Maia Spins

Catching Up

Last month Brooke & I went to a conference at Earthues, our dye supplier.

We spent a week in Seattle, mostly at Earthues dyeing.  In the end, we had 6 samples of each dyestuff they offer.  An invaluable resource!  It was an inspiration to work with Michele and Kathy.  I was so moved by their stories of working with the dyestuff growers.  They have a strong commitment to using their business to support communities and traditional cultures.  It has deepened my desire to use natural dyes; to be a part of sustaining communities and cultures.

The picture to the left shows a few of the skeins we dyed.  I am in love with that lime green! 

Brooke did a nice post about this conference.  Read it here.

The other highlight of the week was staying downtown near the Pike Place market and eating crumpets every morning at the Crumpet Shop.  Yummy!  Anybody have a crumpet recipe?  I need crumpets.

I love Seattle.  I lived there for 15 years.  I meet my husband there.  Ballard, Fremont, downtown, all great places.  July is a wonderful month for weather in Seattle too.  I think it was warmer and nicer than at home.  Although, truth be told, I hear there was a heat wave in the Bay Area while we were away.  We lucked out!

We posted a huge update to Tactile last night.  The theme is wool-cellulose blends in fiber and yarn.  We also added Learn To Spin kits.  Yay!  Read more here.

Austin in April

We left Denver for the second leg of our trip.  Austin.  After the arid climate of Denver, I really appreciate the moisture in Austin.  Thankfully, the temperature was in the perfect range of 70-80 degrees F.  It was mostly sunny with one day where we had thunderstorms.  Nothing is better than warm rain.  Well, warm rain when you aren't stuck outside.  Some cooler areas had golf ball to soft ball size hail.  I was happy to miss that!

Roger had a conference at the convention center downtown and I had my days to fill.  I discovered two things: cafes with wi-fi and Hill Country Weavers. 

Don't be fooled by the name, Hill Country Weavers (HCW) is mostly a knitter's yarn store.  And, oh what a yarn store it is! 

It is a converted house full to the brim with yarn.  I looked through every room a handful of times and probably still missed half of it.  The best part is the friendly staff.  This much helpfulness and generosity clearly starts at the top with Suzanne, the owner. 

And, Stella!  Stella is doing her part to make customers feel welcome.  It was nice to get a dog fix.  I am missing my Sammie-boy.

On Thursday, I stopped in to look around and found some lovely silk yarn from Habu for a shawl. 

I asked for a recommendation on where I could find a cafe with wireless.  What I got was a comfy sofa in the new hang-out at HCW called Knit Buzz.  It is created to build community among knitters.  Who doesn't love sitting around with other knitters?  Have I mentioned how friendly Texans are?

That evening, Roger and I went to a local bar, Rio Rita, that has been converted from a biker bar to a crafty/scrabble crowd (funny story from the Austin Statesman newspaper).  Thursday night is knitting night at Rio Rita.  We crashed a group of friendly local nighters and had some beer.  Afterward, a bit of research on the interwebs (love the new "experimental" search on Ravelry!) turned up the gorgeous Laminaria, the Estonian inspired shawl by Elizabeth Freeman in the current Knitty.  Gotta love the beer, bar, knitting, and free wi-fi combo! 

With a pattern in hand, I went back to HCW to show my meager progress and get another skein of yarn (I didn't have quite enough yardage).  I ended up in Knit Buzz again visiting with Suzanne, Stella, and a crowd of regulars there for the official opening of Knit Buzz on Saturday.  Wine, cupcakes, knitting, and socializing; I was feeling like family now.  This is the LYS of my dreams.  Too bad it is so far from home.

My Laminaria has had several starts.

The first showed my that the star pattern is asymmetrical. Can you see the vertical lines on the left and horizontal lines on the right?  Click on the picture (as always) to get a larger version.

My inner perfectionist was bugged, so I started over.  The modification for symmetry was to do the 3-into-3 star on the left panel by k3tog-tbl, yo, k3tog-tbl.  It is not perfectly symmetrical because of the twisted stitch, but also not terribly noticeable in this yarn.

