In Living Color
Monday, September 29th, 2008We’re back, living at full DSL speed again, after many hours on the phone listening to weird music that was a mixture of “Chariots of Fire” and kooky techno-pop, waiting to talk with “Ryan” and “Steve” who have suspiciously un-Steve-like accents. But they fixed it and “Ryan” and I celebrated together, me at about 7 in the evening on Saturday and he at about 3 in the morning - don’t know if it was Sunday or Saturday - wherever he was.
Life in dial-up mode is like living in the 1800’s. You need a lot of time for anything you want to do on a computer, and isn’t that such a lot these days? Remember when you used to take pictures on a camera that had FILM??!!! and you had to take that film to a processing center that sent it away and you had to wait days to see whether your pictures turned out? It’s hard to believe that that was only 3 or 4 years ago (for me, anyway - I admit to being a bit slow on the uptake with new technology.) And banking was done face to face with a person and you waited a whole month to receive your “statement” so you could balance your “checkbook.” And you actually went to a store to buy a birthday card, wrote a little message on it, licked a stamp and put it into a big blue metallic-looking box and someone physically carried it to the other person?
I’m teasing a little, but truly, those are all things you can do on-line if you so choose. I’m thinking so much about technology today because of an article in the newpaper about an old farm in the area that shows how things were done in the 1800’s - candle-making, laundry, cooking, and so on. It has reminded me how quickly life changes these days and how overwhelming it can be to keep up with it all. I’m grateful for the people who take the time to come to store, touch the fibers, see the true colors, instead of breezing along a web-page and pushing a button. And isn’t it lovely to sit down with our beautiful soft natural fibers and our needles and make something useful, slowly and by hand.
I have some photos to show you, but I finally got a look at Lisa Scheid’s beautiful lace top for her daughter - I’m overwhelmed!! Fabulous job, Lisa, she looks wonderful in it, and the stitchwork and fit are Wow!
And David Ritz is knitting up a storm up there in Schuylkill County. Two beautiful sweaters produced from left-over yarn, and they are gorgeous. The wrap sweater looks great in a patterning yarn, and the Fair-Isle sweater - gosh, another big Wow! (By the way, you can see previous posts and photos by looking on the right side of the screen for “Recent Posts” and/or “Archives.”)
Last week, I talked about Tahki’s Montana, a new yarn that is big, light, and in natural colors. The yarn distributor sent me a sample of a cute striped vest which was too small for any of us yarn shop folk to model, so Deb Hawk graciously allowed me to take her picture in it. She looks adorable, of course, and she’s also going to make it for herself!
There’s one sweater in the collection which I must have, so that’s on my agenda. My scanner’s not working (if it’s not one thing, it’s another, right?) so you can see it here. Isn’t it cute? (Don’t fall for the on-line price, by the way - the book is $14.99 at the shop.) It ought to work up in a jiffy, but I’ll wait for cooler weather to knit at 2.5 stitches per inch.
This is the luscious Superior I mentioned last week, a laceweight cashmere and silk blend. You can’t believe the lightness and softness of this yarn - it practically floats.
I’m making a top down “jacket,” if anything so lightweight can be called that, in the acid green that will take only 2 balls - I expect it to look outstanding over black. Notice the gorgeous pink - as soon as we saw it, we said we’ve got show Jennifer Gensemer - it’s absolutely her color. And guess what? She loved it and will be knitting that top-down jacket in that fabulous pink sometime soon! I hope to have enough done to show you something next week, but David Ritz bought the denim-y blue to make it, and is probably binding off the last stitch as I write, so he may post pics before I do!
I mentioned the scarf I was making in the lace pattern that I liked last week - gosh, all I’m doing is catching up - and here it is. It doesn’t look that impressive in this photo, but it’s very pretty in real life. I’m working on the same scarf in worsted weight and may also do one in bulky. Then I’ll put the pattern up on the website. Yes, you’ll want it! Never mind how it looks in this picture!
June Stobenau finished this very pretty top-down sweater in variegated Encore - doesn’t it look wonderful? She did a perfect job - I love a great wearable and practical sweater like this, just what you want for fall and winter.
I finished a cute sweater that is just way too young for me and Melissa Korth, who is just so sweet - really! - agreed to model it for us. It’s a neat design, joined at the yoke and finished in the round, made from Merino Superlight, a yarn that knits up at a bulky gauge but has very little weight to it. Melissa needs more length in the body and sleeve - she’s model tall, and gorgeous to boot, doggone her anyway.
Karen Walter is modeling a neckwarmer that Janet K. knitted for the shop out of one skein of too-soft-and-pretty-for-words Misti Alpaca Handpaint Chunky.
It’s a quick gift - warm, soft, and really luxurious - that you’ll just love to make.
I’m plugging away at a few things, but seem to be really into scarves right now. They’re the hot accessory for fall and we have so many yarns that are perfect for the “statement” scarf that everyone wants. But one scarf that never goes out of style is the classic French foulard, knit corner to corner in garter stitch, then blocked to within an inch of its life to open things up, give it lift and breadth, and allow it to be worn over almost any basic color as a fabulous accent piece. I’m making one now in Ella Rae’s Lace Merino, such beautiful colors and a joy to knit - I’m working on it at the shop because the knitting is so simple that interruptions don’t matter. Here’s what’s done so far
- looks a little - shall we say, rustic? I promise you, blocking will turn it into a swan, and if I don’t forget, I’ll show you before and after photos.
Okay, enough! I’m looking forward to a big shipment from Plymouth this week - new Galway, Baby Alpaca, Suri Merino, and heaven knows what else! Whoo - hoo!
See you soon…
Trish
