Two things

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Natalie, sitting at her desk in my dining room (for the four hours a week she has to tolerate me) can tell you that I have not yet found the bad seed, and the house is still a mess, or what I would call a mess, or whatever. Today I’m throwing out half of the stuff on her desk, so that might help. Instead of fretting about the loss of control (and therefore knitting time) that’s going on around here, lets have a bit of a flashback… shall we?

Thing the first: Last week I taught and spoke at StevenBe.  This is a hard shop to describe – a lot of you are going to look at the pictures and think it was over the top – and yeah. It was… but it was over the top in a fun, campy way that reeked of kindness and knitters looking for a good time. 
This is the StevenBe shop:


Please note the boudoir-esqe teaching space. Totally over the top.

This is the man himself – he also, is over the top.


This is his amazing staff (great staff.)


and this is how his staff looks at him half the time. (I love the look on her face, like "Sure Steven, sure.  You lunatic.)

This is how the crowd looked the night of the talk.  There are some amazing knitters in Minneapolis.  (I am not even kidding about that.)


Thanks for coming out to play guys.  It was a blast and a half.

Thing the second:

I finished some great socks.  I love this yarn – Gypsy Girl Creations, Transitions, in Mountain Home.  It wasn’t exactly my colours but I was so charmed by the idea that I bought it anyway. 

I started toe-up, because I wanted to use every inch, and then ended up being pretty long socks.  I had to do a little shaping in the back, actually – to allow for how high up they got.

It was at that point that I thought maybe they were too high, or maybe I should have made them for bigger feet, so they wouldn’t go so high – but I was still helpless to stop.

I like them now. They’re long socks, but they’ll be warm in the winter –

and winter is coming. 

116 thoughts on “Two things”

  2. Wow, that yarn is so beautiful!
    I don’t like to knit toe up, but I see why you did. Might change my mind!

  3. Weren’t those the socks you were knitting when I ducked out of your Grok the Sock class in Perth, ON, to run off to make on offer on a house? I admired them then, and even more now. Good luck with the tidy up. Sometimes the only solution is to send everyone else in the house away for a while (as in a couple of days).

  5. Winter is coming….. and my boiler is not working. They’re supposed to come look at it again tomorrow; but I might be trying to figure out how to stay warm making a wool nest!

  6. Love the socks! They are not too long but if you fall out of love with them I’ll happily pay postage to my house!:-)
    I have plum gremlins at my house, I started with a big tub of plums, made plum compote, plum jam, plum muffins and there are still plums in the bowl!! Spent my spinning day cooking plums, they are too amazing to compost so off to freeze the remainder. Maybe tomorrow I’ll get to visit with my wheel. Housework well that may have to wait for a bit.

  7. Socks might go well with the Bludstone boots (although your mother might sigh). Delightful colourway – I am having envious thoughts about them. I can see why you just wanted to keep going until your ran out of yarn. Mmmm delicious.
    All power to you and Natalie on get some of life’s ‘compartments’ right. It all helps.

  12. The shop is totally awesome! I have a “girl cave” knitting room at home. Gave me some cool new ideas!

  13. Great socks! I’m way past high school (back in the old days of high school) but still wear tall (knee) socks with long skirts in winter. Doesn’t everyone in northern climates? The color transition is nifty. Did you shape them as you went along?

  14. Winter – or at least a taste of winter – arrived here (Missoula, MT) this morning, after 42 days straight without precipitation (a record!). Rain on the valley floor, snow on the mountainsides. I consider it God’s birthday present to me (okay, so my birthday was yesterday, but I’m thankful for the precip all the same). But I do not have beautiful new hand-knitted socks to celebrate with,as you do, so you celebrate having them. (Long socks never work for me anyway.)
    I just hope we get enough rain to put out the fires that have been smoking us for weeks (cough, cough).

  15. Maybe it is your knitting that has the bad seed? Yesterday I put away some needles and patterns and did a minor yarn toss and after that I was actually able to get some cleaning done in the house. Just sayin’….

  17. The owner of StevenBe is totally pimping with his purple ruffly shirt. I love it!
    I also love the socks, but I don’t normally knit long socks (I sort of like the partial balls I have left over). I’ll have to try the yarn anyway, and try toe up again, because I love the idea of these socks. All in my spare time, naturally!

  18. I was always surprised at how short your socks are, given that it is cold up there. These are very pretty.

  20. Ow-w-w-w-w. you didn’t show them the chandelier or the llama or… I like to think of the shop as a very large shipment of every kind of yarn imaginable exploding in Mae West’s bedroom. No other explanation. Thanks for coming here again and thanks for the heads up on Rams’ (of the comments)new book. Please talk her into a website so she can show-off.

