Twilight Knitting

I love the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyers. They have even inspired me to knit!

My parents live but a few hours from Forks, the town in which the books are set...so as part of my grad school graduation frivolity...on Monday we made a pilgrimage.

I, of course, wore the Twilight/Blood and Shadows scarf that I made.



It was a big hit. Edward liked it.



Alice liked it, too.



I am big nerd.

Beware the Blogging Knitter

While pursuing yet more fun on my graduation vacation with my parents, I found myself in the small town of La Connor, WA. It is one of those adorable towns that is full of antique shops, bakeries, and artisan galleries.

It also had a yarn shop. The yarn shop was called Jennings Yarn & Needlecraft.

It was, without a doubt, the worst yarn shop experience of my life. (And that includes the shop where staff followed me around because they thought I was going to shop lift.)

Mom, Dad, and I went in there. I was actually initially impressed. It had quite a nice selection of Noro Kureyon (although it was priced quite a bit higher than the going market rate)...not to mention quite a few inspiring luxury fibers. (Angora. I love angora.)

However...the service was abysmal. The owner/employee was standing right there at the counter when we came in. Yet, we spent a good 5-10 minutes in the shop before we were even acknowledged. (The person cannot claim that she didn't see us...I mean, Dad is 6'5"...) Once we were acknowledged, it was with a curt hello. And that only came after Mom POINTEDLY stared at the woman as we walked by the register. Another 5-10 minutes passed, and the lady finally finally left the counter and came back to the back part of the shop.

She asked: "Did you want something?"
I answered: "Nothing specific."

Rather than saying she was available to help if I had any questions, or muttering any other number of polite stock sales phrases, she wheeled on her heel and went back to the register. I was baffled. I even had to stand at the counter a moment or two before she bothered to ask if I was ready to check out.

As we walked out of the shop, Mom marveled at the utter horror that seemed to pass for customer service. I told Mom that we could take comfort in the fact that they didn't know who they were ignoring. I am a blogger. I am a knitting blogger. One should not raise the ire of a literate and proliferate knitting blogger. I would eviscerate them in online literature.

Jennings Yarn & Needlecraft is in a delightful setting, but the staff is definitely below par. The fine fibers can not begin to make up for the shabby treatment. I can find better yarn elsewhere, the same yarn at a better price elsewhere, and anything I want online. I do not have to put up with your snottiness. And no one else should either!

AVOID THIS SHOP!!!

Fun in Florida

I am on another vacation...

This time I met my Dad in Florida for a lectureship at Jester and Blondie's college. So, rather than my usual 2 hour flight, I had approximately 8-9 hours of flying/airport waiting both ways.

Woo-hoo! The opportunity to finish an entire audio book AND a portable project or two...

There were some tough decisions to be made...

Which book? I ended up loading two onto my phone. I went with Sunrise over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers, and Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer. (The Myers book is for the Teen Book Club I coordinate...the Colfer book is just for fun.)

Which project? I packed 2 felted purse class samples, Beret pour Moi, Gotham socks, and Cornrows. All of the projects are fairly small/portable, but they take varying levels of concentration. Also, none of them required me to bring a pattern...just a few notes typed into my phone.

Merry Christmas Gift Parade!

Here are all of the projects that I haven't been able to blog about over the past several weeks. Some of them will be featured in individual entries over the next few days...but for right now, a picture parade:



Sister and her felted catnip mice



Mom and her Scarf that Goes with Everything



Sis-In-Law and her knitted earrings



Dad, Brother, and Nephew in their Generational Beanies



Nephew's Manly Sweater (which looked so tiny when I knit it...but huge when I held it up to him!)



Ontie with her version of the "Blood and Shadows" scarf

The parade of pictures will continue as I get photos from the Christmas commissions I took on as well...

Continuing the Birthday Joy...

Happy Birthday Dad!

You might not knit.

You might even be the man who lovingly informed that just because something could be knit, that didn't mean it should be.

Yet, you have always been supportive and appreciative. No one can admire a handknit like you can admire a handknit. You are one man in a million!

Also...you are a great enabler. Like the time you brought me back a skein of 100% alpaca from your trip to Idaho! You went in a YARN SHOP...ALONE...to buy ME something!

Or, the time I left my cabling needle at your house, and you drove it all the way over to me at my condo because I was home sick. That is true love.

I love you! Happy Birthday! See you in a few days!

Winding Whiz!

I admit it. I was a little worried about how the nostepinde was going to work out...what if I crashed and burned as a yarn winder? A lot of the instructional websites warned that many people end up with oblong yarn balls, and that the stackable upright kind I prefer are hard to make.

It was with great trepidation that I embarked on my first winding attempt. I decided to use the Classic Elite Alpaca Sox yarn in "rose" that Mom and Dad got me for my birthday, since the nostepinde itself was a birthday present. (Come to think of it, the swift was a Christmas present from them as well...aren't they just a lovely pair of fiber-fanatic enablers!?!)

I followed the instructions I had found...and...Voila! A beautiful, upright, center-pull, stackable ball of sock yarn just waiting to be used!

I am hooked.

Not only does the nostepinde look like a magic wand, it makes me feel like a wizard!

So, last night I went ahead and wound another skein of yarn...this time Malabrigo sock yarn. I love having yet another "productive" activity to justify all the time I waste watching DVDs!

And, as long as the novelty hasn't worn off...I have scads left in the stash to wind: Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, 1000 yards of lace-weight Egyptian cotton, 4 skeins of mercerized cotton, Cascade 220, 2 different colors of chunky llama...I could go on...

Who knows, I might just unwind the balls I have done in the past, and rewind them as center-pulls...although, I should probably knit again at some point...

A Very Personal Thing

For my birthday, my mom and dad decided (after many not-at-all subtly dropped hints) to give me a nostepinde. A nostepinde is, for those of you who don't know, a Norwegian knitting tool that is used to wind yarn that is in a skein into a center pull ball. It looks sort of like a shorter, squatter wizarding wand. And like the Harry Potter version of wands, they come in a variety of woods, finishes, and carving intricacies.

My parents looked at many many nostepindes, and decided that the choice was WAY too personal. They priced them, determined how much a nice one would cost (including postage), and just gave me the money to buy my own.

After a lot of thought, and a false start when the first one I ordered was out of stock, I finally selected this one (#12):



It is made out of Jarrah wood, which is a type of Eucalyptus, and is coming from a yarn shop in Australia!

In fact, not only is it coming...it is here! I got the postal pick-up order in my mailbox this afternoon. Now I just need to go to the post office to sign for it tomorrow! WOOHOO!!!

I have a wonderful father!

I meant to post this earlier, and just forgot.

About an hour after I posted my previous entry about the woeful lack of a cable needle, my father came by my condo.

He had seen my needle sitting on the table and, knowing I was stuck at home, thought I might want it. So, along with some library books my mom had checked out for me, he brought it by on his way to the office.

He noted that it appeared a little the worse for wear, since both their cat and puppy had gotten a hold of it. He offered to buy me a new one if it was ruined.

It wasn't ruined. I got a lot done on the sock...and was able to put off frogging the baby cardigan yet again!

Isn't my dad the best?