Love of fiber arts

Probably due to Stephen King, the first Maine city I recall being aware of is Bangor. I can't say that I had much of a conception of what it might be like, but I did expect it to be bigger than it is. After a brief and busy visit, my impression is that Bangor is more like a big suburb of a large city, except in this case it's just a big suburb surrounded by wilderness.

Although I didn't have a lot of free time, I maximized what was available and tracked down a local yarn shop in nearby Orono, which is north of Bangor. This LYS is found on what looks like the definition of a quaint northeastern Main Street (even if it's actually Mill Street).

Like the Bemidji, Minnesota yarn shop I visited about three weeks earlier, Fiberphilia is pretty much the only local place to buy yarn in its area. Their selection is fairly typical of what I'm accustomed to seeing in LYSes--plenty of Cascade and Noro, for instance--but Fiberphilia does have some regional yarns that I don't expect one finds as easily elsewhere.

The person working on the day of my visit--the co-owner?--was very helpful and not only regarding the store's merchandise. He suggested the place where I ate lunch that day and the next. Both recommendations were splendid. I never would have thought to go to a bakery run by Franciscan monks or drive a little off the highway to get to a very popular diner in a small town.

After my nice visit I left with some Cascade sock yarn and those superb tips on where to eat. Not bad for an abbreviated amount of time in Bangor and vicinity.

Local yarn shop, Bemidji style

The weather here in northern Minnesota has been much cooler than I was expecting for this time of year. Apparently the balmier temperatures arrived when we did for this vacation, which is all well and good except I wasn't prepared. A few of us headed into the closest city of any size to pick up some things. (I needed a sweatshirt, especially if I am to spend much time on the lake.) One of my requested stops was a local yarn shop. I thought I might get some Cascade yarn to make a hat to help keep my head warm during the windy days on the water.

Yarn Dance is the only local yarn shop in Bemidji, Minnesota. If I remember correctly what I was told, the place opened just this past December and is the first LYS here in 25 years. I'm surprised that this part of the country, where knitting would be eminently practical for dealing with the weather, didn't have a couple such stores. It certainly makes me appreciate the number of options I have in Columbus, not to mention others within relatively short driving distances.

I'll apologize upfront for the less than expertly framed photographs. I always feel a little weird whipping out a camera in these situations, and I tried to snap a few shots as quickly as possible. On this occasion I explained why I was doing so. For starters, I imagine that they don't see many men pop in for some yarn, and I highly doubt those that do want to document their visit.

I had a good idea of what I wanted before I walked in the door. That focus, and having some family members waiting in the car for me to get in and get out, minimized how much I poked around. Still, I was impressed with the yarns they were carrying. I saw a good variety of Cascade, Malabrigo, and Noro, to name a few. The selection may not be as diverse as what I've come across at my local yarn shops, but for Bemidji knitters who have been limited to what Jo-Ann Fabrics carries, this place must seem like a godsend.

The employee I dealt with was helpful and friendly, and I left with two hanks of Cascade 128 Tweed in colorway 7712. I wish I had had more time to look around. Perhaps there will be at least one more trip into Bemidji before our departure. (We'll pass through it on the way home.) Whether I make it in again or not, I'm glad I was able to find to a local yarn shop while up here and wish the best to those who own and operate it. On the off chance that you live in this neck of the woods and are reading this, I recommend paying Yarn Dance a visit. From what I can tell, it's a far sight better than the other limited options available to you.

Going to market

I had to drop off some things on the southeast side of town Friday night, so I decided to meet up with some fellow knit night-ers as they visited Yarn Market in Pickerington. I didn't need any yarn or have anything in mind, but I thought maybe I'd be inspired. That's the wrong tack to take at this place.

Yarn Market is a local yarn shop in the sense that you can buy yarn there, but as the lead photo illustrates, this is primarily a warehouse that sells yarn and accessories to internet purchasers. The showroom features a sample of each kind of yarn in their inventory. Not all colorways are represented, just the different brands.

