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OK, so not really “west” as I typically think about west. No sunny LA streets, no wandering around San Francisco, and definitely not taking that long, long flight to Hawaii (remind me to never do that again). No, this was to Western Massachusetts – my first trip to WEBS. I’ll admit, I have no photos from the trip. I was very overwhelmed. Not from the size of the store – that was fine. It was the sheer number of people that completely overwhelmed me. Crystal, Lyndsay and I made a day of the trip to Northampton with a trip to WEBS and then to see the Yarn Harlot. It seems every knitter on the east cost made the same trip. I cannot believe the number of people that were in that store. I wondered aloud on more than one occasion how many people we were over fire code (once again, the architect in me talking). But, even with all those people, we had a great time shopping. My main goal for the day was two hanks of Cascade Eco-Wool in black. I knew WEBS was short on supply in the black, but I really wanted it for an office cardigan. They were out of the black on the sales floor, but I managed to snag some out of the back room. They did sell out of the black.

I also scored some Noro sock yarn – even at a special 25% off for Harlot Day price. One skein will be for gloves and the other for socks.

I found a cone of Shetland in the warehouse. Lonely little cone. 900 yards of beautiful oatmeal Shetland. I’m planning to play with this on my spinning – try plying it with some handspun, see what I come up with. I have 12 ounces of Shetland from the Hello Yarn fiber club that I might try plying it with – we’ll see how that comes out.

I also found (with some amazing help from Lyndsay) the most beautiful skeins of Lorna’s Laces Shepard Sock that I have ever seen.

I’ve actually taken to carrying them around with me – the yarn just makes my day a little better. I’m going to have a really hard time knitting this up. I don’t know if I’ll love it as much knit up.

The weather is finally starting to warm up here in Boston, and I am still working on those cold weather knits. Case in point, I spent the weekend knitting Gretel. I received two beautiful hanks of Elsebeth Lavold Angora in Aubergine at a yarn swap a couple weeks ago, and thought it would be perfect for this pattern. It does create a beautiful hat, and I think this yarn was perfect. This is how much leftover yarn I had at the end of the project.

Yes, that does include my cast-on and tail after I sewn in the end. Amazing, huh? I’ve never been that close on a project before. Here’s what the finished product looks like:

And being modeled:

It’s now getting a hard blocking, and when it’s dry it will get put away for next winter.

One of the favorite topics out in knitting blogland is “if you were stranded on a desert island, what knitting supplies would you want”.  I’ve seen this topic discussed many times, I’ve seen contests based on this topic, I think it’s a favorite dream of many knitters.  Where am I going with this?  Let’s find out.  

The Other Member of The House and I spent the last week in the Turks and Caicos.  It’s an island chain somewhere out in the Caribbean.  I don’t think I’d be able to find it on a map.  TOMoTH did all the planning.  It has a really beautiful beach – I think it’s one of the 10 top beaches in the world (selected by someone other than myself).  There is a reef several miles out from the shore that stops the big waves that are coming across the Atlantic, which allows nice gentle waves on the beaches.  It was beautifully sunny, but a bit windy during our trip.  

We stayed at the Ocean Club West in Provinciales.  The resorts in Provo (as it’s called) are very high-end, with a price tag to match.  With me being in school, we really don’t have the budget to stay high-end, but TOMoTH had scouted out this resort, where we were able to rent a studio condo with a kitchenette.  The prices at the grocery store were amazingly high, but still cheaper than eating out.

The wind was a bit of a problem.  It caused much bigger waves than usual, so no snorkeling on this trip. 

That really is one of my favorite parts of a beach trip.  TOMoTH planned to go scuba diving, but he caught a nasty cold and wasn’t able to dive.  One thing that he had planned before the trip that we were able to do was a full day island getaway on one of the deserted islands near where we were staying.  So, I really got to live out the deserted island fantasy.   What I brought to the island – 2 balls of Berroco Ultra Alpaca in Marsh Mix, size 5 and size 7 Knit Picks Harmony needles, Knit Picks Harmony cable needle, and a photocopy of the Cabled Swing Cardi pattern from the Knitter’s Book of Yarn.  I was ready.   We were dropped off on the island about 9:30am.  The first thing we noticed – it was really windy.  Way too windy to just sit on the beach.  So, we spent about an hour scouting a location where we could kick back, enjoy the sun, and be out of the wind.  We found a dune that sheltered us pretty well, and set up camp.  TOMoTH dug into the food and drink that had been left for us, and I started knitting.  I had a beautiful view while knitting.   But I learned fairly quickly that this was not going to be my ideal place to knit.  There were burrs all over the place. 

I really had to pay attention so nothing got dropped.  I didn’t want burrs in my sweater. 

And, of course – you’re on a deserted island, you want to check it out.  We hung out by the water for a while (waves were way too big to go in the water) and we saw a rock iguana scurry by, so we fed him some bread to keep him around a little bit (he wasn’t interested in the yarn at all).  And time actually goes really fast on a deserted island.  There’s more to do than you think.  I was able to get a good chunk knitted on my sweater, though.

 After a couple more days in Provo, we headed home.  We had a really good time, but there are no yarn stores anywhere on that island.

 Oh, you want to see the sweater?  I’ll show some photos of that next time…

The blog is ugly.  I completely understand that the blog is ugly.  That’s why I’m not telling people where it is, or how to find it.  I want you to come here and have one of those “oh, I get it” moments.  It’s not there yet.  Can you be patient?  It will all come together – just not today.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I want this blog to be.  Or what I want to do with it.  There are a lot of things that I do – I knit, I spend a lot of time working on my house, I travel, I’m a student – working on a degree in Architecture.  I’ll probably want to talk about all these things from time to time.  But, it will most likely be mostly knitting.  I like it, you might want to see what I’m doing, and it’s something that I do just about every day, so there’s a fairly consistent level of “stuff” to talk about.   

Starting things out, I thought I’d give you a little background or information about my knitting.  I am a process knitter.  Finished objects are not my main goal in knitting – they’re nice to have, but they’re not why I’m doing this.  I love learning new techniques, improving my skills, playing with yarn, coming up with new ways to bend the rules.  My favorite yarn is Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift.  Perfect colorwork. 

But, I also picked up a huge hank of Alpaca with a Twist’s Baby Twist last week at Seed Stitch Fine Yarn. 

This just might be my choice of yarn that I will knit with forever and forever.  Seed Stitch just needs to get in more colors.

I understand the blog is a little scattered right now.  C’mon - it’s my first day!  It’s kind of a brain dump of the last several months right now.  The brain dump may continue for a little while, but I promise it will get better.