Knitting: Back to Camp

I have been away again at the annual Knit Cam0, held at the lovely Camp Kon-O-Kwee. Sister Sarah and I shared a room with another lady named Linda (she was a newbie this year). As this has become an annual trip, I leave a day before and we shop till we drop. This year was no different.

Left on Thursday and arrived around 1:30 PM. Met up at Eat 'n Park, had some lunch and Sarah drove from there. We headed into town (east side) and hit up Knit One first. Now before I get into the yarny story, let me tell ya 'bout the snow and the parking. Knit One is located in an artsy district similar to Short North for you Columbus folks. However unlike our very FLAT high street it is on a hill, narrow street with parking on both sides and only one lane of traffic each way and NO turning lanes (unlike our High St.). Moving on to the SNOW.... Pburgh received about 2-3 feet more than we did a coupla weeks ago. Consequently, the normal street parking was not really available on the main drag. There were a few people that slightly dug out a few spots in front of their houses, but the shops didn't do that. So there was another big hill that we went up and then came back down. Found a dug out spot that was unoccupied, sorta kind dug out that is. Sarah backed into it, backing UP HILL and then tried to correct and got herself a little stuck.

She promised NOT to run me over, so I got in front of the car (PS, was in the front seat, had to crawl to the back seat to exit the driver side) and I pushed, she backed, I slipped and down to my knees in the wet slushy snow I went. Was ok, not hurt too bad, no biggie but wet jeans (ew) and hit the bad knee - small bruise.

Finally made it to shop, looked around a bit and I ended up with Koigu a lovely color that LOOKS like Starry Night (to me). I also found a lovely yarn by Shaefer Co which is the color I have coveted for YEARS. It's called Gertrude Ederle. It's fabulous shades of purple, blue, grean and dark pink. I LOVE it... and so happy I found. It's a merino/silk blend fingering weight, so not sure if it will be socks, gloves or some other fabulousness.

Oh and I grabbed a few skeins of a novelty type yarn to make a scarf for Joy. She pointed one out to me a couple of weeks ago in Toledo, but I can't find that yarn, so I think this one will do.
Here is the yarn (wrong color) and the scarf (color she wants)



After that purchase, for which I received 10% from the kind owner, even though I forgot my coupon, we headed to Natural Stitches. LOVE this place. They have such a huge selection of fabulous yarn and a bunch was on sale!

I bought a lot, including the newer wire sock blockers. I picked up a hand dyed sock blank, some Pagewood Farms Denali in a pretty impressionist style color way, I think it's called Lavender fields. I picked up a skein of this brand last year and LOVE it... so I added more. They had the Arucania on sale 40% off, picked up 2 skeins, one green and one pink. And then in the super bargain sale, a cotton/nylon blend of fingering weight for $3/skein, bought 2 for future socks. I think that was all... but Sarah and I combo'd our order because if you hit a $100 you get a nice canvas bag... and you all know how I love bags... so now I have another bag...yay! And I also have some customer rewards points, so I get 10% off my next purchase and it expires in May, so now I have an excuse to go back. LOL.

After that we hit up Trader Joe's because it's in the same plaza for camp snacks and goodies. While there I noticed they had a selection of hand made enchiladas, that I'm hoping our local stores carry. Really want to try.

Then to dinner and back to Sarah's. Finally got a little bit of knitting time in and then to bed. Next morning, we headed to Sewickley, PA for Yarns Unlimited. Picked up a couple of skeins (can't remember now), Audra gave me her coupon because she wasn't buying anything so I received 10% there, too. WOOT!

Finally we were headed towards Camp.... that's all I have time for now, so details and photos to come. Hopefully later today or tomorrow if I'm ambitious!

Knitting: The great Knit Camp 2009 Adventure, part 1

Since I teased everyone on Sunday, I'll start with a pic:

From Knit Camp

And I actually started writing this Sunday... bullet points mostly. I wanted to jot down notes so as not to leave anything out. I mean everyone knows I talk a lot, how can writing be any different. Plus I want to be able to relive it all over again. So this will be a heavy picture post and probably quite wordy. You've been warned.

I picked up Audra Thursday afternoon and we jumped onto the Hwy and headed out of town. I expected to be stuck in traffic, but was pleasantly surprised. It was a pretty easy drive until we crossed over from Wheeling into PA. Around that change over it was A. Dark, B. Curvy and windey and windy and C. HILLS! Oh yeah and there was a bit of precipitation. Mostly light snow. It was all good, I maintained fairly well but then... we took the correct exit and all... but I was in unfamiliar territory. Anyone that knows me, knows that the Pittsburgh Ikea is like my homing beacon. My trips to PA typically always start there. I know HOW to get there. And I also know how to get around FROM there. Well, we weren't stopping at Ikea first, this time. So the directions had me going direct to Sarah's place in McDonald. Let me talk about that place for a second... it's mall, quaint and off the beaten track. Like most of the outer-lying burbs of Pittsburgh, its hilly and curvey and in the dark, this can be treacherous. So we drive along in the dark, hoping to come out somewhere. I did make one wrong turn but that was quickly corrected and eventually ended up in the right spot, well mostly right spot. All good.

