Thursday, June 30, 2005

SEX in Seattle

That's Stash Enhancement eXpedition to you perverts. This is scarf yarn purchased from So Much Yarn. The cool thing about this acquisition was that it was all 50% off!!! The left one is a scarf for Lindsey and the right is one for Kelsey. This is what they get for yarn shopping with me -- sit quietly while Mommy shops and I'll make you a nice scarf!
This is what I got for myself at So Much Yarn. Some yummy kid mohair and a pattern for a shawl. My two favorite shops so far are this one and Hilltop. Mostly for atmosphere and selection. So Much Yarn had a nice cozy area to knit. Hilltop was a very quaint looking shop with different rooms to view the yarns. I snagged some Opal sock yarn along with the buttons while there!
I also went to Weaving Works where I bought the small spindle below along with some undyed yarn (not pictured). You can get nearly everything fiber related here. Knitting, crochet, spinning and weaving supplies. They had lots of fiber and coned yarns and a large selection of knitting/crochet yarn. Then I went to Acorn Street Shop which I'm most familiar with since they always come down to the Bay Area for Stitches West. By this time I've had my fill of yarn buying and instead bought a Mt. Rainier spindle by Cascade (larger spindle). It was nice to see their shop which was very well stocked. Days later after coming down from the 4-yarn-shops-in-one-day high, I had a desperate need to find just one more shop -- we ended up in Bothell on a Sunday afternoon (it was the only shop I could find open as my husband made a constraint that I could not go back over the lake and we were in Bellevue). Columbine Yarns is located in Country Village, a very nice shopping center complete with a train for the kids to ride -- see in order to take kids yarn shopping you have to convince them that they'll have fun too. It was a small shop with limited inventory -- however I did find the fiber pictured with the spindles. Three more Seattle shops that I wish I visited Yarn Gallery, Fiber Gallery and Wooly Monkey. The real bummer was while I was in Bellevue the shop Skeins Ltd was closing! I missed their close out sale by one freaking day!!! Wah! For reference, I had my Knitter's Shopfinder in tow (never leave home w/o it) and searched the web for yarn-sites -- btw, this is a great site listing for Seattle area shops http://www.v-comm.net/seattleknitter/stores.html. I'm safely home still discovering shops in my own neighborhood and beyond -- but to all the knit shops I missed in the Seattle area I say (in my deepest Arny accent) "I'll be back".

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

stitch markers at work


Posted by Hello This is the beginnings of the left side of the Palacios Vest. It has 3 lace pattern repeats that I distinguish using the markers. The markers are heavy enough not to go flying off when I transfer them from one needle to the other. Aren't they pretty? I'm back to knitting now, having started the left side here. I brought this along with a sock to knit while on vacation in Seattle, WA. I didn't knit on it at all and did only a few rounds on the sock. Instead I visited 5 yarn shops -- at Hilltop Yarns I bought buttons for the Ironstone Cardigan.



However, they do not match -- I think maybe abalone buttons will go better -- these are too brown.





All I have left to do on the Ironstone Cardi is the button band and seaming. The only thing holding me back from the button band is the buttons and well, the fact that I'm running out of yarn. This is all I have left for the button bands. I have to knit holding all three yarns together, the subtle handpaint effect here is achieved by swapping out one of the colors each section. This is color combo A, which I've used on the collar, rib and cuffs.




I think it's enough. At least I hope so.










Nothing's stopping me from seaming up the sides -- well except the act itself -- love knitting -- hate making up. However, the 4th of July is Monday and I have a 4 day weekend, time to seam, knit on the fairisle and post pix of Seattle aquisitions that include duh, yarn and spindles!

Friday, June 10, 2005

Stitch Markers


Posted by Hello This is one of the things I do when I'm not knitting (and one of the reasons why the knitting doesn't get done). I play with beads. Usually, I'm making jewelry, like bracelets and necklaces. Here I'm making stitch markers. These are made from Crystal Innovations bracelet kits I bought at Michaels. Each kit makes one set of stitch markers. In addition to the kits I bought 9mm split rings and 2" head pins from Rings & Things. Counter clockwise from bottom left, the rose quartz are for me, the unakite for Sandy, the flourite for Donna and the adventurine for Julie.

Friday, June 03, 2005

More Yarn


Posted by Hello Here are 2 of my latest acquisitions. Both from Over The Rainbow an eBay Store. I love the vibrancy this vendor has to offer. The one on the left is a rayon/silk blend and the on the right is a s/w merino and will be socks for dang sure! Stuff like this enters my house on a weekly basis and piles up in the stash room. I can't help myself. I see the yarn and I must have it! Even when I have no chance of knitting all that I have I still go and buy more! It's a disease and it afflicts many. Did you think I'd be one of those who only buys what she needs and not another until that project is done? Who does this? All the knitters I know have a stash. And me? I have miles -- literally -- if unravelled end to end it would stretch from San Jose to Los Angeles. That's over 300 miles. Lets consider that one sweater would take about 1 mile. That's 300 sweaters. That's the size of my stash. But yet-I-still-buy-more-yarn. Just can't stop really. Not that I want too ;)