Comments (0) Wow, 800+ photos takes a lot longer to sift through than I originally thought. Of course, taking another international trip and coming down with yet another wicked cold didn’t help either. So without further ado, here are 40 of my favorites…
Well, I made it home in one piece, but the nice little cold I picked up just before leaving Shanghai has rendered me rather useless for the past week. I’m finally feeling better, but until I sort through the 800+ photos I managed to take this trip, one of my initial favorites will have to do…
Stunning. Simply stunning.
I’m off to China again in the morning for almost three weeks. I’m not sure what my blogging capabilities will be while there, but I promise to post lots of pretty pictures when I get back!
And for those of you curious knitterly types, I’m bringing yarn for two pairs of socks (it is Socktober, after all) – my Gothsocks in Little Mermaid to try out some Hat-Heel Socks and some squooshy Jitterbug for a pair of Orion’s Socks.
See you in a few weeks!
The Madre and I flew in to Portland Tuesday night from SF so we could spend all day Wednesday before Sock Summit exploring. What a great city! We hit Voodoo Donuts (of course), Chinatown, Washington Park, Portland’s Rose Garden and had a FABULOUS dinner. Check it out! (Warning: excessive number of rose photos included)
Then…oh then…was Sock Summit.
How do you describe such an awesome experience? I’m still not sure I can. I made great new friends, learned so much, met amazing people and to top it all off, I got to share it all with The Madre. Here are a few of my favorite pics.
I’m sure you’ve noticed that I have no pictures of the Marketplace or of any purchases. Well, that would be because (1) I was too busy buying things to take any pictures of the awesome Marketplace and (2) I bought so much stuff that I had to have it shipped all home and it should be here on Monday. Stay tuned…
I had an absolutely wonderful week last week. It started last Saturday when I flew out West and met up with The Madre for her first ever trip to San Francisco. Here’s an abbreviated slide show of our first few days on the West Coast including fun in San Fran, Monterey Bay Aquarium and Muir Woods.
After three lovely days in the Bay area, we journeyed north to Portland for a FANTABULOUS time at Sock Summit! Stay tuned for What a Week Part II coming soon (once I sort through the next few hundred photos….)
Rhymeswithfun and I had a great night last night. We started off our evening with a delicious dinner at Snap! They have the cutest lights and quite tasty pizza.
Afterward, we headed up the street to Crafty Planet for our first night of Fair Isle class. We had the choice of leg warmers or a hat. Both of us decided to go the hat route and to design our own patterns. Here’s what I have so far:
I’m really glad I forced myself to learn how to knit continental last year since that makes knitting with yarn in both hands sooo much easier. Now to just get that whole “tension” thing under control…
I was so close to finishing my second pair of fingerless gloves tonight, but alas, no such luck. I still have to finish the last thumb and weave in my ends. So close!
I probably could have finished earlier if I hadn’t taken time out this afternoon to bust out the sewing machine and whip up a much needed knitting needle case.
It’s already quickly filling up with all the stray needles strewn about this place. (These are just the ones I’ve found in my living room so far!) I’m going to try to fit all my DPNs in this one and possibly make a second for my straights and circulars. I’ll get these needles organized yet!
While we were back east visiting our families for the holidays, we managed to squeak in trips to several fantastic yarn stores. And by ‘several’, I mean six…with three other attempts that were thwarted by Closed for the Holidays signs. Obsessed much? I would say yes.
Our first stop was Canada to visit…wait for it…The Canadian’s family & friends. On our second day there we drove up to Toronto and managed to snag some time in the afternoon between friend visiting to stop at Lettuce Knit.
This is a fantastic little store, stocked full of knitting goodness. The woman working there was very nice and I really felt for her – she was trying to help a guy buy “knitting stuff” for his mom who had been knitting for 30+ years and wanted to know what to buy her. (This scenario caused a few JoAnn Fabrics flashbacks from when I worked there in high school. People came in all the time with questions like, “My wife sent me in to buy green fabric. Where’s your green fabric?” with no idea what fiber type, width, end purpose, etc. Good times.)
Anyway, Lettuce Knit is commonly frequented by my favorite Yarn Harlot so I knew I had to buy some sock yarn to commemorate the occasion. So I poked through many a shelf, oohed and ahhed over yarn I instantly loved but knew would never knit, and finally stumbled upon a big basket of beautiful Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock yarn. And of all the colorways, which did I happen to fall in love with? Lettuce Knit. Perfect.
Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock - Lightweight, Colorway Lettuce Knit
Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock - Lightweight, Colorway Lettuce Knit
There was a ton of snow in Toronto that day so traffic was a nightmare. We ran out of time before our dinner date with more friends so we were only able to drive by Romni Wools. Next time, my friend, next time.
A few days later we found ourselves back in the Niagara Region with The Canadian’s fam and decided to continue the hunt for the ever elusive yarn ball winder that I had put on my Christmas list. The Canadian had looked at home before we left but to no avail, Lettuce Knit had just sold their last one earlier in the day that we visited and Kismet Wool Shop was already closed for the holidays. We called around a few places and stumbled upon an awesome find that would hold a winder for us to pick up – Rose’s Fine Yarns.
Unfortunately it was raining pretty hard so we chose “less wet” over taking a photo, but let me tell you, I am totally in love with this store. Rose’s is set up in a series of cute little rooms next to a fantastic florist, packed with beautiful yarns of cotton, wool, alpaca, cashmere, bison, you name it. I loved it all, but did manage to show some restraint and only went home with three:
Ancient Threads TRI, dyed with lac, cochineal, logwood purple, logwood grey, osage orange
Estelle Arequipa
Estelle Woolly Bully
All in all, a fantastic trip to The Great White North made even more fantastic by finding new favorite yarn stores. Hooray for Canada!
No trip would be complete without a visit to a yarn store. When I mentioned this to my friend Kevin who lives in Shanghai, he immediately came up with a list of stores to check out. Unfortunately, our busy work schedules only left us enough time to visit one, but that just means more to visit next time, right?
Beauty Wool is a cute little shop in the Hongqiao area near Ziyun Xi Lu. (If you can read Chinese, you can check out their website here.) There’s a big table in the middle of the shop, and I was happy to see it surrounded by women happily knitting which always a good sign! I had a group of co-workers with me so I didn’t browse as long as I would have liked, but my quick walk through was enough to know I could do some serious damage there if I was given the opportunity. With that said, I of course ended up buying more stash yarn that I didn’t necessarily need, but sure is pretty!
Mondial Creo, Color 572 – a future scarf?
I was really hoping to find some unique Chinese yarn (maybe some silk?), but the majority of their stock was Italian and who can really complain about Italian yarn? So yes, I bought Italian yarn in China. And I’m totally okay with that.
Ornaghi Merino Kind, Color 303 – pair #2 of socks?
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