Temptation Is Rapturous
This Saturday was the Bloggers’ meet up over at Sakonnet Purls. In their latest newsletter, they announced that the Addi Turbo Lace needles have arrived. Since I have a good number already, they are not the temptation I am pining for. However, this favorite LYS has Reynolds’ Rapture on sale at $5 a hank. I have made 2 Clapotis out of this heavy worsted 50/50 silk/wool blend and both have been gorgeous. I promised myself that if I could get enough to make a sweater I would do so. (SIGH) So much for destashing!
The true reason for going to Sakonnet Purls is for Erika. She and her husband are leaving for the beautiful West Coast, so we had a nice little get together knitting-style! I have only met Erika a couple of times and have been reading her blog since I discovered she had one. Kris had organized us via email and the day was fun-filled with folks from CT and MA joining together. Inspired by everyone’s love for knitting and blogging, I thought we should have our own webring. Setting the webring up is taking longer that I expected. (Sigh) I wish I had more time on my hands!
Sunday I left for a business trip. Yup, I am in Saint Louis, MO this week for my quarterly team meeting. Remembering how crazy I drove the guys last year when I wanted to find a yarn shop, I was determined to get the “hunting” out of my system first thing when I arrived. Luckily, I managed to find the wonderful Knitorious which is owned by the fabulous Sandy. If I could have, I would have stayed in her shop the entire week. Alas, that was not possible. Better than finding Knitorious was finding Silvana. She is part of a knitting group that meets every Sunday in the Hartford Coffee House. She met up with me at Knitorious and we joined Robin who was crocheting a pretty blue top for herself. We three chatted like crazy. I grabbed some food/drink, worked on the DFS, took some pictures, and checked out the pattern books that Robin had from the local library. Lots of fun welcomed me into Saint Louis!
Since Sunday, my SP10’s Diamond Fantasy Scarf/Shawlette is now all knitted up. I need to finish washing and blocking it. Unfortunately, J. Knits has broken my heart into a googleplex of pieces. Why? I put the DFS in a sink full of cold water with a bit of shampoo and BAAAM! One would think that I am about to dive in a beautiful jacuzzi. Instead I am in a hotel room and it looks like the blue dye will not be compatible with the white sheets that I need to block the shawl on. So close am I to getting this done! And yes, I am pretty upset at the moment. I am debating on just letting the FO completely dry and sending it now to my SP10 with information on what happened. It would be either that or wait until I get home and see what I can do to fix it. AAUGH!! I absolutely HATE this yarn now. I am totally regretting ever buying any of it, both Superwash Sock and the Silky. 🙁
The above below photo was taken after I dropped Erika off at her home in Providence. It totally tickled us silly! Thank goodness that startitis for socks has hit me HARD so as to distract me from my current mishap. Lately I have been ignoring the Call of the SOCKS… Must. Stay. Focused on DFS. I really NEED to stay focused. Hey there — stop giggling! =:8
PS: I forgot to add that my husband said a package from California, The Knitting Hutch, Sock Monkey, and my SP10 Spoiler arrived in Monday’s mail. I definitely will be writing a HUGE post with loads of photos when I get back! Thanks so much for the goodness SM and SP!!
Sometimes yarn is just meant to be bought. All the destashing you have been doing has made room for this yarn:)
I enjoyed seeing everyone Saturday and being inspired by all the different yarns and projects. Thanks for putting time into the webring. We have people currently living in CA, WA State, and Australia waiting in the wings!
Sock and Smith – I wonder who they were?!
I’m also wondering what you ended up deciding to do with the shawl.
Sounds like you all had a great time at the get together.
Love the sign! Have a safe trip home.
I agree with Kristen.. what happened with the shawl… what a cliffhanger! 🙂
Sounds like a good trip (sans the bleeding blue dye!)
I’m waiting with baited breath on the results of the shawl episode – hope your week hasn’t been too stressful with the work stuff…
(((hugs)))
Sakonett Purls is my favorite east coast yarn shop. I am very jealous! (Although Wildfiber in Santa Monica is pretty fabulous).
Sorry to hear about the shawl. I hope you can figure something out. 🙁
Looks like fun! I don’t have any knitting buddies. I guess I have lots of friends that knit, but we never get together and knit in an organized manner.
What a great get together! And it sounds like you’ve got some wonderful packages waiting your return…
I’m sorry about your shawl though 🙁 that’s a whole lotta blue water…
Thanks Kimberly for your work on the webring. It will be great. It was really good Saturday to meet everyone. That is so nice that a knitter can go anywhere and find other knitters and fit right in. Aren’t we nice…And the shawl?
The call of the yarn sale and the socks are hard to resist! Congratulations on your FO. I’m so sorry about the runny dye. That’s just no fun. 🙁
Kimberly…………………I had a great time seeing everyone and making new knitting friends at Sakonnet Purls.Thanks for your work on the web ring.
Don’t despair concerning your shawl…………What I would do is try to rinse the shawl again using water and a glug of white vinegar.This should cause the dye to stop running. Then you can rinse again.
Looks like you had a lot of fun! But sad to hear about the mishap with the FO.
Hey Kimberly! (I am a friend of Ericka — Armedw/pointies) I just wanted to comment on the blue dye debacle. Unfortunately, sometimes no matter how carefully a dyer sets, washes, and rinses a yarn, you will still have run-off. Think of all the clothes you buy in the store that say “wash colors seperately”. I have also heard tales of different water from different regions doing terrible things to yarn, depending on how it is treated and what minerals are in the yarn. Come to think of it — I have heard of this problem happening in hotels a few times — I have to wonder if some of them treat their own water? I any case, don’t despair with J knits. She has a wonderful reputation, and I have to think that comes from good practices. In the future, if you see this happening, be prepared with a cup of white vinegar, and a quick zap in the microwave to avoid fading. Blue dyed and red dyes in my experience are nearly impossible to wash out — you will almost always have exhaust in the wash water. If you get a dye rub off when DRY, that is another story — it probably means it wasn’t rinsed well enough in manufacture. And as for the hotel sheet — I’m sure they have seen worse than a little blue dye! And since it is cotton, it will most likely all wash out anyway. Sorry this was so long, but I thought this might be helpful.
How fun!! And you have a package waiting for you when you get home! That’s even better!
Very interesting… as always! Cheers from -Switzerland-.