Sunday, May 18, 2008

Road Trip!!!

Another road trip back to Petaluma! We found a very sweet little yarn shop there last June when we went to hear the Yarn Harlot speak. The Knitterly is a great little shop full of great yarn. Even the sale baskets were full of good stuff. The staff is also just super and right there to help you. This trip to The Knitterly was for a Habu Class. On this trip was our very very good driver, Felted, seen here on the right.







And on her very first road trip with us is Auntie M. By attaching a link to her blog and with her very new lap top computer, I have now put the pressure on her to keep her blog up to date with great photo's and stories of her knitting. She does some beautiful stuff. I am happy to

report that Auntie M survived the trip and even held her own with the rest of us.

Somehow in this busy busy day, I missed a photo of SSChar who also was present and acted as the official assistant to the driver. Reading maps and the first to inform the actual driver she was going the wrong way and was lost!! She took a lot of pressure off those of us in the back seat that were just along for the ride. Please forgive me SSChar for no photo, I think it was cuz you were always hiding out in the restrooms.

Now you ask about the class, I just know you are. Habu yarn is fairly new to the market and slowly coming into being in more and more shops. I first saw it about a year and half ago in Washington DC. Nice colorways that come on cones or small fluffy tiny bundles. But along with many, I wondered what does one knit with this? The Knitterly had a short class along with their trunk show which was full of great samples that anyone could try on. Breath taking sweaters and coats. Even a few dresses that were very lacy and cute. The above yarn is on the left Linen paper, on the right is silk. The 2 cones make up a cute small bag that is so sweet. I got the small one, Felted got the bigger size in same colorway.

The class consisted of learning to read Japanese patterns which come along with these yarns. They are very simply defined patterns and once you understand the concept of reading one it leads to simplified knitting. Any pattern could be converted to one page if written in this style. Below are the samples of a jacket pattern. ALL of the pattern is one page with the second page being a work sheet of rows. You write in when the increases and decreases are. THATS IT!! The drawing of the item has all the wording a person would ever need. I wish I could explain this fully to you. I grasp the idea but not how to share it.


After a few hours at The Knitterly, we found a wonderful tea room for lunch. The food was yummmmmmy and the setting was so sweet. I had a great egg salad sandwich on a croissant with Raspberry Ice Tea!!! Fresh fruit was also on the plate. All of it was great.
Last but not least the rest of our shopping for me was 2 balls of Kidsilk Haze. This will make up 2 scarves. I say for me now, but am betting someone will get one for Christmas. I got this at a shop in Sonoma called Bella. She had some great sale prices on yarn. I know someone else got some Rowan also on sale. Another cute little knitting shop with the owner right there to assist us.



This Merlin is a yarn by Louet. Linen and Merino lace weight. I got all 3 skeins on sale with a total of 750 yards. Not sure what is in my mind for this but at the price it captured me. This yarn came from The Knitterly.

It was a great day for a drive to the wine country. The country side was beautiful to see. Vinyards and more vinyards. Both Petaluma and Sonoma are great little towns with lots of history. We stopped at a couple other shops in Sonoma and ended the day with Ice Cream and Geleto. Sigh, Got to love a good road trip where you get to knit coming and going, someone else does the driving and there was loads of laughter.

2 comments:

Jenn said...

Glad you had a fun trip!!!

Now come over and sign up for our Secret Pal Exchange :-)

http://secretpaltwelve.blogspot.com/

Jenn AKA KnitWIt Momma

Debbie T said...

Sounds like y'all had a great time! That's my kind of road trip...knitting coming and going.:=)