Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The Haul

I have a LYS, a very delightful LYS. It is run by two women, who oddly both have husbands named Kevin, who seem to be the perfect balance of yin and yang to make their business a success. Stitch Your Art Out is a comfortable lovely place, with one flaw - it is cozy. I mean really cozy. Somehow miraculously Cynthia and Kim manage to fit two classes at a time in their space. Some of them quilting classes, with sewing machines. So their yarn space is at a premium. Even so they manage to get most of the yarns their customers lust for on their shelves. (Please do visit if you're ever in the neighborhood of PSU or State College. They're only about 10 minutes outside town. Stop at Watkin's Dairyette afterward for "real" soft ice cream.) But I was on a hunt for lace weight, and I'm thinking the local knitters are not lace weight enthusiasts by the extent of the stock they had on hand at the moment.

So when I visited a new-to-me yarn shop in northeastern PA, GoshYarnIt! and found yarns I had only read (dreamed) about, I had to fight down the guilt when I walked out with this:









Hand Maiden Sea Silk - Lord love a duck, it is out of this world. You can see the sheen of the silk and sea cell. OMG. I could only get about 440 yards because that's all they had in that color. A dreamy cream, gray, whitish variegated.






Zitron Filigran lace weight - A beauteous lace weight. that I'm thinking of using for Jellyfish..... 100% merino. Bezzie put me on to this pattern, and though I have a queue a mile long I sometime long for the bizarre. I'm not a mohair fan, particularly in lace weight (too hard to fix my mistakes), so this is all merino.







Madeline Tosh lace - in a variegated blackish/grayish. For a Dainty Bess scarf I'm turning into a wrap with beads. I've had the pattern from Knit Picks practically forever. But a trip to a ballet last month when we were hovering in the 60s made me wish for a fancyish scarf.



I could have spent longer than the hour I did (but my mom would've had  stroke waiting for me to get back - I was visiting), and way more money than I did, but I somehow stopped.

(An aside: Ann, the manager, was just the right blend of helpful, friendly, and chatty. She showed me exactly what I wanted (and they had a lot!) answered my questions, left me to browse. It was a very comfortable shopping experience. So many times I read about "unfriendly" yarn shops, but that's not the case here. As I was checking out I met the owner Jill, who was also quite friendly. This shop gets a big thumbs up for customer service and comfort!)

 You may also have noticed more Zauberbal in the "tropical fish" colorway. That's because I decided I wanted to continue Wingspan beyond its current nearly finished size. I likes me some long scarves. And yes, considering that I'm the woman who knit TWO pink flamingos, I kinda like the unusual.......

Just call me Isadora.

2 comments:

Kaye said...

Love that sea silk--it's almost pearl colored!

I've stalled out on my jellyfish...I really need to suck it up and just finish it! I had bold dreams of wearing it this winter. Wasn't cold enough!

kemtee said...

Hi, Isadora!

GoshYarnIt! I only know from dealing with them over the Skeins list, but they've always seemed like decent folks. Glad to know that they're that way in person, too!

I love the Filigran. They make it in a paint, too, which I don't care for, but the solid is such a nice yarn to work with.