No Translation Needed
“May I put you on the spot?”
Greg had been in Italy for work for a few days. We’d had frequent phone calls and FaceTime calls throughout the trip, coming at relatively predictable times. (Boy, am I thankful for modern technology at times like this. I may be a spinning-wheel era girl at heart, but I do appreciate the ability to FaceTime loved ones who are far away!)
THIS phone call, however, came at a time I wasn’t expecting one. “Sure!” I replied. At which point, Greg hung up and called back via FaceTime.
I quickly swallowed the bite of salad I’d been eating, hoped (very hard) I didn’t have green stuff in my teeth, and answered. There was Greg, who I expected, ready to introduce me to several people. This I did not expect.
I was grateful for the heads up, but it turned out to be a truly lovely experience. I met two of Greg’s Italian colleagues (Renato and Fabio) and a delightful young woman, Letizia, who helps her parents run their yarn shop, la Filoteca, in Anzio.
Hopefully, Greg will tell the story sometime about how the gentlemen with him were so helpful in finding a place where he could bring home some special yarn-related souvenirs. Apparently, it became something of a Quest. I can attest to the fact that they were fabulous at assessing color combinations and telling me how the yarns looked and felt in real life!
I can only imagine how full that shop must have felt with those three men bustling around, grabbing different colors of yarn and holding them together, Letizia patiently explaining what they were holding, and Greg capturing all the activity with his phone and grinning from ear to ear as more and more boxes of yarn were brought out from the back of the shop. Can you picture it?
Here’s Greg and our new friends.
I don’t think I’ve ever picked out yarn for a project over the phone, with so many helpful people, from a yarn shop over 5,000 miles away, asking questions about yarn weight in a different language before. By the way, how would you distinguish between “yarn thickness” and “how much the unit of yarn actually weighs in the ball or skein” when in English we use “weight” for both? That stumped me while I was on the spot.
And you know that instantly blanking fog that penetrates all parts of your brain when the question “and exactly how many yards of this yarn do you need?” is asked? It turns out that fog crosses language barriers with no problems whatsoever. Good to know, right?
We all had a wonderful time, and I ended up with enough beautiful alpaca yarn for a couple of sweaters. This one was cast on within 72 hours of entering US airspace.
The pattern is Amyrillis by Elizabeth Smith, and the yarn is Sierra Andina. It’s very soft and light, and because of those hollow alpaca fibers, will be even warmer than a merino wool sweater of the same weight.
This cardigan was designed for two differently colored yarns to be held together while knitting to create a very pretty marled effect. Am I doing that? No, of course not. I loved the clean lines of this sweater when I saw the sample of it knit up in a yarn shop and purchased the pattern then with the idea of using a single color so as not to detract in any way from those lines.
However, because I’m going far afield from the designer’s intent, I actually did swatch before starting the project. Whoever is keeping my cosmic knitting scorebook, please take note.
In other project news, I’ve finished the body of my Walker’s Ridge Pullover. The only knitting left to do is for the sleeves. It’s deceiving, because sleeves seem like small bits until you consider the size of the piece of fabric you’d get if you cut the sleeve off a shirt, cut down its length, and laid it out flat. Despite feeling like I should be almost done once the torso is finished, this one has hours left to go.
Some items are actually getting finished. The commissioned hat below found its new home:
And I’ve been on a kick of crocheting baskets. You can find a great starting point for these with this free pattern here.
These things are great because they’re so adaptable. Handles? No handles? Bowl? Bag? Cylinder? Yup, you can do any of that. I’m making the bases in the size and shape I want and then single crocheting up the sides in a spiral until they’re as tall as I want.
I made the dark blue one with some linen yarn I had left over from another project, but the rest of them I’ve made from dishcloth cotton.
They’re all sturdy and washable, which means the baskets/bowls/etc. can be used indoors and out for all sorts of things, both dressy and messy. I love that.
Speaking of messy…
Mr. Darcy the sheep and all his Pemberley pals are fluffing up nicely. He recently made the acquaintance of a gentleman who was kind enough to trim his horns. Video was taken and I believe he intends to share it with his correspondents soon. For now, he’s making friends with the baby and campaigning for extra corn treats.
What are you working on today?
Happy knitting!
Kiersten J
