurry. That said, the app has articles, videos, all kinds of cool information – it’s a must.
- More knitting books are coming out through Amazon’s Kindle e-reader software (which has a free iPad app). Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s excellent reference book Knitting Rules! should be your first purchase. Using an e-reader on iPad has enabled me to read and knit at the same time (for me, the Holy Grail).
- For now, the best way I’ve found to read patterns on the iPad is to buy pattern PDFs, and either save them to my MobileMe iDisk or add them to the iPad app Readdle Docs. Then I just prop the iPad up with the pattern open. I can’t take notes on the patterns, but this is still a great option, especially when traveling.
Knitting iPad owners, what have you found that you can’t live without? Anyone out there using a Kindle or a Nook to read patterns or knitting books? Fill us in on your knitting 2.0!
And now…the latest giveaway. Garter Stitch 100 is still looking for knit squares, and the deadline is March 1, not Feb. 1 as I reported earlier. So get them squares knit, and for your troubles I’ll give you an extra entry you to win four (4) skeins of Jamie Possum yarn, purchased at I Knit London last July. The yarn is wool and possum fur, very soft, with a bit of a halo and lovely hand-painted colors. One skein has been wound and three are still in their packaging. It’s just dying to come home with you. So, to recap: comment on the blog before Feb. 3 at noon, get a chance to win the yarn. Knit a square and send me a photo of the square (or send me the square), and get TWO chances to win the yarn. A chance per square. Any questions?
SitandKnitaBit: Join some Glaswegian artists as they knit for International Women's Day.
You all may recall that I said I was not going to knit anything non-deadline-related. You all also may recall that I am occasionally wrong.
Garter Stitch 100, a group in Scotland, is asking knitters to make squares for a large blanket to commemorate the centenary of International Women’s Day, and to call attention to women’s issues around the world. I love Scotland, I love knitting, I love this idea. They’re also planning 100 events in Glasgow for International Women’s Day. Their goal is pretty lofty — a blanket of 100 million stitches to represent the 100 million women missing from the planet due to gender inequities.
I found their website a bit difficult to navigate, but their cause is a good one and it’s easy to knit a few 6-inch squares to send to Scotland. Because of the evil deadline, I will be making a few squares but not as many as I’d like. So I’m encouraging all of you to knit some squares by offering another yarn giveaway. If you knit a square for Garter Stitch 100 by Jan. 23 (and send me a photo of it), I’ll enter you in a drawing to win some glorious yarn I bought at I Knit London this summer (photo to come!). [Meanwhile, if you comment on this post or any other on the blog before noon on Jan. 18, you’ll have a chance to win that other yarn I told you about.
If any of you would like me to send squares for you, just get to them to me before Jan. 23 and I’ll send yours along with mine. Send me at note at KELT AT knitlikeyoumeanit DOT com and I’ll give you my address, etc.
The squares will be sewn into an enormous blanket, which after the event will be given (I imagine broken down into little blankets…) to charities that need blankets. They’re on Facebook and Twitter – check them out and consider making a square or two.
And now: back to the deadline!
Dead…er, Deadline. Plus, Another Yarn Giveaway!
Wound but not knitted, this yarn from Imperial Stock Ranch wants to come live with you! Comment on the blog before Jan. 18 for a chance to win.
Those of you who know me in real life have already heard my muttering and grumbling about this thing called a deadline which I am facing right now. Unlike Mr. Trask, who dealt with his deadline last year by drinking more Red Bull and hence getting steadily more cheerful (to the point of being a bit frightening), my first impulse when faced with a deadline is to hide in bed (this may explain my love-hate relationship with finishing things, as discussed on New Year’s Eve). These days, I am an adult, or at least I act like one when outside the house, so I have discovered new coping mechanisms for deadline trauma:
- Singing the Indiana Jones theme to myself while driving;
- Telling everyone I know I am on deadline, to shame myself into action;
- Chocolate Bribery;
- Just putting my butt in the chair and getting on with it.
That last one is the most effective, but I find I have to go through the first three stages before getting to the fourth. Perhaps this discovery will make me more productive in future; I can get all my procrastination by driving madly to a public place while eating chocolate and humming inspiring music; at the public place I could yell out, “Deadline!” and then turn around, go home, and be butt-in-chair. Hey, it’s possible. [You may notice that I am not mentioning the non-helpful deadline techniques I tried and discarded, such as whining, playing Lexulous, watching clips of polar bears destroying BBC spy cams, lying on the couch and eating Nutella straight from the jar, etc. As the bard said, Let the dead past bury its dead.]
