Tag Archive | LYS

Vacation Knitting

Whew. I’m home from a long weekend vacation and I’m pooped. I’m so glad I decided to take today off; I’ve got a quiet day home alone to catch up on puppy cuddles, laundry, and yarn stuff.

So first: the puppies. We had to board them while we were gone and we missed them terribly. I picked them up first thing this morning and Grace was super excited to see me, but my good pupper Jack didn’t want to come see me. He kept backing away and barking. The nice lady said it was because of the smells, but I think he was just too freaked out. Thankfully, when Grace ran over and jumped on me, Jack came to his senses and came to get his cuddles. We had a crazy hour or so once we got home but now they’re both exhausted and sleeping, one on the back of the couch behind me, one at my feet. Life is good: puppies are home.

Now, YARN!! I went to two yarn stores. The first, Knitorious, was fantastic: big, well-organized, great selection of brands and colors, friendly without being pushy or overbearing. The girl went in with me and even she was so caught up in the yarn-love that she bought herself a skein. What did I get? Let’s see:

Malabrigo Mechita in this beautiful rainbow color. I’m thinking Hitchhiker Beyond.

More Malabrigo, Mecha this time. Not sure, but maybe fingerless gloves to keep at work.

Brio!! I love this yarn and hadn’t seen this black and white version before. This is going to become a Darn Knit Kinetic Cowl for me!

This might be my favorite. Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Black Velvet. Sock Head hat, here I come!

The second yarn store I won’t name because it was not good. At all. Very small. It had a ton of empty shelves and the selection was really limited. The acrylic section was the biggest and was the only yarn with multiple color ways and multiple skeins of any color. The “good” yarns were maybe two or three different brands, which I wasn’t familiar with, but they were pretty enough. But there were just a few skeins of each, one of each colorway. I found one skein I liked but it wasn’t priced. Nothing was priced. There were no signs on the shelves. Finally I found price lists on the top of the shelving unit; my yarn wasn’t on there. I asked the woman working and she showed me the sheet. I looked again, and said, “I’m sorry, I just don’t see it on here.” My yarn wasn’t on there so she had to look up the price. Maybe it’s not a huge deal, but it is one of my pet peeves at yarn stores. I like to be able to see how much the yarn is without asking all the time. I like it when the skeins are priced but I get that takes a lot of time, so I’m okay with labels on shelves. But if you make it too hard for me to find the price, I’m going to give up because it’s awkward for me. Anyway, I won’t recommend that store and I wouldn’t go back. Here’s the one skein I bought, because purple.

It’s Black Bunny Fibers and it’s labeled Mayfair. The label says DK but it looks more like worsted to me. It hasn’t told me what it wants to be yet so I’m pondering.

I got plenty of knitting done too, thanks to a nice husband who did all the driving, and have three FOs to show you!

Fern Lace cowl with Nerd Girl Yarns Luscious. It’s a silk/merino blend and SO soft.

Pisky hat! Love this one. I bought Cascade 220 Superwash from the DK section at my LYS but Ravelry calls it a worsted. So I went down a needle size and it’s wearable, but a little bigger than I’d like. I’d love to make this pattern again with a true DK. It was so fun to knit and it’s so cute.

This one’s a donation for a silent auction. I’ve got matching fingerless gloves to pair it with. It’s a simple beanie recipe; you can see the Ravelry project page here.

So yeah, I had such a nice long weekend full of yarn and bookstores and fun things and family, and today I’m going to wind yarn and cast on new projects for the work days ahead of me. And cuddle with puppies.

Yarn Pics

Jul17

Remember how my LYS is closing this summer? Well, it’s happening at the end of this month, and yesterday I realized I needed to get up there before all the really good stuff was gone. I’m glad I did because I got a few awesome treasures for an awesome price.

Alegria by Manos del Uruguay. This is the yarn I used for my Peek-a-Boo Bay shawl (different colorway obviously) and I loved knitting with it. I’m tempted to make another one in just this yarn, skipping the stripes. This wasn’t a huge steal, just 25% off, so it was my biggest splurge.

