Knitting With Granny LJ

Good morning.

Several weeks ago, Karen and I were at a  gift shop in Yachats and I found a cotton cap that looked interesting.  It looks like a simple pattern.  Sort of lace pattern with what looks to be a yarn over between two stitches of knit stitch.  I grabbed the cap up, sure that I could figure out how it was made.  I spent yesterday working on it and all I have accomplished is a lot of yarn overs and no real pattern.  I plan to forge ahead, though.  Will work on it today.

Also of note, Nestucca Bay Yarns is going out of business.  Am sorry to see that shop depart the knitting world of Lincoln County. It was a well-run shop that did not tend toward the speciality yarns, only, and had a great inventory of the basic yarns.   They recently went to online sales only and in yesterday’s email, I got the notice of closure.  That leaves Yarn for All Seasons in South Beach (south of Newport) as the only yarn store in Lincoln County.  Yarn for All Seasons has a good inventory, though,  and you can order yarns through them, as well. 

I closed a bank  account, recently,  and found myself in the possession of a hunk of money.  So I put part of it into a savings account, kept part of it out for costs I expected for the family reunion.  And kept a hunk of it for yarn buying.  I have had two trips to Yarn for All Seasons  for yarn buying and am expecting one more in the near future,

It has been a cluttered spring and summer.  We had siding blow off the duplex, which of course,  brought almost 3 months worth of hammering and sawing and painting so the place looks livable again.  So I have not done the amount of knitting this summer that I normally do.  And my work table looks like the aftermath of a bomb explosion in a yarn store.  It is a good thing that clutter does not bother me too much. 

Well, it is time to go work on that lacy cap.  I just looked at the prototype again.  I think I have the answer to the mystery.  Will let you all know in my next episode. 

Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning.

It has been a while since I have written on my blog.  The cause of the silence has been a gaggle of things.  Such as:  a storm blew off some of the siding of the duplex that Karen and I share which  necessitated the repair, complete with two very nice young men and their loud tools and loud music;  a family reunion; long walks on the beach with Karen and the boys during my usual writing time (you get to be my age and you really aren’t  as flexible as you used to be). 

But I have been knitting.  It is a real sanity saver.  I have been mostly working on Noro caps.  Those are the ones I do with the big, floppy bodies that accomodate long hair and have a  double deep brim so it can be folded up double to  protect the ears.  Have four of them done and ready for finish work.  One Noro cap is on double points and one is ready for double points.  Am glad to have the siding done and glad to have the Noro caps ready for finish work.

I also have been able to  have, recently,  two yarn shopping junkets at Yarn for All Seasons.  Unfortunately, the yarn shop in Lincoln City, Nestucca Bay Yarns, has closed and gone to all online selling.  And that means that here in Lincoln County we have only one yarn shop left.  At any rate, had two very enjoyable and spendy trips to Yarn for All Seasons.  Every  body now tells me that I surely have enough yarn to last a lifetime.  But as far as I am concerned, that is still open for debate. 

Well, that is about all from here for today.  I have desk work to get done and then I get to grab up the knitting needles. 

Hope you all have a great day.  Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning.

The weather here on the Oregon Coast has not been very much like May or June. So Karen and I decided we would take advantage of the sunshine this morning and get the boys down on the beach for a good walkabout.  And we would have a look backward about the show.  There was another walker with his dog on the beach so we kept ours on leads and walked down by the surf while he and his played “chase the ball and bring it back”  up near the cliff.

On our walk we found a Styrofoam float that had been in the water for some time.  How did we know?  Well, the thing was covered in barnacles.  I thought maybe I’d bring it home, but then decided against it because it would probably smell pretty bad after a day or two.  Then I saw something  right on the edge of the surf that looked like something I needed to check out and carry  home.  And it was!   It was a Japanese glass float.  I wanted to jump up and down and shout hurray.  But I was a good kid, and stuck in the pocket of my jacket and smiled all the way home. 

Finding that float was almost as good as finding some dynamite yarn that needs to come home with me and become a cap.  I have not been yarn shopping in a couple of months.  It is very hard to not feel a bit whiney about it.l  But I got some fine yarns from Arlene at the show and have some more that I got from Kristy recently. 

