Shopping – The Knitting Doctor

Yes, there was yarn

Our excursion Sunday was to a nearby village that was the site of a small knitting factory that opened in the 19th century. The factory unfortunately closed in 1989, but it has been converted into a museum, keeping most of the old spinning and knitting machinery in working order. The original factory primarily made machine-knit (and hand-finished) clothing, especially woolen long underwear.

That is just some of the old equipment on display.

That is a bin of single ply thread ready to be made into either cloth for garments, or finished yarn for knitting.

The museum shop was lovely, with a nice collection of knit items, books, and other souvenirs. You know I was there for the yarn, right?

Some of that did come home with me.

That little guy didn’t end up in my shopping bag, though he sure is cute.

Progress!

I’ve been knitting this shawl forever. It starts out with a big garter stitch triangle, then you pick up stitches on two sides and knit a wide lace border. I finally finished that part this morning.

The last section is a knitted-on lace edging, which is knit perpendicular to the shawl body, knitting the last stitch of every other row together with a shawl border stitch to attach it. It’s easier to do than to describe it.

Here’s another photo.

This yarn is so squishy soft that I want to keep knitting it forever. It’s from Blacker Yarns.

I might have a few more colors of this in the stash. It also comes in a DK weight, I’d love a sweater out of this.

In other shopping news, I’ve been coveting this bag forever. I finally broke down and bought it. It amuses me that it’s the same color as my Subaru. Army Blanket Green!

Behind Door #1

As you all can probably guess, I struggle mightily with the stash acquisition thing. I have bins and bins of yarn around here, as well as a couple of bins of fiber that can be spun into more yarn. Yet I found myself yesterday online, window shopping for more yarn. “Ooooohhh, Shiny!!”

Something made me close the browser window and step away from the computer. I keep talking about knitting from stash, but I never actually get around to doing it. So I decided to rummage around in the bins of yarn I already have. I decided on a novel approach, just pull out one box and see what’s in there. It’s sort of an archive of my yarn shopping for the past decade or so.

I decided to start with Box #1*. The numbered boxes are somewhat chronological, though not entirely, since I’ve reorganized the whole mess once or twice over the years. Here we go:

Want to see what’s in it?

That’s a sweater’s worth of nice oatmeal colored wool from Elann. John looked at that and called “mine”. I think he needs a Mr. Rogers cardigan, don’t you?

That’s a shawl’s worth of a really pretty lace mohair/viscose blend. There’s enough there for a Wing ‘o the Moth Shawl.

Next up is two colors of Inca Alpaca. There are 4 hanks of the brown, and 3 of the cream. I’m thinking scarves. They both would go with my winter coat.

Then there is enough of this Green Mountain Spinnery Silkspun for mittens. Bright purple mittens for me!

Last but not least, one lonely skein of something:

I think that’s a skein of that same oatmeal, but likely from a different dye lot. I actually did a swatch with this, but I think there is enough left for another pair of mitts.

So there you go, a blast from the past. I’m almost up to finishing something already on the needles, then I’m going to start one of these projects next. Let’s see how much of this box I can get through before I cave and buy more yarn!

*To put that in perspective, there are 20 numbered boxes in my closet. That doesn’t include the box of enough crayon colored Cotton Ease for several sweaters. And a miscellaneous box of Dale Baby Ull and Euroflax in a variety of colors. I clearly do not need more yarn, I just need to go shopping at home.

When In Doubt, Shop!

First up…I hope you all noticed the change of scenery around here. I liked the old theme I was using, but it hasn’t been updated for awhile, and the old version was a bit twitchy with the newer version of WordPress. So I found one that let me insert my own photo in the header. That’s a picture of our lake at sunset a few nights ago. Here’s the original.

Next up is the pre-Olympic event of Stash Enhancement. I know, I know. I need more yarn like I need termites. So?

That is from the Verdant Gryphon, Eidos sock yarn in Medusa, Jade Emperor, and Wen Chang. Though I’m sure they would make lovely socks, my plan is to make a Color Affection shawl with them.