Araucania Huasco (fingering weight Merino) in Wine. This was 50% OFF!! I grabbed the last two skeins in Wine…

and the last skein in green…

and the last skein in this fun summery blue-green colorway. I’ve already decided this one will be my next cast-on. It’s going to be the Reyna shawl.

Finally, remember my Color Block Chalet Wrap? Well, it’s one of my favorite pieces, and the yarn was 35% off. They didn’t have enough that I could replicate it, but I think I’m going to do a half-size version, just cast on half as many stitches, and have a yummy color block scarf. That’ll take one skein of each color. Not sure what I’ll do with the rest, but I love this yarn so much I couldn’t leave it there.

With my arms full of yarn, I passed by the needle section and realized they were on sale too. I’ve needed a size 4 16″ circ and it was 50% off so, plus I’ve heard so many good things about the Addi Turbos that I wanted to try them. They were only 35% off, so I only picked one size. It’ll be enough to get me hooked, I’m sure!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go finish my Secret Beach scarf so I can cast on all the new projects!

Seaglass Cowl

Jun25

That shawl isn’t getting done this weekend. I mean, at the time, it was very plausible because nothing else was happening this weekend. But THEN, on Friday, I got a call requesting an interview!! Hooray! It’s for a really cool company, so I’m pretty excited. Anyway, that meant that today I needed to go shopping for an awesome new outfit, and then tomorrow I have a hair appointment, and there’s just not enough time to finish a shawl, no matter how small it is.

Plus, this happened:

I went to my LYS on Friday to get the contrast color for that shawl, and I did find a lovely teal, but on my way to pay, I noticed a whole table full of Madelintosh. Seriously, a whole table covered in gorgeous MadTosh browns and greens and blues. And this one came home with me and I had to cast on that night and now I have a new cowl, the Seaglass Cowl.

This is a better representation of the color, so you can see why I couldn’t resist. This is their A.S.A.P. super bulky yarn and it might be my new favorite yarn ever.

I used Jen Geigley’s Feedback pattern but modified it a bit. I didn’t have 16″ size 17 needles, so I tried 15s and cast on more stitches. I started with 50 but that was too small, so I settled on 60. It’s not as tall as the Feedback but I’m more than happy with it.

The real question now is whether I’ll keep it, or put it in the gift pile? Hmmm….

A Story of Kindness

Jun15

I told you the other day about my adventure at my LYS, all the pretty yarns I splurged on. But I forgot to tell you about the awesome thing the owner did that day. After my shopping trip, I texted my Knitting SIL to let her know about the discounts. She asked me to pick up a skein of yarn for her, and since the store is two blocks from my house, I said it was no problem. When I went to pay for the yarn, it was $4 and change, and I handed her my debit card. She sounded apologetic when she said she doesn’t take cards for purchases under $5. I totally understand her point, but I don’t carry cash very often, so I didn’t have any on me. I said, “Okay, let me find something else.”

Almost any other store owner would have just said okay, and let me buy more. I would have bought more. I’ve done it before. But this lady, this kind, generous lady, said, “No, no, you’re close, right? Just come back by with the cash when it’s convenient.” I was shocked and asked if she was sure, and she said of course. I thanked her and said I’d come by in the morning, first thing, and she wrote down my name and the amount. I asked if she wanted my phone number and she waved me away. I left with the skein of yarn, feeling like I was getting away with something, but extremely grateful. I showed up the next morning, cash in hand, and said I was there to pay off my debt, and she laughed, said it was fine, I hadn’t needed to hurry.

This is the store that’s closing this summer, and that’s a shame. It’s a shame that a small business that understands the importance of putting service ahead of money is leaving. It’s not by choice; the building sold, and she decided to retire and spend time with her grandkids instead of finding a new location. I don’t blame her a bit, but I’m sad to see her go.

But I’m also encouraged, because it reassures me that there are still good people out there. And if we keep putting kindness out there, maybe we can inspire others to do the same.

Stop: Knitting Time!

