Drachenfels

I fell in love with a shawl when Dar and I visited the Nest in Bridgeport, WV.  The pattern is Drachenfels.  The store model was done in Dark blue, purple/red, and lavender.  It was knitted in Madelinetosh Merino light.  Diana had the dark blue and the red/purple color....or at least something similar.  But she did not have the lavendar in stock.  And because Madelinetosh is hand dyed you can not always find exactly the same color way again.  I am knitting the shawl on size 6 needles.



 

Here is what Webs says about this yarn:

Madelinetosh is known for their colorways and their yarns are some of the most gorgeous knitting and crochet yarns available. Using all natural fibers that are ethically sourced from mills around the world, Madelinetosh yarns are hand-dyed in Texas with low impact organic compound dyes, that are good for you and the Earth!







Because Diana did not have the lavendar, I ended up buying a light pink.  However, on my way to Boston I found a beautiful lavender skein at the Little Owl's Knit shop in Harrisburg.  It is Manos Del Uruguay Fino




I am binding off in September 2018.  It calls for an i-cord bind off.  I first did the bind off using the lavender yarn and a larger needle than a six.  I am redoing the bind off using the dark purple and the number six needle.  I like this look better.  I used the following link to learn the i-cord bind off:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddBuZzYhkO0

I finally finished the shawl in November 2018.  It looks so much like the one that I pictured above that I am not going to add the photo of me wearing my version that Caroline posted on facebook.

Prayer Shawl

Pinterest sends knitting patterns almost every day.  Tonight's pattern is called On the Wings of a Prayer. It is a Prayer shawl and is very pretty.



This version uses self striping yarn.  The pattern can be found at:

http://www.stitchandunwind.com/free-knit-prayer-shawl-pattern/

Little Owls Knit Shop in Harrisburg

I was so overwhelmed when I returned from Boston this year that I didn't blog my stop at the Little Owls Knit Shop in Harrisburg.  Partly because I had been in Peru for a month and then spent several days back and forth to JAX and then driven in storm Riley on the way up to Boston and the second winter storm that followed almost immediately on the way back.  I had planned to do research in Orange County, NY the second day of the trip.  However, when I called ahead to see if it would be open when I arrived, the entire county was shut down due to snow....including the schools and library that I had planned to visit.  So I stopped at a knit shop instead.

Little Owls Knit Shop

2209 Paxton Church Rd, Harrisburg, PA 17110

Take exit 69 from Interstate 81 onto North Progress Drive.  Drive to Paxton Church Road.  The shop is in a strip mall near the corner of North Progress Drive and Paxton Church Rd.

This is not a huge shop, and the owner has not stocked an overabundance of yarn.  But what she had was very enticing.  If I had not been overwhelmed with yarn right now, I am sure that I would have bought a project.  As it was, I did buy one skein of yarn to use on my Drachefels shawl.







I had bought a pink color from Diana at the Nest, but I had actually wanted a lavender color.  She just didn't have one.

The yarn that yelled to me was Juniper Farms Stargazer.  If I had had any kind of project in mind, I know that I would have purchased some.  It might be the prettiest yarn I ever saw:







All of the colors were wonderful.  I just captured this last photo for the other information.

I also bought needles in size 6.  They are ChiaoGoo Premium Stainless Steel Lace needles.  And I have to say that the rows I knitted yesterday were a particular pleasure.  Not for sure if it is the yarn (Madeleinetosh) or the needles.  However, I can hardly wait to knit a few more rows!

The owner was particularly helpful in every way.  As I was packing up to go, she suggested that I should consider taking I-74 instead of the more northern route:  I-84.  And she was right.  Thank goodness I listened to her!  And then she was kind enough to suggest a knit shop in Bethlehem that would now be on my route:

Knitters Edge
1601 W. Broad Street
Bethlehem, PA
in the LeHigh Valley Mall

I didn't make it there.  However it is a wonderful idea for a second diversion when I visit the Moravian Archives on the next trip!

Kristin's Shawl

Kristina made two shawls from a pattern called Downtown Line:

Downtown Line by Joji Locatelli



For the other shawl that Kristina made she used a self striping yarn in the stripes that have colors.

The Nest Yarn store in Bridgeport, WV

Dar and I made a quick jaunt to Bridgeport on Valentine's day.   The photo below does not do justice to how cute the building is that houses The Nest and the Artworks store and a darling restaurant!  It is Purple and Green and absolutely stands out....you can not miss it!



 I had called her to get help on the shawl that I was making.....I was using a Boomerang type pattern:  The Quaker Yarn stretcher pattern that I have looked at for years.....I loved the way the yarn looked as it is a variegated yarn and there is just enough pattern that it was not pooling...instead the colors were actually popping out.  But I was unhappy with the fact that there would not be two long ends to come back over my shoulder if I wear it with the triangle part in the front.  I am still fussing with this project trying to decide just what I am going to do.