The not-driving thing really puts a damper on my getting around about.  Especially getting out and about to yarn stores.  I love going in and feeling the yarns and imaging what kind of cap they will make. 

 But I do have to restyle my yarn buying.  There is a catalog that I get and it has some of the brands of yarn that I buy  on a regular basis.  And there is a place on-line that sells some more of my base yarns, so I will just order from them. 

Though it is not quite the same as walking into a store, touching the Alpaca yarn and getting one of those lightbulbs going off (you know, the cartoon type).  Just like I could go into one of the local gift shops and buy any number of glass floats. But finding the one today is more like touching the Alpaca yarn and knowing, really knowing, what a great cap it would make.

Have a great day.  Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning.

Well, the spring Crafts on the Coast show is done.  It was a good weekend.  Can’t say either Karen or I got rich.  But I did sell 4 caps and traded a 5th for a wonderful tote bag to carry my portable knitting things in.  I have been  using a tote with a Van Gogh iris painting for the outside decoration. But over the years of carrying it around, it has started toting not only my knitting tools, but also bottles of water, Diet Dew, boxes of Nature Valley Oats and Honey snack bars, the mail, my drinking straws, and who knows what else is in there.  I will, however, be switching all my knitting things  to the tote that I got on Saturday. 

The big question now is, “Will all the things I toted around in Van Gogh migrate to my new tote?”  I certainly hope not.  However, you can never tell.  Sometimes things take on a life of their own.  On the plus side, though, it is larger than the Van Gogh tote.  So, if I keep it to knitting things only, my yarn purchases can go into it along with tools and WIPs.  That leaves Van Gogh to see to the other items, beverages, straws, snacks and all my essential non-knitting items. 

All in all, the show was a good one. I sold caps and Karen did a lot of PR for her work.  Most of what she would have shown last weekend was still in Canyonway.  But she brought 3 really good originals to show and she worked on a piece showing her current project in progress. 

I got several caps worth of yarn from my friend Arlene who hand spins.  Originally I got enough for 3 caps, and after a sale on  Sunday, I went back and got enough so I could make 4 caps total out of her yarn. 

And it was good to see old friends who are regulars at Crafts on the Coast,  both vendors and customers.  

I have from now until October to knit like a nutso and get the caps ready for the Saturday market here in Waldport and for the November show in Yachats. 

I hope you have a great day.  The allergies that bloomed because of the goat-milk products across the room are  much better, so I am going to get a goodly amount of knitting done today. 

Have a great day.  Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning.

Well, tomorrow evening Karen and I set up for the show.  I have been doing the finish work on 15 caps.  I think that is some kind of a record for me.  Karen is going to collect her work from the pieces she has been showing at Canyonway this month. 

I was thinking about it this morning and I really do not like doing the finish work and the tagging and the record keeping.  I prefer to do the making and the selling. 

Though I must admit that the selling has been growing on me.  In the early shows I did, I sat very quietly in a vintage rocking chair and knit while people walked past my space on their way to another vendor.  My sales technique was more along the line of “I’m sure that you don’t want to buy one of my caps.”  Over the years, I have been improving my sales technique.  While I don’t tackle potential customers as they walk by, I do wish them a very good day and point out other vendors if they ask.  And the really odd thing about the shows is that I can sell Karen’s work than I can sell my own.  Go figure!

After this show, I will be pretty much here and knitting until the inside market at the Community Center here in Waldport starts in September.  So I have lots of time to knit and I have also marked this time as one to read up on marketing issues.  It is not an easy subject for me, for some reason.  As a shopper, I walk away from anybody who tries to hard-sell me on some item.  And I have had a potential buyer walk away because of something that I said or did.  Karen’s strong point is marketing and she and I are going to be working through a marketing book that she likes.  After the show, that is.

Well, I have seven more caps to finish.  Then comes the tagging and the record keeping.  And getting the table covers washed and my own clothing spiffed up.  I think I’d better get at it.

Have a great day.  Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning. 

This time next week, the first really big show of the year will be in the past.  Karen and I are really looking forward to it. 

On the down side of things, she closed Shorebirds 2 months ago.  On the upside, she is working for the Aquarium in Newport in the gift shop.  And we both hope that she will be able to do more of her art work.  This month, she has a show at Canyonway.  It is a bookstore, gift shop, and cafe in Newport.  Her work will be there until June 1.  