May12

I finished the proofreading job last night, and while I enjoyed it, and enjoyed doing something different, I’m ready to get back to my yarn. Do you want to see my new yarns? Of course you do! Remember I was taking the mother to my LYS the other day to pick out yarn for a scarf? We had a lovely time browsing. I should take some photos of this store; it’s HUGE. SO MUCH YARN. We quickly found the yarn for her scarf, but she also wants an afghan, so we started looking for yarn for that, and that was a lot harder. Finally, she picked out a variegated peach/teal acrylic, but they didn’t have enough, and she didn’t want to add a solid color. Thankfully, with some help, we found a different brand of variegated that will go really well. I’ll hold one strand of each, and once it’s done, we’ll go back to the yarn store to pick out a solid for a border.

Nope, no photo of that yarn yet. I forgot to take one and right now I’m outside with the puppies and it’s upstairs and I’m just too plain lazy to go do that. You’ll see it another time, I promise.

Of course we also had to admire and pet and drool over the other pretty yarns, and she even bought me a present! Look at my gorgeous Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Bulky in Rainbow! I know it will be a cowl for me but I haven’t picked out a pattern yet. Right now it just decorates my desk.

With all the yarn admired, we paid and packed up, and you’ll be AMAZED to know that I bought NO YARN. That’s right: I spent no money! It helped that I was getting a skein as a little gift, but still, I was quite impressed with myself! So we headed off to lunch and errands, and then I got a call: the yarn store had forgotten to put her scarf yarn in the bag. I would have to pick it up on the way home. No problem, it was convenient.

Except. I remembered they’d had a coupon on Facebook. I hadn’t printed it out but thought they might honor it.

And darn it all, she said they would. So my admirable restraint was diminished, and I bought yarn. Still, I only bought one skein, and it was on sale. And it’s gorgeous. I’m thinking this might become a Be Simple Shawl, or maybe the Be Simple Variations. Or who knows, I might stick with tried and true and make another Hitchhiker. I’ve got time to figure it out, since I’ve got one small and three bigger projects I need to focus on first.

First up is the scarf for the mother. She picked out Bamboo Pop in turquoise. The scarf is halfway done and might even be done today. It’s a lovely yarn, a bit slippery with the large hook I’m using (size N/P, 10mm) but it feels silky in my fingers and it will drape beautifully.

Then there’s the mermaid blanket of course, and my mother’s afghan, but at least I have until cooler weather before I need to worry about finishing that. So once the scarf is done, I’ll be casting on a project for my sister. I saw the new Marcelle Wrap pattern by Little Church Knits, and I think it’s gorgeous. I shared it on my Facebook page, and my sister saw it and has to have one for herself! Hooray, a reason to knit one! She picked out the colors and the yarn arrived yesterday. It’s hard to see it well, but the top one is called Forest Heather, I think. It’s a dark green with slight reddish/purple hints. I’m looking forward to starting this one soon.

So there you have it, all my yarn updates. That’s plenty, right? I certainly have enough to keep my needles and hooks busy for a while. Until next time, here’s a photo of Jack, our resident branch manager. I have no idea how he got this stick up the narrow deck stairs, but he’s pretty happy with himself.

My New Local Yarn Store

Sep23

People, yesterday was a big day for me. You remember I recently moved to a new city, and the only crafty store I could find was Michaels? And that the yarn selection at Michaels is, well, it’s kind of crap? I mean, there’s some okay stuff, but it’s just a really small selection, and…it’s not GOOD yarn. Well! I have found salvation.

I had lunch with two long-time friends yesterday. They came to see my new house and then we went to Rock & Run Brewery, a locally owned pub. Great drinks, great food, great atmosphere. I loved it. Then one of my friends asked if I’d been to Corbin Mill yet. (It’s an old mill with several crafty shops in there; I thought there was quilting and beading and antiques.) I said no, not yet, hadn’t had the time. “Did you know there’s yarn there?” she asked me casually. Nonchalantly, like it was no big deal. Are you kidding me?? Six weeks I’ve lived here and had no idea I was two minutes away from a yarn store?? It was decided: after lunch we were going to the mill.

