KNITSTER

My friend Sandy is a quilter. Nothing wrong with that, in fact, she is incredibly talented at what she does. Check out her website, Quilty as Charged, to take a peek. She asked me a while ago to help her with a thumbless mitten knitting pattern that she was making for her daughter Julia. She knows how much I like knitting. As she is a much more crafty person than I am, she frequents this little shopping center in Pennington which has turned into a “high end” crafters mecca. High end, meaning not a Michael’s or ACMoore or Hobby Lobby type of place, but rather a bonafide LYS, and quilting and beading stores of the same caliber. Pretty cool. She’s a regular at the quilting store, and has been to the beading store as well, as there was a quilt of turtles she was making once, and she needed beads for the turtle eyes. Anyway, she had been to the LYS there, and it had been one that I had wanted to check out and hadn’t had the opportunity to visit. Until today, that is. Sandy had gotten a 20% off coupon from the store and offered to let me use it. Well, it gave us an opportunity to get together and check out the store! It’s very nice, and well, wall to wall to almost every available inch full of yarn or other knitting or needlepoint sundries. Pretty cool. I think the best part for me was that they carry my favorite yarn brand, Debbie Bliss, so I was happy. I bought 4 skeins of DB Cashmerino Chunky in a robin’s egg blue color (gorgeous color and SO soft!), a skein that I got for $1 (yes, $1!) of SouthWest Trading Company’s Phoenix soy silk ribbon yarn in white, and 2 magazines. Yes, I spent a little money, and even with the discount, it was a lot to drop. But, I hadn’t gotten a Valentine’s present from JC, and I haven’t been yarn shopping in ages, so I felt it was okay to splurge a little.  I am so happy that I did that. It’s funny how shopping therapy, especially for yarn, can be so…therapeutic! Of course, JC doesn’t understand the need for making a stash like we fiberaholics do. His loss. He didn’t think I knew what I had in my stash, but since I had been looking for a specific skein recently for the latest hat I made Drew (Lion Brand Wool Ease, a lot cheaper to lose than the DB Cashmerino Bulky!), I did know what I have. I would like to organize it better, but I have a good clue of what I have. I do want to get rid of some of those huge things that I got from that place in CA that were totally yucko. I don’t think I’ll ever use those. Everything else, I’ll eventually find a use for them. Some I have specific projects for, just haven’t gotten to them yet. Someday…  As for these skeins of the beautiful seafoam blue, I’m not sure what I’m going to make, but the first thing that comes to mind for me is that maybe I’ll make some sort of a shrug with it. Something very simple, I’m sure, perhaps something I’ll attempt to design myself. Half the time I’m cold here at home or work, and I don’t have time to make myself a whole sweater, so perhaps a cashmerino shrug will do the trick, and be something to look nice with jeans and a feminine tshirt underneath or something. I dunno. I’ll figure it out.  Still interested, however, if I actually had any talent or time for it, to go to the beading classes, but of course I still have to figure out crocheting and sewing and a few other things first….

Posted on February 22nd, 2007 by Dani
Filed under: General, Shopping