Monday, May 13, 2013

Knitting by mail

Behold, the best mail delivery day ever:


Every piece of mail for one person (me), not one of them a bill or a flyer, and all of them for fun.  How great is that?

One piece is The New Yorker, which I've already consumed, and another is a special thing of much exciting-ness I'll show you in a minute, but the middle two:


Yep, both brands I wanted to test for double pointed needles arrived at once, which in theory should mean that two pairs of socks got cast on over the weekend.  But no: because, if you look closely, you'll see the Boye's idea of a number 1 knitting needle is the equivalent of 2.5mm in spite of the company I bought it from listing it as a 2.25mm needle on its website.  Susan Bates, apparently, leans toward the 2.25mm option.

(I realize I'm probably just a walking case of sour grapes here, but honestly:  when are all those holdout companies going to acknowledge the viability of both of these very popular sizes?)

A Surprisingly Civilized Weekend

The Signature needles weren't the motivation for this, but on Friday night I moved all the furniture in my living room and emptied most of the bookshelves.  You know how sometimes, you have to do that, just to declutter?  When things get bad enough, picking out a few items here and there to withdraw from the room is not going to cut it.

So: all the furniture is in another place, and all the books got moved based on how tall they are in relation to the shelves, and the result was a little more available storage space and two new places where I can sit and knit or spin or not weave because it is so much not weaving season.  Plus: better lighting throughout.  Go, spring cleaning!  May your own, should you do any, be as beneficial.

In addition to providing a pretty place to work on the handspun for my handspun socks, the open brain space this process gave me allowed me to figure out at last how to play audiobooks on my Kindle, which I promptly did in a coffee shop.  Such a grownup, I am.


I'll do a proper review of the Signatures after a bit more testing, but for now, I'm just very happy to be getting compact stitches with this yarn again after doing the last few pairs on the slightly larger square needles.  See?  Pretty stitches.


The colour combinations for all the different Vesper club yarns never cease to amuse me... definitely signing up for the next club in spite of my yarn diet.

And Back to the Mail

Okay, it looks like the last parcel has some stuff in it meant for gifts, but I can show you the birthday-present purchase that prompted me to order it:


Wood-topped bobby pins!   They are from The Woodlot's booth at this year's Knitter's Frolic - three tables full of the coolest practical things I've ever seen made from slices of branches and larger pieces of wood.

I knew these pins would be perfect for a friend who has long hair, but I dropped into the etsy shop later for the little presents for somebody else, and then I went back again after the box arrived to buy some plain wood magnets for the 'frig at the cottage.  Or maybe for the magnet board I keep wanting to put up in the living room, for little drawings and bits of found things.  Either way: so hooked on this shop and the wonderful pieces of art in it! 

And on that note: time for me to go do some drudgery so as to earn downtime in my lovely new living room.

Take care of yourself and I'll see you tomorrow, okay?

5 comments:

Leslie said...

We did a good bit of spring decluttering around our house too! I'm happy to report that all boxes are now unpacked and art work is in the rooms where it'll hand (leaning against the wall but has been relocated appropriately). It was a great AAAAH moment when that last empty box was tossed outside.

Mary Keenan said...

I'll bet it was wonderful - back and better than ever, right?!

Leslie said...

very much so! I'll send you pics of my studio once the art is up...

Darlene said...

Didn't anyone ever tell you NOT to run your unused needle through your knitting when you are done? Could split the stitches.

Mary Keenan said...

You definitely don't want to split any stitches! I'm always very careful not to, but I do find it the best way to not lose the spare needle in transit ;^)