That is Mithril lace weight yarn, from the same shop. It will be a spectacular shawl someday. The color is Alice In The Rabbit’s House, and it is a true Tardis blue. I have my eye on perhaps this shawl. We’ll see. I have a few other lace things to get off the needles before I start something new. Note that the “yarn backdrop” was mildly curious for the first photo, and then she promptly went back to sleep. Ho hum. Just more yarn.

Last but not least, my beloved drug dealer’s scale bit the dust this week. It just died with no warning. Off to Amazon I went, and the replacement came by that famous brown truck earlier today.

I got a 500 g weight to use to calibrate it. Clever! This one is actually better than the old one. The LED thingee swings out so you can see it better, and it weighs up to 1 kg.

I needed this ASAP so I could weigh my Ravellenics yarn. I’m knitting a Lacy Baktus, which starts with a few stitches, increases until the yarn is half gone, then decreases back down. The last time I did this I didn’t weigh the yarn first, and ended up with this:

I ended up ripping about 300 rows back. Not this time.

For the record, the skein weighs 116 grams. Somebody remind me to start decreasing at the halfway mark.

I recorded a tiny bit of progress on this:

Right after I posted about six weeks ago that I could finish this by late September if I “just knit one row a day”, I put it away and didn’t touch it again. I seriously doubt that I will get it done by that due date, but I am working on it slowly. It requires a pretty high level of concentration, and preferably in the absence of vodka or whisky.

Finally, a photo of the lake I took this morning.

The daisies are going to town! It’s hard to be in a crabby mood when I have such cheerful daisies staring at me.

Jet Lag

Oh boy. This re-entry has been a bit of a bitch, and it took me by surprise. Usually I get the jet lag flying west to east, but I had no real problems when we got to the UK. Coming home has been a different story, and the past three days have been mostly a lost cause. I am finally starting to feel human again, which is a good thing, since I have to go to work tomorrow. I guess as problems go, jet lag isn’t the worst thing to have, though!

Our trip to Scotland was lovely. We saw several different parts of the country while we were there, and I could easily have spent a whole vacation (or “baycation” as one of John’s grandsons calls it!) in any one of them. Here’s the outline of where we were:

Manchester, England, for two days, visiting good friends that we met on a cruise several years ago.

Edinburgh, for two nights and one full day.

Nairn, on the Moray Firth, for three nights.

Skye, for two nights.

Onich, near Fort William, for two nights.

Glasgow for two nights.

It would be impossible for me to pick a favorite. I enjoyed the more rural places that we visited very much, but also enjoyed Edinburgh, and Glasgow was a complete surprise. It’s perhaps not the prettiest of cities, but has a ton of cultural things to do, and good museums as well as some terrific restaurants. I am still sorting through photos, so I’ll just show photos for now of what I know you are interested in: the wool!

Yes, there were sheep! This fellow was grazing near one of the two yarn “shops” we found. We were driving down this road:

And saw this little building:

I don’t have any photos of inside the shop, they were on John’s camera, and he hasn’t downloaded them yet (long story involving a dead hard drive on his Mac when we got home). It was a tiny shop, the lady inside raises sheep and has all sorts of wooly things for sale. She also had a lovely compost toilet out back that I desperately needed at that point, having had an ale for lunch. So I had to buy some yarn, right?

She raises Gotland sheep for their wool, and that’s what this is. It’s not very photogenic, but it’s the prettiest natural grey wool, light fingering or heavy lace weight, take your pick, and about 500 grams worth. It will make a huge shawl.

Next stop on the wool trail was here:

This is the view from the second shop, Shilasdair. Sorry about the crappy photo, it was a fairly moody and murky day. Here’s the shop and some photos of inside.

Those are some lovely handknit sweaters on the wall. I really like the one on the upper right (click to embiggen).

