It's 1973 All Over Again

   Several days ago after shopping at Pike Place Market, I stopped by the newsstand to pick up some magazines. Besides Ornament, I grabbed a couple of knitting titles I'd never read.

   The guy who took my money looked over what I chose and said loudly, "Crafts, crafts, crafts. It's 1973 all over again."

   I stopped knitting the first time in 1973. For the previous 4 years I'd sporadically bought yarn and needles at the variety store in the small town where I lived.

   I could choose 100% wool or 100% acrylic. Acrylic came in 8 colors to wool's twelve plus some variegated, but cost a third less. Mostly I bought acrylic but I do remember springing for the brown, orange, and gold variegated wool once. Sometimes I walked out with nothing because the colors were so blah. Seen one brown, orange, and gold combo, seen 'em all.

   Needles were colored aluminum or plastic; straight or double point. No circulars. No wood or bamboo. I don't think cars even came in turbo.

   I bought 2 of the 6 large, thin paperback books they carried. One taught me how to knit; the other showed a couple hundred pattern stitches mostly beyond my skills.

   In '73 I went off to college. I never saw yarn for sale in Davis, a university town in California, the entire time I lived there.

   My first encounter with a calculator was fall of '73 in a class at Davis. It cost over twice what my parents gave me per month, but 75% less than it had 6 months before. We couldn't use them on tests.

    From the spot I sit right now in downtown Seattle there are 6 easily reached needlecraft stores I've visited and 3 or 4 I haven't. I go to drop-in circles and classes at several of them regularly.

   I own yarn made of mixtures of merino, cashmere, silk, alpaca, mohair, and even a little acrylic. No bamboo or soy has made its way to my stash yet, but it will. I have colors it never would have occurred to me to wear until I saw them and held them.

   I own so many circular needles I bought a large file box to store them. The first box I bought was too small to hold a third of them. Materials include bamboo, cherry, ebony, Teflon coated, and a very few metal. I knit loosely so metal is too slick. I only use circulars, though I didn't know they existed until I restarted knitting in 2000.

   My knitting books fill several shelves and a couple random piles near where I knit. My current reads include reprints of older books and knitting humor books released last week.

   I have a calculator in every project bag. My on-line friend in Holland (an American ex-pat) is trading blog addresses with me through an exercise video forum we both read.

   It's so not 1973 all over again. And Seattle's a great place to knit. 

   I'm making my second pair of socks (Mission Falls 1824 superwash merino) toe-up and head to a drop-in circle for help turning the heel in a few minutes. My first pair sat for 2 years with both heels already turned so I need a refresher.

   I'm also going to figure out my template for a top-down cardigan out of this Mountain Colors. It's 4/8s in Silverbow. I plan on crew neck, slightly fitted, picot hems and bands, and raglan sleeves with YO details at the increases.

    Note - This post was delayed by technical difficulties on my end. I'm home from my circles but will post more tomorrow on my projects.

Comments

[Charlotte]

Great blog! I really need to take some pictures of my stash of yarn. See what you have on here, makes me what to go yarn shopping,lol.

[KarenJoSeattle]

Thanks, Charlotte.
The photos are only a small part of my stash, but I've been collecting for several years. With the nice stuff you've been buying lately, you'll have a good stash in no time.

[Laura]

I remember those days. I even still have some of those needles. I'll never again use the size 10-1/2, light blue, aluminum needles, but don't even try getting them away from me. Isn't it wonderful all the options we have now? Mind boggling, really.

[KarenJoSeattle]

Laura, I wish I still had my needles from then. Surprisingly, even my mother didn't save them.

[Kim]

I came over from Yarnival! I'm happy to report that since 1999 there has been a yarn shop in Davis, which is where I learned to knit. My friends Molly and Steve opened it, and Molly taught my knitting class. On a recent trip back for Picnic Day, I discovered a second yarn shop also! So Davis has come a long way also!

[KarenJoSeattle]

Kim, thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment.

I have a sister-in-law in Davis so I still get there (though I avoid Picnic Day). We're usually tied up with family stuff and not shopping or browsing. I need to make a point of looking up those shops the next time we're there.