  22. Likewise appreciate learning about StevenBe – maybe this will be a MN autumnal visit year! Love the socks, too!

  23. Those are great rain boot socks!!! I always wear long socks with rain boots or else I get sweaty calves… 😉
    Did you buy something at StevenBe? If you did, It might be that the “something” is the culprit for the house mess. It could be trying to transform your house into an over the top boudoir…

  24. I was going to comment that the first photo of Steven B was waaayyy too tame. Then I saw the second one. Yup, that’s him.

  26. Wow! Mpls AND “Winter is Coming” quote in one post. Just reinforced that you are awesome.
    Only wish I could’ve been to the talk to see you!! Please come back sometime in the future!

  28. I was waiting to see your reaction to StevenBe. I met him at the Minnesota Guild’s Yarnover… he was definitely over the top, as was his mobile shop at the market… I haven’t had a chance yet to go to the Garage when I go to visit my son… but I take it that it is not the soothing kind of shop- but tons of fun and lots of electricity… looks like that was your experience. He is bringing a bunch of people to Vogue Knitting Live in Chi on the train with lots of action all the way here…

  29. We ALL look at Steven like that, Stephanie. You should come to Yarnover in Mpls some time. He sets up a booth that makes everyone else’s booth look like a closet. And walks around in a boa. And hangs things from the ceiling. So the look? Universal. Did you see any of the pink and white staff jumpsuits with jewels on them? 🙂 Y’all ought to come visit some time. And people think Minneapolis is stuffy…

  30. I am drooling over that awesome sock yarn. Just my style. You didn’t make them for me, did you?
    And that place looks just like what my apartment will look like in 5 years, when I can actually settle instead of moving all over the place. Loving it.

  31. Darlin’, the socks are definitely my colors! A size eight shoe? Oh, how sweet of you. Thank you soooo very much…..
    P.S. Don’t worry so much about the house. It’ll always be there. Get back to the knitting. Bad seeds eventually fall over in exhaustion and die.

  32. I love the way that yarn worked up into the socks and they’re a perfect length to show off the color transitions. I dig ’em.

  33. I find it really amusing that I am only one of 3 people who got the “Winter is Coming” reference. 🙂
    Gorgeous socks! Love the transition – looks like sunset over the mountains.

  35. Lovelovelove those socks! I’m pretty sure I need those in my sock drawer and my life will not be complete until they are there. Off to find the yarn…

  36. StevenBe looks amazing–like you could roam around in that over-the-top place for hours sniffing and squeezing yarn. And then flop on that lovely bed when you’re shopped out. I love your socks. Yes, winter is coming, but hopefully there’s still plenty of autumn left before we get to the yucky stuff.

  37. Did you enjoy the small-but-filled spinning fiber room at Steven Be’s? (1st photo, in the back, the room/closet with the sunny window) (or have they rearranged since my last visit?) I have some Australian merino/possum blend from that little room waiting to be spun…

  38. That looks like a tremendously good time. Question for you re: the toe-up socks (which are generally my faves) – how do you prevent the *(!%@!! hole where the heel joins? I know there are theories, and I’ve tried them. What’s yours?

  40. Steven is a lunatic but he is our lunatic and we love him. Thanks for such a great evening – I haven’t laughed so much in a long time.
    – Becka (the one in the waterlily skirt)

  42. I refuse to live anywhere that winter is taken seriously…but oh my, would I love to have a shop like that anywhere nearby. FAB-U-LOUS!!!
    And the socks are not at all too long. They are gorgeous, and will keep your calves from freezing in your taken-seriously-winter temperatures.

  43. Yes winter is coming. We’re heading for 0C/32F over the weekend. You’re further north, so I have to assume that you are also starting the competition as to who caves on the heat too. Gotta love down duvets and woolens.

  44. Winter is coming. DH is not Canadian by birth, and totally fails to grasp the importance of furnace wars. We lose every year.
    But I cast on my first-ever sock today, so life is good.

  46. Love the socks. All the references to winter is coming, etc. are lost on me, but those socks!! That yarn!!!! big sigh… Thanks for the post. (maybe the bad seed is that you need to have a very secret knitting project in your suitcase at all times, so you ALWAYS have something ‘in progress’ when you travel…)

  49. It was 32 degrees in the Seattle area this morning-left the window open overnight-ack. Love the socks, wish I had the socks, and oh, I can’t find my kitchen table…..I love being amongst my own kind 🙂

  51. Look at your photos of the shop. Look at your ‘untidy’ house. Is there a common theme?
    What did you bring home with you?
    Find it and knit it – into something for halloween.