That one is from a tiny “museum” behind the shop. The owner dyes all the yarn with natural dyes. She wasn’t in that day, so I didn’t get to see the dye shop.

And here’s what I bought.

Beautiful, eh? The red on the right is a fingering weight, the rest is worsted weight. John picked the green for a hat/mittens, the others are mine mine mine.

OK, that’s enough for now. I need to get organized for work tomorrow. I’ll post more photos as I get to sorting them. And I might even have some knitting and spinning to show next time!

One more photo. This was part of the coastline of Skye:

Umm, Yeah, About The Blog

Oops, I forgot to blog again. Not only that, I almost forgot to knit, and spin. There have been lots of summery distractions going on here, and I still haven’t finished the mystery Electric Blue Baby project, for that baby that was born a few weeks ago now.

Here’s the same photo, to remind you.

Sheesh, electric blue cotton/acrylic garter stitch. Could anything be more exciting? And I feel too guilty not working on it to knit anything else in the line up. And I can’t even show photos on the blog. Sheesh.

So what else have I been up to, besides not knitting and not spinning? The weather here has just plain sucked. I guess we shouldn’t complain, since we don’t have the triple digit temperatures that lots of places have been stuck with, but it got all the way to the 60’s today. And it rained, again. One of the local weather people calculated that we’ve had exactly 78 minutes of summer so far this year, meaning we’ve only had 78 MINUTES so far where the temperature was over 80. That’s less than two hours of summer so far, people.

I did shop a little bit. My friend and fellow blogger, Dorothy, has her own Etsy shop. Recently she made a couple of bags and put them up for sale. Here’s what I bought.

Knitting project removed, of course, since I can’t show it on the blog. Aren’t those cute? And how could I not buy a Corgi bag?

I’m off to find a wool sweater to stay warm. Later!

Year Of The Blog

I hear by declare this the Year Of The Blog. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ravelry, but one of its major impacts has been a sharp decline in knit/fiber bloggers and blog posts. I can’t imagine the Internet without Ravelry, BUT. There are some big advantages of active, creative bloggers writing regularly. Having a relatively close group of blog friends is a little like having a small wine party or tea party in your living room, sharing knitting or spinning. Ravelry is more like a huge convention center full of knitters and spinners, all jumbled up and bumping into each other. I have also noted that forum threads tend to degenerate into nasty name-calling much more frequently than you’d ever see on a blog. Most of the Ravelers are very polite, friendly people, mind you, but even the most innocent sounding threads can take a nose-dive to drama in zero-to-sixty seconds flat. Sometimes I can see it coming, sometimes not. It’s a little like watching a car wreck.

Ahem. Anyway. I’m not about to give up Ravelry. But this is the year I’m going to try to blog more, and to try to comment more. There you have it. I don’t promise to blog every day, but I’m going to try to show up here more often.

A couple posts ago I promised you photos of knitting-related acquisitions, and a peek at what I got for Christmas. Here you go.

A Tom Bihn knitting bag! I’m so excited. I’ve wanted one of these forever. I actually bought this for myself with a little Christmas bonus I had. Note Big Pink peeking out. Here’s another look:

Big Pink removed so I don’t give anything away. This has lots of space, is sturdy, and you can customize it with a bunch of little bags that clip to the inside.

And why do you suppose I was shopping on the Tom Bihn website in the first place? Because this is what my sweetie pie got me for Christmas:

It’s a Mac Air! Oh my. I adore this. But I needed a case for it. Ergo Tom Bihn.

It’s perfect. It’s his Ristretto bag, and has a nice padded compartment for the laptop, and plenty of pockets and space for other stuff. I could even stuff a sock in progress in here for travel.

And just so I can show that I really do knit, here’s the dog mittens I mentioned in the prior post. In case you all forgot, I started these eons ago, dragged them out this fall, decided they were too small, and ripped half a mitten out. Here’s where I am.

I’m about half done with the first mitten (again). Just because I always get asked, the pattern is Dog Mittens, by Jorid Linvik. Here’s a Ravelry link, and here’s her pattern shop link.

