I Spied (But Didn't Buy) Wool in London

Love this moving water sculpture just outside the security zone at Pearson Airport in Toronto.

As we stood in the line snaking through airport security en route to London we kept passing a young woman whose backpack had skeins of hand dyed yarn flopping out of the pockets. She was wearing a Steven West shawl over a hand knit wool cardigan. I saw her as a good omen for wooly fun ahead.

A few hours later as we walked into our room at the uber hip Ace Hotel in Shorditch, there under the window, with a great view of the Gherkin was an expansive day bed that immediately called out..."why not sit here and knit?!"

(In the end, Number One Son's 18 hour-a-day tours left no time or energy for knitting but even the prospect of it was a lovely thing to imagine.)

Out and about I was ever on the look out for wool and there was plenty of it to be seen.

The families lounging upon wool blankets on the grass at Kew were only the beginning. Unlike here in Toronto, many of the home wares shops I visited offered pure wool blankets for sale - in an array of wonderful colours...

Knitted bunting hung in shop windows that didn't stock yarn...

In Churchill's underground WWII War Room, literally preserved as it was on the day of the Armistice, wool yarn was tacked up on huge wall-spanning maps to illustrate the ever changing picture of enemy/allied advances...

I wondered at the prospect of someone, in the days of the Blitz, going out to pick up the yarn for this.

On the streets of London, I saw many people, and especially males, wearing fantastic wool jackets, sweaters and scarves. This little boy was my hands down favourite!...

Of course,  there was also my plan to bring some wooly goodness home with me from Loop!

I wanted a hardy, UK tweed wool yarn for a "cracking good", British sweater or vest for My Beloved.

Then there was my additional idea - the one I went on about in my last post - to nab a sweater quantity of rosy pink wool yarn for myself.

Images of such soon-to-be purchases were on my mind as we headed out walking from Shoreditch to the neighbourhood of Islington where Loop is located.

Our route took us alongside a picturesque canal lined with boats that serve as people's homes. That in itself was worth venturing off in the direction of the shop but the little alleyway in which Loop sits is also utterly adorable...

And the alley runs behind an equally beautiful, leafy roadway lined with interesting shops and cafes.

The tiny store looks like its associated web site and at first glance seemed a perfect combined distillation of London and Knitting. As I slipped through the narrow doorway into the shop my heart raced at the prospects therein.

Then the shop owner greeted me...with an American accent? The salesperson on the upper floor offered to assist me - another American.  Two knitters, sitting round a table upstairs chatting - one of whom worked in the shop - both Americans. Nothing wrong with Americans, just not what I was expecting at all.

Not surprisingly, as with the web site, many, many of the yarns were also North American (Debbie Bliss and Rowan yarns I can find here any day of the week won't evoke London to me once back at home.)

Overall I'd say the selection was international - Brooklyn Tweed in all its forms, South American yarns, Quince and Co., Japanese and Icelandic yarns - you get the idea.

The worsted weights were alpaca, silk and some blends - none of it was what I was looking for.

Loop has had custom colour ways in some yarns but they were sold out.

There were a couple of dozen shades of Shetland Jumper Weight but nothing in that British rose kind of colour I was hoping to find.

In the end I picked up a copy of Loop's 10th Anniversary Pattern Book.  The photography captures the feel of what I'd hoped to find. I'll source the yarn from home. Book in hand I rejoined My Beloved and Number One Son outside the shop. They greeted me with shocked amazement. "That was quick!" "No yarn?" "Are you sure? We don't mind waiting."

I assured them I'd exhausted the possibilities of the store's inventory to my purposes and off we went.

That quick exit paid off a couple of days later though. On a rare few hours without our "guide" My Beloved suggested we go back to Liberty of London (thank you Lorraine for that fantastic recommendation!) so I could maybe get some fabric to commemorate our trip since the plan for yarn had been abandoned. On our way to Liberty we stumbled upon a street with many fabric shops and there I found the most fantastic little place, every bit as charming as Loop and maybe even then some. I spent over half an hour inside and came out with some wonderful goodies...

