How do you like your yarn shop?

I recently read a post on the Knit Like a Man blog about shopping for yarn. It got me thinking about how yarn shops are a lot like restaurants. Each shop has its unique menu of yarn, ambiance, service quality, and price. And just like restaurants, yarn shops appeal to different kinds of knitters. In my city there are three locally owned yarn shops with wildly different personalities.

Yarn Shop A has been around for many years. The owner is older and has an established clientele. The shop’s yarn menu has a lot of big name variety with yarns ranging from basic to fancy. To me, the ambiance seems cluttered, disorganized, and gloomy. The owner is always friendly and helpful but in a rushed sort of way. The knitters that hang out there come across as cliquish. I shop there occasionally but it’s not a shop I go to just to browse or to see what’s new.

Yarn Shop B is relatively new and is owned by a young woman starting out in the business world. Her yarn menu is a bit limited and is focused on natural fiber yarns and fairly traded goods. The shop is in a sunny and bright store front next to a used book store. The clientele is typically young and tattooed. The shop owner is sweet and knowledgeable but like Shop A, it doesn’t draw me back.

Yarn Shop C has been in business for a couple of years and I just recently discovered it. The shop is a bit small but the yarn menu is surprisingly well rounded. The ambiance is bright, artistic, casual and welcoming. The owner has many items on display that demonstrate ways to use the yarns she carries. She is very helpful and will spend time discussing a project or yarn selection. I think I like this shop best because the owner makes me feel welcome and I like the yarn she sells.

Which brings us back to the restaurant analogy. I frequent restaurants that serve food I like at a reasonable price in a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere.

Making progress

I turned this...

into this...

My first Christmas present completed.

This is a scarf for my daughter-in-law. She lives in Michigan and needs warm and soft for winter. The cornflower blue, raspberry red, and black yarn is Misti Alpaca worsted 100% baby alpaca. Very nice to work with.

I knit the scarf along the length and alternated between the feather yarn and the alpaca. I like the way the stripes go lengthwise. I made the sections different widths so the scarf has some visual interest.

One present down, many more to go.

Going nowhere

I can't believe I caught another cold. Two in two months - so unfair. I usually don't get one per year. I have been down for the count for 2 1/2 days. No working, no reading, no movies, no knitting. Just sleeping. Work on the Rambling Rows afghan has stalled here.
I'm feeling better today, sort of. It's Saturday and I'm not golfing. How can that be better? Sigh...

Christmas knitting plan

I was inspired by Beverlyann when she wrote in her blog about gift knitting. I decided to plan my knitting projects for Christmas gifts.

First, I made a list of things I’d like to knit. Then I made a list of people that I wanted to give a gift to. And I tried to match them. I made some adjustments and created my project list. Here’s an example.
From my chart I know what and how many things I want to make, but can I do it all by Christmas? I calculated times on how many total weeks I thought it would take me to complete a project. These are not necessarily concurrent weeks - just total effort. When I saw the total weeks I realized my gift giving plan was overly ambitious. I do have one afghan 30% completed but there are only 33 weeks till package shipping day.

I’ll have to ponder a bit and whittle down my list.

Cardinal bird baby pictures

I took a few pictures of the cardinal babies after work today. Sorry for the poor quality - my camera doesn't zoom enough to get close without climbing into the camelia bush. The momma was mad at me. I've learned that cardinals can CHEEP CHEEP loud and long. So loud and so long that hosting a cardinal nest is losing some of its charm.

Look closely in the middle of the picture and you will see a baby's head.

Cardinal babies hatched

The cardinal babies hatched out last Wednesday. I have been trying to take pictures of them when the parents are on the hunt, but the babies hunker down and just look like brown blobs in a brown nest.

I peeked at them last night and they have tiny feathers now. They normally leave the nest after 10 days so I should be able to get decent pictures to share soon.

It's been fun watching the parents feed the babies from my bedroom window.

Womanly knitting – a celebration of liberation

If you are a woman knitter, do you celebrate your womanly knitting? A work friend recently told me about a conversation with a group of mothers she knows. They talked about how they don’t hide their public knitting for fear of seeming too girly, matronly, or grandmotherly. I know what they mean.

I was born in 1950 and came of age as a women during the era of Women’s Lib. Does anyone use that term anymore? Do we still need liberating? Perhaps from ourselves…

I was a very liberated young woman and learned how to exist and thrive in the heavy-duty man’s world of manufacturing. I learned how to be damn tough and hide my femaleness. I learned how to like and talk sports, how to cuss (my pals will tell you I excel at cussing), how to put up with crap and dish it out, and generally, how to act male.

I make no judgment on if it is “better” to be male or female. I love hanging with men because I love to tease, debate, and challenge. I wasn’t so good in my 20s and 30s on hanging with women. I wasn’t good at the social protocol needed to get along in female packs. I was uncomfortable with the rules and I just plain didn’t want to learn them.

As I got older I discovered the sheer pleasure in the company of women. I learned not to compare women’s way to men’s ways but to simply accept the value of womanly camaraderie. I also learned how to get along. I largely have my Ohio pals to thank for this. They accepted me as is and slowly drew me into their band. They taught me their ways.

All but knitting, that is. I drew the line at knitting. They all knitted like fanatics but I resisted because it was too girly for me. When I finally tried knitting (and became infatuated) I hid my knitting from people in my daily life. No kntterly talk on the golf course. No K2tog at work. No yarn chitchat in social groups.

It wasn’t until I was solidly captivated by the calming, creative experience of knitting that I accepted with great pride that I AM A KNITTER AND I DON’T CARE WHO KNOWS IT. Hmmmm, seems kind of manly to shout about it.