Today I debated joining the latest Interweave Knits knit-a-long of the “Bella Blouse” but was completely discouraged to find out that the pattern wasn’t included in the Summer 2007 issue, contrary to what the website says. I dug out that issue and searched twice through the magazine for the pattern. No luck. Then, on a quick third pass, I noticed an advertisement on one of the pages and there it was. It was one of two featured web-only patterns and it was called the “Pomegranate Blouse” … and it was a free download! Now it has a different name and they’re charging $5.50 for it. That hardly seems fair for a loyal subscriber like myself to have to pay almost as much for a single download as I had to pay for a whole single issue. As much as I like it, I refuse to pay the download fee. It’s just not right.
What is right is that I’m very excited for two knitting events going on next month in the Chicago area … (1) Stitches Midwest, August 25-28 and (2) the Chicago Yarn Crawl, August 19-28.
I’m taking two classes this year at Stitches—Sneaky Short Row Shaping and Suitable Seams. I can think of at least two more that I want to take, but two is all I can afford this year (I have a wedding to save up for you know). I love short rows! I knit the “Bamboo Skirt” from the Knit So Fine book about two years ago and it had some short row shaping. I’ve gotten so many compliments on how well it fits my shape. I’m looking forward to learning how to incorporate short-row shaping into patterns that don’t necessarily call for it but may need it. I’m also looking forward to the Suitable Seams class because I hate seaming. I don’t hate it because it’s tedious (which it is). I hate it because no matter how well I think I’m following instructions, it rarely comes out looking perfect. Hopefully this class will shine some light on what I might be doing wrong. Case in point ... the Bamboo Skirt called for kitchener stitch to seam it together along the side. I personally think it looks a little bad, but no one else has ever commented on it.
I’m also excited about the second annual Chicago Yarn Crawl. There were definitely some hits (and a couple of misses) on the crawl last year. My high-end yarn store award definitely goes to Nina in Chicago. It’s a small shop with a beautiful selection of yarns. The Twinkle was yummy. My wow-you’ve-got-a-great-selection award goes to Idea Studio in La Grange. I’m also fond of a couple of my stand-by favorites Knitche in Downers Grove and Loopy Yarns in Chicago. I’ve been to Loopy Yarns many times, but only discovered the discount yarn downstairs the last time I was there. It was glorious.
Unfortunately, there were a couple of misses along the Chicago Yarn Crawl. I won’t mention the stores by name to avoid any angry repercussions, but I will say that both were in Chicago proper not the suburbs. The number one reason why they were misses for me … customer service! An employee at one store was clearly overwhelmed with the number of people in the shop, and rather than taking a breath and just dealing with it, she started snapping at people when they would come up to the counter asking to have their passport book stamped. Clearly the owner should have had more than one person work the shop on a busy Saturday afternoon during the crawl. The other miss for me was a poorly lit shop where the woman behind the counter couldn’t even be bothered to greet me as I walked in (I was the only one in the store at the time). She didn’t say hello, didn’t ask if I needed help, didn’t even acknowledge me. I walked up to the counter and asked if I could have my book stamped. She looked up for a second, took my passport, stamped it and pushed a piece of paper my way (the free pattern each store offers as part of the crawl). When I asked her if there was a sample of this pattern in the store, she said “I don’t know. It’s probably around here somewhere.” She never got up from her chair and never looked my way again. I walked around a bit, then walked out. As it turns out, that particular store is not part of the crawl this year.
So, lots of yarny things going on this summer. I just need to get motivated to either finish my open projects or start something small to get me in the mood again. I’m thinking maybe another handbag. Hmmm, decisions decisions.
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