Spring Knitting, Really?

Now that it is officially meteorological spring, I realized I hadn't finished posting about our winter adventure in early February.  My, how time flies.

It was a 4-day trip packed full of crafts, yarn and winter sports fun, staying in a small community in northern Michigan.

The weather was cold but beautiful, and the sunrises spectacular,

with the deck overlooking the lake a-twitter with tiny birds.

Walking down the incredibly steep steps from the house along the cliff to the frozen lake was hair-raising at times! The tram works in winter, but seems more scary than walking/ sliding down somehow.

The scene out on the ice was worth it.  At least it was quiet that morning - no snowmobiles roaring by.

Of course I visited many area yarn shops, some I've already discussed in earlier posts, but the last one I have to mention is Gaylord's Imagiknit yarn shop.

The day I visited, the shop had a small group of ladies knitting in the front area, including one person who turned out to be someone who had known my aunt very well.  What a small world it is indeed.

I also had a great time meeting Ravelry designer Deby Lake (Ocknitiot on Ravelry), who works at Imaginknit.

The shop was well-organized and neat, featuring lots of Deby's lovely designs and a nice selection of yarns.

I liked the Michigan-local Stonehedge Fiber Mill Shepherd's Wool shown above in a lovely range of colors.

The photo at the very top of this post shows the lavender heather Shepherd's Wool that jumped into my hands and came home with me.

I haven't knit with it yet, but I love the springy, squishy feel of the wool in the hank.  I am considering working up another version of my recently completed top-down cardigan with it, we'll see.  I'll be sure to review this yarn here when I do. 

Other than look at pretty yarn and knit, my husband and I hiked, ran, snow-shoe-d (sp?) and cross-country skied till we about dropped.  This was his first time on XC skis and he did great. 

We enjoyed the peaceful beauty of the area.

My husband brought along woodcarving supplies to hand-carve some horses.  Some will be made in natural wood, a few were painted.

First we painted the bodies in solid colors.

Then my husband, mom, aunt and I had a hilarious time attempting to paint them in a traditional Dala horse style.

 

My husband is a terrific wood-carver, often making beautiful buttons and shawl pins for me or for sale at yarn shops.

This ring and pin set in purple heart wood is such a pretty, glossy, natural plum color.

The bocote wood has such a beautiful grain.

The single sticks look nice in unusual shapes for shawls, wraps or even for use as hair pins.

I couldn't leave winter 2010/ 2011 without sharing a few of my favorite snow photos of our little dog.

She is a 3-year-old, 7-pound Pomeranian (a Spitz breed bred down from sled dogs like Huskies), and she adores playing in the snow. 

She loves to run, jump, dig in and eat it.

 

Although I'm ready for spring, we certainly had a fun and beautiful winter with few complaints save for the one big storm and power outage.

Now I'm looking forward to a new growing season and some warmer-weather knits, maybe another cardigan, some hats, a vest, more shrugs, a camisole and a pullover?  Definitely some shawls, lots more spinning and a little crochet.  Ha ha ha, a big list I know.  I'll be laughing even more about this come September.

I wonder what everyone else is planning now that the season is changing?

Peace, blessings and happy knitting to you!

Knitting Store - Cynthia's Too

 

Cynthia's Too Yarn and Gifts was one of the yarn shops I visited on a recent trip to northern Michigan. Located in Petoskey, MI, Cynthia's Too owner Cynthia Marovich squeezes an amazing amount of beautiful yarn, accessories and gifts into a corner space on a main street in this charming town, popular with tourists.

Cynthia and her daughter were both on the premises the day of my visit as their second location, in Mackinaw City, is only open during the warmer season.

These ladies were cheerful and helpful, and their eye-popping displays and interesting promotions ('Button Day', with 20% off buttons and customer button swaps, was going on during my visit) give evidence of their creativity and love for vivid color.

 

 

 

There was certainly a lot to see from the moment we entered the store. I loved the selection of yarn from Misti Alpaca,

and Shibui, like this teal-colored skein of Shibui's Merino Kid wool/ mohair blend.

I'm still playing around with stripes, but must get some work done on more current projects.  I'd love to see photos of striped projects my readers want to share, and even post some of them here, so be sure to PM me on Ravelry if you do. 

