WolfWeave

In case anyone was wondering just why it takes me so long to make these quiltart postcards (aside from the fact that I have 45 of them to make at a time and aside from the fact that I am not a quilter and that I am barely on speaking terms with my sewing machine), I thought I would write up a list of what I went through to make these. Now I realize that a lot of this could be corrected with organization and experience but some of it is just part of the process and will always be there. These bits of postcard art might be small and, though fun to make, they’re often neither all that easy nor quick to create, and maybe they shouldn’t be…maybe that’s part of it, the fact that their creation takes time and experimentation, and the suffering of mistakes along the way. Anyway, if you don’t want to read this, you can jump to the end for photos of the front and back of the postcard.

Anatomy of a postcard:

1. Have an idea of how you want the postcard to look.

2. Play around with the idea for a while and see if it might work out.

3. I wanted to start with the photograph of my mother from the early 1940′s when she was on a holiday in Mississippi and one of her girlfriends caught a photo of her eating a watermelon while leaning against the back of a car.

4. Scan the photo into Photoshop Elements and wrestle with it for a long while (hours? days?) to get it the way you want. It was an old black and white photo with lots of scratches so took quite a bit of fiddling with to make it presentable.

5. Crop and size the photo (also a long process, involving much reading of Photoshop for Dummies and Photoshop Elements, The Missing Manual).

6. Then I colorized the photo, but just lightly, so it still looked old-fashioned. Unfortunately, the original was so out of focus that it was impossible to get really sharp.

7. Print the photo out on Avery fusible printer fabric, 9 photos to the sheet.

8. Attempt to cut out the photos with a metal ruler and Olfa rolling cutter. Realize you have to hold the metal ruler down really tightly so that the fabric won’t move while you’re cutting. (A lesson you will have to learn repeatedly throughout the process.)

9. After the photos are all cut out, go back over them with a small trimming scissors to cut off any remaining white parts your uneven cutting left behind.

10. Set photos aside.

11. Search through your stash (wherever you can find it–mine is mostly in stacking drawers in the dreaded storage closet but also piled up on what is supposed to be my working craft table, piled on top of the stacking drawers, in assorted shopping bags…well, you get the idea) and select fabrics that fit your theme. If you are lucky, you already have these and won’t have to go shopping for more fabric. I just happened to have about 1/2 yard of watermelon fabric in two different colorways–perfect!

12. Measure the fabric every which way to see if you can get 45 4″x6″ postcards out of them. Looks like we’ll just make it, though there is slightly less green fabric for some reason.

13. Wash the fabrics to remove the sizing. Throw the fabrics in the dryer. Cut off all the loose tangle of threads that result from washing and drying the fabrics.

14. Iron the fabrics. On both sides.

15. Normally here I would be ironing (fusing) WonderUnder to the backs of the fabrics and using regular Peltex (or Timtex) for the inside stiffener (batting) of my postcards. However, in a delusional moment, I happened to buy 6 yards of the new Pellon 70 (hereafter referred to as Peltex70), which is supposed to already have fusible on both sides. So I thought, “Great! That cuts out the extra steps of using the WonderUnder.”

16. The regular Peltex has a paper backing (like WonderUnder). The new Peltex70 has a plastic backing. With WonderUnder (which is a 2-sided fusible), you keep the paper backing in place on the one side, while you lay the other fusible side down on the back of your fabric and then you place your iron on the paper for 5-10 sec. to fuse it to the fabric. Later, you remove the paper backing, place another piece of fabric down onto the unused side of the WonderUnder and iron from the top of the fabric in the same way to fuse it. Okay…the directions on the Peltex70 were very scant but one would assume it worked in the same way. Luckily, luckily, I tested a small 1-postcard-sized piece first. I laid the one rough side down on the back of my fabric (like the instructions said) and then placed my iron on the plastic (like you would on the paper) backing for 5 sec. or so. Well, the Peltex70 didn’t fuse to the fabric, so I held the iron there a few more seconds. Finally, it seemed to grip the fabric a little bit but still not much. I set the iron aside, lifted up the piece and, much to my surprise, found that the plastic backing was perfectly fused to the Peltex70!!! It did not peel off in one piece (like paper backing would) but had to be peeled away in tiny bits and strips until I finally gave up altogether and left the rest on there. Besides this, the fabric was hardly fused at all.

