Skein Lane – IN THE LOOP

Oh what to do today? That was my question to self this past Sunday.

Truth be known there was a definitely a part of me that wanted to stay home and garden….but I chose to drive to Santa Clara to see my brother-in-law who is just two days past open-heart surgery. With some thought and inspiration from some of our Friday Morning Knitting folks I also included a stop at the 2nd Interweave Knitting Conference in San Mateo. Kimberly, Bonnie, Jan and Sheri had been there on Friday afternoon… you can read  about their visit on Kimberly’s blog.

Here’s my take! First off…it’s amazing what can be accomplished in my one-hour walkabout….new connections/old connections ….  think it was a great venue for a small showing of some 30 booths of creative artists and vendors.  First in the door that I saw was Tina from KnitWhits. We’ve known each for a long time…she use to paint needlepoint designs and I purchased some for Skein Lane when it was a store front.

Marianne, customer and Joan.

I then moved around the first corner and almost immediately saw my friend Marianne from Yarn Boutique in Lafayette…she says, ” I thought I saw you come around the corner and I think we still need to plan that dinner date.” As it turns out…..Joan Fish, a yarn rep, was helping Marianne out this weekend….and guess what? Joan and I have been trying to get together all year. Whoohoo! The three of us are getting together at the end of November.

I moved on to look at several booths…”found” Maia Discoe  of Tactile Fiber Arts…..fun to see Maia…I remember when she first came to Skein Lane retail store several years ago.  She has the best yarn…but I couldn’t buy any more of her beautiful yarn today. I am still needing to knit what I bought from her earlier this year. However, I did buy a book Coastal Knits by Alana Dakos and Hannah Fettig. Check out this link re: Maia’s yarn is featured for the Rustling Leaves Beret, page 59.

I continued with my walkabout which included stopping and chatting with Kira of Kira K Designs, Lyn of Cabin Fever (just that day merged with Sheldridge Farm), the folks at Monarch Knitting, and the lovely owner of Lavertera Rose…..we spoke of teaching and how she wants to learn to teach…we talked about how we should connect to make that happen. Kira was excited about some of her newest designs and she has some upcoming classes that she will be teaching in Albany at K2Tog.

Monarch Knitting folks were so helpful…I saw several designs that pleased my heart…and the next thing I know the young woman at computer/register was writing down the info. One was a sweater design..Metro from twistcollective..that I really, really liked…..simple but yet had some of that detail that belongs with a great knitter. Oh…there was another design that I liked…Rockefeller from West Knits.

Lyn Gemmell – Cabin Fever

Now let’s talk about Cabin Fever. Lynda Gemmell’s  sister Deb Gemmell and Robin Hunter have just released a new top-down sweater book Need A Plus Cardigan? It’s audience is that of the full figure person ….. this design book takes into account that while some bodies are fuller that doesn’t mean that the shoulders. Lyn encouraged me to use this book for one my Skein Lane workshops…stay tuned for more info.

We all know that I don’t need one more project…but now there is one more. I fell in love with the Sheldridge FarmKnit Kit – Petals Scarf.

Sheldridge Farm – Petals Scarf

I know..I know…click, click will I ever get done?!

It was a great one-hour tour in the wonderful world of knitting.

Coming up next….a look at some of the beautiful designs featured at Cabin Fever.