It wasn't exactly Stitches West, but we had a Genuine Eye Candy weekend, and not just for yarn. Anyone familiar with Asheville knows it's one of the most artisan-rich areas in the United States. It seems like every other shop showcases exquisite craftsmanship--glass, fiber, wood, photography, jewelry, sculpture, and some really impressive beer-cap mosaics. I wonder what the artist did with the bottles....
Yarn Paradise (aptly named) was right around the corner from our hotel. Roy adopted this luscious Claudia hand-dyed mohair boucle. He sat in the Husband's Corner with it possessively wedged under his chin. A Car-Knitting Scarf, he declared, refusing to release it.
I know I promised I wouldn't post any cat pictures, but Laptop seems to feel the same way about this skein of yarn as Roy does. She usually ignores yarn, so I caved and snapped her possessively clutching the mohair.
Two skeins of Koigu and some buttons destined to be made into cuff links were the only other purchases.
I know there are some of you who like Purl, but I really don't care for this store. The Husband's Corner featured an agony-inducing rocking chair and a back-wringer with a broken seat.
The lighting is awful and the yarn arranged by color, which I find totally unintuitive. I don't shop by Blue or Green. I shop by Shawl or Sweater, or at least by Fingering or DK. And this store had no squashy, fondle-friendly yarn anywhere--it was all scratchy, bulky woolly stuff with some googly novelties for the Scarf Set. And like the last time, I attained invisibility as soon as I stepped over the threshold.
The Earth Guild had it's usual vast array of fiber-related goodies, but nothing jumped out at me except one of the owners. We reminisced about their original store in Cambridge and she filled me in on thirty years of gossip about people I never knew or couldn't recall. At least I wasn't invisible.
Of course we had dinner at the Flying Frog Cafe. Where else to eat after a tour of yarn stores?
Nobody had any Addi Lace needles yet and it was a bit too early for Spring yarn. And the books! Why do the publishers bother thinking up titles? Call them all Simple Chunky Funky One-Skein One-Hour Brainless Non-Grandmother's Knitting for Cool Teens Volumes 1-456.
What I want to see is a book titled Wickedly Intricate Knitted Masterpieces for the Really Experienced Lunatic Knitter.
I envision this book to be a cross between Miller's Heirloom Knitting and that Japanese masterpiece, New Style of Heirloom Knitting, with some whimsical additions to leaven the weighty, serious, complex projects that comprise the remainder of the book. There will be ample photographs and a sturdy text font readable by any age group without squinting. The book shall be printed on non-shiny paper and contain no How to Cast On/Knit/Purl section. And in the back of the book there will be a CD holding an e-book version to take on the road, plus a folder full of enlargeable graphs.
In my dreams.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Asheville Report
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15 comments:
Well, next time I go to Asheville I will definitely check out Yarn Paradise. Thanks, Fleegle. Usually by the time I go through Earth Guild and the bookstore next door and the rock shops down the street, it's time to head home. lol
Wickedly Intricate Knitted Masterpieces for the Really Experienced Lunatic Knitter - Yes!!!
Where do I sign up for it?
I want that book. "Lunatic" clinched it for me. :)
We all want this book. How can we make one? Having written several books, I really can't face the thought of another one. But if we can get enough people together, perhaps we can all do a chapter.
Mmmm, "Wickedly Intricate". :D Sounds just about right.
As to the book. Fleegle, it's your title and your baby! We'll all buy it. I'll bet you can find a person or two or three to write some chapters.
As to laptop. Nice pic.
As to the Koigu. Ooooh, aaaah. I'm jealous.
As to invisibility in yarn stores - who needs 'em. Feh. Let them sell their imbecile books to the teenagers who want to shop by color.
Ah, Mama Cat--
Not my book, uh uh. Alice and Jane can write lace chapters. I can be editor and write a chapter about strange decreases, easy nupping, lifelines, modifying needles, and such. Now all we need are about 30 other contributors and an understanding publisher. Excuse the oxymoron.
If you write it, I will buy.
I like your book ideas, Fleegle and I certainly agree with the no how to cast on, knit, purl section. Makes my hair curl every time! I also like Roy's (and Laptop's) taste in yarn!
From Fleegle's Husband.......Knowing Fleegle, she won't write the book.
She has written several books about comptrers and embroidery and has sworn never to write another.
But, she has said she would edit a book on knitting and do a couple of chapters if enough of you volunteer to do chapters to make a book.
Send your ideas for a chapter to her and see what you can all come up with.
I am a knitting enabler.
Mr. Fleegle
Dear fleegle,
You've had too much caffine my dear. However, the idea for the book sounds great. Not sure I'd have anything to contribute since I've never created a lace project from scratch. Still, interesting idea. Knitting S&M. Yeah, it could work!
Dear fleegle Im looking forward to the book with no time or ability to write. As for the enabler .... may there be many more of them we should all have one
Ha! The book sounds fabulous! I love the title. But you'd never find a publisher outside of Schoolhouse Press or Sharon Miller's publisher (is she self-published) or some other small knitting specialization publisher.
As much as I love paper, I say go digital. Make it all online, and also produce a CD. Unfortuantely that would preclude any non-computer-connected knitters. But you could put as much text and image as you like, and make the pattern text sizeable to any size for printouts. And not have to save space on charts just because of the physical limitations of a book.
I've been obsessed lately with delayed decreases across an overall pattern, especially across multiple rows. I'm not experienced enough for a chapter but I'd write you a sidenote. (grin)
I'm totally with you on this one. I get so fed up of dumbed-down magazines and 'Beginning'-type books. If I see one more telling me that it is really easy to start off and make - wait for it - a SCARF - I will scream. When will they realise that quite a few of us want to exercise our brains, not bore them to death!
Count me in when you start putting it together!
Oh and forgot to say: I was thinking of writing two myself: Crisis Knitting (for those occasions when you NEED something quick, urgent, gratifying, right this minute to help you survive) and Why Dogs Knit, by Muffy the Yarnslayer (who features in my own blog rather too often, due to her ravenous lust for yarn, especially the expensive kind).
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