Truckee Weekend

I had a wonderful time last weekend in Truckee. Friends, food, relaxing, knitting, and shopping for yarn. What could be more perfect? Big thanks to Carol for her hospitality. It really was the perfect weekend.

It started on Friday when Vera, Fae, Julie, and Lorna arrived at my house. I showed them around the remodeled rooms in my house and then we went to lunch. We ate at Paul Martins' in Roseville.  A wonderful way to start the weekend.

Then we went to Got Your Goat, one of the nicest yarn stores in my area.

I got this GREAT project bag. It was made my a local artist. They also carry Lorna's fabulous bags there.

Two doors from Got Your Goat is "The Bead Shoppe".  I love this shop; lots of selection and the people are very helpful. I picked up a couple tubes of beads to repair a blouse were the beads are coming off.

Next we went to Filati Fine Yarns in Rocklin.

Fae was knitting a "Drunken Path" scarf (Fae is ALWAYS knitting the most interesting projects!) and Filati's had kits for this scarf. Vera bought a kit but I didn't really like any of the colorways so decided to remember to look for another yarn that would work. I bought a Vogue Knitting Fall 2011 magazine for this shawl pattern designed by Candace Eisner Strick. There's also a caplet in the magazine that I'd like to make.

And I fell in love with a skein of Prism Yarns - Delicato yarn in the colorway called Fog. But I put it down because I didn't know what I would make with it and we were going to Jimmy Beans on Saturday.

After Filati's, Lorna and Fae went their separate ways and Vera, Juile and I drove to Carol's home in Truckee. What an amazing beautiful home. 

When we arrived, Carol said, you each get a bedroom downstairs! Wow. Our own bedrooms!  Mine was so cute!

That night we made dinner and had a wonderful evening of knitting and talking about going to Jimmy Beans Wool. In case you don't know, Jimmy Beans Wool is an online yarn/fabric store. Their warehouse is in Reno, about 30 minutes from Carol’s house! They have a small storefront in the very large warehouse. And they will let you go into the warehouse so you can see all the yarns. 

Carol was taking about the Jimmy Beans web site and asked us, do you guys use "The Wool Watcher". Neither Julie, Vera, nor I knew anything about this. 

 

DANGER AHEAD - This can be addicting - you have been warned! 

The Wool Watcher is a link at the top of the Jimmy Beans web page, which navigates you to a yarn that is on sale. It's one specific yarn and the sale goes for about 2 hours and then a new yarn appears. It’s great fun and all night long we were checking what yarn was being offered. As I write this, Rowan Colurspun - Winterburn is on sale for 45% off.

When we got up Saturday, it was 27 degrees. brrrrrrrrrrrrrr We had breakfast and Carol and Vera went for a walk. The sane people, Julie and I, stayed in our PJs and knitted until they came back. Then we were off to Reno! We stopped for lunch at The Nugget to prepare for Jimmy Beans.

For a knitter, Jimmy Beans is heaven. The people are really really nice. They completely understand that it might take an hour to select 6 colors for a project and did all kinds of little things, like print out some free patterns, which made the experience a delight. And it was NO big deal when after finally deciding on the yarns, we needed to go back into the warehouse and change some of our selections. We were in and out of that warehouse like mice after dark.  LOL

One of the yarns several of us were interested in was the Madelinetosh onesies, which are 15% off the regular price. These are Madelinetosh seconds, usually because the colorway wasn't perfect. But there is nothing wrong with the yarn. The thing about the onesies is you REALLY must see the color. For example, both of these are "Betty Draper Blue". Really!

I went to Jimmy Beans looking for yarn for the Catkin pattern, the Drunken Path scarf, and a onesies for a tam pattern Jocelyn is writing. I was also hoping to find a new pattern, something I hadn’t seen and buy the yarn for that. A little surprise for myself.

Here is the yarn I found for the Catkin

Here is the yarn for the Drunken Path scarf

Here is the yarn for the tam.