Breezy, plaid cotton gauze from France, some hand dyed in India indigo and a wee little embroidered initial from Japan for Darling Daughter.

So, wool was a big feature of London for me - its just the only wool I brought home in my bag was the Debbie Bliss, Irish tweed I took with me in the first place. 

Ola!

The essence of travel - a small knitting project on an airplane seat!

'Decided last minute to join My Beloved on a business trip to Buenos Aires. We've been back a few days but no jet lag as the 13 1/2 hour flight is a straight shot due south making the time difference only an hour!

Buenos Aires held many unexpected surprises for me - I may have to post more on that later but first, as a knitter, the trip was worth the disruption to the days preceding and following it - even for a reluctant traveller/nervous flyer like me.
 

On a brief layover in Santiago Chile, amid a stunning mountain backdrop, we stretched our legs after our first overnight flight and browsed shops featuring gorgeous Chilean crafts.

Among the treasures were inspiring hand knits in undyed local wool...

Then it was on to Buenos Aires where there is a full on yarn district! All the city's yarn shops, almost a dozen of them, are clustered along three city blocks or so in the neighbourhood of Palermo.

Many of the shops are filled with bright/lurid colours of largely acrylic yarn as well as super shiney "Vegetable Silk" which I assume is also some kind of synthetic.

These stores look like candy or toy stores do here at home and probably are designed to appeal to children as knitting and crochet is part of the elementary school curriculum in Argentina.

In other words 'safe to assume everyone you pass on the street in BA knows how to knit and crochet. How amazing is that?

Sadly, from a male tour guide who took offence at the very suggestion, I was informed that grown men in Argentina don't knit or crochet. He assured me many women do so throughout their lives but it's strictly a domestic activity, never undertaken in polite public society. I got the impression its something they regard as the equivalent of ironing.

The thing is, this kind of matched my impression of the local population. BA has a surprisingly serious vibe - none of the raucous Latin joie de vivre I was expecting - unless of course one of their teams wins a game somewhere, as they did with the Rugby World Championships while we were there. Then its late night fireworks above crowded city squares. These filled with cheering masses who happily stream along side streets, often with sleepy children in tow to collect in the huge crowds. All the while lines of shield carrying riot police surround buildings and monuments to protect them and their contents.

In the morning though, its right back to a more quiet civic demeanour they self describe as "noble".

In keeping with this is a refreshingly meagre sense of consumerism across the urban landscape with yarn stores being no exception. They are places where one buys yarn and only yarn - except maybe the odd bikini???!?

Anyway yarn stores don't seem to offer classes, patterns, books or even notions. There are no chairs or couches and its obvious the expectation among the largely male "yarn consultants" that stand behind deli-like counters with the yarn organized on shelves behind them is that the shopper knows what she is doing, what she is looking for and how she will use what she buys.

I had yet to understand these nuances of Buenos Aires yarn commerce when I started my giddy tour armed with a simplistic notion of trying to get a deal on South American brands like Malabrigo or Manos del Uruguay and accompanied by the saint of a man who secretly packed an empty leather valise in his suitcase to accommodate potential yarn purchases en route home.

Here we are, reflected in the first shop we came upon having just arrived in the "District". I'm madly snapping pictures while he passes the time doing email.

I quickly learned Manos and Malabrigo were only stocked in one shop and when I found that store, the brands were no bargain and only a couple of skeins of each to be had so I put that notion aside, opened my mind to the possibilities and discovered in Buenos Aries...

...They love T-shirt yarn.

Me, not so much, I passed on this stuff. (See the bright colours on the shelves in the background?)

...Knitting/Crochet seems to be about fashion not for the sake of the crafts themselves. It isn't uncommon to see mannequins styled with complete outfits of which the hand made item is but one of the garments on display.