  52. Those socks are gorgeous! they’d look killer peeking over the top of some winter boots 🙂

  53. If I ever go to Minneapolis, I’m going to that yarn shop. I know I’d love it! and your socks are pretty awesome too! thanks for a great post!

  55. I LOVE the cowl the woman is wearing in the 8th picture. Does anybody know what pattern that is and what yarn it is?

  56. StevenBe’s looks like a fun place to work! I’d move there and apply for a job, if it weren’t for Minnesota’s notorious winters. (Is it any wonder Bullwinkle’s home town of Frostbite Falls is in Minnesota? And don’t squawk at me — I’m a born-and-bred Chicagoan!)
    The socks are gorgeous. Depending on the boots worn, they might need to be a bit longer to be good boot socks. . .but they might look stunning worn with boots that are barely higher than your ankles. For that reason alone, I predict at least one of your daughters will be seriously coveting those socks!

  57. Thanks for the great talk Stephanie. I laughed till I cried, I learned a few interesting things about my brain, And I met some pretty fun knitters. Come back soon!

  58. Almost forgot. . .hope you got to throw your hand-knitted tam in the air at the corner of 7th Street and Nicollet Mall!

  60. I do believe you’ve just given me a reason to make the trip to Minneapolis. I think I’d better wait until spring though. I wouldn’t want to lose track of time and find myself snowed in or anything.

  61. I found my bad seed this morning. It was my husband’s suitcase, he travels for work each week. It could also have been the two boxes of yarn and the short(ish) stack of unread magazines.

  63. To paraphrase both chaucer and pogo:
    Winter is icumen in, sing goddamn!
    May your tall and colorful socks get you through the upcoming months’ travails.
    With best wishes from beautiful Puebla, Mexico, where i’m currently spreading the joy of socks!

  64. Oh sure, Stephanie, enable us all to buy more of that beautiful yarn that transitions so subtly up the leg as a sock or softly across the shoulders as a shawl or cowl. I’m already on my second Wingspan. I see more in the future with some Gypsy Girl Creations yarn, maybe.

  65. Miranda, Jessie is wearing the Gradient Cowl by Shibui.
    Thank you for coming out here, Stephanie! We all had a wonderful time! (Especially after we caught up on our sleep.)

  69. Great kuitsokken = calvessocks. Stop searching for the Bad Seed. You just have to look for Somebody and Nobody, they are living in many houses, in mine certainly and now also in yours. they like to stay invisible, but you can regognize them this way: Nobody does never do anything and Somebody does the things that should not have been done. Like this: who forget filling the dishwasher: Nobody! Who started the fire: Somebody (but not me)! See, easy as that. I have offered them a cruise on a giant ship, but no, my house is just so cosy they want to stay. So I have an excuse, either nobody or somebody is responsible, not me! For me it is the only way to stay sane and grasp some time for knitting.

  70. Oh dear, I think she might have some website problems. One of the yarn picture thumbnails I clicked on took me to some very friendly ladies who seem to have lost all their clothes instead of pretty yarn!

  71. I love them! My daughter is going to a Catholic school with a dress code. However, she can wear funky socks which she does. The socks are knee socks – long and colorful. She would love these! Thanks for sharing.

  72. Winter is coming – I see what you did there. I wonder if GoT fans who live in the south can really understand what that means.

  78. Love the sock yarn and the off the wall yarn shop. Would have to make the socks shorter, though. They’d be thigh-highs on me Definitely my colors.

  79. I took my first knitting class with Steven many moons ago when I lived in the Twin Cities. This was at his first shop the Yarn Garage. I still have warm memories of him and his “over the top-ness” he taught me that a little bling makes everything better. Love that Guy. I really need to get up there to see his new place.

  81. Winter is coming. Methinks Catelyn or Sansa would love a pair of those for a long season at winterfell:-)
    Gorgeous!

  82. Those SOCKS!!! Awesome! They’d make such a lovely thing for those who wear stubby boots, though the colors would be lost till you took the boots off.
    Though I saw those clear “wellies” in my LYS – and that pair of socks would be PERFECT in those boots. A kit would be lovely…just sayin’….

  83. Great shop! Sure wish there was one like that here. The pics make me want to linger long in a place like that. Love the socks. Simply fabulous!!!

  84. First off i LOVE those socks!!! awesome yarn….second i think i’d like to go to Minneapolis just to visit that shop…looks like a total party in there..

