Last week I went to London with Bill. He was going for work and I went for pleasure!! It’s the first time I’ve been able to tag along on a work trip and I was super excited about it! Of course the first research I did on London related to yarn and fabric.
I had a couple of splurges. The first being at Liberty of London. Their cotton fabric is beautiful and I was surprised to see they had silk too. I bought a meter of silk to make myself a scarf. Then I bought some cotton for myself and for my mom. The fabric was pricey thanks to the crappy exchange rate, but I was told that if I wanted to buy a dress of their fabric, it would cost me more than 500 GBP which is WAY more than I spent. Interestingly enough, I did see a blouse made of the fabric of the red rose fabric, and it cost 95 GBP, again, much more than I spent for 3 meters. That made me feel better about my splurge.
My second purchase was at the Swarovski Crystallized store where they sold…yes, Swarovski crystal beads. They also had necklaces and bracelets that you could buy (for $$$). I fell in love with two pieces (this necklace and this bracelet) and bought some of the components to make the jewelry myself. It won’t be exact, but close enough. This did lead to buyer’s remorse but I felt better when I got home and found that I could not get the components in the US, even on the internet.
My third purchase was at iKnit. Cute store with great yarn. A lot of it available in the US, but I was able to find some great organic wool from Cornwall. It’s from Blacker Designs and not widely carried in the US. My goal for my yarn purchase was to get something I couldn’t find at home and I’m very happy with the Blacker Designs yarn. It’s a DK weight which I think is more practical for me living in Northern California. I also fell in love with some Hand Maiden Fine Yarn (dyed in Canada). But the color reminded me of London with the blues and greys, and I don’t have anything like it.
That was the bulk of my shopping. Bill bought me a silk scarf as a Valentine’s Day gift. (Actually, he told me he would get me one as a gift but I picked it out and bought it while he was at work.) I was enthralled with all the British women and their scarves. Silk scarves, pashminas, winter scarves… they wore them all so stylishly. I bought my scarf at Liberty of London, and they showed me how to wear it and I love it.
Let me tell you a little about Liberty of London. It’s a high end department store in this distinctive building in a big shopping district. They sell all brands of clothing, including pieces made from their fabric, and they sell their fabric as well as yarn and other haberdashery. I love that some of the department stores have haberdashery departments. I also went into John Lewis, another department store, and they had decorator weight fabrics available! They also had every type of Rowan Yarn in every color, as well as a few other brands. I showed amazing self restraint and didn’t buy any yarn, but I did buy some fabric for bedroom curtains. They had beautiful fabrics. I’ve been looking for bedroom curtains but I have a very specific color scheme in mind and I was very excited to find the perfect material. It’s decorator weight but it’s machine washable which is hard to find.
While I did spend a bit of money, I also did quite a bit of window shopping. New spring clothing was out and I really enjoyed looking at the styles and construction. It gave me some ideas.
So that’s my London trip for the crafty perspective. I did a ton of sight-seeing, but that will be a second post.
One pair down, 11 more to go. They’ve actually been done for over two weeks, I just couldn’t get around to blogging about it. They are simple picot edged top down socks. The yarn is from my Sundara subscription. When I first started these, I wasn’t sure about the yarn. It was ok, but was seeming a little yellow. Now that I’ve finished, I really like the yarn. And the socks. The first half of the first sock took me over 6 months. The rest of that pair and the second sock took me about five days.
Bill picked out my February pair which I haven’t started yet. Instead, I started a pair of socks with some Vesper Yarn in the sweetheart colorway. They are perfect for February. I wonder if I can get two pairs of socks knit this month…
If you are looking for the Weaving In Ends Department, that department is closed. Thank goodness.
Today I caught up on some projects that have been sitting around nearly finished. I have a shoulder warmer (the blue tube), a textured triangle shawl (the pink triangle) (rav link here), and a cabled caplet (the light blue thing that is hard to see at the top of the picture) (rav link here). There’s a recently finished project on the table too, my January socks (from my pair of socks a month challenge).
Three snaps in a circle for me for getting things done today!
