What a day I had! It was peep-tastic! Yesterday was the start of the Second Annual Yarn Shop Hop sponsored by seven local knitting stores:
Amazing Threads, Maple Grove
Coldwater Collaborative, Excelsior
Needlework Unlimited, Minneapolis
A Sheepy Yarn Shoppe, White Bear Lake
3 Kittens Needle Arts, St. Paul
The Yarnery, St. Paul
Zandys Yarns
We started north and worked our way to White Bear Lake, south through St. Paul, down to Burnsville, up through Minneapolis, west to Excelsior and back north to Maple Grove. “We” consisted of several of my favorite knitting peeps: Kim (who drove — yay, Kim!), Mary, Roseanne, and Linda. We had a ton of fun. We received a small token at every stop and got to see/buy some great yarn and patterns.
Did yours truly buy anything? Mais oui, mes amies! 😉
First off, I need to back up and give a brief update on Loll. It flopped. My aforementioned peeps told me so on Thursday evening. They gave it a definite thumbs down :(. Good friends don’t let bad knitting happen. The fringes are cute but the ribbed section was not up to our stringent standards — so it must go.
I will make the fringe into a hat…maybe. With that decision made, I took the yarn back and bought this instead:
WOW! Beautiful Rowan Tapestry (70% Wool 30% Soybean Approx. 131 yds/50g Weight: DK Gauge: 5.5 sts/1in Needle: US 6) in the color Lakeland — it looks like the ocean. Sally already bought this same color. I LOVE IT!! I’m not sure yet what I will make, but it is fabulous yarn.
I also bought a couple of patterns — one for a vest and then this one for Lopi yarn:
I think I have enough Lopi in my stash to make this — it takes ten skeins. They had a shop sample knitted up and it really is a nice wearable sweater for Minnesota winters.
The other knitting update for me is that “Whisper,” which I was knitting in Kidsilk Haze Aura, is another major flop! Oh yeah! Yours truly is really cranking out the disasters. Sally is turning out FO’s like hotcakes and I can’t even get anything started :(. It looked just awful. So, I ripped out that lil sucker and started something else.
You may remember from a very early post, my mother knitted this many, many years ago:
It is in mohair, much like La Gran, with a stitch at the hems and front bands that LOOKED like seed stitch until I looked more closely. It is actually a slip stitch:
Start with an odd number of sts:
Rows 1 & 3 (RS): knit
Row 2: *k1, slip 1 as to purl with yarn at back (to the RS), repeat from * to last st, k1.
Row 4: k1, *k1, slip 1 as to purl with yarn at back, repeat from * to last 2 sts, k2.
I am going to knit a boxy jacket-style cardigan based on mom’s sweater and call it “Homage.” I started it and have this so far:
I love it. I am knitting with yarn spun from clouds. It is night and day compared to what it looked before. I thought it was ugly, and now I am in love. I am knitting with US 8’s instead of 6’s, which makes it looser and allows the light to filter through. This is a wonderful and very easy stitch. I will do about 6″ in this and then switch to stockinette, and do raglan-style sleeves.
Lyra is still a joy to work on, though I do not have the time to devote that I would like. I am on the ~ the 50-ish roundout of 180. Lots left! Had a Lyra mishap and am now back to round 40. BUMMER!!!!! I had worked on it all day yesterday, too… 🙁
I am feeling much better about my knitting prospects. Life is good!
P.S. From Sally
While Sue was out yarn hopping, I met a friend in Baltimore for lunch. I didn’t even realize that Stitches was taking place there until I drove by the venue.
I DIDN’T STOP!!!!
Aren’t you all impressed? (Don’t be. If I had been with a knitting friend I would have stopped on a dime.) I did stop at A Good Yarn. I ran in and bought yarn in less than five minutes. I’ll post about that later. I’m happy to see how Susan’s Aura is turning out since I have twenty skeins of it my own self.