The next chart perplexed me because the stitch count once it is completed is smaller than when it is started.  What to do?  Log in to Ravelry and look for a Laminaria group of course!  A reply from the pattern author taught me three things: the stitch count is correct, the pattern looks symmetrical once blocked, and it looks way better when knit at a loose gauge.  Was my gauge loose?  Nope.  I am on hold until I can find a yarn store in Southern Louisiana with Addi Turbos.

I have almost finished clue 2 of Mystic Light.  I'll have a picture of that in the next post. 

Meanwhile, here are some Texas wildflowers seen along the roadsides everywhere.  They are a part of the legacy of the late Lady Bird Johnson.

Bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas.

More from Colorado

Colorado is rich with fibery goodness!  On our last full day I got to visit Schacht Spindle Company in Boulder.  Besides being wonderful and friendly people, they make high quality spinning wheels and weaving looms.  I am happily owned by a Matchless double-treadle.  Since Tactile is a dealer, I thought it would be fun to take a tour of their facility.

Pictures kept small since there will be a lot in this post.  Click on any picture for a larger version.
A tall stack of wheels waiting to be sanded.

Partially built Matchless wheels.

Every spinning wheel is built by one of these two people. 

Hand cards waiting to be finished and have the carding cloth attached.

Gotta love a workshop with velvet Elvis painting!

I have a few more Schacht pictures on my Flickr.

We had a great time.  My inner nerd loves to see how things are made.  A big Thank you to Jane for showing Roger and I around.

Our next stop was Jefferson Ranch at the south end of Denver.  Jane has paco-vicuñas.  If you aren't familiar with these animals and their fiber, you should be.  Vicuñas are related to alpacas (and llamas).  They are endangered and not easily domesticated.  Paco-vicuñas (or P-V for short) are alpaca crosses that have many of the qualities of the vicuña while gaining a domesticated temperament and longer fiber length from the alpaca genes.  The fiber is very fine (can be 12-14 microns! which puts it in the same range as cashmere). 

The animals look very similar to alpaca, but with big soulful eyes.  Isn't she beautiful?

A P-V momma and her baby.

They are very curious animals and very tolerant of people walking among them.  In this picture you can get a better idea of their color range: white to fawn to chocolate brown.  All are beautiful.

Look at this fleece on one of her boys!  It is sooo soft, like a warm cloud.

Who can resist a cute baby? 

They have great personalities too.  Jane says they are smarter than dogs.  I believe her.  It is enough to make me move to the country and start a fiber farm. 

I took a lot of pictures.  More on my Fickr.

Lest you think it has all been about fiber, let me assure you that we sampled the local beverages.  I can strongly recommend the Milk Stout (on the nitrogen tap) from Left Hand Brewery.  Well crafted beers all around.  We sampled 6 (a sampler, not pints, we aren't total lushes) beers and didn't find a dud.

We can also recommend Redstone Meadery.  They make mead also known as honey wine.  These are also very well crafted.  The traditional is light, crisp, and very clean on the palate.  My personal favorite was the juniper.  I expected it to be like gin, but it was much more subtle with a bit of spiciness.

Finally, the best coffee in town is from Vic's.  Our favorite location was the one in Prospect.  Prospect is interesting too.  It is a housing development based on New Urbanist ideas.  The basic premise of New Urbanism is to integrate housing, retail, and a job base within the community.  Services and sometimes light rail are within walking distance and housing density is greatest near the town centers.  It makes for a very pleasant community.

Next stop is Austin, Texas!  Yee haw!!!

Fiber Fun in Boulder

The first leg of our vacation has had a lot of fiber.  Inspired by an article in Spin-Off Magazine (Fall 2007) by Anne Merrow, I have been exploring the Colorado Front Range area. 

I started with a stop at Woolen Treasures in Loveland.  It is a cute shop in a converted house.  My apologies for not having a picture of it to show you.  I did get a couple of skeins of Pagewood Farm's sock yarn.  I needed it for the Mystic Light shawl KAL. 
Here is my shawl after completing chart 1.  There will be five parts.  I am liking it so far, but now I need another project to work on until the next chart comes out on Wednesday.

