The great West Coast yarn tour and wedding fiesta

This past weekend was my best friend's wedding in Portland, Oregon. Before heading to Portland, we made a stop in San Francisco to catch up with some friends and the city in general. While the Boy worked, I made it my business to visit every yarn store I could think of; I only missed one that I know of (don't tell me if there were others).

My favorite is Imagi-Knit. Since my last visit they've almost doubled the square footage of the store. It's like every yarn shop in NY rolled into one - everything from Koigu to Brown Sheep, all under one roof. I was so overcome I forgot to take a picture, although I did not forget to take home these gems - that's two skeins of fabled Seasilk in Rose Garden. It is so soft and yummy that I carried it around the store like it was my little toy puppy.

I exercised restraint - that was my only purchase despite the fact I hit the Urban Knitting Studio, Artfibers and Noe Knit as well. Urban Knitting Studio was nice but a little austere for a knitting store. I loved the feel of Noe Knit, though - warm and inviting with lots of people lounging around in comfy chairs and at a big table.

I also cruised through Britex in San Fran - Oh. My. Goodness. This place was amazing. The colors! The selection! The organization! I just had to take a picture of their zipper wall - have you ever seen so many zippers so well arranged?! When I go buy zippers in NY I have to dig through a decrepit box marked "blue" which has zippers of all lengths and hues arranged as though they've sprung from Medusa's scalp. I came home with all manner of thread, twill tape and elastic but there was so much fabric I couldn't get my head around buying anything but a remnant of flannel! Shameful, I know.

While in Portland I hit the Dublin Bay Knitting Company, which was lovely and inviting with a beautiful selection. I also poked my head into the Knit Knot Studio and was dismayed to find an old favorite, Lint, is closing its doors! The place had clearly be ransacked by the time I got there and it was sad to see it all cleared out.

Lest you think nothing was accomplished but shopping, I did sew up this little number before I left. The bridesmaids' dresses were a lovely shade of blue shantung and I had no purse to match. So on the morning before my flight I chopped up the hem of my skirt (left over from alterations) and made this little zip pouch which has grosgrain ribbon accents and is lined with cream cotton. It's a little wonky because I rushed the zipper, but it did the job of holding my lip gloss and the bride's perfectly!

Sadly, it's the only scrap of the bridesmaid dress that I still have. After our flight home, my Boy and I idiotically waltzed off the plane without our garment bag, which the flight attendant had helpfully hung in the first class cabin (far, far away from where we were sitting). Nestled in said bag were the Boy's best suit, his dress shirt, my dress from the rehearsal dinner (which I adored and wore only that once) and my bridesmaid dress. We realized our error when we got to baggage claim but by the time I sprinted through the airport, convinced someone to give me a security pass, went back through the metal detectors, stripped off my shoes and had my water confiscated, the plane was no longer at the gate and gone was our black, plastic, completely nondescript and unidentifiable garment bag... with close to $1000 of clothes in it. I am still so mad I could spit. C0ntinental is purportedly looking for the bag but as each day passes with no word, I'm losing hope. There is an outside chance it will wind up in their warehouse in Houston but I'm not holding my breath... because if I did, I wouldn't be able to scream at the top of my lungs "I AM SUCH AN IDIOT!!!"

Rut

I've been in a bit of a knitting rut recently. I have a few projects on the needles that aren't making me excited and no thoughts on what I want to knit next. Of course, I have a variety of patterns on the shelves, but a lot of them are sweaters and with spring coming I don't feel inspired to start a heavy sweater. My usual go-to is lace, but I already have two lace shawls going so I should really focus on those. This morning I picked up Arwen again to keep plowing through the sleeve, but I tire of the loooooong rows making up the front and sleeve. In the meantime I've been keeping my hands busy with cross-stitch.

The other morning while brushing my teeth I was consumed with excitement over a potential use for the linen I bought a few weeks ago. I've been seeing links to this zakka pouch tutorial all over the place. What better for the base than lovely linen? So I wound the yarn before going to work, despite the fact that my morning schedule does not allow for such diversions and I was left running through the neighborhood for the train.

