A time to relax

I made it. I'm officially on vacation - as much as I can ever "officially" be on vacation, that is. After working my butt off for days, testing our new website and running into many "issues" that delayed the launch of all the new features... from last Tuesday, to last Thursday, to Monday of this week, to Tuesday of this week, to today... and then I got down here and plugged in my computer and guess what... it's delayed again until tomorrow. WOW has this been stressful.


When you work so hard for weeks on something, and then it's just out of your hands... And the hands that are trying to fix it, well, it's just not getting fixed fast enough. So as my plane got further and further from Vermont, and closer and closer to Florida, I definitely felt the stress lifting from my shoulders. At least I have left things in very capable hands while I'm gone (for which I am eternally thankful!) I just hope that when I check my website tomorrow afternoon, it is the NEW one, and not the current one. That would be a relief.


So we're here in Orlando for 4 days - doing a little Sea World, a little Discovery Cove and a little Aquatica. Tomorrow is a rest day - a hang at the pool day - a general unwind day, which is most needed. Then we are heading to Miami to hang out with a great college friend of mine. We have plans to ride the high seas on their boat - which is always interesting as her husband does deep sea fishing and we've been able to see him bring up some amazing catches on past trips. Then a jaunt across the state to hang with my parents in Sanibel and to finish up the trip with some gold old R&R. Lots of driving time for sure! I only brought my Flat Feet socks for knitting - I think I was in a bit of a funk when packing. The whole website stress thing just really drained me, that and being sick. I couldn't even get excited about packing my knitting projects. And that's always the MOST FUN part!


I also brought two crochet projects. The first is a granny square bag I am designing out of Cotton Rich DK. I brought my 200 Crochet Blocks book and on the plane I tried out a few squares. I couldn't get into it though, perhaps it was all the screaming children and babies on the plane - I have never flown IN to Orlando before and I never have been on a plane with so many children!


My second crochet project is some sort of flowery things out of Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed... I guess you might call them granny squares, in a way. All I know is that I saw one in a book, wanted to try it, and it's a lot of fun, so I am making a bunch of them in different colors, and then I hope to fashion them into some sort of a fun scarf. Stay tuned. It could work, or it could be a disaster!


Anyway, others will be posting this week to pitch in, but I leave you with two happy kids on a balcony...

A tale of two tweeds

This weekend I managed to knit another 10 swatches for the swatch jar at the shop. These swatches are actually proving to be very valuable selling tools. If a customer is choosing between two yarns, he/she can see sample garments knit up in each one. But if one sample garment is in stockinette, and the other is in cables... well that's not really comparing apples to apples. So in addition to seeing each yarn knit up in a sample garment, now you can also see each yarn in a basic stockinette swatch. This has already helped a number of wavering people make up their minds.

I've always loved tweeds. I started knitting when I was 15, and I knit some of my first few sweaters with tweedy yarns. We have two worsted weight tweeds in the shop now that I just love. One is Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed and the other is Plymouth Tweed. They are both great - in different ways.
Comparison:
Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed
147 yds for $9 (6.12 cents per yard)
5 on a US 6
85% wool 10% silk 5% cashmere

Pymouth Tweed
109 yds for $7 (6.42 cents per yard)
5 on US 8
100% virgin lambswool
Most people think the Silkroad DK is more expensive. It's Jo Sharp (sounds expensive, right?), it's $9 per ball, and it has cashmere and silk in it. Plymouth also has a reputation for lower priced yarns. But if you calculate the price per yard, the Jo Sharp is actually LESS... 6.12 cents per yard compared to 6.42 cents for the Plymouth. A lot of people don't do that price per yard calcuation, but in this case it shows that it can prove just how wrong a perception really is.

The Silkroad DK was heaven to knit with. The finished swatch is very soft and light. The overall color palette of this yarn is much softer. My dry hands were definitely "sticking" to this yarn, which was kind of annoying. (It would have been easier has I put on some No Crack cream before I started knitting, but I was too lazy to get up and get some.) I would love to make a sweater or vest out of this yarn, but I would need to make sure my hands were lubed properly!

I also really liked the Plymouth Tweed - it was surprisingly soft! It is squishy soft in the ball, but as I ran it through my hands I didn't really think it would be that great to work with. I stand corrected. It did not catch on my dry, scaly hands at all, and I think the color palette is vibrant and fun. My eyes are now opened up to the many possibilities for this yarn!