Out West

It really has been ages since I've posted anything. It took a deletion notice to actually remind me that I may need to pick this up again.

The last year has been quite the whirlwind for me. I've left my hometown of Northampton, MA and my beloved workplace of WEBS to be the Director of the Knitting and Weaving Center at Harrisville Designs. That ever-so-brief experience was cut short by my abrupt move to California.

The decision to move either time was difficult and a giant leap of faith. The first was precipitated by a job opportunity, the second to accompany my girlfriend in her journey back to school.

California makes me feel like a stranger in a strange land. The alien feeling of being surrounded by unfamiliar terrain and flora, the unpredictable climate, the cultural discrepancies...it's been a challenge.

My experience has no doubt been colored by my distance from family and friends. I think it's safe to say that nothing about my life is the same as last year at this time. Growing pains like this are sure to make me feel a little rusty and inflexible. The true challenge has been the marathon effort of being open to the change. Every. Day.

I have longed for the luxury of autopilot. Just wanting a routine, a coffeshop, a mindless drive. It's a little taxing to be constantly on point. This is probably the shake up I've been needing for some time, but healthy is not necessary comfortable.

I just hope I've cashed in my change chips for awhile. Three states in one year is a little much for this girl and I'm looking forward to exploring my territory a little more thoroughly this time.

Ysolda Teague at WEBS!

Hi all,

I know, I know, it's been an absurdly long hiatus. But I am returning with a great announcement and much yarny goodness to follow.

This is an event I have been fortunate enough to organize and would love to see as many faces there as possible!

A moment of silence.

I’m not sure how to detail the series of events that has kept me quiet for the past few weeks. What began as pain flaring in Alyx’s teeth earlier in the week escalated quickly into a weekend of panicked pain. We spent 3 nights in the ER begging politely to be paid attention to, calling numerous offices trying to appeal to a human side of the medical community. I watched my partner pace and squirm and rock in excruciating pain, the thought of which still brings tears to my eyes. I slept maybe 2-3 hours per night, berating myself for leaving her alone. I searched myself over and over, not knowing who to call or what to do, not sure how to access the level of emergency.
All of this occurred simply because we had the great misfortune of spotty insurance and the audacity to need dental care on the weekend. Thankfully her mother was able to fly in so that I could return to work as her jaw infection slowly dissipated. Now, weeks later her jaw is merely stiff and we are still sleep deprived. Friday evening I fell into bed and slept a full 13 hours. I feel like a brand new person, having sleep walked for weeks.
I think we’re finally ready to bounce back.

please send help!

Finally, a knitting post! Although this may be akin to admitting I have a problem... which may also be why it's taken me so very long to post knitting progress.

Projects on the needles are falling by the wayside in my mad dash for store credit. I literally cannot say no to store credit projects, it’s a kind of sacrilege. I find myself stockpiling credit and yarn for personal projects, with no real time to knit them as I am madly knitting to amass more store credit. It’s an ugly cycle that I am not alone to find myself in.

I recently completed the Bison Shawlette from Luxury One Skein Wonders with Jade Sapphire’s Silk Cashmere in Caribbean Mist, the result of which is hanging in the store window. I had to crack into the second skein, regardless of the required yardage, so I have the majority of it left over staring at me, begging for a tiny shawl of my very own (maybe a bandwagon Ishbel?).





I’m currently spinning my wheels on the Essential Lace Tank from Lace Style. I love the look of this garment, but I have some beef with this pattern. Primarily, I really hate knitting in pieces and seaming lace. Secondly, I had a horrifyingly fiddly experience with the decrease section. Originally, my difficulty began with trying to sub the yarn, because the gauge is given as double stranded lace in pattern. I tried single stranding a linen/cotton dk yarn, as others had attempted, and the fit was terrible. I was supremely off gauge in the garment measurements despite the sts-per-inch gauge being right on. Ugh. I’m beginning again with Classic Elite’s Silky Alpaca Lace which I’m excited about, but it’s taking longer than hoped for…or the time allotted by the store in which to finish. Shhhh…



I’ve further dug myself into a yarn-hole by agreeing to knit garments for the Valley Yarns line, and our prolific designer Kirsten Hipsky. So, now I have a sweater for her thrown in my to-do pile...wow, just typing all of these out makes me realize how legitimate the stress of these projects is beginning to be!

The only store project I’ve actually been able to finish since I’ve taken all this on is the minuscule, although adorable, tomato for the store’s group project from Amigurumi Knits. (To be fair I did knit two, so that does count for something I suppose). I knit these in Valley Yarns Stockbridge and they were a very quick knit. I was pleasantly surprised, although I love the results much more than the process.



