Yarn Crawl

The San Diego Yarn Crawl was a couple of weeks ago. Last year a group of us went to all the stores and one alpaca farm in one day. It was exciting and fun but this year a friend and I decided to make it low key and visit just the shops we really liked and miss out on the alpaca farms.

The other difference was that this year I intended to buy yarn! A recurring theme of this blog is to knit all my yarn and one of the reasons was so I could buy lots of yarn at this year’s yarn crawl. Although I had given myself permission to buy yarn, I wanted the purchases to be planned so that I didn’t end up with a load of yarn in my stash that I didn’t know what to do with; I especially was not going to buy sock yarn unless it was for a project other than socks. (So hard when there is such lovely sock yarn available.)

I made a list of a few projects I wanted to make and how much of what type of yarn was required. And then in the very first place I bought yarn not on my list. Uh oh. Our first stop was The Yarnover Truck and they had yarn specially dyed for them by Zen Yarn Garden and the colorway is named California Love and there was a shawl pattern designed by Anthony Casalana especially for Serenity Silk Single in this colour. So that was it, I had to have the yarn and the pattern. That really could have been a slippery slope to portend the rest of the day’s purchases but I mentally crossed off yarn for a shawl that was on my list and everything was copacetic.

Next stop was Yarns at Border Leather where my plan was to buy baby yarn. Which I did, but I also made a truly unplanned purchase - a skein of alpaca/wool/nylon in pinks and greens that I decided would make a lovely scarf or cowl for a gift.

After a spot of lunch we headed up to South Park and The Grove. This is an interesting shop as it sells many different things from different vendors, almost shops within a shop. There I bought a stitch marker and a handbag and a yarny gift. And resisted buying any yarn for myself. Then it was a quick hop up to North Park to a fairly new store, Arañitas Yarn by Sofia. This was a small shop but with lots of natural lighting. I didn't buy anything there. And then we were on our way home.

Except we decided to stop off at Common Threads where I purchased some Madeline Tosh Sock. Not for socks but to make a cardigan because I am crazy to want to knit a cardigan in fingering weight yarn. Also at Common Threads I won some yarn in their door prize.

It was a fun day out, spending the day with a good buddy and meeting up with other friends and yarn at the end of it.

A Small Update

I haven't posted for a while so I really thought I had a number of finished items to show you. But that's not the case and I am rather disappointed as I have only two finished items. That's a pretty poor showing for over 7 weeks since last post. And to make matters worse these are both small items.

Without further ado here they are:

Firstly the hat I made in August for Operation Gratitude. Yarn is Vanna's Choice that I bought earlier this year especially for charity knitting; the pattern can be found here.




And the other item is a baby cardigan. My old next door neighbour will become a Grandmother for the first time and as I know the parents I had to make something. Another Easy Baby Cardigan, this time without the hood. I do like this pattern. I used the yarn left over from the mitts but I did have to buy more of the cream colour and, of course, I know have some of that left and I don't know if there is enough to make anything.




Off the needles but not finished are:- a scarf for Operation Gratitude, it is blocked and just needs the ends to be sewn in; the toy I mentioned last time, stuffing has been purchased; and some fingerless mitts that need seaming but with our current temperatures I haven't had much incentive to finish them.

On the needles are way too many things. I started a pair of socks for the September challenge. They are fiddly so I need an easy project now that I have finished the baby cardigan. Also yarn has been purchased as I went on the San Diego yarn Crawl. I will update numbers when I post about the crawl. In the meantime I can delude myself that yarn out is still greater than yarn in.

The Important Thing Is The Marriage

Not the number of shares the video of your proposal/wedding dance received.

There are so many videos popping up of first dances at weddings I wonder if guests are disappointed when a slow dance stays a slow dance and does not suddenly turn into a choreographed number.

Today on Facebook another one appeared. A marriage proposal. Friends and family dancing? to a song that girlfriend was (forced) to listen to on headphones. Although she seemed happy by all this literal song and dance I did not feel like watching over 5 minutes of You Tube one-upmanship. They do not make me sentimental or weak at the knees. Instead I feel sad that all this effort is put into the production but not into the marriage itself. At the end of the day when it is just the two of you, do you give her the same attention as you did for the proposal; does she respond with a smile on her face? Or are you searching social media for the next big idea or hoping yours will be the next trend setter.

And what about her? How did she feel about this public declaration; is this something she would have loved or was she cringing inside but you were too wrapped up in the production to truly think about what your love would really want. There is a reason why marriage proposals on Jumbotrons are turned down. And now the song and dance are over, real life has set in, is she expecting a big production for upcoming events or is she dreading that there will be further You Tube moments.

This is sounding cynical, but with the high divorce rate it seems that more effort is put into the proposal than keeping the marriage alive.