It's in here that one can try to make sense of what one might want to buy. Since I didn't have any projects in mind, nothing really jumped out at me. I kicked around the idea of getting something for a pair of socks, but I'll admit that the sheer quantity of yarn at this place overloaded my brain.

Wandering the warehouse will do that. Depending on the aisle, plastic containers are stacked up to six high (at least) and are in rows that stretch quite a ways. This is when you can dig around and find what colors the yarns come in, but trust me, unless I had a vague notion of what I was looking for, browsing is not the best plan of attack.

They don't just have yarn. Needles, hooks, books, patterns, and practically any other knitting and crochet tools are here in bulk as well.

I also saw the most expensive yarn I've ever come across. Nearly $300 a ball (and not a very big one at that)?!

Thanks to the folks at Yarn Market for staying open late for our group and letting us have the run of the place.

Remnants

Updates and a leftover from this week's blogging...

I intended to drop by the local yarn shop when I was in Nelsonville. I had e-mailed the shop owner to confirm the store's Thursday hours but didn't see the response until after I returned from the trip. On top of that the store either moved locations from when I was last in the town or I misremembered. The storefront where I expected to find it was empty. Of course, I hadn't bothered to check the address. Oops.

As for the dashboard issues I've mentioned with my car, it's not good. The dealership technicians finally were able to identify that the instrument cluster is bad. According to them it's not a matter of moisture or a leak ruining it, which I suppose is good. It's just a bad break that I bought a used car in good condition with low mileage that had this sort of failure shortly after the purchase. Still, I'm none too pleased about this expensive repair on top of fixing the trunk latch this week.

I will be writing to the manufacturer to complain. Something like the instrument cluster shouldn't be failing this soon. Web searches have turned up this problem in the same model, so I figure it's worth voicing my displeasure. I'm not expecting to get anything, but it can't hurt to try.

I'm one knitting session away from finishing the scarf I have on the needles. Yes, it should have been finished already, but being out of town one night and dealing with the car a couple times this week got in the way.

A knitting shop and a kitten

After spending the evening out in Fayetteville with my hosts and their friends, little time exists for blogging today as I need to hit the road early to get to St. Louis, Missouri.

Above you'll see the new location for the local yarn shop in Fayetteville. Unfortunately that's as much of it as I saw. It's closed on Mondays. I spent some time knitting in this LYS last time I was down here and it was in a house.

You will be interested to know that I am a bind off row away from an FO. It's been awhile since I finished a project.

And for a shameless appeal to readers due to the lack of other content, how can you be dissatisfied with this paltry entry when it includes a picture of a kitten my friends have?

Scatterbrained

A new local yarn shop opened here this month. Since it is near where knit night takes place, I thought I'd swing by beforehand and check it out.

Now I'm not terribly familiar with the businesses along the street in question, but I didn't figure it would be too hard to find. I had scratched out some directions, but bah, who needs to look at them? It's exit, turn left onto the street on the exit sign, and turn right at the street where the shop is. Really, it's simple, simple, simple.

Except for one thing. I didn't write down the address of the shop. I thought I knew the name of the cross street it was near, but it turns out that I was misremembering. That street is the one I turn onto to get to the knit night location's parking lot. So here I am driving along looking for the place, not seeing it, and knowing that I've gone too far because I'm practically to Ohio State.

I turned around and resumed looking for it. I had a fair idea that I knew the address number, but that is helpful only when you can see them on the buildings. I frantically scanned the business fronts, but I wasn't seeing any numbers. So, having missed it again, I drove the extra mile and a half to the knit night spot, turned around, and made a mental note of the odometer's trip mileage. I knew how far the LYS is from the café, so it stood to reason that if I drove that distance and then stopped the car, I should be able to find the place.

I stopped a little short of the distance because I saw a parking spot along the street and felt I better take it. I thought I recalled the address number, so I walked a thousand or so south. Finally, there it was. I'd say more about the place, but there's more to the story in getting there than what I observed inside. (They have yarn and a nice space. Umm, the end.)

