Catch Up

After fighting some viral something or another, I am starting to come back to normal, which means I am knitting again.

I had to tear out my sock KAL as the toe had a ridge.  That is a no no.















Since I had to restart, I decided that Jill was right and I  seperated my ball of yarn into two and used two seperate needles to knit the socks.  And this is where I am.


















I need the Dove Dark Chocolate to exist.

I should be zipping along up the leg on the second sock, but am not.  The secret is out - it takes me forever to knit a pair of socks.  But I am having fun and I learned a new cast on.

In the meantime, I have been working on other projects.

 Purl Ridge Scarf by Stephen West

I started a cowl for my sister to replace the cowl I made for her for Christmas and it was out of wool and itched.  Therefore, I called up my favorite hand dyer, Yarn Hollow, explained what I needed and several weeks later I had 2 skeins of a lovely alpaca and silk light worsted blend in soothing pastels.

Sleeping Molly

Along with that I started and frogged a pair of mittens for SEEDS.  (bulky yarn makes too big mittens)




And then, of course, we have puppy class for the two young ladies that think they know what they are doing.

How to get to a yarn shoppe

The shoppe is located in Suttons Bay. For those of you who have never been here, Suttons Bay is a village. At least, I call it a village. I just looked up the definition of a village versus a town and I still cannot tell which is which. So I will call Suttons Bay a village, as I like the word.

Anyway, Suttons Bay is a village, located on the western side of the Grand Traverse Bay, in Leelanau County. You can access the shoppe by walking to it, driving to it, or as this lady did, by riding her bicycle to it.


She rode the TART trail from Traverse City with her husband. She is not the only one to do that. We had a mother and son come out the other day, the same way. Our summer weather has been so beautiful, that it only makes sense to visit us on your bicycle. Especially since we are only a couple of blocks from trail.

Remember the picture of one of our Susans knitting her first sock? Well, she finished the pair and they have since been mailed out to her daughter in Pennsylvania. I do like that colorway.


And our other Susan made these sheep up for the shoppe. She used a Fiber Trends pattern and Lamb's Pride. Aren't they cute?


Diane knitted a baby sweater and this hat out of Marble Chunky. I have to admit that I like this yarn, even though I thought we would never carry straight acrylic.

Keeping the Faith

Like everything else, owning a knit shoppe has its ups and downs. Real life intrudes and you have to pay the bills, do the bookwork, and sometimes deal with unpleasant events. But then, someone walks into the shoppe and you talk about your passion and you remember why you put in 8 days a week.

People like Patty who is churning out socks (this is Yarn Hollow's Sock Religious, Coffee Wave colorway)


or Carole who has started knitting again after many years.


For whatever reason, we love what we do. We play with colors, with textures, with the feel of good fiber. We challenge ourselves with a new technique. We go into a meditative state with garter stitch. And we meet others, who feel like we do.

Thanks, folks.

Socks

Well, in case you haven't figured it out yet, I love handknitted socks! I find it very hard to turn down more sock yarn for the shoppe. There are so many great fibers out there to knit into socks. Under hand dyed we have Yarn Hollow's Sock Religious and Panda Cotton, ShiBui's sock yarn, Fourth Coast Fibers sock yarn, Farmhouse Yarn Bo Peep Sock and Fannie's Fingering, Schaefer's Anne, and Mountain Colors Bearfoot. Other sock yarns include Louet Gems fingering, Opal cotton, 6-ply and what I call their regular sock yarn. Also Skacel's Trekking XXL in 6-ply and fingering, Austermann Step, Fortissima, Trekking ProNatura. And don't forget South West Trading Company's Tofutsies. Then we will be adding Misti Alpaca sock yarn, Classic Elite Yarns Alpaca Sox, Summer Sox, and TY-Dy socks. Whew! See what I mean. And I don't carry every sock yarn out there.

Plus I enjoy seeing what you folks have done with the yarn you bought from us. Sue sent me this picture. She bought these from us last summer and finished them up just recently.


Who would have guessed that they would have looked like this? Thanks, Sue, for sending the picture to us.