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Coming Up Next Week: the finished project parade that I promised last week!

Stash Enhancement, Day 4

On our last day, I didn't intend to buy any more yarn. However, I still wanted a hank for my class on Mobius Knitting on 5/31. So, when I saw Ultra Alpaca fine on the 10% off sale at Village, I snatched up a beautiful color. This is actually darker than it appears and is going to make a lovely hood/shawl during the class.

Stash Enhancement, Day 3

At Northwest Handspun, they too were giving a small gift with their patterns: a 6 inch, wooden ruler! I really like the idea of this for measuring swatches or when working on smaller projects. It will fit well into my knitting bag. Also at their store, I liked the Ditty Bag that they designed to be knit with one skein of Boku, so I bought a skein of yarn, too. This yarn looks and feels much like Noro and is self striping, but with shorter stripes than Noro.

Stash Enhancement, Day 2

On Day 2, I spent the most money of all the days, and most of it was at Churchmouse. I bought 1 skein of Koigu for the one skein pattern,
and some shiny, gold colored markers. These markers are about the size of a size 7 knitting needle and will be perfect for all of the small gauge projects that I seem to be working on lately.

For the tour, they gave us each our choice of a tape measure or a sampler box of teas. I chose the teas as I have too many tapes from my days working at the Bon Marche.

Stash Enhancement, Day 1

On Day 1 at our last store for the day, Main Street Yarns, I found that they were using Rowan Calmer for their one skein pattern. They had the designer of the Shedir hat design a pair of matching fingerless mitts. I don't wear those and there were way too many of them on the tour, this year, but they also were showing that one skein would make the original hat, too! I've wanted to knit the hat for some time, so I purchased this bright mulberry colored yarn to knit that hat at some point before winter.

LYS Tour Day 4

Well, we made it! I was at my parent's house with my SIL, so K picked us both up, again and we drove off to Great Yarns and then to Village Yarn and Tea where we turned in our passports for the grand prize drawing! Whew!! It was so much fun and totally worth the price of gas to do this trek and I hope we're able to do it again. Later on I'll show off some of the treasures that I found and also my finished projects from all that knitting time!

LYS Tour Day 3

Day 3 began very early, around 7:15. K had already picked up her friend C and then we headed for Arlington to pick up my oldest friend, S. We stopped for coffee and then continued up to Beach Basket. This little shop has too much yarn, as if that were possible. We looked from shelf to shelf, hardly able to move as there were many people in the shop. We didn't make any purchases, but remembered to get our stamps and patterns before continuing on our way. Next, we drove into Bellingham and shopped both Northwest Handspun and Apple Yarns. Both stores are lovely and at least one of the 4 of us made a purchase in each shop. We also ate teriyaki chicken for lunch in Bellingham, before leaving for the next store. We visited Knot Just Yarn, Ana-Cross Stitch and finally Wild Fibers before running out of time. We had S home by around 6 and then realized that as it was Saturday that the final 2 stores had just closed. We were really hoping to finish the tour that day. However, getting home earlier than expected was rather nice as I was so tired from our long 3 days of shopping and fun.

LYS Tour Day 2

On day 2, K picked me up a little earlier and we headed for the Edmonds ferry. I live rather close to it, so we figured it would be a great way to get across the water to Bainbridge. We drove south, stopping for a quick breakfast and made it to the store just after they opened. The store was already full of people and very lively. We enjoyed shopping around the store for almost an hour and both bought a skein of Koigu to make Turkish Bed Socks, the free pattern in that store. Afterward, we headed for the Bainbridge/Seattle ferry dock where we had about an half hour to knit while waiting to board the boat. After arriving in Seattle we headed for the freeway to go to the store that are south of Seattle. We went to Yarn Stash, Renaissance, and The Knittery. In Renaissance, I found a pattern for a linen top that I really loved. I couldn't quite bring myself to spend $80 for the yarn, though, so will be on the look out for linen yarns until I find one that I consider to be more affordable. I did, of course purchase the pattern and look forward to knitting it. In the last of these, I found another pattern that I liked. I didn't, however, like the feel of the yarn they suggested. The top was very summery and the yarn, a linen/cotton blend, felt very heavy and at the intended gauge felt like cardboard. While I was complaining to K about this, the store employee (possibly owner?) overheard the conversation and recommended a completely different yarn that had such a beautifully soft had and so much drape that I just had to buy a sweater's worth. This yarn was still more affordable than the aforementioned linen. My mom has been looking for a birthday gift for me and was happy to foot the bill. (She had given me some cash on Thursday morning as my birthday gift. I added a little of my own money to buy this project, but she has since told me to expect my part back. She is sooo nice!) As our final store for the day, we went to Cultured Purl. Here I found another pattern that was wonderful, but yet again, the price for the project was too high. I didn't even buy the pattern on that one as I cannot imagine any other yarn working to give the same effect. All in all, I arrived home very happy with the few purchases that I made. Stopping to share a burrito with K at my favorite Mexican restaurant didn't hurt either! :)

LYS Tour Day 1

On our first day for the Local Yarn Store Tour, my friend K picked me up and then we proceeded to pick up my SIL. We headed for Seattle and some wonderful stores. All in all, we visited 10 stores on our first day: Seattle Yarn , Weaving Works, Fiber Gallery, Hill Top, Hill Top East, Main Street, Acorn Street, Tricoter, Bad Woman, and Full Circle! We didn't visit in that order, though. We received free patterns and bought a couple skeins of yarn and I purchased several patterns as we went along. The 3 of us had a fun time stopping at Dick's for lunch. We also spent much time getting lost and then finding our way, again. I prepared ahead of time, laying out the route, using an online maps and directions website. Unfortunately, I mistyped one of the addresses, leaving out a number and ended up needing to find Hill Top on Queen Anne without the help of a map. As luck would have it, that is the store that we had been to before, and on more than one occasion, so we didn't have too much trouble!

After dropping off my SIL, K and I stopped in for Thai food. This has become a bit of a tradition for us as we both love it and can share a meal without having to worry about things being to spicy. Both of our husbands like Thai much hotter than we do and we easily agree on the dishes to be ordered.

Whisper FO

I've been promising a picture of the Whisper Cardigan for a while, now, so here it is! I've worn it a couple of times and love the softness of the wool and the only slight addition of warmth due to the large gauge of the stitches. It is light and airy and very comfortable to wear. I wore it after dark when it was fairly cool outside and it even seemed to dull the wind that was blowing. Others were complaining of the cold, but I didn't feel it and yet was never too warm, either.

Skirt II

At the same time that I was shopping for the fabric that I showed, yesterday, I found this linen look fabric that is machine embroidered with large flowers. I really liked it, too, and when I found out that both fabrics were at least 40% off and that only needed around 2 yards to make a skirt, I purchased both. I actually made this one first. It, too is from Butterick pattern #4136, but is View A. View A is a little fuller at the hem than View C. I finished this one on the Sunday morning after I shopped, having a wearable garment well before it was time to leave for church. With my white cotton tee and a lavender jacket, the outfit was lovely.
I was just a little disappointed with fit as the back of the skirt hung about an inch and a half higher than the front. (Hence the adjustment of the pattern to make the pink floral skirt.) I did manage to hem the front more than the back to even it out some, but the fit was still off just a little. I wore the skirt any way and had several compliments from my family. Since the fabric is a blend of rayon, linen and cotton, it really doesn't wrinkle easily, which is wonderful!
(Sorry for the wrinkled appearance in the picture, but I just had to post and have not done my laundry, yet, so I pulled it out of the basket and shot a picture any way.)