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Fall 2008

Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn.

Washington, DC
Okay, it is not so bad to have to say goodbye to summer when you have Solitude Farm yarns to gaze upon every other Sunday at the Dupont Circle farmer’s market.  Their multi-colored yarns have fabulous colorways and coordinating solids.  They are assiduous about putting the provenance of the yarn on the label, right down to the sheep it came from if they know.

Belfast, ME
A huge treat I would recommend to anyone who can possibly pull it off: I took a couple days off for a solo retreat and used an airline coupon for a flight to Bangor.  Don’t laugh.  Bangor gives you access to the mid-Maine coastline in mighty short order.  Belfast is small and funky and I had not been through since my friend and I hitchhiked through it in 1979.  By now, there is a cheery, welcoming yarn store called Heavenly Socks.  By welcoming, I mean that within 15 minutes of my arrival, owner Helen had made me coffee and shared her fudgy BROWNIE with me.  Sacrificing even part of a brownie with a complete stranger says a lot about generosity.  Lucky for me, Belfast was rainy and cold that weekend.  Why lucky?  Because if you’ve rented a cottage on the beach at Colonial Gables, you can make tea in the kitchen and knit and write in your cozy cottage while watching the tide creep in and out, the birds pecking for food, and the fog lift on the bay.

View more photos!

Rhinebeck, NY
What can I say about the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival that has not been said?  It may not be quite as large as Maryland Sheep and Wool, but the Hudson Valley sure is beautiful that time of year. Cold weather makes everyone come out in their wooly things, so the sweater show was spectacular. I was so impressed with the combined prowess I saw on Friday and Saturday that I wore my organic make-it-up-as-you-go-along crochet bolero because I knew I could not compete.

Some people at the Fair already owned the Little Pink Book and some even use it for teaching.  I obnoxiously hugged just about everyone who even recognized Knitspeak.  The odd thing is that people really brightened up when I told them which book I had written.  I’m still trying to fathom why.  In my world-view, I’m the one brightening up to find out that they know the book.  I guess in their world, they know the book and it is a moment of recognition when they match the person to the book.

Merritt Books was terrific, the stewart, tabori and chang marketing and merchandising team was amazing, Melanie Falik signed people up for her blog. But the main thing was the people.  During the workshops, during the Wild Fibers Dinner, during the book signing… I’d list all the fascinating people and their projects here, but I fear I’d be the only one finding it all so interesting.  The main thing is: go yourself – it’s not just about the shopping, but it’s about living for two days at a fairground teeming with joyous, creative people surrounded by blazing autumn leaves.

Summer 2008

What I did over my summer vacation - 2008

Knitspeak took a vacation one vacation in Italy this summer and one in Switzerland – lucky Knitspeak!  I found the scene over there quite different from the US (but I have to admit that I did not seek other knitters before I went so this is just a set of observations).  There seemed to be a difference of opinion about whether knitspeak was a dead language or a live activity.  In the Bernese Oberland, I found people a little puzzled when I asked where the yarn shop was, and after a few tries, I found a tiny little shop in Spiez whose owner told me that young Swiss women are too busy hiking and biking to knit.  That did not stop her from hosting a knitting group on a boat on the Thunsee on a beautiful evening.  I was too shy to go, having some French at my disposal but no German to sprechn of. 

It took a bit of explaining for people to get the idea of the Knitspeak book, because essentially, it’s an English-language book for English-speaking people to translate from English to English.  The folks with whom I spoke generally get patterns from the manufacturer’s seasonal catalogs that accompany the latest in yarns, rather than (at least I think) having a plethora of books in this or that style or theme. I did not meet up with knitters who used patterns off the web in any language except for Christine at La Reine Berthe in Yverdons-Les-Bains.  Just over 700 books were sold overseas.  Who bought these books, I would like to know?   Has anybody seen it overseas?

