A Slow day!

Yesterday, at Hodge Podge it was a slow day…which was nice for a change. For the past couple of weeks, it’s been insanely busy with very little time to sit and knit. So, yesterday, I got to wander around and see what appealed to me. Here’s what I found: some wonderful Araucania sock yarn, 75% wool, 25% polymide, in lovely colors:

The same colors come in worsted weight and chunky (or is it bulky? Hmm… one up from worsted, not the big fat stuff!). The question is, which to buy…especially after promising myself no more yarn ’til I finish the stuff I have sitting in piles around the house: two sweaters, two shawls, two pairs of socks, and lots of yarn in bags!

Sue has been playing around with these little bunnies, the pattern for which she found in a recent issue of Creative Knitting. They are stuffed with wool:

I wandered around the book section, always amazed at the sheer number of books Sue has in the store: here’s about l/2 of them:

Well, that’s the end of today’s “virtual tour”.  Have a good weekend. Stop in if you’re anywhere near Newport, N.H.

Back again…

I’ll bet you thought we disappeared, or the store closed down, or something…well, it didn’t and we didn’t. However, it’s been a crazy Fall and early Winter, and Betty, who usually did the blogging, fell down a flight of stairs and broke a bunch of bones and spent the last three months healing. So, here I am, back again, with my New Year’s Resolution to keep up on this blog and let you know what’s up at the store.

We’ve all been busily spinning and knitting. There’s been a bunch of people in the store, visiting and working in the back corner where the couch and chairs are, set up for people to come in, kick back, and knit. Here’s Shari and Phyllis: Shari is working on a scarf using some of her alpaca fleece, I believe, mixed with something else…silk? Not sure. Forgot to ask her. And Phyllis is making a triangular shawl using up all her leftover yarn scraps.

Sue has been busily making socks in between other projects. Here she is finishing up the third pair this week.

I stopped spinning my first spindle of homespun yarn since my accident, but forgot to get someone to take my picture, so you’ll just have to imagine it!

Meanwhile, one of Sue’s New Year’s resolutions was to get rid of a lot of old magazines that haven’t sold, to make room for all the new yarn she keeps ordering. (The store is running out of room; we may have to use the second floor!) So, all those old magazines, knitting and crochetting varieties are in a rack by the door, with a sign on them that says: “Free, take me!”

So, when you next visit the store, be prepared to pick up some freebies chock full of patterns and interesting articles.  Hope to see you there soon: in Newport, New Hampshire, turn left just past the Common (as they say in New Hampshire!) on Belknap Avenue: it’s the BIG red barn on the right down one block.