On the Road

Big Knitter is attending a conference in Albuquerque for a couple of days. It's our first road trip since last August. 

It's cold here!

But I'm trying to keep warm by "poddin' around"...here and there...while he's in class...

My first stop was a new little fabric store on the NW side called Hip Stitch.

Wow they are super friendly and have some of the fabrics I love the most. (like Free Spirit, etc.)

And, I happened upon this:

It's a Gotta Have.

Weekend Sewing New From Heather Ross.

I spotted a little baby kimono in the back that jumped off of the page. (literally, I swear, honey, it did, I had no choice but to buy it!)

And of course, I needed a little piece of fabric for my first kimono:

"Starling", a pretty pink background for my soon-to-be-new granddaughter.

And I did actually look at the rest of the projects in the book (after I bought it) and pretty much loved them all.

I highly recommend this book! And I love Heather Ross' fabric anyway. In fact I just got this in the mail before we left for Albuquerque:

Purchased on Etsy, 7 fat quarters from A Fabric Outlet A Sewing And Quilting Boutique. Most of their fabrics are $7.49 / yd.

These 7 fat quarters were $15.75 plus, I think $3.75 for shipping. And a wonderful person named Deborah shipped pretty much instantly. Love it!

How 'bout some knitting?

Well, I am going to be brave and drive the motor home myself, (eeek!) to Village Wools and see their new location here on the NW side. 

They went ahead and moved a few years ago, from their little hole in the wall that I loved...I can't believe it's been so long since I've been here...time flies!

I'll report back on the new digs later. (That is, if I can find a Big Enough place to park...it's a little motor home, but since I'm not used to driving it, I will need a Big place to turn around! Watch out!)

The big knitter brought his Manor Care blanket with him to knit on. One of these days he will complete it. We call it that because he started in when my Dad was in the nursing home and he really only worked on it while we were there. 

Now, he brings it along rarely; it's a slow project, I guess.

Something an Oregon Duck Fan would love: Cascade 220 in green and yellow. And it's one of Big Knitter's "mystery stitches", as I call them, one strand at each end of the circular needle.

I almost hate to sign off, it's been so long since I blogged on BigKnitterLittleKnitter, but I have to if I'm ever going to get to Village Wools!

Finally, A Blog Entry!

The knitting slump is over! I have scaled the highest peak and planted my knitting needle triumphantly at the top! What a moment! Whew, that feels good! (ooh, oops would you look at the dust up there...oh, well, I'll get to that in a little while)
First I must bask in the glory.
Yeah, it's just a baby hat, but sheesh, it's been months or centuries since I've knitted. I'm happy to see something! And I do love this hat pattern. This is the third hat I've made from it. This time I used a lovely soft hand dyed wool from Blue Sky. It is so soft. Now I just have to do the little tassels.


It all started with our recent road trip...passed through Austin...and our happening upon a fab place called Hill Country Weavers (and which was just a hop skip and jump down the road from CraftORama, we got directions from the girl there, more about that later.) Anyway, if you do happen to be in Austin sometime, the big knitter and I highly recommend that you seek out Hill Country Weavers. And here's why! The big knitter's been sorta on a yarn buying break, due to the fact that he has about 10 blankets worth of yarn still waiting to be knit. (and storage of 2000-2500 yards of worsted weight yarn for each blanket is a bit problematic!) However, he couldn't resist the above finds. Blue Sky handpaints and a tweedy-looking alpaca/merino blend from The Fibre Company. Both in big-knitter-friendly-colors.

Hill Country Weavers is a place like no other. Located in a big old house on Congress street, each and every room is stuffed full of every kind of yarn you can imagine. And a room just full of books. Really a knitter's oasis. And the people are ultra friendly too.

And then the icing on the cake, literally, to the left next door, what could be better ... the Hey Cupcake stand!
and of course the cupcakes!
...which was great fun to buy and photograph. But once we had a minute to think about it, you know these aren't on any kind of cardio diet in the world. And we just couldn't bring ourselves to devour them even though we paid 2 bucks apiece for them. So we compromised and split the bottom half of one just so we could say we got cupcakes in Austin at Hey Cupcake!

And then there was CraftORama, a great little eclectic fabric/craft place up the road from Hill Country. Here's my haul for my little crafty thing I'm into right now:
The pattern for the tote bag is from Amy Butler and the other two are Favorite Things pattern designs. I'm gonna try the circle skirt for my granddaughter. CraftoRama has a bunch of Janome sewing machines and a big cutting table set up at one end of the store. Sewers and crafters can rent time on the machines and the sales staff share their technical assistance. They also provide basic tools like rulers, etc. And the fabric is fabulous! I asked if they were going to sell on line and the (very, very friendly) sales person said they are working on a web store. Can't wait!!
Here's a little bitty knitting kit I picked up also. Everybody needs a felted ant! Well, the actual purpose of our trip was to visit Big Bend National park, which is in far western Texas. We just got there in a roundabout way. And our last knitting related stop before heading on to Big Bend was to visit the Old Oaks ranch, which is outside Fredericksburg. What a lovely place, with the alpacas, the ranch, the sculpture garden and of course the store. I picked up a brand new project...braided wool rug made from roving. The roving is from Interlacements. Don't know when I will get started with this one, I'm thinking reading the detailed directions would be a good place to begin.The Old Oaks Ranch offers a multitude of fiber related classes and also a yoga class, what a great idea for knitters, spinners and weavers!

And oh, yeah, Now On To Big Bend..
Since the park is literally on the US/Mexico border, we got to see a bit of the Rio Grande river. We also learned some about life on the border and the many changes (not necessarily good ones) that have come about since the border closed in 2002. This cliff is on the Mexico side: And here's a cool sandy little path we hiked to the old hot springs: And some petroglyphs: The Rio Grande: And an unfortunate sign of the times: Most of the dirt roads in the park are not recommended for motorhomes, even little ones like ours, so we will have to return sometime with a Jeep or 4wd car so we can see more.
And lastly...

Knitting on the Road...literally

We've been on the road now for almost a week...heading back East in our little motorhome. Lots of knitting time for me in the navigator's seat while the Big Knitter is driving. Actually, we are in Pennsylvania as I write this. We will be in Connecticut tomorrow and will attend a family wedding this weekend.
I did finish my Favorite Socks knitalong Priscilla's Dream Socks socks(made from Duet Sock Yarn):

And my version of Fetching for my granddaughter (from Noro Cashmere Island):
We also visited Boyd's Bear Country: (had to do it)
I got a bunch of little goodies from BBC and I'm giving them away on my bear store blog at www.mostlybears.blogspot.com; if you feel so inclined, stop on over and leave a little comment to be included in the freebee drawings.
It's so very green and lovely here in the East. It is a bit of an adjustment for us desert dwellers to be in the 40-50% relative humidity, but the payoff is that there are loads of wildflowers and trees around.