It is hard to photograph without being able to pin out the lace.  It is a very pretty pattern edged with cables.  I love lace and cables together.

We went over to see Susan at Red Barn Fiber Processing.  She has yaks and llamas.  She processes her own fibers and those of other local farmers.  I had a hard time choosing from all the lovely fibers.
Soft mohair in a charcoal grey.  (I have a lot of pictures; I'm making them small.  Click on any image to see a larger version.)
Alpaca in a gorgeous, natural red brown color.
Yak!  I knew I had to have some.  It is not dehaired and has a bit of VM, but still pretty nice.
Llama in five colors.  I have a fun idea for this.

Her animals are so cute!

Llamas, these are her girls.

Sir Ocelot - one of her llama studs looking at the camera.  He has so much personality!

I love his coloring.

Yak!  They are big animals.  Not that you can really tell from this picture.  More pictures on my Flickr. 

Susan is moving to Nebraska very soon (within the month?).  I hope it goes smoothly!  She doesn't have a website, but you can reach her by email at redbarn1 @ juno.com (remove the spaces).

My next stop was the famous Shuttles, Spindles, & Skeins.  It is huge!  Knitting, spinning, weaving, whatever your fiber needs, they must have it.

They have a great selection of old issues of magazines.  I found a bunch of Spin-Offs that I wanted plus a few books.  (Don't remind me of the folly of traveling with so much paper.)  I am excited about the new book from Maggie Casey, Start Spinning.  A quick look at the book shows lots of pictures that show her methods clearly.

Then there was the Buffalo Gals Bison fiber.  Can you say delicious?

I hope you aren't sick of naturally colored fiber.  It seems to be my interest these days.  That and lace.  I haven't knit a sock in a while.  Call me streaky.

Still a bit more fiber fun from Colorado for the next post.

Traveling

Roger and I are going on vacation to Denver, Austin, an New Orleans!  I know there is fun fibery stuff to do in Boulder.  High on my list is visiting Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins.  I hear so many good things about it.  We understand Austin is in the heart of Texas' BBQ country.  Roger is excited about that.  And, New Orleans!  I am happy to do my part to return tourism to the city.

Got any suggestions for what we should do in any of these cities?

Project Round-up
The spinning and knitting energies have been rather fractured around here lately.  There is progress. 

I am almost done with the North Roë shawl, just a few more rows.

The rectangular stole from the Toots LeBlanc yarn is getting longer. 

I just weighed the remaining yarn to realize that I have knit more than half way.  Good news except that I started at the center back with a provisional cast-on.  I had made a guestimate on how far I could go on half that yarn based on a large swatch.  Must have made an error in my calculations.  It is on hold until I figure out how to deal with this turn of events.

The red and white roving got side-lined by a slipping drive band.  All I need to do is replace it.  Too easy.

I'm spinning some just red, some grey, and some combined.  It will be fun to see how it looks when plied.

What is my solution? 

Start something new.  What?  I need a simple travel project.  The yarn was on sale and intriguing.  A quick and dirty shawl is calling me.

Okay, it is not all stalled. 

My BFL sock yarn is done.  It will be my simple travel sock project.

It isn't my best spinning ever.  I like my handspun sock yarn spun firmly, this may be too firm.  Oh well.

Our fierce guard dog will be staying at home with Kay.

Somebody has to sniff the flowers.  Spring is here with a vengeance.

My apologies to those folks who still have snow.

Bolinas!

A picture crazy happy post!

On Friday afternoon we went to Bolinas.  Bolinas is a quirky, hippy, friendly, mellow, rural Marin County kinda place.  If you go, take a map.  There are no signs to guide you (the locals take them down).  Sometimes there aren't street signs.  The good thing is that if you find your way there, everyone is very nice.  It is the kind of place that plasters a tussahfluffing smile on your face that doesn't go away until you leave. 

Our friends, Rick & Heidi, of 5 Cent Coffee, had a gig (do people still say that?  or have I just horribly dated myself?) at the local bar, Smileys.  Smileys is also a dog friendly hotel (yay!) so we booked a room.