P.S. Did you happen to see Conan O’Brien’s final Tonight Show last Friday? I thought it was very well done though a little crazy at the end. He had the opportunity to be really bitter and negative, and bad mouth NBC, but he was classy and positive. This is a quote from my favorite moment of the show: “All I ask is one thing, and I’m asking this particularly of young people that watch. Please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record it’s my least favorite quality. It doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you, amazing things will happen.”
Tags: knitting
Today is my birthday! I’m not obsessed with my age but 35 does sound like a big number. I like to torment my parent’s and ask “do you believe you have a daughter that is 35 years old?” (insert evil laugh here)
This has been a great day. (Will be near perfect if the Blackhawks win tonight.) Bill took the day off work to spend some time with me. He took me to my allergy shot, dropped me at the hair salon while I got a cut and color. Then we went to lunch at The Garret for a burger and beer. There was a quick stop at Blockbuster to pick out a movie for the weekend (500 Days of Summer) and then home to relax and knit and watch the Blackhawks game. I got birthday phone calls from all the parents and lots of facebook happy birthdays! It’s not been too different from most Thursdays, but different enough to make me happy. Suffice it to say, I feel pampered, loved and special.
Green Planet Yarn made me feel super special a couple of weeks ago with their birthday sale program. You can go in one day during your birthday month and have the opportunity to save 20, 40 or 100% off your total purchase. I had my eyes on some Lorna’s Laces Worsted in Valentine and Spud and Chloe in grass for two sweaters. Then some other yarn caught my eye for a little capelet. It’s a decent amount of yarn that came up to a pretty hefty total, but then I picked out a 40% chip (!!!) and once I put in my Christmas money, it didn’t cost me very much out of pocket.
Today I’m working on a top down raglan sweater in the Valentine yarn. I’m very nervous about it because I have to modify the pattern for my size. I’m not an experienced sweater knitter but I have confidence in my math skills. It’s just such beautiful yarn I don’t want to wear out the fiber if I have to frog it. The beauty of a top down sweater is that I can try it on as I go. My other “issue” is that I agonized over which pattern to use. I went with the garter yoke cardi because it’s a simple silhouette that won’t compete with the multi color yarn. Fingers crossed that it fits well when I’m done.
Well, it’s time for some special birthday cupcakes from Sprinkles. 34 years later, I still get the same happy and excited look on my face when someone offers me cake.
I lean towards no, but we’ll give it a shot. What brings this up you ask? Well, we bought my mother-in-law, Jeanne, the Yarn Harlot’s page-a-day calendar for Christmas. Jeanne is a knitter and we thought it a good gift. It’s not quite as overwhelming as a stitch-a-day kind of thing. Those are nice but that’s a lot of stitches to keep track of. Jeanne emailed me a tip she read from her calendar. The tip was to create your own sock of the month club from stash yarn and patterns you have queued up.
I’m going to interrupt myself and ask a question: Is my sharing this violation of some copyright or something? I prefer to think of it as unpaid advertising in that Jeanne really likes the calendar and if you enjoy tips like this, pick up the Yarn Harlot’s page-a-day calendar, available at Amazon or other fine retailers. Hopefully that has covered some bases that may or may not have needed covering.
So last night (see how exciting Saturday nights can be!) I pulled out my sock yarn and my sock patterns. Scary thing, I actually have enough yarn for 12 pairs of socks. That surprised me. In reality, I have 11 plus two on the needles. My January sock is going to be one of those WIPs. The other on the needles is a pair of knee socks. I also laid out another pair of knee socks but swapped that out for a pair of regular sized socks. In my mind, one pair of knee socks is about two pairs of regular socks knee. Thusly, knee socks are separate projects from this challenge. The rest of the yarn has been matched up with patterns. I have 6 “hard” pairs and 6 basic pairs. If all goes according to plan, by the end of the year I will have 12 pairs of completed socks.
This challenge seems, well, challenging. I don’t know if I’ve even completed 12 total projects in a year. Regardless, nothing ventured, nothing gained and this seems like a fun way to get some socks knit up. Wish me luck!
