Traveling and Knitting and Teaching

To start here’s June 6th socks on needles;


And then the finished socks, and the next ones on needles!


A long car tip gives LOTS of knitting time – and socks, for me, are the best thing to knit on the road. My Seraphim shawl is moving slowly on, but on our five day trip to Tennessee and Kentucky, I didn’t knit one stitch on it.

My husband and I have figured out two rules for the trip(s) to TN and KY (which we will have several of over the next year or so). For me – SOCKS only for knitting projects – I don’t really want to work on anything else. And for him, a MAXIMUM of TWO instruments. This last trip he took three instruments (2 banjos and one guitar), and I took three pairs of socks, two having one sock done, and my shawl.

Our son is in a special school in TN, and we went for an orientation and therapy session face-to-face. Here a photo of “my” menfolk:



We did one on Friday, and one on Monday – so between we drove up to Shelbyville, KY which is where my grandfather was born – and he was fourth or fifth generation in Shelby County KY. Unfortunately we didn’t get there early enough to do any research – everything closes early on Saturdays, and isn’t open on Sundays. BUT . . . . just across the street from the Library was a lovely Victorian building – in fact, the old Shelbyville train station, moved there from it’s original location three blocks away on the train tracks, and it had this HUGE sign (see below) that said YARN. And then, below that – MUSIC.

A lovely little store, Knit-Pickers, designed to fit perfectly with my husband and me! A very nice husband and wife run it as their retirement. He’s a former music teacher, and she was a teacher too. There’s nice room filed with a decent selection of yarns (bought enough yarn for four pairs of socks), and then three or four rooms with all sorts of musical instruments and connected paraphernalia -- we hung out there for an hour or two, and ended up with my husband buying a guitar! If you’re keeping count, that meant we drove home with FOUR instruments.


Besides Knit-Pickers in Shelbyville, I got to go to another yarn store in Knoxville, called Loopville. She’s only been open a year, but although small, she has a wonderful selection of yarns and patterns, and knitting tchotchkies. Again I got sock yarn (three pairs worth, one of the Regia silk, which I haven’t knit with yet), and some fancy stitch markers.

Meanwhile, I have taught the first of what I hope will be several, classes at A Tangled Skein in Hyattsville, MD – it was a basic cuff-down sock class. It was three evenings, each a week apart. I had them knit a worsted weight sock. I had four students the first week, one who ended up not coming back after the first night, but the other three did, and two of the three got their socks done! And the third, is a friend from church, and she had the week from h*** and no knitting time. But she knows where I live . . . . and she also comes to my Tuesday evenings knit group. They were a great bunch, and I really enjoyed doing the class.

And last Saturday, Yarns International the now web-based yarn store had one of their local sales in a hall, and I was there to help all day – they had a WONDERFUL new shipment of Koigu (if you don’t know Koigu – it’s one of my all-time favorite yarns). I really, really (I mean REALLY wasn’t going to buy any more – I’ve got lots ---) buuuuuut the yarns are all “hand-dyed spaced-dyed,” and the colors are incredible, and different from batch to batch – and from shipment to shipment. Yarns International has stocked Koigu since it first came on the market, and I worked in the physical store for eight years, and saw the shipments as they arrived. So Saturday, by the end of the day, I had fallen in love with one colorway, and found a pattern I really like, and ended up with enough yarn to make said sweater. I’m trying to be good and not cast-on until I finish some of the other projects started . . . .but, I’ve already done gauge swatches, and I’ve started the cast-on . . . . . .



But back to Seraphim. (And yesterday was Paul McCartney’s 65th birthday. Guess which Beatle was my favorite . . . well, he IS left-handed.)

Late breaking – I’ve cast-on and knit three rows so far on the Koigu sweater – pictures of that start next post.