Fiber Friday

Hello:

We are still having this weird freezing fog that never really lifts.  It was foggy all day, and is supposed to stick around through tomorrow at least.  We need some rain!

This morning I met my Eastside Stitcher buddies at Crossroads for some Friday Fiber knitting.  That is our new name for the people who can make it on Fridays.  Also, we call ourselves the Ladies of Leisure.  No, not out of work or unemployed knitters.... just Ladies of Leisure.

We had 3 of our new members join us but were also missing 2 regulars because of weather and sickness (or falling on ice injuries).

I was having so much fun chatting and knitting, that I didn't break out my camera until one of the new members, Wireknitter, had already left.  Oh well, no photo of the beautiful Carson by Romi Hill that she is knitting.

I am so sorry about that.

But whose projects DID I photograph?

 CodyJunk was still working on her Halloween Pumpkin Orange Cable Scarf

but had already finished a matching hat.

Redbird1 was frantically knitting her Eternity Cardigan by Jared Flood in Shelter.  She WILL finish it in time for Madrona.

Colleen was knitting a baby blanket in some Caron Super Soft in lavendar.

It looks a bit gray in this photo, but the color is lovely.

And Vanesapolo was starting a pair of mitered mittens by Elizabeth Zimmerman.

Vanesapolo was using the MadelineTosh yarn that I gave her for the Christmas exchange.  Our shy member was there, also, but I am being sensitive to her "new knitter" status, and not taking any photos, ... yet..

A small but fun group.  There is certainly room at the table for you, if you have Friday mornings free.

Just make sure you have the 4-wheel drive. 


Peace
Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a cat in a bag.

2012 Puget Sound LYS Tour Day 2

Yesterday on the 2012 Sound LYS Tour, Allifer, GwenS, and I hit 7 shops.  Yes, 7 LYS in one crazy day.  The great thing about the tour is that you get to see a lot of shops.  The bad thing about the tour is that by trying to hit 21 of them (and be in the running for the $500 gift certificate, because it's all about the prizes), we are just getting a "taste" of each shop.  Back to the good news;  we hope/plan to come back to most of them.



We drove up north to Pinch Knitter in Stanwood. We left at about 8:30 am and got to the shop right as it was opening. OOOOOO so cute. I loved how open and airy the shop was.  Not at all cluttered, but with a really great selection of not just the usual yarns.












For instance, they had a whole wall of Dale of Norway.  It looked like every color imaginable.  Now, I don't do colorwork, YET, but I hope to, and I know that I can find a ton of great colors here, in person.




Gwen liked the tons of colors of Malabrigo, especially Finito & Lace.  The staff was super helpful and friendly.

Stop 2 was at Great Yarns in Everett.

I think they had more cool buttons than any of the other shops.



 Their featured yarn was the mink yarn I put at the top of the post.

I plan/hope to make a pair of fingerless gloves with this yarn.
 Just think:  Mink gloves.  They had a very nice selection, and were quite big.  There is a bargain room downstairs.

Stop 3 was Main Street Yarns in Mill Creek.  GwenS really loved the special pattern this shop had available for the Tour. 

We ate a quick lunch after this stop.  Main Street Yarns was in a really nice retail area, and there was a good selection of restaurants nearby.

Stop 4 was The Fiber Gallery in North Seattle. 

This shop was fantastic.  It had a huge amount of Malabrigo (very important to Gwen), tons of sock yarn, and every color of Cascade 220.  It is close enough, that we can come back quite easily.  Thank goodness!

Stop 5 was Tea Cozy yarn.  This was a pretty small store, but still very nice.  It had a very good selection considering the size. 

Stop 6 was Bad Woman Yarn in the Wallingford Center in Seattle.



This seemed to be very tiny at first, but it was packed with yarn goodness, and had more space than I thought at first.  The staff was super helpful.  They had a nice bargain/sale area where both Allifer and I bought some yarn to make sweaters.  They had a ton of both Malabrigo and Madelinetosh.  I will definitely return. 



This was going to be our last stop, but we were making great time, so we decided to head back to the Eastside of Lake Washington, and visit our local yarn shop, Serial Knitters.  I had already  visited this shop yesterday, but Allifer and GwenS had not. Allifer got the featured pattern and a skein of sock yarn to make the special fingerless gloves.  She loves the pattern, and that there is enough yarn to make 3 pairs of the gloves.

That's all for now, I'm falling asleep at the keyboard.

Stay safe and well.

f1bercat
shaping the planet..zzzzzzzzz......

2012 Puget Sound LYS Crawl Day 1

2012.05.18 Black Bart Iris

I have been participating in the 21 shops in 4 days madness called the 2012 Puget Sound LYS Tour.

Day 1
Yesterday, I got home at about 9 pm and seriously, I was exhausted.  We only hit 4 stores.  But I was dead.

Well, I went to 5 stores because I snuck off to Serial Knitters in Kirkland Washington by myself first, right when it opened.

It's a wonderful shop, although it seems small, it has a terrific selection.








They are currently having an Abstract Fiber Trunk Show, and wow those yarns are yummy.

What's best about it is, this is my most "local" of LYS's and it is really great to be able to see the yarn in real life.  And touch it!



Allifer came over at about 2:30 pm and we headed across Lake Washington to meet up with GwenS.

Our first stop was So Much Yarn  in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood, near the Pike Place Market.

I am writing this with the help of GwenS who took great notes.  (I was the driver).  So Much Yarn is upstairs and the space is small, but they have it packed with some wonderful yarns.  At every shop I asked the owners if they had anything that was unique to their shop.  Not every shop had an answer to that, but So Much Yarn did.  They carry a line of alpaca sock yarns from a local farm.  The yarns are all undyed, in the natural colors of the alpacas, some are blended, and they are named for each alpaca.  I had to buy a skein, knowing that I would be able to use it during the Solid Socks Challenge for Brown next year. They had a great mix of yarns at various prices, so you could find something really special, and still afford it.

Our second stop was The Knittery in Renton.

This is a well lit, open space, with a large selection of general workhorse yarns.

Our third stop was the Yarn Stash in Burien.


One of the fun things about the tour is that every shop has 2 featured patterns, and the yarn (the pattern can use 1 or 2 skeins) for the pattern on sale for 10% off.  Most of the patterns have been specially created for the Tour.  The pattern at the Yarn Stash this year is a pair of fingerless mitts, and is really nice.  It can be done with color work, or using texture instead of the 2nd color.  It was one of our favorite patterns.


The final stop for yesterday, was Seattle Yarn in West Seattle.



This shop was a delightful surprise.  It was much larger than expected, and had a really nice selection of both brands and prices.

A few of the stores had this sign in the window, Seattle Yarn did, and it was important to us because we had Allifer and Ellyol with us, both primarily crocheters (as well as me).




They had a huge button selection.

Gwen was particularly happy with their selection of Malabrigo and Madelinetosh.








I will try to get photos of today's excursion up tomorrow, etc.  But we are going to hit the northern most shops on the Tour, and it will be an absolutely crazy day.  I hope I have enough energy to blog.

Good night.  Stay safe and well.

Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet one growing yarn stash at a time!