yarn yoga

Craftster strikes again! I was really planning on making a sweater from one of the two books I just bought ~ not to mention the Phildar magazine I just got in, but craftster has redirected my attention to this:


It's a circular shrug that Urban outfitters is selling for a smooth $54. It comes complete with wool, so I defintely won't be purchasing it. After all, that's what knitting is for! A few of the girls at craftster actually reverse engineered it and came up with the pattern. Aren't they wonderful!?! I've already gotten started and am about 4.5" into the ribbing. I'm using Rowan Calmer in a discontinued colorway called Amour. (#469)

If you're interested in doing this as a KAL (knit along), you can join us here.

I hope all of you had a pleasant Thanksgiving. I had a wonderful one! This year was my very first Vegan Thanksgiving and I was fortunate enough to spend it with other vegans over a completely cruelty-free dinner. We had unturkey with the best gravy I've ever had! We also had agave ginger sweet potatoes with pine nuts, cornbread dressing with eggplant and oyster mushrooms, and a bunch of other things that would take me way too long to list. My favorite dessert was the pumpkin marble cheescake! It was soo delicious and creamy! Ok, I'm making myself hungry.

I don't have my photo software on this computer, so I can't really clean up the images much, but I want to at least shrink a few, so that I can share them with you. I met some amazing and very sweet and compassionate people. I hope to be able to see them again sometime soonish. I'm not going to label the photos in case they want some privacy.


This is the lady who put on the event. She is so sweet and just amazing! I'm to the right.


This is a family that I met who actually drove almost 3 hours to join us! It turns out, we all went to the same schools and lived about 15 min away from each other!! I move to Houston and meet vegans from my hometown ~ crazy. They are eating a 75% raw diet and can't you just see it? Their skin just glows. They are a really sweet family.


This is a friend who told me about the event. If it hadn't been for him, I wouldn't have had the best TG ever. Thank you!!


This is a friend that I made while I was there. She is such a sweet person and her doggie was the star of the show! Her doggie's name is Lucky.


Look at that YUMMY food!!!


Lucky says "have a great day!"

Wednesday I drove around and checked out the two LYS's that I know of. First, I went to Twisted Yarns. I was really impressed with their shop. There were quite a few people in there, yet I was still able to get a warm welcome the minute I walked in the door. Along with that, they were very personable and went through a great deal of trouble to help me find a vegan substitue to Debbie Bliss's Alpaca silk line. (We decided on Blue Sky Alpaca's Cotton yarn.) I didn't purchase yarn this time, but I didn't leave empty handed. I came home with my much sought after Calmer collection book by Rowan, which is filled with Kim Hargreaves designs. I also bought the Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk book ~ FREIDA is calling my name from that one.

I also went to Yarns 2 Ewe. I was also greeted immediately at this shop. They were a little busy, so it took a while for me to get some help. When I did get help, they were really nice and even sat on the floor with me to decide on some yarn subs. Unfortunately, I left there empty handed.

I really wanted to buy some Calmer yarn to get started on either the LOLL cardi or on HEARTEN which I have the image of in my last post. Now I'm thinking of holding off on both pattern books in leu of the Autumn Phildar magazine. I ordered it tonight from Knit-N-Tyme. I nearly ordered the Winter issue as well, but instead of having a stash of yarn, I have a stash of knitting books and magazines! I'm making myself vow to no more books or magazines (ok, except for the Holiday issues of Vogue and Interweave knits), until I knit 1 thing from each of my recent purchases. That's reasonable, right? :)

I'm still undecided on what I want to start on first. I really want to tackle Frieda by Debbie Bliss, but I really love the pink it's in. Unfortunately, Blue Sky's Cotton doesn't come in a color that even comes close. Their pink is wayy to bright! I can use either the organic natural cotton or the dyed cotton.

Here's the pattern:


Any ideas would be Tremendously appreciated!

Are there any other vegan knitters in Houston?

I'm sure that number is kinda small, and even smaller would be the number of people in Houston that actually see this post. I wouldn't mind knitting with other knitters in general, it's just that sometimes seeing people knitting with animal fibers breaks my heart ~ especially wool.

