Yarn plus

While I was in St. Charles last week, Deb took me to Myers House.

Wonderful old two-story house. The first floor is all quilting, and the second floor is knitting and weaving. I've never seen so many different sock yarns in one place before! I got the lovely Euroflax from my previous post there.

A new favorite is in picturesque Old St. Charles, down by the river. Fun place to wander and visit and have a "cuppa" or a good meal. The new knitting store is Knit and Caboodle. Here's a picture of her 110 (!!) colors of Cascade 220! Lots of other goodies, and she is encouraging folks to bring a sack lunch on Fridays, nosh and knit there. I bought a luscious Lane Borgosesia Cashwool 100% merino lace yarn, in "Denim" 1460 yards, for $14. I feel a shawl coming on..

Ozzie will help me look for a pattern for the shawl

After he finishes his nap, of course. That's three feet of Bengal kitty (nose to tail tip). He's about four years old, attitude to the eyeballs, but very loving. Usually.
I can't leave without reporting that we won a medal at the Region 7 Sweet Adelines Competition in Kansas City last weekend. Our St. Joseph chorus, named the St. Joe Show Chorus for the last 48 years placed second in small choruses. The chorus almost dissolved about 10 years ago, and has slowly been building back. This is the first time in several years that we've even placed, so we're really happy. One judge complains about Region 7 because " everyone wears black!" We took care of that!
Our director is Kim Kraut (on the left above) who is terrific! Here she is (second from the left below) with her winning quartet, Primo! I know, they're wearing black, but they're from the Kansas City chorus.
We're lucky to have her. I feel so lucky to be a part of this chorus--we're small, but dedicated, loving and supportive of each other. Such fun!

Changed my mind!

I couldn't find a pattern for the yarn I bought for my ISE project, so I changed. I'm using Euroflax (100% wet spun linen) in a celery green. I have three repeats of the 16 row "Falling Water Lace Scarf." I'm enjoying working with the yarn, but am glad to know that it softens with each washing. I'll be sure to soak it good before I block it and it should be very nice. It block to 6" by 70" so my pal should be able to use it in lots of ways.

Been a long time

It's been a while since I posted, so this may be a long one! We finally opened the box of yarn and books from Bonita knitting store in LA. My daughter and I were supposed to be joining their Stitch 'n Beach cruise with Debbie Stoller in January, but thanks to American Airlines, we missed boat. Literally. (You would think that a plane that had been on the ground for 14 hours would have been inspected before people boarded and that a broken strut in the engine might have been noticed!!) Anyway, the folks at Bonita were kind enough to ship me all of our yarn and books and goodies and we opened it when I took it to St. Charles to visit my daughter.

This is for a scrumptious knitted evening bag using a solid silk blend and a variegated silk blend that is beaded. Everything's here...yarn, needles, directions and the frame.

Books and tools...calculator, chibi, a tape measure that won't retract until you tell it to and lots of other goodies. The Stitch 'N Bitch book is autographed, too!

Our first glimpse inside just one of the bags! We had the same yarns, but different colors. We traded some, but were delighted with the choices that had been made.

Isn't this a yummy picture? It's to make a loooonng scarf, just two rows of each yarn, knitted crosswise. What a delightful way to package it all!
Here's a glimpse of one of their cute bags. The pockets were stuffed with tools, Euclan, rich hand soap, and even chocolate! The yarn comes from Be Sweet and is a subtle blend of burgandy/gray/brown, all 100% baby mohair. Do check out their site...they do a lot of good.

It would have been a great cruise, but we're delighted to get all of the fun stuff to play with!