Merry Christmas And Happy Recovery Day
I hope you had a lovely Christmas and that things have settled down for you. I had a pretty good Christmas. The family got together on Christmas Eve night and played games. I made beef, chicken, and bean fillings and we had a taco bar with red/green/white Jello parfaits for dessert. I haven't had Jello as actual Jello in such a long time. I usually use it as an ingredient in other things (like cake). But it was nice and light after spicy tacos.
Christmas Eve dinner was kind of a departure from our tradition this year. As you know, we usually eat out. But this year we decided to downsize the celebration, as there are some things we are trying to save for.
And I have to say, it was a very nice holiday. The important thing, of course, is that we were all together. I was able to complete all my knitted Christmas gifts except for T's scarf, but I will finish that up right away. And everyone really liked their gifts.
I was given some very nice yarn for Christmas, too. (Nicer than I buy for myself!) Like this fingering weight Merino from R and Bre. They picked this up on one of their travels together. I love this color combo. And I'm especially touched that they thought of me when they were on a trip. They would have had to research where to find a LYS in that area, go out of their way to get there, and then look for a yarn I would like. That's pretty awesome. (And I love this yarn. I have a couple of lacy shawl patterns I would like to try with this yarn.)
And this lovely yarn (including that nice fat skein of Malabrigo) was a gift from M.
M told me she had gone to the big LYS on the north side of town (It's a really big, beautiful shop. Probably the nicest one I've ever seen. I used to go there whenever I had to be on that side of town for a meeting. The owners have clearly put a lot of love--and money--into this store.) to get this yarn.
The salesperson was, of course, trying to be helpful. She was happy to learn that M was buying yarn for her mom, and began suggesting some nice sock yarn. M told her that I didn't knit socks. She thought I'd much rather have something worsted weight. That prompted the salesperson to suggest some nice how-to-knit-socks books.
M explained that, it wasn't that I didn't know how to knit socks, or that I had never knitted socks. It was that I didn't enjoy knitting socks, and choose not to do it. (To me, I would think this would be enough explanation for anyone. There are all kinds of knitters. We don't all have to do the same thing, right?) But that seemed to confuse all the salespeople.
Not knit socks? And your mom has been knitting for over 30 years? Surely M was mistaken. But when she insisted that her mom definitely did not knit socks, they shook their heads--convinced that M didn't know what she was talking about and they left her alone. Luckily, M has been with me on multiple yarn-buying missions, so she knows what I look for in a yarn and knows to match dye lots, etc.
I think that's kind of a funny story, and kind of annoying too. I'm sure the yarn store gets plenty of gift-buying people who have no idea what to get or what type of project the recipient is likely to use the yarn for. (We get that kind of customer in our store, too. They are confused by the whole Chaos Space Marines are not the same as Space Marines thing. Or they don't know if the recipient's deck is a standard format, modern, legacy, or Commander. It's not a bad thing to not know. And that's why the salespeople ask questions--to help.) So I'm sure they were trying to help her get a really good yarn present for her mom.
I just think it's a little annoying to assume that, if you are a veteran knitter, you are going to be knitting socks. As if sock knitting were the goal that everyone aspires to, and everything else is what you do when you can't knit socks. To me, that's like saying Italian cuisine is better than Chinese cuisine. Or that Country music is better than R&B. Or that red is better than yellow. It's all a matter of personal preference, isn't it?
Christmas Eve dinner was kind of a departure from our tradition this year. As you know, we usually eat out. But this year we decided to downsize the celebration, as there are some things we are trying to save for.
And I have to say, it was a very nice holiday. The important thing, of course, is that we were all together. I was able to complete all my knitted Christmas gifts except for T's scarf, but I will finish that up right away. And everyone really liked their gifts.
I was given some very nice yarn for Christmas, too. (Nicer than I buy for myself!) Like this fingering weight Merino from R and Bre. They picked this up on one of their travels together. I love this color combo. And I'm especially touched that they thought of me when they were on a trip. They would have had to research where to find a LYS in that area, go out of their way to get there, and then look for a yarn I would like. That's pretty awesome. (And I love this yarn. I have a couple of lacy shawl patterns I would like to try with this yarn.)
And this lovely yarn (including that nice fat skein of Malabrigo) was a gift from M.
M told me she had gone to the big LYS on the north side of town (It's a really big, beautiful shop. Probably the nicest one I've ever seen. I used to go there whenever I had to be on that side of town for a meeting. The owners have clearly put a lot of love--and money--into this store.) to get this yarn.
The salesperson was, of course, trying to be helpful. She was happy to learn that M was buying yarn for her mom, and began suggesting some nice sock yarn. M told her that I didn't knit socks. She thought I'd much rather have something worsted weight. That prompted the salesperson to suggest some nice how-to-knit-socks books.
M explained that, it wasn't that I didn't know how to knit socks, or that I had never knitted socks. It was that I didn't enjoy knitting socks, and choose not to do it. (To me, I would think this would be enough explanation for anyone. There are all kinds of knitters. We don't all have to do the same thing, right?) But that seemed to confuse all the salespeople.
Not knit socks? And your mom has been knitting for over 30 years? Surely M was mistaken. But when she insisted that her mom definitely did not knit socks, they shook their heads--convinced that M didn't know what she was talking about and they left her alone. Luckily, M has been with me on multiple yarn-buying missions, so she knows what I look for in a yarn and knows to match dye lots, etc.
I think that's kind of a funny story, and kind of annoying too. I'm sure the yarn store gets plenty of gift-buying people who have no idea what to get or what type of project the recipient is likely to use the yarn for. (We get that kind of customer in our store, too. They are confused by the whole Chaos Space Marines are not the same as Space Marines thing. Or they don't know if the recipient's deck is a standard format, modern, legacy, or Commander. It's not a bad thing to not know. And that's why the salespeople ask questions--to help.) So I'm sure they were trying to help her get a really good yarn present for her mom.
I just think it's a little annoying to assume that, if you are a veteran knitter, you are going to be knitting socks. As if sock knitting were the goal that everyone aspires to, and everything else is what you do when you can't knit socks. To me, that's like saying Italian cuisine is better than Chinese cuisine. Or that Country music is better than R&B. Or that red is better than yellow. It's all a matter of personal preference, isn't it?
posted by Patwoman | 9:28 PM
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