My mum favoured crochet so I grew up with it. Nonetheless its never "spoken to me before. In BA, surrounded by great uses of it like this it really started to call to me.

...They do love their synthetics - not surprising I guess - its not like they need the warmth of wool very often!

The acrylic and "Vegetable Silk " are the only branded yarns I saw.  I bet the school kids love these yarns (and probably also bikinis?) 

...The yarn stores that look styled for grown ups, where the natural fibre yarns are to be had, are subdued places with soft, muted colours, thoughtful displays and without a bikini in sight.

...Mohair is big but often combined with acrylic. I was eager to jump on the mohair bandwagon and was enchanted with the colours of the 30/30/30 Mohair/Wool/Acrylic yarn below...

However lovely it looked in the skein, a knitted sample demonstrated you could feel the 30% Acrylic to a degree I knew would bother me so I very sadly left this stuff behind.

You see you don't get to handle the skeins, which are all priced by the kilo, and remember, devoid of labels! If you are curious about it, why there, in the middle of the shop is a table heaped with big knitted/crocheted swatches. Only the consultants touch the yarn in the skeins, its out of shoppers' potentially grimy hands on those tidy shelves behind the counters around the perimeter of the store.

I must say though, considering yarn via swatches in varying shades of white and grey is pretty effective in helping you select something based primarily on what a yarn can do, how it drapes, its heft or delicacy etc.

Once you have a swatch in your hands you like, your male yarn consultant piles skeins onto the big shiny scales just like when you order deli meats at the butcher shop. They don't want shoppers pawing yarn for sale with potentially grimy hands I guess.

You have no idea about yardage, no two skeins are the same length. There are no dye lots, colour names or numbers, recommendations for gauge, needle size or washing instructions because, remember, no labels! You need to recognize what you are looking at, know what to do with it and how much to buy. They didn't really seem prepared to help you with that kind of information.

(Just like you wouldn't walk up the counter where they sell the cold cuts, point at a salami and ask how you might serve that or for lessons on how to slice it or make a sandwich with it.)

So there I was, 20 minutes left to make some decisions, surrounded by yarn, My Beloved patiently doing emails and my yarn buying experience rendered null and void for tackling the task before me of filling that empty valise.

It took a few minutes for this prospect to stop being terrifying, but then, I have to say, I felt kind of empowered. I took a deep breath, adjusted my mental point of view and looked about for some yarn to grab my attention and tell me what it wanted to become back here at home.

Can you guess what screamed out to me as I approached this shop window?

Yup, the creamy basket of undyed, locally grown, hand spun crazy fabulousness in the bottom left corner...

I marched into the shop, located the swatch, found the consultant with the best English and bought 1.5 glorious kilos, (about 3.3 pounds) of that stuff for $67.00 Canadian.

Then from the same shop - 75 grams of undyed wool roving, silky with lanolin for under $3.00 - my plan, to tuck this BA souvenir secretly into the lining of mittens - ironic for a sub-equatorial souvenir don't you think?

This was followed shortly thereafter in another store by a purchase of 2 kilos of bulky Patagonian cotton for just over $40.00.

Both of these larger treasures told me, in no uncertain terms they desired to become glorious throws - the wool one for home, the cotton for the cottage.

Next we joined some friends for coffee in an outdoor cafe on the grounds of a former Mansion turned Decorative Arts Museum.

Al fresco Espresso and Candied Orange Peel

BA is a most civilized place - everyone knows how to knit and no one drinks coffee from paper cups! 'Hard to say if I'll ever go back but most certainly I am glad I chose to make the trip this time!

So Many Topics - So Little Time

As the sky lightens on our third cool autumn day of the season I can see the leaves on our huge backyard maple tree are beginning to change. Its like October arrived and flipped the "Autumn Switch" setting this knitter's brain into overdrive.

