I Went to China!

Yep! For the majority of April I visited the amazing country that hosts the Great Wall! And it's freakin phenomenal.

My family and I made the trip with a tour group and I got to meet some of the best people while I was there.

Here's a few photos from the trip because I can't even put into words how much I enjoyed this country...

All the photos above are from our trip to the Great Wall of China!

Hot Pot for dinner, what an awesome meal! Essentially, make your own ramen but way better!

Temple of Heaven 

Yellow Crane Tower 

These two are from our hike to the Purple Cloud Palace. 

Knitting anywhere and everywhere. 

Visiting the Three Lesser Gorges on our cruise.

One of many many Buddhist Temples.

Danzu Rock Carvings. 

Seattle and Beyond

In September my mom and went on another adventure and drove up the west coast USA and went to Seattle and Vancouver BC! So much knitting, driving, music, yarn and laughs happened on our 11 day trip.

We made it to Knotty Lady Yarns , Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival (OFFF), Seattle Yarn, So Much Yarn, Churchmouse, Bad Women Yarns, The Tea Cozy Yarn Shop, Tolt Yarn and Wool, Websters ...and Knit City. 

Yes, that many yarn shops and Fiber events in 11 days (that includes all the driving too). Crazy fun!

Seattle is my favorite US city I have ever visited, usually cities give me major anxiety (Honolulu I'm looking at you) but Seattle was bright and open and super easy to navigate. I can't wait to go back and visit again along with Bainbridge Island.

We spent hours in Churchmouse looking at all their amazing samples, gadgets, and trinkets. All the women who were working were helpful and lovely, it made me so happy. 

After our visit to Seattle we headed up to Squamish BC and then down into Vancouver. We spent our evening on Granville Island and had a great time exploring all the individual shops and found a great fabric shop. Our last full day in Vancouver we headed to Knit City and about exploded with excitement.

I've spend quite a bit of time at fiber festivals and I appreciated the laid back vibe that came with Knit City. All the designers were mingling and checking out their designs on knitters. It felt like a small local festival but had the choices closer to a Stitches event in the US.

I have a finished object from my trip and that is my Seattle Socks! They are subtly Seattle Sea Hawks colors and my mom and bought and started them in Seattle. I love having these little memories in my everyday life.

I can't wait to show you more projects from my Knit City and West Coast yarn adventures!

For reading, I just finished Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly and really enjoyed it. The novel was based on real women and their experiences but with some artistic interpretation by the author. It was the first book I'd read that focused on women and their experiences during WWII and not men. I cannot recommend it enough!

#zk2017

This weekend I had the amazing opportunity to attend my first knitting retreat! Andrea and I flew to Rochester Minnesota to spend four days with amazing knitters at the Zombie Knitpocolypse retreat! With all the knitting adventures I've been on a retreat had not been on the list yet, this was the perfect one to start with.

We flew in on Wednesday and had the first morning of our retreat on Thursday. From then on it was meeting new friends, taking classes, swaps, and parties. Susan B. Anderson was the guest speaker, which was so much fun and inspiring to hear her talk about starting her designing and how it flourished.

I took a class on Boomerang shawls with Steve and a heels class taught by another retreat participant. I have a few new heels I'm going to try with the 50 grams skeins I received in my swag bag!

We had a s'mores party and a popcorn party along with tons of giveaways and fun events. I met so many new people! And I can't wait to get myself in another retreat!

This Trips Fiber Shops

As most have read, my trip last summer to Europe increased my stash by a ginormous amount. This trip didn't include quite as much yarn but I did bring home a ton of fabric.

The yarn and fabric shops weren't quite as prevalent in Spain and Italy as they were in Germany, Austria, Scotland, and England last summer. Although they weren't as prevalent does not mean I didn't come home with awesome purchases.

We hit up a yarn shop in Madrid, Spain: Lanas, El Gato Negro as well as a fabric shop we stumbled upon.

In Rome I visited a huge fabric shop called Bassetti Tessuti was so excited/overwhelmed I didn't actually take any photos. But I bought my first garment fabric to sew! Totally too nervous and inexperienced to sew with it quite yet but I think by the end of the summer I'll have at least one new top, possibly two.

