Representing with the Mighty Yarn Gods

It has been a very busy time since I last posted. Wednesday after work I had to get a bale (yes, that is what I said) of 1st-cut Canadian timothy hay for the bunnies at Allie’s tack and Feed, I dropped over to Natalie’s yarn shop “A Stitch Above” to get the yarns I promised myself I would get after NYC, and lastly I went to Heidi’s candle party at her house. I ended up buying this wonderful brass pineapple snuffer, some “Unwind” meltaways for our little burner at home, and something else that I cannot remember at this time. Thursday I knitted a couple of sets of Chart 2 for my Swallowtail Shawl while catching up on the “Murder, She Wrote” episodes I missed while away.

During Wednesday night and all through Thursday, I kept thinking about the worsted weight Jade Sapphire cashmere in an olive colorway. The yarn was at its final discounted price, and the idea of walking away from all that luscious cashmere began to possess my mind. Giving in to the Mighty Yarn Gods (again), I drove on Friday from work at West Kingston during lunch all the way to Providence knowing that if the yarn was still there I would get it. Sure enough, there were the 8 hanks accompanied by a couple of 9-piece Paddington Bear button sets. Throw in some FiberTrends patterns, knitting-themed cards/envelopes, and Jil Eaton’s “After Dark” book, I had a party on my hands!

Admittedly from those 3 days of buying items during Natalie’s liquidation sale, I cannot include the 2 sets of Serendipity needles in the photograph below since A) one set was given to Meredith on the Today Show; and B) one set was given to Jennifer in Brooklyn to accompany the eBay-found hank of STR in colorway RI Red. The reason for the hank going to her is that this Rhode Island native seemed dismayed at not ever owning some and I thought it would be cool for both of us to knit up some “fraternal” socks with the colorways. The one I had won from Lisa of course is mine to treasure, but I feel no guilt in gifting the other to Jennifer. I hope she likes it!

For those paying attention, I was stalling before going into the last legs of Representing on March 22nd. Reason is that I wanted to make sure enough eye candy was visible since the camera I purchased for last week’s trip would not stayed powered past a few hours. I thought it was a fluke, but today confirmed not only the quick-to-die battery power, but also the camera’s inability to permanently hold my preferences and going back to the factory defaults. I have one piece of advice to anyone considering a digital camera — go to W*mart. Why? Because there is a company policy that guarantees 100% customer satisfaction for 90 days (15 days in order to return the camera directly back to a store, otherwise mailing it is required). I find this policy a great way to see and confirm which kind of camera I truly want to get. Guess what I will be doing on Sunday besides writing those last legs of the Representing journey? 😉

Back to last Thursday… While going from Central Park to the Museum of Arts and Design, we walked by a number of NYC buildings and landmarks. Being the geek I am, I took a photo of the glass Apple Store. Realizing that my camera battery was dying, I decided to charge it while in the MAD. Unfortunately photographing the exhibits is not allowed and I did not have my charger in my bag. I heard a big “DOH!” in my head, and my heart sank. Refusing to be dismayed, I made sure to enjoy the incredible artwork. From lace-patterned junked car door doilies to garments knitted out of newspaper, each piece was incredible to behold. I cannot find enough words to describe what I saw. I am glad I bought the exhibition’s catalog (do not dare to call it a BOOK like Guido and someone else did or suffer the consequences of completely mortified haughtiness by the employees!). As soon as I find it in the goodies, I will be able to crack open the shrink-wrapping and read it! Until then, my one photograph of it in my Auntie’s guestroom will have to do.

Without any photos of the rest of the day, I can only faintly paint both School Products and Habu. Unlike the crusty doorman who looked like he was fed up with the knitters coming into his building, the School Products owner and his employees were jovial and helpful. When walking into the small office-size shop, the books and magazines were hidden in the far right corner of the room inside an alcove-like area about a square meter. I roamed around the small shop taking in every bit of the yarn-covered walls and tables. I noticed that the shop carried a lot of the commercial Karabella yarns and Koigu besides their own product lines that were in cones/hanks. Their Clover bamboo and Addi Turbo circular needles were on a couple of tall rotating stands. After much deliberation I finally decided on 5 hanks of silk/cashmere blend in a green/teal/brown colorway for a spring-time shawl. I hope to finish it in time for Stephanie’s visit to WEBS in May.

Since our large group was divided on where to go next, we began going our separate ways. A couple of folks and myself wanted to check out Habu. We walked a bit and found the shop’s building. When we entered into the “even tinier than School Products” shop, only a few words can describe Habu. First and foremost, HOT — as in a very high temperature — quickly comes to mind. It was so warm when we entered into Habu’s first square-like room a number of us had to peel off our coats, jackets, and/or sweaters. In the center of the sparsely decorated room were assorted shallow baskets holding the well-known rectangular-shaped hanks of yarn. There were also partial cones and “normal” hanks, plus some wound cakes. These tidbits were the appetizer for me. What I discovered was that there was a smaller room that was nothing more than a tall wall closet. At the entrance of this area was cubed shelving on the right wall holding hemp, wire, and other non-standard materials for knitting. On the left was the rest of the closet which had one wall completely covered with “normal” hanks dangling on curtain rods spanning the entire wall, and the other wall made up of more cubed shelving holding boxes of cones. Signs were everywhere asking not to touch the products in the boxes, and we politely obliged. The dangling hanks reminded me of a shoe store. Each inventoried hank listed a terse description (example: 60% mohair 40% silk) with the price per ounce. Basically, a customer would decide on the desired hank, get one of the Habu employees’ attention, and while pointing at the hank in question, request the amount in ounces. I asked for 2 ounces of the mohair/silk lace-weight, and 8 ounces of a 100% wool sport-weight — both in their natural cream color. The sport-weight is already in a hank, but since I wanted both yarns put into cones, a charge of $2.50 was added to the overall price. Yes, I paid for it. Imagine having to cake or ball up over 2000 yards of laceweight and sportweight? =:8