The nicest knitting teacher in the world

Knitters who regularly read this blog know that I'm a great admirer of Helen Bingham, teacher, designer and knitting and crochet expert from Rehoboth, Massachusetts.  I've known Helen through her tenure at two Providence LYS, A Stitch Above and Fresh Purls, now both, sadly, closed. However, I wanted you-all to know that Helen will be running an amazing class in Providence during the month of June, at the beautiful Hamilton House on Angell Street. I'll let Helen tell you about this in her own words, and I hope you can benefit from her magical knitting intuition!

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Hello Knitters in the Providence, RI area,

I am offering a series of “Help Clinics” at Hamilton House during the month of June. Hamilton House is located at 276 Angell Street which is on the corner of Hope Street on the East Side. There is street parking available. Jessica and Anna are allowing me to rent space in this beautiful building so I may continue to teach after Fresh Purls closes on May 31st.

Every Tuesday from 10:30 - noon we will be meeting in their beautiful sitting rooms. This is a chance for you to receive lots of help with a wide array of knitting or crochet related items. Do you need help reading a pattern? Do you want to learn how to knit? Have you made a mistake and need assistance getting back on track? Do you want to learn how to do cables? Do you want to learn how to do the Magic Loop? These are just some of the things I can help you with.

To sign up for all four Tuesdays (4, 11, 18, 25) it will be $30. If you want to commit to one Tuesday then it is $10 per session. These Clinics are limited to fifteen students. To reserve your spot please go towww.helenbinghamdesigns.com then continue to “Hamilton House” to pay in advance. To learn more about Hamilton House please go to www.historichamilton.com.

Please contact me if you have any questions via Ravelry or hhelsmile@aol.com.
Thank you
Helen

Farewell, Fresh Purls

A sad fact: yet another LYS bites the dust. The latest casualty, Fresh Purls on Hope Street in Providence, Rhode Island, will shut its winsome little door before the end of the month.

Now Providence has no yarn shop. What, I wonder, will fill the void? Since every other LYS in the state is at some distance from the city, knitters will have to drive or be driven to buy yarn locally.

Sudden Yarn Store Death (SYSD) is on the rise, alas. Maybe it's the economy; maybe it's because of increasing Internet sales, maybe it's a lot of snowballing factors.  Knit One Purl Two in Wakefield, Rhode Island, and Windsor Button in Boston have also recently succumbed. Here's an interesting article , "The Assault on Local Yarn Stores" from the Albany, New York area paper, The Times Union, on the SYSD phenomenon. The article raises some questions worth pondering.

Without trying to answer them, I'll say this--our local knitting community is poorer for having lost Fresh Purls. Its owner, Karen, did her best to welcome everyone, provide yarn-craft education, and contribute to good causes. I first met her when I joined a group the shop sponsored, "Needed Knits," wherein the estimable Helen Bingham offered patterns and advice, weekly, for those who wanted to sit and knit for a little while to make hats for good charitable causes--such as a women's shelter in Providence, and for people who frequented a soup kitchen in the Portsmouth area.

Fresh Purls provided much of that yarn.

My final purchase from Fresh Purls.  Sigh.

Stumbling around at Slater Mill

Today ends the Slater Mill Knitting Guild Knitting Weekend and I was damned if I was going to miss it, especially since I'd signed up for Helen Bingham's simultaneous socks workshop on Saturday. Small detail:  I've had a grotesque cold for the past week....Nonetheless I turned on the Stoic Resolve, swallowed a whole lot of OTC cold-nuking drugs, and I can tell you that for me, the entire five hours I spent there, was a total blur. Possibly the drug cocktail had something to do with this? The drive home was equally loopy. I seemed to be in the thrall of Solar Slowdowns, and expected to see ETs among the space alien corn as I reached the top of every hill with its reward of instantaneous blindness from glaring rays of the setting sun.

Helen Bingham teaches simultaneous socks.

After two hours of intense concentration whilst my brain moved in slow motion and enjoyed minor hallucinations, I determined it was time to press Reset --> Delay [48 hours] --> Start; so I packed up my sad attempt at two simultaneous socks

and wandered around the yarn artisans' marketplace for a while, running into my friends from North Light Fibers,

my neighbor, Linda Perry, the dynamo behind Thistledown Knitting,

Linda's beauteous hand-dyed worsteds

and discovered the fabulous sock yarn of Play at Life Fiber Arts, located on Etsy and in Fall River, MA.

Here the yarn stands in for H, who will wear sox knitted therefrom.

Was the jaunt worth it, given my subpar health?  What kind of question is that???