Charles had to pay a visit to the Geology Library at UTexas, so he said, “Want to go to Austin for a day?” I considered for about a zeroth of a second, and said, “Yes!” My plan? To spend some time communing with the fibers that be at Hill Country Weavers, 1701 S. Congress Avenue, Austin, TX.
I spent a blissful hour and a half looking at yarn and books, and then looking at the yarn all over again. An employee saw me looking at Rachael Matthews’ Knitorama. We both agreed that it is a very silly book, and we both love it! The “Yarn Foreword,” an introduction by Amy Plant brought on nostalgia. She advocates knitting with a lovely cup of Yorkshire tea at your side. I did that many times when we lived in England. Yorkshire tea is delicious.
Hill Country Weavers is in a converted house. Every nook and cranny is filled with yarn. I was glad to see Habu Textiles well-represented. Their yarns are imported from Japan. I knitted a shawl/poncho with their linen paper yarn. It is interesting stuff.
Beautiful yarns from small producers, like Judy & Co. and the Great Adirodack Yarn Co., are featured at Hill Country Weavers. Alongside them are the old standards: Cascade 220 in its many colors, crisp Euroflax Linen and ethereal KidLin, Brown Sheep Yarns, and Tahki Cotton Classic, which is one of my favorite yarns ever, because of the color choice.
This display of Alchemy Yarns stopped me in my tracks. The colors were so saturated, so brilliant, that I wanted to dive in! I love that they use the same colorways on different types of yarn (silk straw, mohair, silk, bumpy yarn).
I bought a few things and made notes about many others for future projects. Stella, the shop doggie, checked on me every now and then, to make sure I was getting along alright.
Another book caught my eye: The Museum of Kitschy Stitches, by blogger Stitchy McYarnpants. The author makes sometimes funny, sometimes mean comments upon ridiculous knit and crochet designs of the past. Some of the fashions are truly terrible. The worst part: I can remember when many of those patterns were originally published!
