EveryThingEarin

AND WOULD YOU PLEASE GIVE A WARM WELCOME TO...

THE YARN HARLOT!

And we did. I have never been around so many knitters in my life. Starting at 10am when I walked downtown from my old house in Los Altos I saw knitters at every street corner. Okay, downtown Los Altos isn't all that large but there were knitting everywhere. The shop, Full Thread Ahead didn't open till 2pm so I was forced (HA! Go ahead, hold my hand over that fire!) to head over to Uncommon Threads which till recently was the only yarn store in town. As usual I found many wonderful things. I think my credit card got a little melted around the edges. It's one of the better yarn stores around and that pesky little issue of customer service seems to have greatly improved. I managed to visit UT twice in one day, The Knitting Basket in Oakland the afternoon before (I'll be a little critical here and say KB could be a bit better on the customer service side too) and of course, FTA. Three yarn shops all in under 24 hours. I felt pretty darn saturated and more than a little broke.

After the doors opened FTA became ever increasingly full of knitters all eagerly awaiting the Harlot. I was told that the final seating count was 300 knitters! I had such a great time looking at all the various projects, hearing about them, fondling some incredible yarns and just wallowing in full bodied knitting Heaven.
The staff was very helpful and amazingly cheerful considering you couldn't turn around without bumping into three to five people at a minimum. They were all wearing tiaras which was just a great touch. The talk was very funny - Stephanie has a wonderful sense of pacing along with a dry wit with just enough bite to make you really listen. She must have been exhausted but never showed it. She commented that I had a pretty sock (and I made some good progress on it while waiting) and when I said it was a Nancy Bush pattern she said that Nancy had written her a note - HER! I don't think she has quite realized/accepted that she's the gold standard for knitters. Although I came home exhausted myself and very, very tired of bay area traffic (how do people live and drive this way daily? What am I saying...I did it for years but it's still soul numbing) I am so glad I went. My new stash: Koigu along with some Classic Elite yarn called "Waterlily", some Rowan cotton wool, a Filatura Di Crosa Lana Merino Extrafine, and a skein of Cascade superwash. I had a hard time getting just the right green to go with the orangy Filatura. My friend Lynda chose the colors for her fingerless mitts that I will be whipping out before the first winter storm (um, yes indeedy). You can see the swatch I knitted on the bottom right.
As to the non-knitting portion of the program: The Quilts of Gee's Bend at the de Young were just amazing. What really hits you is how you don't have to have a lot to be creative. It's really in the mind. We live in such a lush culture that many of us just automatically consume at a high level. If you have a chance to see this show do so or just do some looking via the web.

posted by Earin Marybird @ 5:52 PM