Usually, my go-to procrastination technique is knitting – specifically, starting new knitting projects. Since this deadline is an enormous one, and since part of it is, in fact, knitting on deadline, I am not allowing myself to do this. No, even though there are two babies, and one father-laid-up-after-surgery, for whom I could be knitting (and feeling pretty good about myself for making things for other people), I am not knitting anything that is not part of the deadline. Instead, I’m using my Ravelry queue to save all the patterns I want to make. Maybe this will make me a leaner, meaner knitter, only starting projects I truly will finish. Plus, the yarn giveaway is making my stash leaner and meaner already. What do you guys think? Is this the first day of the rest of my life?
Speaking of my stash, Terrye won the yarn from just before the holidays – the Lorna’s Laces sock yarn – and now we’re moving on to gorgeous, American-made Imperial Stock Ranch Columbia 2-ply yarn (rav lnk). Worsted weight, blue as the Oregon sky, sheepy yet soft, this yarn wants to come home with you. This is the yarn that makes yarn-sniffers swoon. Comment on the blog before noon on Jan. 18 for a chance to win this yarn!
Finis!
When you've got to finish that paper...sometimes hot chocolate helps.
So, 2010 is over.
There are those who have accused me of having trouble finishing things. I’m not someone who didn’t turn in papers in college or graduate school; in that one little area, procrastination was my friend. Instead, I would get 90 percent of the way through a paper and decide that my topic was not merely terrible but pointless and uninteresting. With the deadline bearing down on me like a tailgater on I-95, though, I’d have no choice but to finish and turn it in.
In real life, I have found it harder to push through the fear and trembling of that last 10 percent. This has manifested itself, variously, as endless revision of a story that should have been considered finished; difficulty finishing projects back when I had an office job; a real aversion to saying goodbye to people; even getting all the way to the end of a knitting project and not sewing it together (but, um, also I just don’t enjoy sewing knit items together). Sometimes, I prefer process to product; I’d rather knit with the gorgeous Sublime Organic Wool than block and wear the scarf I’ve been making with it.
Scarf started and finished on the plane from Heathrow to Dulles.
It’s not just liking the feel of the yarn in my fingers, though: it’s also the safety of not having to wear the scarf and have others see it, of not having to send out the story and hear what an editor thinks of it. In my 20s, this was a major block, in all areas of my life. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere in this blog, a few years ago life happened to me in such a way that I have been in a state of flux. I have changed my career, spent two summers abroad, and signed a book contract (hey, how did that happen?).
As I look back over the past year, I realize that it’s brought various situations that require finishing and saying goodbye: the book deadline that sits on my shoulder even as I write this for the blog, the career change that required me to say goodbye to coworkers I really enjoyed, the summers abroad that meant leaving behind family and friends in order to take advantage of an opportunity that I definitely wanted. At the same time, there were some goodbyes I really didn’t want to say, like the sale of my mother’s house this fall. It had to happen, but it was so sad to say goodbye. In the next year, Mr. Trask and I are looking at different life changes that might take us out of this area, and so I have been thinking a great deal about the complications of goodbye, of being finished with a certain part of life.
Goodbye to the tree in whose branches I used to read books; Goodbye to my mother’s house.
On Wednesday, I interviewed a student who is applying to my glorious alma mater. She was talking about how she really wants to go to college, and at the same time knows that she is really going to miss her family, her high school friends, and the life she has in high school. I remembered a Carolyn Hax discussion (yes, I read Carolyn Hax; don’t judge) about mixed feelings for some attendees of weddings: that there’s an ambivalence there that we often don’t acknowledge. Even as we celebrate the couple, those closest to them may also be a bit sad that their relationship with the couple is about to change. One commenter suggested that weddings be thought of in a similar way to high school graduation: it’s a change, and with that come both positive and negative feelings. It’s hard to say goodbye to childhood or young adulthood in favor of a new phase of life that will represent new responsibility and new fears as well as new adventures. This doesn’t mean we don’t do it; it means we acknowledge the difficulty as well as celebrating the excitement to come.
