Monday, February 22, 2010

The Journey of 1000 Blogs Has Led Me Here

There are so many reasons that I love the blogs I read. They provide me with company, comfort, and cohorts. I love the advice I get from the moms, the stories of other families, and the sneaky exploits of other knitters.

This time, The Blogs did not let me down. I was reading Erika over at Redshirt Knitting when she posted about her latest sock. It is an explosion of yellows and oranges, like orange juice for your feet. It is just the thing I always admire, but seldom choose to knit for myself. This time, though, when I saw the storm of sunshiney brightness flash up on my screen I knew that I must knit it. Now.

Let's face it. I live in Minnesota. Like Wisconsin and South Dakota, the winters here are hard, long, and brutally gray. Weeks can go by between sunny days and after a while one's retinas become starved for even a flash of color. Anything but white or steely gray.

On Erika's blog I commented on how much I admired her socks and she kindly replied back that a later commenter had seen this yarn for sale at Borealis Yarns in St Paul. I'd never been there before (Surprising since I've been to nearly every other yarn store in the metro area.) so I jumped at the excuse to go.

Oh my goodness. What a terrific yarn store. They had some yarns that I haven't seen in other Twin Cities yarn stores and a decent selection of colors in the brands that they carried. The staff was helpful and the store was full--FULL, I SAY--of knitters coming and going, sitting and talking the whole time I was there. They had a whole WALL of Jamieson Shetland wool. They must have stocked every color Jamieson makes (this is important because the subtlety of the colors is hidden by a computer monitor and it must be seen in person, in my opinon). There was another wall that was ONLY SOCK YARN. And it was a big wall, too. I can't believe I'd missed this neighborhood shop for SO LONG. Forgive my caps, but I was amazed. I am in the first blush of love.

Anyway, they carried many, many colors from the company that made Erika's sock yarn, but sadly they didn't have the exact color. There was another one that was close and I nearly bought it until I saw this beauty sitting in a tub by the front window.

I think you'll be coming home with me, my pet. You're so pretty. And yellow. Sigh.

4 comments:

Bethany LaShell said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog & commenting. Sounds like you've got a very balanced approach to beginning homeschooling. Modest expectations are best :-). I'll be using Sonlight with my 7th grader next year. We used to read aloud a lot, but not now so much, although my youngest (the 6th grader) learns by reading out loud the most interesting tidbits. This would be fine, except that it's distracting to her older sister trying to do 10th grade & to me trying to do other stuff. Oh well.

Pretty yarn! I do lots of hand crafts, but I don't knit or crochet. Maybe in my next life!

Andi said...

I've been following your blog since I became pregnant with my son. I've been loving your posts and thought I'd let you know!

Your yarn is lovely! I buy pretty yarn even though I can't knit. It is one of the things on my list to do before I die. As it is now, I use my yarn to make cards.

Knittymama said...

Oh, I love Borealis so much! I only wish they were closer to Mpls.

Bethany LaShell said...

You posed some great questions on my classical education post! I will address them, I promise; you've given me a bunch of good posting topics :-). I've been doing the classical thing for so long that it's good to have a reminder of things that need to be considered when one is just starting out. I'll give you a sneak preview & tell you that my first classical resource was the Veritas Press catalog (www.veritaspress.com). Blessings!