Spring Green

For the past few days I’ve only been working on these. more »

Green Aviator

Here’s another project that flew off the needles! Of course, it helps that Lopi is bulky. Lately, I’ve been enamored with Lopi patterns and have added some (both vintage and new) booklets from Reynolds or Ístex to my library. When rummaging through my stash for an easy, quick project, I found two skeins of greenish Lopi and decided to try a hat.

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Treasure Hunting

This past weekend was the Second Annual “Tools of the Trade Twin Cities LYS Shop Hop.” Because I didn’t go last year, I decided to go on Saturday and asked Mom to go with me.

What I really liked about the Hop is that I got to visit five new-to-me stores. The metro area is so big and sprawling, it’s a bit of a drive to go to most places. We started at Zandy’s Yarn in Burnsville, went up to Needlework Unlimited in Minneapolis/Edina, west to Coldwater Collaborative in Excelsior, then north again to Amazing Threads (but we got a bit lost trying to find this shop), east to Sheepy Yarn Shoppe, and south to The Yarnery in St. Paul, and finally 3 Kittens Needle Arts in Mendota Heights. We left the house at about 9:30 AM and got home just after 4 PM! (Christy of Purling Away made a Google map that shows the shop locations.) Of these 7 stores, I’ve visited only The Yarnery and 3 Kittens previously.

I think Needlework Unlimited was my favorite; there was a TON of patterns, and we spent about 20 minutes there browsing. Amazing Threads was smaller than I expected. Coldwater Collaborative was crowded (bad timing on our part). But overall, all the stores were very nice with a varied selection. (The most common overlap I noticed were the new Marie Mayhew felted kits. The Yarnery recently opened their online shop and have them available for anyone interested who doesn’t live in the area. NAYY; I think they’re pretty cute!)

To prepare for the Hop, I researched each store’s website to see if I could find certain brands or items that interested me and might generally not be found at the other shops. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money or buy a ton of yarn, so I made a shopping list. I managed to stick to it pretty well; I found about half the items on my list, plus a few extra patterns. I set myself a budget and didn’t go over, so in all it was a successful excursion.

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3 things

1. It’s so sad, shocking, and awful about the bridge collapse. Yes, I’m OK. Fortunately no one in my family was anywhere close. I used to live on the West Bank, right in this area; I can’t imagine how stressful it must be over there now.
2. In case you missed the news, MezzoDiva is fundraising for her participation in the 2007 Weekend to End Breast Cancer. If you contribute, you will get a copy of her sock pattern Campanula for the Cure! All the details and donation instructions are available in this post. She has also recently started a KAL blog for anyone planning to knit the pattern. It’s a very pretty pattern; I haven’t quite decided what yarn I’ll use. Possibly the recent Rockin’ Sock Club colorway, Firebird? Or maybe I’ll wait to see what arrives this month?
3. Did you know Tuesday Morning currently sells yarn? And not just the eyelash/novelty variety. I had no idea. Mom happened to stop in there yesterday and bought a few skeins for me. She reports that the shelves were pretty messy and picked over (typical of the store), but that there were also some very nice yarns priced at 50% off retail.

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Show & Tell

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Yarnover 2006 and More

(Sigh… I had over half of this post typed out, then my mouse went bonkers and I lost the post!)

Quick Sockettes update: I have just half of a cuff to go… I aim to finish tonight and post pictures tomorrow.

Yarnover 2006: Mom and I went through all the colorful, fiber goodness this morning. I know some other local bloggers were planning to go, I think I might’ve seen Renee, maybe… There were LOTS of people. :)

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