Back to our regularly scheduled programming

Now that you know how much I love yarn (blush)... we'll get back to the reason I love yarn.  I am totally over the moon for knitting. And this being the point of the blog I'll get back to my projects as of late.

Know what else I love? stash busting! (using up the little leftover bits from a project OR using random yarn that was bought without a project in mind and has been there for.ever.) Hopefully if you're a knitter you know what I mean, and if you're not... well, just look at the pretty pictures.

Awhile back I had a chance to be a tester for a new pattern. It is the Every Season Sweater and I wanted to knit it for my favorite girlie. (Tester? yeah. I had to explain it to a lot of people who thought maybe the bonus would be that the designer sent me the yarn - no. The bonus is you get paid?- no. The bonus is that I get the pattern for free! For us knitters sometimes it's the little things.) Anyway. I had just received the perfect yarn and got to work. Although I wasn't a huge fan of all the flat knitting I loved the finished product!

I loved the cute detail of the cuffs and the perfect clasp for holding it on my busy (now 5 year old) little girl. The yarn is a delicious single ply (so soft) kettle dyed (no pooling) springy merino. YUM!

She just wanted it to be pink.

After a year of the leftovers sitting around I made this little Kenna Button Top and matching bloomers for a new little babe joining our church small group. Using the colorway as the trim gave this baby pink ensemble just enough color. (in my opinion anyway) The buttons are made by the incredible Tessa Ann.

Surely this much pink and pastel can bring about spring, right? Here's hopin'.

I know you wanna know how the Knitting Divas day out went...

I'm just gonna tell it. What a glorious day! of! yarn! ...Actually I should back up just a titch. Before the actual day came there was a torrent of email between the four of us regarding time and scheduling and driving and maps and many, many exclamation points. We were Excited! Capital. E.

This is my we.
(and if anyone knows how to make blogger let me line these pictures up without overlapping or jumping all to one side... I will take that help. GRR.)

The day dawned cool and a little gray. Not too hot. Not too cold and no blinding sun for the driver (who's name is also Tricia - watch out, it might get confusing!) Anyway, my best yarny girls ( Sonja-navigator, Tricia-driver, Danyelle-general encouragement) and I set out planning to stop at 7 yarn stores in 1 day. At each shop we had food items to drop off, punch cards to punch, drawings to enter, free patterns to pick up and of course, yarn to snuggle. Amazingly each store had it's own appeal and we had tons of fun checking them out. I'll save you from the novel I could write about each and only focus on two of the bestest ones.

StevenBe's Wow . Just wow. This one is in South Minneapolis and felt like NONE of the other shops we went to all day.

It. was. Crazy.

It's a former fire station now owned by the self proclaimed "Glitter Knitter" Steven Berg. Floor to ceiling color and fiber, friendly helpful employees and constant "announcements" made to the room by Steven himself. I had to buy a Vogue Knitting with his full page ad in it just so he would sign it and have his picture taken with me!

If you look closely you can see the blue hair and that the Magazine I'm holding is the one he signed on his ad. I'm just sorry we missed our chance at a photo when he had on 3 separate cowls!

The awesome StevenBe's Firehouse turned Yarn Garage!

The "Yarn Shop of the Day" award goes to Lila and Claudines in Mahtomedi. There were many reasons that we loved it SO so much. Where StevenBe's was entertaining and loud, Lila and Claudines was tranquil and cozy...

1. We ALL bought yarn. This says something. Whilst we all L.O.V.E. yarn, we also tend to be a little thrifty, which doesn't always fit well with fancy yarn shopping. This leads to #2

 2. Bargain bin finds! Danyelle went home with two delicious skeins of angora/merino/yum in pink and brown for only $5 each! (originally marked at $16.50) Her newest bundle is going to have the softest Kenna button top EVER. 

3. SO MUCH YARN. 'nuf said.

4. All around adorableness. Many yarn shops are adorable but this one greeted us with giant knitting needles and yarn. Hello winner!

5. Super sweet helpful women of yarn behind the counter. It's always a bit of a question whether this yarn is right for this project. And always a pleasure to have someone else to help find those answers. (also especially cool but not really related to the awesomeness of the shop was the bumping into of a pattern writer whose pattern we were matching yarn to -talk about HELPFUL and SERENDIPITOUS!)

Thus far there is no prize beyond the four of us knowing this shop made us the most happy during Yarn Quest 2011. Perhaps I will frame and send them this picture of our joy. I bet they would LOVE that.

