I wanted to visit 3 different stores, but logistics only allowed for one! I chose the one with my favorite name.
Magpie Yarn!
Check out this lady who was dressed for something not in New York City. Turns out she was helping at Rolex…I loved her whole look. She said she tries to knit and do something with horses every day—keeps her happy.
I loved the yarn I found. One of them reminded me of the landscape on our drive from Lexington to Louisville.
I made a turban with it!
I made another hat using purlbee’s trusty pattern. I love the neon green flowers and pom-pom. These hats knit up so quickly and it’s fun to see what the skein will turn out to be!
When Carrie was here she had her eye out for anything GIRAFFE for her daughter’s upcoming 10th birthday. We kept hitting and missing: Too young, too weird, too meh. At the Brooklyn Flea we found this plastic giraffe and she passed on it. For some reason I could NOT stop thinking about that giraffe. I even went back to the Flea the next weekend to try to find it (I know, cuhrazy). I was UNSUCCESSFUL.
I turned to EBAY and got the perfect giraffe. I knew exactly what I was going to do with it. I pulled out the Lion Brand sparkly bon-bons in PARTY and CELEBRATE (that Lion Brand gifted me last month), and started yarn-bombing the spots off that giraffe.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE how she turned out. I was so excited about her that I shipped her off to Princess without properly photographing her. Thank goodness iphone cameras are pretty decent. Bon-bons are so fun because you can do lots of little projects like this. I feel like this giraffe is JUST RIGHT.
The week before I went to Chicago there was the Chicago Yarn Crawl. I missed it. But! I was able to get some names and addresses of participating stores to check out. Yelp was very helpful to me in determining where I wanted to spend my precious 2 hours of time. Thankfully, my top choices were about 10 blocks apart on the same street in the same neighborhood.
First I checked out Sifu, and the little box of yarn for the birds in the tree outside their shop won me over immediately.
My Grandma had sweetly given the Pickle and me $20- to spend in the city, so in the spirit of that, I found a little skein of yarn that was $6- to make a Christmas hat for Pickle (I had spent $14- on breakfast at Ann Sather just before I arrived.)
Next stop was Windy Knitty. Though I am a fan of some sterility in yarn shops, Sifu had the perfect balance of presentation and kitsch, that I was a little let down by the organization of Windy Knitty. But! WK had this amazing skein of yarn called City by the Lake. I have no idea what I’ll make (ok, some idea, probably a hat), but I had to have it, because it was my city in yarn form!
See?
Brilliant! So glad I sought out these two gems.
One rainy afternoon we had our friends over to make some banners out of scrap fabric. I just LOVED the focus and concentration these girls put into picking each piece of fabric, ripping and tying. It was awesome. I think I just sat and watched while I nursed Pickle.
A few weeks later our crafternoon was inspired by Lion Brand Yarn’s Yarn Wrapped Desk Organizers Craft, we Yarn-bombed some containers for upcoming birthday gifts.
Sidenote: Pickle is listening to her white noise app, Talenti is delicious gelato (I like banana chocolate swirl and sea salt caramel), the yarn used is a wide variety from my stash, and the pink flower is from this pattern. Also, the girls were VERY good at this, really loved it, and did not require much assistance–I highly recommend it for the TWEENS!
I made Pickle a new headband using Lion Brand’s Baby Soft yarn and this pattern. It is a tiny bit big, so she will grow into it. I think this might be very special done in a crochet cotton or vanna’s choice glamour.
I was so thrilled to be invited to a special BLOGGER event at Lion Brand last week. What made it even more special, is my Bestie was visiting from California, and she was invited too! Carrie and I arrived at the Studio around 3 o clock and spent the next 5 hours in Yarn Heaven.
After a tour of the Studio itself (which I had been to many times before, but learned some new stuff!), we were given the friends & family discount to shop. I snatched up some Vanna’s Choice to make this afghan. Of course they had all the required colors for my pallette.
I also picked up some of her Glamour for a few new projects I want to tackle:
Honeycomb Hat, Cable Knit Bracelet & Ruby Slippers.