I swatched all week on the train and am currently working on this swatch in linen stitch (well-matched for linen, no?). It's creating almost a woven fabric, which I love. Unfortunately, though, it is hard work on the old hands - there's no give in the linen and it is rough and twiney and I can only bear a few rows at a time. Making an entire bag base like this will be time consuming. Maybe I'll just make some swatches and sew them into things. Or maybe I'll weave some on my handy Weavette and see where that goes...

In other news, I saw adorable Baby B yesterday and the not-so adorable state of his earflap hat! It got tossed in the washer and dryer accidentally and wound up a little felted and shrunken. It also had a little run-in with some velcro. Ouch. I think it could have been worse - the yarn is Karabella 8, which is purportedly washable, but I would not recommend putting it in warm wash and dry.

Problem solved - he'll just wear the hat inside out now. I almost like it better like this. However, now he'll need a new hat for next year because all that growing room has been shrunken right out.

Snip snip

Do you ever write a whole blog post? When you haven't written one in over a week? And it takes you like, half an hour? And then you post it and Blogger pukes on you and it all gets lost? Yeah, I hate when that happens.

Anyway, it's been slow going here at One Potato. Long work hours and daylight savings time have meant little time to make projects and even less time to photograph what has been made.

This weekend I finished cutting out the rest of the fabric for my Hop Skip Jump quilt. It's a good thing this quilt is wonky by design because if it wasn't... well it was going to be anyway. There were definitely some errors made as I raced through piles of fabric with my friendly rotary cutter. I trust that it will all be ok and am deluded into thinking the sewing will take way less time than the cutting. It will at least be a thousand times more fun. Oh cutting, how I despise thee.

This week I also got my blue laceweight cashmere from Hipknits. In the ongoing conspiracy being waged against me by the international postal system, the first shipment did not arrive. (Please advise me immediately if you see a UK or US postal worker with a powder blue cashmere shawl anytime soon.) However, the kind people at Hipknits sent a replacement and it came within a week. The color is well represented on the website and it's so pretty!

Finally this weekend I took a field trip to Purl Patchwork with my friend S, who has recently redone her kitchen and plans to adorn her bare wall with a big swath of beautiful fabric stretched over a frame. After coffee and sustenance at Once Upon a Tart, we chose a large repeating print with a bittersweet orange background and bird silhouettes and a butterfly and flowers. I can't find it on the website, but trust me, it's awesome, and will look fantastic on the wall. I may just have to invite myself over for dinner.

Toys but no toy time

Goodness me it's been over a week since my last post! Work has been kicking my butt lately, which means no time for knitting or sewing or anything but working and sleeping, and certainly no time for blogging.

However, I'm going to sneak in and show you some of the fun goodies I picked up last weekend during a day with Mom in New Jersey.

First stop was Mom's new favorite knitting shop in Montclair, Stix'n Stitches. Chef recommends! I wish I had some pictures. This place is great - tons of beautiful yarn, lots of books and a really friendly atmosphere with plenty of space to sit and knit. I picked up some Louet linen:

I realize I can probably get this at my local yarn store, but it seemed particularly intriguing at this shop for some reason. Who knows what it will become... Mason Dixon handtowels? It seems a bit rich to me to handknit towels, but I bet it would be really soothing.

Next stop was the Rag Shop. I'm sure this is of little excitment to people who live just about anywhere else in the country, but in NYC, where we have access to everything, it can be a major ordeal to get the most basic sewing supplies. Generally, it necessitates a trip to the garment district, which is great, but not super convenient, especially when many stores are geared for the trade and only open 8-5 on weekdays. So, I stocked up on zippers and bobbins and other fun things. Joy!

Now if only I had time to crack open the packages and make something!

Stash, meet your new friend

Stash, meet 2200 meters of hand-dyed pale blue cashmere laceweight from Hipknits. This is the laceweight version of the sock yarn I'm using for my cowl, which is turning out downright delicious. It's en route to me, all for only £18! Now the dollar is weak weak weak against the Almighty Pound at the moment, but we are still talking less than $40 for all of that cashmere! Plus, shipping is INCLUDED! Even overseas! Basically, it's insane, and you should all go forth and buy some.

Lord knows what I'll do with it... 2200 meters is a boatload of lace. Maybe one of the giant circular shawls from A Gathering of Lace? Hey, it's cashmere, I'm sure I can put it to some productive use.

