Well, it's Wednesday!

For most of the world Wednesday is hump day. Almost the weekend. For me, it's just the beginning. Actually the second day of my week. I've had enough trouble keeping track of what day it is without moving the start of my work week up a day.

It wasn't all that busy yesterday but there was some traffic. Three brand new customers! That's always fun. One of them is a knitter returning to the craft after twenty years in limbo. She came in for some help on a scarf/cowl she had started while on vacation in Canada. About ten inches into the thing she began to feel something wasn't quite right. You guessed it! She had twisted her cast on row and now had a lovely coil in her cowl. I tried to be gentle when I told her there was no solution except to start over. Didn't seem to bother her too much as I think she had already realized that. It seems that the original cast on was done by the shop owner where she bought the yarn. She's also using a 32" needle for a scarf that's only 24" around. Ann Mary didn't have the right size needle in stock so we just forged ahead using what she had. So she's back on track, having learned how to cast on and how to hold the needles and the yarn so she doesn't keep losing stitches off the points. And we sold her some shaggy yarn and a pattern for a top.

Another of the new folks is just moving here from DC. It took a while for her to really warm up to us but before it was all over she was eating out of our hands. I hope the special rush order to Brown Sheep goes well. Otherwise it might be biting the hand that feeds you.

And the last one is a non-knitting fiberista. She's making crocheted garters for a couple of friends to wear in their weddings. One of the brides was with her. I think I'll be teaching her in a few days. And the fiberista promises to be back. She has a weakness for soft, fuzzy yarn. We have lots of that.

I didn't work on the Reggio socks at all. I brought home some new yarn to transform into a scarf, the idea being to show off how the yarn looks when it's worked up. This is some of the most ill-behaved yarn I've ever worked with. Probably it doesn't like the size 17 needles. I cast on 80 stitches for a long ways scarf and worked about 8 rows before I decided that the yarn just looked like a bag of brambles. Ripped it out and cast on 15 stitches and am using a drop stitch pattern. It looks better but I'm not sure the yarn is really meant to be used this way. I'm at about the halfway point. I'll show it to Ann Mary and see if she wants me to finish it. Oh! the yarn is Quattro from Austermann (a ribbony sort of yarn that's very easy to pierce with the needles) and Electra from Plymouth, one of those tufted yarns that several other companies have introduced this year, sort of like the railroad yarns but without one of the tracks.