17. So, I decide to rip all the plastic backing off the Peltex70 and throw it away.

18. I search out my supply of old Wonder Under paper backing (which you always keep, as it comes in handy) and use it instead. I also decide that the only way this is going to work is if you also fuse the first piece of fabric from the front instead of from the back. So I lay a piece of paper backing on the ironing board. Then I place the Peltex70 on top of it; then my fabric, face up. Then I press with the iron as you’re supposed to. Works like a charm, except for the fabric constantly trying to wrinkle along the rough surface of the Peltex70. I struggle to keep the wrinkles to a minimum.

19. I let the fabric cool and peel it (now fused to the Peltex70) off the paper backing. That’s how it’s supposed to work.

20. I lay the piece of fabric face down on my Olfa cutting mat and start to measure and draw out my cutting lines for the postcards. This doesn’t work as the marker doesn’t write well on the Peltex70, so I decide to just go by using the ruler and ruled lines along the cutting mat.

21. I cut out the postcards. Not all of the lines come out straight, as the ruler has an alarming tendency to move while I’m cutting. Also, the Peltex70 seems to be taking a toll on my Olfa blade but I don’t have a spare.

22. Finally all the postcards are cut out. They have the front fabric on them and the Peltex70 insides fused to the front fabric.

23. Back to the photos. I need to fuse them to the front fabric of the postcards. This means that I have to keep backing paper down on my ironing board so that the back of the Peltex70 (which has fusible on it) doesn’t stick to the ironing board. Luckily, the Avery fusible printer fabric always irons right on without a problem (as long as you use a dry iron; do not use steam!!). I decide to put the photos off center to the right; I’m not quite sure why.

24. I decide it would look very 1940′s to frame the photo with rick rack.

25. I remember I bought some rick rack sometime last fall. I search through my entire storage closet (which, I’ll admit is a huge mess) for the rick rack; I am able to visualize it in a bag from Joann Fabrics but can’t find it anywhere.

26. I storm around my office/craft room, searching every shelf, moving books, boxes of beads, everything, looking for the rick rack.

27. I return to the storage closet and search through everything again.

28. Finally I give up and wonder whether there’s time for a trip to Hancock fabric to buy more rick rack when I turn around and see the bag from Joann’s lying, in plain sight, on top of one of my yarn cabinets in the storage closet. I mean, it was RIGHT THERE in front of my nose!! And I must have been searching for over an hour.

29. I relax.

30. I measure the sides of the photo and start cutting the rick rack pieces to size. Yes, I do remember that 2 of the sides (the longer ones) need to overlap the other 2 in order for it to look nice. I make 2 nice, neat piles of rick rack in 2 different sizes. I begin to wonder whether I have enough rick rack but can’t remember how many pieces I have cut and am too tired to begin counting them. I decide to go to bed and the next day make a trip to the nearby Hancock Fabrics to pick up a spare pack or two of rick rack, just in case.

31. I wake up the next morning to find that the cat has very helpfully made the two piles of rick rack into one not very neat pile. No problem–I can tell short from long. I do end up having to buy 2 extra packs of rick rack and it’s a good thing too, as I use every last bit. I nearly had a panic attack at Hancock when it looked like they had run out of the regular-size red rick rack but I finally found some hiding behind the jumbo size.

32. I decide to lightly apply some fabric glue stick to the back side of the rick rack so it will stay in place until I can sew it down. I spend most of the day gluing and placing rick rack. Oh, and trimming the ever-raveling cut edges of the rick rack.

33. The rick rack looks good around the photos. I pull out the sewing machine and find a matching cherry red thread with which to sew down the rick rack.

34. I sew down the rick rack, turning the corners to make a complete square. I just use a plain straight stitch, going down the center of the rick rack. This proves harder than it looks because my eyes keep getting thrown off and want to follow the curve of the rick rack, with my hands following. I fight to keep the machine sewing in a straight line. This pretty much takes all day.

35. I further trim the ends of the rick rack and glue down any that were missed by the stitching. The photo is now framed.

36. I stare at the front of the postcard for a while trying to decide what else to do with it. I had wanted to put some buttons on it to continue with the old-timey 1940′s theme but knew I was incapable of hand-sewing buttons to 45 postcards, especially through the stiff Peltex70.

37. I have several bags of assorted “country colors” buttons in 4 colors and sizes. I pull out all the melon/orange 2-hole buttons. There are exactly 47 of them.

38. I remember that my sewing machine has a button attachment, which I have never used.

39. I pull out my sewing machine manual and proceed to read about using the button attachment.

40. I search for the button attachment, actually find it within a reasonable amount of time and figure out how to put it on the machine.

