Projects & LYS

Just in case you didn't know (although I firmly believe I'm usually the last to know), the Winter Knitty is available. I carefully looked at & contemplated each design & ended up LOVING two of them, liking a few of them & really wondering ??? about the rest. I've even already started one of the projects, Venezia. Of course mine does't look anywhere near as beautiful as the ones in Knitty, but since I've only made 2 so far, maybe practice makes perfect on something like this.

I'm using 32 gauge wire instead of the 34 gauge that the pattern calls for. My local craft store didn't have the 34 gauge & I thought the 32 would work, but now in hindsight, I think you must need the 34 gauge so that it keeps its shape (since mine seems to collapse). All in all I really enjoyed the project but I think I may venture out for that 34 gauge wire to see if it makes a difference in the finished object. Especially since I need more than two of these for the gift I'm making.

The second item I fell in love with was Argosy. It looks fine in the Hempathy, but when I saw it in the Noro Silk Garden, I just knew that it was something I had to knit. I don't have any Noro in my stash though, so this new love necessitated a shopping trip. I've previously vowed never to return to the LYS about a mile from my home, so I checked around a found that there was a LYS about 6 miles away.

Upon entering Sit 'n Knit I was greeted by a small dog and since I'm a "dog person" this was a good sign to me. My immediate thought was that the store was quite large! There are two very long & large wooden table & chair sets set up in two different sections of the store & one of them was occupied by a woman learning to knit & the other was completely filled with women sitting around just knitting various projects. The store owner greeted me & asked me to let her know if I needed any assistance. Wow! Real human contact .. this was a first for me.

My initial impression .. warm & cozy & I could SO knit here! But ... as I looked closer at all the bins of yarn along each wall, I noticed the over abundance of novelty yarns. Okay, okay, she was probably one of those shop owners who got sucked in the novelty yarn craze & is now left with a bunch of the stuff, but for heavens sake put that crap on sale & make room for the good stuff!

Upon further inspection of the yarn selection I KNEW this was the store for me, because I believe they need my help. The majority of yarn was either Berroco or Plymouth. I know it's decent yarn (I've knit with some lovely Berroco yarn before), but I was expecting more than 12 skeins of Debbie Bliss & 8 skeins of Noro (not the type I was looking for though) & I was definitely expecting more than one skein of sock yarn! I always seem to have trouble finding sock yarn .. is this because I live in Southern California & we don't wear socks? I knew then & there that it is my mission to spend some good quality knitting time at this LYS knitting beautiful items from yarns that they don't, but could carry. Is that wrong?

About the almost-finished hat. This is an exact copy of a hat my little brother (who is now 27) had when he was about 2 years old. He now has his own son & requested awhile ago for me to knit his son a hat that looks like his old beloved hat that he lost when he was 5 years old. Thank goodness my LYS had a similar type of yarn I was looking for. Unfortunately I didn't realize until after I left the store that this yarn has been reported as a non-consumer friendly yarn! (always my luck). I guess I could've returned it, but it's my first time at the store, the yarn is machine washable & the colors are perfect, so I'm going to keep it & vow never to do it again.