Winter Days, A Reminder, Some Changes

Down here in the desert Southwest we don't get to enjoy many gloomy winter days. If any of you are reading from colder climes, I don't imagine you have a lot of sympathy for us. I grew up in upstate NY, and so I expect winter to be grey and cold and gloomy, and I have to confess that I still miss that. Although I don't know if I could face single-digit temps again. Almost 30 years ago, when I first left the Northeast I moved to the San Francisco Bay area at the beginning of winter. I remember waking up one morning and stumbling into the shower half awake, and there being that particular quality to the morning light that you only get when there has been a fresh snow. I ran to the window to look out, only to find a depressing view of palm trees.

On the other hand, I don't like to be cold (sadly, I really, really don't like to be hot, either), and so I guess that makes me perfectly suited to be a knitter. For several years my husband and I had a business called Luna Aromatics, and we handmade true Aromatherapy soaps, candles, etc, and sold them at the farmer's market. I enjoyed sitting there for a few hours and watching the world walk by, talking with our customers and knitting up a storm. Now, if it was warm weather, people would look at me as though I was out of my mind, why the heck would someone knit in the desert? I actually had more than one person, visiting from out of town, get downright angry with me!

My revenge was always those cold winter days when the temps as I left the house at 7 a.m. would be in the low 20s with a brisk wind blowing off of the snow on the mountains, and I would be there just as snug as can be in my flannel-lined jeans, wool socks, hat, gloves, scarf, sweater, etc. You can take a girl out of the mountains, but she still knows how to layer to keep warm. DH would be similarly equipped. Our fellow market stallers would be freezing their bottoms off, and there were always those winter tourists wandering around freezing in shorts and a borrowed jacket, because they didn't think we actually had cold days down here. Remember: He who laughs last, laughs best.

As you can see, my Noro Entrelac socks are finished, and I am looking forward to doing another pair. I keep vacillating as to which pattern to use next - an all-over entrelac, or these wonderful Rainbow socks done in short rows. At the moment the Rainbow socks are ahead in the race, but it will be a few weeks before I start those. Right now I am working on finishing up one project that got started last fall and put aside while I worked first on the ASJ, then on Holiday gift knitting, and then on class sample knitting. I also started a gift project for someone, and I will show you that next week.

We had some excitement here at the shop and on the blog last week. One of our customers called to tell us that we were linked to in Yarn Harlot's blog. The blog entry was about afterthought heels in socks, and she briefly mentioned afterthought pockets, linking to my blog entry here about how to work an afterthought pocket. What a great way to end the year! Yarn Harlot reads our blog!!!! How cool is that? Not only does she read it, she uses it as a reference. Now if you know anything about Yarn Harlot, you know that as Yarn Harlot goes, so goes the knitting world, and we got about 1800 hits here in the last week. Many thanks to YH for the compliment.

And I want to remind you about the Felting Workshop meeting on Wednesday morning from 10-12. You may see the time in the class schedule as being 1-3, but changes in my teaching schedule have made it necessary for us to move the workshop to the morning. Monica Durazo and I lead the workshop. I'm great on the mechanics of how to make something work, but Monica will blow you away with her ability to embellish anything in an instant. I am always in awe of what she can come up with. The workshop cost is $5, and that fee is redeemable in purchases at the time of the class. Come see us, bring anything to work on that you want, and sit and chat, or have us help you solve your problems.

Finally, I will not be teaching any shop classes for the spring quarter. I have become really, really busy with private lessons, and am booked up into early February at this point. I am also planning on writing a book on knitting, and so I want to have the flexibility to schedule writing time into my week. I'll still be playing Knit Dr. on Friday mornings from 10-12 because I love that too much to give it up.

Also, our beloved Marianne will be out of town til the end of January, when we look forward to having her back with us again. If you are signed up for any of her January classes, or thinking of signing up for one, check with Lynn at the shop to see how that particular class will be handled.

Hope you all have a wonderful New Year ahead of you, filled with everything you need.