Alco-tourism in San Francisco

Actually, we went to San Francisco (probably one of my fave cities ever!) for a wedding. But why not turn it into a little mini-break for us, right? My only regret is not bringing more knits. It was cold! I could have used some more wool!


I really love San Francisco.




A pair of hand-knit socks came in handy on a particularly windy day.








Here's a mini-sampler at Beach Chalet (stout, red, wheat).







We found the Rogue Brewery in town. Surprisingly, the walk to the brewery seemed much longer than the walk home. :)







Our favorite brewery was the Magnolia Pub on Haight, which featured some awesome cask conditioned brews.



Knitting a few rows of my jaywalkers in between sips of my Blue Bell Bitter. (Sadly, since arriving home, these socks have ended up in the frog pond because they fit terribly. I'll use this yarn for another pair of socks.)





Of course, there was yarn to be purchased! Here's a new little buddy I met at Imagiknit. What a fantastic store.




And here's the purchase from Imagiknit. One skein of Malabrigo merinocash for me and one for a friend. Lettuce and Smoke.








And a little souvenir from Bluebird Yarn in Sausalito. Paca-Peds HT from the Alpaca Yarn Co. It's superwash Alpaca Hand-Dyed Sock Yarn with 360 yards of the colorway and 90 yards of a coordinate solid heel/toe color.





And on a food related note... two exciting finds! First, I tried some fresh-caught bay abalone. So cool! (Yes, that's my swallowtail shawl keeping me warm!)








And, a kumquat tree in our cousin's backyard in Sacramento. These beauties came home with me.

why the hiatus?

Oh, yes, and I should explain my posting hiatus. I've been busy... knitting! I know, no excuse not to post. Why didn't I share? Well, in an effort to knit down my stash over the past few months, and with the encouragement of a little friendly competition, I have kept my "nose to the needles," if you will.

The result? 10,914 yards knit into FOs from December 1 - April 30. As Sarah pointed out at Wednesday's meet-up, 6.2 miles of yarn. Wow. Needless to say, I have lots of FOs to share and will try to catch up in some upcoming posts.

With Sheep and Wool coming up tomorrow and my stash pretty much decimated, the timing could not be better. I'm looking forward to some lovely sheep goodies to replenish my knitting basket!

Oh, and before I forget, I dabbled in dyeing and spinning in the month of April, thanks to the generosity of some of my favorite "enablers." To be clear, I understand the general principles of these activities now, but am far from being proficient at either of them. Nonetheless, I have a some souvenirs from my non-knitting fiber adventures.

Here is my first attempt at dyeing. The base is a wool/nylon blend. There was a bit of a mix up with the colors and I used "teal" where I wanted to use "moss." No matter. A little over-dyeing resulted in a brilliant, rich green. The grayish-green color in the skein is called herb green. Although it looks more plain-ole-gray than green next to the rich moss over teal. And the white spots? That's just my error and inexperience, i.e., not knowing how to fully saturate a skein of yarn. The combination reminds me of something industrial... don't know why. Anyway, I dubbed my first colorway "green machine."



Despite my blunders, it's knitting up nicely into a pair of Jaywalkers.



My second dyeing attempt was on a fancier base (Fingering / 4 ply Nylon, Metallic, Silk, Merino). The first round of dyeing this skein was using various concentrations of the color "wedge wood." It was pretty, but in the end looked like a blue version of "green machine." I was going for more of a semi-solid look. So, under Shelby's great advice, I over-dyed the skein with a medium concentration of the color "gunmetal." I named this colorway "gunmetal over wedge wood." Clever, huh? I'm hoping to knit this into a pretty, sparkly shawl.



Finally, my first attempt at spinning. The result is a ridiculous mess, really. Thick and thin and totally un-knitable. But how fun to watch yarn appear before your eyes! I couldn't quite get the hang of a drop spindle, but the spinning wheel was lots of fun. And thank goodness for Elizabeth's patience in teaching me. Boy, were my hands uncoordinated!! At least I got a good laugh out of my clumsiness. I'll have to get some more practice and do some serious research before I invest in a wheel... one day though!

stash for this and that

A few new items of stash to share. All acquired pre the KDAL (12/1/2008), so they don't count as "yards in." Whew! With any luck, these will be my last yarn purchases until MD S&W next year. (Well, there are two exceptions: sock yarn I ordered from WEBS in November that was back ordered and December's stash club yarn.

Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine for a pair of leg warmers. I am hoping the wool/alpaca/nylon structure will provide just the right mix of warmth and structure.

Malabrigo sock yarn in Boticelli Red. Delicious!

Northcott Wilson Artisans LLC Handspun Recycled Silk Yarn (November's stash).

Stitches East

Yesterday, I took the day off to go to Stitches East. The festival is moving to Connecticut next year, so I thought I had to seize the opportunity while this it was local.

Here are some pictures of the fiber goodies.

The only thing missing at Stitches are the animals, alpacas, sheep, etc. The MD Sheep and Wool festival has plenty of animals, which adds to the atmosphere. I did manage to find a sheep puppet at the Malabrigo tent. I think I look a little crazed... I call this look "fiber overload."

"Suecrafty" was tempted by the fun fur, but we managed to talk her down from the ledge. Her little one, sleeping peaceful for almost the entire time and adorned in his knitted goodies, stole the show. The knitting ladies were cooing over him everywhere we turned!

So, what did I buy?? Here are the latest additions to my stash!

Hand-dyed yarn from the Serendipitous Ewe


Shalimar Yarns Honey Worsted

Queensland Collection Kathmandu DK (dumpster diving at Woolstock! 1/2 off!)

Valley Yarns Huntington (This one is for a stranded mitt KAL scheduled for the new year. WEBS had a great mitt knit up in this stuff! And, I figured I’d try a less expensive yarn for my first stranded project… I’m thinking I’m not going to be a very good “strander”.)

All that shopping and beautifully arranged yarn inspired me to organized my stash. I decided to put in an empty under the bed storage container. This is much better than the large plastic tub I used to have my stash in because now the skeins/balls are only 1 or 2 layers deep. Before I would have to dig for what I was looking for, creating a mess in the mean time. Not everything fit in the under the bed storage contain, so some of my worsted weight leftover ended up in a shoe box.