What's Going On...

Wow, it's been a while since I posted last.
Lots of updates...
First, the weekend before last I made it by our local yarn store, Luff Needlecrafts, which is about to go out of business, which I absolutely hate. It's actually the first time I had been in the store and I got to talk a while to the owner. I hate that we're losing it, she seemed really cool and it's the only yarn store I know of in my town.
But, everything left in the store was 60% off so I got some really cool bargains.
All these patterns were less than $2!


And I found some really cool yarns that I haven't used before. The fuscia one is Trina by Adrienne Vittadini (merino wool/microfiber/cashmere).
The tan one is 100% polyamid Boboli and the olive is Rowan cotton tape.
I have summer tops envisioned for all of them.
I wanted to do Tempting from Knitty.com and even gave it a shot (see below) but I'd be cutting it really close yardage wise.

So I made it through, like, 6" of Tempting before I realized I suck at ribbing. Seriously.
There were a few ribs where I purled where I should have knitted and I didn't think it would

be that big of a deal but when I'd gotten pretty far it looked aweful. So I'll be trying a summer top next.

Made it to the Sit n Stitch the Thursday before last and it was great to see everyone. We even had a few new people. It's so fun to get to know everyone and get to fondle their yarn and see what everyone's up to and how patterns I've been eyeing look in real life.
Missed the meeting last Thursday because we were getting ready to go to Dallas for the weekend but I hope to make it this week.

Oh, and one of the girls from the knitting group arranged for us all to be able to go to the spinning guild tonight and several people were going to bring their wheels for us to see. And I had to work, ugh. I hate when work interferes with my hobbies. Hopefully somebody took good pics.

So we went to Dallas for the weekend and I was so excited, I finally got to check out The Woolie Ewe in Plano. I have to say, it was the biggest local yarn store I have ever been in. They had a ton of stock. But I was not at all impressed with the customer service. I probably just caught them on a bad day, but it was by far the worst atmosphere of any yarn store I have been in. To me, part of the whole experience is that small business, friendly atmosphere that makes local yarn stores what they are.

I've been to some really cool yarn stores on business trips across the country. I need to post about them all soon, I think that's so much fun.

Then I got to go to one of my favorite yarn stores, The Shabby Sheep in Dallas. It's so fun and warm, there are always people there knitting and the owner is always incredibly nice and helpful.
But I didn't buy anything either place.
My yarn allowance is pretty slim and I didn't see anything I couldn't live without... but I was shopping for when I do replenish the yarn fund.

And we got to go to one of my favorite places in Dallas, Half Price Books. I really love that place. It's huge, we could spend hours there. And have. All the books are used and really cheap and you can find the coolest stuff there.

I finally found the perfect project for my brown Manos, a little clutch similar to one I saw in 25 Bags to Knit. I'm happy with the way it's turning out, just can't get the embroidered flowers to work out. Just need to line it and I'll be done! Hope to have pics soon.

And I finally laid the 63 Squares out in my dining room, still with 7 holes in it. I was thinking that would be inspiration, hopefully I'll get it finished and have pics soon.