The Aloha Knitters

What should I do for the edging???

So, this past Thursday, I went to my second meeting with the Aloha Knitters at Mocha Java. Again, it was super crowded with lots and lots of knitters! I didn’t even get to talk to everyone! I met up with tink and encouraged her to attend her first meeting (even though she lives here, she needed a push to go). She also graciously offered her ball winder/swift since she read my last post and I had to ball up my 2nd skein of silk. Thanks so much tink! The Aloha Knitters is a really great group, I consider this my “second home” knitting group, they make everyone feel welcome, even visitors. There was also Donna from Australia, who I sat across from and she was hilarious! I will always remember the conversation we had about David Reidy. I also talked about marathon running with blogless Michelle (she’s trying to get me to do it! uhhhh…yeah….ok…), and convinced several others to knit the Hanami stole. I seriously think I am doing a “hanami tour” because everyone I’ve showed it to oooohs and aaaahs over it. I wish I could count how many people I’ve enabled! I also destashed my Wollmeise (one skein of Amazonas left) because I needed to make room in my suitcase. Almost all of it was snatched up as soon as I pulled it out of my bag. Why is there no Amazonas love? I really like that colorway! I won’t be able to attend another meeting since I will be going to Seattle the next week and then I’m heading home the week after. I will really miss them! Until next year…

I am working on my Print ‘o the Wave stole and guess what? There was an error in the amounts required so I won’t have enough yarn to finish. I am contemplating what to do. I started some of the edging but it is really obvious there is no way it will be enough. I emailed Dani (Sunshine Yarns) to see if she can dye me up another skein, but she is out of the sillk at the moment! ARGH! And even if she did have some, it won’t be the same color. Any suggestions? The center panel is gorgeous though, I am really pleased with it.

Other than that, I’ve been visiting some friends and family and just relaxing. and knitting. Oh, and I’ve decided to get the clap. :) Wollmeise Raku-Regenbogen clap. Yum!

Hedera in Wollmeise Sonne

I am on day 3 of my yarn diet and so far, so good. I did catch myself meandering over to the posh yarn website thinking that I NEED to get some cashmere yarn for Michael’s mother for Christmas. Then I remembered that I can buy it in September with plenty of time to spare. Whew, that was a close one. I am doing remarkably well so far, I don’t have any yarn envy (yet) and am genuinely happy for other people and their acquisitions. But the real test is one or two months from now.

I have the Gentleman’s fancy sock on hold for now as I await for my 2nd skein to arrive. I really should’ve just bought Elem’s one instead of ordering, but I also needed more mini-blockers for gifts. So, while that one is on the side (I did finish one side already), I am making Hedera socks for myself with my leftover Wollmeise Sonne yarn. I am really loving the color/pattern combo. I love this bright yarn! I used to get more darker and muted colors but lately I’ve found myself buying the brightest and most colorful stuff I can find! I think I’ll have enough yarn, since the Monkey’s that I made were a little above the ankle, and these will be as well. Only time will tell.

Also, at the last SNB, 3 of us knitters started discussing doing a podcast. It was Elem who brought up the idea and said it would be fun and we all rallied around him. It was soooooo much fun thinking up names and different ideas, so we’ll see what happens with that. We’re just in the process of throwing around names/ideas/format, so it’ll be a little while before we do anything. We want it to be crazy like L&V, but try to have different things and of course bring to light yarns that we have in Europe. I am kind of the boring one of the group, the “mother hen” if you will. The other two are hilarious and it is always endless entertainment for me to listen to them and their stories. So stay tuned…

Oh, and also, my SP found out who I am. Dang it all…I guess it’s so hard to be secret since the knitting community is so small. Especially when I don’t hide my pictures of the projects that I’m making for her AND I make something unusual like Gothic Spires!!! But really, what gave me away was the mention in L&V. I think she saw Elem’s site, and then he linked to me, so there it is. Hi Tini!

I hemmed and hawed over whether or not I should go to the Stitch ‘n Bitch group. I’ve been wanting to go since I got here, but either wasn’t really knitting something or just too lazy or just tired. Michael encouraged me to go so I went. It was really nice, there were 6 other people there. The group changes all the time, and this time, everyone except for me and one other person were beginners. I was able to help the British girl next to me (sorry, I forgot her name) with telling her how to tell if a stitch is a knit or purl stitch. It was nice to meet new people and just hang out and knit. I learned that I could get a job as an English teacher if I wanted to, the only qualification you need is that you are a native English speaker. I never thought of doing that. It seems like it would be fun, not a whole lot of time commitment and I work with different people every few weeks. Something to think about I guess. It doesn’t pay as much as a test job would, so that’s the only bummer. Don’t know what I would make as a tester either. Anyways, one of the knitters there has a blog and on it was a picture of hand painted yarns from a shop in Germany, pretty close to Munich too!!! I was so shocked and excited because this was exactly what I was looking for. So I’m going to order a few skeins to see if I like it and if I do…oh boy…that’s not necessarily a good thing.

Then I spent the late night internet surfing and found another cool yarn site - ScoutSwag. I really should learn how to dye my own yarns!