sweetgeorgia

Stashful in Seattle

Ok, so you want to know what I bought in Seattle. Mainly, I tried to find things that I couldn’t get back home. I wanted to see if I could pick up a copy of the new Rebecca 29 — no luck. I also wanted to buy the GGH Soft Kid for the Rebecca 29 cardi — no luck. Also interesting, not a single store I visited carried even a hint of Phildar although every store carried Debbie Bliss and Jaeger. It was ironic that a store named “So Much Yarn” didn’t carry Rowan at all. But stuff like Classic Elite yarns, including La Gran Mohair, very common in all these shops is basically non-existent in Vancouver.

So here’s what I picked up:

Unfortunately, I just looked (read the label, silly) and discovered that this yarn is hand wash only…but it’s beautifully soft and I’m going to make another baby bonnet for another friend’s new girl.

Why we don’t get Lorna’s Laces in Canada, I just don’t understand. It comes in gorgeous colourways, but here are the ones I picked up: Cranberry and Yellowstone. I had to really resist the urge to buy more lavendar coloured sock yarn.

Mmmmm! Zephyr is a blend of merino wool and Tussah silk — I’ll be making the Paisley Shawl from the Spring 2005 IK magazine with this. $15 of happiness.

I know, I know, more Kidsilk Haze? When I haven’t even attempted to knit up the other 9 balls I have? Oh, but I love this colour and couldn’t help myself. It was there next to the fully finished Karis…how could I say ‘no’?

Ok, this is what I bought to substitute for the GGH Kid Soft — kind of a dusty, muted lavendar. I don’t know if I love it so we’ll see. Maybe I’ll order some GGH Kid Soft from Rikes and be done with it.

Ahh…all in all, not a ton of yarn, but stuff I will really enjoy. Now, I will do my best not to buy any more yarn until we go to Japan!

Saturday in Seattle

Seattle’s really not that far away. But it’s far enough away that you feel like you are getting away from it all. Good thing, considering I’m exhausted from work and needing a change of scenery. I haven’t stopped in Seattle for a few years now, and this time I noticed how vibrant the city is — and clean. I love Vancouver for it’s fresh and smoke-free environment, and that’s exactly what you get in Seattle, except with better shopping.

The DH’s goal for the day was to visit the public market. My goal for the day was to squeeze in several yarn store visits (I had five shops on my list). So the first stop was the Acorn Street Yarn shop in the University area of Seattle.

Acorn Street Yarn is an adorable little corner shop that is perfectly well-stocked with Lorna’s Laces, Debbie Bliss, a little Rowan, Takhi Cotton Classic… and very friendly staff — I got to see the difference between wormed and felted chenille (Muench Touch Me) and a sample of the Japanese Short Row technique for shoulder shaping (must learn this!).

Only a few blocks away, we drove over to Weaving Works — awesome shop packed with SO much yarn! There were all your regular commercial yarns, plus coned yarns, and rovings that you could dye and spin yourself. Some new (to me) stuff included Soy Silk, made from the waste of tofu manufacturing! So shiny and soft! Amazing.

I was a little disappointed that Weaving Works had a really lame selection of GGH Soft Kid (which I was looking to buy to knit the Rebecca cardi). But, they did have a wall full of gorgeous Koigu KPPPM…

Off to lunch, we tried Dahlia Bakery but there weren’t any tables inside and the DH didn’t want to sit outside the bakery… But we did go back after lunch to pick up Pain au Chocolat with Pistachios, Oatmeal Apricot cookies, and Chocolate Truffle cookies — so so good. For lunch, we just walked across the street to Lola, the restaurant also owned by the same group that owns Dahlia. The DH had Lola’s Lamb Burger with chickpea fries (!) and I had the goat cheese omlette and smoked pork loin. It was enough food to feed six people:

After lunch, we walked to So Much Yarn — only six blocks away. This is the only shop where I didn’t buy anything — not a whole lot of selection (had basically similar stock as Weaving Works but priced everything at least a dollar more per ball!) and the staff were kind of blabbering incessantly to their customers, it was getting irritating. So much for that…

But I did get to see Fiesta La Luz (100% silk!!!) — amazing sheen and softness, but $27.50 per skein!?!? I did also see a sample of the Adrienne Vittadini Martina sweater knit up and decided that I don’t like that Martina yarn at all — it pills! and costs $16 per ball! At least I know that I’m going to substitute the yarn for something else (Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Aran or Karabella Aurora 8).