41. I find a melon color thread to match the button and thread the needle with it.

42. You have to be very exact about placing a button into the attachment and then must remove the thread from the needle and move the needle manually down to make sure it goes into the buttonholes and doesn’t hit the button. Then you have to re-thread the needle. You have to do this each time you sew on a new button.

42. It seems you also have to hold the needle thread just right so that it will catch the bobbin thread and actually sew on the button. It takes me about 6 tries to get the hang of this. It also turns out that the “regular” button sewing-on isn’t strong enough; I have to do the automatic process twice to have a double sewn button so that it is strong enough to stay on. It looks like a lot of thread on top of the button but at least it stays on.

43. I start sewing the buttons, going through the re-threading the needle process each time. For some reason I can’t figure out, it turns out I also have to reset the bobbin thread after each button. I am using a black bobbin thread which I can barely see, as it is nighttime by now, but I have a brainstorm: I run to my bedroom and search through my knitting kit for my bag of crochet hooks. I pull out my size 10 steel crochet hook and use that to catch the bobbin thread so that I can run it through the raceway to reset the bobbin thread correctly after each button.

44. I finally finish sewing on the buttons. It most likely would have been faster to sew them on by hand and I immediately drop my plan to sew the green and yellow buttons to the back side of the postcard.

45. I remove the button attachment and put the sewing machine back the way it was.

46. The front of the postcard still looks a little empty. The left side has nothing on it. I wonder what I could do there. I wonder whether I happen to have a rubber stamp of a watermelon.

47. I head back to the storage closet and pull out the stacks of drawers with my rubber stamps in it (that I haven’t touched in years). One drawer is labeled “Food.” I take it out to my desk and start looking through it. Lots of food but nothing that looks like a watermelon. Wait…there…in the back…flat against the back of the drawer is an unmounted fabric stamp of a watermelon! What luck! I take out the stamp, put back the drawer and decide to go to bed.

48. I’ve never used this stamp before. It is very glossy and needs to be roughed up with some sandpaper so it will hold the ink. I do that. Luckily it is a thick enough piece of rubber that it doesn’t have to be mounted to be used.

49. I try out all my various fabric paints and inks but decide that a regular rubber stamp ink pad will work best for the inside of the watermelon and ink up the Vivid peach color pad. These pads are small enough that I can stamp onto the watermelon without hitting the rim.

50. Then I use a dark green Vivid pen to color in the rind of the watermelon.

51. It stamps out very nicely so I proceed to stamp each postcard, inking the stamp in between each one. It produces a slightly faint image, which is what I want. I have to stop every so often to wash the rubber stamp clean.

52. Then I realize there isn’t enough actual quilting on the postcard, so I decide to sew an outline around the stamped image of the watermelon.

53. I use the melon-color thread for the watermelon part and a dark green thread for the rind and proceed to outline the image with stitching.

54. As I have never learned to free-motion embroider, this is harder than it looks. I keep my feed dogs up and just do a plain stitch very slowly around, turning the fabric as best I can to follow the image.

55. Ta Da! The fronts are finished.

56. Now for the backs–the green and yellow watermelon fabric. Suddenly it hits me. Usually I stiffen the fabric with the WonderUnder backing, which allows me to sew on it, fuse labels to it, etc. without a problem. This fabric is naked and floppy. I hesitate to use WonderUnder, lest the fusible (WonderUnder) to fusible (Peltex70) bond doesn’t take for some reason, so I head back to the fabric store to find some sort of stiff interfacing that is only fusible on one side, so I can stiffen my green watermelon fabric.

57. After much searching (i.e., trying to read the tiny lettering on the ends of the bolts) and pretty much no help from the salesgirls, I find a shirting interfacing that has a lightweight to medium stiffness and is fusible only on one side. Perfect.

58. I rush home and fuse it to my green watermelon fabric. I iron it smooth (it is also prone to wrinkle).

59. I cut the green fabric to postcard size, suffering through all the same cutting problems as above.

60. Back to the computer. It’s time to print out the address labels. Too bad that my entire address label template for this group has been lost in my hard drive crash. Supposedly it was recovered but when I try to open it, it is garbage; so I start from scratch, setting up a template and typing in everyone’s address. Surprise–not counting myself, there are only 39 people in the group. Oh well, guess I have room for mistakes (or will have a few extra postcards to send to friends).

