Refocus and Get Knitting!

Well after a year of planning, anticipating and fretting, it's a memory now. But a beautiful memory indeed! The Wynn in Las Vegas did a fabulous job, as well as Maggianos for the reception. I wouldn't have changed a thing! I guess it's back to normal life now and time to concentrate on my knitting and quilting projects.

The past couple of days has been the LYS Tour in the Puget Sound area. In years past, I have gone to several of the shops but this year I was just plain out of energy. I went to the two closest shops to my house and picked up their free patterns. Oh yeah, I also bought the yarn that went with them!! Renaissance Yarns had a lovely pair of fingerless gloves as their free pattern and they had a new yarn to celebrate the occaison called Merisoft, from Punta yarns. It is Merino wool and feels really nice. I chose a varigated turquoise. The Knittery had two patterns. One was a lacy pair of anklet socks made with Trekking Pro Natura. I chose to do these in white. Maybe because of the wedding? lol They also had a scarf that is really lacy and beautiful made out of Silky Alpaca Lace Yarn . I chose the cream color. Hopefully I will be showing some progress on these over the next few months! I know for sure as I knit along I will be reliving a wonderful memory of my daughter's marriage to a wonderful man.

I'm Still Alive

Well, I'm still in the game with Hat Attack II. I took out my target the first week but I have been patiently waiting for my next hat to complete to take out another target. The target I took out had taken out her target, so I contacted her. It turns out she has had the unfinished hat she needed to send me in her car for TWO WEEKS and she forgot about it. Darn. Hopefully I will get it and can take out one more contestant before I am assasinated.

In the meantime I have been working on Wendy Bernard's Looks Good on All Sides Scarf from her new book Custom Knits. I am using the same yarn for the Hat Attack called Therapi. The rows of the scarf are easily memorized, but it is a 44 row repeat and my brain can't remember that much so I've had to tally. This scarf is worth it though. It is SO beautiful and knit with the Therapi yarn, it is so soft and supple. There has been some complaints that Therapi has had knots, and blobs of yarn in it but I haven't had that problem at all. I absolutely love this yarn and it comes in LOTS of colors. I hope to have the scarf finished this weekend for Wendy's book signing at Renaissance Yarns. Maybe I can get a picture of the author wearing my scarf!

Yippppeeeeee! A new project! I bought this yarn from Renaissance Yarns about a month ago, but I made myself wait to start it until I finished my Rockin Sock Club project this month. This is another sock yarn called "Duet" It is a superwash Merino Wool and as you can see it includes a contrasting yarn for the heel and toe! It is produced locally here in Washington State by a company called A Swell Yarnshop. She doesn't repeat the colors, so when you see one you like, you HAVE to buy it then! My kind of purchase!! :o) I am so excited about the toe up technique from the STRC that I am going to try a traditional sock with this method! I will post my progress next week.

Touch Me

Come on, come on, come on, come on now
Touch me babe
Can't you see that I am not afraid?
What was that promise that you made?
Why won't you tell me what she said?
What was that promise that she made


I just love this song; definitely a classic by The Doors, but it is also the name of the yarn I used on this easy scarf that was then felted.

Lilly, Jo and I did one of our field trips which typically consists of lunch and a trip to a LYS. This time we visited Renaissance Yarns in downtown Kent. I knew I wanted to make a scarf out of this yarn ever since I admired the display hanging in the shop. When it "touched me" I felt the softness of it, like velvet, only better. Plus it has a lightness to it and feels weightless, yet warm, when wearing it. The big decision was not "should I knit it?" or "do I need it?" but "what color should I get?" Once I spoke those 5 words out loud, Lilly and Jo started going to town grabbing balls of yarn and holding them up to my face. I felt like Mary Kay was draping me to get "colorized" as either a warm or a cool, Autumn or Summer. Jo and Lilly were in their element and were not about to let me get out of that store with a boring neutral color to which I am naturally drawn. Not that I'm boring. At least I don't think I'm boring but my clothes are boring and I knew I needed to add some color to my wardrobe. I kept telling myself this is just a scarf and it might do me some good to venture out of my comfort zone. No rules, right? So, Lilly picks up this ball of yarn and just starts cluckin' like she tends to do when she gets excited. By the way her nickname is "mama duck" but more about that later. She grabs me by the elbow and walks me over to the sitting area where a couple of gals are knitting and shrieks, "doesn't this just look beautiful with her coloring?" Well, what could they say? Nothing like putting some poor innocent women who are knitting away on their projects, on the spot. "Hey, by the way, do these jeans make my butt look big?" Geez.

So this is how I came to have this beautiful Touch Me scarf. I must admit it is a gorgeous color, especially hanging around the neck of my boring brown jacket.

Here is the pattern:

Mistake Rib

CO 31 sts
K2, P2, each row ending with a P1
Size 8 needles (I used 7 because I didn't have 8's and I didn't want to follow the rules completely)

I used a total of 4 balls of the Touch Me yarn

Once complete, put inside a zippered pillowcase and felt in hot water in the washing machine on a complete cycle. It will feel like cardboard when it is finished but don't fret. Put it in the dryer and it will soften up and come out ready to wear!

OOOPS! I did it again!

Well, anytime I have a day off, it's almost a guarantee that I will get into some sort of yarn trouble. I got an email from my LYS that they had a new book in, so two minutes after the doors opened I was there to purchase it. First, about the shop. If you live in Washington State, or are planning a trip here, then this is one shop you won't want to miss. It's called , Renaissance Yarns and it is an absolutely beautiful store! It feels very welcoming and the owners and staff are friendly, helpful and make you feel they appreciate your business. This is not your messy little yarn shop. It is beautifully decorated and organized to show it's beauty. I went there today to purchase my copy of "Favorite Socks, 25 Timeless Designs" from Interweave Press. This book is a sock knitters MUST. It has twenty five designs, mostly knit in fingering weight yarn. There are a couple of patterns for slightly heavier weight yarn. I fell in love with each and every pattern. I was especially intrigued by a "resoleable sock". I may have to try that one out! I do want to confess that I also bought two balls of Trekking sock yarn while there. One is the "Neopolitan" colorway, so it stripes in pink, brown and white. Soooo Coooool! I love it, the other was a boring man color, but my husband loves his socks knit from this yarn. I'm taking a class in another yarn shop tomorrow, so I'm sure I will get into some sort of trouble there too. Yes, I'm "sick" too. I guess between Jo seeing sweaters in manure, and Flo standing in the cold staring, and my yarn and rules addiction, well, it tells all of you why we are good friends!