knitting: striped scarf

I know it has been a while since I've posted anything really craft related on this blog but truth be told, I've been in quite a rut. It's also been a while since I've posted anything about the going ons within my knitting group at work. So hopefully this post will satiate both and get me back on the crafting radar.

My friend Jess is like one of the best knitters I know. And I mean, seriously, she is a really good knitter. Not only is she good at it, she actually completes projects. (I have so many WIP's -- in the knitting world that translates to "works in progress" -- it's pretty shameful.) Anyway, she brought in this scarf to our knitting group one day and I just knew the instant that I saw it that I had to make one too. I just love it when inspiration jumps at me like that.

It's a pattern that Jared Flood blogged about and she used Noro yarn like he did. I love how her stripes turned out, don't you?

I had some Manos del Uruguay yarn in my stash and of course, I need to use the yarn I have before I buy any more, so I decided to try making the scarf with it instead of buying new stuff. I tried to pair a skein of multi-colored dark blue and gold tones with a really bright turquoise skein I have, but it just looked awful. So I caved in and made a drive out to Windsor Button in downtown Boston one afternoon and found a skein in a more golden brown and orange colorway that I thought would provide enough contrast.

I started working on it while flying out to Chicago and it was the perfect project to bring along on the plane ride because it's a simple knit one, purl one rib where you do two rows in each color. The only tricky part is remembering to slip the first and last stitches purl-wise on the second row. (I still think it's odd how they will allow me take bring knitting needles -- the metal ones even!-- onto a plane and past security, yet we still can't bring water on board.)

It's my "do at work during my lunch break project", so I don't bring it home (I have the hubby's sweater to work on at home ... yes, that will take a long time) and as a result, I usually only get in about 4 rows each time I sit down to work on it. Needless to say, it's slowly coming together but I intend to give it to someone (won't say who here even though I know he doesn't read my blog) for Christmas so I have plenty of time to complete it.

The striping is very subtle and at first I was quite disappointed, but over time I have started to really like the coloring. I hope the person I am making it for likes it, which is most important, and I think the colors are masculine enough.

Stay tuned. Hopefully I can get this one complete before the summer ends!

purple alliums

There's something about allium flowers that grabs my attention each time I see them. I don't know if it's because I'm in awe of how perfectly round they seem to be, or if it's the bright purple color of the petals.

I made a special trip out to Windsor Button in downtown Boston a couple of days before our trip to Chicago because I just had to get some skeins of Manos yarn for a striped scarf project so I could work on it during the plane ride. A scarf? Made out of wool? Yes. And you're working on it in this heat? Yes. Well, mostly at work where it's quite frigid because of the air conditioning. But yes, during the summertime. I know, crazy but Christmas is coming! (<-- that was supposed to be funny ...)

So, where was I going with this? Oh yeah ... so I made this special drive out to downtown Boston and actually managed to find a parking spot (thank you, parking angel!) next to the Public Garden. I went along and bought the yarn, and then on my way back to the car decided to take a quick stroll through the garden. Why not, right? It was a gorgeous spring day, I didn't have anywhere to be in a hurry, and I could use the exercise.

Oh, and the alliums were in bloom!

So pretty. So tall. So purple. So spring. So step-carefully-over-the-chain-onto-the-grass-for-a-quick-photo-opp worthy.

And it was also nice to see so many people out enjoying the weather. I loved this scene of the swan boats at rest.

Of course, as I write this -- fashionably (?) late mind you -- I look at these photos I took a couple of weeks ago and our park just pales in comparison to what we experienced in Chicago. More from that trip to come soon!

TGIF!

north shore yarn crawl 2010

"A yarn crawl? What is a yarn crawl?" That's the reaction I had when I read online about the North Shore Yarn Crawl, and I'm sure it was what my friends were wondering when I sent them the info. Think of it being like a pub crawl only there's no beer involved, just yarn!

We started our day of yarn shopping at a store called Seed Stitch Fine Yarn in Salem, Massachusetts. It's a nice, spacious store with tons of beautiful yarn choices. I really liked how they had a lot of knitted samples next to their yarn to demonstrate ways to use the yarn.

I found this really cool ribbon yarn by On-line Yarn that knits up in ruffles. One of the ladies that works at the shop was kind enough to explain how to pick up just the edge of the yarn (the yarn itself looks like it was knitted) to create the effect. I bought a few skeins to make a scarf in a fun, bright orange shade (in the picture below, it's the skein at the far left) plus some in a grey scheme (the skein underneath the pink knitted sample) for a more conservative palette.

