Yorkshire Yarns Grand Re-Opening and Monday Night Knitting at Bayview Thriftway

I'm sorry to say that I completely forgot to take pictures of Sonya's new shop. Yes. Crap, indeed. I did, however, take pictures of the lovely lovely yarn that I bought there. Pictured above is one divine ball of Yarn Place Graceful Lace. Gorgeous stuff. I can't wait to knit it and, knowing me, I probably won't wait. I also bought

3 skeins of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool for mittens (what else with those obnoxious new colors?),
a skein of Hazel Knits Artisan Sock for Mutti,

and a skein of Cobblestone by Fibra Natura. I love this yarn. It's looks like hand spun, it feels like hand spun, but it isn't.

Her new shop is so much larger than the old place. She moved from 900 sq. ft. to 3000 sq. ft. Woo! And guess what? She's going to start carrying spinning supplies! Swoon!! That'll give me two brick and mortar places to buy wool from: YY and The Allyn Knit and Spin Shop. The new Yorkshire Yarns is located on 100th St in Lakewood. If you're coming from Olympia you can take I-5 to exit 124 to Gravelly Lane (drive? rd? Gravelly something.). Keep right and follow that past Clover Park HS and the Shibori Dragon Shop. It's right near the Ram restaurant. Easy to find. Plenty of parking, too. She has comfy seating, great lighting, and good music. Not to mention spectacular yarn! Congrats, Sonya!

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While I was at YY I saw Margit and David from Monday Night Knitting at Canvas Works. They told me that the usual group was meeting at Bayview Thriftway so of course I went. Margit is a kick in the pants, as well as an excellent knitter and figure skater. That's her pictured above, being scary for the camera.
It was great to see all the knitters I haven't seen for a while. This is Jack helping Marianne with a baby hat. Sitting next to him is his wife, Pam. I've been trying to save up for a new wheel so I can sell my Ashford to Pam, but there are lots of factors working against me. Mainly, the government, but not in a conspiracy, cover-it-up sort of way. Mainly in a must-pay-my-bills way.

And this is Angela, Soap-maker Extraordinaire, IT Guru, and one of my favoritest peoples. She's going to trade me soap for yarn. Yay! Hopefully we'll get together to make soap again soon.

As well as finishing some knitting and spindling at Bayview, I also finished a delicious ice cream cone. They have the best ice cream there. Go try it. Yum!!

One more thing: I'm sure I told you that DJ is pregnant, but I didn't realize how far along she was. 23 weeks! I have to start knitting baby stuff right now.

And with that, I leave you with this view from Percival Landing. Goodnight!

p.s. I only have the second sleeve and the collar to knit on Julep. I'll be wearing it by Friday.

Knit in Public: If you've got it, flaunt it.

Yesterday definitely qualified as fun in the sun. It was so great to be around people who didn't look at me as though I belonged in a loony bin when I talked about smelling wool. There were door prizes, or rather, gazebo prizes, vendors, classes, and many wonderful knitters. Mah knitties!

I was kept very entertained between taking pictures of Tina,

meeting knitters,

learning about art felt (although I admitted that I'd use the pencil roving for spinning instead),

seeing Sonya again (she's re-opening her shop tomorrow!),

listening to Lois of Allyn Knit Shop announce numbers for the prizes with plenty of encouragement from knitters all around,

and watching lots of knitters do their thing - knit, talk, laugh.

I taught Mom how to start socks from the toe up using the Figure 8 cast on, but she was too tired to start them even though she thought the cast on was fun.

I bought some wool, of course. I don't know why I always end up buying roving instead of yarn at knitterly get-togethers. Maybe to make it last longer?

8 delicious ounces of Targhee by Mountain Colors. Lovely wool that reminds me of Cormo with just the right amount of lanolin left in. I'm thinking cabled vest. Also, 100g of Zitron pencil roving (rainbow) and Skacel Schoppel Wolle (brown) for sock yarn! I've been wanting to try this pencil roving for a while and I finally caved. It wasn't really caving. Completely voluntary on my part. No pushing needed.
I can't wait until tomorrow: we're going up to Lakewood to visit Sonya in her new shop. More yarn to come!

As happens at these knitting deals, not much progress was made on my knitting. I did finish the body edging on Julep and knit a repeat on my FLS. I'm going to try and finish one of the sleeves for Julep on the bus today.