61. I need to print out the address labels, return address labels, and a label identifying the swap on Avery printer fabric but don’t really want the background to be white. I’ve tried before to color in the template label on the computer and have the printer print it out in color but that usually looks like crap (dots of color) so I decide to print them out on the white background and, then, after the ink has dried, give them a wash of background color over the printing. Will it work, or will it smear the printing?

62. I print everything, using my entire packet of Avery fabric (5 sheets). I let the printing dry overnight.

63. Now, what to use for a wash? On old leftover scraps of Avery printer fabric, I try out various acrylic paints, all the different Jacquard fabric paints that I have, rubber stamp ink pads, the Tsukineko All-Purpose Inks, but nothing seems to work quite right. Things are either too thick, too thin, too opaque, or too pale. Then I try some of the Pebeo Setacolor transparent paints and they seem just right.

64. I mix some of the yellow with a bit of red and brown to get a color that seems to match the watermelons on the green fabric. I shake it up in a small plastic jar, dab some on a cosmetic sponge, and start rubbing it over the sheets of printer fabric (after first trying it out on one address label to make sure the printer ink won’t run). It works fine except that the sheets curl up like crazy. The ink washes unevenly but that was the effect I was looking for. I press the sheets under some heavy books and give it up for the night.

65. The next morning the sheets are relatively dry and uncurled so I start cutting apart the address labels. At first I use the Olfa cutter but, again, this only works so well. Eventually it is just as efficient (though harder on my hand) to use a scissors to cut the small labels apart and trim them down.

66. Next I have to decide the arrangement of the labels on the green fabric postcard backs. It takes a while fiddling with the placement but eventually I decide to place the swap label at the bottom and the tag line–”Hang on; Summer’s coming” label going diagonally across the card, edging into the postage stamp area. I hope this is all right with the post office. (At first I had the swap label going vertically, dividing the right and left halves of the postcard, as is normally done.)

67. I had decided to print the tag line labels in orange/red ink and leave their background white to coordinate with the watermelon fabric on the front of the card. Now it occurs to me that if I had instead bought yellow rick rack to frame the photo, it would have coordinated better with the yellow watermelons on the back of the card and tied the 2 sides together more. Oh well, too late for that!

68. One by one, I fuse the address labels to the postcards.

69. One by one, I fuse the return address labels to the postcards, being careful not to put them too close to the corner (saving room for the stitching around the card).

70. One by one, I fuse the swap labels to the postcards.

71. Finally, one by one, I fuse the tag line labels to the postcards.

72. Next, I like to zigzag stitch around the address labels. I decide to do this with a lighter green thread that matches the background green of the fabric. Turning the corners goes slowly since the labels are so small.

73. At last the backs are done and I set them aside.

74. I return to the fronts of the postcards for the final touch–in a moment of madness, I have decided that the blank spaces in the watermelon stamp that were meant to be colored in for seeds, would look great beaded instead of just colored in. Back to the storage closet and move a few more sets of stacking drawers around.

75. I find the drawers with my seed beads and try out different sizes. I quickly reject size 11′s as being too small and settle on black size 8 seed beads. Luckily I have a lot of these.

76. I begin to hunt for a beading needle. It has been a long time since I beaded and I can’t remember where I put my basic supplies. I start searching through drawers again, with no luck, and finally just pull an old needle off an unfinished project.

77. Then I start searching for my spool of black Silamide beading thread. Well, you can pretty much just re-copy the hunt for the rick-rack here. I search high and low; in drawers; under piles of fabric; behind books; in containers; everywhere…and at least twice. After another hour, I give up the hunt and resort to using some old (early 90′s) Silamide I had when it originally came in long, flat cardboard containers and you cut it yourself into lengths by breaking the end of the case open and snipping the skein in just the right way, then pulled an individual length out of an opening in the middle. This was when it was basically a tailor’s thread, not a beader’s, long before it came wound on little cardboard bobbins or on spools.

78. I sit down at my computer desk and pull out a length of Silamide, thread the needle, keeping the thread doubled, and put on the first bead. I decide the length of thread is just right–I should be able to sew beads onto 2 or 3 postcards with each length. I finish sewing beads to the first postcard, going through each bead twice and tying strong knots behind at each end (this takes about 15 minutes).

79. I look up to check my email and there, on the little shelf just next to my computer screen, is the spool of black Silamide. I swear! I decide to continue using the cardboard container of cut lengths anyway.

80. Some postcards have watermelon with more seeds showing–these get more beads; some have less. Some I bead at my desk; some I bead in bed watching television. All in all, the beading takes about 4-5 days to finish.