So we did and it was marvelous! It’s called the Old Mill Stitchery (see, that doesn’t scream yarn. No wonder I was confused.) The yarn section wasn’t huge but it was fantastic. Lots of Classic Elite Yarns, Berroco, some Shibui, and more that were new to me. Even the Berroco, which you can find in most LYSs, was really well-represented, with yarns I hadn’t seen before. There were samples hanging up everywhere, gorgeous complicated knits. As I wandered through petting the yarns, I chatted with the lady working there. Apparently the store has been there for 20 years or so, though I’m not sure if it’s always had the yarn. She was the needlepoint lady; the knitting lady would be in the next day, as would a knitting group. Oh, and get this: I had JUST missed a yarn tasting by a day or so. And the next one won’t be until spring. Argh. You can bet I signed up for their mailing list immediately.

The hard part was that my friends are not knitters. One is a rug hooker, so she appreciated the large section of dyed wool. The other is not crafty. As she said, we can make it and she can buy it. So I didn’t want to torture them too long. We browsed through the yarn, the wool, the little antique store section, and saved the bead store for last. Lots and lots of pretties! I can’t wait to go back and look for materials for some new stitch markers. I didn’t wait long for the yarn. As soon as my friends dropped me off, I let the puppies outside for a few minutes, then drove right back up to the yarn store. I even had some birthday money to spend! An hour later, it was gone, but my arms were full of these luscious treasures. Araucania Ruca Solid. This is 100% Sugar Cane. What?? I didn’t know such a thing existed. I don’t usually buy much brown yarn, but this one reminded me of milk chocolate. It’s also extremely soft but what made me buy it was the drape. It feels very elegant, and I think this will become a gorgeous shawl. Bonus: it was 50% off!Classic Elite Yarns Chateau. I’ve played with this yarn before and it’s heavenly. It’s so lightweight and soft, it’s cloud-like. It’s mostly baby alpaca with a bit of bamboo, so of course I love it. Alpaca is my favorite. This is going to become some kind of striped scarf for me. I’m a fan of sparkle so this Ava by CEY caught my eye, and I snagged the last two skeins of silver. I haven’t decided if this will become a project by itself, or if I’ll use it as an accent on other projects.More sale yarn! This is Kodiak by Berroco, another new yarn for me. Another bulky, super-soft alpaca blend; this is obviously the type of yarn that speaks to me more than any others. It was all 50% off, I loved all the colors and I couldn’t decide which one to get. I also couldn’t afford to buy as much as I wanted, so I got a pink, a cream and two dark grey, and I’m pretty sure they’ll play together to become some kind of cowl/scarf thing.

It was such a fun day, and it pleased me so much to find such a wonderful creative haven so close to me. I’m not normally a very out-going, social person, but I do think I’ll go up there one day and check out the knitting group. It might be neat to have some new yarny buddies.

Here’s the downside: I came home and started putting my new yarns away, and looking at my gorgeous gorgeous stash actually made me sad! I have so much beautiful yarn, and I’m afraid now that I’ve got SABLE (stash acquisition beyond life expectancy) and that’s not okay, because I want to have time to use all these fantastic yarns I’ve collected. Does anyone else ever feel like that? I either need to knit more often and faster, or I need to stop buying yarn, and not buying yarn isn’t going to happen, so I better stop typing now and start knitting.

Except I’m tired of all my WIPs. Time to cast on for something new?

All the Colors of the Yarn

May12

I’m all about bright colors right now. I had a bit of mad money to spend (well, Mother’s Day money. Same difference, right?) so yesterday I went to my LYS to ponder all the things. I went in thinking I would buy more needles, because of course I have plenty of yarn. (bwahahahaha!) The nice woman greeted me, then asked me if I’d been in before. Seriously? I turned around so she could see my face and kind of jokingly said, “Once or twice.” (Yeah, once or twice a month maybe, for the last two years.) She just smiled and said ok. It wasn’t a big deal, mostly I thought it was funny. I know they see lots of people and just because I remember faces doesn’t mean everyone else does. Clearly I don’t go in there often enough, right?

