Knitting is: a craft, an art form, a way of life.
What is your favorite type of weather?
Fall! While I love the rainy, cold wet pacific northwest days, a perfect day is a 72 degree October day. These days are the ones that starts off crisp and cool and then is beautifully sunny and about 72 degrees in the afternoon.
Hey Everyone!
Brick and Mortar yarn stores have been struggling to stay afloat even before the pandemic began three years ago. Then the pandemic hit and many more closed their doors, and if they were lucky were able to transition to solely virtual.
While it’s nice to be able to buy yarn from the comfort of your own home, there is more to be said to being able to go to a LYS (Local Yarn Shop) where you can see and feel the yarn for yourself. Many also have samples up where you can see completed projects made with the yarn. Many of these shops also have a seating / work area where crafters could come and work on projects and get help with a pattern and what not.
With the physical spaces closing down, it is harder for the community to come together and be able to have in person interaction with other crafters where they are from.
I know for myself, getting to wool and sheep festivals like Rhinebeck and others back east and in the Midwest are not necessarily feasible or practical in order to have the comraderie with fellow crafters.
Not only had my favorite LYS closed down several years ago (Happy Knits on SE Hawthorne in Portland), I found out that one on my list of yarn shops to visit, closed their brick and mortar shop two and a half years ago. This was Churchmouse Yarns and Teas on Bainbridge Island (near Seattle). This was one of the “destination yarn shops” that was relatively close to me, as in a weekend adventure for me. While I can still order yarn online, I do miss the whole adventure and change of scenery aspect to it.
Part of why it makes me sad is because the generations older than me, who are not as tech savvy as my generation and those younger than I am, are missing out on the yarn shopping options that used to exist. Knitting (and Crocheting) almost died out once. I would hate to see that happen again.
For the past decade or so, I have wanted to visit as many LYS as I could in different places I went. I thought it would be fun to have socks made from yarn I bought wherever I went. The more LYS that close their physical locations, that makes this harder.
I know I talk more about knitting than Crocheting, because I am a knitter. That’s what I do. Crocheter’s are just as important as knitters.
Hey Everyone!
It has been a crazy couple of weeks. Work has basically been all consuming at this point and has been kicking my butt. The insanity has been real.
I got a long weekend with the snow days, and had another long weekend this past weekend because I started my new schedule this week.
Over the weekend I had gone out with a good friend of mine I met through a previous job, working at World Market. She and I have kept in touch over the years that we have been gone. It’s been almost 2 years since we worked together. We went and got coffee and then had a late lunch at a French restaurant down the street from the coffee shop we went to.
It was a great afternoon, and great to catch up with her.
I also finished up the first Vintage Santa sock in the pair I am working on. I also cast on my first Shamrocks & Clovers sock since my yarn arrived on Saturday.
While working on my knitting projects I binged watched “Wednesday” on Netflix as well as the Murdaugh documentary, post double murder convictions and sentencing. I had caught the last few days of the trial, verdict and sentencing via the legal commentary channels I watch on YouTube.
Today was my early start day at work. It was a long day since I didn’t sleep the greatest last night. I did stop at Cabela’s after work, since I am kind of obsessed.
Hey Everyone!
I decided to try washing the hand knit Christmas socks I had done in the washing machine today. I had always hand washed them until now.
It was one of things where, I decided to give it a try considering we used to wash 100% Cashmere sweaters in the washing machine (and put them in the dryer) when I worked at the studio about a decade ago.
I figured if I used a shorter wash cycle, warm and cold water, the extra delicate cycle and wool wash, it couldn’t hurt them right?
They are now air drying on my drying rack and came out just fine with the precautions I did take.
It’s going to make my life a whole lot easier and save my hands knowing I can put them in on the gentlest cycle and warm water then air dry them.
While they were washing, I did go through the Laundress New York Wool and Cashmere Shampoo I have and did get rid of the ones who’s lots are part of the recall, just to be on the safe side.
I know I have talked about how much I have loved the Wool and Cashmere Shampoo from the Laundress New York. I have been looking into what is best for washing woolen goods, and I have found that using a wash that contains lanolin, which is the oil naturally found in Wool is actually better for it, I am not going to be using the Wool and Cashmere Shampoo anymore.