If you are near Thun, take some time out to visit with Evi Spycher.  What started (consider this a warning) as a cottage industry making duvet covers now includes a multitudinous-spindle spinning jenny and felting machine so large that Evi had to build a shed to house it.

http://www.natura-handwerk.ch/

In the town of Thun, there were two, count ‘em, two dedicated yarn shops on the main boutique shopping street, Obere Hauptgasse.  This is an old, old street that has two levels of shops, and two yarn stores within shouting distance of each other. I was not lucky enough to be there during opening hours, so I don’t know which specializes in what, but they both looked like fun.

In French-speaking Yverdons, I found a bright beehive of activity at La Reine Berthe in the center of town.  The knitting teacher, Christine, holds court two afternoons a week – you can ask questions, find out about the latest in yarns and patterns, and if you put a few Swiss franks in the little box, you can make yourself a fine espresso.  Christine has a fine command of English, though they did not mind my middling French.

I knit all during the rainy alternative folk-rock festival called Open Air in Kiental and up the rail and cable cars to the hiking resort of Murren, inciting conversation from Indian families visiting Bollywood haunts. As part of the Nephew Development Programme, I forced my almost-14-year-ld nephew to help me hunt up knitted objects at the Ballenberg Open Air museum. This had a strange and unexpected effect. We happened upon a man twirling red-copper whips around wood staves, and now I’ve signed up for a basket-making class at Rhinebeck (how perverse! with all that WOOL?).

I’m bouncing around my itinerary here for the sake of the narrative, but back in the Bernese Oberland

Going back another couple of months, I was in the Italian city of Bologna, where I never have the guts to enter the yarn store on the corner of Via delle Moline because it is rather swank. There is what looks to be a treasure-trove off via Marconi at via Morgagni; if anyone happens to know the store, please send a report! I had not timed my arrival to coincide with opening hours.

I’ve found that in Venice, as in many places in Italy and most likely France, yarn resides mostly in mercerie, shops that carry sewing thread, notions, stockings, socks, underthings, and yarn. On a previous trip to Perugia, a merceria near the main market was well stocked with everything but pure wool knitting yarn. The Venice mercerie seemed to have fusty old pattern books and serviceable stock. Please free to differ if you’ve found a great yarn source around the lagoon. The couple of times I’ve passed through Lucca, I’ve visited the store in the old arena; I hope it’s still there, as it was a nice store, and dedicated to knitting rather than sharing space with towels and soapdishes.

More info:

Natura Handwerk
3635 Uebeschi a very short drive from Thun
033 345 37 84
natura-handwerk@bluewin.ch

Evi Speicher is very sweet and very creative; her daughter has spent time in England and is quite fluent, so if she’s around it might make things easier. Evi began with a home business making duvet covers, and somehow got into spinning and felting and wool production, and somehow she got a large felting machine and had to built a small barn for it and hire several people, and collected a spinning jenny and some lamas…

Send her an email to set an appointment to see the workshop. The directions about turning left at the big tree may sound vague, but don’t worry, you’ll know which tree it is when you see it.

Even if you can’t visit, check out the web site, which shows the felted dolls, large felted ram, and knitted items, along with some of the livestock, the farm, and some in-costume spinning.

Ballenberg Open Air Museum just outside Brienz – see the class list on their web site. If anyone goes as a result of seeing this, let me know what you thought!


Kiental OpenAir – From Thun, Spiez, or Interlaken, take the train to Reichenbach, and get the Postbus towards Griesalp. Stop at Kiental; you can stow camping gear in the trailer towed by the Postbus and camp out at Kiental, rent a dorm bed, or a room at the Kientalerhof. Great macro-biotic and carnivorous food, waffles, and beer. Add to that sampler sessions of different types of massage such as shiatsu and cranio-sacral, and you’re in heaven.
www.naturalsound.ch
www.kientalerhof.ch

View more photos!