81. Finally the fronts are completed and I am satisfied with them.

82. Now it is time to fuse the backs to the Peltex70 (that is already fused to the fronts). Much to my surprise, I have no trouble with the shirt interfacing and the two pieces fuse together with some heavy pressing from the green fabric side. However, the fronts and backs weren’t cut to exactly the same size. Consequently, I spend hours trimming the postcards with a scissors, including trimming loose threads from the fabrics. Finally all the postcards look nice and neat.

83. At last it is time to stitch around the edges of the postcard in some fashion so that they look “finished.” I decide to try stitching from the front with a dark green thread in the needle to pick up the leaves and the watermelon rind. On the first postcard I sew a very close together zigzag that becomes a satin stitch. Too late, I realize that I still have black thread in the bobbin which creates a black satin stitch on the back of the postcard. Then I decide I don’t like the green on the front–it’s too dark and overwhelms the watermelon and the photo. Then I realize my machine has been making noises and 1) doesn’t like the close satin stitching through the Peltex70 and 2) probably needs a new needle.

84. I try to remember what size needle is in my machine; eventually figure it out and put in a new one.

85. I switch the needle thread to the melon color thread I had used before to outline the watermelon.

86. I hunt for an empty bobbin and, of course, can’t find one. I pull all the white thread off a bobbin and start winding light green thread onto it.

87. On a test piece of fabric, I try various zigzag stitch combinations of length and width until I find one I like.

88. Unfortunately this one is rather far apart and is going to allow the white Peltex 70 to show through on the edges. I don’t like that look (though others have left it)–to me it looks unfinished.

89. I again get out one of the Vivid dark green markers and start coloring in the edges of the postcard where the Peltex 70 shows. After a while I notice that I have green stripes all over my t-shirt and that my fingers and hands have green stripes too. It must be because the Vivid pen only contains dye ink and is not colorfast.

90. I wash my hands and throw my t-shirt in the laundry after a liberal application of Stain Stick.

91. Somehow, on one of my trips to Hancock Fabrics, I just happened to pick up a dark green Fabrico fabric marker. I try this and, while it does not color as well as the other marker, does dry immediately and does not bleed onto me or my t-shirt. I proceed to color around all 4 edges of 40 postcards. (It turns out there really wasn’t enough green fabric to make 45 postcards but I had forgotten about that and went ahead and beaded 45 fronts anyway.)

92. I start stitching around the edges of the postcards. This is nice, tedious, repetitive work that goes very smoothly except for having to re-fill the bobbin with green thread every so often. It is not long before I begin to feel as though I am working in a textile sweatshop. The stitching takes a few more days.

93. At last we have completed postcards. In an interval while sewing, I had taken one to the post office to buy stamps for them all. We’ll bypass the long, involved story of how I did not get my favorite postmistress (who admires my fabric postcards and sometimes lets them go for postcard stamp postage) but instead got the “by the rule” postmistress who measured and harrumphed and insisted on dragging out from the back the 3″ thick postal manual and thumbing through it to find the regulation that read “Postcards must be made of paper or paper products” (or words to that effect). So I bought 39 cent stamps. The vegetables. Fine.

94. I adhere a postage stamp to the corner of each postcard with the fabric glue stick because they don’t usually stay on without doing this.

95. I take the postcards down to the basement and lay them out on newspaper so I can spray them with a waterproofing spray (like the kind you use on your boots in the winter). I always do this, just to make sure that nothing on them runs in case they get wet in transit.

96. The next morning I turn them over and spray the other side.

97. That afternoon, I bundle my postcards into a gallon ziplok bag and take them to the post office, hand them over to one of the nicer clerks, and remind her that they need to be hand cancelled.

98. I was done. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and went home to wait for emails from group members who had received their postcards.

99. The next day, I finished up the one remaining postcard for my mother and dropped it in the mailbox, just to see what would happen. It arrived at her house with the beads intact (surprise, surprise).

100. Doesn’t look like all that much, does it?

No knitting for more than 2 weeks! Well, you can imagine how I feel…sure, I’ve ordered yarn and books and today I even resorted to organizing all my summer projects (yarn and appropriate patterns all nicely together in ziploc bags and into stacking drawers); but that’s been it.