So, there I go, making New Year’s Resolutions that I said I wasn’t going to do. What plans do you have for your blog this year?

They Say It’s My Birthday!

Well, yesterday to be exact. I was having too much fun last night to finish the post, so you get it early this morning.

We’re in Clifden, on the west coast in County Galway, and yesterday was just a glorious day. We have friends in England who warned us that this was a horrible time to visit Ireland due to the weather, but we’ve had just grand weather. (Notice how I’m starting to talk like the locals?) We had one day when it just plain rained, and we’ve had a couple of windy days, but mostly it has been sunny for at least a good part of each day. It’s been cool, but that I can live with. It gave me an excuse to buy a nice little sweater while I am here.

So how did I spend my 53rd birthday? We drove around the Sky Road west of Clifden in the morning, with glorious views of the ocean and the many (300) surrounding islands. Then we drove to Leenane, stopping at Connemara National Park for a little hike. In Leenane, I finally hit pay dirt.

I finally found yarn! There were four kinds, all of them Aran weight. My sweetie bought me enough pretty yarn to make a sweater. The prices actually were quite reasonable. Here’s what I got.

The color of that is all wrong, but I think you’ll have to wait till I get home to take an outdoor photo in natural light. I already get mighty funny looks just for knitting in public. I can’t imagine what the locals would do with me if I started taking pictures of yarn in the parking lot. There are roughly 2700 yards of that (not marked on the yarn itself, but I measured the hank, counted strands, and did the math). It’s a pretty, tweedy deep forest green. It will make a lovely sweater.

I didn’t stop there, always thinking of my readers. There’s more.

Those are both Aran weight Donegal tweed, about 200 grams of each color. One of these colors will go in a big blog contest when I get home, so stay tuned later this week.

But wait, there’s more! There was a little spinning and weaving museum attached. The lady who normally is there giving demonstrations was out, but the woman running the shop saw my dejection and let me in.

Here are just a few of the wheels that were on display.

After we left Leenane, we headed for Westport, where we walked around and then had a couple of pints in Matt Malloy’s pub. The bartender bought me a Guinness when he heard it was my birthday.

We drove through some more fabulous scenery, getting back to our hotel just in time for cocktails and dinner.

Back at the hotel, one of the owners, on discovering that it was my birthday, bought me champagne, and at the end of dinner, a birthday treat and singing.

And I got to knit! What could be better?

We’re in Clifden again tonight, then we head back towards Dublin tomorrow, then home on Thursday. We’ve been gone long enough that I actually am ready to be home, though I’ve enjoyed every minute of this trip. Well, maybe not the parts where we’ve been nearly run off the road by tour buses going 100 km an hour, but all the rest of it.

There may or may not be another post before we head home. Someone else thinks I’ve been hogging the computer, so I have to give it up. Remember, check back later this week for a contest post!

Half FO

I actually partly finished something today! Actually, it’s one sock of a pair, but that’s something, right? Everything else has sort of taken a back seat lately to 1)Spinning; 2) Feather and Fan baby stuff; and 3) Finding a new job and getting all the ridiculous paperwork done that is required, even though I’m not changing states or moving to a different hospital. And I haven’t even started with the HR stuff yet.

Anyway. Today was such a nice day, that I got to do a little knitting outside. The heat wave that we’ve had has passed, and I’m not sure it even hit the mid-70’s today, but it was nice and warm out in the sun. We went to the Steilacoom farmers’ market, which is only about ten minutes from our house, and found a lovely spot to have lunch on an outside deck. Knitting in public ensued.

After we got home and put away all the veggie loot, I sat down and finished the first sock. Here I am, trying it on to make sure it’s long enough before I close the toe:

And done.

Pretty, eh? That’s Zoe sock yarn from Shalimar, in the color Peonies. You can get your very own at the same place I did.

And second sock started.

