Knitting shop in White Sulphur Springs

Sarah took a well earned vacation to DC to visit her daughter last week.  On the way back she stopped at a knitting shop in White Sulphur Spring.  Stone walls Farm is the name of the shop.

The owner dyes her own yarn.  The yarn Sarah brought back with her makes me want to make a special trip to the shop!  It is gorgeous yarn!

Knitting Stripes

I read an e-mail from Harps and Thistles this morning that had a link to a video about knitting stripes.  I want to be sure that I can get to this you tube video again if I end up making the mittens that Carla was working on last week at knitting.

So first here is the you tube URL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAkLX7ReQOs&feature=youtu.be&mc_cid=e5aa205e11&mc_eid=178c0f918a

And then here is a photo of Carla's mittens.



Carla's mittens are made from a kit that she bought at Black Mountain.



And actually I can see that Carla did not need this video as the ribbing does not have stripes.  Still, it seemed that these two ideas had some connection.  

Wendy's Fern Shawl

I finished my first Wendy's Fern Shawl and I like it a lot....the final photo is in an earlier post.  Because I am very distracted with hosting Mary's family, I decided to just make the same pattern again in some different yarn that was sitting out in my dressing room.  I am not sure that there is enough yarn in this color way.....but at least it is a summer project I can work on while we are sitting in the playroom.

I am using the same needles....size 8.  The yarn is:





The color way is 2108





I ran out of yarn at knitting on Tuesday and it is not nearly long enough.  However, when I played with it yesterday, I found that it is OK worn with triangle tip in back and just crossed over in the front.  That is good because I called all over the place and looked everywhere on-line with no success finding any more of this yarn in this color way.  So now I need to start one more summer project.

Ok...because it is fairly hectic around here, I am going to do one more Wendy's Fern Shawl in some more yarn that is in the fish bowl in my dressing area.









I liked the look of this scarf so much that I started one more Wendy's Fern Shawl.  This time the yarn is also Santorini but in a slightly different color way.  The yarn has been discontinued, so no need to make note of the color.

Didn't actually finish the final Wendy's Fern Shawl until my trip to see Mary in Peru in November.   I wore it to knitting the first Tuesday I was back:

As I already said there is no reason to add information about the yarn.  It has been discontinued.

I do have a small amount of yarn left so I will add that they manufacturer suggests size 7 needles and hand wash and dry flat.

Stephen West's Samen

I have messed with my gorgeous line yarn from Claudia all week.  I just did not like the yarn in the pattern that I was trying to use.  So this morning, I spent a bit of time looking for a new idea.




My newest idea is Stephen West's Samen.  The yarn is held double in this shawl with short rows to make the shape.  My color ideas will be very different from what is seen here, but the shape of the shawl will be similar.

Carla's Tashashu Gordon scarf

Our knitting group met at Sarah's Kanawha City knitting shop in the end of March.  Carla bought yarn for a pattern that she had bought on Ravelry called Short Scarf Dryad.  She is getting ready to start the scarf and I do love what she bought!



The yarn she bought from Sarah is



It is a solid gray and then a variegated



Carla is using my 2.5mm circular needles.  What a wonderful use for a variegated yarn!

Start as many new projects as you like!

Linda Wilkinson sent me a link to a blog that was sharing an article from Interweave.  The article is about starting as many new projects as one likes.  I am not sure that I agree with that.  But I do believe in having three projects going at any one time.  I find that starting a new project is lots of fun, but it takes a lot of time and is hard to do in a social situation.  So I need to find some down time in my life to spend on my new project.

Why three projects?  Because I knit mostly in social situations or while on the phone and etc, I find that if I make a mistake I need to knit something else until I have some quiet time to fix whatever is causing the problem.  So I always have two projects that go with me.  And then I need a third project that is perhaps just a bit more challenging ....or perhaps it is not seasonal.

I know that seasonal is kind of crazy.....but I do not like to knit heavy wool in the summer....I want to experiment with linen or hemp or silk or something summery!  And then when winter rolls around, I want to pull out those warm, wool projects that make me "drool"!  I am not above putting a half finished project up when April rolls around to pull back out in September!

So here is the link if you want to read the article for yourself:

https://mailchi.mp/yarnandcoffee/owdsuq9mhl?e=670940a7aa

I am dreaming of some summer projects right now:





And the next yarn is even prettier in person and is a big bowl on my family room trunk/coffee table.

Genealogy conference

I know that this is an odd title for my knitting blog.  However, I just returned from the Ohio Genealogical Society's spring conference and I, truly, my brain is still on overload.  So I have to start unloading my brain somewhere.....so I'll start with my knitting thoughts.

As always, I packed way too much.  I went a day early to check into my room.  The conference was at the Great Wolf Lodge just northeast of Cincinnatti.  It is such a funny place to have a conference, but it actually works out very well.  My room was in the perfect place.  Half way between the main lobby (where one might buy coffee) and the conference area.  But I kept making the remark to everyone I ran into.....it is certainly easy to tell which are the swimmers and which are the genealogy people.

But back to the packing.  It was probably the first time in my life that I had packed exactly everything that I needed for the trip.  Never did I have the thought that I wished that I had brought X.  And the first day the rooms were freezing in spite of the fact that it was almost 85 outside....and then the rest of the days were cold and rainy.....so thank goodness I had brought sweaters and long sleeves.  I was reminded that my best look is a pair of pants, a t-shirt, and a long summer sweater with a necklace of some sort.  BUT, there were several women who had brought a nice shawl with them to wear in the rooms that were cold....and I definitely want to take at least one shawl next time!  In fact I think that I might want to knit a very specific shawl for just such events.  I will give that some thought and add ideas on this blog site.

The second thought that I want to add here is that I checked and Fiber Optics has a shop only 20 minutes away from the Great Wolf Lodge....and only a very few minutes out of the way when arriving or leaving the area.....just a few miles off route 32.  Unfortunately, in spite of the fact that the hours advertised said that they were open until 6 on Saturday, when I pulled up in front at 4:30, the place was closed....I will do this on another trip.  I am almost positive that Dar is a huge fan of Fiber Optics.