New yarn store review and a headless person, bet you can't guess who I will be...

Went to yet another... new to me...yarn store today.
I live in Massachusetts where we have more lovely
yarn stores than one could ever imagine, many of
which are fairly close to my home...unbelievably
lucky and blessed!
So goals for 2008, is to visit at least one new
store monthly...today I trekked over to Milford, Mass.
to a lovely, but small shop called Knitting Pointers.
I think it may have been one of the smallest yarn stores,
However they did have the new Malabrigo lace weight yarn in
some really yummy colors...they also had quite a few
unusual brands of yarns, some of which ...were from both Australia
and the UK....I bought some absolutely lovely Bartlett yarn
100% wool, it was a yummy shade of raspberry, and as all yarn
does in most yarn stores, it called out to me like that puppy
in the shop,
please take me home, so of course I did.
I also scored some Galway, so lovely for felting in a color
that was sold out in other stores in the area...
I felt the prices were more than reasonable,
the lighting was excellent to see all the colors well,
the store hours were better than most, as
this shop unlike most Mass stores is actually open on Mondays.
and although the shop was tiny, the selection was very good,
and she had some very high end yarns such as Blue Heron.
One more important note at least for me, staff was
very friendly and helpful and new the product well.
I will definitely go back there again. This one is a keeper!

On another note...I am making a doll, and am at the sewing up stages...



and sometimes, if you're the doll, just sitting there, headless
you have to take things into your own hands and just finish
sewing yourself together, or at least it looks that way.
...headless man with needle and thread in hand....



on the other hand, great says the headless doll, so she made
me a shirt....Wheeee.




Oh great so now I have pants but where's my head?
Stay tuned....should be sewn up by tomorrow.

How the Easter Bunny really delivers those eggs

Today managed to photo Easter Bunny
evidently out delivering eggs.
So now I know, he uses a backpack.
Rabbit is a Debbie Bliss pattern
Woven look (actually knitted) backpack
is from Alan Dart, latest Simply Knitting Mag.
Eggs pattern-also Alan Dart...note Alan Dart
does not decorate his eggs with crazy colored
embroidery, however I was sitting in a class
by Kristin Nicholas attempting to sew up my eggs,
and I would say her wild colors/embroidery just
rubbed off on me.





Happy Easter from da....Bunny

"Say cheese" for the camera and Flower Show #2 (BOSTON)

More photos than I can post,
and lots of new yarny adventures
to share as well, so will spread them out
over a few days, or would be just too many photos
to take in....





B e e n k n i t t i n g ,

s e w i n g , crocheting, needle felting,
yarn dying, bead making, jewelery making...
and just started rug hooking...
so lots of varied things to share...

Work continues on my d'oeuvre plate project...
& was able to come up with a fairly good
knitted, felted swiss cheese which goes pretty well wrapped
and skewered with knitted felted olive.







Then I made some felted beads from wool roving,
which I did as a needle felting project,
not a soap and water version of beading,
made project into a necklace, was going to use chain,
but had some fine silver thread like yarn
(believe it was Berroco)in stash,
so just incorporated that into the project...
made several beads, so used two of tiny ones
for matching earrings, however photo each time
was still blurry...but you get the idea.







Final note for this blog entry...went to Boston Flower Show
The theme this year was Rhapsody in Green so will post a few
of my favorite pics here: the first two were artistic expression category













Just gotta love it, still cold outside,
even a few patches of snow left...
ground is bare otherwise and these lovely smells
and all the beautiful colors of the flower show.
~ can't wait for Spring!

Quick update

unable to upload photos on camera at moment
due to technical difficulties
but lots of fun March yarny adventures to share.
will try again on Wednesday...so check back.

More Cat Capers

Hey it's finally March...and it's that time again...more cat capers.

So Top O' The Morning To You from Mc' Tic Toc




Mc' Crespo





and Mc' Piper...





and yes Mc' Crespo does look like he indeed
had too much Irish special in his cat bowl
and is sleeping it off in his little party hat.

As for what's on my needles,
still struggling with the sweater,
and it's now time to consult the sweater gods
(my local knitting guild, wiser souls than me)
to check this pattern for me, as there seems to be
some errata, however cannot find any posted anywhere.