We got into town early enough to take a nice walk on the beach.  This place is freaking gorgeous!  It was late afternoon and the sky was overcast.  I love the light in these conditions.  So I took a few pictures.  Okay, I took a lot of pictures.  Here are a few, more at my Flickr page.

The sky and the water are barely differentiated and everything has a monochromatic groove.

The shadows enhance the textures.

Surfers!  Dude!

Aw,my sweet guys.

I was bewitched by all the fabulous textures.  A very low tide exposed the sand, tidepools, and rocks.  So I took a few pictures.  Okay, I took a lot of pictures (not funny the second time?).  More on ze Flickr.

I love the mixture of sand and polished rocks.

A bit of seaweed art.

The sand.

The 5 Cent Coffee show was fabulous!  Love them!  They are a self-described "Neo Skiffle Junkyard Blues" band.  Whatever that is.  I'm not smart enough in the ways of music to understand.  What I do understand is that they are awesome and play all sorts of fun and funky junk and music springs forth.  So I took a few pictures.  Okay, I took a lot of pictures (funny now that I am obviously abusing the idea?).  Here are a few, more at my Flickr page.

For the record, we got a complete costume change from Heidi for each of their three sets.

Megaphone AND precussion!  That Rick is multi-talented.

So much earnest cuteness! 

They have a fabulous new CD out called Bourbon & Beans.  Don't be the last kids on the block to get it.

While you are on their website, be sure to check out their show flyers, works of art they be.  If you are in Japan, be sure to check out their Japan tour schedule, including a gig at the Yokohama Jug Band Festival!

Afterwards, we went to their room and partied until 3 am!  I am getting waaaaay to old for this! 

We did come prepared though.  Roger has a great travel cocktail kit that doesn't get out nearly enough.

The following morning we had a late breakfast and another stroll on the beach.  Surely you are expecting me to mention something about all the pictures I took?  I would, only my camera died after just a few shots.  (sad for me, lucky for you!)

High tide and sunshine!

Note to self: when you take a bazillion pictures, you need to charge the camera battery or the camera will not work.  Sigh.  I really wanted to show you a picture of the local filling station, Bo Gas (say it fast). 

More Rhinebeck

Can you stand it?  I know everyone is going on and on and on about Rhinebeck.  But hey, it is so worthy.

Sunday we were back at the fiber fest.  It felt much more relaxed.  I had been through all of the barns and I had gotten most of what I wanted.  It was a day for socializing and checking out the rest of the fun.

The day started with a quick trip to the authors tent to get Stephanie to sign my bag.  I also bought two books (I already own all of the Harlot books, they are sitting at home in California).  The Secret Language of Knitters by Mary Beth Temple.  I have talked with her a bit on Ravelry and she is very nice.  It is good to support nice knitting authors, especially when they are funny.  With that in mind, I also got the The Mason-Dixon Knitting Book with the impossibly long name by Ann & Kay.  Yes, I am rather late to the party on that one, but I did get their faces stamped on the bag!

Speaking of my bag, you may have seen it as I am not the first person to blog it.  I had a flash (or was it a flashback?) a couple of weeks ago about summer camp in the seventies.  It was the rage to embroider denim work shirts and I was in the thick of the trend.  At the end of camp, everyone signed the shirt.  It was a keepsake I've never forgotten (obviously!). 

Enter the Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo bag.  I had everyone I met sign it and it was tremendous fun.

Eating Artichokes from Artichoke French was also a must (please note that I stayed clear of fried pickles and roasted garlic, they are the Brylcreem of fair food; a little dab'll do ya and I'd had more than a dab on Saturday).  I had the ones that are fried on olive oil and garlic with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses.  Yum!  In line I met Claudia and Silvia.  You never know who you'll bump into at Rhinebeck.

I spent a couple of hours bewitched by the animals again and watched the mid-grade and long wool judging.  I have a serious love of luster wool.  It isn't soft like Merino or squishy like Cormo; it is long and curly and shiny.  Love me some Wensleydale, Lincoln, and Cotswald!  Then there is the lovely Bluefaced Leicester.  Oh how I love thee.  BFL was the featured breed this year.  It was wonderful to see so many of those patrician Roman noses. 

