Alive & Knitting

Do you shop online for knitting wool? Or do you patronize your local yarn store (LYS)?

Maybe, you’re like me and you do both.

Or try to. The fact is that I don’t buy much at the two LYS which are reasonably close to me. This week, I tried to figure out why. I’ve thought for a long time that this was about price, but now I’m pretty sure it’s not. I also thought for a while that it might be about attitude, but you know, it’s not that either.

This week, I bought six skeins of Kidsilk Haze to make that VK cardi. I didn’t even consider going to a LYS. Why not?

1. Price.
When you’re looking for a sweater quantity of a yarn from a major manufacturer, price becomes a variable. Paying the MSRP for a bunch of skeins is not as cool as getting it 40% off the MSRP with free shipping. Anyone who knits a lot wants to get more yarn for their money, so on well known products, I tend to buy online. It’s easy. It saves me money. KSH, for example, is as squishy and wonderful no matter where it comes from. The colours are exquisite. I have no doubt of what will arrive. Plus knitting yarn is a seriously easy thing to ship. It never arrives broken.

So, in these instances, I don’t have to even move from my desk to get exactly what I want. It’s not quite instant gratification, but it’s close.

But the fact is that I would never have started to shop online if it wasn’t for another variable.

2. Selection.
One of the things I want from a LYS is selection. If I’m going to make the trek to a LYS, I want to find what I want when I get there. Another reason for me to buy KSH online is that my very local LYS doesn’t carry Rowan yarns. They don’t even have KSH. The next closest one carries some, but whether they would have six balls in the colour I want in the same dye lot is uncertain. That makes me think twice about making the drive to pay full price. The two stores that I know for certain will have in stock the KSH I want are one hour and two hours drive away respectively. I like those stores a lot, but I don’t always have half a day to spare for a yarn mission. For a long time, I didn’t have a very local LYS, so making a trek or buying online became the only options.

Another angle to the selection question is that are certain yarns that I don’t like to buy online. There are yarns – like Fleece Artist yarns, for example – that I like to touch and see for myself before I choose a skein. They’re handpainted. Each skein is different. These are yarns to buy live and in person – inevitably, they are yarns that come home in groups.

Actually, I’m glad that one LYS doesn’t carry FA and one has only a little – they save me from myself!

3. Inspiration.
The bottom line is that if I’m going to a LYS, I want to find something I didn’t even know I wanted, something so fabulous that once I touch it, I can’t leave it behind, in addition to finding what I came for. The surprise could be a new book – or one I’ve never seen before – or a pattern from an indie designer whose work I’ve never seen. It could be the newest issue of a magazine, or a magazine from another country. It could be written in another language but have charts. It could be a handpainted yarn, again from a local artist, which is too beautiful to not possess for my very own. I want temptation and inspiration from a LYS – I want to know that not only will I find what I want when I get there, but that I’ll probably find something I didn’t even know I wanted, something that will excite and inspire me. (This is where the FA and the handpaints come in.)

And that’s the big variable for me. It’s why I do drive to those faraway LYS once in a while, because they both offer that experience. It doesn’t matter that one has attitude to spare – they have fabulous inventory and don’t care how long you poke around in the store (in fact, they have so much inventory that they might not even be aware how many knitters are lost in the yarn). I don’t care that sometimes something fabulous is expensive – if I really want it and it’s unique, I’ll find a way to rationalize its acquisition.

For me, it’s all about the eye candy (well, it’s finger candy too).

And a good sale room doesn’t hurt!

How about you?

I picked up the fall issue of Vogue Knitting this week. It’s got a lot of great patterns in it this time.

Have a look!

And I couldn’t resist. I bought enough KidSilk Haze to knit the lace circular jacket – it’s shown in navy, right under the words Ethereal Girl. (I bought Trance, which is a gorgeous tealy blue green. Yum!)

This pattern is very similar to one that was in the spring issue of Rowan magazine last year (#45) called Honeysuckle by Sarah Hatton. That one, though, was really large, more like a coat. It also had seven sections instead of five, which maybe made it more full. Although it was lovely, I wasn’t sure I’d wear it. This shorter cardi version I can imagine myself wearing a lot.

Plus I’m feeling the need to knit LACE right now, in a very big way. I’ve been matching my stash with patterns, and I think this is going to be a lacey winter. Anyone want to join me in a lace KAL? We could finish up some wips and begin on September 1.

What do you think?

This is just weird.

I knit half of a sock on my trip to RWA National, working on it in airports and on airplanes. I used my short Brittany birch needles, because airport security people don’t take those away. When I got home, I switched back to my longer metal DPN’s which are exactly the same size (2.5mm) and finished the sock. So far, so good.

When I cast on the other sock at home, I thought I’d just use the metal ones. They are my faves. I zipped through the ribbing, only to discover that it was half an inch shorter, even though it had the same number of rows. Evidently, I knit more loosely on wood needles. Who knew?

So, I frogged it back, cast on again on the wooden needles, and reknit the cuff. I figured I’d knit to the heel flap with the wooden needles, then switch to the metal, just as I had done for the first sock. That way, they’d match, right?

No. Evidently I also knit more loosely in airports. How bizarre is that?! See? The right – in process – sock is narrower, especially in the ribbing.

It makes no sense because I’m always somewhat disheveled about traveling – which I’d think would make me knit more tightly – plus it’s colder in airports than in my house in the summer. Again, I’d think that would tighten the work. But no. I had to knit three extra rows for the leg to be the same length as that of the finished sock. It’s not a huge difference, but I’m amazed that there’s any difference at all.

I am, in fact, mystified.

The yarn, for those of you who care about such things, is Patons Kroy FX in the colourway Clover Colors. I quite like this yarn. It has one more ply than regular Kroy which makes it thick. It feels wooly and warm. I’m even resigned to the fact that you can’t match the stripes at all – because all four plies have a gradual colour change, I don’t think there even are repeats in the colourway. What doesn’t thrill me is that the two balls look as if they are from different dye lots, even though they’re not – the right one has a lot more orange in it. And I’m not thrilled by the yardage – there are 152m in a ball, and yes, I had to join another ball to make the toe on the first sock. I think a 50g ball of yarn should make one woman’s sock – if not, make it a 55g ball – but that’s just me. Next time, I’ll knit the legs an inch shorter than my usual 8″ and it should work out okay.

But still, I’ve only ever had gauge issues over long periods of time – as in, picking up a UFO after years and not having my gauge match because my knitting has changed over that time. Over a week or two is something entirely new to me. Have you ever had this kind of gauge issue with your knitting?