Although my other projects have languished I have to admit that I did crank out some birthday mitts for KT, which I worked on at Stitches South. I used the pattern Merletto Mitts and knit them with Dream in Color Smooshy in an acid yellow/pea green color (spring tickle) that seems to attract only KT. They look really sharp in this yarn, I’m actually very impressed with it and plan to use it again in the future. I altered the number of stitches on the stockinette side to 20 from 29 and used dpns rather than two circulars, which simply works better for me …and KT’s wee-baby-tiny hands.



Hopefully more progress will develop on this WIP debacle. More to update on that battleground later..

life away from laptop

It’s been a hectic couple of weeks, so that “windfall” of blogging has been trickling out a little slowly. I am now officially the new assistant manager at WEBS which has--so far-- been quite a whirlwind. My first order of business was to buy some shoes to fit my promotional running about, which has been handy.

Another reason for slow blogging has been my immense amount of computer troubles. My laptop has taken to shutting itself off, closing every program I open and racking up a couple hundred viruses. *Sigh* I succumbed to seeking a new computer and it should arrive by the end of the week. Hopefully this will solve my difficulties.

My other preoccupation has been my wee garden at the community garden plots. My friend and I signed up for the plot earlier in the spring and started tiny seedlings in preparation for the warmth. The weather has been unseasonably cool, which has kept me from planting until recently. It is the first garden I’ve tended since I was very young. My family has always had a garden, but since my teenage years our yard has not allowed for the space.

Our first round of transplants didn’t survive, I think the cold got to them. So I’m holding off on planting our tomatoes until later this week. Slowly, but surely, it is becoming more hospitable for tiny plants. And with that thought I'll end with a series of garden photos. I'm such a proud mama!

WEBS-phenomenon

Lately things have been crazy busy round the yarn store….

The kick-off to the busy season was my trip to Stitches South, which was a little slow but fun none-the-less. The most eventful news I have to report was the lovely lace yarn I stashed from the Sanguine Gryphon and the lovely Merletto mitts I was knitting while I was there (photo forthcoming).



Fuschia skein
name: Gaia lace
fiber content: 2 ply silk cashmere lace
color: view from the mountain

Black/blue/purple variegation
name: Sappho (of course)
fiber content: 2ply merino
color: brings back the sheep

The main source of wildness has been our 35th anniversary sale, which has spanned both April and May. However, it was really only preparation for the maddening weekend of the tent sale, which was last weekend. I have no photographic evidence of the lines or the mess or the free yarn scramble, but the WEBS blog is pretty good at all that.

In the aftermath of the sale I am sitting with my feet up considering the madness that is the yarn business and considering what a stress I’ve let my little hobby-turned-obsession become. What was once a reprieve and a fascination has become less than lighthearted. I fear that I have let my stash grow fangs and projects are piling up a little scarily.

Ultimately, I do not want to become a grocery cart lady. Meaning, I do not want to be the kind of shopper that compulsively buys yarn without intended purpose or time in which to use it. I want to leave my options open for further inspiration without burying it in stash yarn. Would it be so outlandish to use the yarn I have and only buy when I need more (yes). I may have to impose a yarn diet. Sigh.

Prepare yourself for a WIP intervention post. It’s time to air the dirty laundry…

I will finish with a couple of photos from Stitches South...we do have a good time on the road....

Backed Up Blogging

Okay, the busier it gets the more there is to blog about, the less time there is to blog at all. Therefore I am aggressively attempting to catch up on back-blogging. Expect to see multiple postings!...



A few Sundays ago I hosted a spinning/knitting brunch with some of the retail staff from WEBS. I would call it a wild success. My new and fairly spacious apartment was packed with ladies and amazing food and spinning wheels. I’m not sure there is a better Sunday afternoon that I could conceive of.





KT brought organic bacon and lemon poppy seed French toast. I made eggs and fried potatoes with a three seed sauce which I improvised from another recipe. Deb made homemade salsa. We had fresh bread from local bakeries, mimosas, coffee, homemade pastries galore. I tried to get a picture that gave a sense of the magnitude of food we had on our hands, but I fear it doesn’t give it justice.





Honestly, breakfast took the majority of the allotted time we originally allowed for the brunch. But we stayed late to get a good amount of fiber arts in. KT generously allowed me to use her wheel which was my first foray into spinning. (In the spirit of full disclosure I did host this brunch with the ulterior motive of learning to spin from my cohorts.) Most of my fellow colleagues learned to spin from one of our resident spinners a couple months ago and I have been dying to get in on it. The staff has spinning fever, half the girls have ordered wheels and I have yet to get the drop spindle going. They very patiently let me mangle some roving before getting down to business.

We hope to make this a regular event and I dare say that everyone had as much fun as I did. I snapped a couple of rudimentary photos while we were preparing food just for blogging’s sake. Now that I’m finally getting around to posting this, I think we’re due for another!