June 7, 2008

Yarn store owners across the country are discovering Knitspeak.  The little pink book is flying off shelves and into knitting bags all over the place, according to the store owners I met at their trade show in Columbus.  Some are including it as course material for their beginner classes, others keep a desk copy near the register for reference.  A near-beginner knitter told me that she uses it all the time because patterns are new to her.  An advanced, been-knitting-for-years knitter told me that she's found it useful as well - can the book please most of the people most of the time??  I was pretty overwhelmed (and therefore wired!) by the folks who had actually read it, used it, and liked it.  I felt like they understood the gift I was trying to offer through the pages of the book.  In short, it was a lovefest all around!

February 16, 2008

This was not a true Knitspeak event, but an adulatory visit.  I dropped by the Abbott Yarn Shoppe in Beverly, MA to visit with Virginia McGlynn (the shop used to be on Abbott, but now it’s on Cabot, in case you are wondering).  It is probably the only yarn store in the world that has a cash register with a wooden handle and buttons for gas, oil, and t&t (tubes and tires – the register belonged to the original owner, who must have gotten it from a gas station).

Ms. McGlynn is the author of several self-published knitting pamphlets that have a very wide distribution, and rightfully so.  Her books and her encouragement were a strong inspiration for Knitspeak.  The late Mr. McGlynn’s whimsical illustrations in the books will make you smile.  Knitting Illustrated for Beginners and Others is a clear and concise handbook, Finishing Illustrated for Knitting and Crocheting is full of great tips and tricks; and Simple Knit and Crochet Patterns Illustrated for Watching TV While Talking on the Telephone could easily solve your “what to knit for family” problems for years with basic patterns for family hats, blankets, and stuffed bears.

September 15, 2007 – Candida’s

Giddy is the word my neighbor used to describe me when we encountered him in the alley behind our house. Richard was driving, as always, and I was shouting out the window, all made up and wearing my new “book signing outfit,” which can be seen in all the photographs of the signings so far. We should have known it, but both of us were completely bowled over by the feeling of love and celebration circulating around Candida’s that evening. My husband thought he was dutifully accompanying me to “one of those knitting things” in which he would be peripheral at best if there were no heavy furniture to move. Instead of crowds of knitting enthusiasts eager to have their Knitspeaks signed, there were friends of the first order, elated to see the new,pink book, and to talk with Richard and with me. In short,people we love and who love us. In the face of all that emotion, Husband promptly found a computer problem to solve and retreated with his friend from nursery school to solve it. I held forth about the book and answered questions, so happy to see all these great friends gathered in one place to help me celebrate. It was a great time. Oh, yes, and lots ofpeople bought books!

Candida’s World of Books
(pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, as in “Canada,” but with an extra “d”)

Store Hours
Tue. - Sat. 10 am - 9 pm
Sun. noon - 6 pm
Mon. closed

1541 14th Street, NW
Washington DC 20005
(202) 667-4811
toll-free (866) 667-4811
Fax (202) 667-4813
Email info@candidasworldofbooks.com

October 6, 2007 - Yarn Garden

Portland’s Youth Hostel is a great experience, party because its kitchen is so counter-intuitively and unexpectedly spic and span, and because there was a baby as a wake-up call rather than a rooster crow or somebody’s cell phone, and very much because it is a short walk to Grand Central Bakery where a jammer and coffee is a great way to start the day. Or end the day. Or spice up the middle of the day. A jammer is like a flakey scone with either berry or apricot jam in the middle. Probably a million calories and most likely containing lard; I don’t want my dreams busted, so I don’t want to know. I had to stop eating Ikea meatballs when I found out they had pork in them, so that I could hold my head up among friends and family who suffer my snootiness when it comes to avoiding pork in my food.

A couple of knitters who had attended the focus groups came to the signing, and it was a great moment when I could point to the page in the exact book where what they had discussed had taken root. The Yarn Garden is like a set of large boxcars full of colors. At one end is the pattern-and-gadget room, and at the other is the cafe. It's hard to decide which is the engine and which the caboose. Does the chai drive the knitting or do the patterns drive the knitter to sit with the chai and knit? The answer, of course, lies somewhere in the rooms in between, packed floor to ceiling with fabulous yarn.