Eucalan was one of the top brands I found that contains lanolin, as do Kookaburra wash and Outback Gold, all of which I have some of in my wool wash stash. This also explains why what had been my favorite yarn shop while it was still in business, as do many other yarn shops I have been in, carry Eucalan wash.
Hey Everyone!
We started seeing snow fall Wednesday morning, though we really didn’t start seeing it stick until Wednesday evening.
With the roads being snow covered and the temperatures dropping below freezing I chose to stay home yesterday and today.
Yesterday my mom and I made cookies, and I have also been working on my current pair of vintage santa socks.
It’s been an incredibly busy month and it’s nice to have a couple extra down days to relax and allow my body to continue to adjust to not working nights. It’s been nice to actually put some time into my knitting and see progress take place over a shorter amount of time and see more socks take shape.
Now that I am getting back into a more regular schedule where I can knit more and get more done, and I do have a little more energy to do the things I enjoy doing.
Hey Everyone!
Yesterday, I finally finished up the pair of Snowy Pine socks I have been working on for the past month.
It’s been a crazy month. I finished out working freight, completely switched up my schedule going from working nights to working days. I started at my new store this past week, and trying to be healthier.
Snowy Pine is the colorway of this yarn, it is on the coquette sock yarn base from Bumblebee Acres Fiber Farm.
I have been working through my Christmas themed yarn I have in my stash. I am trying to get all my Christmas socks knit up before moving on to other yarn I have. I still have a few more pairs to go. Though with my schedule of my new job, I have a little time in the afternoons and evenings to work on my knitting and get a few rounds done. The second sock knit up a lot quicker than the first because of this change in my schedule.
Hey Everyone!
Yesterday was my last day at the store I had been a freight lead at for 10 months. I spent my last week of freight split between freight and signage.
Yesterday, before I left, I was given a beautiful bouquet of flowers.
It was super sweet of the store. I definitely was not expecting anything based on my experience at my first store.
I spent the past week and a couple days training for my new position at the store I have been at for the past 10 months. It was nice getting to start learning my new job at the store I am comfortable with before going to my new store. So I am going to my new store with a bit of training under my belt.
Hey Everyone!
When I got home from work, I had sent my brother the following message.
“Today feels like one of those days where I should be driving on the other side of the road, drinking my 6th cuppa of the day before going back out to working with the sheep or something”
It is a rainy, wet, rather dreary day. As I was driving home from work, it was one of those thoughts that it was like “what could I totally go for right now”, tea, yarn, sheep, and Scotland are the passion.
I have been training for my new job this past week. It’s definitely been a steep learning curve. I have also had a bit more time to knit in the afternoon. I am also enjoying having a bit more energy than I had while working nights. I am sure the 3am – 4am mornings will catch up with me, but this period until it does has been a nice reprieve.
Hey Everyone!
Last night I finished the second sock in the pair of Nordic Noel socks that I have been working on.
The yarn is a sock set I ordered from Bumblebee Acres Fiber Farm, and it’s on the coquette yarn base.
Over the past year and a half projects have taken forever to finish as I have been working nights and slept during the day so it has taken pretty much everything I have to just get through the routine of eat, sleep and work. I am hoping once I am back on days in the next couple of weeks that I will be able to put in a little bit extra time to knitting in the afternoons, after work.
I am definitely hoping the new position I accepted and will be starting soon will be what I need as I transition out of night and freight, as well as focus on what the future holds. Over the past few years my faith has taken a backseat to choices I made, as well as taking the jobs I have had where I have worked nights over the weekend. The way the schedule works for my new position, I will have Sundays off, which is a huge blessing as I have realized how much I have missed practicing my faith and how important it is for me to be around other like minded individuals.
Hey Everyone!
I hope you had a good Christmas!
This year, I got a nice break off work, between how I was scheduled and not being able to get into work due to inclement weather.
Having a few extra nights off has been great. I had finished up that pair of socks and started another one. I am already on the foot of the one I started while I have been off. I had ordered one of the Christmas sock sets from Bumblebee Acres recently and it just showed up not long before I finished up the believe socks. I wound it up pretty much as soon as it arrived and cast it on. It is called “Nordic Noel” and it is on the coquette base.
The yellow accent color really adds to the main colorway. If it weren’t a sock set, and I was just working with the main yarn I probably would have been bored with it already.
The Knitter's Notes 
You must be logged in to post a comment.