Honeymoon Yarn Expedition

Well, not much knitting has been happening in my household this month as DH and I took our two week honeymoon to Italy. We had a wonderful time, and even got to visit a couple of yarn shops in Florence. I had earned a free day from Stashalong for completing the afghan square back in February, so I saved it for our trip. First, we went to Campolmi, which is in the center of the city. This shop is huge! The staff was lovely, but spoke limited English, so we negotiated our way through business and I ended up with the skein below.

The prices were great (1,50 Euro/$3 for the skein). It's not going to become any knitted item, but instead will be one of our momentos from the trip.

Next up, we went to Beatrice Galli.

Beatrice and her husband were there, and they were lovely too. I took my time and looked at the products that were made in Italy, since that meant more than buying a yarn that wasn't local. I came away with some Filatura di Crosa Cashmere/Seta (Gray and Orange), and some Mondial Giada (3 skeins in a Smoky Blue). Lovely yarns, and hopefully, Ravelry will help me figure out what to make them with.

I keep working on the Minimalist Cardigan and almost have the right front done! I also started the Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf in some Mountain Colors yarn that I had in the stash. It's back to work tomorrow for us, so knitting in the evenings while watching the Yankees in spring training and the start of the regular season will begin again.

-B

Felted Yoga Bag

So finally an unfrogged finished project to show. I got some Cascade 220 for Christmas that I wasn't sure was the right hat and scarf color for me. So I needed to figure out something to do with it. I realized I didn't want one bag that was all one color so I found another heathered Cascade 220 that I thought would look nice with the aqua color. You can't really see it in the picture but the aqua has a fairly blue heather to it. I'd been thinking about knitting the Felted Yoga Bag out of Last Minute Knitted gifts (a book that I am realizing their estimated times are way off and take nowhere near their suggested times, or maybe I'm just really slow, but I'm going with the idea they are way off and not me). And I've never felted anything before, so I thought it might be entertaining. So preblocking here is my new yoga bag.

And now for the bag post-felting.

The aqua felted a little faster than the navy apparently. And the strap is a little longer than it

needed to be, but it'll still work and is honestly a lot easier to package up after a yoga class, if I can get myself going again. But at least I have a cute bag to carry the mat.

S

And the frogging continues

Thisis what my hokie colored yarn looked like early Friday night...until I tried it on with my heel extension and realized that unless my foot was growing in the next few months lengthwise, it was never going to fit me. So it became another of the manyfrogged projects tha I have had in the last few months. Nothing seems to be working if it requires any sort of measurement it isn't going to fit me. So may the hokie jaywalkers rest in peace...I will have to be subjected to another round of orange hands when I decide to venture on the socks again.

-S