At knit night I also filed my brain somewhere else as I lost track of the rows on my sister-in-law's Christmas scarf, tried to rip back in the restaurant's darkness, and ended up dropping a stitch along the line. I'm trying to figure out how I correct this by ripping back as the dropped stitch is a p3tog after a yarn over. I thought about it and thought about it some more. I decided it was better to call it a night rather than mess it up further. Plus, I couldn't really see, which is one negative about where I was.

Tomorrow it will all come to me like a bolt out of the blue, won't it?

Corrective

For whatever reason I wasn't feeling too swift all week. If it was built up stress catching up with me, hopefully things have evened out by now. Today marked a right step in correcting the lousiness I felt all week. Although I'm speaking more of having felt run down and grouchy, it didn't hurt that two knitting dilemmas got fixed this morning.

First of all, I found the missing Options needle and cable it was still attached to. I have a habit of putting things in places where I tell myself I'll remember and then promptly forgetting such clever locations. I also have a habit of stacking things as an "organizational" principle, meaning that the needle and cable were underneath a CD box set. I'm glad I found the needle because I'm knitting the hat so quickly that I may have it finished tomorrow. If I hadn't found it, chances are I would have been waiting until next weekend for the replacement needles to arrive.

I've also identified the yarn with the missing ballband. I had a pretty good idea what kind of yarn it is, but narrowing it down to two possibilities still left me in search of a definitive answer. I took the yarn in question to the place where I purchased it several months ago. The color, one of those numerical vagaries, is still in question, but the store employee was able to provide a confident verdict between the two options. Another problem solved.

Another bright spot for the day was finding the yarn for my sister-in-law's scarf. I had a pattern in mind even though I wasn't sure it would work so well in the requested gray/silver. I ended up going against the recommended color and picking the hand dyed Misti Alpaca worsted weight you see up top because I think the stitch will look beautiful in this yarn. When I first asked, she said her favorite color was blue, so I'm of the opinion that this yarn will produce something far more interesting and acceptable. I can't wait to start knitting it.

It feels nice to have been able to take it easy today and recuperate from whatever was dragging me down the past few days. I'm looking forward to a weekend of little demands on my time. I expect there's much knitting to be done. Parking myself on the couch is what I need right about now.

Chance of exposure

I have a skein of yarn for which I cannot find the ballband or cannot match with the ballband. I bought it several months ago and started using it for something that never came to fruition because I was having problems with it twisting in the round.

Today I decided I would drop by the local yarn shop where I purchased it to see if I could identify what the yarn is. I pulled into the tiny parking lot behind another vehicle. As I parked I noticed that the other car had a current parking sticker from where I'm employed. It's going to sound crazy, but I seriously considered turning the car right back around and leaving.

I was not particularly close to where I work, so I was shocked at how unlikely it was to encounter this situation. I haven't been to this LYS in a long time, possibly since I bought this yarn in the winter, so go figure that on the rare occasion I'm there, this happens.

I decided to take my time getting out of my car and crane my neck to see if I recognized the person who drove the other vehicle. She looked vaguely familiar but was not someone I could place with a name or a department. I have no idea how recognizable I am. (The whole TV thing means I run into people I've never met but who know me from the show.) I chose to risk identification and slunk in.

Fortunately she was not browsing but instead picking up an order at the cash register. This allowed me to slip by and try to become invisible, or as invisible as a guy in a yarn shop can get. I kept my back to the front of the store as much as possible. She soon left and I relaxed a bit.

I know this scenario and my behavior sounds ridiculous, but for those who are unaware, I have made a point of keeping my knitting secret at work. It's probably only a matter of time that I'm found out.

I kept waiting for someone to come by at the knit night I attended on Tuesday and spot me. The location is close enough to campus that it's not out of the realm of possibility that a student or college employee might be there as a patron or worker. A few weeks ago at the knit night I regularly go to on Thursdays I saw an old professor of mine who is retired. I don't know if he saw me, although in that case I wasn't so concerned.

