Hat Season

Knitted Slouchy Hat with Color Changing Flowers

I have been knitting a lot of hats lately. I think it is because it is hat season, or maybe I just wanted to knit up a few patterns that caught my fancy. I have found hats to be one of the most difficult things to get right and I have complained about them before (http://tempestinapot.blogspot.com/2012/02/epic-knitting-failure-or-29th-of.html).  It is always the band I have a hard time getting right, they are either too tight or mostly too loose.  I have gotten smarter using a smaller size needle than the pattern suggests, which helps, but I still jokingly call them hates.

The Lovely Leana Hat

2 of the 3 turned out better than expected, but one require some extra effort on my part.  The Jacques Cousteau hat (https://www.dropbox.com/s/y8op4ctr9gip44c/JC%20Hat.pdf?dl=0) was a straight forward ribbed hat, which knitted up really nice once I got the gauge right.  The Cousteau hat was gifted to a friend and I am hoping it is keeping his head warm.  The Leana hat was knitted up with this great yarn called Leana by Schachenmayr.  I love how it striped up and the band is perfect on this hat.  I kind of love how this hat looks on me.  The third hat was a pattern I picked up on the yarn crawl last summer at the Bead Place in Illnois.  The gimmick with this knitted slouchy hat is the crocheted flowers turn colors.

Jacques Cousteau Hat

The knitted slouchy hat was a little bit of a challenge.  The band had a weird construction which included a hem and was still too loose.  Some carefully placed elastic made the band fit.  The original pattern had one crocheted flower, but I had enough yarn and crocheted 2 more.  The flowers with the buttons made the hat kind of heavy, but again the elastic did the trick.  I feel kind of over the top in the hat, but you know what I kind of like that feeling.

Crochet Flowers Turn Lavender in the Sunlight

Yarn Crawl or How I Busted My Budget

This weekend was the St Louis area yarn crawl.  Last year I didn't do the crawl because we were shopping for a house.  And as I have mentioned with the move, I have been on a yarn diet. I have also mentioned that I have fallen off that wagon.  Well, any thought that I might climb back on that wagon was blown this weekend.  I bought yarn at 5 of the 7 shops.  I tried to purchase something at every shop to support women owned small businesses, and because I like all these ladies, and of course I love yarn.  I enjoyed seeing everyone in my travels too.

My New Preciouses

However, I did break my budget.  Feeling a little guilty about that, but it is done and I have new yarn.

I Buy Yarn, Much Yarn

July was a good month for yarn crawling.  Mid-July we were lucky enough to head up to Illinois for a friend's birthday.  With our fiber manual and Garmin in hand we stopped in Springfield, Illinois to do some checking in on both of their local yarn shops.

First we stopped at Nancy's Knitworks (http://www.knitmap.com/locations/nancys-knitworks).  A larger shop in a strip mall.  Mr. Nancy, the son of the owner, was downright chatty.  He made us feel welcomed and cut us some great deals on yarn.  I got 3 balls of cotton yarn that I love for $2 a ball from the sale table.  The shop was spacious and he had a variety of yarn.  I felt the pricing was hap-hazard to my benefit.  The shop didn't have anything out of the ordinary, but he was friendly and we were able to find things we wanted to buy.

Jabro Super Soft Cotton

Not too far down the way we found Knitwits Yarn Spa (http://www.knitmap.com/locations/knit-wits-yarn-spa).  Where Nancy's was spacious, Knitwits was cramped and overwhelming with product.  Again the staff was friendly and helpful.  I saw some nice yarn in the shop, but the amount of yarn made it all little hard to see the sheep for the size of the flock.  I stuck with notions there and found some new lantern moon needles.  It is always good to find new yarn shops you like, and I will make it a point to stop by those 2 shops again when I am passing through Springfield, Illinois.

While in Chicagoland we spent time with some of our dearest friends who we don't see enough of.  The birthday party we went to had yummy food and fun people.  The birthday girl though not surprised by the party, was glad to see our two faces from St Louis. The birthday girl suggested on our way out of town we stop at her local yarn store, Knitche (http://knitche.com/).

