Part 1 of the LYS Fiber Love Adventure

Our Corner of Rose Hill -  A new sign went up and the developer says that things will get started in June.   The power is off at all the other houses and our driveway is unusually dark.  We have motion detector lights that turn on with movement but that is not catching the rabbits as they eat all my parsley….   Bill’s big project for the moment is moving the playhouse.  He will be using a forklift on moving day and this should to be done before he starts the new bedroom because the forklift will be coming into the project from that direction.

Started Clearing for the move 

Removed Trees, Dirt and
lots of Rocks 

Bill beside the axle he will be using for the move.
Behind him the massive pile of dirt that has been moved. 

    

Events and Happenings:

We have season tickets to Everett Civic Music, the best money we spend on entertainment each year.   A couple of weeks ago we got to hear Stringfever.  When the curtain went up the first thing you noticed is these are not ordinary string instruments.   The instruments are called Violectra and some were 5 strings and one was 6 strings, in the family of violins, viola and cello and created by a Canadian name David Bruce-Johnson.    They opened with classic Vivaldi but they also played a medley of 20 of the best-loved films, and a medley of the history of music, and they all four played the same cello when they performed Bolero.  The program was very entertaining.

Rachel's dolls and the Magazine Cover
with her latest design. 

On a Happy Note; I have a very talented friend I want to brag about today.  She and I were friends at church when Bill and I met and started dating.  Later she made Bill and my wedding cake.  Then she and her husband moved away and we have been pen-pals ever since.  In the first years she was away I realized what an artist she is and started saving her work in a special basket.  Now my basket runneth over.  I would say that we wrote each other 3 or 4 times a year most years and each letter was a minimum of 6 or 7 pages and lots of times they were 10 or 12 pages.  I lost my dad and she lost her mom about the same time and we both shared our hearts about cleaning out our parents houses together.  Her letters were hand written and illustrated most creatively every time. Rachel is a retired teacher and not so retired cake and cookie decorator but she also does scrap-booking, stamping and so much more. This month the rest of the world gets to see how talented she is since she made the cover of the Stamper's Sampler magazine.   I am so excited for her and so grateful she is my friend.  

In My Travels, and For Knitters, mostly is combined this week;   

CeLinda and Kristen
Successful Finishers 

Wednesday May 18^th was the first day of the 2016 Puget Sound LYS Fiber LoveTour .  This year’s tour includes 28 shops (and that is by no means all the yarn shops in the Puget Sound area).  I picked up my friend Kristin at 7:45 am and we headed to Seattle to catch the first ferry for Bainbridge Island.  The plan was to be at the first yarn shop when it opened at 10am.  We ended up being early enough to stop at the bakery nearby for fortifications.  When the doors opened at 10 am we were among about 20 other shoppers that were ready for fiber adventures.    Each store on the ‘tour’ has prepared two patterns for the participants that we get for free, one for knitters and one for crocheters. (my dictionary doesn’t think that is a word…)  They also have a featured yarn on sale for 10% off.  While there you also sign up for a daily drawing that takes place at the end of each day in each store.  You also get a stamp on your passport and at the end of the tour you turn in an entry form that says how many stores you have been to that makes you eligible for other prizes,  last year I won $250 in yarn at the store(s) of my choice.  You may also purchase a specially designed project bag, this year it is a canvas bag that is very durable and awesome, then at each store you can collect a pin to add to your bag.  This is the second year for this part of the tour and it is lots of fun.  The pins are all very clever.  The woman who came up with this idea was trying to find a way to support made in America and the bags and the pins are made in America.  In the years before you would get a stitch marker when you got to 9 shops, 18 shops and the final shop and the stitch markers were made in China.    At the end of the day I had been on the road 14 hours, taken 3 ferries’s and traveled just over 200 miles.    Here are my thoughts on each of the stores; feel free to skip this part if you are not a knitter.

Churchmouse Yarn and Tea: Very Famous as yarn shops go, it is a community yarn shop on beautiful Bainbridge Island, a 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle. Their patterns are timeless and classic and beautiful and so is their yarn. As it happened we were there about a half hour before it opened which gave us time to have a pastry at the bakery next door. The knit pattern this year was a beautiful scarf or wrap depending on how many balls of yarn you used. 