There was more knitting loot that arrived at my house today. I have a set of the Knit Picks Options needles, and a set of the Harmony wood tips. They came out with acrylic Zephyr tips, and I had to have those as well. A lot of people despise plastic needles, but they have their place. They are a lot easier on my hands than metal needles, for one thing. Those lovely Signature sock needles up in that photo are beautiful, but they really make my hands hurt if I work with them for hours on end. They also have lethally pointy tips that I would not try to sneak on an airplane.

Here are the Zephyrs.

I’m off to make pizza. Sunset magazine had an article about making grilled pizza recently, and the dough is all done and ready to go (made in my brand spanking new bread machine). We have all sorts of options for toppings, but I think tonight’s version is going to be white cheese, basil, and perhaps some of those heirloom tomatoes from the market. I’ll take photos!

The Tribe Has Spoken

I guess I’ll fix those damned socks after all. As of right now, the vote is 64 to 48 in favor of darning the holes in the Ugliest Socks Of All Time. Interestingly, the vote in the comments was overwhelmingly in favor of tossing them out. There are some lurkers out there who want these things mended, apparently.

Of course, now that I’ve gone through all this angst over the holey socks, John now thinks new socks would be better after all. Maybe I’ll do both. I need to find some kind of ugly yarn that “matches” the ugly brown Wool-ease. I am so not buying new yarn for this, so it’s going to be non-matchy, thus making them even uglier, if possible.

If anybody pays attention to my sidebar, there was a little “whoops” this month. The Great Stash Knit-Down has apparently turned into the Great Stash Buy-Up. The net number went into a negative this morning after I added a little bag of yarn that I had added to the stash this past month. I’m blaming it on Kris. Sonny & Shear had that blasted end-of-the-year inventory sale, and some of the bargains were too good to pass up. Do you want to see some of it? Of course you do!

This is one of my favorites. It’s Imperial Stock Ranch Sock Yarn, in Wild Iris. This is just the loveliest “wooly” wool, the kind you want to just bury your nose in. Kris still has some of this stuff left, though not in this color. Go buy some, so I don’t feel so guilty.

This is Dream In Color Baby, in the color In Vino Veritas. It’s a heavier weight lace yarn, almost fingering. Who knows what this will be, but I couldn’t resist the name. I already have some of the Smooshy sock yarn in this exact same color, so I can have a matching shawl and socks. Cool!

Last but not least is more shawl yarn. This isn’t from Kris, but from Sharon from Three Irish Girls. I’m a member of the Sock Yarnista sock club, and this was the December offering. Sharon solicitated color names from members on Ravelry, then dyed yarn to match the most popular name. It’s called Mulled Wine. Of course, only one skein of this was included in the sock club, but I bought a couple extra so I could have enough to make a shawl. I’m thinking Cluaranach, by Anne Hanson of Knitspot.

Of course there was more, but I’m not showing it just now. I need to go knit like a banshee* to get that net number back into the positive range.

*Do banshees really knit? If so, can I get one to help out around here?

Oops…

I Did It Again…

The Yarn Truck came this weekend! I don’t know what happened, they just deliver this stuff when I’m working. Ok, ok, I’ll reset the shopping counter, if you all insist. Part of the problem with ordering online from vendors who are also bloggers who know me is that they can bust me big time when I break the yarn fast and don’t “fess up”.

The top yarn is Dream In Color Baby, in the color Flamingo Pie. I bought this from Kris, and honestly, I’m pretty sure she must have a warehouse across the street from my house. I ordered it, and it was here 2 days later. Go there, she might still have some left. This will be a shawl someday, when I quit squishing it and start knitting.

The second yarn is from Shelly at Butternut Woolens. It’s her once-a-year special, the Rabbit’s Foot angora blend, color Foxglove. This will make some great socks. I just love this yarn. It’s soft and fuzzy, and that photo does not do justice to the colors. She included a little sample skein of one of her other sock yarns, which are equally lovely.

