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!

The One Where My Computer Breaks Down But I Keep Knitting

WIP

I worked on the Red Hot Lewk Sweater, but didn't get any photos, so I won't talk too much about it.

I finished another square of for the 2012 BAMCAL (Block A Month Crochet A Long) Group on Ravelry.  This is the "official" March square (they have 2 squares every month, one is the month square, the other is the filler square).  The pattern is Hint of Spring by Sally Ives, and can be found for free at this link. 

It was super easy to follow, and no mistakes or confusions in the instructions at all.  I did not really follow the color change instructions, but that is pretty much optional anyway.  In fact, I will try to do something very different with the second square I will make of this pattern.  This one is for my son L for his high school graduation afghan.  The next one will be in the University of Arizona's colors, and by for my son J, who will go there next year.  I don't want the two afghans to look too similar.

Here is the back:

 You can see how frazzled I was today.  More about that to come!  But, I usually weave in all ends IMMEDIATELY.  I know if I don't, I may never do it.  But it was one thing after another today.

As I was typing this entry, my computer keyboard froze, and I had to spend about 2 hours on the phone with Dell trying to fix it.  It was so strange.  I tried rebooting the computer (my first fix for everything), but then couldn't get back in because I couldn't type in my password on the log on screen.  Wow, that was scary because I thought, how will I get this document off?  then I noticed a small icon in the bottom left corner of the log on screen.  It is the Ease Of Access icon, and led to a screen with a choice to use an "on screen keyboard."  So, by using that little keyboard, and my mouse (which worked) I could log on, bring up my blog document and the photos I had saved, and email them to myself so I could access everything from a different  computer.  Dell was able to help me in the end.  At first they thought they would have to send out a service rep to replace the keyboard in my laptop.  Then, no kidding, they had me turn the computer off, take out the battery AND unplug it.  Press the on button and hold it on for 10 seconds, then replace the battery, plug in the computer, and turn it on.  AND IT WORKED!  This was after trying about a gazillion other things.  So, if you have a similar problem, now you know! 

Where in the World is f1bercat?

Today I worked on my taxes.  Well, I didn't really get to the Taxes part.  I worked on bringing our financial records up to date so that I can then gather the information needed to work on the taxes.  Ugh.  I started at about 7 am and stopped at 10 am.  It was horrible.  I mean, it's not hard or anything, but I really wanted to go ride the bike so I could start knitting.  And as time was passing, I kept thinking, I'll finish this part tomorrow... I better stop now, or I will have to skip the bike ride... I just need to set this aside and work on it another day...  BUT, I was a good cat, and I finished the part of the job I had set for this morning AND I still made it to the Y to knit myself some exercise.  I worked on the sleeves of the Never Ending, Super Slow, Red Hot Sweater for Lewk.  I am at the small side (started with the cuffs), and still I am not making much progress.  I decided that it is because I have to worry about not only 2 yarns, but I have to think about the increases, and working the increases into the pattern, WHILE I am pedaling an exercise bike.  Honestly, I thought I might as well be balancing a pie on my head, or perhaps juggling some flaming hoops.  Anyway, I only got 5 rows finished in 34 min / 6 miles.  But still, I am 5 rows closer to a finished sweater, and 6 miles closer to California.

So, where am I?  You might have noticed that I am wandering decidedly West, instead of South.  

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That is because I noticed another LYS  (Local Yarn Store) while I was checking out the Puget Sound Yarn Crawl website.  And, well, in the spirit of all f1beristas, I had to stop!  Here I am at The Yarn Stash in Burien, WA.

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This shop is owned by a Mother/Daughter team, Bonnie is the mom, and Beth is the daughter.  They have a nice selection off classes, from Private Knitting, to Open Knitting, and quite a few in between.  I was happy to see that they have Kid's Knitting sessions, too.  At the kids' classes, they dye their own yarn with Kool-aid.  What a wonderful way to get kids excited about f1ber.  They also have some wonderful charity knitting projects that they are helping with.  They are on Ravelry, with a group called The Burien Yarn Stash Crew    If you stop by, remember to tell them that f1bercat says, "hello."

But I had a few miles more to my trip today, so this is where I ended up:

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Once again, I'm not exactly sure where I am.  I think I am still in Burien?  or is it Sea-Tac?  You can just see the corner of the airport.  I am now headed south again, towards Tacoma.  But!  I found another LYS, this one in Federal Way.  I should reach it on Monday.  I think I am going to rest my bike on the weekends.  Ha!

Here is what my trip will look like when I have finished:


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You might notice that all of the markers so far are totally squished up on each other way at the top.  At some point I will make Tacoma.  And then, Portland, where I will visit my daughter, S.  Any of you reading this, who are on the route south, and know somewhere I should virtually stop, please leave me comments with suggestions.  I would love to visit your favorite LYS, or cafe, or coffee house, or just visit with you!  We can spend some time knitting together.

Good night for now,
f1bercat
shaping the planet one crocheted block at a time