So yeah, I'm probably due to be seen knitting in public or shopping at a yarn store eventually. It doesn't mean I'll be pleased.

As for the yarn mystery, I wrote down the names and numerical colorways of two yarns with similar colors. (It would have made so much more sense to take the yarn with me.) I'll dig through the ballbands I have and see if I come across any with a matching colorway. If not, I can always attempt the burn test since one is an acrylic/wool blend and the other is 100% wool. Or I could bypass playing with fire and take the yarn into the store.

Rick and Renault enter the fog

My divulging at prior knit nights that I have never been to Knitters Mercantile has been met with much surprise. From what I gather, it is The LYS in the area. As a Columbus knitter, my failure to visit was nothing less than a stain. I went today. Not out of peer pressure, mind you. That's the fastest way to get me not to do something. No, I decided that it was time, especially since I was in the market for sock yarn.

The short drive was hampered slightly by a traffic light still out from Sunday's windstorm. It sounded like the store has been closed all week, so luckily power was restored there by the time I dropped in for my initial trip there.

I was recognized by an employee and fellow knit night-er, so in no time she made some suggestions for the pattern I've chosen to knit next. I decided to go with the ONline Supersocke 6-fach, which is 75% superwash wool and 25% polyamid. (Since the light in my place at night is insufficient for photographing yarn, I'll try to post a picture of it tomorrow.) It's variegated with approximately three shades of blue, some brown, gray, and white. I splurged somewhat on it, so I better be more satisfied with it. Next time it's likely Knit Picks sock yarn for me. (This was something of an instant gratification purchase.)

I also needed the appropriate size of dpns, so I bought a set of Brittany US 4s in birch. I'm hoping they won't catch the yarn quite as much as the Clover Takumi bamboo dpns I've used.

So, I'm all set to start another pair of socks, although I need to recover from this frantic first week of classes and home electricity interruption first.

Note/question to Donna, per her last comment: a vest? Explain/justify. I need some convincing.

New York state of mind

New York Dishcloth

Yarn: Lily The Original Sugar'n Cream (100% cotton; worsted weight)
Color: Delft blue
Needles: US 7s
Stitches: 37

Since this item has made it to its destination, I can now unveil it here without hiding it behind a link. One part of what I owe for the Pay It Forward exchange down...

Did you hear the Marketplace piece about knitting and yarn shops? Knitting is so passé now, if you didn't know.

In my view the report is built on two faulty premises. For instance, here's part of the anchor's intro: "But now it looks like the fad has passed, because those still in the market for needles and yarn are buying most of their wares online." Wait a minute, if people are still buying, how does a shift to online purchases suggest that knitting is no longer trendy? In mathematical terms, both sides of this equation are not equal.

There's also a coastal bias in the piece. Well, this California town had both of its yarn shops close! And this shop that does most of its business online attracts clients from New York City who are just too busy to go to a physical location!

Now I'll grant that the reporter likely isn't saying that two Davis, California yarn shops are a bellwether for the industry and hobby's health. Who's to say if the business plans were feasible at these stores? I'd be more convinced of the reporter's thesis if she included some hard numbers revealing the growth and closure rates of local yarn shops. As it is, this seems very anecdotal. If you quoted Ravelry's explosive growth, you could probably file a story saying that knitting is as popular as ever.

I suppose I'm also suspicious of stories that need to declare something's time has passed. Sure, it's reasonable to believe that some who picked up knitting when it was the hot hobby have moved on to something else, but should the focus be on the trendoids who do what's fashionable for a brief time or those who do something because they enjoy it and aren't trying to make statements?

In search of

I found out that a new LYS nearby opened recently. Since I'll soon be in need of yarn for another project, I thought I'd check it out. Maybe they would have the elusive linen for the hand towel patterns in Mason-Dixon Knitting.