Wish I could capture the steam coming off this Cider Laced Almond, Ginger Oatmeal with currants - Its almost to pretty to eat!

No wonder. Atop the shift in weather this week I've... 

• worn wool
• talked wool
• shopped wool
• bought wool
• overseen the cutting of steeks
• basked in the fun of watching Darling Daughter finish her first knitted garment
• read about Wool Week festivities in Britain - especially Shetland, wished I could go and dreamt of planning to someday soon.
• tidied up the final details on My Beloved's Bfl Cardigan "Slade" with hands down the most beautiful yarn I have ever worked with.

So, so much more to say on this later!

Meanwhile I'm also mentally racing around the ideas of

• Slow Fashion October
• Knitting for my autumn wardrobe
• Knitting for my winter wardrobe
• Christmas Gift Knitting.
• What Darling Daughter might best knit next (assuming she will want another project after successfully delivering her surprise gift when she's in the U.K. later this month.)

See what I mean? Bursting. But first things first.

A few deep breaths then report on my little mid week yarn shopping adventure...

Our first stop Wednesday was Knit-O-Matic in a shiny new larger location just up the street from the original tiny shop. Its now at least twice the size of the first, lots of natural light, high ceilings and mirrors to check out colours against the skin. There's room to sit or set something down and everything's painted white so one can focus on the yarn. (Rest assured the resident Love Bird is still there - so fun - I love stores with animals hanging about!)

There's parking on the nearest side street and the street car line that stops at the door is one that offers 2 hour on and off privileges.

The best thing about the shop, though, is the owner. One of those unflappable people - matter of fact without being indifferent, present, attentive, very knowledgeable and let us explore and discover on our own without interruption yet there to help as soon as we needed anything.

I love that she warned us away from some yarns we were considering as she felt we'd be disappointed with the results given what we were hoping to achieve. She was even able to demonstrate how inappropriate they might be versus a better choice with well labelled swatches.

'Been searching for a sweater quantity of this ever since talking with Viola at the Frolic in April - now finally I have it!

My credit card came out while I was there (more on that later - 'just trying to stay focused here today). My Aunt, who was along with me, left with a few ideas to mull around until next time and there will be a "next time" quite soon because the whole experience there left us feeling calm, capable and grounded where so often one emerges from yarn stores just feeling frazzled and unsure.

Second stop, 10 minutes drive south, was the new location of Ewe Knit.

The huge shop, previously a Credit Union office, is best described as GORGEOUS. It's deep and wide with lower ceilings than in their original location (a Victorian row house). Set up and styled to be of the moment with raw wood and painted black trim punctuated with girly chandeliers and well placed embellished antiques. Its a polished and compelling display of the tactile and visual possibilities of knitting and needlework stocked with goods that reminded me of the inventory at Purl Soho in Manhattan.

The lighting in the shop is amazing. There's natural light through the south facing windows but the ambient lighting throughout is low, punctuated by halogen spotlit columns of pure light that allow the consideration of a colour or yarn with focus and clarity as the surrounding visual distractions fade into the darker background.

One of the things I've always loved about Eweknit are the knitted sample garments on display and often featured on the their website. In the new shop they take pride of place, carefully laid out in distinct colour groups on big wide tables greeting you with delicious possibilities as you enter.

Now my Aunt loves gleaning project ideas from yarn store samples she can see, feel and try on and within moments of walking through the door she had the materials for a lovely store-designed cowl in Cascade Eco Duo "Zebra". It looks very graphic in the skein and sounds contrasty in the name too but it knits up visually softer than the yarn appears with the hard-to-believe-this-stuff-grew-on-an-animal softness that only Alpaca can deliver.

(Given my Aunt's knitting style I bet that cowl is ready for wearing before the weekend's out.)

Of course the glamourous and effusive owner Claudia was there, as ever seeming more hostess than shopkeeper and so making you feel like you could well spend the day there and be welcome to do so too. There are also two other staff  able to help with the details of selection and purchase.

