the blue blog archives: adventurous me

I promised you a story of my knitting adventure. Well, I'm not that adventurous, so I hope you weren't expecting too much! Our Knitsmiths founder, Dava, has organized field trips for us to go to some of the not so local yarn stores in the Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island area and this weekend we went to Webs ("America's yarn store!"). Now I know why so many people in this area make a pilgrimage to Webs once a year. What a great shop! I loved browsing through their books and patterns, including older issues of Vogue Knitting and Interweave Knits (had to pick me up one of these) and some older hard to find patterns, like this one, which I've wanted to get for a long time. The great thing about Webs is the yarn selection (oh, and the discounts!). I missed my Rowan yarns, but they have so many other wonderful yarns on display in the store and a whole open warehouse of coned yarn. I'm a little intimidated by coned yarn, having never worked with it, but I decided to give some fine gauge shetland a try for a Norwegian fair-isle sweater I've been longing to make.

I'm looking forward to swatching it to see how it knits up! Another Knitsmith, Johanna, is just starting her first fair-isle (progress pics to come!) and has reminded me how much I enjoyed knitting the Dale bug sweater. This means I'll probably be picking up the ladybug sweater soon to finish it and get myself psyched up to make this sweater for myself.

Speaking of the Knitsmiths, we had a great group yesterday, with two Smooches (Gina and Kerstin) and yet another area knitblogger, Claudia, who was knitting a tank in the most wonderful ribbon yarn (check it out on her blog!). Ribbon yarn was certainly the theme of the day, with no less than six knitters working with ribbon.

posted by alison at 7:43 am | in fantastic fiber voyage , snowy

Comments

Sheesh, could you make that pic any bigger? *lol* I always close my eyes in a flash pic. Always. And hello?!? You are most certainly an adventurous knitter if you are going to attempt THAT sweater. Lookin' forward to reading about it, oh, for the next six months or so? *teehee*

Posted by: Kerstin at June 30, 2003 6:54 AM

is webs that you went to the same as the one online at www.yarn.com? i think i am going to get the donegal tweed from that site for my ribbie cardie. that sweater is beautiful, it will be quite the project!! p.s. tres sexy smooches on the girls!

Posted by: carolyn at June 30, 2003 7:30 AM

Hey Alison. After many, many issues with my Smooch, I've finally finished it. I'm thinking about righting all my wrongs with a new Smooch. For now, you can move me over to red. Thank you.

Posted by: Sharlyn at June 30, 2003 8:19 AM

Hey, I recognize that tush in the Smooches pic! My moment of fame...:)

Posted by: claudia at June 30, 2003 8:32 AM

Hey Kerstin, in that Smooch, no one's looking at your eyes! Plus, they're all looking at Claudia's tushie, don'tcha know. :)

Posted by: alison at June 30, 2003 8:39 AM

I have always wanted to go to Webs.

When I have knit with coned yarn, I have used a Niddy Noddy to wind skeins and then (hand)washed them to get the yarn to soft and full slightly.

Posted by: Melissa at June 30, 2003 2:44 PM

So sorry I missed out on all the fun! I planned on attending but should have known better. My friend that I went away with is notorious for being late. When she said we'd leave Sunday morning, I shoula known it would be later Sunday afternoon. I was pouting, though....just so you know I grieved the knitsmiths session. :)
I missed my chance to meet Claudia! I wonder if I'll be able to recognize her by the bum shot! The two smooches are most excellent! And I can't wait to see Johanna and you make progress on the fair isles. I guess you two are the fairisles of them all! heehee!
Sandy, knitsmithless

Posted by: Sandy at June 30, 2003 6:38 PM

Hate! Hate! Hate! you. I wanna, wanna go to Webs. pout & makes ugly face.

Love that FI - I hope to play with a Ron Schweitzer later this yr or next, so mybe a knitalong :-))

Go Grrl

Posted by: peter at June 30, 2003 8:57 PM

I'm so glad you liked Webs- lucky me, it's my LYS.
Watch for the after Christmas clearance sale- it's worth a return trip. I spent way too much money last year!

Posted by: Barbara at June 30, 2003 9:09 PM

Hey*#8212;if you are going to be going on field trips, feel free to email me reviews of the shops so I can post them on my web log.

I am planning to visit Webs. Sounds like a great place.

Posted by: Martha at July 1, 2003 1:52 PM

Melissa, thanks for the tip on working with coned yarn. I'm hoping to swatch a bit of it in the next few days and I'll try out what you've suggested.

Martha, I'll see if I or one of the other Knitsmiths can't send you something after each field trip!

Sandy, it would have been great to have you at Knitsmiths. Anytime you can make it again, we'd love to have you! We had such fun with Claudia.

Posted by: alison at July 1, 2003 11:11 PM