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.

Yarn Crawl

Tomorrow I am going to Grass Valley and Nevada City to visit both yarn shops there. Both have moved to larger locations since I last visited them. Meadow Farms Yarns is in Nevada City and was my LYS for a couple years and it will be great to see Ellen and Eileen again. Fibers is in Grass Valley and I had only visited it once but will look forward to seeing their new location. The other place for good yarn is Ben Franklin. Before I moved from Nevada County this store had expanded into some great yarns and patterns.

The trip is being taken with Felted and SSChar.... which will involve a lot of laughing.

Being I am still recovering from bailing the car outta Auto Jail. I will be going as an observer.

Update on how much Felted and SSChar spend on Friday !!!!!

Bump Sweater (close your eyes Kim)

Knitting along on the 'Bump Sweater' from Natural Knits for Babies and Mom's. This is a Lousia Harding book with great simple but cute clothing for both Mom and Baby. I have also done the Kimono Baby wrap in some teal colored yarn that will be easy to launder and is a contemporary color. Most yarns I have purchased for the new one will go either on a boy or girl. But it will be fun to find out. As to the Mom's sweater, it is an easy knit also done in neutral color to go. I will finish the back this afternoon and cast on for the front. The front part is short rows to give the 'bump' look. Sides are laced up to give some room to adjust as the tummy grows. I have not seen to many patterns for Maternity clothing. This seems to be a wide open area for new designers to look at. Hint Hint. I realize its a short term wear for some but every woman needs to feel good and look her best.

I hope to finish front of sweater on trip north to Mothers on Sat. Thats a good 5 hours of non stop knitting. The sleeves are knitted side to side as is the top.

I didn't make it to knitting group today as I was to have the kids but that didn't work out. I will make it to Teaz tomorrow night for the Chicks with Sticks Meet up. Then Thursday is road trip day with Felted and SSChar. We are going to take in the 2 Elk Grove Yarn Shops and one in West Sacramento. Two of the 3 shops I have not been to. This is not a sit and knit day this is a see and wish day for yarns. I am looking for buttons for my next sweater. I just about know what I want and guess I should take the yarn with me to make sure. I also have my cable sweater to finish this fall and it will need 4 large buttons.

I am soooooo sure I am going to finish this 'Bump' sweater in next 8 days that I have packed up my Doctors Bag yarn and pattern. I would love to have that cast on by time we return.

I am lucky this trip that Jeff will be with me to help on a couple fronts. One Mother and her business that he can do. The other to give a slight break from time to time. I hope to sneak over to Ashland for a quick run through Websters. I love buying there as there is no tax in the state of Oregon. I should remember to make a list of needles and items I can purchase.

The below cartoon sort of expresses how I feel some days. Getting ready for subdivision inspection is driving me nuts. I just think I have the place ready and the wind blows leaves down, the shrubs decide to grow more for re pruning. Never ending!!!!!! How dare they. Ok, Kim you can open your eyes now.