Fiber Dreams

I met Kristie at Velona—a local yarn store—yesterday afternoon. I don’t want you to get the wrong impression from this photo I found on their web site. The store is much more full than that; there’s nowhere near that much empty floor space anywhere in the store. Not any more, anyway. Kristie was looking for sock yarn, and I primarily wanted to get some lace weight yarn for a shawl… and some sock yarn if there was enough left of my store credit. I have to say that we were both quite successful. Kristie got some beautiful Colinette sock yarn, and some fun Regia with a good quantity of bamboo fiber in it.

And I got my shawl yarn.

I was originally just going to get the three balls of it that the pattern calls for, but between that and the sock yarn my credit wasn’t quite used up. So I got a fourth ball of the Kidsilk Haze. In black. A color Rowan calls Wicked. I’d rather have a little extra than run out, so this worked out well.

You wouldn’t believe how dense a black this yarn is. I think it actually looks darker out in the sun, if that’s possible. It’s truly amazing. I’m unreasonably excited to have it, and now can’t wait to finish the afghan so I can start my shawl.

And yes, well, it’s that lovely silk/mohair blend. It has a slight sheen to it from the silk, and it’s amazingly fluffy. And fine. Oh my goodness, is it ever fine. It’s going to make a gorgeous shawl. Hopefully I won’t mess it up!

Kristie and I dug quite happily through a seeming mountain of sock yarn. I think I told you about the two flavors she chose. I’ll let her show them to you on her blog. They’re both quite wonderful. I haven’t had a chance to try out Cherry Tree Hill’s Supersock yarn yet, so I got a hank of that. It’s a beautiful combination of muted blues and greens; looks like colors of the sea. I love it. And it’s nice and soft—superwash merino. Yum.

After we left the yarn shop we wandered around the corner to a little bistro, got something to drink, then sat outside for a while. I showed her the afghan, my new STR Nodding Violet yarn, and a couple finished (and nearly finished) socks. She showed me a wonderful pair of burgundy socks in process, and her gorgeous finished black socks, as well as a pair of green ones. She knit both of those pairs out of Knit Picks Gloss. They’re dreamy. If anything, they’re more gorgeous in person than on her blog.

We had a marvelous time. It was so fun being able to chat with someone who’s up on all the “latest” knitting blogs, online shops, and such. The middle of last year I met a group of knitters down in Irvine, and not a one of them knew who the Yarn Harlot or Grumperina was, much less had heard of Knit Picks, or Knitty, or what Pomatomus socks were, or any of the rest of it. Frustrating. But Kristie was familiar with it all! So much more fun. We made some tentative plans to get together next month. She’s promised to bring along her purchases from Stitches West, and I’m going to hold her to it.

When I got home it was to a very nice surprise. A friend of mine from my stitching board, Robin (who is blog-less), told me a week or two ago that she was interested in test knitting my Pinwheel pattern. Yea, Robin! So, I sent it to her. As a completely unnecessary thank you gift for the pattern, Robin perused my blog, saw that I was enamored of some row markers I’d seen at Beadmarkers, and she bought me some in a lovely blue glass with coppery flecks, because she also noticed that I seem to really like blue! Robin, girlfriend, you really didn’t have to do that, you know. Darling woman. Thank you. I love them!

Also in the mail was the spring issue of Interweave Knits. Finally! I glanced through it last night. There are a number of things in there that bear closer inspection, including Grumperina’s socks she designed for her grandmother.

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