Its hard to say whether I was so well satisfied with our almost contemplative time in Knit-O-Matic and my purchases there that the details of the Eweknit yarn were lost on me this visit but I ended up walking out with a yard of cotton in an autumn print that will soon become a cushion cover either here or at the cottage.

Goodness but we had fun, well suited to the freshly brisk weather tempered by a still quite warm sun. If you're local to Toronto I'd highly recommend checking out either (or, better still, both) shops.

If further afield, and say, shopping with American dollars, why not take a trip up here and get a real bang for your yarn shopping buck? These two stores are only a couple of the great LYS's Toronto knitters enjoy and if you were coming from somewhere really warm (like Texas or something ;) ) I can assure you the cool fall air and changing leaves on the trees is a compelling context indeed to fuel your knitting imagination!

Okay. I'm cutting myself off there! Obviously lots more to post about next week!

We are heading north for a cool Autumnal weekend with lots of time by the fireside indoors and also maybe outside too! I'll leave Darling Daughter to tidy up loose ends on the vest and be back Sunday afternoon to help her block it.

Happy First Week of Autumn everybody! Thanks for dropping by!

Fast, Easy, Portable and Cheap?

I dropped by Americo recently after a friend new to knitting went there on my recommendation and came away with her first sweater's worth of charcoal thick and thin yarn and gushing good things about the shop. I've been before but don't visit often - I just haven't been into Americo's singular style.

Anyway on this trip the very engaging owner showed me yarn/pattern combinations saying things like

 "this would be a really portable project - you could just tuck it in your purse and go!"

 "this is an easy one"

"only one skein and you're done"

I said I was okay with something tricky and was happy to undertake difficult/expansive projects. 

Her sales pitch remained unchanged - Fast, Easy, Portable and Cheap.

I found this to be so interesting.

First because "Cheap" of course was only in the "pitch" via single-skein projects. For anything demanding more yarn,  I bet most projects from there would come in on the pricey side.

Second in that Americo has been savvy side stepping the challenge of getting good fit without defaulting to socks and shawls. Instead their sweaters feature drop shoulders and boxy shapes, their cardigans are flowing and button-free, arm warmers outnumber mitts and cowls are ribbed, seed or moss stitched in bulky yarns. Fast, easy rectangles all.

So it dawned on me Americo does offer the avid knitter luxurious and on-trend neutral yarns but the shop isn't so much about the knitting, or how beautiful the yarn is in the skein or how lovely it will feel to slip through your hands as you work with it (all thoughts I generally have when cruising through an LYS) but rather how great it will be to soon wear something you're proud of and be able to tell people you made it! For the new or occasional knitter those are compelling prospects are they not? 

How clever you are Americo! I'm glad I went by there to look around. How fun to consider things from a fresh perspective!

I should maybe also add, "considering" aside, I didn't buy anything!

Week Condensed

I have started a post each day this week. 'Easy to do really - 'lots of juicy knitterly (k)news!. In shorter supply - time to get any finished and posted. So here - condensed and en masse...

• Glenna C. posted a little report on the DCK Fashion show from last week on her blog here. (A bigger collection of photos will shortly appear on the Twist Collective Blog.)
• As a thank you from the Twist Collective for helping with the show they generously gave each model their choice of any pattern from their vast array - for free! We just have to pick one! Harder than it seems - how do you pick just one?!
• On my way out of the show last week a very kind friend gave me a copy of a book on the history of Gansey sweaters...she had two! How great is that? I've read it now - not only interesting but the booklet also features references to the ancestral home of my father's Scottish Clan!
• And speaking Ganseys - I finally took the couple of hours I suspected it would take to properly block my Guernsey Wrap. It was worth the effort - I'll have an FO post next week for sure.
• The Shepherd and Shearer patterns are out and the yarn should be arriving late next week/early the week after right here in my mailbox! I'll be making the pullover - the one called the "Shearer". (Rav link to both here) those who originally purchased a package back at the beginning have the opportunity to download the e-book for free, which I have done. Can't wait to get started!
• Our monthly craft group gathering was on Monday. I made (Scottish Current Slices) For a variety of reasons the assembled crafters numbered less than half the usual 20 or so - hence I had the biggest show and tell that night and the biggest ever quantity of baked leftovers to bring home.