After Rome I made my way to Amsterdam where I was able to visit... Stephen & Penelope!!! I had so much fun exploring their shop and pulling a few WestKnits projects together from their exclusive colors. I actually went back to the shop later in the day (afternoon for me, early morning for my mom) and FaceTimed with her so she could see the shop too! The women working the floor were fabulous and didn't look at me like I was completely nuts.

Right next to the yarn shop was also a fabric shop, two store fronts converted into one giant fabric and notions shop. I found the most amazing stretch cotton with origami birds on it for a skirt! All in all I had a great time visiting new shops in new cities. I will definitely continue on my trend of exploring different parts of cities by searching out yarn shops!

SLO Yarn Crawl

I'm very lucky as a knitter that I live within 5 hours drives of about 30 yarn stores! My knitting group and I joined a formal Yarn Crawl and drove down the coast to San Luis Obispo CA! See ya later 100 degree temp, hello 72! I was able to wear a shawl!

We stopped at a few yarn stores that weren't part of the crawl on our way down. If you ever have a chance to visit Monarch Knitting in Pacific Grove, do it, what an amazing shop! It will be one of my visit a few times a year shops; I would move to Pacific Grove just to have that as my local yarn shop.

We spent the night in an amazing hotel and had a knitting sleepover. This was a great prep-trip for Rhinebeck next month (24 DAYS!) sidenote: my sweater just needs the last sleeve and ends woven in!

The first shop was Yarns & Beads (in Grover Beach) who was having an Anzula trunk show, most of my knitting group is now ready to do a beaded shawl. We made a little beach pit stop first; in our excitement we arrived way before opening.

Then we moved on Yarns...At the Adobe. They also had a few local dyers there for a trunk show and snacks for everyone. Marilyn, in my knitting group, just found out she won their door prize!

The next shop we visited was Never Not Knitting! I'm am so excited that we got to visit this shop! They shop is tiny but stuffed full of amazing yarn and treasures! I didn't buy any yarn but ended up with fun little treasures. And Alana had an amazing gift bag for everyone who visited the shop!

We had two shops left to visit, the first was Ranch Dog Knitting and the last on our fun journey was Ball & Skein & More.

We had a total blast! I really enjoy visiting other shops, seeing their samples, trying new yarn. I came home with a couple hanks of yarn and other lovely yarn goodies. Can't wait until my local fiber fest the first weekend of October! 

I'm joining Ginny for the Yarn Along and Frontier Dreams in their Craft Along this week. I'm currently reading the illustrated version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer Stone! It's making me so happy to hop back into this world and the illustrations are lovely! Still chugging along on my Rhinebeck Sweater, I'm so close to done I can almost taste it! 

Not so Magic Loop

2016 has been the summer of trying different sock techniques, after-thought heel, and now the magic loop method. Working at the yarn shop, I try to master and know as many knitting skills that I possibly can; I may not like all of them but I want to be able to use them and be able to explain the technique. In London I bought 80cm 2.25mm KnitPro Zings to try magic loop, I cast them on in Europe so that I had an easy sock to work on for that day of travel (all my other socks were at the heels or toes).

I used a Regia design line by Kaffe Fasset with random stripes (mine is the colorway Sizzle). I adore the color of this yarn! This screams hot tropical days, perfect to knit in the summer. I used my go to toe up sock pattern, Toe-Up Socks with a Difference by Wendy D. Johnson.

I didn't find using Magic Loop any easier or harder than double points or my 9 inch, but I wasn't able to get into a good rhythm. I didn't have any issues once I got past the cast-on, it wasn't any different technique wise than knitting on the 9 inch.

The socks ended up a smidgen loose in comparison to my other socks. I think this is due to the fact that US and MM don't exchange exactly, there is a degree of different between my US 1 and my 2.25 mm needles. I will wear my socks regardless, I just need to remember that I should be going down a half size when I buy needles in Europe.

Funny story, I had quite a few issues buying needles because I didn't know any of the mm sizes! I only knew US needles sizes, I always had to ask for a needle gauge because LYS workers in Europe didn't know the US sizes! I found it funny and frustrating so I am now learning the conversion, I don't want to have to scramble for what needle size I want to buy.