I actually managed to knit up the orange scarf with the two skeins within a few hours. I'll have to take pictures of it and post it later because I like how it turned out, even though it's a little shorter than I had planned.

A few more pictures from this store:


Then we drove up to Marblehead and stopped at a shop called Yarn Over Marblehead. It's a cute little shop where my friend Jessica found a lot of pretty Noro skeins.


The owner suggested this place called Shubie's for us to stop at for lunch. What a great market! They have a huge deli counter full of yummy dishes to choose from, plus a sandwich counter where you can order a custom sandwich. There were some pretty neat food items in the store as well as a huge wine selection. Renee ended up having their udon noodle soup which came in a enormous bowl (she said it was quite yummy), and Jessica and I both had the grilled cheese sandwich.



Our next stop was at the Abbott Yarn Shoppe in Beverly. It was a tiny little shop with tons of yarn crammed into it! The ladies running it were really sweet and even gave us the pattern to these honeycomb mittens (I can't wait to make a pair!).


What really cracked us up was this set of rules for the shop. One of the owners' grandchildren made it and I think everyone should follow these rules.

Then we stopped at Yarns in the Farms which is also in Beverly. Despite the pouring rain, we managed to find a parking spot in some muddy grass and trekked into this cute shop. It's small, too, but packed with tons of yarn.

We saw this little dog at a couple of the stores that day. At least he was well dressed for the rainy weather!

Our last stop was at Coveted Yarns in Gloucester. It was a fairly large store that had a ton of gorgeous yarns, but the lighting was rather dim inside so it was difficult to see the difference between shades. What is neat is that they sell the "seconds" skeins of Lamb's Pride yarn, which honestly, you can hardly tell are "seconds". I grabbed a couple skeins of the bulky weight yarn, and found some pretty teal ribbon yarn (which ended up being a drop-stitch scarf).

I was thoroughly impressed by this wall of Noro yarn:

And here is what ended up being added to my yarn stash at home:

Now if I can just get myself back on track with completing some knitting projects! :)

webs in northampton, ma

When I first heard about Webs, it was described to me as the Mecca of all things related to yarn. So when we first walked in there, I was kind of expecting to be wowed. You know, I knew it was coming. But seriously? I mean, wow.


Row after row full of beautiful yarns in so many different colors and textures!

And a whole wall (I believe it actually went on further than this) full of needles in every size imaginable. And the coolest (and cutest!) knitted samples all throughout the store. Like this adorable baby sweater that I think I petted for at least two minutes.

And tons of books and patterns to browse through! Such an array of fun projects to add to my list of faves.

So after telling the husband to go find a comfy chair to sit in (it was boiling hot outside so the car was not an option) because I knew I would be there for over an hour, he went off to meander and locate said chair. Alas, they were all taken by other waiting husbands/boyfriends but he did say to me, "Oh boy. You might want to go to the back of the store." And then I remembered: the WAREHOUSE!!

Um, yeah. I think I did wet my pants a teensy bit when I walked through that door. My pictures don't even do it justice (and of course, it's super blurry because I couldn't hold still long enough) - these aisles were long and stocked full of goodness.

It took me forever to go down each aisle, looking and feeling just about every single kind they had there. What is neat is that you can buy just one skein or you can get bags of the same colorway if you need to. Awesome. I snapped this photo of one called "Williamstown" because that's the town that Tony grew up in.

So what did I end up getting? Errr, you mean, what did I end up spending my horse race winnings on?! (See previous post.) I bought some extremely soft baby alpaca yarn in four different colors. Mostly because, well, they were only $4 each. And also because I couldn't pick just one color.

I got two skeins of this Misti Alpaca yarn simply because I love the color of it. I'm not sure what they will turn into but I couldn't resist the color.


And then I found this pattern that I am obsessively thinking about. I think it's so cute!
So I bought 10 skeins of this Classic Yarn in a dark grey and muted blue colorway to hopefully one day create the sweater. I couldn't believe they were only $3.25 a skein!

And to make the contrasting trim, I picked up two skeins in a soft green color (you know me and green!).


And then as a treat (again, back to the horse prize), I bought a swift and yarn winder. Although, I'm not so sure I'm psyched about the blue and orange combo, but it'll do the trick so it doesn't matter, right?

Anywho, as you can see by the new additions to my yarn stash, I think I'll be busy for a little while. I can't imagine living closer to the store than this (it's about a 2.5 hour drive) because I'm sure I'd break the bank with each trip there. Definitely worth the drive though! And an easy way to spend two hours!!