Continuing to work on Cold Weather Necessities

Hey Everyone!

Since I updated on finishing up the silent night socks, I have finished up the first socks of the two pairs I am working on.

I finished up the first “make it pink, make it blue” sock first.

Then I busted out the first “let it snow” sock not long after.

I had started this sock a couple weeks ago, when we fittingly had snow in the forecast. I thought it might be a “good luck charm” to not get snow. It worked on that Thursday, but not so much that Friday morning. It was snowing pretty good as I drove to work between 4:30 and 5:00 that morning. We don’t get enough snow on a regular basis to warrant having chains or snow / studded tires on my little front wheel car. I just had to take it slow and easy while sticking (pun intended) to main roads. By the time I got off work the snow was pretty much gone.

Last week, I had ordered a bit more sock yarn. I had ordered a couple of Hanks from Forbidden Fiber Company’s Roaring 20’s Collection. I had ordered the colors “The Jazz Age” and “Tommy Gun”. The Jazz Age is a pretty variegated Purple that reminds me of one of my grandmothers, and Tommy Gun is a really pretty Grey variegated.

I had put in my forbidden fiber co order on the evening of Friday the 17th. It shipped Tuesday the 21st (as Monday was a federal holiday, so the post office was closed), and arrived on Saturday the 25th. I have always had a positive experience when ordering from Forbidden Fiber Company, including a quick turnaround on shipping, and good communication.

A week ago, I put in an order with bumblebee acres fiber farm, knowing that I won’t see that yarn for another two to three weeks at the earliest. Considering I have had to wait a month or more for my last two orders from this company, I knew I wouldn’t see the yarn I was ordering until at least mid February, if not closer to March. I am sure I will get the two second socks I have on the needles done as well as another pair or two before I see the last of the yarn I ordered.

I definitely won’t be ordering anymore yarn for a while. I have plenty to work with. When I am ready to order more, I doubt that I will order from any shop other than Forbidden Fiber Company or KnitPicks, they always have a good selection that they keep stocked consistently, and you rarely have to wait for restocks. I have learned my lesson about ordering from shops that don’t have good customer service, and don’t keep enough in stock for those who want to order. I am going to stick with my reliable yarn sources.

The past few days, since work has slowed down, I have had more time to knit, and watch shows. I have been watching The Deadliest Catch on Hulu. I am sad that Alaska: the last frontier is no longer on Hulu. I know that these shows are heavily edited, and to some extent scripted, but it’s Alaska.

The Silent Night Socks

Hey Everyone!

I had started these socks almost a month ago! Between Work, the holidays and being busy with all of that and then some, it took a bit to get these socks done.

The Colorway is called Silent Night. The yarn base I had ordered this colorway on was the Pride yarn base from Forbidden Fiber Company. The fiber content on this yarn is: 70% superwash merino, 20% Nylon and 10% Stellina.

Now that the holidays are over, and work has slowed down, I am definitely able to get more knitting done.

One of the crazy things I have noticed across the yarn bases, is that you can’t really rely on yardages to make sure you get a pair of socks out of a hank. The Fortitude and Babel Bases are dead on (I usually have a little ball with somewhere around 10 to 20 yards left) while With Gluttony Sock I ran out and had to order more (it’s within 10 yards of the same amount as the Fortitude and Babel bases) and the Pride base has about 60 yards more in the hank than Fortitude and Babel do, and I came out with a smaller ball on this pair of socks than I do with the fortitude yarn. Everything else was kept the same, the number of stitches cast on, the lengths of the cuffs, legs, heels, feet, toes, the size of needles used, so it baffles me a bit that the different bases use such different yardages to knit up a pair of socks.

I did start on another pair of Christmas Collection colored socks. I started on the hank of “Let it Snow”, especially since they are forecasting snow to fall on the valley floor this week. I have my doubts that it will really happen though. It’s always the times that they underestimate the storm when it dumps tons, and when they overhype it, nothing really happens. I just thought it was fitting for this week to start on the “let it snow” colorway.

Another LYS is Closing

Hey Everyone!

I found out this afternoon that another Portland yarn store that has been one of the main yarn stores for years will be closing its brick and mortar store in a couple months. That will make the fourth yarn store (that I know of) to close its physical store in about 5 years. While the reasons given, typically are personal in nature (family illness, time to move on etc), I can’t help but wonder if the rising rent / lease prices in the shop front spaces and the growing move of consumers to online retailers is also part of what is driving this shift in Portland’s (and thus Oregon’s) LYS scene.

I also kind of feel like the crafting (knitters and crocheters) community here isn’t what it once was. Then again Portland isn’t what it was 10 – 15 years ago. The demographics of the area has been changing a lot since many of these yarn stores opened.

We do have a handful of local / indie dyers here in the area (only one that I can name off the top of my head), and the closest fiber festivals are 15 – 18 hours away, in SoCal.

I know I order a lot of my yarn online, and while I have definitely ordered a fair amount of yarn from KnitPicks, and will likely order from there again, most, of not all the sock yarn I have ordered in the last year has been from small, indie dyers from back east.

I would definitely love to see things change out here, since this part of the country is home. At the same time I definitely want to attend a few fiber festivals, meet my favorite dyers, and see some more of the country.