MarysLibrary

Back on Blossom Street

My reading program has crashed and burned. I cannot bear to read another chapter of political analysis, political biography, political satire, history of the civil rights movement, critique of the Iraq War, or background on the war in Afghanistan. Not another page.

So I picked up my favorite romance writer (my only romance writer) Debbie Macomber's latest knitting novel. These stories take place in and about a fictional yarn store on the fictional Blossom Street in Seattle. Back on Blossom Street (2007) is the third, after The Shop on Blossom Street (2004) and A Good Yarn (2005.) A fourth in the series was published three days ago called Twenty Wishes.

The major character in these novels is Lydia Goetz, the owner of A Good Yarn. Characters who appear and reappear include her gruff sister, Margaret, the young woman who is a baker in a French cafe across the street, the new owner of the flower shop next door, her mysterious assistant, and the youth pastor of the Methodist Church across the way.

The major characters in each book meet at a knitting class at A Good Yarn. They come to knitting from different places with differing needs but as with all good romance novels by the end of the book they find satisfaction and sometimes love with the help of their new knitting friends.

Macomber, who was born in Yakima and now lives in Port Orchard, and who is a knitter herself, helpfully provides the patterns that the characters in her books are using to knit baby blankets and hats and socks and prayer shawls so that the reader can knit the selfsame items herself.

Sock Heels

Sarah asked me to review a couple of books about knitting socks because she's looking for some new heel techniques.

The book for that is Nancy Bush's Folk Socks: The History and Techniques of Handknitted Footwear. Nancy Bush, like Elizabeth Zimmerman, Mary Thomas, and Nicki Epstein, is a name familiar to the serious knitter, especially the serious sock knitter. Her books on the subject are possibly the best ever written.

Folk Socks is precisely what the title says it is: a history of the knitting of socks, an overview of traditional socks from British and other European countries, a primer and a basic sock pattern.

Bush shows us how to knit not just the common heel and the shaped common heel, but also the Balbriggan heel, the half-handkerchief heel, the Dutch heel, the band heel, and the peasant heel. She does not go into the hourglass heel.

As for toes, she tells us how to make a wedge toe (with two variations), a wide toe (with two versions), a double-decrease toe, a round toe, and a star toe. There are photos of all these heels and toes as well as detailed directions.

The second half of the book consists of patterns for traditional Norwegian, Greek, Welsh, Finnish, Swedish, Latvian, Estonian, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian socks and stockings.

Patterns for socks from Guernsey, Scotland, the Shetlands, and elsewhere are also included. And not just patterns, but explanations of how and why these folk traditions developed.

Those mathematically inclined could figure out the possibilities for varying the toes, heels, designs, colors, yarn types, and textures of socks from what you learn in this book. The possibilities seem infinite to me. This is the quintessential desert island knitting book. (Assuming your island has a good yarn shop.)

Behind the Scenes

Somebody asked me what the back side of the stranding looked like on my hat/gauge swatch. Here's a photo of it.

A Gauge Swatch

I tend to knit at a different gauge when I knit in the round vs flat knitting. And all of us tend to knit differently when we are knitting two colors in the same round.

So I don't knit a flat swatch when I'm going to be knitting something in the round and I need to knit in pattern so I can get a more valid measurement from my swatch. And if I'm going to all that trouble, why would I just knit a piece of fabric and then tear it out?

So here's the wearable gauge swatch I knit for my "Marius" drop shoulder Norwegian style sweater.

A Ball of Blue Bunny Yarn

Kookiest Knitting Pattern Ever

I thought the pattern for knitting a screen door was pretty wild, but this is the living end.

I found it at a usually sober knitting blog, Annie Purls. Lopi is offering it as a kit.

Hmm. I wonder if they offer it in other colorways . . .

Not Just Another Walk Around the Block

I just got back from my morning walk with Karla. Instead of our usual 45 minute hike in Manito Park we went around the block and we did it in less than 10 minutes. Ordinarily it's a 15 minute walk at brisk speed. I think we deserve kudos for going walking at all.

The thing is, the temperature outside is 6 degrees.

I wore my silk longjohns under my trousers, two pair of wool socks, a long sleeve cotton sweater and a wool Norwegian sweater under my jacket, two pair of gloves, and two wool hats.

No wind to speak of. That will come this afternoon with the snow when the wind chill is predicted to be 20 below and it takes 30 seconds to lose a nose to frostbite.  When that happens I'll be indoors at A Grand Yarn drinking hot coffee and knitting with my friends and bragging about having gone for a walk this morning.