Neighborhood Fiber Co Trunk Show

We had a blast last weekend with Karida from Neighborhood Fiber Company visiting with a trunk show of fabulous yarn. Many of the yarn junkies turned out on this hot day--I think it was worth it for everyone. Karida names all the yarns after Washington, DC neighborhoods. I'm in love with many, but my favorite is LeDroit Circle. She's dyeing some sock yarn in this color that will become my "mother of the groom" sweater.

For others, like Kim, we helped with color choices. She went with the green (several of us chose Logan Circle).

More Knitting in China

Anna Wong from San Francisco wrote me this about her trip to China:

I was in China in June & though we weren't on a shopping trip but on a "roots" journey, I told my family that the one thing I wanted to look for was dp needles.

I speak no mandarin & very bad cantonese. During the trip, I encountered 3 knitters while we were roaming local neighborhoods & though we couldn't actually converse, with limited words, much sign language & pulling out my sock work in progress, it was amazing what a common bond knitting is - they loved my self striping yarn while I was awed at their sweaters/skirt on the long needles. I finally was able to get enough info from one of the knitters to direct me to a shopping area where there was a stall full of crochet, knitting & sewing notions. I got both metal and bamboo 14" dp needles - ended up buying various sizes & enough to give as gifts to my knitting buddies - the cost was unbelievable, I got 14 sets for US $7.00.

Bottom line, thank you for sharing your experience which in turn gave me an experience I will treasure.

Sterling Silk

Take some fine merino superwash, add silk and a touch of nylon and you've got a luxurious sock yarn. Add a bit of silver - yes, that kind - and you have lovely Sterling Silk& Silver.

Kraemer Yarns in Nazareth, PA has brought this wonderful yarn to the knitting world. It's being sold as "suitable for socks and more." The silver has antibacterial properties, enhancing the functionality for socks.

We're knitting this up in a lace shawl, and will post pictures as soon as it's ready!

Bon Voyage

Last night we had a party to say farewell to two of our friends. Sonja and Kathy both left us today to move on to the next phase of their lives. Sonja (left) heads home and then back to college. Kathy (right) is moving to Seattle to be close to family.

Sonja was a summer intern at Y2Knit and Kathy has a been a friend and helper to Susan since the day she moved to Funkstown and opened Y2Knit. They will both be missed by all of us. Both were regular attendees of Friday Night Social Knitting and KnitFlix.
After everyone had stuffed themselves with wonderful salads, Vietnamese dishes, fresh veggies and hummus dips,
cobbler, cheese cake, etc., we played Knitting Jeopardy. Audrey really knocked our socks off with this board she created. The cards flip over to reveal an answer on the back. We divided into teams and Audrey draw team numbers to determine the order. We had a blast!

Here's what the board looked like after the game. That's Audrey on the left and Susan holding the board. Then we played a game that required us to match the fiber to it's source and another one that required us to "name that fiber".

Then we moved on the presents! One of the presents Kathy received was a membership in the Y2Knit e-Connection, which is a one-year subscription program that provides an opportunity to experience eco-friendly and sustainable products in the yarn industry.

Sonja received a t-shirt and mug from our favorite late-night hangout, Krumpe's Do-nuts. We usually made a Krumpie's run every Friday after Social Knitting. She also received some yarn, needles, some dvd's, a Funkstown cookbook, some local memorabilia, and a big basket of fresh Leitersburg peaches. Frankie gave her a beautiful lizard pin that we all took turns wearing before giving to her so that some our knitting wisdom will go with it.

We're all really going to miss these two. We hope that Sonja comes back again in the future. Some of us a hoping to get a chance to go out to Seattle and visit Kathy someday. I know it's numero uno on my list of places to visit. We wish them both safe journeys and happy times!