random yarn store notes

I was at my LYS the other day and I had the Picovoli pattern with me. Nice LYS lady said “Oh! Grumperina! I love her. I read her blog EVERY DAY.” Heh. It was just cute. She also told my mom that she (mom) should try a particular yarn shop near where she (mom) lives, as opposed to the yarn shop mom has been going to. The people at the yarn shop mom has been going to have been most un-knitter-like, and I’ll leave it at that for the moment.

I was at my OTHER LYS today (this is not the shop I normally visit... it’s near my son’s school, and I just wanted to pick up a set of size 6 DPNs so I could re-swatch for picovoli... that’s also another story...) and overheard the lady there saying something shocking. A customer came in and asked “do you sell blocking boards?” and the lady replied “no. And there is a good reason for it - we do not recommend blocking.” I was somewhat taken aback. The customer said “really? but, I thought it was recommended!” and the lady said “nope. Not a good idea.” So this other customer said “but, what about, when you have a sweater, and the back doesn’t line up with the front exactly, shouldn’t you fix it with blocking?” and the lady said “no, you should probably re-knit.” So then I said “what about lace?” and the lady said “well, I don’t know about lace - but for a regular sweater, blocking is not recommended.” WTF??

So back to swatching picovoli... the yarn in the pattern is Debbie Bliss Cathay, which is alleged to be a DK weight yarn that knits up at 5.5 st/inch on a US 5 needle. Yet, Grumperina’s pattern states you should knit it at 22 st/4 inches on size 4 -- and unless i’m losing it, 5.5 st/inch = 22 st/4 inches, right?

So, I got this substitute yarn, and the label says it is a DK weight and should knit up at 5.5 st/inch on size 6 needles. Hrm. So I tried swatching it with a size 4 for some reason, and got 28 st/inch. I’m reswatching on a size 6 but so far am not really loving the fabric - it seems kinda loose. SIGH.