Madrona!

I have several things to blog about, so let’s start with this, shall we?

A couple weeks ago I made the short trek down to Tacoma for the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat. Last year I just went down to spend some money at the Marketplace, and this year I signed up for a class on Saturday. I had the great privilege of taking a class taught by the Yarn Harlot herself. Stephanie uses a style of knitting that she calls Irish Cottage Knitting, also known as lever knitting, and I have great respect for her and the patience she has teaching this method! Every single knitter in that class was rendered dumb and our once-agile fingers suddenly were completely useless. We quickly dubbed this style of knitting ‘Crazy Knitting’.

To her credit, Stephanie was incredible patient with us, even when we asked her for the billionth time to demonstrate how to hold and tension the yarn. She went around and devoted her attention to each knitter at least twice, and was very gracious after class to sign books and pose for pictures.

I will sadly admit that I totally dorked out when I talked to her afterwards. It was embarrassing, really, but she was totally cool about it.

Afterwards I jumped into the craziness that was the Marketplace.

So much yummy fiber! I was very good and didn’t spend nearly as much money as I could have, but I still wiped out my yarn budget for the next month, at least!

Starting from the bottom left corner: Two skeins of Socks That Rock from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, one skein of Silkie in the Gypsum colorway and one skein of Lightweight in Jubilation; fiber from Tactile Fiber Arts, 2 oz. of Sincere Sheep in Berries & Cream and 2 oz. of Blue Faced Leicester in Orchid; and enough Wooly Singles from Fly Designs to make this.

It was a good day at the Marketplace.

Starting the New Year off right

Last night I was watching Ace of Cakes on Food Network, and Duff’s crew made a yarn basket cake with balls of yarn and knitted things for a lady’s 90th birthday. Probably the coolest cake I’ve ever seen!

To celebrate New Years, my friend Katie and I hit up the two yarn shops in the Seattle area that were actually open on the holiday. Both were having sales, of course, and Katie (who is a relatively new knitter) experienced Crazy Knitter Syndrome for the first time ever. The first shop we stopped at had opened it’s doors maybe ten or fifteen minutes before we got there, and the place was already super packed. Katie was a bit overwhelmed, so I bought what I had been able to snatch up and we headed to the next shop. Luckily, we made it there a few minutes before they opened, and we were two of the ten or so people who were waiting at the front door. Sweet.

I enhanced my stash with yarns that weren’t actually on sale (doh!) but that I’ve been itching to get my hands on for quite a while. First up was some Malabrigo Lace:

Quite possibly some of the softest bit of fluff I’ve ever held. The colors remind me of a beautiful summer day in the Pacific Northwest. Love it.

Next up is a yarn that I’ve been eyeing since I first held it at Madrona last year: Kauni.

I’ve been thinking about delving into the world of fair isle knitting, and I think the Kauni will push me over the edge. I’m eyeing Ruth Sørensen’s hats as my first fair isle projects.

So yes, not as many additions to my stash as the last major stash enhancement mission, but I think Katie’s official initiation into the Wide World of Knitting really made the day. We got her started on her first hat when we got home, and I also have her on the invitation wait list for Ravelry. We’ve already agreed that I created a monster today. Mission complete!

What’s new on the needles

My knitting ADD has struck again. I’ve been finishing projects, but I’ve also been casting on new ones at an alarming rate! My boss has commissioned me for another scarf; she bought the yarn (Beaded Rhapsody by Artyarns and Kidsilk Haze by Rowan) and I picked out the pattern and will knit it up (Brambler, a lacy concoction from Anne). I was on my second pattern repeat when I screwed something up, and I decided to rip it out and start over. My gauge was a little tight, too. The second time has been the charm so far. I’m not the biggest fan of the Beaded Rhapsody, though. It’s absolutely gorgeous, but knitting with it has been absolutely frustrating. Ripping it out was no picnic. No pics yet, hopefully will get some soon.

I’ve also started another pair of socks, because really, how can I go so long without having a pair of socks on my needles?!

For Christmas, my boy got me a gift certificate to one of my favorite LYS’s, Hilltop Yarn (such a good lad). At first, I was planning on stocking up on some Hazel Knits sock yarn, but their selection was sadly lacking. I made one quick pass through the store, thinking I would just save the certificate until they had stocked up again, but then I saw some
Wasonga superwash merino sitting on a table. I couldn’t help it. It was $40 for one skein, but I couldn’t help it. By 5 am the next morning, I had picked out a little lacy nothing and finished several pattern repeats.

It’s really difficult to capture the true colors in this yarn. But trust me, it’s purty! And this pattern is so fun, I can literally stay up all night and work on it without getting bored. Love. It. Actually, I just realized that all of my new projects are Knitspot creations. I can blame her for my lack of sleep while I work on all of these…

Take me back to Lancashire…

Oh, man. I’ve really been slacking in the fiber department! But usually when not much knitting is getting done, that means that other things in my life are taking up more of my time. Last month I was in England for 10 days with a group from my church, and while I packed some of my projects with the intention of getting some knitting done on the plane or in some spare time, that just did not happen! (You would think I would have found the opportunity sometime during two ten-hour flights…) However, we were up north near the Lake District, and I was able to find fiber and knitting everywhere. First off, our driver, Colin, turned out to be a fantastic knitter:

I wish I could have gotten better pictures, but these are some of the sweaters he brought to show me. As a Lancashire country boy, Colin’s mum had taught him to knit years ago, and just in the last couple years he has picked it up again. Such a great guy, that Colin.

The day before we caught our flight back to Seattle, we headed up to Keswick in the Lake District to do some touristy things. At the open air market in town, I found a fabulous booth with some of the locals’ work:

So neat. And of course there were sheep everywhere:

As well as sheep dogs (my favorite!):

There was a yarn shop in town, but I knew that I didn’t dare go in. The British Pound was killing me already, can you imagine what a dent I could have made in my savings if I had splurged on local yarn and fiber?? Oy.

All of my pictures are here.