reports from knitapalooza pnw

Yesterday was my self-appointed Knitapalooza Pacific NW. I've been looking forward to this day for so long! The plan involved hitting 3 more area yarn shops with two new knitting buddies. We had a great time, starting with lattes at Forza, then heading off to Canvas Works for my first visit. My favorites there were the Lantern Moon bags (including Lou's little lantern tote and palm leaf totes),the books selection, their silk yarns and sock yarns). No STR, though, sigh, and no other in-love-with sock yarn. My friend Lou bought some beautiful shell pink yarn for a vacation shrug. Marianne got needles and Wrap Style. I just got this.

Tradition requires a stop at The Oyster House (the clam strips alone were worth the trip), so in we went. An accommodating waitperson had about the same success with my camera as I do, so you get a nicely bright dock view in front of our dark faces:

During our recent cold snap (I haven't often needed two layers since leaving Utah, but my toes and fingers have now been frozen for days), the days have been clear and vivid. A little maritime flavor:

Lou left us after Canvas Works, but Marianne and I pressed north to Hilltop Yarns, with me swatching Koigu along the way. They were having a sale! I bought some bright (okay, slightly garish) Koigu for $5/skein! Marianne found an in-shop scarf pattern and bought the last eensy beensy skein of Alchemy Monarch (70% cashmere, 30% silk). The Lantern Moon bags were 20% off, but they didn't have the selection of Canvas Works, and I didn't feel the need to break out my gift certificate for any "must-haves." Here's Marianne in the Alchemy cupboard corner:

While we were at Hilltop, another customer told us that Tricoter was having a 25% off everything in the store sale. I've been scared of Tricoter but thought well, hell, now's the time to go, with reinforcements and all. It was very definitely on the swank side, with an emphasis on over-the-top couture sweaters, but great service: they offered to wind a hank I liked into a ball so I could swatch and decide whether I wanted it. It was a pretty pink/gray/green hand-dyed and hand-spun thing that I really loved in the hank. The love affair was over when I swatched it, though, and so I said, "No thanks." I then got the distinct feeling that doesn't happen very often (they looked at me like I had switched to speaking Swahili and I thought, hmmm, are they now wondering how they'll sell that very expensive hank of yarn? Maybe they should've thought about that before offering to wind it). While I may have been projecting, I no longer felt like part of the crowd. (There were lots of people saying things like, "Now I must knit something for Mummy.")

Without swatching, I did buy a hank of Nassau from Great Adirondack Yarn Company in Hawaiian Punch colorway for a winter-into-spring scarf (now starring in sidebar WIPs). It's a 50 silk/50 cotton blend. Marianne bought some yummy high-end yarn for a great reversible cabled scarf pattern from Tricoter's menswear book, so I think she redeemed us. And I learned that, if you have kinked cable needles, you can steam the cables to get the kinks out (or use a hairdryer).

Side note: I realized later, if I'd just bought the pink/gray/green ball and taken it home and then swatched it, I'm certain I wouldn't have been disappointed or considered it a failed purchase. Part of the fun of buying the yarn is seeing if you like it when you get it on the sticks, trying to find the perfect pattern for it. It's a bit like Christmas, with these specialty yarns.

But once again, I didn't feel overwhelmed by their offerings. While I can see how the color thing works well for designers and makes it more efficient if you're looking for a particular color, I think my primary draw is the fiber itself. Do I feel like cashmere or cotton? Linen or hemp? I have to do the face-stroking test before the love happens.

It was getting late, and a call to The Yarn Gallery confirmed we wouldn't make it there before closing, so we pressed on to our dinner destination, requiring a trip across the 520 bridge. Here's our lake and our mountain:

(I may have said before that, as a transplanted Rocky Mountainer, it took me years to understand the appeal of this particular view. It always looked like a backdrop to me. Then one day I thought, everyone loves this mountain so much, I should really look at it and see what all the fuss is about. Ahh, the power of purposefulness and observation--of course I looked and immediately saw and understood. I have been reading Timothy Egan's The Good Rain, to learn more about this land, and I recently attended a meeting with an invocation by a woman who is an elder of the Puyallup tribe. Now I find I don't like to think of it as Mount Rainier--it shouldn't be named after some white guy who never saw it.)

A great day, not much splurging for me (B's greatly relieved):

But I learned, a moment after this picture, that Koigu apparently looks a lot like a dog toy. Harvey's not usually interested in my yarn--he often gets inadvertently tangled and has to get it off his nose, but this is the first time he's ever seen it and thought, "Why, that looks like mine."

A small chase ensued, but it's safely back in my stash. And, if you look at my WIPs, you can see I didn't waste any time in getting something on the sticks (using my Denise needles for the first time!).