Gotta love a sheep that can snooze in a crowd.  It looks like a good life to me.  There are more pictures of fiber animal cuteness on my Flickr.

The day ended with a gathering at the picnic tables.  Aside from Brooke and Rachael, there was Alison, Veronik, Michelle, Sarah, Dr. Steph, (blog free) Keri and more people who I am failing to link to.  I really must upgrade my memory chip.  We went on to have a lovely dinner with the Dr. Steph and Keri in the town of Red Hook (not to be confused with the Brooklyn neighborhood). 

There were many drive-by meetings and folks I didn't get to meet.   I am very grateful for the time I did get to spend getting to know new fiber friends.

The Loot!  You want to see the loot dontcha?

A big sheet of felt from A Twist of Fate Spinnery.  I love the colors and textures.  It is one pound of fiber about 4 feet tall by 3 feet wide.  I don't know what I'll do with it.  Yet.  Meanwhile, I love it!

White Cormo roving (4 oz) from FoxFire.  It is insanely soft and delicious.  The yellow bump is corriedale dyed with osage.  The green is Coopworth dyed with osage and logwood.  Both are from Handspun by Stefania.

Luscious Wensleydale locks from Delly's Delights Farm.  Mostly it is an unusually soft medium gray.  I got a bit of white and a bit of charcoal for color variety.  I will probably spin from the lock as it is wonderfully processed and make a 3-ply sock yarn.

Gorgeous Lincoln locks from Four Directions Weaving.  It is silver locks naturally dyed with madder and cochineal.  The true color is warmer and deeper than the picture shows.  I'll probably spin this from the lock into a 3-ply sock yarn too.  Look at that squiggly lock goodness!

Oh look!  Sock yarn!  What a surprise!  The green is a DK weight superwash merino and silk yarn from Ancient Threads Farm.  They naturally dyed it with henna, black walnut, tesu, and wattle.  It is gorgeous.

The red yarn is from Green Mountain Spinnery.  I love these folks so much.  They have been a great company for a long time.  I really respect their efforts to source locally, raise and process organic wool, and run their business in an environmentally friendly way.  This yarn is not organic, but it is locally (to them) sourced and green spun.

And then there is the pile o' Morehouse Merino lace yarn.  I have some fun ideas for this yarn.  More on that later.  I can't spoil all the surprises!

This is the best cap EVAH!  I may have snagged the only one.

I still need to tell you about my NYC adventures.  I leave for home today and it is a good thing.  I am exhausted!  I'll have a night's sleep and then prepare for our Thursday Spin & Knit group (I didn't plan this very well did I?). 

This weekend is a two-day silk spinning workshop with Celia Quinn.  Rest and recovery may not happen until November.  Life is tough!

Rhinebeck!

Whew!  It has been a crazy week!  I have lots to say about New York City and my adventures here (I have two more days left), but first up is Rhinebeck!

Brooke, Rachael, and I took the train north from Grand Central Station on Friday.  The plan was to be rested and ready on Saturday morning. We arrived mid-afternoon, had a late lunch, and got to see a bit of the countryside before it started raining.  I'm not talking drizzle; this was torrential downpour rain.  No problem, we were planning a quiet night in our rooms and going to bed early.  We had some local micro-brew beer and knitting to occupy us. 

Little did we know that we were across the hall from Jess & Casey of Ravelry fame.  With our beer, we crashed their party and had a great time.

Saturday morning we hit the festival early.  Brooke & I walked through every barn.  I admit I bought a couple of things.  I only got things that I can't buy at home, mostly spinning fiber and naturally dyed items.  The pictures of my loot will come tomorrow as I forgot to take pictures before the sun set.

I did get carried away taking pictures of animals.  They are so cute!  As always click for bigitudenesss.

So fluffy!

So happy!

So much chocolatey brown goodness!

So surprising (a note on the pen stated the sheep is naturally colored).

So regal!  I love the nose of a Leicester sheep.

I staggered through the day.  This is a very overwhelming fiber festival.  It goes on forEVAH!  Barn after barn after barn.  A few highlights (that I have pictures of):

A vintage Indian spindle wheel.  It was amazing and functional.