We got a tour of the Design Floor. The work spaces were immaculate and white and beautiful. The vision boards were so inspiring. I even spied an intern working on a craft that will be posted on their website. After that we met the CEO, David, who was so gracious and amazing. His office was way cool, and of course his office chair and computer were YARN BOMBED!
Lion Brand set up a BEAUTIFUL gifting table with new colors of their yarns. I filled up my bag after two visits to the table, and this was after I had opened a gift that they had specially picked for me. Little Crochet! Perfect!
Seriously, it was yarn heaven! Better than Christmas! I can’t WAIT to get started. My mind is racing with all the projects I get to do with THIS YARN!——–>
When we were done shopping and picking out gifts, we worked together on a craft that I had never done before! We started with a BLANK and then dyed it with sharpies and water. After it dries, we will unwind it, roll it up, and then knit or crochet something! Exciting! Can’t wait for them to send it to me!
We concluded the evening with a delicious meal at Mesa Grill on 5th Ave. The food was so delicious. I can’t stop thinking about the piece of Coconut Cake I had for dessert.
I loved getting to know the heart and soul of Lion Brand. I can’t wait to work on my projects with my new yarn! Of course you will see them all featured here.
A HUGE THANK YOU For including THIS BLOGGER at such a warm event, full of YARN LOVE!
I have ridden plenty a Small World ride in my days on this earth, and I have to say, every time I get to the last scene with all the nations dressed in their white with color accents, I think to myself: It IS a small world after all.
This time through Lolly noticed, with excitement, that the wigs are made of yarn. After I looked a little closer myself, I found this exciting too. I have already had some yarn plans floating around in my head for Halloween this year, and this inspired me even more to go through with it.
My favorite wig is the pink one with the bun in the front. I also loved seeing the Goats with little cotton sweaters on, the sun covering her smile, and the giant pink camel and pink elephant.
Sicky-kins Jason was meant to run a marathon last weekend, but I have to say I completely LUCKED OUT that he couldn’t run it, because I learned about the Sheep and Wool Festival on Ravelry just last week, and I decided we would go do THAT instead of run or watch someone run 26.2 miles. WAY better choice.
I’ve never seen so much yarn in one place in my LIFE. I was feeling overwhelmed by the Yarn Crawl, well this was just unprocessable, I didn’t buy one skein. If I hadn’t had the fam with me, I would have totally caved to the peer pressure of this line. These people were lined up to CHECK OUT. I must discover this yarn.
I wish I had just bought some of the yarn from loop. The girl who makes it was super cool, wore these awesome, thigh-high leg warmers over her jeans, and can you believe I actually passed up the TROLL yarn?
Lolly and Phoebe were totally into the festival–made me SO happy. Lolly really appreciated seeing RAM-to-wool-to-roving-to-spinning-to-yarn, and they loved petting the CASHMERE goat! ooh-la-la. Fancy! I think Jason’s favorite part was the auction. I had NO IDEA what that guy was saying, but it was exciting. I tried not to make any sudden movements, lest he think I was bidding. I really wanted to bid on the sheep that was pregnant with twins though. What a loss for me.
An unexpected highlight of all the animal ogling was the Mama Kangaroo with the Joey in her pouch. Truly a sight none of us had seen before, we could not stop staring.
We will definitely be returning to the Sheep and Wool Festival. I would not miss the soft pretzels or pumpkin pie we devoured. Phoebe would love to get some Shepherds Pie again and next time I will have a good big budget to buy the yarn I so envied at the festival. Maybe next time we will stop in AFTER Jason meets us there on his bike or runs a marathon…then we would all experience an ideal day!
Every time I saw this yarn at Purlsoho, I just wanted it. Finally I decided to get some during the yarn crawl, and I am so happy I did. I can’t wait to go back and get another color. This hat was a huge achievement for me as I knitted in the round and also finished with double pointed needles. I am pretty pleased with my pom-pom skills too. Here is the yarn in Boho Dance. Here is the pattern.
Urban Mom, Kristy Glass trying to juggle family, work and the city.
|
