A Casual Tuesday in Salem

My love for Salem is no secret. I dreamed of living in the Witch City ever since I was a budding little teenage witchling back in Brazil, and now after 13 years of living here, I still fall in love with Salem every day.

Jacob and I have a routing for podcast recording days: we meet at the shop, record our episode, then go for a walk and have lunch. So here’s a behind the scenes look at our afternoon after recording Episode 14 of From Salem with Love!

Our special hangout spot is the Garden at the Ropes Mansion, which makes for a beautiful walk across town from the waterfront. We strolled down the pedestrian mall and got to peek at this new art installation by the Peabody Essex Museum. Artist Konstantin Dimopoulos installed these as part of Earth Day, along with similar installations around the world to bring attention to trees in our surroundings and foster a conversation on deforestation.

View down the Pedestrian Mall at Essex Street

Along the way is Lappin Park, a small park right in the heart of Salem, home to an adorable Little Free Library and the ever-controversial Bewitched Statue (remember that time the city hired us to dress up Samantha and someone called the cops on us?)

Note all the tourists gathering around the Samantha statue!

We picked up some lunch to go at The Juicery, which opened its Salem location just a couple of years ago. It was actually my first time there! Salem has lots of amazing places to eat, and I admit I haven’t tried all of them yet. I ordered the Dragon Berry Bowl and it’s deceptively large!

With our goodies in hand, we walked on to the Ropes Mansion, passing the much loved Witch House on the way (the official name is the Jonathan Corwin house, but nobody calls it that). I take a picture pretty much every time I pass it. The Ropes Mansion was famously used as the character Allison’s house in the movie Hocus Pocus (which they screen every October in Salem Common, one of my favorite fall activities).

It’s early in the season, so the flowers haven’t grown in yet. Stay tuned for more photos later in the summer!

We enjoyed our lunch on a bench at the garden, and said hello to passing dogs. Afterwards, I walked Jacob home, down the Pedestrian Mall again and passing the Salem Common on the way.

I hope you’ve enjoyed joining us for our afternoon in our beloved Witch City!

Wool for Gardening

Planning a garden this year? I just learned about the existence of wool pellets. Wool pellets are made from the wool that is rejected during the scouring process, which is then compressed into pellets for gardening. This wool is considered too dirty to clean and would otherwise be thrown away, burned, or composted. This means that your yarn could be zero waste one day!

I learned about wool pellets from Clara Parks’ podcast Voices in Wool. In episode 7 she interviews Anna Hunter, a Canadian sheep farmer who discusses the struggles of wool processing in North America. Wool pellets are not yet available in Canada and they are a newer product in the USA. They are not widely available yet, but they sound so promising that I hope they catch on! You can find them in small quantities online for purchase. I really recommend listening to the episode if you’d like to learn more about the value wool pellets have!  

Benefits of wool pellets to your garden:

• Wool holds onto water. The wool wicks away excess water to help your plants get the water they need at a healthy pace, and holds extra water meaning you can reduce how frequently you’re watering your plants up to 25%!

• Helps with soil aeration. When the wool soaks up the water it expands allowing for better aeration and extra oxygen in the soil. This helps your plants’ roots spread and grow stronger!

• Natural fertilizer. Since this wool is made from 100% raw wool that often has manure stuck to it these wool pellets act as a great slow release fertilizer for the season. They are full of the nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, iron and sulfur that plants need to grow strong and healthy. 

• Repel slugs and snails. When placed around the base of a plant these pellets felt and make a rough surface that slugs and snails avoid. 

• Great for container gardening and inground gardening.

• Wool pellets are all natural, organic, sustainable and renewable! 

The Knitting Barber Cords: Why I was wrong and why they’re awesome (and how to use them)

I first heard about The Knitting Barber Cords through the shop newsletter. My immediate thoughts were:

What in the world are these?

What are they used for?

These are ridiculous, and silly!

Then I watched the episode of With Love, From Salem (on a side note, you should absolutely watch, the episodes are short, and Jacob and Ana are clearly having too much fun), where Ana did a demonstration of how to use the cords, and it honestly didn’t help my judgment of them. 

Annie was kind enough to take the time to show me how they work and helped me try them with my Starflanket.