Retail therapy

Yesterday my friend C and I hit Manhattan with a major shopping list. Many fun things were purchased.

The first stop was School Products, where C snatched up two pounds (!!) of gorgeous charcoal gray cashmere merino on a giant cone to knit herself a Flicka. It promises to be fantastic. I also picked up another hank of big fat cashmere to make a hat for my friend V. I used this yarn on my so-called udon hat (which I have yet to photograph). I love that hat, but I think I'll go down a needle size because the stitch turned out a little open, it's a wee bit big and most importantly, my dear V has a little tiny peanut head.

We then headed down to Purl Patchwork where I purchased various unphotogenic bits and bobs including lightweight quilt batting, heavyweight fusible interfacing, cream cotton and sewing machine needles. In addition, somehow I am incapable of leaving there without one or two colorful scraps of fabric and this trip was no different.

It was then on to Purl. I saw this beautiful pink garter stitch scarf in Malabrigo and was smitten. I'm not ordinarily a pink person but I just loved that scarf and when I saw some Malabrigo on eBay, home it came. Unfortunately, it arrived a bit more cotton candy than anticipated. No matter, a little rose mohair should do the trick. I'll hold them together, the mohair will melt into the Malabrigo and my pink will be divine.

While at Purl I also picked up some Fibre Company Terra for my mother in law (hi mom!). She is going to be making a mobius wrap thingum with some Noro Silk Garden I have left over from my Lady Eleanor wrap. The Noro colorway is discontinued #34. Bizarrely, this colorway has elements that blend almost seamlessly into a number of Terra colors. I chose one green/purple that almost disappears into the Noro and one wine/purple to bring out the purple in the Noro and add a reddish element.

Speaking of Lady Eleanor, here she is. I finished this last summer and she stays in my overly air-conditioned office where I rarely have a camera handy to photograph her. The pattern is from Scarf Style by Pam Allen. I highly recommend this project! I get many compliments on her.

I will share some photos of works in progress tomorrow, including two small sewing projects. On the knitting front, things are progressing, although it seems I've signed myself into stockinette hell for the foreseeable future.

It's take your swatch to work day!

Since I am never home during photo-taking hours (i.e., daylight) during the week, I was forced to take my little swatches to work today. Here they are scampering around my office.*

These are the product of my new 2x2" Weavette, part of the Oddball Eradication Project of 2007. Cute, no? One is Koigu from a baby sweater and one is School Product cashmere from my udon noodle hat (which I have yet to photograph but which is delightful and kept me super toasty today to and from the subway).

Now then, these little weavies are cute but what the heck am I going to do with them? Of course I desperately wanted the 4x4" Weavette but that is apparently out of stock throughout the universe due to a mention by Martha Stewart a year ago. So I am settling for this little thing. The Boy helpfully pointed out that I will have to make a million of these in order to produce anything useful. Not to mention the seaming alone will kill me. However, I have been fantasizing about sticking them to things with double-sized fusible interfacing. Possible? I will experiment and get back to you.

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* I waited until my officemate was out before I staged and snapped these, lest he think me completely insane.

Potholders: Finito!

I finished my potholders! It took an age I tell you, but I love them. After my dear Boy went and got me more thread on Friday night, I ran out again on Sunday and had to go back to the City to procure yet another spool. Quilting is quite a thread-consuming activity. There were definitely some hiccups along the way for Potholder 1 but things improved with Potholder 2 - I think I only ripped one seam and all of the sewing went a lot more smoothly. I basically assembled all of Potholder 2 on Sunday plus finished the binding on Potholder 1. I have become much better friends with the sewing machine through this project. Apologies in advance for the poor artificially-lit pictures; it was dark when I finished last night and when I left for work this morning.











Pattern: Square Pot Holder from Amy Butler's In Stitches.
Materials: Fabric, thread and advice from Purl.
Modifications: I hand-finished the bias edging on the front of the potholders. The book has you machine-sewing top-stitching around the edging but this resulted in a really messy finish for me and made the entire potholder look sloppy. I talked to the lovely ladies of Purl and they suggested blind stitching down the edge. This came out beautifully (apart from some slight puckering which I can live with). The only issue, which they warned me about, was that it took f...o...r...e...v...e...r - about 6 hours of hand stitching. My hands actually ached last night. But it was well worth it - they look delightful!

