Give and take

Who was it who said that nature abhors a vacuum?

This morning, as I was still sighing over the closure of the only LYS within walking distance (vital for a one-car household), Rachel called up and said, "What do you know about a store called Fresh Purls?"

The short answer was "nothing", but as soon as she told me it was within walking distance (or something like that) I knew I had to check it out. I toddled over on the pretext of running some errands, browsed for a while, bought some sock yarn, did my errands, and went back in the store when I saw Rachel there on my way home. It turns out the store opened this past Monday, so it's not very surprising I hadn't seen it. I don't think Google had even picked up the store's website when I searched for it earlier, though it did turn up some mentions of the store's name.

So, things are looking up and the world seems to be resuming its natural state.

In UFO news, I'm up to the armholes on the front of the tank top. Pictures will follow once I take some.

Still knitting

I finally finished the back of my UFO tank top!

...and I'm about 1/3 of the way through the front. With luck this thing might be done before summer.

I also finished a couple of socks. True, they're not from the same pair, but that just keeps life interesting.
This one is made from Socks that Rock yarn in the "Fire on the Mountain" colorway. I may lengthen the leg a bit.

And this one is from a merino/tencel blend purchased at Mind's Eye Yarn in Boston.

The Bayerische sock is past the heel. That may become my next UFO project.

The cats continue to hang out and beg for food.

Investing in my future, sort of

I heard from Rachel the week before last that A Stitch Above was closing at the end of the month. My first thought was "AAAAAIGH! Why?!? It was within walking distance! What will I do???" This was followed in quick succession by "I wonder what the sale will be like," "Now I feel like a vulture," "Get over it," and "Oh shoot it's Saturday I'm going out of town on Monday and I won't be able to go to the store until the NEXT weekend."

I went on Saturday anyway, since one never knows what one will find at a yarn shop closing sale even if it has already been running for a few days. Things weren't as dire as I had feared because the sale didn't actually start until the Thursday before I showed up. As expected, about half of the yarn was gone (the few remaining skeins of Cascade 220, in a nice but not mindgrabbing shade of green, vanished while I was in the store), but I managed to find some...um..."investments". What do you think the chances are that any of these will appreciate like an out-of-print Alice Starmore book?



Sort of clockwise, starting at the back: Jane Sowerby's Victorian Lace Today, Charlene Schurch's Mostly Mittens, Schaeffer Andrea yarn in what I think is the Renata Tebaldi* colourway but I'm not sure because the label had disappeared by the time I found it, and various colours of Jamieson Shetland yarn in both DK and Spindrift. Underneath all the yarn are two circular needles and the Chesapeake Collection pattern book from Yarns International.

*My former voice teacher would be pleased...she's a huge fan of Renata Tebaldi!

Rhode Island, Massachusetts

Here's a story to send to Mark Patinkin.

For those not living in Rhode Island, Mr. Patinkin is a Providence Journal columnist who has written some tongue-in-cheek books about Rhode Island that allude to, among other things, the lack of awareness of the general US/world population regarding RI's status as a STATE (rather than, say, as a part of New York or Massachusetts).

I had never experienced this until today. I bought a Cingular pay-as-you-go phone this afternoon, and when I went to their website to activate it, I discovered that Rhode Island isn't listed as a state in their drop-down menu! I had to enter my city as "Providence Rhode Island" and pick Massachusetts as my state before the system would let me continue. What gives??

Springy sproingy

I don't know about you, but I've had just about enough of winter.

I tucked in all the ends on my February UFO, the Moderne Baby Blanket, and decided to work next on a tank top I had started last summer with yarn from Artfibers.



But then I started thinking about how cold and barren it was outside, and how I wanted some colour in my knitting. Next thing I knew, the swift was open and I was winding some Fire on the Mountain yarn from Socks that Rock into balls and starting a toe.

The patterning (quick colour changes) is nothing like what I had imagined (stripes) but at least it's distracting me from the weather.