Life of an online retailer

Yesterday I felt sorry for myself.  I had a cold, some severe self doubt about exhibiting at Sock Summit, and heaps of work to do.  My cold was just severe enough for me to have called in sick, had I been in paid employment; but not so sick that I couldn’t have done some knitting, and looked at the new Rowan magazine. Instead, I was working hard in the heat, and feeling wretched and self pitying. There was a track of unproductive thoughts running through my head, “what if no-one buys anything, what if I sell out on the first day, what if my stock does not arrive, why can’t I lie down and have a sleep, I wish that I could stop my nose from running, if I had a job like a normal person I could take sick leave” etc.

Then I took a break to have a cup of peppermint tea, and to allow the most recent dose of ibuprofen to work and I saw this blog post.

Ailsa is sending me this work of art to show at the Sock Summit – it is Ailsa, dyed by her, and knitted by her.  It is an act of unbelievable generosity, and will hopefully encourage lots of people to buy her yarn.  Suddenly, I didn’t feel so bad about running my own business.  I remembered that I had met some truly repellent types in my previous working life, and that no-one calls me at 3 am to answer stupid questions any more. As a compliance lawyer, people don’t make you gifts, but they do whine, winge and berate you.  Today, I feel much better after sleeping from 8.30 pm through to 5.45am, and will look at the Rowan magazine when I take older daughter to the doctor.

San Francisco and Australia

The last stop in the US trip was San Francisco, and it was lovely.  We stayed in an apartment called Casa De Julia.  It is located in the Noe Valley, and had two bedrooms, broadband internet, and a lovely living area.  The Noe Valley neighbourhood was very family friendly, with funky shops and restaurants, and I would be very happy to stay there again.

Fortunately, there was a yarn shop within walking distance – Imaginknit. If we had been in San Francisco one month earlier, we would have also been able to visit Noe Knit, but it had already been replaced by an Aveda Salon.  Despite a few previous trips to the US, this was my first visit to a US yarn shop (astonishing I know).

Imaginknit was amazing – a thoroughly modern yarn shop, with a helpful staff, superb range, and swift and ball winder for customer use (my Australian readers will appreciate what an oddity this would be in Australia).  I was tempted by some Malabrido lace, and upgraded my ball winder to a lovely Royal ball winder, and was able to procure a copy of Norah Gaughan V5 on the day that it was delivered to the shop! I am a Norah Gaughan junkie, and she really has some beautiful patterns in this one – I could make Anhinga next week, and I also love Cormorant. The scale of the shop was amazing, with two very large rooms chock full of yarn and samples to look and feel.

After San Francisco, we returned to Hong Kong for a manic week, and then we flew to Sydney to catch up with family and friends.  I’ve been in Australia for nearly two weeks now, and had a great time – I’ve visited 3 yarn shops, and purchased at every one, and had the privilege of meeting one of my favourite bloggers in Bowral! It was a tiny catch up, only  minutes in a cafe, but its great to meet a kindred spirit.  While “craftiness” is expected within my family (even amongst my in-laws), it is not that common amongst many of the people that I mix with.

Amongst the lawyers that I used to work with,  “craftiness” is pretty much anathema.   I love reading knitting blogs, and sometimes am amazed to read my exact thoughts. This piece in Knit and Tonic could have been written by me (except it has been a very long time since I fitted into my skinny jeans).  Meeting with other knitbloggers makes me feel that compulsive craftiness is okay – thanks Ailsa!

The detour to Bowral was occasioned because my sister had suggested that we go to Canberra with our kids to see the cultural sights.  We both heard a radio interview with Magda Sayeg (the woman behind Knitta Please), and then drove to the National Gallery to view her installation as part of the Softsculpture exhibition.  Softsculpture had closed the weekend before we went to Canberra, but the pillars to the gallery were still covered with their knitted coverings.  In the interview, Magda has said that part of the ambition of her art was to encourage people to interact with their surroundings, and all our children walked straight up to these pillars, and gave them a thorough manhandling.Other bloggers have done better coverage of this installation, but I was delighted that it achieved one of the goals set by its creator, and inspired by the fact that so many knitters had donated their time and effort to achieve this goal.  We are back to Hong Kong on Sunday – and then I need to prepare for Sock Summit!

A finished object with a troll

When I took this photo, this Clapotis had not even been blocked, as I finished the ends on a Greyhound bus from Vancouver to Seattle.   I am a very latecomer to the Clapotis party (there are over 12,000 projects on Ravelry at last count), but I saw this picture of Giselle Bundchen and thought that with the help of a Clapotis, I could channel my inner Giselle (humour me here).  Can you tell which one is the troll?

According to Kate Gilbert, the Clapotis, does not need blocking – and it certainly had not been in this shot.  The Fremont troll is a statue in Seattle, and was fascinating to one small girl, and of no interest at all to the other.  After visiting the troll, we had fantastic Cuban sandwiches from Paseo, while watching the sailing on Lake Union from a friend’s house boat.  A lovely evening was had by all.

I have not taken any proper photos of the Clapotis – the week in Hong Kong before we came to Australia, was spent in a mad blur of orders. My Clapotis was made from Yarn Workshop Bomballa, dyed by me with Dylon “pewter grey” dye, that made it a lovely soft denimy blue (not really grey at all).  I deliverately overstuffed the pot when dyeing, and halved the salt, to achieve a lightly mottled yarn. I think that I knitted it on 4mm needles.  It is difficult to make an original comment on the Clapotis, I’ve worn mine heaps, the pattern was easy to learn, and the pattern is lovely in Bamboo yarn – a zillion people on Ravelry seem to have made one out of Bamboo yarn.

After Seattle, we had a lovely day trip to Mt Rainier, where the children were delighted to see snow still on the ground in late June.

This was followed by a hellish arrival in Portland, where the Embassy Suites did not honour our booking (despite being credit card confirmed).  The full details are here; I would rant more about the whole US travel industry, but we really did have a good trip despite this big and distressing glitch. My tip is to confirm all US hotel bookings on the day that you arrive if at all possible; and if you are told that the hotel is overbooked:

1. Stay calm (I didn’t follow this at all, and had the embarrassment of being so angry that my younger daughter burst into tears);
2. Insist on the industry standard treatment in the case of hotel over bookings: first night accommodation free, transfers to a new hotel, one free telephone call, transfer to a similar room in a similar class of hotel.  I had no idea until after the event that there was even a “standard industry practice”.
3. Follow up afterward with complaints to the Hotel’s customer service department.  We eventually were advised that we would not be charged for both nights of the two night stay in Portland, after extensive email correspondence.

The rest of the trip to the West Coast of the US was amazing, and I still have another yarn shop report from San Francisco. I’ve also been yarn shopping in Australia, and met up with another knitblogger. I’ve had some IT issues on this trip (which finally seem to be resolved), so there will be more posts in the next few days.