Yes, I am. Hopefully you are too! Our Christmas was as I expected: low-key and wonderful! Bill made a delicious dinner Christmas Eve which included a Honeybaked Ham, broccoli rice casserole, creamed spinach, applesauce (homemade) and cranberry orange relish. It was super delish and we are still enjoying it!
Christmas morning was gift opening, skyping with family and opening presents via the web, Sherlock Holmes, playing with our Christmas presents, and a little bit of knitting. Bill got a blu-ray player so we had to watch a movie (Transformers 2 which looked amazing) during which I started a new shawl (rav link here).
I got some great gifts. Just a few books (nicely stacked in the photo), including a really cool book on wallpaper projects. Bill got me a purty new necklace and my big gift from him was a parrot. Not a bird, but bluetooth for my car. It’s installed and automatically connects to my phone so that I can talk wirelessly. AND, I can play music off my iphone through my car speakers. It’s pretty cool. I got some sequined chuck taylor’s from my in-laws. My mom bought me a pretty piece of artwork that I picked out when we were in Monterey. It’s a beautiful small floral oil painting and I like supporting local artists. There’s other stuff, but these are some of my favorites.
The rest of the weekend seemed to fly by. Bill got some new wii games that we haven’t even opened yet. We did see Avatar in digital 3D. It was amazing. James Cameron created the most beautiful world and with the 3D I felt like I was floating in it. But the movie also had a very good storyline and it was really, really enjoyable. The bad guys are so bad you just hate them. Visually stunning, excellent film.
As I mentioned, we saw Sherlock Holmes on Christmas Day. I am partial to Basil Rathbone as Mr. Holmes and don’t watch any other Holmeses. Robert Downey Jr. was excellent and Jude Law as Watson was surprisingly good. It was action packed, funny, kinda violent, with a bit of a love story. I really liked it.
Today we saw Nine. I might mention that these movies double the number of movies we have seen in a theatre all year. As for Nine, it was okay. Daniel Day Lewis was excellent but his character wasn’t someone I was particularly rooting for. The females in the movie are amazing and the dance numbers were spectacular, my favorites being Fergie’s and Kate Hudson’s. It was good, but not my favorite of the three.
There’s one more movie I’d like to see, The Blind Side. I’ve cleaned off my cutting table and am thinking about some sewing projects. I’m enjoying my shawl which I’m knitting up in delicious Sundara silky cashmere yarn (one of my top 5 favorite yarns). I’ve got some organizing to do in our wrapping room and our guest bedroom, and want to do a goodwill run before the end of the year. That’s what I’ll be up to these next few days.
Sabrina seems to think so. This little gal cracks me up. It’s not the first time she’s used my yarn cake as a pillow.
I’m making another Luscious Cabled Cowl for a friend as a Christmas Gift. The clock is ticking!
This one is being knit out of Cascade Yarns Baby Chunky Alpaca. It is Divine yarn. Three years ago I knit myself a scarf with this yarn and it still looks good as new. Let me tell you, that baby has been worn!I think this is my all time favorite fiber.
I finished the LC cowl I made with the Baby Llamas and it is everything I hoped it would be! I still need to take pictures. I finished it just in time as we’re having a bit of a cold snap here.
I can’t believe that Christmas is 17 days away! I did some decorating over the weekend but we still need to get our tree! This weekend, I hope!
I’ve been working on lots of Christmas presents. Smallish projects. I’m trying to enjoy the process and not get stressed. I don’t get it; it seems that no matter how much I plan, I’m still rushing at the end. What’s up with that?
Tags: knitting
I love the baby alpacas so I thought I would see if I like the baby llamas. And I do! I do!
Baby alpaca yarn is by far my favorite fiber. It is sooooo soft… I recently knit myself a beret out of Blue Sky Melange yarn, aka baby alpaca. It needs to be washed and blocked which requires me to wash out my sink. Not the hardest thing in the world; I just need to get it done.
I have lots of baby alpaca yarn in my stash and my friend brought me some alpaca yarn from Bolivia which I am very excited to knit up!
