It seems no matter how good and earnest my intentions might be, I’m only able to post here every once in a while. I do stop by from time to time, as if I might discover that I have posted again. Silly me, of course that hasn’t happened.

I try to file all the little ideas and thoughts that I would like to write about, and hope to keep them safe in some corner of my mind, but they’re lost or pushed aside by ISBN’s and lists and purchase orders. Oh, the stories I was going to tell…

It’s full-on summer at work, and crazy busy. I place orders sometimes three or four times a day. Every time I turn around there is something else that has sold like crazy, all of a sudden (and I mean Since This Morning) so it goes on to yet another order to be sent in hopes of having it arrive the next afternoon. I’m good at anticipating most of what we’ll need in advance, and I have the inventory in the basement to back me up, but sometimes Stuff Happens.

All these hours spent on High Alert might make the day fly by, but they make the evenings and the days off all that much more precious. I come home and knit.

(Some of) My Secret Knitting Revealed: Tilt and Whirl Socks! This is my design for next month’s Spirit Trail Fiberworks’ Spirited Socks Yarn Club. It had been percolating for a while (again, back there in the dim recesses of my brain), and when Jen sent me this beautiful yarn to knit with I knew the two would be a perfect match. I love the way the little blocks work with the way she dyed the yarn.

I have been a fan of Jennifer Heverly’s yarn and fiber for a long time, and I’m so pleased to be working with her on this project!


And because I can’t pass up a good yarn club, I joined Jen’s other one: Yarns with Spirit. The first shipment is the same as for the Sock Club (the beautiful blue/green yarn above, a lovely pattern designed by Bess Haile, a pattern notebook, and some of the best coffee I’ve had in a long time). I can’t wait to see what’s in store for next time — a scarf design by Shelia January, I hear!

This is where blog reading takes me: I’ve been aware that Anne Hanson is a lover of Fearless Fibers yarn, so one day last week I decided to stop on over at Deb’s Etsy Shop. What do you know, she’d just posted a whole bunch of new yarn! I picked these two Superwash Merino sock yarns to try. The first one is “Blue Rain,” and the second one is “Sublime.”

They’re both sublime, if you ask me. It was pure pleasure to order and receive these soft skeins so full of knitting promise. I’m keeping my eyes open for the publication of Anne’s Rectangle Bee Fields Shawl and I think I’ll order some Fearless Fibers yarn for that as well.

One of the most wonderful things about working at an independent bookstore, and for as long as I have, is that relationships with customers have a chance to grow and ripen. I am fond of many of the people who shop in my store (and believe me, they take the sting out of the Other Ones), but a few are just plain special.

So I was delighted to look up yesterday and see the sweet smile of B D, a wonderful customer and friend from the “old days” when I worked at the East Hampton store. She happened to be in Southampton, and wanted to take me to lunch. Of course!

We spent a wonderful hour catching up over delicious salads and iced teas — books, politics, people, life, back to books, and more. As we stood on the sidewalk, me ready to head back to work and B about to turn the corner to the museum, she pulled a little red booklet from her bag. It was a story. One Story, to be precise. From the website:

“One Story is a literary magazine that contains, simply, one story. Approximately every three weeks, subscribers are sent One Story in the mail. This story will be an amazing read.

Each issue is artfully designed, lightweight, easy to carry, and ready to entertain on buses, in bed, in subways, in cars, in the park, in the bath, in the waiting rooms of doctors, on the couch in the afternoon or on line at the supermarket.

One Story is available only by subscription.”

B is an enthusiastic reader, book collector, and supporter of all things literary, and I trust her. I subscribed the minute I got back to the store.