Well, maybe not. They stocked a linen blend and hemp, both of which would do the trick, but some sticker shock on my part had me leaving without making a purchase. In my inexpert opinion the shop stocks nice yarns and has ample room to display more. The prices were higher than what I was looking to spend today for hand towels, but I'll be back to browse.

At this point Knit Picks CotLin appears to offer the most bang for my buck. I'll place an order once I determine what colors I would like together in a chevrons pattern.

The hand towel has rejuvenated me knitting-wise. I'd been in a project rut, but this one has whatever I was seeking. The pattern sharing the same page in the book has some instructions unfamiliar to me, so it ought to be interesting to see how I fare learning something new.

Contrary to my expectations, I don't think I'll have an FO tomorrow. This was not a productive knitting day, but I'm closer than I anticipated being one week after beginning the project. Whatever the case, I feel like I'm back in form again.

Return to knit night

I hadn't been to a knit night at the LYS in months, quite possibly since before Thanksgiving. (For that matter, until this past Saturday I hadn't been in there to browse or buy since December .) I had nothing going on this evening and a moss grid hand towel to be knitted, so I decided to make my quiet return.

I should mention that I hadn't been staying away for any particular reason. I'd been busy doing basketball stats in the winter months and then hadn't really been working on anything that was the right thing to take to one of these evenings.

I didn't recognize everyone and didn't remember many names, so I was content to knit and mostly listen to the dozen or so women who were present. Even if I didn't pipe up much, it beat sitting at home and listening to the TV. And the lighting is brighter.

The hand towel is not exactly a quick knit, but almost two and a half hours were gone before I knew it. I finished a repeat and a half--14 rows--during that time, which is probably close to my regular speed. I must have been listening or become distracted at one point because near the end of one row I realized that I was knitting the wrong one in the pattern.

A couple of the women said that what I'd knit looked complicated. Almost all of them were making sweaters or something beyond what I've done, so I'm mystified how they'd think what I'm doing is complex. It's just alternating knit and purl stitches. There are no slipped stitches, decreases, increases, cables, etc. It doesn't get much easier at the beginner level. But I need to shut up and enjoy the compliments.

Knitting survival kit

This catching up week came down to a catching up day at the movies. I crammed in three films at two theaters and got out in time to find myself facing evening rush hour. With my regular commute, I usually don't have to drive in anything too aggravating, but today I was on the wrong side of the city. Essentially I was getting in at the back of the line and crawling the rest of the way.

I wasn't able to get in the backed up line to switch interstates, so I kept driving forward and took the long way that would require backtracking. Then I saw an exit approaching and decided that rather than going out of my way and still likely sitting in highway traffic, I'd get off and pop into a local yarn shop for some knitting.

I don't always carry projects with me, but I happened to have the first ballband dishcloth I cast on (but which was placed aside for my Illinois knitting). I made my way to the place in Grandview with the intention of knitting for a half hour or so to wait out the rest of rush hour.

The idea was a good one even if it didn't work out. I pulled into the parking lot about five minutes before the LYS was closing. (I didn't know its hours of operation, for what it's worth.) I might have looked for a place to knit outside in the area, but with the rain and my desire to get home, I headed back toward the interstate. This misguided trip killed enough time that traffic had thinned and I could take a more direct route home.

Still, it's situations like this which make toting one's knitting worthwhile. I may be a little more selective than most about where I'll knit--you know, that whole secret thing--but having needles and yarn can be a great way of biding one's time when the circumstances demand a need to wait unexpectedly. Do you having your knitting ready for such emergencies, and what are musts for your survival kit?

An Illini yarn

Now that I'm home and not writing when on the verge of collapsing into bed, I can go back to my Champaign-Urbana yarn store adventures on Wednesday.

Via Ravelry I learned that a new yarn shop opened in town since I was last here, so I was determined to check out Klose Knit in Urbana. It took a couple phone calls to find exactly where it is--figuring out where Champaign ends and Urbana begins is kind of unclear to this visitor--but the helpful employee directed me there.

