I visit the Fair Isle...but just for 2 hours

Yesterday, I took a freebie workshop on making a Fair Isle gift bag at one of my LYS. I've wanted to learn the skill since I began knitting, and the stars conspired to make it possible -- and for free! (never mind that I spent $130 after the class...) I don't have anything to show yet, but I was impressed at how basic it was; more about keeping track of what you're doing than anything else. Our instructor, Paige Waffle (gotta love it...) was very good and patient with us, considering that of the 8 or so women there, maybe 3 of us were actually doing exactly what we were supposed to do. Some of us didn't know about the "homework" and hadn't knitted our bases, so we had to swatch, a few others were fiddling with new yarn and didn't have much time to practice at all, and a few were off on a different project altogether. Bless anyone who teaches anything to anybody...

Meanwhile, I'm almost done with my first Blue Moon socks. What great yarn! the stitch definition is amazing, and it feels more like cotton than wool. I'll post the pics when I'm done.

Last week I whipped up a hat out of three orphan yarns I had. I thought it was nice enough, but I keep getting compliments on it! Ya never know what people like.

Knitting to be less sad... a little

This weekend was a sad one. A very dear, close friend died last week and her funeral was yesterday. A few of us headed down to Englehard, NC (a tiny place on the edge of the state, more water than land) to say goodbye. I'll really miss her. Two years ago, she was alive and well, went in for a simple outpatient procedure, and stopped breathing. By the time the doctor noticed, it was too late and she lapsed into a coma. She later woke up, but the damage was done. A vibrant, electric, brilliant journalist was practically returned to infancy. Bye, Ruth. Hope the coffee is good where you are, otherwise they'll hear about it!

To cheer myself up, I made some screaming yellow cabled footies from the "One Skein" book. Flummoxed up the toe, but I don't care. The yarn is Peace Fleece, thick and soft and the color of old style cornmeal. Ruth would have loved the color.

From the 'Hood to the Burbs -- by the River

Last night, I attended a fun/d raiser at Knit Happens, a great LYS in Alexandria, VA. The store was open late to allow the the Anacostia Watershed Society (AWS), a local nonprofit dedicated solely to restoring and cleaning up the Anacostia River and its tributaries, and a new yarn maker company, Neighborhood Fiber Co., to raise money for the society through the sale of some luscious sock yarn. The yarns are wool and seacell, petable and richly colored. Karida Collins and company are color mavens, offering amazing handspun, hand-dyed fibers. The yarns are all named after neighborhoods in Washington, DC (hence the name). $1 of each hank's price goes to the AWS, a worthy cause, if you've ever seen the crap that ends up in the river. The Anacostia is the city's stepchild-- everyone knows about the Potomac, but the word "Anacostia"has become an unfortunate codeword for a part of town that no tourist bus would visit, so the river suffers, serving as a flowing dump site. On Earth Day 2006 for example, volunteers removed 31.5 tons of trash (that's 63,000 lbs!) and 143 tires from the watershed.

Knit Happens was full of yarnies eager to see the new stuff, and I think the event was a success. We sat around, making friends with the yarn and with each other, needles, advice and gossip flying.

I had already splurged at Stitches East and got a couple hanks of Thomas Circle semisolid, but last night I got 2 hanks of Tenley Circle, a bright but not obnoxious orange. I recommend that everyone save their pennies and get some Neighborhood Fibers. Get good stuff and do some good, without getting your feet wet.

Dragon Scales!

If you attended the marketplace at Stitches East on Saturday, you might have seen me in my new Dragon Scales wrap. The pattern came from Bad Cat Designs, through Jade Sapphire, and was written for cashmere (I wish!) and intended to be a scarf. I had this great hand spun wool/tencel yarn I got from Springwater Fiber Workshop in Alexandria and used that instead. The color is actually much more purple/gray muted than the photos (darn phone camera!) but beautiful nonetheless. I doubled the width +2, and knitted til I ran out of yarn. I'm happy with it, and I have had more than one person ask about it, a few examining it from behind while I'm on the Metro or an escalator. Isn't knitting interesting? Any other time, we'd all be calling for cops if strangers began touching and examining our clothes, but if we made it. we feel like a mobile fashion show.

A Personal Yarn Crawl

I am fortunate in that I live in an area with plenty of yarns stores. This is a mixed blessing because I often spend my weekends wandering the backroads of Metro Washington, DC, looking for shops or rumors of shops.

Yesterday I expanded my "crawl circle" and went to Ellicott City, MD, a cute town in the hilly country below Baltimore. The store was "Celtic Knot" yarn store, a fairly busy place with a nice selection of yarns. Nothing ultra exotic, but a good supply of standards like Cascade 220 and Lamb's Pride. Found one brand I had never tried before -- Universal Classic Worsted Tapestry -- and got a few balls to make a capelet. The stuff is supposed to work up into a self-forming fair isle-like print.
I liked the store well enough to hang out and knit a bit. People came in for help with projects and seemed to get what they needed. I've seen stores where cries for help fell on deaf ears (for whatever reasons), so it's always good to find a helpful place.







Because I love being nosy and visiting other stores, I"ll eventually post where I've been (and left my money) in the DC area and whereever else I find myself.

Typical Late Bloomer

O.K. Here it is, well into the blogging trend, and I finally pulled my finger out and started one.

I'll be posting my knitting progress and other knit-related content, and might occasionally add a bit of other elements of my life. Stay tuned...