Meeting New Friends

 Ever since learning to knit and finding Ravelry I have made some of the best friends.  Ravelry has made it possible to meet knitters all over the world and every now and then you meet some online that are close to you in proximity.

Such is the case with Deirdre and Charles (knitfooldeirdre and okijuggler).  We have so much fun online and this weekend I had the opportunity to meet them in real life and spend the day doing a yarn crawl.  It was the "funnest" day!!!  I'm sorry that Cindy and Donna couldn't join us :(

Let me apologize here for the poor quality of the yarn photos.  Got home late Sunday night and they were shot indoors and do NOTHING to showcase the beauty of them

I met Deirdre and Charles at the Bethesda Metro at about 10:00 am and our first store was Knit & Stitch = Bliss in Bethesda, MD right down the street from the Metro.
 

Very cute little shop.  The staff was very friendly.  Walked out with the following:

MadeleineTosh DK - Ink

Trendsetter Dune

 As we were leaving I got a pic of Charles & Deirdre.

And a little "monkey kiss" for our friend Willa on Solstice Yarns ... lol

 

So silly but so fun! As Deirdre remarked during the day - it felt as if we've known each other forever.

Next stop was Stitch DC in Tenleytown, Washington, DC. We stopped by to donate several skeins of brown multicolor eyelash yarns for the women refugees from Butan.

It seemed like a good time to take a little break so we stopped for lunch at Booeymonger, Friendship Heights, Washington, DC,  We sat down at our table and started sharing our projects.  Deirdre brought her Solstice Yarns Kate shawl and OMG it's amazing!!  The yarn is soooooo soft and the pattern is gorgeous!  If this were my shawl I would never take it off.  As we were sharing projects the woman sitting at the table next to us said she was a knitter and came over to admire our projects.  We exchanged Rav names and I hope she'll friend us! You just never know where you're going to meet a knitter!

Next stop on the agenda Deirdre had so carefully mapped out for us was Looped Yarn Works in Dupont Circle, Washington, DC 

 

This was a beautiful shop and the staff was VERY friendly.  Charles and Deirdre were known here from their work on the Coral Reef project.  Snagged these lovelies while there:

Laines du Norde - Prancer

Blue Heron Rayon Metallic - Carnelian

Wandering Wool - Rapunzel

From Looped Yarn we went to my favorite shop of the day - Fibre Space in Old Town, Alexandria, VA.  This shop is the epitome of what a yarn shop should be.  They had sofas and chairs set up by the windows that were crowded with women sitting and knitting and sharing.  The staff met us at the door (again Charles and Deirdre were known here) and were happy and friendly and helpful.  The vibe in this store was perfect!  They had a wide selection of yarns smartly displayed and identified by weight.  There were women with babies and dogs and men winding yarn.  I just wanted to settle into the sofa and get to know everyone there.  But alas, I had yarn to buy!

Sublime - Black Currant

Sublime - Sealskin

Berrocco Flicker -This yarn is actually black

Miss Babs Yowza - Clematis

Butin Collar Kit

How cute is this knitting bag?

I really hated to leave this shop :(  But we had more stores to see!


Next was Aylin’s Wool Gatherers in Falls Church, VA.  I have to admit I have never been to a yarn shop that was located in an office building.  We entered the building and went up to the third floor (down the hall from the chiropractor lol) and walked into a room full of yarn,

 Aylin's had a wide selection of yarns but felt tight and cramped.  Lighting was less than favorable.  But that did not prevent me from finding a few squishies...hehe

Cascade Heritage Silk - this is for my Advent Scarf Kal

Manos del Uruguay - Emerald Green

Also here Deirdre and Charles bought me the cutest Christmas ornament that will hang in a very special place on my tree this year.

I will get a better picture of this at a later date but isn't that the cutest thing ever???  Thanks to Deirdre and Charles!!! What a great memento of our new friendship.

The last stop of our day was Nature’s Yarns in Fairfax, VA.  Very cute shop!  The yarn was well arranged and lit, the staff friendly and had a very cozy feel about it.  I was standing in the shop with a few of my selections all blacks and greys when a gentleman walked in wanting to buy some yarn for his sister-in-law.  He had NO clue what he wanted or needed and as one of the staff was trying to narrow it down they got to color choices.  She made a remark that black and white was boring and I turned around and said "so I'm BORING??"  LOL  A good laugh was had by all.

