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By Melissa, January 22, 2009 10:00 pm

My new yarn swift showed up today so I went digging for some skeins to wind.  And look at this beauty I found in the bottom of the stash!

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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!

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By Melissa, November 15, 2008 5:05 pm

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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By Melissa, October 25, 2008 2:21 pm

I have a 14 hour flight to Shanghai on Tuesday and I’m already feeling antsy.  I’m not a nervous flier; I just don’t enjoy being confined to one small space for so long.  There are only so many movies and interrupted naps I can take before I start going a little stir crazy.  I was in desperate need of a project.  Something to distract me from everything, including being away from The Canadian and kitties for so long.  And then it hit me.

I needed a sock.

I’ve been a fan of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee for a few years now, ever since The Madre gave me her book Yarn Harlot for my birthday a few years back.  Her blog is one of my favorite reads and I always love how she takes pictures of her knitting wherever she travels.  Lately, she’s been traveling for her latest book tour and I think it’s so cool how people bring their First Socks for her to see.  She even has a Basic Sock Recipe that is loved by many on Ravelry.

I want a First Sock.

And what better time to teach yourself how to knit a sock than on a 14 hour plane ride?  After a bit of explanation, The Canadian finally agreed that this was a good plan and must be executed immediately.  Actually, I think he just gave up a long time ago on reasoning with me when I say I need new yarn.  So off to our local yarn shop we went.

Meet Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock Yarn Fingering in Misti Blue/Grey.  Yum.

And then I started thinking, what if the TSA people don’t believe that my new US size 2 HiyaHiya Bamboo DPNs are for knitting and they confiscate them at Security?  Well, I wasn’t going to risk that, so better get knitting just to prove it.

I’m already loving the color patterns emerging, and I haven’t even finished the ribbing.

I have a feeling this is going to be a great First Sock.