Things that need improving: I am not much of a sewing perfectionist yet. So, there are some wonky seams and it turns out one potholder is not quite square due to some aggressive trimming in an effort to get the edging in place. The mitered corners are also a small disaster, but they look neat and clean, if not exactly miter-y. Overall, I am quite pleased with them and can't really believe I made them! I especially love the quilting.

While at Purl I also picked up a 2x2 inch Weavette. I don't like having a stash and make every effort not to keep one around. All told I think I have stored away yarn for three pairs of socks, one baby sweater and two adult sweaters (both of which were started and ripped for various reasons) plus the odd gifted skein here and there. However, I am quickly amassing a vast number of leftover oddballs and they are stressing me out. I thought I might try my hand at weaving some of these into little squares and finding some productive use for them. Suggestions welcome.

I also made some serious progress on Anemoi #2 and the Boy's Socks. I hope to knock the socks off this week, assuming I can stay awake on the train to work on them.

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PS: To answer a question on yarn dominance in the mitten, if you click on the palm picture from my last post to make it big, you can see the blue is kind of "absorbing" the white. The white stitches are supposed to make clear diagonal lines across the palm and instead they are like dotted lines. Also take a look at Tres Chic Veronique's mittens - she does a good job of explaining the issue and she has some helpful pictures. As Ann Feitelson explains in her book The Art of Fair Isle Knitting, you are meant to keep the background color in your right hand and the contrast color in your left. This allows for the proper color to dominate. All I know is I do it the other way around and in finely detailed areas the contrast tends to get consumed by the background. Make sort of sense?

We have mitten

I finished one of my Anemoi mittens and I love love love it! In these pictures it's still wet and blocking, but I couldn't resist the hand model shot. The Koigu softened and loosened a bit during blocking, and of course a good bath makes for happy fair isle.










I've been reading a lot about yarn dominance and it is definitely in play here. I knit continental, so I prefer to keep my more heavily-used yarn in the left hand and the contrast in the right. As is evident in the palm shot, the blue background dominates the white. I considered switching it up in the other mitten, but I'm afraid the difference will be unpleasantly significant. So, I think I will save that for the endpapers.

To avoid second mitten syndrome, I've already cast on for the mate. Remember how it took me 6 hours to cast on? Try 5 minutes this time; I'm a regular Italian tubular cast-on expert.

I've also wound up my freshly bathed Koigu. Delicious!

This weekend, though, I have big plans to get more thread and finish the beloved potholders so my friend doesn't have another birthday before I give her this year's gift.

Hats in action

Baby B got his new hat today. As soon as his mom opened the door I knew it would be too big... and it is. I knit the ear flaps upwards of the brim so he could turn that up and get a little more wear out of it. I think he likes it.

And Mama V graciously donned the Fishtrap hat for a little photo shoot in the West Village. Now if only it would get cold enough so I could wear the hat.

In other news, I've been taking advantage of my days off to hit some of the new and not-so-new yarn stores around the City. Last night it was Knitty City on the Upper West Side. I had heard good things about this place and they were true! Cute store, nice sales people and a broad selection of stuff. I browsed for a good long time and no one bugged me. I just had to take this home - Colinette Jitterbug in Velvet Leaf. The picture does not communicate the depth of color, despite my and my camera's best efforts - the name is about right. It's like the richest pine tree you ever saw. A velvet pine tree. What I will do with it is unknown. As I've mentioned, I'm not the biggest sock fan. It will have to be something though...

I am also up for a little stash-busting this week. First on the list is this little beastie that I got from School Products at Stitches East this year:

Delicious udon-noodle-fat cashmere. It will be a hat. (Note: I have not worn one hat yet this season but will now have knit two.)

And this is one of the gems of the collection. Hand-dyed cashmere sock yarn from Loop in London. First off, this place is good fun - go if you have the chance. It's adorable and well-stocked. This yarn is by Hip Knits. Since I have no great love for socks I knew this was destined for something else. I've decided on the Lace Cowl from The Purl Bee. I think it will go smashing with my new cream hat repertoire. PS: The yardage on this is insane! 500 meters! Hurray!

Tomorrow: Hopefully a finished apron.