Ooooohhhhh! New double points from Blue Sky Alpaca

So exciting! These are back from Blue Sky Alpaca. They are spendy ($28/set) at Webs.

LOVE these hats!!!

So apparently Ralph Lauren is selling these hats for a bargain basement price of $85.

Knitted vases

Ooooohhh!!!! I love these!

FINALLY!!!!!

Many thanks to my Monday Night Knitters, especially Casandra, Amber and Jimmy for helping me finish my first sweater! It fits Rosie perfectly! I am very pleased with how it came out.

A collaborative project

The international fiber collaborative wants knitters, crocheters and all other crafters to make leaves for a tree that will become part of a school's welcome area in Alabama. You have to make a leave out of anything you can think of that measures 5 inches at the widest point and 7 inches long. Send it in with the application available on the website by March 15th.

http://www.internationalfibercollaborative.com/html/treeproject.html

Yarn Camp

So I totally want to have a yarn weekend getaway this summer. I was thinking initially Northampton but I actually don't care if we go somewhere else. Perhaps Maine or Vermont? I want to knit, do yoga, cook, and sit around in a naturally beautiful setting. I want it to be very affordable and I do not want to have a drunkenfest-- I really tire of excessive drinking. Just mellow. No drama, no flaking, just lots of yarn and a lot of fun. I don't know how feasible it is given the economy for people to take a mini-vacation for knitting. I am guessing most of my pals would rather spend their vacations with families than knitting in the woods.

I also would like to find a local yarn shop to check out on this trip. That Patternworks store in central New Hampshire still calls my name. Perhaps an alternative to the almighty WEBS? If I were more organized, I would want to have it be more like Elizabeth Zimmerman's (now Meg Swanson's) knitting camp with classes and all kinds of stuff. I don't have the resources for such an endeavor right yet. My dream bitchin' knittin' camp would be at a little resort with cabins for everyone and it would be more like a week with technique classes on how to do fancy things with yarns. I would really want some of my Texan yarn friends to come up for it as well. What a nerd...I dream of yarn vacations.

Donna's Purse

This is a birthday gift for my friend Donna. I lined it with some pink Amy Butler fabric.

Coraline Tiny Knitting

I have heard rumor of the woman who made the clothes for Coraline. HOLY POOP! Go to the website into Coraline's room and open the top drawer of the white dresser/vanity. A film will show the woman who knits these clothes with threads the size of human hair.
Cick here. UNBELIEVABLE! The second drawer has a pattern for the star sweater or download the pdf here.

What I have been up to

School's out. I am bored. Crafting begins. I miss my sweat shop :(

This is my Holly Golightly doll that was a birthday gift for Laura.

More Yarn and Fabric around Boston

Winmill Fabrics near Chinatown/Downtown crossing came highly recommended on Tom's list (see previous post). In a word: Bleck. I can see if you wanted to buy men's suiting that this is the place to go. They had a lot of options all with reasonable prices. Even women's wool suiting looked okay. However, this place looked like it hadn't received any new fabric since 1982. The place was dingy. The staff didn't acknowledge me. There certainly weren't any hipster fabrics a la Amy Butler or anything I would want. Huge disappointment considering its proximity to my work.

In better news, we roadtripped it up to Lowell, MA, which is where the giant textile mills used to be. The buildings are still there and a few have been turned into national parks. We went to the New England Quilt Museum. Snooze. I have more quilts than this place had! Not as old but definitely as interesting. I was actually quite disappointed with the number of quilts. A leisurely paced tour of the exhibit lasted 15 minutes maximum. Hardly worth $5. I don't even think my mom (master quilter) enjoyed it too much.

We hit the Lowell LYS which are at this place called the Western Avenue Studios. This place was awesome! There is a yarn store (Classic Elite) which is an outlet of sorts. Reasonable selection of yarn, just poorly organized and difficult to figure out prices: one of my BIGGEST complaints about LYS up here. After tackling the yarn store we went down and looked at the artist studios. Basically these places are for rent for artists and they sell their wares out of their studios. None of the art was earth shattering, but it was awesome that this space is available and some of the work was really interesting and definitely worth checking out around Christmas time. We will definitely go back. If we lived closer, we'd be getting a studio!

Boston LYS Updated 6/25

Been to: The Stitch House in Dorchester. Love, love, love! This store has a beautiful selection of yarn a ton of nice space to hangout and knit in which the very sweet owner encourages. She also knows everything about the area and has been immensely helpful in my recent relocation. Super nice people, super nice space, and well worth coming out to the Dot!

A Good Yarn in Brookline. This is a tiny store, but has a ton of yarn in every nook and cranny. Very good sale recently! I bought a bunch of new yarn for less than 1/2 the price. Very exciting especially because my mom is coming to visit soon and there are some requests for crochet projects out of Mr. Funky!

Newbury Yarn Co. 164 Newbury St, Boston. Talk about tiny! This place is a little room in the back of a building near the center of Newbury Street. The yarn selection is fine, but she doesn't price her yarn. She said it was too much trouble. Okay, so put up a sign? No. You basically have to ask how much the individual balls, skeins and hanks are. I don't like that at all. She also bad mouthed the yarn store down the street, which I didn't think was very professional. I doubt that I would go back.

Mind's Eye Yarn 22 White Street, Cambridge. This place is in an odd location near Porter Square, behind the Pier 1 and in front of the parking lot for Shaw's. TINY! It actually felt like the owner lived in there as her toothbrush was in the customer bathroom. Ick. Her selection of yarn was nothing to write home about. I bought an obligatory 2 skeins of Araucania in a lovely palette. She teaches spinning classes which I am mildly interested in learning how to do. She had a descent selection of roving but I wouldn't make a special trip over there-- it's more of a place you would stop in if you were already in the area.




Haven't yet been too:
Circles 56 Murray Hill Road, Roslindale
Windsor Button 35 Temple Place, Boston
Wild and Wooly
Knit and Needlepoint 11 Newbury St, Boston (I looked in the window on this one, but it seemed to cater to the latter rather than the former of its names).
In Stitches 454 Boston Post Rd.Weston, MA
Sit 'n Knit 167 West Emerson Street
Knitwitts 56 Allen RoadBrookfield Knittin' Kitten Blanchard Road, Cambridge
Woolcott & Co. 61 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
Ladybug Knitting Shop 612 Route 6A Main Street, Olde Kings Grant, Dennis
The Wool Basket, Inc. 19 Depot St, Duxbury
The Yarn Barn 602 Route 6A, East Sandwich,

A Few Knitting (and Crochet) Resources

I can't recommend Ravelry enough. You have to wait about 2 weeks because they are a DIY shop and many others are waiting to sign up. This is a wondrous resource for knitters and crocheters alike! Patterns, yarns, ideas, pictures, swaps, and more! FANTASTIC! If you are already on Ravelry, please be my friend: Rockabilachica.


Vickie Howell's website has podcasts. This host of DIY's knitty gritty has a lot of interesting ideas.


Knitting Help has great videos to see how to do everything from the basics to the super expert.

More to come!