A Yarn Party

Yesterday my knitting buddy Cathy and I made the trek over to Tampa to visit Knit n' Knibble, a very lovely yarn store.  They were having their Birthday celebration sale.  A yarn sale is not to be ignored that is for sure.  I have mentioned this store before, the owner and the people working there are really lovely.  We went last year for the first time and we were frankly amazed.  Not at the sale but at the celebration.  Every year the owner rents out the empty store next door and sets up tables and lovely women of all ages sit, and knit, and crochet together, they have door prizes, pizza and drink,s and a fashion show.

 Look at everyone having a great time.  People who work with yarn are so happy, put a bunch of them together in one room and you have such fantastic energy.

 We did not get there until after 12:30, so much of the fun had already taken place, but we still got to experience it.  The joke is everything was 10% off, with yarns ranging up to 70% off.  Everything I purchased, you can guess was only 10% off, but 10% is at least something.

 I wore my new Cardi Shrug.  Now I don't know if the knitters were just overcome by the yarn fumes in the room, but I got lots of compliments.  When I told everyone it was a free pattern on Ravelry they were thrilled.  The lovely woman sitting next to me even downloaded the pattern on her iPhone right away, and headed next door to buy more yarn to make it.  Lots of people had on gorgeous knitted and crocheted items.  One lovely woman I had to go up and talk to was making the Japanese Flowered Shawl, in Lucy's of Attic 24's colors, in lovely Debbie Bliss yarn.  It was so gorgeous you would not believe it.  I told her about the two I made, one was in cotton and  the other alpaca.  My flowers were much bigger than hers which really changes how the shawl looks.

 I went with a purpose.  To buy yarn to make the Nevis Cardigan, from Knit Scene Special Issue - Winter 2011.

 Sorry for the fuzzy picture, but I think the purple yarn above will do nicely.  It is Filigran lace weight, 100% Merino superwash. 

 And because I am loving this Cardi Shrug so much I thought I would make a couple more.    The colors above do not do this yarn justice.  I will try to take another picture on a sunny day.  This is Elizabeth Lavold, Silky Wool.  The green in more apple green, and very bright, and the red is more of a raspberry in color.

 They also had door prizes and I got one!!!!!  Hooray!!!!!  Lovely Cascade Kid Seta with a crochet shawl pattern I will not ever use.  Not that I don't love crochet, you know I do the pattern is just not for me.  I could definitely see another Nevis Cardigan made from this combination. 

 Before any swatching could be done I promised I would finish Monster # 4.  She is into all kinds of mischief as you can see.  She flew off my double pointed needles and climbed in my plant.

 She tried to make some calls on my cell phone.

 And drink my water.

 Here are all four monsters having a snuggle.

The reason for my very shoddy picture taking is this.....the weather is very wet out, dark and GLOOMY.  We have Tropical Storm Debby out in the Gulf of Mexico dumping lots, and lots of water on us.  It is heading off to Texas so we won't get a ton of wind, mostly rain, rain and more rain.  Perfect day to stay inside and play with some yarn don't you think?

How is your weekend going?