- Dragonscale Shawl
- Leydon Mitts in Swish DK Dove Heather
- Some super secret birthday presents!!!
Currently ZzzZzz....
- Celestarium
- Lonely Tree Shawl
- One Skein Lace Shawl
I've spent the last week just recovering from Great Trails and a minor cold. The remnants of Trail are scattered about my living room and dining room. Chests, beds, benches, baskets.... And the room we have to store it all in currently has a leaky pipe! So, scattered about my house, they shall remain. Thankfully, I don't do much in the way of entertaining, so no one but my family is subject to my messy house!
I took a few pictures from Great Trails to give people a glimpse into what exactly it is that we do year after year.
This is our set-up. We use a wall tent with a fly. Think of the tent as our bedroom and the area under the fly as our kitchen/living room.
We don't have a lot in the way of furniture yet. We're just starting out with our own set up. We don't even technically own the tent!
The benches you see here are my aunt and uncle's old ones. They graciously gifted them to us. The table and chairs are my grandparents'. They're also the ones who have an addiction to canvas and the reason why we're not just sleeping on a blanket under their fly.
One of our lanterns. Specifically, the one I received last year as a birthday present. John's is a lighter colored wood.
I have quite a few family members that participate in rendezvous, my great uncle being one of them. He used to craft these lanterns himself, but retired last year. We have two of the last ones he made.
Our bed and some of our storage chests and baskets.
The other half of the tent.
This is my collection of pottery from the wonderful Catherine Kendrick. She is as beautiful and kind as her wares. If you get the chance, you should really see her works in person!
John in his frontiersman attire.
Me in mine! I'm actually wearing a snood here that I crocheted myself.
Because who doesn't love an adorable picture of us?
Enough with the camping stuff! This is supposed to be a knitting and crafting blog, right?
Currently, there is an event taking place in Northeast Ohio called the Yarn Discovery Tour. A collection of 21 different yarn shops are participating this year. Crafters can purchase a passport for $5 from any of the stores. Then, the goal is to try and stop into as many shops as possible. When you make a purchase of $10 or more in any of the shops, you get your passport stamped and are entered into that store's prize drawing. For every 5 shops you visit, you get entered into higher level grand prize raffles. Every shop also has a free pattern that you receive when you make your purchase.
Over the weekend, I managed to make it to 3 different shops. And let's just say that I spent more than the minimum amount. But, be proud of me, my fellow knitters, crocheters, and yarn addicts: I only purchased 2 skeins for the stash. Everything else already has a project assigned to it!
On to the pictures!
Here you see everything fits nicely into the tote bag that I received with my passport for being one of the first 700 to register. I also got that nifty little tape measure in the middle right of the picture.
The patterns that I got are all for knitting. Only one shop had offered a crocheted one, which disappoints me.
The patterns are cabled mitts, a beaded cowl (not pictured), and a very cool reversible shawl that has a cabled lace edging.
My first stop was to Bare Naked Wools in Canton. Tucked away on a side street, BNW is a new-ish shop opened by the incredible designer, Anne Hanson.
I picked up this lovely hank of heathered grey yarn. It's their Better Breakfast Fingering in color Warm Coals. It's 450 yards of a merino and alpaca blend, with a touch of nylon for the extra stretchiness you need for socks. Very soft, too!
The next stop was My Sister's Yarn Shop in Green. I'm going to be completely honest here, it's not my favorite place. She has a nice selection and a great discounted area, but I've never found the place to be comfortable. I couldn't see myself wanting to sit there and knit for hours, like I do at other places. But that could just be me! Check it out for yourself and make your own decisions.
I just grabbed a couple of skeins of Berroco Vintage in Caramel. I need a honey colored heathered yarn for a special project. I'm breaking the rules of knitting, though. The pattern calls for fingering weight held double, and this is a worsted weight. The pattern is simple enough to change, though, so I'm not overly intimidated.
Our final stop was to my favorite place in the world, Harps and Thistles in Cuyahoga Falls. This is my perfect yarn shop! The only downside is that it's a 50 minute drive to get there. But it's well worth the trip! The owner and her daughter are absolutely lovely people and very knowledgeable. And if you have impatient family members, Harps and Thistles is located along a street lined with other shops that they can go peruse. Including a popcorn store! Guess where John and Alex were?
The first thing I grabbed was a ball of Universal Yarn's Deluxe Worsted Superwash in Charcoal Heather. Very soft and with many lovely colors, it's a good workhorse yarn. This particular ball will be used for a special Christmas project.
The dark blue you see is Malabrigo Silky Merino in Mares. I have 3 hanks of this already at home for a shawl, but I like having extra in case I want to make the shawl a little bigger. The silky merino is my new favorite to work with! My dragonscale shawl is made with the same yarn, just in a different color.
The two lighter blues are more skeins of Berroco Vintage, this time in Aquae. Alex actually picked this yarn out. She wants me to make her a new hat for this winter. And of course she wants a Splatoon pattern.
This yarn. Oh, this yarn! This is Dragonfly Fibers Pixie in Starry Night. It was love at first sight!
Sarah, the owner, Cindy's, daughter, recommended this one to me. They had just gotten it in. For those of you who don't know, I'm a total hipster and I adore Van Gogh. And, of course, Starry Night is one of my favorites. I don't think I can accurately capture just how incredible the dye job on this yarn is. I highly recommend checking it out for yourself!
As for the hank itself, Pixie is a superwash Merino yarn coming in at 475 yards. It's not the softest Merino I've ever felt, but it's still quite nice. I'm already making plans for this skein, let me tell you, even though it was purchased as stash yarn.
I'm still hoping to hit 2 more shops before the official end of the Tour on the 26th. I'm hoping my wallet can handle it.
~*~
I didn't actually get a lot of knitting done last week, between the cold and working on some other non-yarn related projects. But here are a couple of WIP pictures to make up for that.
This is the One Skein Lace Shawl I'm crocheting for my grandmother. It's currently hibernating until I can get some other more time sensitive projects out of the way. If it's done by Christmas, I'll be happy.
My Dragonscale Shawl. I have no idea how many repeats I've done so far, but I'm on ball number 2 of my silky merino. This is my personal stress relief project for when I need a break from the time sensitive stuff.
My lovely Celestarium! I need to order some longer cables before I can go much farther with this one. It is coming along beautifully, but I discovered this yarn has a dark secret! The dye bleeds! So, when I get the whole thing done, I'm going to have to set the dye and hope that none of my beads shatter from the heat! I'm already terrified!
Well, I suppose it's back to the needles so I can get some more birthday presents done! I'm surprisingly ahead on some of them! Don't worry, my dear reader, that won't last very long.
Until next week, happy yarning!
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