People Write Again!
Debra Chinn writes that she’s knitting socks from my new Tip-Toe sockyarn, in the Seaside colorway. She says:
Such pretty colors!! I cast on 68 sts on 2.5m dps and getting 8spi, will knit to 7.5″ and dec to 60 sts and start the heel flap. After heel flap, I switch to 2.25m dps for tighter gauge.
Debra just plain cranks out gorgeous socks, and I’m thrilled she’s knitting with my yarn this time.
I created the Seaside colorway several years ago for a retreat put on by Annie Modesitt. I became too ill to go to that retreat, so sent my yarn along by mail… and the colorway has become my best seller by far. I did have to manipulate the photo a little, it looked blue without turquoise or purple. Now it looks turquoise and purple and you can’t see the blue. Sigh… computers do have their limitations when it comes to color. Debra, the socks are looking lovely. (I notice she, too, knits two socks at a time using DPN’s… there are more of us all the time.)
Kristi writes regarding knitting olympics:
Regarding knitting olympics - go for it even if you don’t finish - I figure silver and bronze medalists aren’t perfect, right? - either way, you leave with something!
I love Kristi for her level head. She is the one who wrote about embracing imperfections not that long ago on her blog. Here she goes again, suggesting that an effort is its own reward, deadline or no deadline. Isn’t she a breath of fresh air?
Teresa and Sue R. (both local knitfriends) wrote with giggles about the yarn-draped car escapade. Teresa and I knew one another when we were still school-aged, though it took us a while to figure that out. We both agree it’s such a relief to be at a place in life where we don’t worry about what other people think. Who would have imagined that being less cool could somehow turn into being more cool, in a way.
I’m certainly softer than I once was… I still worry, I’m still passionate, but I can dress myself in the morning mostly based on my mood and the temperature, rather than worrying about who would see me dressed this or that way. I still do worry some (as when I go to knit guild and can’t say hi to everyone I care about) but I’m much happier and more grounded than I once was. (No, Rob, grounded does not mean inanimate, it just means that while I’m chattering I know who I am.)
OK, back to those who wrote. 
My cousin, Karen, writes from Texas:
A cold snap before a corporate cocktail party sent me scurrying to my yarn stash, to whip something up to wear with a new violet and black brocade jacket… and voila! A new take on your ColorJoy stole…
Didn’t she do a lovely job? The stole and jacket do really enhance one another. Go, Karen!
By the way, some folks don’t write but I do run into them all over town. I can’t go to any yarn shop or even Altu’s without seeing people I know either from this blog or a class they took from me somewhere. Just in the last five days or so, I ran into Terese (Therese?) at Altu’s, and Priscilla and Yvonne and Lindsey and Nancy S. (and I think someone else but it was Friday, please forgive me) at Rae’s… Irene B. and Teresa and Sheila and a handful more at Threadbear… Elise and Marilyn at Little Red Schoolhouse. And of course, I got to see all my friends who work at these shops as well.
This is a wonderful town for creative folks, you know? We have this wealth of yarn shops (besides the ones mentioned above, we have Yarn for Ewe and Woven Art, and then Yarn Garden just down the road a bit), each with their own personality, each with their own style and size and unique yarns they offer… we have a great knitting guild with lots of members. Lucky us. For a city this size, we’re brimming with abundance in the fiber realm!
By the way, last I saw Nancy S. she had just bound off for the cutest Tempting sweater from Knitty, as a gift. She used the Louisa Harding aran weight yarn with cashmere in it (very washable, incredible yarn) which she got from Rae’s. It was just gorgeous. The sweater was in a sort of charcoal/pewter gray, and that makes it perfect to have bows (ribbon, woven through eyelets at the neckline) of many colors, depending on the wearer’s mood. Very cool!!! Good job, Nancy.