We were quite pooped, but stayed up knitting and talking anyway. This is where my first knitting error of the weekend occurred. I was working on my lovely green shibuiknits sock yarn in the Cablicious pattern. I had already re-cast on for this project once, and messed up again, so I cast on a 2nd time. I don't recall exactly what happened but after the 2nd fail, I decided green shibui was not meant to be cablicious. I pulled out Lorna's Laces and c/o with that. So far, so GOOD. It's looking lovely although I haven't gotten too far, quite yet.

Friday morning, up fairly early. We went to breakfast at an Eat 'N Park (my new fave restaurant). Nothing special about it, it's just fun. We went to the one in Bridgeport because of course there was a yarn shop there.

Carol's Needleworks

From Knit Camp

While there, we chatted with Carol. She was quite nice and helpful and had lots to say! I bought 3 skeins of sock yarn and 1 sock blank.

From Yarn Stash

From Yarn Stash

From Yarn Stash

From Yarn Stash

Next we loaded up and headed out to Squirrel Hill to a fave place, Knit One. We were hoping the owner would be there, because she's a real fun sort, another chatty lady, but alas, one of her workers was there instead. They were having a sale on one of my FAVE yarns, Mirasol Hacho... and can you believe I didn't buy any?! Totally true. I was so overwhelmed while there, I get that way. They had several Namaste bags, needlecase and Jordana Paige, too! SO I bought a bag. (which for some reason I haven't photo'd). It cost way too much, but I don't care cause I love it. It's this gorgeous shade of purple and was REALLY hard to pick. They had the bag that both Molly's have, but it was in RED. I walked around the store for like 20 minutes with that one slung on my shoulder. But... the purple one kept calling out to me. I asked Sarah for help and she voted on the purple one, it has way more pockets and compartments, etc, so purple it is! I bought the bag and walked out... fast! With no yarn. :)

Then we made it over to Natural Stitches, which I was excited to get back to. Hadn't made it there on the last trip to town. They were having the biggest effing sale, it was RIDICULOUS! And can I mention, they have one of the BEST selection of yarns EVER! Anyway... heaven. I bought Cascade Sierra, blue and red it's a cotton blend and 2 skeins of malabrigo sock yarn. It was all so scrumptious!

From Yarn Stash

From Yarn Stash

Finally we were finished with yarn stores, then we headed over to Trader Joe's cause it's in the same plaza, got some goodies and off to camp we went. We arrived at the lodge, the whole area there is beautiful. I should have gotten better pictures, but the camera was packed away and inconvenient. Anyway, we unloaded, grabbed some yarn and stuff and headed up to the dining hall. We met new people, sat and knit, went to dinner and after dinner attended a class based on Norah Gaughan's knitting nature hexagon pattern. It was interesting. After that, we headed back to the lodge and hung out with more knitting, where I failed to pay attention and messed up my Opulent Raglan! :(

This is the dining hall

From Knit Camp

This was our dinner treat:

From Yarn Stash

Woke up entirely too early on Saturday, did some knitting and back to dining hall for breakfast. Where we were surprised with yet another treat:

From Yarn Stash

After breakfast, we headed back down to the basement at the dining hall. Hung out for a bit and then the folks from Raspberry Hill Farms brought out Pretty Boy Floyd the Alpaca. He was quite a sweetheart!! They also brought BUNCHES of yarn and roving, so of course I bought some of that. I bought the already spun yarn although I really wanted to buy some roving, but since I'm not a spinner yet, I figured I would wait. I also bought a skein for Sarah for her birthday, since I'm a nice sister.

Isn't he the cutest?!

From Knit Camp

Can't remember the name of this Alpaca

From Yarn Stash

This one is from Travista

From Yarn Stash

I had planned on buying Floyd's yarn, but it was a darker shade of brown and I really liked this lighter one.

After all that excitement we did some more knitting. There was a gal that was there to teach Crochet and show how to make a granny square, but she left at breakfast because she was sick. So I overheard someone talking about it and volunteered to help out... where I ended up being the instructor. It went ok... I lost a person by the way side. I offered to go back but she just sat and listened instead. Anyway, most everyone "got it" and it was good. Funny thing, I haven't made a granny square in YEARS... but once I started, it all came back to me! And then, by golly it was lunch already!

Of course we got another treat. The first photo has the TOTE bag we received. There was also a skein of yarn tucked inside. I'll probably use this yarn for baby booties or a hat or something. Only have 1 skein, heaven only knows where I'd find another.

From Yarn Stash

And with that, I'll end part 1. I was REALLY going to make ONE big post, but I've already been working on this forever and well, I want to get a LITTLE knitting done today and get to bed. There's always tomorrow, stay tuned!

Knitting: At knit camp.... HA!

So let's start by talking about what I didn't do at knit camp this weekend. KNIT.

Seriously... it felt like everything I touched turned bad. I worked a little on xxx and messed something up... switched projects and well something went awry there too, so all in all sort of a frustrating knitting sort of weekend.

However..... there were SOOOO many wonderful and amazing things to talk about here. Unfortunately, I'm totally teasing you and not posting it all right now.

Ok... a little more of a teaser for the week to come... plus my thoughts so I don't forget everything! :)

There was some shopping (ok, LOTS of shopping), Pretty Boy Floyd the Alpaca (real sweeatheart!), new friends, an auction, projects, camp goodies, IKEA... and oh the stories. I met some of the most wonderful knitters this weekend. It was a great trip and I even did an impromptu class on how to make crochet granny squares?!

Anyway... I should get to bed... so pictures and stories of Knit Camp to come.