 (OK I just couldn't decide, but one of these will be a tam) LOL.

And I saw the Knot Sleeve blouse. Jimmy Beans didn't have the pattern, so I decided to order the pattern when I got home.

Saturday night we went to a wonderful restaurant at the golf club and then went back to Carol's to oooooh and ahhh over the yarns everyone got, knit and watch a movie.

Sunday we went to breakfast at Squeeze and then checked out the shops in downtown Truckee. I got this!!!  Isn't it the cutest coat! On sale for 50%.

Then it was time head home. All weekend I was thinking about the Prism yarn I didn't get. So I ask Julie, who was driving, if she'd mind a quick stop at Filati's on our way back. That was a very silly question. Of course she didn't mind. I used my cell phone to check when the shop was open and HORRORS they are closed Sun. and Mon.

Oh well maybe I'll go Tues. and get the yarn. I also wished that I had gotten two balls of the sock yarn for the Drunken Path scarf so I could make it longer.

On Monday, in my email was a coupon from Jimmy Beans for free shipping. Hmmmm so I was looking at the Prism yarn trying to decide if I really should get it, when I clicked the "Patterns for this yarn" link. And what do you think was the first pattern listed??? Yes the Knot Sleeve blouse. I had already purchased the pattern Sunday evening. The yarn and pattern are perfect together. I'm so glad they found each other   LOL.

I placed an order for the Prism yarn and one more ball of the sock yarn for the Drunken Path scarf. They shipped them that day and they arrived Wed.

This is the Prism yarn. The color of these skeins is more intense than the skein I saw at Filati. At first I was going to send them back but I've decided to do a swatch and then see if I like it.

I must say, that weekend was one of best weekends ever. Everything was relaxed and simple. I came home rested, refreshed, and excited to start my new projects. I also made huge progress on the Nicole Vest. I had stopped working on it about a month ago and needed time to figure out where I had stopped in the lace pattern and what I needed to do next. By the end of the weekend, I had finished the right side and had about 4 inches left on the left side strap.s

Measuring Your Knitting

Over the years I've found, one of the hardest things to do well is measure your knitted fabric. It wants to curl, it can be stretched, you have to hold the knitting down and somehow manipulate a measuring tape or ruler all while the knitting is still on the needles.

I used to measure all my knitting on the area rug in the living room. The rug helped hold it in place. Then I took a class and the teacher talked about an experience with one of her test knitters. She is a designer and gave the test knitter a pattern that of course specified the size in inches. When the test knitter gave the garment to her, she looked at it and said, this isn't the right size. The test knitter said sure it is and she put the knitting down on a rug and started smoothing it until the measurement was correct. At this point, I picture the designer as the cartoon character that turns to look out at you screen and has that "can you believe this" look. AND I realized I did the exact same thing. I put my knitting on a rug, smooth it and then measured it. This was a head slapping moment.

Hmmmm this explained many mysterious things. I have this UFO that I just can't face fixing it. I haven't frogged the whole thing because I'm so close to finished and I really like it. But it's been a UFO for over 6 years and I KNOW I won't finish it but I just can't frog it.

One front is 1 inch shorter that the other. I can't face frogging it because of all the shaping , all the cut yarn and trying to redo it all for an inch. I never could understand WHY oh WHY the pieces were not the same length!



Over the holidays one of the fabric stores had their Dritz cutting mats on sale. So I got one. And was planning on try to use the rotary cutter to cut out a skirt pattern. Last night I had stopped knitting on my Sojourner sweater because I needed to measure the back.

This morning a light bulb went on in my head. So I used my mat to measure my knitting. The mat is slick so it won't stretch the knitting and is gridded.

Look Mom, no hands!!!

The ruler at the top of the mat is the length I need. The ruler on the knitting is just there to keep the top from curling.

I can tell I have 1 inch to go. In the row on the needles, I'm going to put in a safety line and then all I have to do is measure 1 inch from the line.

Here is a pic of the entire sweater. Don't ya just love those cables!