Arrivals and Departures

I arrived home on Sunday evening after spending most of the week at the West Virginia State Folk Music Festival. What a wonderful time I had there. It is my second year to attend this festival in Glenville, WV. I am one of the artists who has a tent and participate in the artist's market, selling my handmade jewelry. My calendar is already marked off for next year's festival. It will be the 58th Annual. I met another knitter there and we had a number of friendly chats about our knitting. She spotted me sitting there knitting one day and that led to a wonderful conversation with a new friend.



Another arrival to report - my new knitting books had arrived while I was in WV. My great granddaughter and I anxiously opening the boxes and took turns looking through them. It was Christmas in June!

I will depart tomorrow for a trip to Austria and Germany that I do every summer. I have my bags packed and my knitting projects ready to take along. I have knitting ready for taking on the flight over in my carry on bag. And, packed in my check in bag is the directions and needles for the Irish Walking Scarf. I will buy the yarn for it when I arrive in my village and begin working on it there. I joined the knitalong for the Irish Walking Scarf recently so I intend to post photos of my progress on that site once I get it going.

Joyful Frogging

Katia Florida"Wildflowers"

This yarn is so beautiful - I love TOUCHING it!

I have been knitting the Katia Florida Summer Top (see blog below). Today, I decided it was not going to fit me properly and that sent me back to look at my pattern instructions. Seems I must have had a lapse of thought when I started this because I was using the wrong size needles! Nothing to do but to begin the frogging process and start all over again. I was using size 6 needles, instead of the size 10 that the pattern calls for. I am back on track now, and the frogging fun is over for now. It does take patience and tenacity to knit, doesn't it?

The second photo shows my progress on the Katia Florida Summer Top that is on the needles. This is the one I started again, after I frogged the first one. I am nearly finished with the back and will begin the front tomorrow, hopefully. I want to wear this sweater when I leave on a trip in two weeks. If is so nice to touch and I think it will feel so good to be wearing it. I am crazy about this yarn from Elann.com

Shopping For Shelly

Yesterday I had a wonderful adventure with my artist friend, Myrna. We had decided to meet for lunch and then I wanted her to go with me to a fantastic yarn shop, Yarns Unlimited in Sewickley, PA. It was our dessert for the day. We touched everything that caught our eye and we just went from one stunning yarn to another, throughout the entire store.


I told the friendly sales lady why we were shopping - we were looking for just the right yarn for Shelly, my California "Secret Pal" for the One Skein Knit Along project. Not only did Myrna and I engage in touching and feeling in our quest of the "right" yarn, the sales lady joined us in our adventure. There was lots of giggles and breathless ooooohhhhssss and aaaaaahhhhhhs while we worked our way through that shop. We would carry some skeins around for awhile, thinking that just might be "the one." Then, we would find another one that seemed even more like what we envisioned Shelly might like. We think a California lady might like "bright" and "happy" colors.

Finally, after nearly an hour of serious selecting, we made our decision. It will be flying all the way from Western PA where it is rainy and very dreary today, to California where I imagine the sun must be shining, the sky cloudless and still, and the birds singing with joy in the springtime.

That is all I will say about this yarn for now. I would not want to ruin a surprise.

Elann.com

This is the Katia Florida Summer Top that I started working on today. Katia of Spain is the manufacturer of this beautiful yarn. This photo is from the website http://www.elann.com The yarn I chose for my sweater is a soft peachy color called "Wildflowers." It has peach, ivory, and pale lavender in it...all very soft. It will be so perfect for traveling to Europe this summer. I am hoping to get it finished up in the next two weeks so I can be wearing it as I take off for Munich on June 20th.

The yarn feels so good as I am knitting it. I began the knitting right after I opened the box that arrived from http://www.elann.com I have never ordered from them before and when I found the website I was excited to see the beautiful things available and I immediately knew I had to have a couple of them. The order arrived very quickly and the packing is the best possible. Shipping was very quick. I am delighted with the yarns I received.

I had ordered yarn to make two of the sweaters on the website. The patterns are free and I ordered the yarns suggested with the patterns. I will take photos as my sweater progresses. I just can't tell you how silky soft and nice this yearn feels as I am knitting. And, the colors are so luscious. I am a satisfied customer and expect to be a return customer in the future.

WhileI enjoy walking through a local yarn shop and feeling and touching all the yarns before making final selections, it was still very exciting to order a yarn I had not touched and had no idea what it would be until it arrived. I am pleasantly surprised. I am very glad I just took a chance and ordered the yarn because it is fantastic.