 Crafts on the Coast in Yachats is next weekend.  We both get the nervous jitters before a show like this one.  Neither of us has enough work to show or if we do, it is not good enough, or the set up is not good or is too filled with items and is confusing. 

Actually all that is pre-show jitters. Once we get to setting up (Friday night) and rushing around and seeing friends we have not seen since November, the jitters go away and we have a good time. 

I have been parked in my chair knitting diligently.  I usually do about 4 caps a month.  However, For this show, I have 15 caps ready for finish work and one more that is on double points being topped off.  I think that is a record for me.  Especially since I started and put aside 5 others that simply did not work the way I thought they would. 

For instance, I tried to get 2 worsted weight yarns to work together in a multi-colored cap.  But the 2 worsted weight yarns were just too heavy to work together well.  I tried 4 different ways to make a cap out of them  — the colors were so perfect together — but quit after a slip stitch pattern failed too.  And I know better:  if you put two yarns  together, one of the yarns has to be lighter weight, DK or lace weight.  Otherwise the carries make the cap body look like an over-boiled egg with a split shell.  Not very enticing. 

Well, I better get to it.  Karen is working all week at the Aquarium and so getting all the things assembled and the table  covers washed and ready will be pretty much my week — in addition to 16 caps finished, tagged and ready to go.

Have a great day.  Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning.

I see that I have not written anything for a long time.  One whole month.  Why? 

A combination of things, actually.  Part of it was relief that March had done so well, with the two shows, so I curled up and knit to catch my breath and try to get ready for the show on Memorial Day weekend in Yachats.

About the time I began to unwind, we had a storm blow through and it took off the siding on Karen’s end of the duplex.  And my end sustained a bit of damage, too.  So we contacted the owner  and told him what had happened.  I wrote a letter and Karen sent photos.  (Digital cameras are really magic — but more of that in another entry.) 

It took a while, but last week the team doing the repairs showed up with tools and created a lot of noise by tearing off the siding.  And what did they, and we, find?  A far worse repair job than any of us expected.  Instead of the 4 days they thought it would take, it will take probably 2 weeks, and maybe more.  I think it was a lot like opening an attic to look for the Christmas ornaments and have 17 boxes of who-knows-what fall on your head before you can find what you were looking for.

But our landlord hired a very good team.  They are here at 8 a.m. and work until 4 p.m. with a half hour for lunch.  Then they are done for the day. 

I hunker down and knit like crazy while they are working.  The more noise they make with saws and hammers and other tools, the faster I knit.  So instead of the 10 caps I thought I would have ready for the show, I will probably have 15 and maybe even 18 or 19.  Maybe I should try to keep them around for the summer, too.  (Joke)

So there is an upside to all the disruption and disturbance a remodel job can have.  I will have a very good collection to show this month. 

Well, the guys are off today, but I am going to see if I can keep up the pace and knit my little fingers to their respective bones. 

Have a great day.  Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning.

As you may remember,  I joined Weight Watchers a few months ago.  In addition to making me ultra-aware of every bite of food that hits my tongue, I have met a  new knitting friend, Lynne.  I wrote about  her several weeks ago. She and her husband are new to the area. 

We have been looking for a place to get together and knit and talk about yarns and plan yarn shopping junkets, and knitting books and  knitting magazines .

Except for my friend, Dodie, my knitting mentor, I have not had a real knitting friend.  And since neither of us are driving, we  don’t connect that often any more. 

A year or so ago a Sunday group was started here in Waldport, but it was not for me for two reasons.  The first was that it was a terribly long walk to get to it from where I live to where it was held, probably 3 miles one way.   And, there was a very (I never thought I would say this about another knitter) obnoxious person attending the group.  This was a woman who knew everything, had been everywhere, done everything and readily informed all the rest of us about her wealth of experience and information continuously throughout the time I was at the group.  Literally, it was a very long monolog, in a very loud voice.  And if someone started to say something while she was taking a breath, she finished taking her breath and rode over the other person and went on with her monolog.

Well, when I learned about this other knitting group at the library, I told Lynne about it.  She went last Tuesday evening to the meeting and guess who was there?  Obnoxious person from that Sunday group. 