Grand Central Bakery & Cafe
www.grandcentralbakery.com
2230 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Portland, OR
(503) 445-1600

October 8, 2007- Canvas Works

525 Columbia St SW
Olympia, WA 98501
http://canvasworks.net

Canvas Works is ample store, almost cavernous among yarn stores, but that is because it also houses fabric and other delights that a knitter should ignore because of the known peril of fabric stashing. One acquisitive addiction is bad enough, thank you. The store was buzzing on the evening of the book signing, with an upstairs class in the loft and a knitting gathering below. The store staff and the two captive audiences were gracious about hosting and listening to my book spiel in the midst of all the other activity. Books were bought. Then dinner was had at Swing Wine Bar overlooking Capital Lake. http://www.swingwinebar.com/

October 13, 2007 - Stitches East

At Eleganza Yarns booth #125

The Saturday morning book signing at Stitches East in Baltimore turned into a Sunday afternoon book signing when yours truly, the author, forgot to bring books along. Stitches was a bit intoxicating so I did not stray far from Eleganza’s booth for fear I’d never find my way home. Eleganza had great show specials and cool knitting t-shirts, and I had to keep reminding myself I was there to sell, not to buy. With all due respect to Paul, Kristi and Lenni of Eleganza, the highlight of the afternoon was when a nice person who works in a yarn store came over to say that she had seen Knitspeak at her store, browsed through a copy, and immediately advise the owner to order 17 copies. Wow!! Flattering? I’d say so!

October 20, 2007 - Yarn in the Farms

Home territory of sorts. I live in a big city. The nearest post office is over a mile away, the branch library just about as far. We have one large grocery store and a smattering of restaurants. The nearest yarn store is clear across town, and that’s something of a new phenomenon. My dad lives in a teeny, tiny village on the north shore of Massachusetts. In the center of the tiny village is a gourmet French-style bakery, a high-end Italian bakery, world-class dining, a fabulous wine store, a post office, a branch library, a bookstore, a gorgeous beach, and more (Dentist! Print shop! Gas Station! Car Repair Place! Hair Salon! Pizza Shop! Bank!). If you walk away from the center of town, there is an ex-train station that houses a handmade chocolate shop. But even closer than all these conveniences, even closer than a cup of coffee, or a gallon of milk is: A FABULOUS YARN STORE!!!! Could Beverly Farms be any closer to Paradise??

Yarns in the Farms is truly a special place. I was struck by a "duh" moment (the opposite of an "aha" moment), while visiting for the book signing party for Knitspeak. As part of the event, I asked a set of trivia questions, some having to do with common knitspeakish abbreviations and pattern syntax that are covered in my book, and others having to do with the culture and history of knitting. It turned out that very few of the questions went unanswered and it gave me another picture of the value of the community - as individuals we did not have all the answers to these knitting condundra, but as a group, we knew the answers to all kinds of brain-stumpers and oddments having to do with patterns, and stitches, and tendencies of knitted fabric. Sure, there are books like mine out there on the market to help you through, but on some random day of head-scratching and hair-pulling-out over one's knitting, how much more rewarding to stumble intoYarns in the Farms, have a cup of tea and sit on the couch, and get one's questions answered in person, in community.

November 3, 2007

Springwater Fiber Workshop was winding up its weaving class as I got there, and the fall day was still clear and sunny, so people mostly skeedaddled out of the shop to cram in an hour of sunshine enjoyment. Except, that is, for my cousin (first, once removed) Ellen and her friend Rise who stayed to hang out and talk knitting, among other things.

November 10, 2007...

... is gearing up to be a great day at Shuttles, Spindles & Skeins in the
Table Mesa Shopping Center in Boulder, CO. The shop has the books and a sign up, my mother-in-law is providing cake (for the store) and a pedicure (for me) in honor of the occasion, and then a reception back at the house for family and friends. More later.