2012 Bellingham LYS Crawl part 4

Entrance to the alley for Mrs. Hudson's Yarn and Teas

Hello!

This is the 4th and final post about the Eastside Stitchers' 2012 Bellingham LYS Crawl. 

Post 4

Mrs. Hudson's Yarn and Teas
1106 Harris Avenue, Suite 103
Finnegan's Alley
Bellingham, WA 98225

Our final stop on our mini-lys crawl in Bellingham last Sunday, September 23, was to Mrs. Hudson's Yarn and Teas.  This shop was hidden away in a little alley of stores.

We made one wrong turn, but then found the right place.

First impression:  CUTE CUTE CUTE

There are all of these kid's toys,

 and posters on the walls, and the window display was of a "bus" full of toys on the way to school.

The feel of the shop was homey, warm, and calming.  Again, there were yarns that were new to me.  And again everyone in our group went crazy over the yarn.  The biggest hit was the Swans Island Natural Colors. 

Wow, it felt amazing, and the colors were just lovely.  We spent a long time just petting it.  I had completely finished shopping for my list, and was M-A-Y-B-E looking for one skein of something variegated to give as a gift to my niece who has just learned to knit, so I did not buy any.  I feel like I deserve a medal for my self control.

There were a other yarns there that I spent a long time eying...

Like this Be Sweet, Simply Sweet Whipped Cream:

The Starry sock yarn by Dream in Color:

And Spincycle Yarns, which is a local Bellingham spinner and dyer:

There was a wonderful Tea Room

with a sitting area with books you could read!  Also there is a small area with kids' books and toys, in case you bring your children, and want to keep them happy while you shop.

Friendly, knowledgeable staff rounded out the offerings.

Also, a poster of RDJ.

Perfect!

Stay safe and well.
Yours,
f1bercat
Shaping the planet after visiting 4 amazing LYS's

the other alley, this is the wrong one!

B.R.O.O.M. Disaster Averted

Hello!
Another double post to try to get in all my exciting news.

HPKCHC
I discovered today, that I was not supposed to start work on my BROOM project until September 30.  My broom consists of Spa Washcloths, based on the patterns and organic cotton yarn I got from the Liz Marino Gift Knits Club this year.  I enjoyed making them, and I knew my sisters would love them, so I proposed making 10 more.

Once the project was accepted, I cast on a new washcloth.  I planned to also turn in these washcloths for a Gryffindor challenge called a Marauders Mission, to craft something relaxing each month (it's called "Relaxicrafting.")  I have finished 3 so far, and cast on the 4th.  I was feeling so proud of myself, because I was ahead in the project, and I could tell I would have no trouble finishing all 10 by the end of November, even with more Quidditch coming up.

So I contacted the leader of my Marauders Mission Team, asking her about how to give her a photo to turn in for the Team Post, and she told me that I wasn't supposed to start the BROOM.  EEEK!  The relaxicrafting is only for stuff that you would already be making for a class.  It is not meant to add more projects, but reward you for just completing a class or a longer project, like my BROOM.  So, for it to count, I needed to find a class to turn in these 3 washcloths.

I have already finished my 6 classes for the month, so that left Herbology or History of Magic, the only 2 classes left.  The Herbology prompt asked you to do some research into the types of trees used to make wands, then craft a project that reflected something you learned, or craft a project with the Name of the tree in the project.

I looked up some photos of tree Bark on the internet, and compared them with my washcloths.  Then I chose 3 that looked similar, and checked to see if they were used in wand making.

I chose

Ash,

which was used in Cedric Diggory's wand.  I paired it with this washcloth:

Elm,

which was used to make a wand for Lucius Malfoy.  This is the matching washcloth:

And, oak,

which was used in Hagrid's wand/umbrella.

I did some research into the characteristics of each wood, and then instead of writing a description or a story (this group is really into storytelling where you put yourself into the Harry Potter world, as though you were in one of the books), I wrote 3 short poems to explain what I had learned about each type of wood.

Ash (Cedric Diggory)

 Ashwood

wands represent

sensitivity and

sacrifice; higher awareness:

Cedric.

Elm (Lucius Malfoy)

This elegant

magical

instrument,

believed to correctly

belong to just

pure-bloods, casts

dignified

error free

dexterous

world weary

spells in defense of

Lord Voldemort.

Oak (Rubeus Hagrid)

As the days warm, the

Forest King makes wood for wands;

sometimes umbrellas.

This was a totally fun class assignment.  I love the Harry Potter books and movies.  I read most of them out loud to my kids when they first came out.  But I am not the type of fan to do research into the books, or write fan fiction.  But I had so much fun learning about wand wood and wand lore.  And writing the poems was really fun, also.

I am so happy I joined this group.  It is inspiring me.

Where in the World is f1bercat?

I knit another 4 miles on the exercise bike today.  Since I could not bring a spa washcloth, and have it count for my BROOM, I brought the Better than French Vanilla Socks that I have been slowly knitting FOREVER.  

These socks are another riff on a pattern by Liz Marino.  They are going to be for my brother, so they need to be big.  He has large feet (size 13).  His feet are swollen with his poor circulation.  He can't walk anymore, but he still can FEEL, so they need to be soft.  He can't put them on so they need to be S-T-R-E-T-C-H-Y.  This pattern is a great one for stretch, and the Cascade Handpaint Heritage Sock Yarn, is perfect, too.  The pattern is easily memorizable, so they are good to bring to the Y.

