Yarn Gallery Blog

Maggie and the bookmark, originally uploaded by yarngal628.

Hi Trish,
  Here are the pictures of Maggie wearing the bookmark I made in class one. She’s wearing it as a cover for her vespers. TeeHee
Have a great week!
Pegi Convry

Entrelac socks, originally uploaded by yarngal628.

These socks were made with Lang Jawoll Color Aktion from your shop. I used
the pattern by Eunny Jang in Interweave Knits Spring 2007 issue. They were a
lot of fun to make and everyone loves them!

Joy

Check out Dave Ritz’s sweater below, in a wonderful shade of royal purple for the child of a friend of his.  I don’t know how he does this, with 2 salons (one on each coast) to run!  He’s amazing, don’t you agree?

I’m amazed, and thrilled, by what else is happening today – Barack Obama’s inauguration.  Back in the 60’s, when I raised my head out of my little western  Pennsylvania hometown and got acquainted with life elsewhere, just when horrible and wonderful things were happening in this country – assassinations that still make me cry for what might have been, civil rights demonstrations that radicalized and alienated one of my best friends but also made today possible, and women’s lib that opened my life to possibilities beyond a job at Monkey Wards and hoping to get pregnant – this day wasn’t even contemplated, wasn’t even dreamed about, and yet here it is.

Aside from it’s being an historic occasion for the fact that he’s African-American, it’s also a relief – and another reason to celebrate – that he’s really smart and well-educated.  After the last 8 years of having to listen to someone who probably hasn’t ever read anything more challenging than Batman comic books (if that), it will be most welcome to hear someone who can string more than three words together coherently and who talks to us as if we have brains and judgment and can understand a cogent argument for making a certain decision.  Not “I’m the decider” with its implication that we can like it or lump it.

Okay, done with politics – I usually keep this space pretty bland, and I think that’s appropriate, but today is special and I wanted to take note. On with what you’re really interested in:

Here is a sweet baby blanket in Encore Colors that Ana Dorta finished off with tassels at each corner:

And this week’s Belle of the Blog is Billie Beadle – isn’t alliteration fun? – who made this bobbled beauty of a sweater in spite of the directions.  Isn’t it irritating when there are horribly wrong instructions in a knitting book? (Sorry, I don’t know the name of the book she used exactly and I don’t want to mention it and possibly impugn another book that’s perfectly okay.) Why do they think we buy these books, to look at the pretty pictures?  Why don’t they understand that correct instructions are what we need?  I can understand (a little) about magazines – they come out frequently and under deadline and many different designers are used and printing errors happen, etc.  But books?  Really, if it can’t be proofed, then don’t print it.  Anyway – my goodness, I’m on a soapbox today – here’s Billie in her wonderful sweater, made from Kathmandu Aran:      

And since it’s between yarn seasons and we haven’t begun getting in spring yarns, we were excited by a small shipment of this exquisite yarn called Consonance. It’s from Jade Sapphire and is a beautiful fingering-weight blend of cashmere and silk.  That radiance you see is built right in so just imagine the lovely lace you can make with it.

That’s all the photos I have this week – it was busy at the store last week despite the deep freeze (thank you all!) so we never had time to take many pictures. I can’t complain about that!

See you soon…

Trish

sweater complete, originally uploaded by yarngal628.

hi trish
i finished my sweater just in time to give to a customers child for
her birthday. she loves purple . so i hope she likes her new sweater.
im off to California tomorrow morning for a few days to work at my
shop out there. i hope to see you next sunday!!!
my yarn stash is going down so i need to restock

cya soon
DAve Ritz

In the Voices section of the Reading Eagle today, there’s a well-written article about the bond knitting created between a grandmother and granddaughter.  I wish I could provide a link but there doesn’t seem to be one.  It’s written by the teen, who talks about how her grandmother taught her to knit (again and again) when she was a little girl, and how it never really clicked with her until she was older.  Her grandmother can’t knit anymore due to arthritis but with her expertise and the granddaughter’s hands, they created an aran sweater together.

Very heartwarming, but the part that struck me is that it took a long time for this girl to really like to knit.  Many of us learn to form a knit stitch when we’re 8 or 9 years old, but there are a million other things to learn to do at that age and most of us don’t have the attention span or the hand-eye coordination to be serious about it.  If you’re the teacher in this scenario, it’s natural to get tired of teaching the knit stitch over and over again, only to see the child forget about it over and over again.  My point is that you should keep at it, and whenever a kid expresses interest (in anything, really but I’m only talking about knitting right now), you can put up with the boredom and show her or him again.  And again.  And again.  Someday they may really love to knit and will remember your patience and the time you spent teaching them as a very special gift.  My grandmother taught me when I was a little girl and I think that’s why I love it so much.  Whenever my Grandma Freda came to visit, the bag full of orange acrylic came out of some closet and she would show me the knit stitch again and we would knit together.  I made dozens of orange garter stitch squares over the years, but knitting and other hand crafts didn’t really take hold of me until I was in college.   And then they never let go!

On to the fun stuff:  Here’s a look at Janet’s Cuzco Wrap in progress.  The class is nearly filled, so if you’re interested, give us a call right away.  Janet’s making it in a light heathery blue-green Montera: 

And she also just finished the mittens for her class in very yummy alpaca/merino Highlander.  Her pattern provides a custom fit:

Jettie Hunt made this pretty pink set in super-chunky Blizzard.  I love the color on her, and it’s going to be very useful this week, when we have high temperatures in the teens.  Brrr!

And Jettie must be on a knitting tear because she also finished this perfectly-fitting sweater in Schaefer Yarns “Miss Priss.”  The pattern is a favorite of hers, and you can see why:    

Carol Sullivan made this wonderful side-to-side sweater, also in Blizzard.  I love the fit, which can be tricky in a bulky yarn.  Doesn’t it looks great on her?

And finally, Deb Hawk came in just after we had gotten this wonderful colorway of Debbie Bliss Chunky Donegal – I’ve been waiting for this for a LONG time – look at all the colors in this tweed and imagine how many things you could wear with it:

Deb loved it and loved the sweater design we did for it.  She looked so darn cute, we had to take her picture:

She makes a great model, yes?

Okay, I think that’s it for this week, although I always forget something important.  Doesn’t matter, the boys need their walk, then they get haircuts today, so off I must go.

See you soon!

Trish