Bazaar Girls Yarn Shop & Fiber Emporium: Port Townsend is the most northwest shop on the tour and a really long drive for most of the participants but they did not disappoint, their knit pattern was a  beautiful snood/cowl and the yarns were gorgeous. My companion in crime for this tour minus a few shops we each hit separately was Kristen.  She had brought spare needles and cast on for this project we got in the car to head south to Coupeville.  My opinion is that that yarn just got more beautiful the more she knit on this project.  She also made up this cute little gadget to keep track of which row she was on by moving the paperclip.  She is very clever.        

From Port Townsend we took another ferry to Coupeville, this one reservations were recommended and as it turned out it came in very handy that I had made them the day before.  We had to kill a little time waiting for the 2pm ferry so we had a great lunch while we waited.

Wonderfully Whidbey Eco
Hand dyed Yarn

Whidbey Isle Yarns Gifts and Tea: So this shop just keeps getting better every year and I love the owner.  She is in a new location and lives above the shop so if you are in her area and have a knitting emergency just throw a rock at her window, and if you don’t break the window she will come downstairs and help you.  Her knit pattern was Fair Isle leggings with local motifs on them; mountains, deception pass bridge, shells, mussel farm lines, waves and cute little crabs.  The owner, I wish I knew her name is all about “made in America”, local and sustainable products and that does not mean ugly the yarn she was featuring was milled on Whidbey Island and each ball had a cute little stitch marker attached made of sea glass she had picked up from the beach. 

She also has a room for rent with Airbnb, the master bedroom and bath.  I couldn’t find the link quickly so if you are interested you have to look for it yourself or just call the yarn shop and ask them.  Maybe next year she will have brochures or cards with information on that.  Coupeville is a cute little town to walk around, and enjoy the beach.

Knitty Purls in Langley was the next stop for us. Her knit pattern was a cute sock/slipper that I know I will be making and the crochet pattern was a little sling purse that I may make just to put my cell phone in, especially when I don’t always have a pocket.   I have a Samsung Galaxy Note and it is in an otter case so it is quite large.  I think this will be perfect.

Great Yarns in Everett was our next stop and their pattern was a scarf with added jewelry that brought out the Queen of Hearts theme for either knit or crochet.  Fontelle, the owner has a way with packaging and puts together the most amazing kits for projects.  Great Yarns is a lovely old house with 5 rooms or more of awesome yarniness. They also travel to lots of the knitting conventions and put together a well stocked booth of beautiful yarn and kits.  It is well worth stopping for a visit. Kristen’s sister Beth joined us here and visited the rest of today’s shops with us.

Yarn of Eden; the setting for this shop is amazing, the gardens in Country Village where this is located are just breathtaking.  The shop is small but she has a good collection and variety of yarns and she is so warm and welcoming.  The crochet pattern was a cute set of mitts and the knit pattern was a retro neck wrap or scarf.  I think I will be making that scarf sometime. This is the shop where I first lost mhy head to gradient sets of yarn and she managed to have some today that I was looking for.

Mad Cow Yarn is also in Bothell and this shop gets better every time I visit.  The pattern was an airy vest shown in a casual setting on the pattern but with the right yarn it could be very dressy also.  The news at this shop is that it will be moving soon to a space in Lake Forest Park where 3^rd Place Books is.  This is very exciting,  it was once the home of Village Yarn and Tea – the owners there were the creators of the original LYS tour and I think they were the first ones in the country to do this.

Kristen is so cute in this hat. 

All Wound Up; is a brand new yarn shop in Edmonds, less than a year old and a very nice surprise.  I was thrilled to see a collection of Sweet Georgia yarn in gradients and I bought 3 different colorways.  Their knitting pattern was a very cute hat with a bit of a retro look and the crocheted cowl makes you want to crochet even more.  It was simple beautiful. The featured yarn was wonderful, it is created in Seattle by NanoStitchLab (nanostitchlab.com).  It is a lovely 100% superwash merino that is so squishy and the colors were wonderful.   They were introducing the DK weight for the ‘tour’ and she has been making a fingering weight previous to this.  Each colorway is named after a female scientist and the colors reflected what field of work they were in.   I immediately gravitated to the true red and then realized the colorway was, Marie Curie who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity.  I learned years ago she is the reason we have dental x-rays.  Check out their website or go to Instagram and check out #nanostitchlab.

That was the end of Day 1.  

To Be Continued……..

Weeks until Football Season:  15  Go Hawks.