Crazy for Ewe

Lovely Risa just posted in the Facebook group that she had lengthened the body of a sweater she'd knit last summer. it was just too short. She cleverly picked up and knit a split hem at the bottom, and it looked great. But it was her post that made me smile the most.

(note to self: knit for my body; there is no prize for knitting the pattern “right”)

So true. We are all so intent on following the directions exactly,

“I’m afraid it won’t fit”.  When I asked you to tell me your biggest fear when it comes to making a sweater, that’s what you told me.  Not at all surprising.  We are  all  afraid that our sweaters won’t fit.  Spending the time, money, and effort going on choosing the garments, buying the yarn, and making the garment, only to have it not fit -- I don’t think there’s a more disheartening moment.  

There are lots of reasons a sweater might not fit, in order of least likely to most likely.

Lovely Regina was in the shop a bit ago. Enamored with the No Plain Jane cardigan another customer had knit, she wanted to knit the same garment.  However, she wanted to do it in a different yarn.  She looked at the gauge and saw that it was 13 stitches over 4”, so she began looking in the bulky section and fell in love with Malabrigo Mecha.  Who wouldn’t, right?  With a skein of Mecha in one hand and a skein of Wooladdicts Air in the other, she walked up to me and said, “I don’t get it. You told me these yarns were both bulky.  They both have 135 yards per skein.  But the Air is 50g, and the Malabrigo is 100g.”  I love my engineer customers because they notice these things, and ask about them.  Everything has to make sense, which is so important in knitting.  

You see, Wooladdicts Air is a blown yarn, which means that it’s constructed by

We’ve been hard at work here at the shop. We had several huge shipments of yarn arrive kind of all at once, and finding just the right place for every skein has been a challenge - it’s not that we don’t have the room, it’s that we want it to look beautiful and be inspiring.  It takes a lot of time, but we’ve been chipping away at it, and it’s finally in a state I’m proud of.  It’s a nice feeling.  

Good things do take time, as any knitter knows. There are lots of steps along the way, and a significant amount of uncertainty that goes with any project.  Uncertainty.  A euphemism for that age old emotion, fear.  Any time we start on a

Knife skills.  One of the first things my mom taught me about cooking.  Well, maybe not the first thing, but somewhere between how to pull the tab on the cake mix bag and how to fold an omelet in the pan without a spatula.  Anyway, her 10” carbon steel Sabatier chef’s knife was jealously guarded lest it be allowed to rust on the counter or inadvertently placed in the dishwasher, a fate from which a carbon steel knife never truly recovers.  She used to say that a good chef’s knife could be used for almost anything – cutting onions, crushing garlic, slicing meats, taking apart a whole chicken.  But even so, she had a raft of other sharp instruments for various cutting tasks – serrated knives for crusty bread, paring

What do you think when you hear the words runway show or fashion week?  For  me it conjures images of outrageous, things no one would ever wear, right?  That’s the point though.  Designers are making a statement with those over-the-top looks.  They’re an indication of trends - bold looks that get tamed for the ready to wear market you see first in high end stores and then in the mass market

I’ve been spending a lot of time researching tools to create my membership site.  I know that I want there to be helpful videos, a library of patterns I know and trust, and lots of other resources I want to share with you. A central piece of the site will be the safe, private forum.

I’ve been researching tools to create this site and it’s been interesting.  People ask questions about the best plug in and its costs (which are high), the integration with existing sites and email, recurring payments, and all the nitty gritty technical stuff that goes into a thing like this.

Reading through the questions and the answers, I am seeing a simple truth: As with so many things, you cannot throw money and technology at a problem and expect to come up with a solution. 

About 20 years ago, I read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey. Written in 1989, It wasn’t a new book, even then, but it changed my life I refer to its teachings all the time with my children, my husband, and every aspect of my life. Even my kids have been known to quote its well-worn

Scrolling through my overcrowded inbox today, I saw a message on starting your day well. I expected an admonishment on how I should rise an hour early for one of those perky pre-dawn exercise classes, or take a cold shower, or some other walking-over-hot-coals kind of motivational technique.  Instead, the words were a warm wave that washed over me with validation and relief.

I’ve been thinking about my mom a lot lately.  She died three years ago this week, and that tends to dredge up all the feels. I miss her wisdom.  She understood human nature better than most and was always able to see right to the core of a difficult interpersonal situation.  Even so, she could be one of the world’s most challenging individuals, demonstrating her own maxim  When we are the hardest to love is when we need it the most, but that’s a story for another day.

One thing she always said was When the worst possible thing happens,  it always contains the seeds to salvation.  Somehow it feels a little less sappy than the whole silver lining cliché, because you don’t just break open a bad thing and

We can like two things at once.  Chocolate and vanilla. Red wine and white wine, rice and pasta. We may have a preference and generally choose one over the other, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t see the merits of both, right?  I fall into the chocolate, red wine, and pasta camp, but I can certainly appreciate crème brulee, a nice crisp chardonnay, and a creamy risotto.  Boy, I must be hungry.

It’s the same with sweaters construction.  Bottom up and seamed is my preference, but I can see the appeal of top-down seamless.  Not all top down seamless, but some.  Especially Cocoknits. 

During our V-neck pullover Knitalong, I was helping Mindy block her sweater pieces.  She was kind enough to take these videos in return so that I could share with you some tips about blocking.  I'll try to get those videos posted on YouTube this week.

Lots of folks asked about my steamer, which I purchased after my other one burned up when I left it on.  Since I often turn the steamer on and leave it for a