• Our trip to DC was last weekend. I'd have fun watching paint harden with My Beloved so no surprise we had a great time. Surprising though was....

"The" Smithsonian is actually many different museums arrayed around the Capital Mall, and admission to all of them is Free!...

DC is a "Foodie" paradise...organic, local, imaginative and most importantly delicious! Without looking we stumbled into 3 Zagat rated restaurants - one, pictured above, was in the Smithsonian's "American Indian Museum". (Hasn't the term "Indian" been dropped for everyone other than people born in India? Might be time to rename that place - just don't change the food!)

While TV news makes it seem the Capital is loaded with old, unimaginative dolts bent on keeping the country stalled or at best in neutral, the streets, shops and homes around the Capital and Georgetown are actually populated with largely young, fit, seemingly bright people....more like what the nation would seem to deserve...what gives there?

The best surprise of all though was that the windows in our hotel room opened! So Sunday afternoon, with our bags packed and waiting to head to the airport I got some knitting time in as a beautiful breeze wafted past the curtains! It was a great way to finish up a great weekend.

And just like that, here comes another one! Enjoy! And thanks for dropping by!

Craft Night Report

The baking...Lemon Sugar Cookies (Martha Stewart) Crispy, sugar sparkly delicious with an unexpected "hit" of lemony tang. Yum!

The "show and tell"...One sock, one hat and the knitting. ('Didn't work a single stitch - too busy gabbing and moving around the room visiting but you need to have something to hold right?)

The "survey question" - asking the black belt knitters what size I should remake Deco. I modelled what I've got and their conclusion was 3 sizes up for 6 additional inches across the bust. I was only thinking 2 sizes up not considering the need for ease so I'm glad I asked! Their thought is the issue's with how the pattern's been  graded. Interesting to hear because there are comments amid the Ravelry patterns that it knits small, others haven't had a problem with it so it probably comes down to having success if you're lucky enough to have your shape work with the shape of the knit. They key is - Lyn this is for you - do not be mislead by the first sentence of the pattern beneath the top photo that says "to fit" bust..." don't assume that means, to get the fit pictured - complete with some ease on whatever your chosen bust measurement knit the following size. In fact the ladies instructed me last night to ignore that sentence and work out the gauge and inches that will yield at that bust point and choose what size sweater to knit based on that number. That's what they did for me. The other measurements on the schematic like sleeve and body length are easily altered where the bust is difficult to change while maintaining the Deco pattern and one piece construction. Now I'll rip and reknit with confidence knowing I didn't do something stupid that I might just repeat on a second try.

The "miracle"...'misplaced a needle a few weeks ago. At first I searched for it then resigned myself to the notion it was gone for good or would just reappear. Last night - the latter - while circumnavigating the room I sat down to talk to a relative newcomer to the group - someone with whom I've never had the chance to visit before. At one point she sat back in her chair, exclaimed in a way my husband often does when "finding" an errant needle in an upholstered piece of furniture and then she said "someone's lost a needle" (Beloved usually phrases the same thought with a bit more "emotion" ;) ) I instantly recognized it as my missing Aero straight from my mother's collection - I must have left it behind last month. I thanked her and the knitting gods that reunited needle and I and on we went with chatting. Once again my knitting life reassures me there is order in the universe.

So that's me done for Craft Group until the fall. They will be meeting again in June but I can't make it that evening. The baking contributions are coming in from many corners of late so I know they won't go "hungry" without my basket of goodies!

Thanks for dropping by today!