We’re off tomorrow on another adventure. One of my sisters lives in North Dakota, the other in Phoenix. Guess which one we’re all descending on for a week in March? I’ll be in the sunny state of Arizona for a week. We have lots of activities planned for the week, including a few* adult beverages! I’ll try to post from the road. I’m off to pack the knitting projects!

* OK, maybe more than a few…

Uh, Oh

First off, thanks for all the nice compliments on the Forest Canopy shawl. It’s reblocking as I write this, for a couple of reasons. I blocked it in a bit of a hurry, and it was a little wonky. I also soaked it in my favorite woolwash, Kookaburra Delicate, but was in such a hurry that I forgot to rinse it. I think it might have been OK to leave it, but I wasn’t certain, so I redid it and rinsed it this time. I also got a little more stretch in the process. The final size is about 74 inches across the top, and 35 inches from neck to tip.

I got a couple more questions about the blocking mats that I use. Every time I show these I get a request for info, so I should probably put the link in my sidebar. They are the interlocking foam mats that most people use in kids playrooms. I bought mine online, from Wonder Mat, and got 16 of the 2 foot squares, along with edge pieces. This makes a huge mat, way more than I need for most blocking, but I also use them when John’s grandkids come to visit. We just cover the floor downstairs and they can romp at will. The mats do show holes eventually, but that doesn’t bother me in the least.

Now it’s on to Langsjal Jóhönnu. Here’s how you do the diacritic marks, at least on a Mac. Type option-e, let it go, then the letter you want the accent mark on. For the umlaut, type option-u, then the letter. I think the option key has the same function as the alt key on a Windows keyboard, but a Windows expert would have to weigh in on this one.

Here’s a photo, very roughly pinned out to give you some idea of what LJ will look like:

I am using lifelines on this one, as it’s pretty easy to get off track on this and screw it up. There is no easy purl-back row on this, all 10 rows of the pattern repeat are full of yo’s and decreases.

Now to the “Uh,oh”. A while back, Fleegle was kind enough to post a link to a Chinese online shop selling ridiculously cheap cashmere and cashmere-silk lace yarn. Of course I jumped. It arrived this week. First of all, the service was perfect. I got a prompt confirmation with a note that the standard shipping takes about 30 days. It actually only took about 12 days for mine. I ordered the cashmere-silk, 1600 yards worth of a lovely pink.

Note the “clothing” (wink, wink) on the customs form. This didn’t fool my husband in the least. Neither did the little checkbox that says “gift”.

And just how fine is that yarn, you might ask?

That’s the green Zephyr I used for the Forest Canopy shawl. The pink stuff is 800 yards per 50 grams, and the straight cashmere they sell, at 500 yards per 50 grams, is probably a little more like a real laceweight than sewing thread. Their regular price for both varieties is $9.99, and some of the colors are on sale for $6.99. You could get a damn big shawl for cheap with this stuff. Go buy some, so I don’t feel silly buying pink cobwebs from China. I do have an idea for what this might be someday, but I’m keeping it under my hat for now.

Five Rows Short Of A Sleeve

Or, Where I Am In That Crazy Never-Ending Eggplant Sweater

I really am going to finish this one of these days. For those not keeping track, I started this way back in December of 2005. Not 2006, but 2005. It sat in time-out for most of last year due to a variety of issues. I’ve been pretty sporadic about working on it, but I swear, I am not starting one more thing until this is done. That’s the first of two sleeves, and seriously, I’m thinking it would be preferable to just amputate an arm at this point. I don’t mind seed stitch, as I don’t mind purling, but given the miles of seed stitch in this sweater, I am getting heartily sick of it. That cable pattern going up the sleeve is of course the same one repeated across the front and back, so it’s all just boring at this point.

Not boring:

The Easter Egg socks are just wonderful. I love this yarn, even if I clearly can’t take pictures. While the yarn is a bit fuzzy, it’s my photography skills, or lack thereof, that makes them THAT fuzzy. I now have proof of why I buy as much yarn as I do for the stash. I only have one color of this yarn, this one, and they don’t make it anymore. Do I need any other evidence? I’m about ready to turn the heel on this one, my favorite part of sock knitting.