You can blame the quiltart postcards which turned into a much larger project than I imagined–they have consumed my waking hours (not already consumed by family, bill paying, doctors’ visits, errands, etc.) and some of my sleeping ones for the past 2 weeks but finally today I dropped them at the post office. Let me tell you, making 45 of anything is no easy task–toward the end there, I was beginning to feel like I was working in a factory sweatshop. Part of it was my own fault–I made them too complicated (I spent 5 days sewing on beads for example, beads that are probably going to get crushed in the post office machinery) and I was too fussy about trimming edges and threads, so that I kept going back over them and back over them until it seemed I would never be satisfied. Anyway, I remembered (just in time) to take a photo and will post it tomorrow, along with my “anatomy of a postcard,” if I have time.

And just think…these were the 2005 postcards for the Art2Mail group. I still have to do the 2005 cards for Postmark’d Art, though I am hoping those will be simpler and more experimental. I have some ideas percolating. I would like to just keep on track and get those finished in the next 2 weeks. Besides, then I have to get all my sewing garbage clean up my son’s bedroom, as he is coming home for a visit–for his brother’s high school graduation.

At least 2006 will be simpler. I have gone on temporary hiatus from Postmark’d Art and Art2Mail is down to about 30 people for this year, thank goodness!

Well, as soon as I can breathe, I hope to start some of those summer projects because, sooner than you can snap your fingers, summer will be over and I will be left with a bunch of cotton yarn and patterns for summer shells!

Well, now I know what to do with those 5 skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece I just bought. Avoiding my artquilt postcards Bored, I was surfing in a random manner from blog to blog and happened upon the Green Gable Knitalong, and, although I am not going to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (which many of the participants are attending), nevertheless ordered the Green Gable pattern from Zephyrstyle, printed it out, along with all the comments from the knitalong…and I’m good to go!! [Obviously, I snagged this photo from the Zephyrstyle website and this is NOT me, although we do have the same light switches.]

It seems the perfect, easy, quick, summer cap-sleeved shell pattern I was searching for, it calls for Cotton Fleece I already have, and there’s a knitalong with people to ask for help; what more could you want? So I’ll give it a try after finishing these artquilt postcards (while my poor Square Holes Sweater languishes on the knitting table). Plus, thanks to my expertly efficient sister-in-law, we managed to snag Mother’s Day reservations for 10 at our third choice restaurant (the first 2 choices just laughed were fully booked) at a decent time even at this late date! The rest of the day should only speed along in such an orderly fashion.

I have a number of local yarn stores, 4 of which are relatively close by, and I can’t help but find myself in some way dissatisfied with all of them. It’s somewhat intangible–it’s not like each of them doesn’t have a relatively decent, though not outstanding, collection of yarns & patterns & needles–so maybe it has to do more with me and what I expect or don’t expect from a yarn store (or any store, for that matter). [Side rant: you know, the internet is a pervasive and insidious enabler. I bet that if one stayed off the computer long enough without actually surfing knitting blogs and knitting sites and yarn shops, one might get some actual knitting done and be way ahead in the bank account department. All I have to do is read someone else's glowing review of a new book or yarn and I immediately want it. Hence the photos below of my latest acquisitions.]:

My latest Amazon orgy:

Finally ordered from Schoolhouse Press:

What brings this up, you ask? Well, yesterday, an extremely rainy and depressing day to begin with, I had to drive my husband to the airport. Faced with the thought of returning to a house littered with Sunday newspapers (which I hadn’t yet read…I’m still on last Wednesday’s), dirty laundry, and 2 extremely tired and cranky teenagers who spent the past 2 days sleepless at the state Science Olympiad and were going to need a lot of nagging about their homework, I thought I would take advantage of the return trip to take a little detour to the farthest of the local yarn shops which I seldom bother to visit because its location is out of my normal driving range. Although I always remember it as being more exciting than it is, I still hoped that it might have several of the items on my wish list (actually carried in my purse like a grocery list–I’m so organized!). The store didn’t open until noon, so I had to kill 45 minutes at a Target near the airport where I was nearly driven insane by the airplanes flying overhead every 3.5 minutes. I don’t know how anyone can work there. Maybe they get extra compensation for nervous disorders. As if the airplanes weren’t enough, I discovered that I did not have my Target list with me, though I did remember it having 4 items on it, so I wandered the store trying to remember what those 4 things could be (and managed to score 3 out of the 4).

Eventually, I made it to the knitting shop, where I was the only customer on a rainy day. No, wait, there was another woman there who was just finishing up as I arrived. She seemed nearly as unfocused as I was, rattling on about patterns and yarns and complaints about a certain felted bag pattern and its flower instructions. She must have been a regular, for she was getting a lot of attention from the 2 employees in residence–one an older woman who teaches knitting classes and a younger woman who was less familiar with the merchandise. Maybe I should do that–sit at the table and engage the employees; but I don’t.

