What was I thinking...

One of the main reasons for the creation of this blog was to try to get some of my unfinished items completed by admitting to them publicly. But after doing some blog surfing yesterday, I came across an irresistible KAL that is about to begin. It is the Mystery Stole 3 created by Melanie (aka Pink Lemon Twist). Of course, I don't have any of the necessary supplies, so a yarn purchase is in my immediate future. I have a summer school meeting this afternoon, so a trip to the LYS is in order after that. Sadly, the closest yarn shop to me is closing soon, so I may have to take advantage of her "going-out-of-business" sale. The KAL begins this Friday, so time is of the essence. Beads are also involved in this project, so the craft store may also be involved in this excursion. Wish me luck! I will post swatch photos soon.

What else have I been up to?.....

Okay, besides traveling to Europe in April, I turned 50 in February. It was a fairly low key event...one which I wasn't really looking forward to. But the alternative is a much less desirable option. Now that I am a few months into this new decade, it's not so bad. I have some students surprised when they hear that I am 50. Perhaps they are just being kind, but I have also had some adults remark that they didn't think I was that old. Let's hope that this trend continues...

I have been really envious of all of the fun and beautiful stitch markers that I have seen in the yarn shops. I was tempted many times, but talked myself out of purchasing some; my theory was that I could make my own. My daughter had all of the beads and findings and tools necessary to create them, so a few weeks ago I decided to give it a try. Here are some photos of my first attempts.(I apologize for the quality of the photo...I was in a hurry) I found the knitting beads at the local Joann's on clearance for $.50, so I bought all that they had on hand. This first set I gave to a knitting friend for her birthday, but I plan to make another set for myself.
The blue glass set is for me. The rings will fit up to a size 10.5 needle, but I hope to find some sort of ring that I can use on larger needles. They were easy to make and a lot of fun.

I had a graduation party to go to a few weekends ago for a friend of my daughter. I also know the girl from working at the High School and doing costuming for the Drama and Musical productions. She and my college daughter were in marching band together at the high school and both are continuing to play in their respective college's marching bands. So here is the gift that I made for her:
They are at rival colleges and the colors in the pillowcase are more like my daughter's school colors, LOL, so I hope she doesn't mind. I just like the way they looked together.

Okay..So Much for Resolutions...

I knew I wasn't going to be very good at this blogging thing. My follow through on anything is pathetic at best. However, the last six months have not been a total loss. I have been really busy and fairly productive in both my quilting and knitting worlds, as well as my academic and personal pursuits. I am now off for the summer from work, although I will be doing a three week stint in summer school which starts in the beginning of July. I am also planning to take another course myself in the seemingly endless pursuit of my degree. That will entail another six weeks of time beginning in July. Hopefully, with all this, I will still find time to knit and quilt.

Okay..how do I condense 6 months into a couple of paragraphs?? I guess one of the most exciting things that happened over the past few months was my trip to Europe in April. Or, I should say, my European yarn shopping spree. I made a point of doing a bit of research on our destinations prior to leaving and where I could find yarn/fabric shops. I actually did pretty well in finding them all and, of course, making a purchase at all of them too! Thank goodness for expandable luggage!

The first stop of our trip was Munich, Germany. I had been there in the 70's, but only briefly in the airport and driving through the city on our way to a smaller, outlying town. During this trip, we spent 2 days in Munich, visiting the central Marienplatz, museums, Olympic sites and BMW headquarters. A day trip to Dachau was extremely moving.
Even though the itinerary was intense, I still managed to visit 2 yarn shops. My first stop was to the main department store of Munich, Ludwig Beck.