And in the category of funding my yarn retirement program:

Oh my. This is Dream In Color sock yarn. I was following clues on the internet one day, and found this. A few quick emails back and forth to Kris, the owner of Sonny and Shear, and she had a order on the way to her online shop. It came last week. It came, I ordered, it was delivered. She of course normally mails things, but we belong to the same knitting group that meets weekly, so she delivered it to me Wednesday in person. She had it in a brown paper sack so I could sneak it into the house without any interrogation. It sort of reminded me of a drug-dealer handoff.

Turns out I didn’t need to sneak it in. John took one look at that brown yarn, and claimed it as his own. (For socks for me to knit for him, not for him to knit!) Go buy some of your very own before Kris sells out of the stuff.

We’re off for another adventure tomorrow. We’re using a week of timeshare to go to Hilton Head. My sister-in-law Ena will be there for part of the time. She emailed me to say that she’s learning how to knit, so I’ll have a partner in crime while I’m there. Woot! You’ll have to excuse me, I need to go pack knitting projects.

Added Later:

I promised Teyani a photo of my knitting spot in the kitchen:

When we remodeled, we got rid of our kitchen table and put in comfortable chairs for people to hang out in while we cook and chat. It’s turned out to be my favorite place to knit. When I’m in the kitchen by myself, I turn one of those chairs around to face the lake. Perfect!

Off That Wagon

Yarn Focus Challenge 2007

I’ll re-explain the mechanics of the Yarn Focus Challenge first, as every time I post pictures of newly-acquired yarn, I get a comment asking how I can buy yarn when I’m on a yarn fast. The deal is this. Once a month, on one day of our own choosing, we get a free day to buy yarn. I didn’t make the rules, people, I just follow them. Give me a free yarn-buying day, I’m going to take it. It’s like a Get Out Of Jail Free card, which I saw on Rebecca’s blog this morning. I stole it, with absolutely no sense of shame.

So Saturday I got to go shopping in the Big City* with two friends, Kris and Michelle. Michelle was in town for a meeting, and Kris and I drove up to help her shop. What were we supposed to do, let her bumble around trying to find yarn shops all on her own? What if she wandered into a bad yarn shop by mistake?

We picked her up at her hotel, which is when she surprised us with presents. Really, this was just way more than I expected, but it was very sweet of her. Here’s mine:

I’ll bet you want to know what’s in that little bag (which is just the most perfect project bag, by the way). Here you go.

There’s a lovely hank of Fleece Artist sock yarn in the most delicious color, some pretty stitch markers, and a fabric covered tape measure. A girl cannot possibly have too much sock yarn, stitch markers, or tape measures. Perfect!**

We started our yarn shopping downtown in Belltown, at So Much Yarn. This is a smaller shop, but with friendly staff and some nice things. From there it was off to The Fiber Gallery, in the Ballard area. For some reason I’ve never been to this shop before, but it is easily one of my favorite yarn shops anywhere. All three of us managed to unload some cash at both of these places.

An added bonus was getting to see Jessica, who works at the Fiber Gallery. She was teaching a sock class while we were there.

Then it was off to lunch at the 70-Something St. Alehouse, close to the Fiber Gallery. I’ve eaten there before, but it was absolutely packed due to the St. Patrick’s Day festivities, and the slow service cut rather viciously into our shopping time. Plus I got food poisoning, and spent the evening rather close to our facilities at home (instead of going out to dinner with friends as I’d planned). If you happen to be the owner of the 70-Something St. Alehouse, and are thinking of contradicting my diagnosis of food poisoning, please try to remember that I, in fact, do have a medical degree, do in fact have a license to practice medicine, and have, in fact, seen far more cases of food poisoning than you have. You might want to check out the handwashing practices of your kitchen staff.

