Friday, February 09, 2007

Yarn Collecting & Blogger Friends

On Thursday I got to do two great things! I met a new friend, Laura, and bought more yarn for my yarn collection. Laura & I have been corresponding for awhile via comments on each others blogs, but we finally decided to schedule some time to meet at the LYS when we discovered that we lived fairly close to each other. Can you believe I was 30 minutes late? I'm sure she thought I'd stood her up or something, but I was having "one of those days"! You know the ones. When anything & everything that can go wrong, does. I don't have them very often, but when I do, I wonder what the universe is trying to tell me.

I finally arrived at the LYS with many apologies spewing from my mouth, and then realized I was standing in the middle of knitters heaven. Keep in mind that I've only been in five other yarn stores in my short one-year knitting life, but this one was extremely different. In fact, I'll bet there may only be a handful like it anywhere. If only I were a writer & could describe the vision before my eyes, but I can say this, there was probably as much yarn in that small store at one time, than there is in a regular yarn store over the period of a few years! Seriously! There were aisles & aisles from floor to ceiling of yarn cubbies STUFFED with yarn. In fact yarn was falling out of bins & landed on me they were so full. The aisles were so tiny that two people couldn't walk side by side down them either. It was a fun place for yarn exploration.

I purchased the perfect yarn for Project Spectrum 2.0. I know I can knit in blue, white, or gray for February and March, but how perfect that I was able to find yarn in all 3 colors? The best part, I probably wouldn't have purchased this yarn if it weren't for Project Spectrum because it's really not something I could've seen myself wearing, but now that I have it, I can't wait to knit with it. I guess that's the beauty and point to Project Spectrum though.

This is Regia Bamboo color 1061 and this is my first time knitting with yarn that has bamboo content. The label states it is 45% Bamboo, 40% Superwash Wool, and 15% Polyamide and since it's bamboo, it has a high breathability factor which will be great for summer socks! Now I just need the right pattern for it.

Laura & I searched through an entire overstuffed bin of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, and I didn't find one that yelled "buy me", but in a bin next to it, there was some beautiful sock yarn named Jitterbug by Collinette.



I've been wanting to knit the Pomatomus sock pattern for quite some time and I think this yarn will be perfect for it. I'm going to attempt to knit this toe-up and thanks to Judy for emailing me the math instructions for how to calculate heels on making any toe-up sock, I just may make it work!!

Laura purchased some gorgeous laceweight yarn for the cover shawl of Victorian Lace Today as well as a skein of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in a colorway so gorgeous that had she set it down for even a moment, I would've bought it! After shopping we sat outside on the patio of the Corner Bakery swapping stories & sharing yarn projects while she sipped her lemonade & I sipped my iced tea. I know those of you in the thick of winter weather won't appreciate hearing that, but believe me when I say that we due to the cost of living here, I think we actually must be paying for all this nice California weather! It was an absolutely fabulous afternoon & I can't wait to do it again!

Tune in to this blog in the next day or two for some Finished Projects!!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the perfect day! How nice to finally meet someone you feel you have known for a while. I have been lucky enough to meet one of my blogging friends and this upcoming weekend I'll meet many more -at SPA. I can't wait.

Laura said...

I'm glad you liked Velona. Isn't it a fun place?

That bamboo sock yarn is even prettier than I remember. It's going to make fabulous socks.

I see you already have the Colinette balled up and ready to go. It comes in some fabulous colorways. Does this mean you'll be starting your Pomatomus socks soon? I have mine fixed up and ready to go! :-)

P.S. I started the Hidden Violets STR socks. Hope to have photos of those today, too. I'm hoping that once they're knit up the yarn will look a little less like the Lagoon colorway. LOL

Karen said...

What a perfect day!!! How great when a LYS outdoes even your greatest expectations. I love that bamboo yarn - the colors are beautiful. What I wouldn't give to sit outside and sip an iced tea right now. (Okay, technically I could, but it's below freezing so the tea would ice itself!!)

Anonymous said...

What a fun day! And it's always so fun both to meet fellow bloggers and new friends and to find new yarn shops!

Love that bamboo yarn. I haven't tried it yet, but I've seen it knit up and it makes great socks.

And... you're welcome!

flutter said...

What a great day! I'm excited to see you in Spectrum, too

Lain said...

How fun! I love shopping (stash enhancement) stories. The Jitterbug name is awesome... and I have Pomatomus on my list this year, too!
oxooxxo
Lain

Anonymous said...

Oh yummy, this must have been knitters' heaven indeed! Such a great yarn that you got for yourself - I totally love "Regia" yarn and mind you, I'm dying to try this bamboo one myself too someday soon!
Looking forward to seeing your FO's! ;)

Cathy said...

I absolutely love the regia! That is my favorite color and I had never seen it before - a little shopping in my future? lol