However, in the middle of our conversation, my tennis game got cancelled because of various and sundry reasons and we decide on a whim to drive to Bridgeport to check out a yarn shop that has a wonderful website.....who would have thought?  Bridgeport?  So this post is about our jaunt to The Nest.

https://www.thenestyarn.com

Diana is the owner and she was there with Shirley (her skinny friend).....That was a funny conversation that took place while Dar and I were browsing....but I do like to note names for future reference.

I have the feeling that Diana works hard to have a selection of whatever her customers find to be the "hot" item of the time.  She had some Noro on sale in the sale bin....but there was not a selection of Noro yarns....telling me that Noro had been hot but was no longer hot in her shop.

Mostly what I noticed was a HUGE selection of Madeleine Tosh in three weights....It was really fun to see them in person and feel them and play with them to see what colors went together....which is a lot of what Dar did...making two wonderful purchases!  I particularly liked the shawl samples on the wall and bought enough Tosh to make hmmmmmmm........And the below photo doesn't do justice the the wonderful Tosh yarn....and somehow I failed to take a photo of the Drachefels Shawl that the colors were knit into.  Diana didn't have the lavender that was used, so I bought pink....but I might buy the lavender on line ....honestly I loved the color selection that had been used!  I can not believe that I forgot to take a photo of the actual shawl.



But here is the photo from the pattern:



But it doesn't do justice to the colors that were used in the shawl in the store!

I was thinking of Mitzi and her hat projects....and Diana had a darling hat that came down very well in the back:



What yarn did you use?  Techno.....oh my gosh....it is WONDERFUL....and I could not resist again:



At the bottom of the website, there is a place to put one's e-mail address in order to hear special events and etc from the shop.  Diana says that Nikki Epstein is from Clarksburg and on occasion, Nikki will do special events in the shop!  Also Diana mentioned that Claudia has been wanting to come and bring her yarns ....oh, my gosh...perhaps my favorite vendor at SAFF!

http://marshamosesknitting.blogspot.com/2017/10/christmas-project.html

But where I am going with this is that Diana worried that she wouldn't have a big enough crowd to warrant Claudia bringing her wares....and I promised her that if she would work with us on final date that we would bring a group from Huntington!

The trip was a lot of fun!  Beautiful yarn!  Fun projects!

Oh, I almost forgot.....the restaurant next door looks great!  Dar and I had stopped at Subway....and it was tasty.....but this place seems to be a destination of it's own:






And Lunch menu:



And one more knitting project that Diana had on display.  I bought two skeins of Noro that would be good for this project and would be a good project to use up some of my stash.  Diana did not have the actual pattern that she had used, but she helped me to pick out something similar....I could vary the size.  I couldn't find the one that Diana chose....so I picked something at random on Ravelry:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/entrelac-tutorial





Below is an easier pattern that I could use for the same sort of look.  It is called Stripe the Squares by Jenny Garcia

Classic Elite Liberty Wool

Webs sent an e-mail this week that I was able to ignore.  However, I really liked the project that I considered making from some of the Clasic Elite Liberty Wool that was on sale.  The problem is that the skeins on sale were not the right colors for the shawl that I had chosen.

This is a Boneyard shawl knitted by RobinsNest on Ravelry.  And I just love the way that it looks.  So this morning instead of deleting the photo, I decided to go back and look at Robin's color way and consider paying full price for the yarn.  Unfortunately, Robin didn't post the colors that she used.  So I am hoping that she might remember.

Almost forgot.....Robin writes a blog.  Here is a link to a post about a knitting cruise that she and buddies took.  In the blog post she mentions that they visited

We went a few days early and stayed on Bainbridge Island - home of Churchmouse Yarns & Teas - and rode the ferry back into Seattle to check out So Much Yarn and Pike Place 

http://fortheloveoffiber.typepad.com/for_the_love_of_fiber/2017/10/how-can-fall-be-in-the-air.html

Quaker Yarn Stretcher

I started this scarf/shawl with the pattern Quaker Yarn Stretcher.  I had  looked at this pattern for many years.  It seemed like a good fit with the yarn that I had just bought on a whim because it was on sale.  However after a sizable start, I found that I had made a mistake.  And I just wasn't sold on not having two long ends to the scarf to wear with triangle in front and ends brought around front.  Dar wore her Casapinka scarf/shawl and I decided to see if Casapinka had a pattern that made sense.  So Now I am making the scarf/shawl called Vary the Gate.  So I worked on this for a few minutes today at Knitting and I just don't like the look of the Vary the Gate as much as I had liked the Quaker Yarn stretcher .....so now I am back to Quaker Yarn stretcher for this project.

It is a plymouth yarn made in South Africa from the Cape Town Collection called Johanne







I am using size 7 needles because I am too lazy to walk upstairs to get size 6.  And I had bought some very nice needles in Black Mountain in size 7.