After lunch, and before the food poisoning set in, Kris and I really impressed Michelle with our navigating and map reading abilities. We managed to get from Ballard to the Weaving Works in the University District by way of going all the way back down through the city and up I-5 again. If you live around here, you know that’s not the short way. We kept telling her that it was worth it, but I think she had her doubts until we walked in the door. There was this audible intake of breath from Michelle, followed by a whispered “Ohhhh”. We all spent money there, too.

Here a couple of action shots from the day.

Michelle is wearing Starsky, which she just finished knitting.

After I got home I took photos of the loot (before the food poisoning set in).

What’s in that pile? There’s a skein of Opal, one of Shaeffer Anne (that bright neon stuff on top), the blue is Mountain Colors Mountain Goat for hat and mittens, one of MC Bearfoot sock yarn, and a couple of skeins of shiny green Italian stuff (Ritratto) for a scarf. And a ladybug tape measure. And the bright green stuff you can barely see?

That’s Jitterbug sock yarn. It’s way greener than that. It’s Green in the way that my pink Cotton Ease from the last post is Pink.

Oh and Kris and Michelle? Remember that silky stuff we were all drooling over at Weaving Works? The Colinette Tao? After I got home, I ordered enough for a little scarf. It was still within my free shopping day limit, and it would have been another month before I could have bought it. What if they ran out? It isn’t here yet, obviously, but here’s a link to their website. Yes, the Copperbeach is the one I got, and yes, it really is that exquisite.

All in all, a fun day, and totally worth a case of food poisoning, which is gone. The yarn is still here.

Next post: The Daily Bread, a new installment!

*Seattle

**No, she didn’t buy me a new crown, that one is mine.

Saturday Sky, and Finished Project Redux

The sun has slowly started to appear since I took that one, but clearly, fall has arrived. There’s a nice chill in the air, getting down into the 40’s at night, fine sleeping weather. It makes me want to break out all that fine wool and start knitting sweaters.

I was able to get a better picture of the completed Forest Canopy shawl yesterday. One benefit of the ridiculous amount of money we spent fixing our wood rot problems is that I have a great glass deck wall to model shawls. You have no idea how much better that makes me feel about the whole project.

And as promised, I started a new one, from the same pattern.

Those of you paying attention might note that the yarn is not Knitpicks Alpaca in Vineyard that I posted about last time. I had this Zephyr left over from another project, and there is a little more than 2 oz. of it, probably 700 yards or so. I thought the color suited the name of the shawl, so there you have it. I’ll use the alpaca for something else. (A third one, perhaps?)

I started this on the Knitpicks Options needles, but had a heck of a time with the wool silk blend slipsliding away from me, so switched to my favorite needles of all time, Holz & Stein ebonies (3.25 mm, for future reference). I bought some of these previously via a friend who lives in Germany, but the shop that used to carry them doesn’t anymore. Fortunately I found the motherlode of Holz & Stein, and after several emails back and forth with a lovely woman named Ursula, this arrived yesterday.

These are simply the most decadent needles I’ve ever used. Here is their website, though it acts a bit squirrelly if you use Firefox as your browser. Email Ursula, and these could belong to you, too. They are not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but just perfect. The tips aren’t as sharp as the Options, but the join is lovely, and the ebony divine. Any of you spouses out there that are looking for a gift that will make your knitter-spouse swoon, this might be it.

I especially love that Ursula put this in the package:

It’s a cute little ebony pencil with Holz & Stein stamped on it, and a tape measure wrapped up to look like a sweet. How sweet!

The grandkids are here this weekend, so who knows how much actual knitting will get done. I’ll show you two last pictures of the day. First is Willie, as you don’t get to see many pictures of him here. Now that the weather is cooler, he’s hanging out in the house more. Yesterday was a fine day for a cat to enjoy a patch of sunshine.

And here’s John explaining the finer points of opening a bottle of wine to one of his grandsons:

Don’t worry, he didn’t get to drink any of it with his cinnamon grahams. Have a good weekend!