Second Blog of Knitmas

On Christmas Eve I got two wonderful knitting-related presents. First the book Little Red in the City, and second a gift certificate to a new local yarn shop.

I was extremely excited to get Little Red in the City. I've been talking about this being the year of the sweater (and I have a practice sweater in mind), but I've also talked a lot about how sweaters scare me. They are a lot of knitting, a lot of construction, and knit to fit. Almost all of my greatest knitting phobias, all of them if it's a color work sweater.

This was what mom had in mind when she bought me this book. And my first reaction was that it is so very pretty. It looks like a coffee table book, meant to set out for everyone to see. Then I read the inside and I absolutely love this book. I love the conversational amusing tone, and the easy to understand tips and instructions. I'm making a sweater out of this book, later in the year, just you watch.

The gift certificate was for a store called the Yarnery. It's not extremely convenient for me to get to, there's nothing else in the area I go to on a regular basis so this was my first time there. It's two rooms on the ground floor of a small house in St. Paul. Each time I went I was greeted politely and asked if I could be helped. The first time I didn't need any help. I was looking for something to make a cowl and a hat out of, something soft and not horribly expensive. 

And then I found the Malabrigo. I had heard of it, but no one had told me how insanely soft it is. I grabbed two skeins in beautiful purple colors of worsted weight yarn, new sock needles, and called it an awesome visit. Especially when at check out I was asked if I wanted to wind my yarn there. I didn't have time, but came back later, and used a swift and ball winder for the first time. If you've never done it, DO IT. It's so awesome. I even had an uninterested husband of a customer watch me and talk about it while we did it.

I found the yarnery very appealing. It was cute and quiet, and had a good variety of yarn without being crowded. People were helpful but not aggressive, and seemed very knowledgeable. The yarn was decently priced, though my budget is still much closer to Joann's range.