Scrumptious Yarn, Aran Weight

I want to preface my remarks about Knitche that the shop had a sidewalk sale over the weekend. They were trying to put things back in order, but they were open for business with at least 3 staff people on the floor.  The store was a little in disarray; I didn't care I was just happy to be there.  The shop seemed to be chocked full of yarn goodness.  We looked around and even found the second story with the sale yarn.  I found a sweater's worth of Scrumptious Yarn in an aran weight on sale.  Natalie found some chunky yarn too, so we were not leaving there without dropping some dough.  Maybe, it was the staffs' hangover from a busy weekend, but the woman who checked us out took her time ringing us up.  She even tried to make me feel guilty for getting a sweet deal on the sale yarn.  Her co-workers kept interrupting while she was checking us out to discuss their weekend.  In all the staff made me feel like an annoyance, not fellow knitters on the road to knitvana.  Next time I am in  Downers Grove I will stop by and give them another chance to be a great yarn shop, but not to the tune of a sweaters worth of yarn.  It is just so disappointing to go into a yarn shop and have the staff not appreciate your enthusiasm.

As if my yarn obsession was not satiated enough, I spent the next weekend doing the St Louis summer yarn crawl.  I did not have enough time to do all 9 shops, but manage to squeeze in 7.  I bought some yarn, magazines, and an Elizabeth Zimmermann book.  Everywhere I went I meet excited knitters and friendly yarn store workers.  My enthusiasm was shared and I spent way too much money.  I even found a pattern for that sweater's worth of yarn I bought in Chicago.  Now to find the time to knit that sweater.

Yarn Crawling

1 Yarn Crawl, 2 Women, 4 Days, 12 Shops...Epic, Absolutely, Epic.  Each day we picked an area and focused on those yarn shops,  With 80s rock in the CD player we brought along the Garmin for help locating some of the shops (you really do need to update those things occasionally).  We put almost 200 miles on the car and did our best to help kick start the fiber economy,

We meet so many wonderful fiber enthusiast and shop owners.  I was surprised by all the cool things I saw.  I promised myself this year to focus on notions and not be seduced by green sock yarn.  At Loopy Ewe I was sorely tested, but held on to my goal and bought sock blockers, pattern tamers, and a cute notion bag.  At Meyer House I got an adorable pair of tiny scissors shaped like a puppy.  Today at the Bead Store in Fairview Heights, IL I even got a hairpin lace loom.  Okay, as much as I tried to resist, yarn was purchased.  Just for the record I did not buy any green sock yarn.

After 4 days and much debit card abuse, I am reflecting on my what was the best part of the yarn crawl.  I like all my new fiber stuff, but the time I got to spend with Natalie was my favorite part.  I always love doing things with her and this weekend was perfect.  We talked, we laughed, we ate pie, and just enjoyed having a good time.  The word lucky comes to mind, damn lucky.

Yarn Crawl or Doing My Part for the Economy

This weekend is the St Louis Area Yarn Store Crawl, where the owners lure the yarn heads in with the promise of free patterns and prizes.  With my debit card in hand, Natalie, Lenora, and a full tank of gas we were off making the loop around St. Louis.  The night before I gave it some thought and came up with a master plan for the trip and a list of things I am looking to purchase.  I packed my bag and I was ready by 11 to start doing some crawling.  I promised myself to space out the purchasing and try to buy something at 5 of the 6 locations.  I played the part of the Garmin.  Natalie was the chauffeur, and Lenora was, let's just say the rock star knitter in the back seat of the Ford Focus wagon.

We started at Hearthstone Knits and immediately I ran into a woman I had not seen in at least a year.  We chatted and caught up a little and before I knew it yarn was purchased and we were off to another location.  Knit and Caboodle in the bustling St Charles historic district was the most expensive stop of the day I fell in love with the drape of some gorgeous sea silk and well had to have it, in green (of course).  I found a lovely one ball knit lace scarf pattern for the very dear yarn.  I blame the evil Ariel at Knit and Caboodle for this purchase, not my own lack of control.

We ended at Knitty Couture in University City.  We got very lucky and were able to park right in front of the store.  I can't tell you how exciting it was to get all 6 spots stamped on my little passport or how awesome it was to get 6 free patterns by 6 designers that I knew. But I think the most exciting thing was that we had the rock star knitter, Lenore with us.  Everywhere we went people knew her and clamoured to talk to her about hardcore knitting issues and yarny gossip.  She knew everyone and I felt like a yarn groupie hanging out with her.    We rocked the yarn stores, and I think more than a few of them were glad when we took our rowdy selves out of their shops.

I came home with haul of magazines, yarn, and accessories, see the picture of haul at the top.  Keep your fingers crossed that one of us wins a prize (that bag at Hearthstone Knits was a stunner) and if we blazed across your trail Saturday I hope it was as much fun for you as it was for us.