Wolle nervana!

Ulm, DE 2008/12/06
It is the Weihnachtsmarkt here in Ulm, but of greater interest to a knitter like me is the price of yarn at the Woole stores. Sock reinforcement yarn- USA $3.50, DE-.5 Euro!!!! Sock yarn: 6 Euros--$12-13 at home for the same stuff. I could live here...decent prices on yarn, good beer, and without study, my terrible, but adequate to engage in commerce, German is serving me well.

You know how we love bargains!!! ...and one of the bargains here is sock yarn! Interestingly though, no size "0" needles--and you would think that here people would need very tightly knit socks--as it is cold, and they spend a lot of time outside (you have to walk everywhere from the parkhaus in the sleet). But I have two more cities to look!!!

Ulm, the first stop on the great sock yarn acquisition mission of 2008!!!

P.S- Nice museum of bread (honest) and the tallest church spire in Europe too!!

Ready...

These socks are the bright candy like colors I am hoping for with my dye it yourself yarn....we will see....but I love these socks! Color and comfy!! Knit them on my Kansas trip.

Sock Goddess

I managed to drop in at my favorite yarn store today. Fortunately I do not have this opportunity often--it is expensive! They had re-arranged the store--so it took longer to take it all in! I left with yarn for only 5 (!) pair of new socks and a book. (Note: tremendous restraint here--that only knitters can appreciate)

I have recently had a compulsion to add to my sock knitters reference collection--and have added several previously dismissed books to the "must have " list. I was searching for reference material, but what the heck--luscious purple, shockingly pink, a lovely aloe yarn in the colorway I thought I was getting last time(but got the peach instead), another aloe because I like to knit with it, and a SALE opal--not that I needed any of this, but retirement will come someday, and/or there could possibly be a shortage of yarn shops/sock yarn in the future due to some unforeseen circumstance. (My former favorite yarn manufacturer did have their factory burn down, and have not rebuilt!) I will have socks to knit for me to occupy the foreseeable future! And there is the occassional "gift sock" for those truly special people.

One must have a stash--you never know what mood you will be in. It all has to work together...yarn, needles, pattern, interest, color, mood...... It is an addiction--a 12 step program my be needed! I found myself rationalizing to the shop clerk that I have daughters who knit, so if I have any left at the end, they will inherit the coveted yarn (and realized how stupid this sounds as soon as it is out of my mouth--neither of them knits socks---yet!)

In looking through the patterns in the new book, there are new techniques to try! Experience levels are indicated--and a particularly intriguing toe/heel indicates it is for "sock goddesses"---so my new goal! Not just a sock princess or queen of sock knitting--but to be a sock goddess!

I guess my knit group would agree--as they already think I am a obsessed with knitting socks--and am their sock "expert". I even have the sock icon in the membership list!! I have, however, noticed that one by one, they are falling in to line and are knitting socks--or trying to....and some have become "converts" to the two at once circular method. Just like a disease, this sock obsession! (Not to mention that hand knit, wool blend socks are wonderful!! to wear).

So, I have declared myself a sock goddess, and will continue to embrace new techniques in search of even more sock nirvana!!! Traveling again tomorrow--new frontiers (and yarn shops) to conquer!