Happy Fiber Arts Friday

It's Fiber Arts Friday and the start of Labor Day Weekend - hooray!  Going over to Santa Cruz to hang out at the beach, check out the new Monterey Bay Marine sanctuary there, and perhaps do a little wine tasting and knitting.  The more wine tasting, the less knitting so we shall see how that goes.  In the meantime, here is what I have been up to:

                                   

                                                               

Knit these socks for my daughter with Austermann Step.  She loves the colors and so do I.  Looks like something you might see in a Harry Potter movie!

A while back, for those who follow my blog intently, you may remember I fell in love with the Modular Afghan displayed in last winter's Webs catalogue.  It was made with Noro's Taiyo and I dropped everything and ran to my computer and promptly ordered the color shown, plus an additional order of the same yarn in a pink colorway for an afghan for my daughter:

                                                                           

Of course my intention was to start knitting these immediately, but, well you know....

Anyway, I have now started the one for my daughter and it has turned out to be as much fun as I thought it would be.  It's been fun watching the colors develop and since each piece is joined as you go along, there will be no sewing together at the end.

                                                                                             

For anyone who might want to try this, the pattern is in Knit Noro and there are several projects on Ravelry if you want to see what others have done.

Have a great weekend and check out what others are up to on Andrea's blog.
                         

Summer Knitting

Not much knitting going on around here in the last month, and I have been looking for some inspiration to get excited about knitting again.  My cousin Kathy just underwent major surgery and that was reason enough to get off my duff and start knitting a pair of comfy socks for her.   This pattern is called Lace-Rib Pattern Socks by Karen Kahane and I've got the first one finished:

                                                                             

The yarn is Pediwick by Knit One crochet too and is 66% bamboo and 34% nylon:

                                                                                     


I'm sure there is a lot of great summer knitting going on with the Ravellenics during the Summer Olympics and here are a few lovely projects that caught my eye as I browsed through Ravelry.


This is Summer Flies by Donna Griffin:

       

Here's a version done by  Marni from Alano Yarnies:

                                                                                   

                                       

 

Just saw this cute shawl on Ravelry.  It's called Summer Blooms by Amanda Leggat:

                                                                                   
 
Am I the only one not knitting the Color Affection shawl?  Last I looked there were over 17,000 people knitting this on Ravelry.

                                                                                 
 
It's getting great reviews from easy to knit garter stitch pattern to a shape that drapes beautifully around the neck and stays in place.   I got to make one.   I think this is the inspiration I've been looking for!

                                                                                                                                                  

A Yarn Crawl in Denver

Met a nice woman by the name of Vicky on Ravelry  through our shared interest in a couple of patterns.  Her Ravelry name is VickyinDenver and when I told her I was coming to Denver for a couple of weeks, she was kind enough to offer to take me on a tour of a few of her favorite shops, thus broadening my potential for stash building beyond the Lamb Shoppe near my daughter's home.  My daughter shook her head in amazement when I told her that a woman I had never met was willing to spend an afternoon with me  hanging out at yarn shops and knitting.  I told her, "Hey Sara - it's Ravelry! "

It was a balmy 103 degrees when we set off on our tour but thanks to air conditioning and good company, I hardly noticed.  First stop was Vicky's favorite shop,  Colorful Yarns in Centennial.  What a great place - if you have the time to hit some yarn shops on a visit to Denver, this should be at the top of your list.  It's located on the first floor of an office building with various rooms filled with books, yarn, pottery and just about anything related to knitting.  My favorite spot was the room filled with yarn and knitting and crochet books with a large comfortable couch that invites you to sit, relax and browse though the books:



                                                                           

                                                                           

This shop carries a huge selection of yarns and I bought some Chunky Mochi for a cowl project:

                                                                               

Some nice pottery bowls to hold your yarn as you knit:

                                                                               

                                                                               
Then it was on to A Knitted Peace which is another lovely yarn shop in the charming town of Littleton, just outside of Denver.  That's Vicky on the left  with her friend  Joy who joined us:

                                                                           

                                                                                     

                                                                             
This scarf caught my eye - I think it would be a great project for using up some of the sock yarn in my stash.  It's called the Wrap and Ruffle scarf and it's a free pattern that they were nice enough to give me.

I bought this skein of Anzula for a shawlette project.  This is what passes as lace knitting for me.

    Next stop was Fancy Tiger, a great little fabric and craft shop that has become very popular and has now moved into much bigger quarters.   Add this to your must see list when you are in Denver.

                                                                                         

    Their new space has plenty of room for all kinds of fiber related crafting - spinning, knitting, sewing, whatever.  Check out this classroom space:  

                                                                                                                                                       

                                                                             

                                                       Thanks Vicky for a great day!