Finally, we were off to the Pike Place Market so that the DH could watch the fish guys throw merchandise around. I was more interested in the mountain of Manila clams and the beautiful pile of Saba that they had on display:

There was a brief stop at the cheesemakers, Beecher’s Handmade Cheese:

Our final stop, the absolutely fabulous Hilltop Yarn & Needlepoint shop. Next time I come to Seattle, this is the only place I need to visit:

Hilltop Yarn is located in a charming neighbourhood (kind of like Kerrisdale or Dundarave) in a restored Craftsman mansion — even the kitchen sink is full of yarn (R2, mind you). When you enter, there’s a little corner full of cotton yarns including Jaeger Siena and Takhi Cotton Classic. On the left, the cashiers are set up next to all the Addi needles, sorted in cute dresser drawers. Everything is labelled beautifully and clearly with gauge, fibre content. It’s easy to find and compare yarns because similar weights (DK, Worsted, etc.) and fibres (silk, wool, mohair, cotton, etc.) are grouped together. I saw a pretty good substitute for La Luz, it’s a bamboo yarn from Alchemy Yarns of Transformation and costs $29.50 per skein but is so vibrant! Surprisingly soft (and expensive) for bamboo…

And to top it all off, there’s an entire room devoted to Rowan yarns…that would be the kitchen. I got to see first-hand a beautifully made ‘Karis’ poncho in Dewberry Kidsilk Haze (so of course, I had to buy more KSH), the new Beach Cool and Cotton Rope from Rowan, and Karabella Aurora 8 (which many consider their backup, use for anything, merino). Hilltop also offers their own designs and kits which are quite nice — but except for Karis, I’m really not into knitting a giant poncho made out of Rowan Polar.

Ah, so five hours of driving through the fog (2.5 hours each way) was worth it… came home stocked up with yarn and explored some new neighbourhoods. Must do this more often! Next time, I’ll also visit the shop in Shoreline, Village Yarn and Tea…

Lacy Baby Bonnet

After deciding to keep the blanket, I figured I had to knit something else for the baby shower. So I picked the Lacy Bonnet project from the “Knitting for Two” book and knit it up in one evening:

The pattern calls for Rowan Wool Cotton — a nice DK weight yarn, super soft and pretty. But you know the Murphy’s Law of yarn buying: you can never find the yarn that you are looking for, and if you do happen to find it, it’s always the wrong colour. So yes, apparently in all of the Lower Mainland, there are six balls of Rowan Wool Cotton and they are all pink. Instead, I used a single ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in a buttery yellow. It’s a little thicker than Wool Cotton, but it makes for a less flimsy bonnet, I think.

Now I’m wondering, should I add the big satin bow that the pattern specifies? Or maybe just go with an i-cord? The i-cord is likely more practical, eh? Here’s the original photo from Erika Knight’s book:

Now! To make matching booties…

Knitting all over Japan

We are headed off to Japan in April to visit my grandparents, and started thinking about what I wanted to visit. Outside of the temples, museums, parks, and cherry blossom viewings, I’d like to go visit a few Japanese yarn shops — can anybody recommend a few? We’ll definitely be in Tokyo for much of the trip and then later Narita. Other stops might include Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Nikko…

Selfish or Practical.

Whatever Margene’s got, it’s going around.

Yes, I know I said, just yesterday, that I was going to knit this lovely baby blanket for the shower. See lovely baby blanket photo below:

But after an hour of knitting, I ended up with just over one inch of beautiful yellow cashmerino blanket. Since the blanket is supposed to be at least 30 inches long, I need a “spare” 29 hours between today and next Saturday to finish it.

That’s the practical end of it — I just won’t have enough time to finish, so I’m off for another yarn expedition. This time to buy a tiny bit of yarn to make a tiny hat and booties. So impractical for a new mom, but hey this is a girly shower, right?

The selfish side of it is that I really, really, really love this colour, this yarn, this blanket and so… I want to keep it.

In other selfish yarn stashing, Elann released new stock of their Peruvian Collection Baby Silk this morning. “Baby Silk” is an alpaca/silk blend and is (yay) 4-ply and so I stocked up on 14 and 15 balls of their seashell pink and raspberry colours for two Jaeger sweaters.