I like to wander in yarn stores, drinking in the yarns, browsing the patterns and books, thinking about what I want to make, and they were more than happy to leave me alone, as they were engaged in some end of the month inventory or tidying up or something. The store has a nice enough selection of yarn, though I can’t figure out what sort of order they have it in. It starts out clearly enough with the baby yarn and then the sock yarn (but with some Debbie Bliss thrown in) and then Cascade on one side. But the other side past the counter seems to have a little of everything: silk, novelties, Louisa Harding, etc. Then there is a section of Dale yarns as you walk through racks of patterns, and you turn the corner to a Noro wall on the left and books on the right. But then it all falls apart and you’re in a big square room and I can’t figure out their organization at all. Tahki Cotton Classic was on one freestanding display in the middle of the floor, but Cotton Classic Color was in a bin on the wall, for example. Maybe because one is a skein and has to hang, but the other is a ball? I don’t know. I grew more and more uneasy as I walked around the store, and remembered that this happened to me previously. It just isn’t the kind of store that makes me want to buy something–even the displays of Colinette, Schaefer and Mountain Colors seemed sort of lackluster. Maybe it was the rain or the fluorescent lighting (do they have fluorescent lighting? It seemed like it.).

I really shouldn’t complain–I would probably be a disaster as a yarn store owner. I would want to organize by color and would spend endless days dithering over the order of the various color variations (constantly changing my mind about the order) until customers couldn’t find anything at all. I feel the same sense of dissatisfaction at my other local yarn stores–each is disorganized in some way that affects my ability to concentrate. One store is fairly organized but is so stuffed full of merchandise that you can hardly turn around without knocking over a display, so that there is no way you can stand back to admire a yarn family. Another has a sparse selection, always seeming to be low on merchandise. And the closest store is always being re-arranged, as though the owners aren’t quite satisfied either.

And then there are the employees. Okay, granted I’m a terrible customer, I’ll admit that. An employee’s job is to sell and I’m not that type of customer who pops in to be sold the latest trendy sweater pattern and all the yarn to go with it. I don’t sit at the table and knit and chit-chat (I like to do my knitting at home). I’m unfocused and I wander. At first, I want to be left alone for a large chunk of time. But eventually I’d like a little help to find items on my list or to decide on some yarn or figure out a yarn substitution for a certain pattern, even if I’m just going to buy a ball of this and a ball of that to try out. At that point, when I do approach an employee, I’d like them to be 1) knowledgeable and 2) friendly. I am constantly amazed, at all 4 stores, at the lack of knowledge of the employees. I’ll ask for a certain book, for example, and that person will have no idea whether they have it and have to go off to ask someone else, who will eventually have to go in search of the owner to see if they have it. Or, worse, the employee will sit right next to me at the bookshelf and look right where I’m looking to see if she can see it (when I’ve already looked there). I mean, come on, if I’ve read about all the latest books/patterns/yarns on the internet and I’m not a yarn shop employee, don’t you think the employees could try to keep up to date? Shouldn’t that be part of their job?

And then, as an employee’s job is to sell, I always get guilted into buying something, even when it isn’t exactly what I want or when the service hasn’t been stellar. Now I know this is a failing of mine and the main reason why I hate shopping in small personalized stores–as soon as I have a conversation with an employee, I feel obligated to buy something. Generally, in a yarn store, this isn’t a problem, as there is something I want to buy anyway. But sometimes there isn’t, or there isn’t something that is the exact right thing and yet I find myself buying something anyway, just to feel as though I’ve done my job as a customer (unless I get lucky and the employee is distracted by another customer and I can make my escape without purchasing). Believe me, I know a lot of this is my fault, and not the failing of the yarn store. And some of it comes from being a freeformer–it used to be you’d walk into a yarn store and mention the word “crochet” and get the cold shoulder. Buying a ball of this and a ball of that didn’t exactly endear you to the shop owner. Attitude…you’d get a lot of attitude. So maybe now I still expect it, and, as a result, I still get it. Plus, I am so unfocused now, so foggy.