Where does 4 more miles put me?

View Larger Map

Still on I5 in the middle of nowhere, Oregon.

But 4 miles closer to my goal of Orange, Calif.

Stay safe and well,

Yours,

f1bercat

Shaping the planet with 3 new poems and some washcloths that look like bark.

2012 Bellingham LYS Crawl part 3

Seen in Bellingham

Hello!

I am headed down to So. Calif. on Saturday to stay with and help out at my brother's house, and they have horrible internet. So, I am going to get my Bellingham LYS Crawl posts wrapped up tomorrow night, just in case.  I am going to make myself post while I am down there, even though it is torture to upload photos.  But, the posts might be short and relatively photo-less, just a warning.

On to the LYS Crawl:

Part 3

Wool Station
1103 11th St.
Bellingham, WA

After we had finished lunch, we drove about 10 minutes to the "historic Fairhaven neighborhood" of Bellingham, to Wool Station.

This LYS was not a part of the 2012 Puget Sound LYS Tour last May, so it was new to everyone.  The thing I noticed immediately upon entering was yarn, yarn, yarn.  There is a lot of yarn in this shop.  It is not a huge size, but it isn't small either.  It is nicely full of yarn.

One of the things I found interesting about our little mini-crawl was that every shop had something unique, some unique yarns, that everyone just went crazy over.  The yarn everyone loved here was Shepherd's Wool by Stonehenge Fiber Mill.  Honestly, just like the tug-of-war over the apple blossom colorway from Huckleberry Knits at Apple Yarn, there was a bit of a kerfuffle over some, I think it was the Pansy colorway.  Someone, who shall not be named, needed quite a bit for a special project, and others in the group were super gracious, and went for different colors to help her out.  Eastside Stitchers share.

I didn't need this weight of yarn, and I had a skein already, so I spent time just wandering and reading the labels of all the other yarns in the shop.

Raspberry

Wool Station didn't seem to have much in the way of Indie-dyers, but it had so much yarn from companies that I had never heard of.  I know I am not super experienced, and I have never been to a convention, like Stitches West, but there were just tons of yarns that were completely new to me.

Wildfoote

Heirloom Alpaca

Ella Rae Yarn  Alpaca

 I could just keep adding photos of yarns I had never seen before.  Now of course, I can find all of these yarns online.  And my own local shop probably carries some of them, but it just seemed that there were so many new ones.  And it is really cool to be able to touch, and see the colors of a new brand of yarn.

I bought the yarn for my last 2 projects here.

I got 3 skeins of Nuna by Mirasol Yarn of Peru.  The color is 1004 (ha, a number, not a name) but it is a beautiful red.

I hope to make a Holden Shawlette by Mindy Wilkes with this yarn.

The other yarn I bought was 2 skeins/balls of Silk and Merino from The Diana Collection by Yarns Northwest.    This also does not have a name just a number, 07.  It is a beautiful green/gray.

I plan to make the Age of Brass and Steam by Orange Flower.  One of the Eastside Stitchers has finished this shawlette/kerchief, and also Bookworm Mary, over at Needles and Hooks and Books, Oh My, knit one.  They are both beautiful.

Wool Station also had a great selection of locally crafted notions.  They had some really nice buttons, and GwenS got a gorgeous shawl pin.

Stay safe and well.
Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with silk and merino and bamboo

Zauberball Yarn at Wool Station

Eastside Stitchers Show and Tell

Boats from Chihuly Garden and Glass

Hello!

Tonight was the regular Wednesday, meet up for Eastside Stitchers at Crossroads, Mall, in Bellevue, WA. 

Some of us brought our yarn for show and tell for the members who were not able to join us on the Bellingham LYS Crawl.

But the main feature of the evening was of course, the stitching!  So who was there and what were they working on?

Skeinherder  brought her finished Churchmouse wrister to show off.

She was working on some Candy Corn Coasters.  Just in time for Halloween.

GwenS brought an almost finished Crooked Paths slouchy hat by Melissa LaBarre.

Gwen is knitting it in Madelinetosh Vintage in the Dahlia colorway.

Our own Jenknotsed8 was back!  She might be switching to days at her job, so we should be seeing her more often.  Welcome back, Jen.  Jen brought a Hermione Hearts Ron hat by Christy Aylesworth that she was starting in  Amber Trinket, by Madelinetosh.

Guess what Colleen was knitting?  A pink baby blanket, of course.  It is amazing how quickly she can knit these.  And she has so many pretty patterns, too.

Tara1682 had cast on one of her new projects purchased in Bellingham.  She has started Hypernova, the Scarf by Arlene's World of Lace, in her new yarn by The Periwinkle Sheep called Mallards by the Boathouse.  Tara found this yarn at NW Handspun.

Chocolet was also bit by the startitis bug going around the group.  She has cast on and gotten quite far on a beautiful Guernsey Wrap by Jared Flood, in some lovely Shepherds Wool, also purchased on the Crawl.

GwenS had also brought her WIP Guernsey Wrap:

Gwen's is in Shepherd's Wool, as well, but in the lovely shade of Pansy.

Hrvdmnky showed up a bit late, but brought her sock from last week.  This yarn is from Hrvdmnky's friend Tri-Coterie, an indy-dyer.

That does it for tonight.  People who were missing, we missed you!

Stay safe and well.
Yours,
f1bercat
Shaping the planet one new cast on at a time.

Boats, from Chihuly Garden and Glass