One Year Anniversary Shawl

Last year at Stitches West, I met a woman named V. while I was bent over a discount bin looking for a good deal. There was good stuff in that bin: Manos del Uruguay, Classic Elite Yarns, Juniper Moon Farms, Louisa Harding, etc. I fished out a ball of Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Laceweight yarn in color 2458. Exactly my colors - rich purple, deep cabernet and blue tinted lavender. She immediately commented on how those were her colors and that she knit the Aeolian Shawl out of just one skein. I remembered seeing that shawl pattern on Knitty.com but I wasn't sure it was something I would want to knit it at that point. I was looking for yarn to knit the Wispy Cardigan or the Featherweight Cardigan, both designs by Hannah Fettig. We bonded over purple and I decided to pursue the connection by asking her name.

"V----" she replied.

I tried to imitate the very foreign-sounding name and followed it up with, "Where does that name come from?"

"Oh, it's Estonian," she said it as if she'd said those words a thousand times.

"ESTONIAN? You're ESTONIAN?" I nearly shouted.

Now, you know I love Nancy Bush. And you know I love Estonian knitting don't you? And you know Nancy Bush loves Estonian knitting and Estonia altogether, right? (Watch this video if you want to hear Nancy talk about her love of Estonia.) What are the odds I would meet a real Estonian person in my lifetime? Well, she had no accent but she was still very much Estonian. Now, I was really interested in her

"Where do you live?" I asked. I confess I was hoping she would live somewhere on the Peninsula so that we might get together for knit nights now and then. But that was asking too much.

"Pacifica, how about you?"

I've been to Stitches 3 times already but this is the only time I ever met anyone who lived right in my town! She was excited when I told her where in Pacifica I lived. We talked about the knitting groups that already met in our tiny town and agreed they didn't quite fit our style for one reason or another. When I brought up knitting together just the two of us, she was game.

So we met. First at a cafe in town, then at the wine bar, then at her house, then mine. Finally, we settled on Tuesday's at her house since her husband goes golfing and doesn't get home until very  late. We eat dinner, drink wine, savor fancy chocolates, chat and commiserate a whole lot about our knitting. We are two peas in a pod. Truly.

This brings me to the whole reason I am writing this post.

This year is our one year anniversary of having met. We have been knitting every Tuesday night ever since Stitches West 2013. When we got to Alana Dakos' booth (NeverNotKnitting) at Stitches West this year, we decided to both purchase the Cedar Leaf Shawlette pattern and knit it up in the same yarn to commemorate our anniversary. We both tried it on and it looked equally gorgeous on the both of us. We are so lucky to have found a gorgeous yarn to show off the pattern - Zen Yarn Garden Serenity DK in the colorway Romi's Garden. The picture in that link does NOT do the color justice. It is equally stunning indoors as well as out. We have yet to find a time when we can take a walk by the ocean to show off our matching shawlettes. As soon as we do, I'll post a picture.

Here's a link to my project page.

Some of my favorite tools

I wanted to share 5 of my most loved, most used and most handy tools of the trade.

1. knitting abacus

I walked up to the Knitting Abacus booth at Stitches West this year and the owner charmed me with her explanation of how this wonderful tool worked. One column is the ones (there are 9 beads) and the other column is the tens. You slide one bead down in the ones column for every row/round you complete. After completing 9 rows/rounds, you slide one bead in the tens column down and slide all the ones column beads back up. You can count up to 99 rows/rounds. To go beyond this count, you can get another bracelet I suppose. The beads DO NOT shift, they are snugly in the place you moved them to and stay that way no matter if you wear it to bed and don't take it off for 2 or 3 days. They stay put even if you toss them into your project bag and leave it there for a week. Love this thing! It is decorative AND useful. I kind of wish I had another one for "at the same time" type stuff. I vastly prefer it to row counters on apps because sometimes I forget if I already tapped it or not. It's hard to forget whether or not you slid a bead down after, yes, after finishing a row.

2. yarn bowl



This is a Starbucks mug I received from a co-worker for Christmas. Boy did she peg me perfectly. The second I got home with my gift, I put a ball of yarn into it. Never did it occur to me to put coffee! There are so many types of ball holder gadgets out there and I have never found a one I liked. What I love about this one is that it's great for outer and center-pull balls. I can pull and pull and pull and pull and the mug never moves. If I'm pulling yarn from the outside of the ball it happily bounces around in the mug but never pops out. I'm a center-pull ball maker and user. More often than not that's what's in the mug. It works great until I'm down to the last couple yards and what remains is too light to pull without coming out.

What it's not good for is pre-wound balls like from Knit Picks, Rowan, etc.


3. head lamp



I found out about this wonderful tool through Amy Beth of The Fat Squirrel Speaks video podcast. Who would have ever thought of using these lamps to get a better look at your knitting (a) in a dimly lit room, (b) in the car at night, (c) when knitting with dark yarns, (d) because your eyes are failing you even though you're only 33...

I have turned one friend on to it and she loves it! We don't care if you laugh at us! Let's start a headlamp wearing knitting revolution!

4. project bag from Fringe Supply Co.



I saw these at Stitches West. The owner was sharing a booth with Brooke of Sincere Sheep. I loved these bags the moment I saw them and kept coming back to the booth over the course of the 2 days I was there trying to decide whether I wanted to spend my precious yarn budget on yarn or this bag. The bag and it's cool, clever design won out in the end. I got the medium which comfortably fit all 5 balls of yarn I was carrying around to knit this cardigan for my daughter's lovely Paprika Vest Jacket. Since I knit mostly shawls (as you know), this medium bag is a bit big for it. I'm seriously considering getting the small one with red striping to be my on-the-go shawl project bag.

The fact that I'm mostly completely comfortable using Ziploc bags (!, I know) for my knitting says so much about how much I heart Fringe Supply Co's Bento Bag. Go get one for yourself.

5. crochet hook



Why I love this crochet hook when I don't even crochet? It's the perfect size to put in a small tool bag. Maybe due to the shortness in length, I pick up stitches that I drop either purposefully or by accident much more quickly with this crochet hook than with the standard size. If I've got a lot of fabric I can quickly pass it through to the other side and it won't catch because it's not double ended! Which brings me to the the last reason I love this thing - it doubles as a cable needle!

One thing I wish was a little bit different is it's length. Yes, I know, it's already pretty short, but oh how I would love for it to fit in my grab-and-go tool tin. Guess you can't have it all.