Anyway. Yarn. I mean, needles. I picked up some Malabrigo yarn right way, then I found the needles I’d gone in wanting. They were a bit cheaper than I expected so I chose three lovely pairs. Aren’t they pretty?? I don’t use straights too often but I’m desperate to cast on something for these right now. I’m trying very hard to wait until I finish a couple of my WIPs, though. (And I was wrong yesterday. I don’t have six WIPs. I have eight. Oops.) Once I decided on these, I thought I’d pick up a couple of 12″ circular needles. But somehow I got distracted by the luxury yarns. I put back the Malabrigo and instead I bought my first skeins of Lorna’s Laces and Done Roving Frolicking Feet. This is going to be my very first Hitchhiker!! I can’t wait! I’ve been on this kick lately of wanting to make shawls, but little ones. Baby shawls. Shawlettes. This is going to be…something lovely. I don’t know what. Until I do know, it will be decoration in the yarn bowl in my living room so I can gaze upon it and pet it once in a while.

While I was there, I decided to pick up a set of shorter DPNs for the hat I’m currently knitting. I do enjoy having the shorter needles when it’s time to decrease for the crown. But I learned something VERY important: once should check her needle inventory BEFORE purchasing new needles. Yep, I already had a set of 6″ DPNs in that size. Sighhh. And my LYS doesn’t allow returns or exchanges on needles. Of course. Fortunately, I think my wonderful Knitting SIL is interested in buying them from me, and I’ll give her a bit of a discount since she’s doing me a favor too.

Speaking of that hat, it had to go in time-out last night. I worked on it a lot yesterday and got almost halfway done, and was apparently getting too cocky about not messing up the 18-row lace pattern. Because of course then I MESSED UP. I have an extra stitch and cannot for the life of me figure out where it came from. I’d like to just knit two together and move on, but because it’s a custom order, I’m going to tink back two rows and see how that works. And then I might actually put in a stupid lifeline. Stupid lace knitting. Don’t the puppies look all sweet and innocent? Yeah, they’re NOT. The last two mornings they’ve decided to wake us up before 5 a.m. and that’s not a lot of fun. But at least they haven’t destroyed anything lately (knock knock knock knock on wood).

One last thing: I know I’m always sharing good news about my talented girl musician, but for once I get to share about my talented BOY musician! He’s in sixth grade, playing the trombone for the first year, and he had his first solo contest over the weekend. And he got the highest rating, a 1! These kids boggle my mind. I have no idea how I got so lucky.

Yarn Shop Day

May3

First, let me say this: sadly, I do not live in the UK. Here in the states, or at least in my neck of the woods, we don’t celebrate May 2nd as Yarn Shop Day. That’s a darn shame in my book. Around here, May 2nd is Free Comic Book Day. But the comic book store my husband and son wanted to go to just happens to be near two LYS, so I decided I would celebrate all by myself. As you will see, I should not be allowed to go yarn shopping alone. Restraint is not my strong suit. Here’s what I got at the first shop. This yummy purple Simpliworsted will be something for me, a cowl I think. I love this yarn, this is the only local store that carries it, and it was the only skein in this color. Fate!The white is for a slouchy hat for the girl, the gray is for….I don’t know. Something. I love gray. I love gray enough that I bought a pale silvery gray of this yarn and immediately wound it so it could go the baseball game with me last night. This will grow up to become a mesh scarf for me. I need something to wear when I do craft shows, and since I don’t wear hats, this neutral scarf should come in handy.

That first store didn’t take long. The yarn selection is a bit limited and I was the only customer, so I was out of that store within 20 minutes. The second yarn store was much better, and much busier. Lots, lots more yarn. More brands, more variety, and just more yarn! Shelves lining the store, reaching up above my head. Mmmm. Heavenly. I browsed for a quite a while, petting skeins here and there and pondering. I picked up three, then I found the winners and the first three went back on the shelf. Here’s what I couldn’t resist.
I have a bit of a Malabrigo obsession. This color is called Lettuce. Don’t you just want to eat it up? Yum! This will be a hat. I think Barley.

But that’s not the best thing. I splurged a bit. This might be my Mother’s Day present. I kept picking up these skeins that were so gorgeously rich and vivid, and each time I did, they were this brand called Baah, which makes hand-painted yarn. Yes, they’re as beautiful as you can imagine. But they’re also as pricey as you can imagine. I could resist, with a soft, wistful sigh…until I found this. You can’t really tell from this photo, but the colors are a bit darker, a true red with darker variations. It’s called Chocolate Cherries. My dad absolutely loved chocolate covered cherries, so of course this makes me think of him. I will have a scarf made from this, hopefully with a pretty lace pattern, maybe something with circles that evoke cherries? This will probably be the most expensive scarf I ever make but I will love it.