When my mom was visiting 6 or 8 weeks ago, we discovered baby llama yarn! It was so deliciously soft. Last week, I bought a few skeins to knit up a cowl for myself. Cowls are in, you know. Rachel Bilson told me.
I’m excited about the cowl. It is knitting up quickly. The yarn is a purpley-blue color and will look great with a new down vest I ordered on the internets.
Sabrina was helping me knit earlier today. She thinks the baby llamas are tasty. She is not allowed near the baby llamas anymore.
Tags: knitting
That’s what I’ve been doing. No time to blog with all the knitting going on. I’m going to call September the month of the shawl, October the month of the sweater, and November the month of small projects. I’m planning on December being the month of the afghan.
I knit three shawls in September, one Ishbel and two Springtime Bandits. Both are great patterns and knit up fast. And the Springtime Bandit is FREE!!! Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of these beauties yet.
In October, my mom and I started a knit along of the Monday Morning Cardigan. I worked on it a lot and it still took me a month to finish, but it was worth it. This is my first sweater. Again, no pictures. Mom is still working on hers but I’m hoping that her seeing mine will be a good motivator for her.
After I finished my sweater, I started working on some smaller projects. I knit a beret for myself. I’ve seen some great beret patterns and saw some beautiful yarn and I couldn’t resist any longer. The beret photographed is the Porom beret. Love it! I’m worried that it has a little too much slouch and that with my short hair it might look a little ridiculous. But oh well. I like it. I’m also doing some gift knitting. Tis the season!
The weather has cooled off and I’m looking forward to pulling out an afghan I started two years ago. That’s my December project. And it would be nice to finish up the Lizard Ridge Afghan.
We’ll see how it goes.
Tags: knitting
I just don’t know where the time goes. I really don’t.
We got home from Vegas and in less than 20 hours we were back at the airport picking up my Mom!!! Thankfully we had left the house in good shape, but we still were running around dusting, vacuuming, changing sheets, etc. But yay, my mom was visiting!
She was here for eight days and they flew by. Seriously. So what did we do… Lots of knitting. We’re doing a knitalong (just me and Mom) of the Monday Morning Cardigan. I had some yarn that Bill bought in Shannon, Ireland, and I had a lot of this yarn. About 20 skeins. It’s a heavy worsted yarn so we’ve checked our gauge and are making smaller sizes but it’s going well so far (fingers crossed).
Mom also helped me decorate the house for Halloween. I don’t have that many decorations, but every year Bill and I are digging them out right before the kids starts trick-or-treating, and putting them away after they leave. Not very festive. Anyway, in my box-o-decorations, Mom found some fake pumpkins that I bought to glitterize a la Martha Stewart. I even had the glitter. Why I never did it is beyond me. But we finally got those pumpkins glittered! I really like how they look on my crystal cake plate.
I took my mom to my knitting store, Green Planet Yarn, where a sequined dk weight yarn caught her eye. We found a free pattern on ravelry but it called a for a bulky weight yarn. We went back and saw the knit doctor ( a free help session) and she helped us pick another yarn to hold together to make gauge. They even lent us needles and wound the yarn so that mom could knit a gauge swatch before we left to see if we needed to modify the pattern any further. They definitely get two thumbs up for customer service!
What else did we do? There’s the required trip to Google for lunch. We did drive to Monterey for the day and at my inlaw’s recommendation, took the 17 Mile Drive at Pebble Beach. It was beautiful though the day was a little gray. We walked the neighborhood. Found a bead store and got some stuff to make some earrings as requested by Mom. I got mom set up on facebook and ravelry. There was the farmer’s market and almond croissants! And because Mom is Mom, she helped with laundry of which there was TONS! Most importantly, we had plenty of time to hangout and be together.
It was a great visit that ended last week. Since then, I’ve been knitting, Bill and I did a yard clean-up on Saturday, I’ve done more laundry… But I’ve got to get a little more organized because there a bunch of things I’d like to do (organize my armoire, cut fabric, take photos of my jewelry, sew some lavender sachets, work on my photo albums…) but I don’t seem to get to it. I think I need to make a list.
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