The lovely women of Green Mountain Spinnery with Brooke.  I love this company and their yarn.

Always a good idea!

After closing we headed up to Morehouse Merino's yarn buying frenzy after party.  I got a bunch of the broken lace singles for a pittance.  Seriously, it was $2 a skein!  I have plans, fabulous plans (insert maniacal laugh and hand wringing here).  It was a surgical blow, we were in and out in a flash.  Dinner was calling us.  Did I mention that I started the day with a basket of fried pickles?  Why, yes, I did.  I also had most of a basket of roasted garlic.  (Photographic evidence is forthcoming, pinky swear.)  Both were yummy, but made me more than a bit queasy.

We had a wonderful group for dinner.  Alison, Sarah, Joanna, Brooke, Rachael, and I set out in search of something edible.  Every where we went there was a wait.  The third spot turned out to be a gem.  The Downtown Cafe was awesome!  Homemade pasta and cloud-like gnocchi.  Just what the doctor ordered.  We also had a great waitress.  She recognized our lovely lime green bracelets (proof of a 2-day ticket) and confessed to being fiberish.  Check out the creativity that is Jill Draper.

One might think that was a complete day.  And, one would be right.  And wrong.  There was the Ravelry party.  It was held at a bar that is tucked away in a residential neighborhood.  When we got there, it was already crammed full of fibery fiends.  I don't think the locals knew what to make of a us.  Why do mobs of knitters keep having to prove that we are a real force?  The raffle numbers went from 001 to about 200.  This photo shows a small portion of the mob waiting for free loot prizes.

There was much revelry and merriment.  We ducked out at 11:00.  It party was going strong but we weren't.  Had to save something for Sunday.  More tomorrow.

Portland Yarn Crawl

Last weekend Roger & I went to Portland, Oregon for a long weekend.  On Friday we went on a walking tour with most of Roger's office; more on that in another post.  It is the yarn crawl on Saturday that matters!

First the back story.  Through Ravelry I met Sara, a Portland knitter.  I asked her if she was interested in a yarn crawl since I was going to be in town.  Not only did she organize a great five shop crawl, but she recruited a bunch of other Portland knitters!  We were a force!

Our first stop was Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks.  The shop is large, light, and full of yummy yarn including some which is dyed by them.  Somehow I managed to not get any decent pictures of the store.  Maybe I was distracted by the cafe.  The food looked great and the caffeine was quite satisfying. 

A fellow knitter, Rodger was working at Abundant that day so we only got to visit for a short while.  I did get a picture of him.  Pictures of people taking pictures of you seemed to be the theme.

The next stop was a delightful pastry shop, Pix Patisserie.  It happens that it was Judy's birthday!  What great timing.   The pastries were fabulous. I especially like the little lemon tart; I would probably eat anything with lemon curd on it (no that is NOT a dare!).

Our second yarn store, Yarn Garden, is a large store made up of several store fronts.  It seems to go on forever.  Why is that that some yarn stores apparently have everything and I can't find anything I want?  Yarn Garden is one of those stores (for me at least).  No purchase and no pictures.
 

Twisted was my favorite stop.  It is fresh, fun, and has a wall of sock yarn.  They have many of the usual yarns, lots of indie dyers including several from Portland.  The space is large, the furniture is comfortable, and the staff couldn't be nicer.  High marks all around.

We managed to get one organized group shot in front of the store.  Back row from left to right: Cindy, Sarah, me, and Judy.  Front row from left to right: our fabulous organizer Sara, Stephania, and Chrispy.   

Knit Purl was a favorite of mine too.  Could it be the plate of cookies and the welcome sign?  Not just any cookies either; they put out macaroons for us.  Yumm!  Macaroons, lemon curd, yarn, and knitters in one day.  You know that is good.

That is Judy and Cindy checking out the huge selection of Koigu.  I don't think I have ever seen that much Koigu in one spot.  If only I liked Koigu (am I the only knitter that doesn't own any?)  Not shown is the lovely Shibui Knits yarn, made just for them.  I might have snagged a bit of their sock yarn.

