First up is the release of Aquasocks. They are written from the cuff down and incorporate a lace chevron pattern that flows down the foot and is also on the heel flap. These socks are a super fun knit as my test knitters, Beth and Margi, can tell you. Margi liked knitting them so much that she made a second pair and converted them to toe up. I really love this yarn, it was a lot of fun to knit with. It's House Gnome from Gnome Acres.
Andy and I had so much fun on the photo shoot. We were scouting out a spot that had good light and a nice background and found this lovely spot complete with snail and wildflowers. We thought the snail went along with the whole underwater theme for the socks.
The Aquasock pattern is available on Ravlery and will be added to my Etsy shop next week. We will be having a KAL in my Ravelry group beginning next week. I hope you can join us!
Now for some yarnie goodness! Last Friday, Beth and I went on our first ever Yarn Crawl. We wound up being able to make it to all six yarn shops that were participating in one day! We covered a huge area of Virginia and even stopped for lunch and went to two non yarn shops.
Our first stop was The New River Fiber Company in Blacksburg. I picked up this beautiful skein of Soul in Onyx from Kismet Fiber Works.
Next on our stop was an adorable shop in Floyd: Woolly Jumper Yarns. I hadn't been to Floyd in several years and it's really grown. There are a lot of cute shops and restaurants that will need to be explored at a later time. Each shop on the crawl had it's own limited edition yarn dyed up. I missed it at the first shop, I must have been overwhelmed by wool fumes or something! The one at Woolly Jumper was from Unplanned Peacock and is their Kinky Sock. Beth used Kinky Sock on her Aquasocks test knit and they turned out great! The limited edition is a really vibrant fuchsia with tones of lighter pinks and absolutely refused to cooperate when I was taking pictures. It's really much more lovely in person.
I also won a door prize while I was there! It's a shawl kit and has a book of pattern and three skeins of Berroco Linus.
When we were heading out of Floyd we notice a shop that had a lot of cute garden statuary. We just couldn't resist stopping and I wound up bringing home a Saint Francis of Assisi complete with a sheep. I have never seen one with a sheep and I just couldn't resist him!
We packed Saint Francis into the CRV and headed out to our next stop. I figured at some point we would be driving on a back road or two, but I was completely surprised at the route that Garmin took us on from here! The road was paved and didn't look bad to start with. It was a wee bit narrow (we had to pull over when meeting oncoming vehicles), started to go up a significant grade and then pretty much turned into Mister Toads Wild Ride. Between laughing hysterically because we had no idea where we were and Garmin kept telling us to make turns that didn't exist, I wasn't sure we were going to come close to our destination. We finally made it out to a main road and sooner than we planned we were at The Crooked Stitch in Rocky Mount. I was a bit worn out from driving over the mountain and starting to feel overly hungry so I probably didn't pay as much attention to all the wonderful yarn in the shop. I wound up finding some HiyaHiya stoppers for my interchangeable needles that I have been searching for. Not as exciting as yarn, but cute and useful!
Fried chicken had come up several times in the car so we decided to stop for a quick lunch at Bojangles before heading to Roanoke. I was much happier after I ate and it was a short drive to Mosaic Yarn Shop.
Because of my stupid food allergies I couldn't eat a cupcake, but Beth sacrificed herself and ate one for me. I thought that since I couldn't eat one, I should at the very least get some of the yarn. I wound up with a skein of the caked yarn which is part of the Yarn Crawl limited edition and it's sister yarn which is a light grayish lavender. They are both from Kismet Fiber Works. We are heading back to Mosaic tomorrow because Beth won a door prize and I am going along for the ride. I'm glad we are going back because time was really tight and I would like a chance to look around at more of the yarn. Because I need more yarn. Really, you can never have too much yarn.
We hopped in the car and headed over to Yarn Explosion which is also in Roanoke. This shop has large selection of yarns and tools. Their focus is larger brands of yarns, and they also have a few indie dyed yarns. Their limited yarn for the yarn crawl was from a local dyer, Green Dragon Yarns. Of course, I completely forgot to take a picture of it. Beth wound up with some nice lace yarn from here, JaggerSpun I think. This shop may be on our route tomorrow too since Beth mentioned she may need a second skein.
It was about 3:30 when we finished up at Yarn Explosion and we decided to go for it and head up to Orchardside Yarn shop. It's a bit off of the path of the other shops, but well worth the drive. We got on Route 81 which is a major highway and headed up to Raphine. We got there in just over an hour and it was a really easy drive. I'm really glad that we made the trip up there and that it was our last stop. The shop is in a serene country setting, you pull into the peastone lined drive, cross a wooden bridge and park under seasoned shade tree's. I haven't seen Carol, the owner, in several years but she recognized me and immediately made us feel welcome. I asked her about the yarn bombed bike on the front porch of the shop and she said someone left it under one of the trees last year on the fourth of July. To this day no one will own up to it! It's really a fantastic piece of art and I'm so glad that someone did that for Carol. She's really one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet.
I picked up a skein of Pagewood Farms Artesana and Woodsey along with a skein of local alpaca that doesn't have a name on the label. The alpaca is one of the softest yarn's I've ever touched and whatever I decided to make with it is going to be something that goes directly on my skin - small cowl, mitts, fingerless gloves or something along those lines.
We made it back to my house by 5:30, the car full of yarn and both of us wiped out! It was so much fun and I am really looking forward to doing it again next year.
Finally, on a very happy note, the trees and stumps are gone! Woot! Let the deck building commence.
Your yarn crawl adventure sounded like so much fun! I'm jealous of the gorgeous yarns you brought home and the door prize kit you won. I'm headed to Ravelry to join in the Aquasocks KAL - awesome. Keep up the great work, Lara!
ReplyDeleteWe really did have a great time! I wish you lived closer it would have been so much fun if you could come too :) I'm so glad you are joining the KAL, I can't wait to see your socks!
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