While it's really nice that I won't be working so that I can focus on school, school won't be starting until January. I have plenty of knitting to do, but no one to knit with! I've toyed with the idea of going to one of the knit nights at a LYS here, but there is less of a freedom in a yarn shop. How? Why? Well, for one, you can't really talk about the great deal on 'x' yarn that you saw online. 2) It's rude to talk about what's going on or what products are available or sales at other yarn shopts. 3) When someone figures out that I will not knit with animal fibers, most people don't really want to hear about how horrible the sheep (or other animals) are treated. I wouldn't respond in a rude way, but in a way that should make them want to swear off wool for a good long while (hopefully forever). Geez, I guess that statement sounds militant, but really I'd only be telling the truth - in detail.

I may go to Yarns 2 Ewe today. I went yesterday, but they were closed. /smacks forehead/ No big deal though, I only live about 10 miles away or so. I'm not really looking for yarn, but if I see Calmer, along with Rowan's Calmer collection, I'll be overcome with temptation. I love nearly every design in that book, especially LOLL, SOUL, HEARTEN, SHADOW, and HUSH. I've been wanting to get my hands on that book for nearly a year now and the yarn is soo loverly. Of course, if I get the yarn and the book, I just might need some more Addi's to go with them. Ah, I love the spiral of purchases that ensues when you walk into a yarn shop.

On the needles right now is a hot pink dropped stitch scarf that I'm knitting for my little sister-n-law. I paid only $1.50 a skein for the yarn in GardenRidge and I'm knitting it up on size 15's. The yarn is 100% polyester and 100% yummy soft. It's got little slivers of a shimmer to it, along with the fun fur type fuschia parts. My SIL is almost 13 and it just may end up a birthday gift. Her bday is early december. We've always gotten along, but we're starting to get close now that she's getting older.

I also have my cabled top by zimmerman on the needles, but I don't have the patience for all those cables right now. It may just be in the waiting line until January rolls around. I really do see a calmer sweater in my future, lol.



Ta for now!
/hugs

Update: I ripped the dropped stitch scarf and started over with a simple garter stitch. The extra time on the drop stitch wasn't worth it because of the 'furry' nature of the yarn. It was hiding the pattern completely. I'm pleased to say that I'm finished with it. I'm toying with the idea of knitting her initial in white on her scarf. This means it would be dark fuschia with a white initial. How should I do the fringe? All pink or pink and white? I'm leaning towards all pink, but some variation would be nice. Hmm, maybe I should do the same color pink, but in a plain yarn, instead of the furry yarn that I used for the scarf.. Ideas?

So much has happened in the last few months that it's amazing I've remembered to breathe.

First of all, for those of you that still grace this blog with your presence from time to time, thank you! And a big thanks to all the comments I've gotten even though I've taken a bit of leave from blogland.

Ha, where to begin. Let me make a really long crazy story short. Rita was forecasted to hit our city. We visited my dad in Northern LA while the eye of the storm passed over our home. Then we visited some friends in Houston for a little over a week. Then we went to Austin for a while. My hubby interviewed in 2 of the 3 places we stayed. On a Friday, not too long ago, he accepted a job in Houston, TX - a little over 2 hours from where we live(d) in Louisiana. The following week we spent 3 days in Houston trying to find a place to live. On Friday, we move in. The following Monday he starts work and I'm running back and forth to LA gathering things and getting rid of things from our home. Sound frantic? It was.

Now, we're in the process of weeding through our things. Trying to figure out what can come with us to a 1 bedroom (with study) apartment from a 3 bedroom 2 bath house. It's crazy. I say we're in the process, but I feel like we've hardly begun. We've managed to sell our LARGE television and are in the process of shopping for a wall mountable one. We've been debating over what to do with our furniture, but I'll honestly be glad to see the dead cow carcass stretched over wood and cushioning go. (Can you tell that the leather was Not my idea?) I was quick to chose our not so great bed to come with us, so that we would just 'have' to buy a new one. ;) The better of our old beds will go back to family ~ my mom had given it to us on a whim. My hubby has decided that he needs a California King to suit his tall frame. That's fine with me. I've got my eye on Allegro from PB . (Click the picture to see a better image of the bed.)

I've had to resign from college for this semester and I will be going to school here in Houston starting in the spring. I hate to have to resign, but the driving back and forth just isn't worth it.

Some other things have been going on to, but I'll save them for another time. No knitting content for now; I haven't had or made the time for it, but I will.

/hugs to everyone!