It wasn’t until I went to the shop in person mid-January and tried them out for myself! I truly couldn’t have been more wrong with my initial thoughts. Ana even quoted me in a newsletter saying “TKB cords are amazing. I first thought they were stupid and pointless, and now I think I use them daily.” I still stand by this! So far this year, I have been knitting a very large blanket, and a top down sweater. These cords have helped me knit the sweater by allowing me to see the true shape, rather than the shape of my knitting needles and cables. I think I’ve tried this sweater on more times this week because it’s so much easier than I did my entire last sweater. They have also helped me manage my large blanket project and see the shape and texture better than traditional circular needles.

Step One:

Attach the end of the cord to your knitting needle

Step Two:

Carefully, slide the stitches from the needle to the cable.

Step Three:

Admire your project, or try on your work!

I said that I use them daily and it’s true! They are so easy to use. The smaller cords are perfect for holding stitches for the sleeves of sweaters. I’m currently using the two smaller cords to hold the stitches for when I join the front and back panels of my Weekender sweater.

The smaller green cord holding the stitches for the shoulder of my Weekender.

I currently own three sets of the cords. They come in a beautiful assortment of colors. I currently have the Green, Violet, and Yellow cords. I definitely think they’re worth picking up a set. They’ll help mitigate some of that frustration trying on a sweater, or holding stitches or SOMETHING else. 

The three sets I own. Yellow, Green, and Violet.

Another example of the cords holding the stitches for the sleeve of my Bubble Sweater.

The biggest downside, they are tempting targets for cats! Or perhaps a bonus?

I hope this helps convince you that these cords are worth it! Pick your favorite color (or three) here! Happy knitting!

Knitting Needle Sizes Conversion Chart

A handy table of knitting needle sizes!

US Sizes

00000

0000

000

00

0

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

10.5

10.75

10.875

11

13

15

17

19

35

50

Metric Sizes

1.0 mm

1.25 mm

1.50 mm

1.75 mm

2.0 mm

2.25 mm

2.50 mm

2.75 mm

3.00 mm

3.25 mm

3.50 mm

3.75 mm

4.00 mm

4.50 mm

5.00 mm

5.50 mm

6.00 mm

6.50 mm

7.00 mm

7.50 mm

8.00 mm

9.00 mm

10.00 mm

12-12.75 mm

15-16 mm

19 mm

25 mm

UK Sizes

19

18

17

15

14

13

-

12

11

10

-

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

00

000

-

-

-

-

Old Port Hat

Old Port Hat

By Andrea Mowry

Andrea designed this hat during her first New England winter, and I can tell you from wearing this hat all season, THIS is the hat for our cold and windy winters. All the warmth you need around your ears and just the right amount of ventilation at the top of your head to keep you the right temperature. 

If you’ve seen me at the shop in the last few months, and you’ve brought up hat patterns, you’ve probably heard me talk about how much I love my Old Port Hat. 

The Old Port Hat was my second adventure in brioche. It’s the more mature older sibling of Andrea Mowry’s Harlow hat. It features a double brim and cute ear cover details. I had been looking for a use for my very special Rhinebeck skein of cashmere and wool blend yarn, and an excuse to give a Harrisville Nightshades a try. Old Port was the perfect pattern!

I enjoyed this pattern so much I knit it twice. Not something I do often! This time I was testing how well a fingering weight yarn pairs with the DK weight yarn in this pattern. I’m happy to report that any sock yarn will work well!

Below are some yarn suggestions for this pattern.

Maybe you have some Nightshades/Daylights leftover from your Nevasca shawl? My hat used a little less 30 grams of Harrisville Nightshades in Last Call. 

Harrisville Nightshades in VCR

La Bien Aimee Super Sock in The Shire

Harrisville Nightshades in Dashboard

Malabrigo Mechita in Poipu

Woolfolk TYND would make a great companion to a Harrisville Nightshades/Daylight in this pattern! Woolfolk is known for their extra fine, extra soft merino yarns, and it will be so cozy against your ears! (Is making a third hat too many??)

Harrisville Nightshades in Cinder

Woolfolk TYND in 29

Harrisville Nightshades in Static

Woolfolk TYND in 31

There’s no reason you couldn’t make this using Harrisville daylights instead!

Harrisville Daylights in Over Easy

Malabrigo Mechita in Dried Orange

Harrisville Daylights in Caffeine

Malabrigo Mechita in Gris