My View of Life on the Dock
Another great read from Gail McCarthy in the Gloucester Daily Times:
Gail McCarthy. “Making Connections in an era of isolation: Bottle with messages from Maine Found,” Gloucester Daily Times, 14 April 2020, front page
For more of the story, here’s Jeanne Blake “Message from the Sea” blakeworks.com
The last time I made a Christmas stocking was when Alex was a baby. I miss knitting and was determined to at least get one started for Charlotte. It’s been a long time since I turned a heel on stocking or sock, but thanks to Monique Jean at Coveted Yarn, she showed me just how to do it (Monique made nine Christmas stocking this year for her family). While she was helping decipher the directions, I couldn’t help but think how fortunate are we in Gloucester to have such a fantastic yarn shop, which is not only always stocked with gorgeous yarns, but staffed with a super knowledgeable person such as Monique. Many thanks to Monique for her gracious help!
Coveted Yarn is located at 127 Eastern Avenue, just behind Shaws. Their hours are as follows:
Monday and Thursday 10 AM to 9:00 PM
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 10 AM to 6 PM
Saturday 10 AM to 5 PM
Sunday 12 PM to 5 PM
Snoods are all in vogue at the moment. The silly sound of the word makes me want to smile; they are actually wonderfully fun to wear and will keep you cozy warm when knitted in a natural fiber such as merino wool, cashmere, or alpaca.
What is a snood you may be wondering?
Fun Project for Holiday Gift Giving
A snood is a softly draped scarf that can be pulled up and over to also serve as a hood. Snoods today are very different than what was typically worn through the ages and into the 1940’s. Earlier snoods were mostly knitted or crocheted net headwear designed to keep hair in place. During the 1950’s snoods began to evolve with the characteristics that we see today, that of a loosely draped tubular scarf worn around the neck and head, designed both for warmth and luxury. Because the ends are sewn together, unlike a conventional scarf, they are much less fussy and less like to fall out of place.
With 3-4 balls of leftover yarn, and a pair of large needles, you can whip up a snood in few nights. For this sample, I used baby alpaca because it is so soft and not in the least bit itchy (purchased at Coveted Yarn). The snood would be beautiful worked in a ribbed stitch or seed stitch. I wasn’t sure how much mileage I would get out of my leftover skeins, so making the mockup in a simple garter stitch, which requires less yarn than a rib stitch for example, insured there would be enough to complete the project.
Directions:
Using whatever needles and yarn you have on hand, knit a rectangle to equal approximately 28-30 inches in length by 15 inches wide.
Loosely bind off.
Stitch ends together width-wise to form one continuous loop.
Knit a narrow band approxzimately 2 inches wide by 8 inches in length
The snood pictured is shown with a narrow band, to a create slightly more structured shape however, the band is optional. With needles several sizes smaller, knit a band approximately 2 inches wide by 8 inches long. To keep the edges of the band neat and clean, slip the first stitch of every row.
Bind off loosely.
Turn snood inside out. Over the seamline, center one short end of the band to the snood and stitch. Pull the opposite end around to create a bow-like affect and join securely. Weave in all loose ends.
There you go, an easy fun project for the holidays, to give to a loved one, or to keep for yourself!
Please forgive the iphone selfies–no models (daughter) readily available and I wanted to post this in time for holiday gift-giving.
Perhaps a yarn with a lurex or sequin sparkle woven through and in a deep midnight blue would give this snood less of a babushka-effect.
GloucesterCast With Guest Ryan Pinkham and Host Joey Ciaramitaro Taped 4/12/14
Topics Include: Tech Mogul Ryan Pinkham, Pleasant Street Tea and Coffee Co, Content Developer For Constant Contact, Northeastern Coop Program, Constant Contact Social Media Blog, What Makes A Good Social Media Campaign and What Are Some Of The Mistakes People Make, Sista Felicia Using Social Media, Coveted Yarn, Always Try For A Win/Win, Not Pitching 24/7, Blue Lobster Marketing, Marshall’s Farm Stand Farm Animals, Selling An Experience, The Franklin, Katrina’s Bang Bang Shrimp, Magnolia Spring Art Show, Minglewood Tavern, Lobster Land, Lobster Pool BYOB, Tacos Lupita Roast Pork Burrito, Dogs On The Beach Controversy, Trash Barrels On California Beaches vs Carry In/Carry Out, Burnham’s Field Neighborhood, John McElhenny, Steven Colbert Gets Letterman Job A Week After Suey Park Controversy, Landlines/Web TV and People Under 30, What % Of People In Gloucester Still Pay For Cable, 01930, Gloucester MA
The GloucesterCast Has Been Been Invited To Be A Station On Stitcher Radio On Demand!
