I’ll have to break up this post, there’s just too much to say and too much to catch up with. I have a million photos, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned from other people’s blogs, it’s that each one should just have one or two things to say. Not sure that will ever work with me.
I was away for Monday and most of Tuesday. My nephew and his family are visiting from Texas, so I went to State College see them. My great-niece had told her parents that she wanted to learn to knit, so despite the fact that I would only have about 24 hours with them, I packed up a bunch of fun yarn and we spent nearly every waking hour together practicing and learning. Here is Samantha, 7, concentrating hard on learning to knit:
and here she is modeling her finished bag:
She did so well and I was so impressed by how focused and motivated she was. (With her permission, I helped with several inches of knitting after she went to bed – it was a joint project and we wanted to have a finished product by the time I left!) It was a lot of fun to be with them and I felt bad rushing back, but I have a store to run, and we’re meeting to schedule new classes, and I’m hoping new yarn starts arriving this week. One of these days I’m going to figure out Twitter, Instagram, and all the other quick media so I can do in-between updates.
This was Purl’s first visit to meet her big blonde cousins, Chloe and Peaches. After the first few minutes of shrill barking and running behind my legs, they all did quite well together. Purl does tend to overstep the boundaries of polite behavior, but the older dogs set her straight without any damage, and if things got a little too angry, Jack rushed between Purl and the big dogs. Very sweet, and a big relief. Now we can visit back and forth, I wasn’t 100 percent sure Purl would behave. This is what she looked like just before we left to come home:
Completely tuckered out.
I didn’t get much done this week as far as knitting is concerned, but I did finish a Plain-and-fancy scarf (our free pattern!) in Galway and Kureyon, which gets one thing off my mind. Ever since the new colors of Kureyon came in, I’ve been sticking balls of it into the Galway shelves to make great combos, and I finally just had to knit one up. This is the one I settled on:
I like how the Kureyon plays off the plain background. Here are other combinations that would be really great:
The scarves would be awesome!
Speaking of awesome, I have great customer projects to show you this week. Sheila Yarus did the Sakasama Jacket in Shibui Linen, a yarn that I hate knitting with but I love in the finished project. I may have to stock it and learn to love it next year:
Anne Nordhoy made this tremendous sweater from scraps and from scratch. Isn’t it amazing?
Mary Ann Posey is finishing up sweaters. Here is a beautiful cardigan in Galway
and a T-shirt in Amalfi:
Such a pretty stitch:
Jana Gagne came in on the weekend for some Amalfi to crochet a prayer shawl, and came in on Wednesday with this beautiful F/O:
I know they say crochet is fast, people, but this took many hours and lots of determination to finish in such a short time. Quite beautiful!
A little new yarn came in this past week, just enough to somehow keep me going, barely on life support, I’m so hungry for new stuff. This is beautiful Mirasol Nuna, a lovely mix of silk, wool, and bamboo, soft, shiny, sportweight.
This month we should be receiving a ton of beautiful favorites from Cascade, Debbie Bliss’s new yarn Milano (shown here on the cover of Debbie Bliss Magazine for fall)
and a new alpaca blend yarn called Haley from Fleece Artist, among other things. Can’t wait!
Just a reminder – Dream in Color’s Dream Club starts its shipments in September. We still have some open subscriptions. Lots of fun – beautiful yarns in unique colorways, exclusive patterns, knitalongs on Ravelry, and a special reveal when we receive it!
Enough!
See you soon…
Trish