Farmhouse Knit Shop was our last stop.  It is a cozy house re-purposed for our fibery satisfaction.  Three front rooms are packed with yarn of all sorts.  The back room is all about the sock yarn including a bunch of Blue Moon seconds.

Lia met up with us there.  It was great to meet her and hand over her prize.  She was one of the winners in my recent contest.  I made her some fluffy spinning batts.  Unfortunately, I was pretty tired by the time we got there and I feel like I didn't get to visit very much with her.

My purchases from the left: Bearfoot by Mountain colors in their Steelhead colorway (bought at Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks), Socks That Rock lightweight in 24 Karat (bought at Farmhouse Knit Shop), Knitted Wit fingering weight in the Going To The Mall Splatter colorway (bought at Twisted), and Shibui sock in Honey and Seaweed colors (bought at Knit Purl).  At the back is a great scarf pattern called Japanese Vines by Michelle Molis (also a Twisted purchase).

To cap the evening Roger and I had dinner with Judy at a lovely Thai restaurant.  I loved meeting Judy.  As you may know, I am a huge fan of her Magic Cast-on and her blog. 

A successful crawl!  Thank you Sara for all the work you did setting it up.

A Good Weekend

We took Kay up to the lake for the first time.  It just happened to be the weekend of the Berry Creek Berry Festival.  Nothing is better than a small local festival in my book.  Well, maybe a small local museum.

Kay looking cute (as always!) at the Berry Festival.

Roger at the Berry Festival in his new hat.  With the shades, he looks like your grandpa doing his best Blues Brothers impression.

The Pomatomus Sock made an appearance at the Berry Festival too.  It was feeling very color appropriate. 

After all the excitement of a band, cloggers, local crafts, and berry sauce over ice cream (yum!), Kay and I headed into town.  Oroville that is.

Oroville is a big small town.  It's history began with the California Gold Rush and was home to Ishi.  Now the economy is based on agriculture (citrus and olives), gambling (two casinos in the area), and tourism (Lake Oroville).  It has the usual main drag littered with fast food joints and chain stores.  If you get off the main drag, you'll discover a quaint old downtown area.  That is exactly where we found our point of interest.

The Yarn Shoppe is a cute store owned by a very friendly mother-daughter team.  The store front is an old fashioned one with lots of display area.  It doesn't really tell you what to expect when you walk through the door.

Inside it is cool and a bit dark.  A welcome relief after the blazing sun and heat of Oroville.  The selection is good.  Much better than I expected.  The store is tidy and easy to navigate.  I would be happy to have this store be my LYS.  Well worth a stop.

Of course we had to get some yarn!  From the left: hand dyed sock yarn from FurrYarns, a mohair blend yarn (there is one more that Kay has already started knitting a scarf out of), and some Trekking pro Natura, a yarn that is 75% wool and 25% bamboo.

Next stop was getting cute(r?).  I am not very girly.  Kay is always trying to get me to girlify.  So we went for pedicures.  They had the massage chairs.  Nice!  THAT is the way to get me to girl-up! My toes are painted a coppery orange.  Kay's are a deep rich mahogany.

After dinner we went fishin'.

I know next to nothing about fishing.  Is it common to use stinky cheese or day glow yellow mini marshmallows? 

We didn't catch a thing.  Except for a bit of tree bass a.k.a. getting the line caught in a tree.  That was my contribution.

Still we had fun.

More pics on my Flickr page.

That was all on Saturday.  An eventful day to be sure.  Sunday we rested up and I finished a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle and the Pomatomus socks.

Pattern: Pomatomus by Cookie A.

Yarn: Trekking XXL #78 with lots left over.

Needles: US#3 metal dpns (I knit very tightly, it would be US#2 for a knitter that gets gauge with the specified needle).

Started: August 2nd or 3rd

Finished: August 12, 2007

Modifications: I used a slightly larger gauge to make the finished sock larger than the one size offered.  I also shortened the ribbing to 3 rows and the leg to 2 repeats of chart A.

It was a fun knit and much easier than I had heard.  I don't know that it deserves the piquant rating that Knitty gave it.