Check It!!!
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About Our Guest Ryan Pinkham:
Read His Useful Social Media Tips Here At Constant Contact
I’m interested in helping small businesses and non-profits recognize their full-potential through marketing and social media. I want to hear your story and learn the creative and innovative ways that you’re marketing your business. I’ve worked in small businesses my entire life and now I’m excited to work with them!
The ideal scarf for photographers ~ a scarf-with-pockets!
If you are anything like me, when out photographing or filming, your coat pockets are so over-stuffed that there is no room for frozen fingers. Typically, my pockets contain second and third alternate lenses, car keys, lens cap, lens wiping cloth, and gloves. The gloves are off so that I can work the cameras, which invariably leads to numb hands and fingers. Meet the scarf-with-pockets. In between shots, you can tuck your hands into the convenient scarf pockets. For added warmth, I worked this in the brioche stitch, which creates a luxuriously textured and lofty pattern.
My favorite yarn currently is Frog Trees’s gorgeous Chunky Alpaca. Alpaca is warm and cozy, with a similarly soft feel to that of cashmere, and is NOT ITCHY!
You can purchase Frog Tree’s Chunky Alpaca from Robert at Coveted Yarn. Frog Tree yarns are fair trade; profits from the sale of yarns goes to the artisan.
Chunky Alpaca comes in a beautiful array of colors. If Robert doesn’t have the color you are looking for in stock, ask, and he will custom order it for you.
4 Skeins Frog Tree Chunky Alpaca
#6 needles (or size to suit your knitting style; I knit very loosely)
Cast on, very loosely 24 sitiches. Work basic brioche stitch for approximately 52 inches. Bind off loosely. Scarf measurement before pockets: 52″ in length, 6″ wide.
For each pocket ( work both simultaneously on the same needles so they come out the same length), loosely cast on 48 stitches. Work knit one pearl one ribbing for one inch. Switch to brioche stitch and work until total length of pockets equals the same width of scarf (in this case, 6 inches). Bind off very loosely. Slightly stretch and block ribbing to equal width of the pocket. Stitch pockets to scarf.
Pocket Detail
End Notes ~ The brioche stitch is a little tricky. Heidi, who works at Coveted Yarn, recommended online youtube tutorials, which I did, and found it was a terrific way to learn a new pattern. This is the perfect winter for an extra thick and lofty scarf and I’ll be busy on a second scarf-with-pockets because daughter Liv has claimed the red one in the photo.
I have recently noticed scarves with pockets in shops and the pocket openings were acclimated horizontally rather than vertically, as are the pockets in this pattern. That’s a great idea, because the pockets can then be used to also hold items however, the openings would be less conveniently placed for warming hands.
Well at the Mass Cultural Council Meeting at Fred Bodin’s I was envious of my pal Melissa Cox’ super soft scarf. I asked her to make me one and she gave me the one around her neck. Such a good egg that Melissa.
Wore it home and when I entered the door I was greeted by someone I may or may not be related to through marriage with a quizzical look. I asked her “What with the look?” To which she replied- “You know that’s a girls scarf, right?”
Upon further inspection the pattern is a little frilly. So I returned the scarf and asked Melissa to make me a new scarf which I would pay for that had a more manly pattern.
So we sauntered (yes sauntered) over to Coveted Yarn and picked out a manly scarf design and some new yarn.
It was a daunting task with the bazillion different types of yarns and thicknesses or yarns and yarns with different yarn properties, some of which need to be hand washed, some of which can be thrown in the washing machine- anyway I learned way more about yarn than any man should ever need to know about yarn.
With some guidance from The Yarn Pimp- Roberto we picked out a super soft yarn for the scarf which my pal Melissa would be producing for me just in time for the balmy days of spring.
