A Yarn Review and #firesidefebruary

Hi friends and happy Tuesday! Phew, I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since I last wrote! And where did January go?  It was gone in a blink!

Yarn Shop Visit: Wollhaus

Hi friends!

How was your weekend?!  Lots was happening around parts — preliminary cleaning, sorting, and packing (how is it possible that we’re leaving here next Saturday?!) and, most importantly, a lot of knitting, nay, finishing (!!! yes I finished not one, not two, but THREE knits, woo hoo!) happened. 

Yarn Shop Visit: The Altered Stitch

Well friends, this weekend, we had a knitting emergency! 

Home and away

Happy Sunday friends!

April felt like a month of endless (if very fun!!!) travel — so it’s been nice to be back in Philadelphia, even if I have been a little sad to miss my annual visit to Maryland Sheep and Wool.

Gather DTLA and other La La Land adventures

Hi there friends, and happy Friday!

Phew, this week’s flown by — I can’t believe I’m just getting to tell you about my time in Los Angeles! It was a wonderful (almost) week, and we crammed in a lot — especially considering we had to carry on with work Thursday, Friday, and Monday as usual.

So, obviously, the most important part of the trip was visiting a new-to-me yarn shop! I’ve been working my way through the fiber spots that are scattered around LA.  A few weeks before I arrived, Mr. N had, by chance, had an opportuntity to scout out one of the shops I’d been hoping to visit — Gather DTLA — and was very enthusiastic about it (“They have Quince yarn!” he reported, “and locally dyed yarn as well!” — clearly, he’s done a good job learning how to evaluate yarn shops.)  Our original plan had been to do some hikng Saturday and visit downtown LA, and most importantly, the yarn shop, on Sunday, but bad weatehr Saturday morning conviced us to swap our weekend plans.  And in the end, by the time we got downtown early Saturday afternoon, it had turned into a brilliant day.

Mawson visits Griffith Observatory, and other LA snippets

I’ve been in Los Angeles with Mr. N the last week and a bit.  One of the WIPs that came west with me was my almost completed Mawson hat, which I started at Thanksgiving with my mom, but, due to yarn shortage, we couldn’t complete before I left.

I finished the hat within a day of arriving here, but hadn’t a moment to get any pictures of it.  But on Friday, Mr. N and I decided to take the afternoon off and head over to Griffith Observatory, which I had never been to, to explore a bit and see the fabulous views.

Saturday in South Bay

Saturday, Mr. N and I decided to put our newly bought car (!) to good use and head out for some exploring of this vast place that is Los Angeles.

Just as we we were packed up and ready to go for a day out by the beach (sunscreen: check; Hermione Socks: check), Mr. N inquired: “don’t you want to check if any of your knitting shops are around where we’re going?”  And I’ll tell you, readers, I felt pretty dang lucky. Not only does Mr. N go along without complaint to yarn shops and stay as long as I’d like, he actively seeks out opportunities for me to buy yarn!

Auckland City Break

Monday afternoon, Mr. N and I hopped on the hour-long flight to Auckland to sort out his visa to come back to the US  and have a bit of a mini holiday.  I’d never been in Auckland, outside the airport, so it was nice to have a small visit to the biggest city in New Zealand, especially as we squeezed in visits to two yarn shops in as many days!