As you know, it's uncommon for me to buy yarn without having projects in mind for it. I intended to buy some cotton for a ballband dishcloth in University of Illinois colors, but they didn't really have the right orange or blue. The employee told me that there wasn't any sense in using the nicer stuff for something like a dishcloth anyway. Makes sense. I had a nice chat with the employee and enjoyed seeing the shop but left empty-handed.

At this point it was time to hit the local chain stores to find orange and blue Sugar'n Cream for the dishcloth. I should mention that the night before coming here I stopped at a Jo-Ann's in Columbus, which had the orange but not the blue, and a Hobby Lobby, which carried blue but no orange. I didn't buy from either because I figured I'd have no problems finding Illinois colors in the university's backyard.

A Jo-Ann's was near my hotel, so I assumed it would handle my Sugar'n Cream dishcloth needs. Not quite. They had orange but no blue. Rather than make the same mistake twice, I bought the cotton and set out for Michael's. They also had orange but not the dark blue I needed. Who would have thought that color would prove to be harder to find? The afternoon was quickly getting away from me, so I decided to peruse the yarn aisles at the nearby Meijer. Thankfully they had the blue I needed--but not the already purchased orange--which meant I didn't have to hit up a Hancock Fabrics, assuming it's still open, or the LYS I visited last year.

Lesson learned: buy it where you find it rather than hoping to make a single location purchase.

A quick report

If you are so inclined, I have a report from my first day at the film festival at my other site. Since it is 2:19 a.m. here in Illinois and I'm functioning as though it's 3:19 back home, I really need to keep this brief.

For lack of anything better, here's a picture of the Episcopal Church next to the theater where the event is being held.

I visited a relatively new local yarn shop in Urbana, as well as almost every other fiber-selling place in the area, in search of the desired cotton colors for a ballband dishcloth. Those tales and photos will have to wait until a day when I'm not depriving myself of necessary sleep.

For what it's worth, I'm no longer achy or feeling as generally miserable as I did the last few days, so I'm thankful to have semi-recovered in time for the festival. It also made the 4.5-5 hour drive much more tolerable. Gas prices are miserable, but I'm glad to be getting around 35 miles per gallon on the highway.

And with that said, it's time for me to hit the sack...

Ready or not

Ready or not, here I go. Bright and early Wednesday morning I depart for the Land of Lincoln and a film festival I've been attending since 2001. I could be in better shape--I looked like hell today and felt only a smidgen better--but with the event's host doing everything in his power to attend, I suppose I can suck up whatever it is that's been wiping me out the past few days.

The plan is to arrive far enough in advance to get settled at the hotel and visit at least one of the local yarn shops. Unless I overlooked it last year, there appears to be a new store. Although I have a ballband dishcloth in progress, I'll be on the lookout for cotton in the colors of the local university so I can begin knitting a new one during the festival.

And now to start packing...

Main Street USA

Looking west on Market St. in Brookville

Hope you're up for one more day of small town Ohio photos and reflections. I may have an FO to write about tomorrow.

Brookville, which is about five miles from my hometown, was among my day trip destinations for one reason: soft pretzels. I wanted to buy a case of them. Since the pre-baked pretzels must be kept frozen until ready for consumption, the company doesn't mail them.

Soft pretzels!

Walking into the business was like a blast from the past in that it appeared only one person was working and wasn't at the front. This was not unusual at our family business, but it's not something I run into much around Columbus. What I didn't anticipate--but should have--was that they don't take debit cards for single transactions. (It isn't a retail storefront really, just the place where everything is made and given to bulk purchasers.) When so many stores are geared around electronic purchases, it was a bit unexpected to have to pay cash and get a handwritten receipt with carbons. (For the record, it did occur to me that it would be easier to store the pretzels in the freezer without having the box in it.)

Since I had to track down my bank branch and dawdled a bit in my hometown, I ended up changing plans for the order of where I was going to go for the day. (I hadn't intended to go here first until I saw they were open only until 3 p.m.) I had lunch in a local restaurant that provided a taste of home, although the strawberry rhubarb pie wasn't quite up to snuff. Still, it was a good, inexpensive meal.

