Black Sheep

Success!

March 28th, 2006

I finished knitting the Artfibers Chai pullover on Sunday. Here is a mirror-in-the-bathroom shot of me wearing it pre-blocking. I was really nervous about washing and blocking this sweater a second time because of my horrible fiasco the last time I knitted this sweater. Somehow, in the washing of the sweater, the silk got stretech out waay too much. I was so depressed about it. It had turned out so beautifully and I messed it up somehow. The last time I hand washed it and I think it just got too water-logged. This time I used my washing machine (thank god for them! I didn’t have one last time…). I filled it up (on the “small wash” setting) and poured about a teaspoon of Eucalan wash in. Then I put my sweater in a lingerie bag, put it in the wash, and let it soak for thirty minutes. Then I just used the spin cycle to spin the water out. I am happy to say that there was absolutely NO stretching! See:

As for my opinion of the Eucalan wash, I don’t know that it is any better than using what I would normally use. I did like that you don’t have to go throught the process of rinsing. The sweater does come out smelling really nice and clean. It’s hard to say if it feels any softer because silk is already soft to begin with. I am going to try it on Butterfly when I am done because the Kureyon that I’m using for it is, like, the opposite of soft.

Speaking of Butterfly, I finally picked it up again and I finished the left front panel. NOt much to say about that. Except that I am really enjoying the pattern.

I mentioned in my last post that I would post some thoughts on a new yarn store I visited in Los Gatos last week when I was there. It’s called Yarn Dogs. It opened last year about the same time that Commuknity did. In fact, this woman that I worked with at SCU is close friends with the owner of the store and that’s how I learned of it’s existance. I have been wanting to visit for a long time and was happy to have found the opportunity to do so.

The store is dog friendly, so when I walked in I was greeted by the store’s mascot, an adorable little doggie. He came up and said hello, wagging it’s tail. It was so adorable! I looked up at the counter and said something like, “It’s wonderful to walk into a yarn store and be greeted by a cute dog!” And I meant it. The store itself was super small. REally, it felt a little bit cramped to me. But that’s okay. I’ve been in lots of small yarn stores and it doesn’t take away from the store. They had the front section devoted to yarn, and then there was a back room that had a huge collection of books. I think this was the best selection of books I have ever seen in a yarn store. They had everything.

As for yarn selection, I wasn’t really familiar with most of the brands, and the ones that I was familiar with I could pretty much get anywhere. So I was having a tough time deciding what to buy. I found a beautiful scarf and thought I would buy the yarn to make it but I couldn’t get anyone to help me so that I could find out the yarn and the pattern. I finally figured out what yarn was used, but when I asked nobody seemed able to tell me what the general pattern was. The other problem was that the yarn was hella expensive! I think it would have ended up costing me about $80. I just couldn’t justify paying that much for it so decided against buying it.

So this brings me to the customer service, which I found lacking. First of all, while it was really cute that the doggie greeted me at the door, it soon became a slight irritation to have this dog running around in such a cramped space. Since the place is dog friendly, there soon were several dogs in there (all small) and it began to slightly wear on my nerves. The space was just too small. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like if a larger dog came into the store. I think that would have driven me away. Not that I don’t like dogs. I love them. And I’m all for being a dog-friendly establishment. But dogs can be very playful. And the combination of a playful dog and a cramped store is not neccessarily the best. Also, I found that the people who worked there (except the owner) were more concerned with playing catch with the dog than with asking me for help. I was pretty much ignored most of the time I was there. I had to actually ask for help, when it was quite obvious that I needed help. And when I asked a question, the person helping me didn’t have the answer, gave me the impression that she was going off to get the answer, but didn’t. I sat and waited for her answer for quite awhile. I never really did get the answer I wanted. So, all in all, the customer service aspect of the store was not good. But otherwise, a lovely store with a friendly dog.

Entry Filed under: Chai Pullover, Butterfly