Also still working on a rather strange purse project...
scrumbling, loads of fun...but not so portable,
as it uses so many different yarns,
and now has grown rather out of hand...
but a few work in progress photos to post for now...







As always lots of fun little projects up my sleeve, stay tuned...
~And as you can see only Piper would agree to wear the Irish beard.
Beard is crocheted as is shamrock on hat.

Recapping February's Yarny Adventures

My New Year's Resolution continues that I made
back at the beginning of the year...
~At least one new yarn adventure monthly
till the end of the year.
February was a yarn crawl month
to neighboring states to check out new yarn stores...
Last week, I found a lovely discount store in Rhode Island,
and today I was off to New Hampshire to visit Nashua and Ewe'll Love It http://www.ewellloveit.com/



Lots of cute little store signs, both out front
and inside the building directing knitters down
the hallway to the shop







And finally just one quick shot of part of the store:



Not sure what my favorite thing was...
this was a very spatious store, with absolutely no crowding anywhere...
There were lovely couches to sit on,
and a knitting group was actually going on while I was there,
and there was so much room, I could easily walk around pat yarn,
and sit and look at their many books...
There are a few books I just can't find in either
the large book stores in our area or any of the local yarn stores,
and have just decided to order them online,
until I came into this store, and there they were
right on the shelf...amazing.
They have a lovely selection of Rowan,
as well as all the popular mags, but also Cast On and Rebecca (past issues too)...they seem to have a lot of overseas books especially.
The yarn selection was huge, and I really needed more time,
they also have a loft upstairs with marked down yarn some of which
I just can't believe has been discounted.
I can't resist pretty unusual needles or new gadgets,
both of which they had loads...so also picked up
a few trinkets I had never seen before...
Oh and must mention, staff very pleasant and eager to assist..
this is a definite return visit.....!
Now part II got a swift for Christmas...lovely gift and still
in its box, as don't have a clue what to do with it.
saw a lady winding a skein with swift and ball winder today...
however don't own a ball winder...so spent better part of the night
with help from my wonderful (nonknitting) husband with the mechanics
of the project and made my own ball winder and thread feeder thingy.
Not sure if the photos will help... It's mostly K'nex, some Lego's,
and a toy motor, so it's motorized...and works quite well...will need
a little tweeking...but it works! Hooray!

Fairies, socks, and a wolf in grandma's (flower?) bed...

Day late...and too many photos to print...
will just have to pick out the best.
First up...what's on my needles, lest I get
too much away from knitting...I am deep into a
free form project, and now that I am halfway
through, I must say it is so addicting!
Hope to have photos up on that one by Friday.

First up: went to the Rhode Island
Spring Flower and Garden Show
in Providence, Rhode Island this weekend...
this was my first visit
to this particular show...and I would classify
it as a Keeper!
This year's theme was Fairy Tales,
and they all seemed to be well
represented and the whole show was
most enchanting...
My major purchase was a large bunch of
pussy willows for only $4.
and we all got free flower seeds,
mine were "forget me not."







A few more photos of more commonly known fairy tales:
Hansel & Gretel, the 3 Little Pigs, and even the Big Bad Wolf
in Granny's bed, which is depicted here as a "Flower Bed."













And a few final lovely flower scenes...











I went with a girlfriend and we squeezed in time
for just one yarn store
experience in Rhode Island...we chose the Yarn Outlet
in Pawtucket, R.I.
as it was actually on our way.
We were both pleased, and went home
with several new purchases...
they have loads of books, most of which
were on sale...and lots of lovely sale yarn also.
my favorite purchase was a skein of
filatura di crosa party yarn, which looks
exactly like green grass knit up...
Easter is coming folks....need that
green grass...for my knitted eggs and
knitted bunnies..........

Finally, I am currently back to knitting socks,
found an ankle sock pattern that I really love,
and knits up really quick too, just grabbed some
crazy Easterish colored yarn from my stash...
and now I have some lovely socks for the spring.
Worsted Ankle Sock Pattern can be found here:
http://www.kraemeryarns.com/patterns/pdfs/ttw_anklesocks.pdf

then I went into my new Kristin Nicholas book,
Kristin Knits and made some of her wild colored
socks with her signature embroidery.