Looking west on Market St.

The area surrounding I-70 looked as though it was prospering, but the Market St. area seemed relatively barren. (This dynamic is one of the reasons why Cars touched me. It hits close to home.) Now, it isn't fair of me to generalize about economic conditions based on brief observations of the absence of people on the sidewalks on a cold, windy day but...it didn't look to me like this street was thriving. Of course, that's a common theme in America these days. Small, independent businesses are having a hard time making a go of it.

Looking northeast on Main St. in Troy

Looking southeast on Main St.

I was able to see how a main street (and Main St.) was doing in another southwestern Ohio city when I drove to Troy. From what I recall, it's a typical small city in the state. It was encouraging to see this old Main Street appear to be doing somewhat better, or at least have some activity. I thought I might have to go round and round in the traffic circle while looking for the local yarn shop. It was a nightmare to navigate when I was a young driver. Fortunately I spotted an open parking space, decided to pull into it, and figured I'd search for the LYS on foot.

Ewetopia Fiber Arts Boutique

As it turns out, Ewetopia Fiber Arts Boutique was directly across from where I left my car. The worker greeted me and then let me free to browse while I tried to determine if any yarn caught my eye. I'm not one who often buys without a project in mind, so that was a strike against the place even if I did have a 20% discount coupon burning a hole in my pocket.

It quickly became apparent that I am terribly spoiled with the number of good yarn shops around Columbus. I don't intend that as a slight of this one. I imagine that it is a wonderful resource for local knitters and crocheters who want something the chain stores don't stock, but the selection was more limited compared to where I usually go here.

Looking southeast on Main St.

Looking northwest on Main St.

I chatted with the store employee for awhile about how knitting and how local businesses are doing. In my observation it seemed as though more places were open and people were drawn to the area. She said that it had improved some, that there were strings of shops that attracted foot traffic. The fact remains, though, that these Main Street areas struggle, although with this being a historic district, it might fare a little better. There's even a small independent movie theater, the likes of which I'd bet are increasingly rare.

IKEA in West Chester

My final destination on the trip was the newly opened IKEA in West Chester. How ironic that I get wistful for small entrepreneurial enterprises and then wrap the day at an international enormo-store built at an artificial center of commerce by the highway. Who needs Main Street when there's exit number 19? All I can say is that's how things are, like it or not. And, umm, IKEA is cool.

I try to support local businesses when possible, although not foolishly so. I have a soft spot for those trying to eke out livings against the mega-corporations, but I'm not going to practice a consumer philosophy that ignores unsatisfactory service, high prices, or poor products just because one is the little guy.

As someone whose family business was harmed in part by big box retailers, I know the playing field isn't level and that Main Street USA often suffers for it. This trip wasn't meant to be a survey of local economies, and I certainly don't have the answers to what ails these parts of the country. I guess what I see in it all are familiar faces from home trying to get by and something important being lost. I know that there are other critical issues in this election year--and I don't mean to get political--but the candidates would do well to remember that this is where the country succeeds or fails.

Leap day

Here's the yarn that got me fired up to begin my scarf. My plans for doing a lot of knitting today didn't work out. This may be an extra day on the calendar, but it's been used for catching up on work that needs to be done, not as a free twenty-four hours to indulge my whims.

I was able to steal a half hour to freak out the general populace by knitting in public, but that's been it so far today. We'll see what progress I make this weekend. If I had my druthers, I'd already be finished with it.

The nice thing is that I have the pattern memorized, so if I have the project with me while in a situation where I'll allow myself to knit, I can do a few rows to utilize available minutes. That will make it ideal for the film festival next weekend. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll get it done when I'm in Cleveland.