All in all it was a GREAT day. We were unbelievably dorky about our yarn. BUT how lucky am I to have 3 friends to be that dorky with? Supa. Lucky.  We're totally cute too *wink wink*

This one is outside of the Yarnery in St. Paul. Even the woman who took the picture for us couldn't stop telling us how cute we are! Who wouldn't look cute perched on the steps of a cute little house-turned-yarn-shop full of yarn!?  It's just smart to take a picture there. 

Next time we're inviting more yarny friends to this day of awesomeness. And probably we'll need a bus. Woot!

It's Official

Well, it's happened. I've gone off the deep end. Totally lost it. Life as I knew it is truly over. I'm trying to accept my new, recent , long time coming reality. I'm a yarn snob. A yarnie, a fiber junkie, a total geek. On some level I think I knew it was happening, but now I know it's r-e-a-l, REAL.

This weekend is the 5th Annual (Mpls area) yarn hop. I know you're thinking, what's a yarn hop? No, I'm not planning to get any exercise by jumping around on one foot holding piles of yarn - it's not really that heavy anyway. It's a yarn shop hop. So we (that's right, I'm influencing some of my dearest friends as well, it feels better to share this problem) are planning to spend some precious Saturday time away from our families touring Minnesota's best yarn shops. Shops like "Darn Knit Anyway" and "StevenBe" filled with... yarn. All kinds and colors, solids and colorways. And patterns. And knitting needles, even fancy wooden ones that are painted so you feel fancy when you knit with them (I'd imagine, this is not a drug of choice for me ... yet). And more fiber junkies- who won't be any sort of good influence. Plus we're all going to be filling "stamp cards" and entering contests. There are "charms" to be collected and door prizes to be won. All in the name of yarn. Glorious!

Here is how I know I have truly arrived into yarn geekdom. It's the fifth annual yarn shop hop.  That means they've done this before.  For the last five years while I've been knitting away on my perfectly decent, less expensive, easily accessible JoAnn/Micheals yarns I've taken the occasional trip to a fancy yarn shop. I've heard(multiple times) of there being a yarn hop and all the craziness of a weekend of looking at yarn and immediately dismissed(multiple times) the idea as crazy. Who would do that?. I can think of so many better things than a day of yarn.

and now I think it's awesome. Do you, like me, think there might be some sort of additive in my yarn that s-l-o-w-l-y seeps into your skin as you knit (a twisted sort of osmosis) which creates in my brain a barrier against all new ideas that don't revolve around perfect patterns matched with perfect yarns? Or which possibly causes visions and begins lists of friends (neighbors, acquaintances... friends of acquaintances... whoever) who are desperately in NEED of the aforementioned perfect projects. Oy.

Here are my carefully planned excuses reasons for this being a good way to spend a Saturday.
 1. My girlfirends: my bestest buds are coming along, and excited about it, and we'll get to chat all day long
 2. Food shelves: all the yarn shops are collecting food for local food shelves. Yay!
 3. It's a Quest and adventures are good for the soul. (this is truth - it's called  Yarn Quest 2011 - a Fiber Journey. Wow, right?
 4. If  I/we make it to all 9 shops this weekend, one of us could win the $2,000 Grand PRIZE... of yarn and knitting stuff. (HOLY COW. I read a list of SOME of those items and it would be so. much. fun.)
 5. I think someone somewhere is having a baby and needs a new sweater - babies need to be kept warm. 
 6. um... I need more yarn?

So it's official I've gone off the deep end(it's fine, I can swim), BUT I'm taking my friends with me(safety in numbers), AND we are totally OK with it(quite pleased with ourselves actually- we're getting to be really good knitters). 

Guess How Much I love You...

My most recent finished project is an adorable little pair of cargo shorties. I happen to think the combination of colors is absolutely perfect for a miniature person. Soft colors, but not too pastel, with just enough brown and natural to keep it from being too baby-ish. *sigh*  I might also happen to have a problem with over-thinking the gorgeous-ness of  yarn... maybe.
(It's ok to skim when I slip into yarn-love-mode)

The colorway, (by Family Roots ) is called This is How Much I Love you. If you or your little ones loved that book and read it 87,987,234 times it makes it that.much.better.

Last summer I made a bigger version of the same colorway. Subtle differences but they are mighty similar.

and someday I would  LOVE to try the girly version with pink - here is a picture of the yarn. It's bitty girly yarny perfection, no?