Managed to find these pretty little things to take home

Inca Alpaca

Berrocco Lustra

Polaris - Midnight

Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran

Cascade 220 Superwash - Black

I have to say here that one of my pet peeves about yarn shops is that they put their stinkin' labels over the names of all the yarns and it's nearly impossible to get them off without destroying the original label.  Deirdre said there is something that you can get to remove the labels but grrrrrrrrrrrr what a pain.

After leaving Nature's Yarns Charles drove me back to my car at the Shady Grove Metro and I gave Charles a big kiss from me (and Willa).

 

A BIG HUGE thanks to Charles and Deirdre for taking a day to spend with me. And thanks especially to Charles for all the driving.  I'm so excited that we got to meet and get to know each other better and I can't wait to see them again.

And just because we are so silly....here are a few other pics we took...

After I got back to my friend Lois's house we decided to go see a movie.  We wanted to see the new George Clooney movie Descendent so we drove back to Bethesda.  The movie was sold out so we walked around the corner to another theater and the only movie showing close to the time we got there was J. Edgar.  I have to say this was the WORST movie I've ever seen although I did learn some things about him that I didn't know. The only good thing about the movie was the popcorn and cherry coke. lol

Easy drive home today and now it's laundry and getting ready for a short work week.

Off now to do some knitting.  Despite all the yarn shops and talk of knitting this weekend not one stitch was knit and I have a birthday shawl to finish!!!

Snowtober

Yes it is snowing in October!!
Our first nor'easter of the season.
I left for tennis at 8:30 am and it was raining.  By the time I got out at 11:30 am it was snowing like crazy.  Car was covered, roads were treacherous.

We ended up with about 5" of heavy wet snow and it was beautiful.  I LOVE SNOW!!!

The Joy of Photography

As mentioned in a previous post, I love taking photographs.  I was talking with a friend yesterday about how sometimes selling what you love doing and becoming successful could take away the pleasure of doing what you love.  I enjoy taking pictures and don't ever want to lose that joy - the joy of looking through the photos I've taken and seeing that one shot that made it all worthwhile.

My primary subject is landscape. There is so much beauty in this world we live in that I can't help documenting it.  So here are some of my favorite photos.

Flowers:

Scenery:

My Backyard

Birch Logs

Washington, DC

Niagara Falls, Canada

Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

Icicle

Lone Oak - California

Mill Stone

Sequoia Trees

Winter Scene

From Covered Bridge

Washington Bridge, NYC

Washington Crossing Boat

Window - California

Wrigley House - Arizona

Fall Scene

I hope you enjoy these photos as much as I did taking them.   

And the blog goes on....

So now that my Excellent Adventure with my sister is over (and it truly was an excellent adventure!) I wondered if I would/should continue the blog.  On our trip I found that I really enjoyed doing the blog each night.  So perhaps I'll keep trying this blogging thing.

I am an avid, obsessed, compulsive knitter. I started knitting about 3-4 years ago.  I was visiting home for Christmas and Mom taught me how to make dishcloths.  I must've made 100 of them. lol  Then I remembered that I belonged to this website Ravelry.  I found a local knit group, who have become my biggest supporters and best friends.  They have encouraged and motivated me to expand my knitting knowledge over the last year. 

My 2011 New Year's resolution was to learn colorwork this year.  Well let me tell you, I have learned so much more!

When I told one of my Knit Group friends that I was going to make the Snowflake Cowl she said "Oh! you have to double knit it." So of course, after her promise of support which she willingly gave, I have learned colorwork AND double knitting - all at once! Still a long way to go on this one but I'll keep you posted :)

Then I decided to do a Suzanne IC Mystery Shawl and it has beads! YIKES!  Again, thanks to one of my knit group friends who loaned me dental floss, I learned to bead!!

This looked sooo much harder than it was.  I'm looking forward to picking this up again and getting caught up on the clues.

The reason I haven't done much on the mystery shawl is because, with the support of all my knit group friends and my friends on Ravelry at Solstice Yarns, I have learned Double Point Needles!!  This is HUGE!  I have wanted to make so many things that required DPNs (I tried and didn't like Magic Loop).  So Friday afternoon I started these mitts and finished the knitting last night.

I really enjoyed this pattern and will definitely be making these again. I still have to stitch down the cuffs but the knitting is done.  On DPNs!!  lol


Now I have to work on reducing my stash using all these new things I've learned! 

And just to kind of wrap up the vacation I took with my sister....

She picked up some yummy yarn at WEBS and crocheted this shawl in every city we visited.

It is so beautiful.  Thanks Lil Sis for a memorable adventure.  Love you...