It occurred to me this morning that this kind of ambivalence is what holds me back when I don’t want to finish something, when I don’t want to say goodbye to 2010 in favor of 2011, when I don’t want to send out the story or stop playing with yarn in favor of wearing a sweater. Maybe acknowledging the shadow, the sadness of saying goodbye to something that is important while moving on to something you wouldn’t want to miss, is the key. The new possibilities in front of me are exciting as well as scary; I don’t want to miss the adventure. At the same time, I hate to say goodbye to what is wonderful in the here and now. And all of that is okay. Today, I can recognize the difficulty without letting it stymie me. That’s real progress for me, and – hey! – maybe it will help me finish more projects in 2011.
What about you? Do you have trouble finishing knitting projects, or other kinds of projects? Do you prefer process to product? Tell us in the comments section!
Mystic, CT Yarn Shop: Mystic River Yarns
Mystic River Yarns in Mystic, CT - slightly hidden in Schooner Wharf, this yarn shop is worth hunting for.
Another road trip, another yarn shop pit stop! After Thanksgiving, our trip down I-95 brought us to Mystic, Conn. – to Mystic River Yarns. Friendly and cozy, this shop is where I bought my copy of Elizabeth Zimmermann‘s The Opinionated Knitter several years ago, and I have meant to come back and write about it ever since.
Just as when I was there last, the shop had three women gathered in its lounge area, knitting and chatting (maybe it’s a code requirement). I think it was a private lesson, but they were so relaxed with each other it was hard to tell. [I always think that’s a good sign for a lesson, but what do the rest of you think? Do you like a chatty teacher or one who’s all business?]
The shop has a welcoming air, from the “crochet-friendly yarn shop” decal on the window to the smile from the woman who rang me up and checked each of my skeins for the correct dye lot. They have a large range of Rowan products, from Big Wool to cotton wool to sock yarn, and a gorgeous half-wall of Brown Sheep skeins. Their Berroco selection is They also carry Manos del Uruguay, which I love in a yarn shop; my first really finished project was a scarf in many, many colors of Manos. But most exciting of all was this:
Jamieson & Smith Real Shetland Wool - a holiday miracle!
Yes, that is what you think it is: a great big MASS of Jamieson & Smith Shetland wool. This was not even a quarter of the J&S that was there. People, I almost died. I almost wet my pants! There, in quantities I hadn’t seen since the J&S tables at the (unfortunate for many) UK Knit Camp, was the knitter’s holy Grail: real Shetland wool, from Scotland…and some of it was 30 percent off.
More J&S - Look at the Colors!
It goes without saying that I loaded up my little knapsack with skein after skein, and that my ongoing stash giveaway is even more necessary now. But, people, if you are in the area you should definitely stop by Mystic River Yarns. They’re nice, they’re friendly…and some of that J&S is worth any drive.
Even More Stash Giveaway: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock
Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Tickled Pink and Lorikeet: Comment before Dec. 13 for a chance to win!
People, I am sorry that I left you for a week there. I have no good excuse or even explanation. I can say that I had acupuncture for the first time, and lost part of Tuesday and Wednesday to being in a weird, blissed-out, pain-free haze. But is that a good reason not to blog? No, it is not. However, I offer you this: a winner of the last stash giveaway, and another chance to win some beautiful yarn from our one-cat, smoke-free household.
First up: the Random Number Generator selected Wendy of the lovely blog Dragonfly Willow to receive the Mirasol Tupa (rav lnk)! Congratulations, Wendy. The rest of you, pop over to her blog to see a pair of vampire mittens she just made (and maybe even to congratulate her – it’s good luck for next time, right?).
Second, the stash giveaway for this week is two more skeins of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock (rav lnk), this time in self-striping colors Tickled Pink and Lorikeet. These colors are lovely; I had a whole yarn photo shoot this morning (picture me telling the yarn to make love to the camera, and you’re not far off), but couldn’t quite do justice to them. The Lorikeet is a mix of purple, red, and yellow. You can see that the Tickled Pink is doing a little back handspring over the Lorikeet; maybe I got too artsy with the photos this time. Feel free to post questions about the yarn in the comments, too, if the photo doesn’t give you the information you need. But, hey, it’s free yarn – what’s not to love?
Post a comment on any part of the blog between now and 9 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 13 to be entered in the drawing for the yarn. And stay tuned: later this week I’ll tell you about my visit to Mystic River Yarns in Connecticut. [Fantastic for my soul, not as good for my wallet.]
Knit Like You Mean It. 