Rather than having just a small section in the main store, the yarn department has it's own store front around the corner. It is called Geknöpft & Zugenäht . Here is a photo of the storefront:


Considering that the majority of my sock yarn stash originated in Germany, I thought that there would be a gold mine of sock yarn in Munich. I was not entirely disappointed. This shop contained some really beautiful yarns. They also had a wonderful selection of buttons and trims and other needlework and sewing notions. The sock yarn selection was somewhat limited, but I managed somehow to purchase some..LOL! I bought 2 skeins of Opal "Hundertwassers" in "Der Blaue Mond" and "Singender Dampfer in Ultramarin III".
These yarns were inspired by artwork by Hundertwasser.They have a vertical stripe pattern on the inside label or it can be found here on the Opal website.It looks interesting, so one of the skeins may go vertical. I also found some lovely Lana Grossa "Tocco" yarn in a deep, dark green colorway.
I know, I know, Lana Grossa yarn is made in Italy, what am I doing buying it in Germany?? Well, the texture was irresistible (it is a mohair/merino/microfiber blend, sooooo soft) and the color reminded me of the Black Forest in Bavaria. So someday it will grow up to be a cuddly scarf for me for the winter. The other sock yarn purchased here was Lana Grossa's Meilenweit 100 Bosco in a blue/purple colorway.
It will make a lovely, subtly colored pair of socks for someone. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring along my US to European needle conversion chart, so I didn't purchase any needles at this shop. They had a fairly good selection of them too. But I did purchase little hat and glove double point needle protectors. So cute and useful. These are probably available here in the US, but I haven't seen them.

Okay..onto the next Munich shop. That was Wolle Rodel.
Here is a photo of the storefront.It was a fairly good sized shop with lots of colors and fibers available. It was only a few blocks away from Geknöpft & Zugenäht , so the visits were back to back. Even with all of this yarn overload, I didn't walk away empty handed.
I purchased 2 skeins of a blue/green sock yarn by Wolle Rodel and a beautiful skein of hand painted Opal sock yarn called "Herbstmelodie". It is a gorgeous autumn colorway. This skein is for ME! The one little unique item that I found at this shop, which had many little goodies, was a smokey grey acrylic ring that loops around a finely knit scarf to turn it into a necklace of sorts. I have made many thin, drapey scarves that I think this little gadget will work with wonderfully. I will post photos of this item in action as soon as I can.

Our next stop on the itinerary was Switzerland. Again, back in the 70's I had passed through Switzerland, but had never stopped for any length of time. This trip, we spent 3 days in Montreux. It is a beautiful city on Lake Geneva at the base of the Alps. We had amazing weather for the entire trip (after leaving rain and snow here in Massachusetts) and to be under gorgeous, clear blue skies and palm trees on the Swiss Riviera was just fabulous! Here are a couple of photos of Montreux.

Although I did not have a yarn shop scouted out ahead of time, I managed to find one on our trip to the Chateau de Chillon. The Chateau can be seen in the lower portion of the photo above. It is a medieval castle dating from about the 11th century. It was made famous in the poem by Lord Byron, "The Prisoner of Chillon". It was only a short distance from the center of Montreux and the yarn shop that we passed was within walking distance of our hotel. It was an Anny Blatt shop; very tiny and only Anny Blatt yarn available. No problem for me! I purchased 2 skeins of a beautiful purple angora that will also probably be a scarf in the future.



After taking a train from Bern, Switzerland to Paris, my French yarn acquisition began. It was my first time in Paris and I loved it! We did all of the classic sites; the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame, Montmarte,Sacre Couer, Versailles, eating and shopping. I forgot my list of yarn shops at the hotel on the free day for shopping, but I remembered that the main department store, Gallerie Lafayette, had a yarn department. Yay! So I managed to make a Paris purchase too! In this store, I focused on clearance yarns. I bought 2 skeins of Phildar "Horizons". It is an acrylic/wool/nylon blend in a heathery blue.

I don't have any idea what will become of it, but I just had to have it. The other item purchased there was a 10 skein package of Phildar's "Tribord" in a pretty "French Blue" color. It is a cotton/acrylic blend. I am thinking about turning this into a short sleeved cardigan..perhaps something like this. I just realized that I made a lot of bluish colored yarn purchases on this trip...perhaps I was inspired by the beautiful weather. It was a wonderful 10 day trip and I did manage to make other purchases besides yarn for the family; but it was really fun to try to find the shops that I had researched and to have a special souvenir from each of the countries that I visited. Next year's trip is Greece and Southern Italy with Rome! Molto Bene!