Knitabel

Thank you everyone!

I love ducks. It would be very exciting to have ducklings in our pool, even if it slows down our reentry to the swimming life we love so dearly. Maybe we could knit instead.

Is it too much to keep a life blog separate from a knitting blog? I'm one of those people who creates blogs like they're water (?). But maybe I need to merge my lives... it's not as though I'm living my life without thinking about knitting anyway.

Today was fun. After a delightful breakfast at Dana Street (coffee and pastry, yum) and reading about the ins and outs of the housing situation in Mountain View, Eric and I gave blood (that's always fun) and then spent the next several hours trying to cook enough to satisfy our ravenous blood-replacement appetites. Pad Thai tastes good. Mmmmm. And then I worked on the socks while we had FMN (Family Movie Night) and watched The Cat Returns. I'll be knitting more tonight still.

I'm very much looking forward to knitting tomorrow. And I think I may be knitting on Monday night too?

Oh oh and I made a new friend on Friday. Well, "friend" might be too much, but she knits, so it's like she's on a different plane than just an acquaintance. I met a new knitter. How about that. She's a lace knitter and has been knitting at the local library. I found her blog on Thursday night (looking for "asian knitting -manufacturer -industry") after that whole yarn-store-thing I had going on and she mentioned (in her blog) that she knits at the library, and then when Sweetie and I were there for our Friday afternoon run, we popped by and met her. I think she was a little suprised that her online world and her RL met. But the library is a good place for that.

:)

Look! My brain has returned from its two month hiatus! My plain-simple-boring (but very knitable with no brain) socks have suddenly become more exciting. I know they aren't necessarily the most wonderful design, but they make me happy.

Look -- Cables(!):

I have the biggest smile over this. Maybe now I'll be able to finish the soaker, the other socks, and Eric's sweater (in that order?). Oh yeah, then there's the lace. And that other thing. We'll see. But at any rate, I'M KNITTING AGAIN! :) :) :)

Ok, that was fun. And it's not like I haven't been knitting. I have knitted a whole bunch of things since I left, despite my shocking lack of proof. But having my brain stop working for a while there was most unnerving, and I ended up starting extra projects to compensate. I'm much happier being able to knit what I want when I want.

So tonight at BobaKnit I began thinking about our Boba/Yarn store again. It's such a delight to think about, especially with so many empty storefronts on Castro. I have a lot of thoughts about it tonight, so here I am typing away.

If we had one of the larger stores, there's so much we could do! I have two main themes in my head at the moment: Asian influence and intentionally being family friendly. Of course. I love those things. I'm still thinking about the fact that we'd be competing with several other Boba stores in MV, but that doesn't seem to be a focus tonight.

Asian influence: in downtown Mountain View, it seems like a no-brainer to play up the Asian side of knitting. We could carry Japanese knitting & crochet magazines, yarns, and teach Amigurumi classes. I've also got an idea or two for knitted Indian fashions. I'm sure there's more, but I have limited knowledge about the various Asian cultures and their fashions or their handknit (or crochet) styles.

Family friendly: as a Mom, I really would want to support other knitting moms or dads in the community. We'd totally have a little sticker in the front window indicating that we were breastfeeding friendly. And the kids' portion would be designed to hold their young attention: a train table is a no-brainer, and things like a dollhouse or a teaset (in an Asian style) would make sense too. This area would take up some space, so one of the little stores wouldn't work as well, but one of the larger ones would.

On the boba front, do you think we could run "specials"? I don't think we'd want to compete with the huge number of flavors that other stores in the area offer, but if we had a couple staple flavors, and then cycled through other flavors for fun, we might be able to actually provide some quality.

Hmmm. I know I'm not in a place to actually open a store right now, but it is lovely to dream, isn't it?