Yarn Shop Visit

Today I took off to visit a yarn shop new to the Iowa Great Lakes area, northwest Iowa. The shop is actually a branch of The Yarn Basket in Carroll, and is located on the east side of highway 71 in Okoboji, just south from the McDonald's. It's located in a small stone house next to a small strip mall. Beth, the owner, was in the shop today with a class of three knitters, I believe. I asked for a DK yarn to knit the upcoming socks for the Six Sox KAL. I ended up with some soysilk and also some bamboo. We are to have a contrasting color for the socks, so I choose two colors of the soysilk (blue and rust) and a variegated (green, blue, brown, and rust) plus a solid brown in the bamboo. I really like both of the yarns, so just need to decide on one when the pattern is posted. I also purchased a book to send to a downstream and some light blue yarn to knit booties and a cap for a grandson of one of my coffee friends. I was thinking as I drove to the shop that I should try to get in contact with a knitting friend that lives in the area, but didn't do anything before I left. I turned around in the shop and who was coming in the door but Jean. She was there with a couple of knitting friends (they knit together once a month). When she lived here, we were part of a knitting circle that met weekly in homes with dessert and coffee served. That was almost twenty years ago ..... wow, how time flies when you are knitting.

I started the last pattern repeat for the scarf I'm knitting in the Ravelry Scarf Exchange. It's going to be a surprise, so suffice to say that I think it's awesome. Hope Humglum will, too.

TLGB

Completed Socks!

The socks that Alcariel named Raspberry Latte are finished as well as the Dublin Bay socks from the LS Gendarme colorway that she gifted me with at Christmas. Wow! ... two pairs of socks completed this month ... one a UFO and the other started and finished!

Decided to get a couple more pairs of socks on the needles before STR box comes next week .... the "easy" sock is the Broadripple pattern from Knitty in KP Sock Garden - Hydrangea colorway - on BR 3's ... probably for a coffee buddy that is purple/pink crazy. I'm about halfway finished with the heel flap on the first sock. The other is STR 2006 Air Conditioned in Trekking colorway 100 (golds, green, blues, red) on KP 1's. I'm about ..... one inch ... into the first sock .... with such fine yarn on size 1's it will be a long time before they are finished .... definitely not one that I will take along on a car ride.

Didn't want to be without the correct needles when STR comes, so ordered some LM 1's in rosewood, 2's in ebony, and 3's in blonde as well as Addi size 2 circ 47" for a magic loop attempt. Decided to finally get the Fiber Trend blue sock blockers ...... all from Paradise Fibers out of Spokane ... I ordered about 1:15 this afternoon and the items were shipped today .... even had a couple phone calls since the rosewood wasn't available in all the sizes I wanted. Haven't ever ordered from them before, but am impressed so far.