Friday, January 12, 2007

Yarn Crawl

Back when Karen, Polly, Jean and I did a yarn crawl to shops in the town of Sonoma and one in Marin county, I bought some Lana Grossa Merino 2000 yarn for a scarf at Bella Yarns of Sonoma. As I've started working on it, I decided I didn't have enough and so sorta stopped working on it while I concentrated on my Socks for Soldiers (you can read more about this project in my LIS blog).

A month or so ago, I took my friend Pat to Sonoma Yarn to pick out some beginner knitter things for a holiday present for her niece. Pat last knit 40 years ago, when there wasn't yarns like there are yarns today. She was amazed at the variety of fibers, colors, textures, and patterns, and subsequently dug out her own ancient needles and picked up a starter project of her own to get back into it.

Well, today she is officially back into it! I wanted to also show her Bella Yarns, and their splendid collection of silk and bamboo yarns in addition to the "usual" yummy wool, alpaca and cashmere yarns. (Okay, and cotton and linen, too.)

Here's Betza with Bella's sheep:



What?! You were expecting real sheep??

Very taken with one of the lovely silky bamboos (remarking that the bamboo growing in her back yard feels nothing like the luscious bamboo yarns in her hands), Pat has decided to knit her son and daughter-in-law-to-be a throw for her wedding present. After discussing some possibilities, and ways to make it Irish without complicating things by figuring out how to include shamrocks in it, we came up with a feather-and-fan pattern, using lots of different yarns in shades of green.

This photo (blurred again ::sigh::) does not do the yarns, with their varied textures and sheen and depth, justice:




Bella was out of stock of the circular needles and some other things we needed, so we stopped by Sonoma Yarn on our way home. As I was getting out of my car at Sonoma Yarn, I remembered something, and reached back in to get something for one of Sonoma Yarn's owners, Frances Purl: doggie jerky!

Here's Frances and Betza. You'll note Frances is looking a bit puzzled. I at first tried placing Betza on the chair seat right next to Frances, but Frances decided Betza was just another treat for her from me. After I rescued Betza from Frances' mouth (thank goodness Ms. Purl is as small as she is or it could have been real ugly, not to speak of messy), I placed Betza on the table, as that was the one place Frances couldn't get to her.




Well, this may be the last of the photos in any of my blogs for a while. On the off chance that the blurring may be the camera and not me. I am having a problem with the flash on one setting, so there may be something else going on, she said, voice full of likely-to-be-misplaced-hope. Keep your fingers crossed that whatever ain't working, will start working properly.

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