  85. Love the colors – always good to play outside your color comfort zone – these would look so good with blue jeans – jeans are rarely orange, olive green or brown anyway. Hooray for color!

  87. Stephen is something isn’t he? I met him for the first time through a Community Ed crochet class. The original store he started with his sister in Rosemount is just as over-the-top. When knitting friends come to town I ALWAYS try to get them into the Yarn Garage in Rosemount. I only shop a little there otherwise – when I’m looking for something no other store in the Twin Cities will have, I know Stephen will have it.

  90. Okay, so before I buy some of that yarn, was it one skein split in half for those gorgeous socks, or was it a skein each?

  91. Wow, I’m really bummed that you haven’t found the bad seed yet. I was really hopeful that its discovery would help flush out bad seeds everywhere, especially the one at my house in Texas. Maybe it’s the other way around. I better get back to work.

  92. Emily Christensen said, “A clean house is a sign of a misspent life.”
    I think she is most wise. Especially since I just snagged an Ashford knitters loom…

  93. So, I’m looking at the clutter at StevenBe, and thinking about the so-called clutter at your house (okay, my house too) and I’m wondering if it’s just a point of view? Because my life would be so much easier if I could adopt Steven’s point of view and accpet over-the-top as normal instead of the stick-up-my-butt attitude I have about order. Well, except for the coffee cups under the couch.

  94. Okay, I have to have that thing around that girl’s neck. That… cowly thing. Didn’t you “borrow” it from her? You’re slipping. Did you at least get the pattern name and yarn used? Aaargh! Yer killin’ me here!!

  95. Steven’s mother taught me to knit and to stash – over-the-top in a different way. Hope you were able to meet her!

  96. The cowl around the girl’s next is Shibui’s Gradient. It is a free pattern on their website and uses six skeins of Shibui Silk Cloud. The girl is me, and we LOVED having Stephanie visit! Winter is coming……

  97. Arrrrgh…now I have to stop the Christmas knitting to make those fabulous socks…and the cowl.

  99. Oh my, they broke the mold when they made Steven B. no one will ever be able to fill his socks. If God forbid! A stack of yarn falls over on him. Steven is the most delightful and deliciously creative knitter I know. I am fortunate to live close enough to stop into his shop to enjoy the riot of colors as well as the humor filled ambience of the shop. I am so happy that you were able to meet our favorite Minnesota knitter.

  101. I fell for that cowl, too. I looked at the pattern on the website and I must have! Does the cowl on the Shibui website match the colors in the picture? I’d love to know the colors that you used and can I use four skeins instead of six? ( first I have to finish my Suki. This blog is expensive.

  104. I have a feeling there is going to be a rush on that yarn – lovely, made me go to Ravelry and check out all of the projects. The shop is fab, makes me want to open my own Fibre Salon 🙂

  105. I’ve always thought I would be at least a more prolific, if not technically better, knitter if I lived someone where cold enough to justify more hand knits.

  107. Here’s what happens when you can be the beneficiary and experience the magic of Steven’s shop, the wonderful knitting community of Mpls./St. Paul, and your visit all at once: I had learned belatedly that you were going to be in town, but thought I’d just come experience some of the energy and buy a special treat or two. When I arrived and was asked if I’d come for your sock class, I explained my visit, just happy to be there. Jeremy and another staff employee then told me the amazing news that someone had just canceled and I could take her place, luncheon, book signing, and all. No yarn and needles? No problem! I was stunned by my good fortune to study with you and be surrounded with all that knitting kharma. Thank you, Stephanie, and all at Steven Be’s — come visit, everyone!! You’ll find it here for you, too.

  109. Whoever dyed that is brilliant. Socks…next on my list of things to do and enjoy doing.

  111. Oh my, those socks are fantastic! Just what I need… One more lovely to draw me away from my crochet, writing, cooking and, oh yeah, day job!

  113. This isn’t related to this post, but I just wanted to let you know that I was referring to your thrum FAQ and one of the links there (the knitfreak one) now seems to go to a porn site…so you might want to lose or update that link… 🙂

  114. Too funny. I was reading about your dining room and looking at the first photo at the same time. Bet you are glad that isn’t actually your dining room. Although all that wool might be an improvement on some dinner guests, I suppose. Or you could decide to give everyone a ball of yarn and some needles at dessert time. It does look like an amazing shop, though.

  115. StevenBe’s other shop, Yarn Garage is even more over the top and Steven is a gracious shop owner. Once I was passing near and called to find out their hours. They asked how far I was and said to come by…stayed open late and graciously spent over an hour showing me yarns and helping me find the perfect yarn for my project. 🙂

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