Anyway, yesterday I was wandering around this shop and nothing really looked appealing but some swatch of Louisa Harding’s “Impression” (but I couldn’t think what to make with it), and a swatch they’d knitted (they had a lot of swatches knitted, which really helps) of Debbie Bliss Cathay (which was absolutely luscious knit up), the balls of the new Tahki Cotton Classic Color, and some Mulberry silk that I knew I didn’t need. I guess the basic problem was that I’d forgotten to bring along the patterns I was considering (for a summer cap-sleeve shell) and couldn’t remember what they looked like or what weight yarn or size needles they used. I vaguely remembered having looked through some pattern booklets last week (which, after help from the employee and staring at the pattern rack, turned out to be the new Spring Tahki, Stacy Charles, and Filatura di Crosa booklets) where I thought I’d seen something I wanted to make. But that turned out to be a loose kimono sort of sweater that they didn’t have the yarn for (and which I could make out of something from my stash anyway).

I admit it, I was a bad customer. I was dithering; I couldn’t remember anything concrete; I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do and yet I wanted them to help me. And then I felt offended because they were somewhat cold and disinterested in my quest. I mean, I’m not generally a chatty person (not that you could tell from this blog) but I do like a salesperson to warm up to me and at least feign interest in what I’m searching for. It’s not like the store was teeming with customers. Finally I remembered someone (on a blog?) the other night saying that Cotton Fleece knit up nicely for a summer shell and they had that, so I chose a turquoise color (only because they didn’t have red) and asked her how many skeins I would need. I found an Oat Couture pattern (that I had at home) that was vaguely like what I want to make so we could guesstimate the yardage and arrived at 5 skeins; even though I queried, isn’t Cotton Fleece more of a DK (size 6 needles) than a worsted weight (the Oat Couture pattern had yardage for worsted)? Seemed I could have figured out that much of a fudge myself, without help. However, she was meticulous about checking the dyelot numbers, which I hadn’t thought of. And I found, on my own, the new Noro #19 pattern book that had been on my list, but when I asked about the new Classic Elite books, they were clueless (though they had plenty of older Classic Elite pattern books).

At last, I felt I’d fulfilled my duty as a customer, spending some money for the time I’d taken up in the empty store. Still I was unsatisfied. I kept being drawn to the Debbie Bliss Cathay (size 5 needles). Finally I said the hell with it, grabbed all 12 balls of the deepest purple and took them to the counter. I had every intention then of not buying the Cotton Fleece (or maybe just 1 ball to try) but she’d already written it all up, so I meekly went ahead and purchased the whole lot, as pictured below (along with the Debbie Bliss Silk book I’ve been wanting because the photos are so terrific).

So I went, I purchased, and I left, thinking to myself, “Well, I won’t be going back there for a good long time.” I spent more than I intended and ended up with yarn for which I had no clear purpose. You’ve read my commentary. What went wrong? Was it me? Am I just a bad customer? Was it the store? Is it all the yarn stores? Do I need a personal shopper? Am I just better off ordering on the internet? This was just one store, just one day and, yet, it mirrors nearly every experience I’ve had at all my local yarn stores. For example, remember a few months back (January?) when I was searching for some Schaefer Laurel in Frida Kahlo? I first asked the store where I’d bought the original skein if they had any more. Last Friday they phoned to say they had gotten in 3 bags of it and how much did I want (with heavy emphasis on how it was all my fault they had ordered it at all)? Well, I had long since found my skeins on the internet and don’t really need any more but felt guilty enough to tell her to hold 2 skeins for me.

Hence, I go home from each one of these yarn store visits dissatisfied in some way, whether or not I’ve spent too much money. Either the employees have been unhelpful or they didn’t carry what I wanted or the arrangement of merchandise didn’t look appealing or they were too busy with other customers, etc. Even in my travels I can only think of a few yarn shops where I have felt comfortable (Yarn Shop and More outside Kansas City that was brand new, open and bright, and the yarns were arranged by color; Hilltop Yarns in a Craftsman bungalow in Seattle with its room full of Rowan and it’s glass case full of Alchemy skeins, like jewels; the brand new and welcoming Jessica Knits in Scottsdale, where everything was bright and shiny and comfortable; and Amazing Yarns in the owner’s California house in the hills outside Menlo Park with yarns draped everywhere and the grand piano covered with Blue Heron yarns). I recently discovered two semi-local stores which are enchanting but are just a bit too far away to consider driving to all the time: Nina, which is in downtown Chicago, and Chix with Stix, which is way far away in Forest Park (but did have that whole bookcase full of Alchemy(!).

So, that’s where I’ll leave it, for now. “The fault, yarn shoppers, is not in our stores, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”