Cashmere included

I've mainly been working on two knitting projects (although that's going to change soon): Julep and the February Lady Sweater. The body of Julep is almost done. I'm just knitting the sideways garter stitch edge which is taking much longer than anticipated. Great bus knitting. I've had the lace pattern for the FLS memorized for a while now. Also great bus knitting. Wonder why I'm only working on these two projects? Yup.

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In payment for machine washing my not machine washable socks Mutti has given me a skein of Jade Sapphire Cashmere. She is now forbidden to wash my clothes which I'm not really sure why she was washing in the first place because I'm pretty capable of doing my own laundry. Hm. Anyway, I'm now the happy owner of a yummy skein of cashmere. I dyed it a subtly variegated green and I'm going to use it to knit a smaller version of the Bleeding Hearts Stole by Anne Hanson. Yes, another lace project. They'll all get done, eventually.

Say hello to my new flash drive. It's the one Adrian posted a little while ago. It was such a yoink jerk move, but I had to have it. Now it holds all my pictures and a back up of my music. Now that I've deleted my thousands of photos the computer runs much faster.

Plus, you have to love how it looks like it's getting it's brains sucked out when plugged in.

Noms and knitting

Finally! Pictures of my February Lady Sweater. I started it on the 22nd and I'm speeding my way down the body. What quick and fun knitting! The pattern is a breeze - complicated enough to keep me entertained and easy enough that I don't need a pattern or a bottle of aspirin vodka. I couldn't help but combine pictures of the raspberry cake I made today with the sweater. What a match they make. The yarn is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes that I dyed a few months ago.
The recipe is from the latest issue of Gourmet - one of their quick recipes that I love so much. MMMM - it's so good. Go get an issue and make it. NOM! Took me about 10 minutes to throw together and half an hour to bake. Voila!

Jealous yet?

Mmmmmmmmmm.

In other news: spinning!

Fiber: BMFA Jabberwocky Mulberry Silk and Superwash Merino
Single spun striped and navajo plied
light fingering weight
377 yds/ 1.8 oz/ 49 g
...and I still have a few ounces to spin - yay!

This definitely qualifies as comfort spinning. I love silk and merino blends. They're heaven on the hands. The colors in the roving look very jewel-toned, but when you see the yarn from a distance it looks like autumnal colors. Wonderful either way.

The sweet peas we planted last year decided to grow this year. There are two that are growing quite fast. I borrowed a bird feeder used for peanuts to stop the peas from growing in between the siding on the house and it seems to be working. I hope the squirrels and birds don't want their peanuts any time soon.

Sometimes my life is a joke, but at least I have socks!

Things that have happened this month:

- While trying to re-learn how to ride a bike a shrub jumped out in front of me. Apparently it's not just like riding a bike.

-I hit on and asked out a married man who I did not know was married. Surprise! He said no, for the record. And thus his loyalty was tested. That was the point of me asking, or at least, that's my excuse.

-We got some guy to mow our lawn so we don't have to. Hooray! Except last week he mutilated some of the iris leaves with the weed whacker.

-I was supposed to meet up with some of my co-workers to go walking around Capitol Lake yesterday except one of them fell off the face of the earth (and won't empty her phone's mailbox) and I begged off from the other one because I think he'll ask me out if he gets me alone. Runaway!
I have finished socks!

Pattern: Laeticia
Needles: US1.5/3.00mm
Yarn: Pagewood Farm Denali Hand dyed Sock Yarn

I was having a biiig knitting rut for a while and these socks dragged me right out of it. Lots of fun to knit. The traveling illusion cable impresses lots of people - especially non-knitters. And damn! It's nice to have new hand knit socks on my feets!

Exhibit A: sock-making love

Mutti's latest art project - and my favorite:
Her class was asked to draw a memory and this was hers. She remembers sitting under a pear tree as a child. Isn't it beauteous? It's a mix of crayon, pastel, and watercolor. She's really getting fancy with the media.

Psst... I'm still working on Julep, but the miles of stockinette for the body are driving me a little batty so I'm starting a February Lady Sweater with the Wool of the Andes that I dyed and was originally using for the Bog Jacket which I ripped since my attention span won't allow me to knit that much garter stitch. I cannot tell you the number of times people have asked me if I'm pregnant. Is the mint green really that much of a baby color?