Love Letter to a Yarn Shop

0 Posted by - July 21, 2015 - Favorite Yarns, New Projects, New Yarns, Sweaters

I have to share this with you.  Patty Kroppe, who is a busy young mother with not much time to knit, wrote this really lovely email and gave her okay to share it:

…”I want to tell you that I love your new look on your website. I also want to tell you that I am soooooooo grateful that you have a shop in West Reading. It is a breath of sanity for me. I know I am not a regular customer, but I still want to pipe up and say your presence and The Yarn Gallery’s presence means a lot to me. Eleven years ago, when I moved to Reading, I was so happy to know that there was a knit shop in this gritty, PA-Dutch-ish, industrial town that I was relocating to!!!…to me, the presence of a knit shop in a community signifies creativity, abundance, quality, solid values, fellowship, warmth, intelligence and so much more. I know your shop will NOT be around FOREVER (wish you would), but I want to thank you for taking a chance on West Reading and helping to make our home such a wonderful home. I do not know anything about what kinds of losses or gains you have endured as a knit shop owner, but I do know that most knitters LOVE to knit and really just want everyone to leave them alone so they can KNIT! I know that being a knit shop owner may allow for SOME knitting, but it also allows for a whole lot of pain in the butt people, headaches, and MANY interruptions from knitting, etc. Thank you for trudging through the negatives to provide us with such a place of serenity and warmth. Your shop and your patience has been such a gift to me and so many others. I hope it has also brought you some gifts, among the headaches!!! Most of all, your shop has meant HOPE to me, hope that my kids, too, will someday grow up and I will have more time to express myself creatively!!! The women who come into your shop are so beautiful and have lived such interesting and lovely lives…thank you…”

Now, isn’t that the just the best letter?  I wish every yarn shop owner could receive one like it so they could feel the way I do when I read it: grateful, energized, tearful, and appreciated.  Thank YOU, Patty, for being so kind and taking the time to compose a wonderful letter, which is a gift in itself!  It’s going in my “keep forever so I can remember it when I’m ancient” folder.

Now on to our regularly scheduled program.

I’ve been knitting like a madwoman.  It’s all I want to do right now. After a little while when nothing was particularly interesting, it’s like something has caught fire and I just burn to knit!  And I’m so lucky that I can indulge that for the most part.  I finished this little jacket in no time, and really, it doesn’t take long.

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 The combination of yarns (Debbie Bliss’s Milano and Berroco’s Folio) just fascinated me.  The fabric was beautiful to look at and to touch,

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and I had to make it into something. Carol Feller’s “Vivido” was perfect: a bulky gauge, a simple shape, and zoom – done!

I just finished a new model from Shibui’s fall collection, which is being blocked right now.  It was, I confess, an indulgence even for me, and I pay wholesale, but as soon as I saw it, I knew I would swatch for it, and as soon as I swatched it, I knew I would have to make it.  Next time, I’ll show you.

And I’ve started on a new cardigan called Newsom, by Bristol Ivy. (I know, I raved about her last week, so I’ll restrain myself now.)  Interesting construction, architectural elements, and a yarn I love (Fine Donegal from Debbie Bliss) – why in the world not?  It starts at the center lower back and builds up and out with mitering.

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 Sleeves are done cuff up, then everything is joined to do the yoke and front bands.

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Here’s mine so far:

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Okay, stop laughing right now!  Long way to go, lots of hate somewhere along the way (always happens), but love will triumph in the end! Plus the edges of my garter stitch look a lot better than the model, so there!

I’ve been buying lots of yarn for us – here’s a little taste of something that nearly made me faint with desire:

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Braids of dyed-to coordinate Mariquita (baby alpaca and tencel) and Halo (brushed Suri alpaca/nylon).  The colors are amazing.  I’ll be looking for the perfect project so I can dive in as soon as they arrive in September, but seriously, project be damned.  I want, want, want!