You can see the pattern and yarn we picked out below-
Straight sexy, right?
And here’s the yarn being made into a cake at Coveted Yarn-
Click for the very stimulating video
The skein is being turned into a cake.
Witness The Spectacle
These yarn people are bananas!
Yarnies and Fiber Fanatics Congregate To Take Advantage of Ridiculous Yarn Savings
Joey,
Coveted Yarn is part of www.ayarncrawl.com coming up March 10th to the 13th. Think of a pub crawl but for yarn addicts. 🙂 We will be giving one lucky crawler a $500 Coveted Yarn Shopping spree among hundreds of dollars of other prizes in addition to awesome sales and promotions. Leslie Wind of Rockport will be here demonstrating and selling her shawl pins and "tewelry" (jewelry that doubles as a tool for some fiber related work). Coveted will be open from 7 am to 11 pm all four days of the crawl. I was wondering if you could spread the word about it and also if you wanted to come down at some point and shoot a video. We are expecting people from all over northeast. Hope all is well.
Thanks!
-Robert
— Coveted Yarn
121 E. Main St.
Gloucester, MA 01930
(978)282-8809
www.covetedyarn.com
info@covetedyarn.com
New Extended Hours:
Mon – Fri 10:00AM – 9:30PM
Sat& Sun 10:00AM – 5:00PM
With The Upcoming Yarn Crawl Coveted Yarn Is Kicking Yarn and Taking Names
What started out as a little yarn shop has grown into a nice business and the thing to me that is really cool about it (beside the fact that they are Gloucester based and have probably the best stocked knitting shop around) is that they took a hobby that people have been doing for centuries and a thing as simple as selling yarn and grown it in big part to their social media initiatives. they are reaching out to people all over the world and have followers and customers that travel from all over due to their web presence. Without their social media facebook, twitter,blog and presence on knitting websites like Ravelry there is no doubt in my mind that their business and message wouldn’t reach nearly as many of their customers as it does and this is for little to no money at all according to Robert.
I am more convinced than ever that if you are a retailer or restaurant that sells to the public and you don’t have a social media plan that you are being negligent.
You can check out Coveted Yarn at any of these locations-
http://www.covetedyarn.com/
http://twitter.com/covetedyarn
http://covetedyarn.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gloucester-MA/Coveted-Yarn/39329469377?ref=ts&__a=8&
Gloucester Doors – Coveted Yarns, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
The Coveted Yarn has a ridiculous number of different types of yarn in all kinds of colors, textures and sizes. Check them out.
Coveted Yarns On East Main Street, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
When you drive by Coveted Yarn at night the bright colors light up the windows of it’s store at 121 East Main Street (next to Smoking Jim’s). Here’s Robert stocking shelves. You can see one of the couches where you can sit and knit and chat with other knitters.
Coveted Yarns On East Main Street, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
Ridiculous Discounts on the clearance racks at Coveted Yarn. There was some yarn that was $9 per skein that was marked down to $3 and if you bought a whole bunch they further were reduced 20% on top of that. Well worth it for you to checkout if you are a knitter, or know a knitter that might like a gift certificate for the holidays!
Coveted Yarns On East Main Street, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
At Coveted Yarn they have a fantastic contest in which everyone is a winner. For every baby hat knitted and donated Coveted Yarn places an entry in for a drawing for a $50 gift certificate. The baby hats then get donated to children wards at hospitals. That’s a great idea in my book. For all you knitters or people that want to learn how, swing by their shop on East Main Street next to Smoking Jim’s from 10-12 on Saturdays for free knitting lessons.
Coveted Yarn Baby Hat Contest, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
Look for part II of the Coveted Yarn Interview At 3:00PM today
Gloucester Doors – Coveted Yarns, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
There is a warm aura in this joint with couches and chairs. Certainly a community aspect as you can hang out and joing the knitting revolution currently taking place in Gloucester.
www.covetedyarn.com
info@covetedyarn.com
Extended Holiday Hours:
Mon – Thurs 10:00AM – 9:30PM
Fri 10:00AM – 4:00PM
Sat & Sun 10:00AM – 5:00PM
Coveted Yarns On East Main Street, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
Good Morning Gloucester 