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By Melissa, March 2, 2010 10:25 pm

Sunday afternoon, a few hours before the closing ceremonies, I finished my Skewed Socks earning a Gold medal in the 2010 Knitting Olympics!

Continue reading 'Gold!!'»

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By Melissa, January 1, 2010 11:17 pm

What.  A.  Year.

Continue reading '2009'»

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By Melissa, September 27, 2009 12:08 pm

I was finally home during daylight hours today to have The Canadian snap some photos of my finished Vivian…

Continue reading 'Introducing Vivian…'»

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By Melissa, April 9, 2009 6:46 pm

This past weekend I found myself rather south of the Twin Cities and jumped at the chance to check out The Yarn Garage.  What a fantastic store!!

It took everything I had not to buy everything in sight.  The Canadian was a great sport and didn’t even say anything when I walked out with 5 new skeins for no reason other than I HAD TO HAVE THEM.

Can you blame me?

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By Melissa, February 17, 2009 9:57 pm

Well, that took long enough.

Four months later, I finally have a pair.  And you really don’t know how close I was to forever only having one. Because of course, when it takes so long to knit a Second Sock, one is bound to lose the First Sock.  Trust me, The Canadian and I scoured three rooms tonight looking for the First Sock to prove that I actually did finish two.

All in all, I’m quite content with these guys and they’ve taught me a lot – including knitting continental with the smallest needles I’ve ever used yet.  I also learned that knitting with finer yarn on a bumpy bus does crazy things to stitch tension.  But that’s what blocking is for, right?

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By Melissa, February 15, 2009 10:44 pm

A few weeks ago at the American Swedish Institute, the Radiant Knits: The Bohus Tradition exhibit opened.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to go to any of the opening weekend events, but I did still want to see the exhibit before it ended in March.  The Canadian and I went yesterday and it was fantastic.  Unfortunately, they don’t allow any photography in the building, but here’s a picture from the ASI website.

Photo credit: Susanna Hansson

If you are in the area and get the chance to go, I highly recommend it!

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By Melissa, February 2, 2009 9:31 pm

Last summer I made some felt beads that were instantly declared (much to my dismay) as instant Kitty Favorites.  Despite my efforts to hide them away until I could do something with them, they were always discovered and started showing up everywhere around the house.  The Canadian decided they looked like little pieces of sushi.  I gave up.

Today one mysteriously found it’s way into the water bowl.

The aftermath wasn’t pretty.

Good thing they still have 10 more hidden around here to keep them busy.

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By Melissa, January 19, 2009 9:57 pm

I’m thinking of sewing up a carrying/storage case for my DPNs that are scattered randomly around the house in odd places.  (The Canadian has sat on his fair share stuck in the couch cushions – ouch!)  I dug through my fabric stash and have narrowed it down to these two choices:  a traditional Japanese floral or Alexander Henry’s Cutting A Rug.  Which would you choose?

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By Melissa, January 11, 2009 3:55 pm

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!