More photos and shops coming soon, until then, peace, blessings and happy knitting to you!

TRU Love

Since today is St. Valentine's Day, I want to send everyone sweet valentine wishes, and I couldn't resist a play on words of my Ravelry user name - Truknit!  TRU is sort of an acronym of my name, and both my husband and I use it for different stuff.  

It seems everyone nowadays is shortening words and this magazine advertisement certainly caught my eye.

In honor of the day I started thinking about all the knitting and crochet projects I've loved making over the years, especially those in my favorite pink, lavender and red.  

The project shown in the top photo is one of my most favorite projects, the Little Arrowhead Shawl by Pam Allen from Interweave Knits.  

If you've never knitted a lace shawl before, I recommend this as a good one to start with.  

I enjoyed knitting it in this rich, deep red Plymouth Suri Merino wool/ alpaca blend.  OK, ok, I know this is an old project - although it hasn't been posted to my blog yet - but I think it's cool how if you look at the picture just right, the shape of the shawl looks like a heart! 

 I used a stretchy bind-off for the edging and adapted the last row to add a bit more 'give' and depth to the points.  You can read my notes on my Ravelry page here.

To my way of thinking, Valentine's Day is not just an occasion to celebrate romance, but to celebrate all kinds of love, whether it be for significant others, family, friends, God, pets and (it's a stretch here, but humor me) hobbies.

I love to knit!  And spin, and crochet, and lots of other artsy things.  And I recently read an article relating the feeling we get from knitting to some of the same feelings we have in relationships as a result of brain chemicals called endorphins.  

According to Dr. Herbert Benson, a physician and author of Relaxing Revolution, knitting reduces stress hormones and releases endorphins that make you happy.  So that 'love'  feeling that makes you just want to knit, knit, knit, is a valid one!  

I promised a rundown of our trip to northern Michigan earlier this month, and I thought I'd start today with a quick mention of our stop en route at a fiber shop called The Spinning Loft in Howell, Michigan.

This shop has a nice selection of rovings and processed fiber, 

spinning wheels, looms, bags, drop spindles, and whole fleeces.

Owner Beth Smith wields her wheel here in the back room, where classes are held. She is sporting magenta-hued hair, a la Lucy Neatby...

The Spinning Loft regularly hosts spinning, knitting and weaving classes and workshops, including an upcoming one with Stephanie Pearl McPhee, so if you are in the area, check them out.

I'll have more shops and luscious yarn to show in upcoming posts.

And speaking of luscious, If you like to bake like I do, you might want to check out the Bettycrocker.com website for loads of ideas, recipes and meal planning tips.  I found this photo and a delicious recipe for their Traditional Glazed Brownie Hearts, here.

Hope everyone has a wonderful valentine's day, celebrating the thing in life that really matters - love in every fashion. 

Batten Down the Hatches

I am finally home from a wonderful trip to beautiful northern Michigan (see photo above), and I've got lots of knitting progress, yarn shops, photos and new experiences to blog about,  but most of that will have to wait since we are now in the midst of the monster storm bashing much of the US.  

Winds are gusting at up to 50 mph, a neighbor's giant tree crashed down across our street, blocking the roadway, and the icy roads are like glass. The dog has not yet been blown away as she goes outside to do her 'business', but I'm keeping her on a short leash and holding onto the deck railing - what an adventure!

Our power was out overnight (we burrowed under many layers of duvets and stayed toasty warm) and although the lights are currently on, it is intermittent, so just a quick update to let everyone know we are OK and I'll post when our power is reliably steady (despite it's occasional drawbacks, I love winter - yes those are snowshoes on my feet!).

Today is Groundhog Day in the US and Canada, and both Punxatawney Phil and Buckeye Chuck failed to see their shadows, a prediction for an early spring!  An early spring has only been forecast 16 of the 114 seasons of prediction.

Wild winter weather, predicitons of an early spring...  these remind me that "to everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.."

Progress continues on my Cascade 220 top-down cardigan, which was nearly one quarter complete when I completely frogged it and re-knit the yoke from the beginning because I was not happy with the experimental rate of increases, or the general proportions of the stitch patterns.

I enjoy a project like this to sink my teeth into and I'm loving how it's turning out now that I'm finally into the pattern stitch.

I'll have a proper post hopefully soon, until then, happy knitting!