Switching gears... I've learned a small lesson about shaping thanks to a woman who was knitting at a LYS I was in a couple weeks ago. I showed her what I was working on, and she talked about the sweater she made. She was wearing it but was less than thrilled because she shrunk it some. She explained that stretching it after a pass in the washing machine can help get it back to its original length, but not always. I've inadvertently shrunk some sweaters in recent weeks, so I thought I'd try this shaping thing that I've read, and now heard, about.

It seems to have worked! There were two sweaters I had stopped wearing because they were a little short after (gasp) putting them in the dryer more times than I should have, but shaping appears to have done the trick. How about that?

Actual knitting content

It's catch-up weekend in terms of movies, which means I had some time to kill between two films around lunchtime. There's a yarn shop near where I had been and my next cinematic stop, so I decided to pop in and knit for awhile.

I've only been there once before, but I was welcomed and recognized by the owner, which surprised me. I hadn't been there since October, but then again, I imagine I stand out a little more than the average customer.

It occurred to me tonight that this is the first time I've been in a yarn shop all year. If that isn't an indication of how busy I've been and how little knitting I've done, I don't know what is. I purchased a single skein of wool to be put to use for the Pay It Forward Exchange. I know what I'm going to make with it, but I'm not telling what it will be or whom it is for.

How pleasant to sit in the shop and knit for forty-five minutes. Listening to the conversation, I'm obviously not the only one who feels that way. I couldn't add anything to talk of hysterectomies and breast cancer, but I understand where the other knitters were coming from when discussing the stress reducing effect. Of course, you already know that.

I'm getting close to polishing off the first of five skeins for the blanket I'm knitting. At this rate it will be done in mid-April. So I'm in need of some other projects. My mother's birthday arrives in almost a month. I'm need to figure out what to take when I go to the film festival in Cleveland in three weeks. There are plenty of lags in the schedule for knitting to fill. Any suggestions?

Knit-o-tron 3000

With the extent of my Christmas day knitting limited to casting on, I made up for lost time with an absurd amount today. While America rushed to the stores to exchange gifts and make additional purchases, I got cranking on a hat for myself. And by cranking I mean I knitted 8.25 inches and am ready to begin the decreases. It's outrageous, really.

There wasn't much happening around the family homestead. One of my brothers was flying into Chicago and taking the train to South Bend, a trip that lasted a lot longer than he had anticipated. The night before I tried to tell my dad how long it would take. I'd considered hopping on the train and meeting him at O'Hare. Once I saw that I'd have to be on the train by 6:30 a.m. and wouldn't get back until 4:00 p.m. at the earliest, I nixed that plan. It would have granted me plenty of knitting time, but I had that without hours on mass transportation.

Instead I plugged away at my latest WIP and intervened on numerous occasions when my mom made mistakes on her first scarf. It felt good to know that I could identify her errors and undo the minor damage. I showed her how to unknit stitches, not that I think she understands yet. (Hey, it took me awhile.) It's been easy to explain because she's using variegated yarn. The old stitch is usually a different color from the stitch being undone.

In the process of repairing her mistakes, I feel like I'm now more comfortable with frogging. It can still be a tense situation when removing the project from the needle and ripping out stitch by stitch, but my frogging attempt with her scarf was a calamity-free affair. Cleaning up the mess was much faster this way and allowed for spotting the problems better.

She's doing well. The time commitment may be her undoing in the long run, but she likes knitting for the time being.

There was a visit to a local yarn shop. Heckman's Quilting and Yarn in South Bend held a greater variety of yarn than I thought it might considering the order of the supplies in the store's name. I didn't realize that the trip was predicated on my mom purchasing yarn for me to make her one of the seaman's caps. She prefers the style and fit over the ribbed beanie I made her for Christmas, which I'll admit to being a shade tight. Truth be told, I'm getting a little tired of making these hats, but that's to be expected when I practically knit one in a day. She selected Cascade 220 in a deep purple shade that should be a fun color to work with.

If all goes well, my hat will be done when you hear from me tomorrow. I'm leaving for home sometime in the afternoon. The visit here has been less stressful than I anticipated it might be, but it will still be nice to return to my place.