So that was Yarn Shop Day for me. I can’t wait to see what all my UK people got to do. Maybe when I grow up and open a yarn store, I’ll start a US Yarn Shop Day too!

The puppies are still being much like toddlers. They’re great one minute and monsters the next. This is what I got up to the other morning. Yep. Banana bowl bit the dust. And they got a nice snack of three bananas. All that was left was one slimy brown stem. This is why I can’t have nice things. But then they go and do something like this and I remember why I think they’re cute. Somehow Jack ended up on the wrong side of the gate. “Hey, uh, Grace, can you help me out here?” He tried to jump over and of course that didn’t work. So he just gave me his charming little puppy grin until I took pity on him. Silly dogs!

Today I’m going to try making my own batch of bitter apple spray to deter the monsters from completely destroying my kitchen chairs. Here’s hoping. And maybe some knitting? If I’m lucky!

Pretty Yarn Pictures, that’s all

Jan20

Over the weekend, I made it out to two of my LYSs and since I was shopping alone, I had no one to tell me I couldn’t or shouldn’t buy these lovely bits of yarny goodness.Classic Elite Chateau. Light as air and fluffy-soft.Malabrigo Worsted. The only skein I saw in either store.Malabrigo MechaHiKoo SimpliWorsted. I love this squishy yarn. It’s already halfway to being a seed stitch beanie.A splurge: Madelinetosh DK in Astrid Grey. Isn’t it gorgeous? It will be a cowl, possibly another Honey Cowl.A bigger and better splurge: Vice’s Floozy worsted in Plain Jane. I can’t get over how beautiful this yarn is. Every skein I saw by Vice had these strongly-saturated, vivid, rich colors. I am so in love with this yarn. It’s all wound and ready to become a simple cowl. It will be stockinette with ribbed edges, nothing to distract you from the beauty of the yarn.

Have you made any splurges lately? What yarns make you weak in the knees?

Knitted Boot Cuffs: Part II

Jan10

I’ve got boot cuffs on the brain right now. I haven’t made it to the store to buy the yarn for the unfinished teal pair yet, so yesterday I pulled out the HOT HOT pink yarn. They’re going to get a button accessory that I’ll show later, but they’re still pretty cute as is.I used Rebekah’s Boot Cuffs pattern but modified it for a much smaller size by using size 7 needles instead of 10. I also added an inch of ribbing at the top and bottom, and decreased three stitches in the last row before binding off. I’d seen someone else recommend it, and I like how it keeps both ends the same size. But the cast off is a bit tighter, so I need to make sure it’s the bottom of the cuff on the smaller portion of the calf.

The same pattern made this dark blue pair, but I followed the pattern. Since they were for a skinny minnie, I used size 9 needles, and they came out perfectly.Now I get to try something new. I’m going to make some long legwarmers, and I needed some mint green yarn, so of course a trip to my LYS was in order. I found three different shades of mint green but ended up with some Plymouth Encore in what they call Light Colonial Green. I think I only need one skein but bought two just in case. And then I remembered why I shouldn’t go to yarn stores. I find yarn. And I buy it. Not because I need it, but because I like it and it’s on sale. See? That Andes wool called my name because the colors went so well with the mint green I was already holding. And that pretty peach shade? Yum! Perfect Spring colors.Then I found this. It’s Classic Elite Inca Alpaca and it was 50% off. I *love* this yarn. I’ve already got several colors in my stash, including one skein of red. But I had to get the last two reds they had. They also had twenty skeins of black, but I restrained myself and only bought 5. These will make great hats and fingerless gloves for my craft show inventory.

We’ve got sunshine and the possibility of ever-so-slightly-above freezing temperatures today, so I’m going to walk the dog while the walking’s good. His walk yesterday was cut short by a paw that was bothering him. I washed it out and couldn’t find anything, and didn’t walk him last night to let it rest. So I’ll be on alert this morning, and hoping it was a temporary irritation. Hope the sun’s shining in your neck of the woods too!