Lynne  was not made welcome to the group.  In fact, she was grilled about who she was, and how she had learned about the group.  And she was unimpressed by obnoxious person as I had been. 

So we are currently looking for a quiet nook or cranny somewhere here in Waldport, for  the two of us to get together and knit, talk about yarns  and tell yarns and laugh and be happy.  Which is what knitting and friendship is all about.

Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning.

What I  want to talk about  today is a question that popped up a bit ago on my blog comments site.  The writer wanted to know what “earth tones” are when it comes to knitting.  For those who need a refresher on my lack of color skills please refer back to the entry of March 16, 2009. 

I think a case could be made for every color being an “earth tone.”  You can see every color (the ones we earthlings have)  right here on the planet surface, after all.  But what comes to my mind when I think or talk about “earth tones”  are the colors that are browns, beiges, grays, sometimes green (depending on whether the green has a yellow base or a blue base) — the colors that are associated with growing things.

I don’t usually gravitate toward earth tones when shopping for yarn or clothing.  I love blue, and  have, as I get older, developed a love for lavender colors.  When I enter a yarn store, I immediately focus on what I call the jewel colors of yarns:  Reds, blues, lavenders, greens (if they have a blue base), whites (true whites, not the off whites). 

However, since I have been doing the caps I have noticed that a lot of people prefer the colors that I am not particularly fond of — the earth tones.  At the market last weekend, I looked at my inventory and noted that I had a lot of caps that fall into my category of earth tones.  I decided that I may have over-estimated the need for earth tone caps. 

As a result of the weekend show’s Voila! moment, I have begun topping off a jade green beram, and have a lovely plum purple cap ready for double points.  And yesterday I was rummaging my stash and found a lovely skein of garnet red yarn and another in variegated lavenders.

The result of all this:  I am going to be turning out a mess of jewel colored caps for a while.  That is where my heart finds joy in my knitting.  I also have a lovely pale blue with lavender highlights yarn that was hand spun by my spinning friend, Arlene.  And have another skein of rainbow colored yarn that I got from my spinning friend, Kristy. 

Well, knitting friends, the yarns are waving at me and calling.  Have to get going on those jewel tone caps.

Yellow?  I did not mention yellow?  Of all the colors, yellow (except in sunshine) is my least favorite color.  Am not even fond of it in daffodils.  Yellow hits my eyes with a ferocity that makes me uncomfortable just being near it.  I enjoy yellow highlights in a yarn but a stark yellow yarn hurts my eyes so I never work in it.

I suppose that other knitters have a favorite colors, and I would like to hear from some of your about your favorites and how you use them.

Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning.

Well, Karen and I did the back-to-back shows and survived.  The one we did last weekend was the Yachats Annual Art show.  It has been in existence for over 40 years and so the crowds are good sized.  That is good because part of doing the show is to get people familiarized with your work and doing a lot of PR for yourself. 

Like all shows and markets it had its good things and the not-so-good things.  The big not-so-good thing about this show was that we were in a small room with 7 other vendors.  That was not so bad in and of itself.  But atmosphere in the room was den of negativity.  Out of the 8 spaces only 3 of us tried to maintain a upbeat atmosphere.  The negativity got to me so badly by the second day, Karen told me to go walk around The Commons until I felt better.  So I did.  And it did help.  It is hard to see all the wonderful work that people do and talk to them about their work be grumpy about anything. 

We met a lot of nice people — both vendors and potential customers.  One vendor, a lady, from the far end of The Commons came on a walkabout and stopped at our booth.  In the course of talking with her, we discovered that we know a lot of the same people in the knitting world of Oregon.  So we had lots to talk about.  She and her husband sell herbal teas and other herbal products and her husband is a beginning knitter.  So  we, all three, talked knitting and yarns. 

The only other knitting artisan in the show was in our room and she was one of the mega-grumpy ones. So we did not talk much about our work.  I think she saw me as competition and that is unfortunate.  We might have been able to be knitting/yarn friends. 

We had good crowds coming through.  They  looked and talked and admired all the beauty of the crafts and art works that were there.  Both Karen and I would  have loved to have had more sales, but, again, part of the job of doing the shows is getting yourself and your work out and in front of folks.  After all, the person who walks by at this show may stop and buy at the next show. 

Have a great day.  Happy knitting.  Granny LJ