Future Project/ LYS Report

Dress, Yarn, and Beads, originally uploaded by Buxtrosion.

I attended the Santa Clara County Meetup Group's get-together at Knitting Arts in Saratoga. I love Saratoga. For you Texas folk, it's sort of like Salado times 1,000, I guess. I found out that Knitting Arts was having a week-long anniversary sale- 20% off. I had intended to make a Cap Shawl to match this dress I bought in Hawaii, but I saw a sample of a "Heavy Mesh Scarf" made with Colinette Tao Silk and Colinette Parisianne held together. It's a free pattern with purchase of those yarns from the shop. It was really lovely and silky, and only used one skein of each yarn! One of the colorways almost exactly matched my dress. Then just before checking out, I found a package of beads that almost exactly matched the beads on the front of the dress! I might get to cast on tomorrow once my size 13 needles arrive with the rest of my stuff. :)
I also stocked up on white Kidsilk Haze (hooray for sales!!) to make that gorgeous cape from VLT sometime in the future. I don't know if I can picture myself wearing it, but it's one of the most beautiful patterns I've ever seen.

Also this week, I hung out with some fellow Santa Clara County meetuppers and "Google Widows" at Purlescence Yarns in Sunnyvale. It's a really lovely, friendly shop somewhat similar to Bluebonnet. I'm looking forward to hauling my spinning wheel (Ashford Traveler) to one of their Sit & Spin nights. They sell Louet Victorias, which seem really cute, elegantly simple, and super-portable! I didn't buy any yarn, though I'm eyeing some Euroflax for scrubby washcloths (inspired by some rather overpriced cloths I saw at Whole Foods). They also have some super-tempting alpaca fiber that will have to wait until I spin up my llama from Kid N Ewe. I did finally break down and buy the Color In Spinning book, since I've checked it out several times from libraries already. It turns out to be one of the owners' favorites.

Today I made it to Yarn Dogs in Los Gatos, my new hometown. I'm lovin' the irony, but don't get me started on the way Los Gatos is typically pronounced around here (like "las gaddis", and I've got Wikipedia to back me up if you think that's not how people say it). It used to be Rancho Rinconada de Los Gatos, and the cats in question are the actual mountain lions in the area, so I'm going to continue to use my best Texas white-girl Spanish. Anyway, Yarn Dogs is a little shop with friendly people and a fascinating selection. I'm happy to say it will be my closest LYS after tomorrow! They had some really drool-worthy wool/tencel roving from what seems to be a small independent dyer somewhere in California. I picked up a skein of Kureyon to continue my Lizard Ridge. I was really happy to see Noro there, as Yarn Dogs hadn't been mentioned when I asked other knitters where to find it. I haven't made it to their suggested shops yet. The two shops I mentioned before don't carry Noro and I was beginning to get ansy to start another Lizard Ridge square for social knitting since my other WIP is crazy difficult lace.