Last night we had a blast at the Interweave Knits Lab’s Knitter’s Market in San Mateo. Imagine a mini Stitches West with room to move and breathe and *chat* with the dyers, spinners and sellers.
The first thing we did was to say hello to dear @lahondaknitter who was helping out at the Nine Rubies booth. It was lovely to see Paula again and we positively drooled over the gorgeous alpaca yarns they had and the beautiful frilled scarf with the beaded and sequined cotton yarn. I am kicking myself for not getting some but happily they are located in San Mateo and we are planning a field trip soon.
After cruising around the stalls for a first pass we narrowed in on a few coveted items.
Our first purchases were at the Knitted Wit booth. Our eyes were drawn a small display of superwash fingering weight skeins that sparkled in the light. Drawing closer we realized the yarn has 20% real silver spun into it! Lorajean told us that this was the last of the Bling yarn as they are going to remake it with some sort of plastic “silver”. Well, that did it, we had to buy some. I picked “smooth as butter”, a silky, glittery butter color for my upcoming Clapoutis. E___ picked the delicious peridot green for a lace shawl. Such an easy purchase to make too as Lorajean uses the Square with her iPhone. Technology is fantastic!
(photo from Knitted Wits.com)
We had a great time at the Conjoined Creations booth. Super fun Mary Arnold showed us the Flat Feet sock yarn, which I had never seen before. Always late to the party I was blown away! The yarn is not in a skein or a ball, it’s in a flat piece of fabric which is then hand dyed and painted. They are amazing, you unravel one end and knit directly from the fabric. I chose a hand painted “blanket” in turquoise and spring green dappled with purple. E___ scored the amazing tiger-stripe “blanket” which will no doubt knit up to perfectly coordinate with her SF Giants gear.
Mary also treated us to a set of HiyaHiya double pointed knitting needles so we could start *tonight*! Thank you Mary! She kept running into us in the market where she would laugh and ask, “Have you started yet?” or “Are you wearing your new socks yet?” Hilarious! I’m dying (haha) to try some of their raw silk. Gorgeous! I have decided that with my new Flat Feet yarn I will make the Wedge socks in cookie a’s book “knit. sock. love”.
(photo from ConjoinedCreations.com)
After flirting heavily with the gorgeous felted silk and wool shawls at Alchemy and examining their Haiku mohair lace yarn, I decided to take my replacement spiral scarf into a new direction. Why recreate it exactly and be reminded that it is a replacement to a beloved lost/damaged piece? Instead I decided to try a new yarn and truly start fresh.
At Freia Handpaint Fibers, aka KnitWhits, Tina Whitmore was so gracious in discussing at length her beautiful new Freia Flux Lace yarn and we agreed it would make an incredible spiral scarf. I scored 2 skeins of Flux Lace in Purpleheart and put it in my handbag to play with the rest of the night. Tina is great fun, her yarn is named after her dog and the name Freia is a perfect match with her dog’s personality and the etymology of Freia, the goddess of love and war.
I admired her cute Lanesplitter skirt in her aqua sport weight yarn and she showed us her other Lanesplitter in shades of lavender and purple. She created the pattern, oh DUH! We had great fun talking about the Lanesplitter craze and how she met “Patient Zero” who kicked off the craze in their local yarn store. Tina checked put my figure and encouraged me to make a Lanesplitter in sportweight, and soon! She asked that I post pictures on my spiral scarf in progress on her KnitWhits FB page and I will!!
It was such a delight to see the gorgeous Kira K again. She was debuting new kits with her designs for small projects with rare and hard to find yarns. Her hat and scarf designs were adorable and the yarns were so luscious but I had ran out of money by then. Yesterday I reviewed my queue on Ravelry and was reminded that I purchased the pattern for her fabulous Bell Curve skirt and it was fantastic to see it in person. I did not find any suitable yarn at this particular event but I will find some to knit that up very soon. This is another skirt pattern that is fantastic for ladies with (ahem) fluffy posteriors and long stems, like me. I also have a jacket pattern of hers queued up and ready to go as soon as I finish the hundreds of other projects I want to make *tomorrow*. Oh start-itis, how you vex me so.
It was Kira’s encouragement that got me started in knitting, to learn to read charts, and how to knit lace. My frantic visits to Artfibers during lunch breaks to get consultations and calming by Kira were crucial to my knitting infancy and her confidence in me was so appreciated. So, thank you, Kira, for everything!
I was very tempted by a Turkish drop spindle, it looked like a objet d’art in beautiful exotic woods, but at $60 I decided to hold off to get one until SOAR’s retreat next year. I can’t wait for that! I have a beautiful roving in fall colors in baby camel and silk that I would love to spin but don’t know how. Yet.
Wallets sadly empty we bid Paula adieu and headed laden down to the car and out in the drizzle. Our next stop was dinner – Ramen Club! I hope anyone who is at the Interweave Knits lab takes a time out to visit Ramen Club, it truly is the best ramen I have ever had. All the yarn and fun we had at the Knitter’s Market and this massive bowl of ramen made my sacrifice of fiber over food on Wednesday night completely worth it.
The Inadvertent Redhead 