My favorite part of the San Francisco trip was the little foray out to ArtFibers. All I can say is that it is probably a good thing for the sake of my credit card bill that I don’t live near this place. (Yes, I know they ship, but it ain’t the same…)
For those of you who have never been there, here is the Wall of Yarn:
I sat through FOUR whole days of medical conference just waiting for the chance to get done and go to this place. I learned many new things, and didn’t fall asleep once, thanks to my trusty knitting project. The conference had perhaps 400 attendees, pretty well mixed half and half, men and women. (Oh, I remember the good old days, when I was one of a minority of women physicians! “Lady Doctors”, we were called way back then.) I was the only person knitting, although there was one other woman doing needlepoint. I found it rather amusing that the only people that commented on my knitting were a couple of men sitting near me that said some favorable things.
Here’s what I worked on:
I figure I’m about a third done with this. It was great conference knitting, with those miles of stockinette that I didn’t have to pay any attention to.
Oh, I suppose you want to know what yarn I came home with??
The ribbon yarn in both of these pictures is called “Houdini”. The first one really is as red as it looks. The red shiny stuff with it is Baccarat, which is a nylon sequin ribbon novelty yarn. The red combo will be a long skinny scarf.
The other combo is the Houdini ribbon in a fall color blend, along with Kyoto, a silk/mohair/wool blend in a lovely gold color. This will be a wide rectangular shawl. The women in the store are unbelievably helpful in assisting you with pattern and color suggestions. I sort of had an idea what I wanted for a pattern for this, and the woman helping me sat right down and hand wrote a pattern for this yarn combo that I think will be perfect.
I’ve decided that as an incentive to finish that Birch shawl, I will NOT start either one of these until I finish that one. I tried to work on it while watching the VP debate last night, but got a little worked up and lost track of where I was. Maybe I won’t really try to finish it till after the election.
That wall of yarn really is something! Love the purchases – very luxurious colours. They’ll be fun to knit up, I should think. As for Birch, well, I found it only really began to move after about nine pattern repeats, it really does begin to feel that there are less stitches on the needle. I guess you’ve just got to be in the right mood for it!
I find that men are most complimentary of my choice to stay at home with the kids. So I’m not too surprised that they were the ones to comment on your knitting. Some women have gone too far in the other direction when it comes to avoiding activities that society deems “women’s work.” Look at that wall of yarn!
Drooling at the Wall of Yarn, and the your choice of ribbon yarns! The colours are absolutely gorgeous!!!
gosh that ribbon yarn in beautiful!
Funny how now that I knit obsessively I look forward to conferences.
A little change in perspective can be just the ticket!
Glad you made it to Artfibers.
I’ve often told myself I’m just going to pop in and see what they have. Big mistake. I always leave with something. More than I need of course.