It's time to retire

If you're Hellen, of Hellen's Needlework in Mt. Vernon, 

retiring isn't something you have contemplated very often.

Hellen is in her 80's, and has been running her yarn shop for so many years

that she's a mainstay of the downtown Mt. Vernon experience.

Sometimes it's years between our visits to Hellen's,

but she's always been there and with a great selection of sock yarn.

Hellen has been knitting socks for 70 years.

She knit every single sock that hangs in her shop.

We visited on Saturday, June 1st, and I bought this:

Two hanks of sock yarn, 

50% wool, 20% Super Fine Alpaca, 30% nylon

It's $10.50 a hank.  For 433 yards.  

Hellen prices her yarns quite reasonably.

During the last few years she's lost her long-time staff, and then last year her husband passed.

He was her back-up, he did the paperwork. 

She's been struggling with doing it all herself, and she's worn out.

The yarn shop business isn't for wimps.

Hellen is no wimp, but she's done.

The Hellen's Needlework store is closing this month.

She is starting the close-out sale on Friday, June 7th, with everything 25% off.

Higher discounts as June progresses.

Mt. Vernon is south of the Skagit River bridge, 

so the bridge being unusable is not an issue if you're coming from the Greater Seattle direction.

Hellen, thanks for all the yarn!  We'll miss you.

Skagit Valley Road Trip May 26

Last Saturday the Peggy's, MaryEllin and I hit the road in Peggy's new van, a Chrysler Town & Country, for a day-long meandering through the Skagit Valley.  

Our goal was to get out of town, hopefully with good weather, and hit a couple of favorite destination stores: the yarn shop and the quilt shop in Mt. Vernon (WildFibers and Paw Patch Quilt Shop) and then anything else that came along. 

The weather was glorious, the perfect combination of a cloudless sky and a high of 71.  There was a light breeze.  We headed out at 8:15am.

First: breakfast at the Blue Bird Cafe in Arlington.  

3/4's a success: blueberry pancakes, the eggs and especially the hash-browns were all very good; the French Toast a dismal failure.

 

 

 

 As we left the Blue Bird, we found this place just up the street: Petite Sweets.  We'll try it for brunch next trip.

Then we crossed the street (had to, the Van was parked over there) and found this little treasure:

The Quiltmaker's Shoppe.  She opened a few minutes early when she saw 4 sets of eyes ogling the window display.  We went into what looked like a tiny shop of two small rooms, but it went on and on to the back of the store and then we found the sale rack, 40% off 1 yard or more, 60% off of 3 yards or more.  We quickly discussed the possibility of a 'Pillow Case Marathon Weekend', decided "OH YEAH" and this is what I bought: Moda in three colors, enough for 6 pillow cases and plenty of left-overs for cuffs and trim for many more.

Peggy chose these.

She also found Grandma's Stain Stick, which we will give a try next laundry day.

After Arlington we headed north to Anacortes and Ana-Cross Stitch.

There was evidence of a Yarn Bombing out front. 

Here we have 4 sks of Poems, a total impulse buy which I haven't done for years, at least not with yarn.  Guess I was due.

 

On the way back southbound from Anacortes, we stopped at the Rexville Grocery on the extreme outskirts of Mt. Vernon, a brief stop with some excellent photo ops:

 The building is vintage. 

Their floors are precious to them, so they ask the multitude of cyclists to remove any footwear with cleats before entering.  People actually do read signs, so this is probably very effective...

The gas is real.

 

 The ice is very cold.




The displays are...quaint.
 

Worth a short visit.  No need to return.

Working our way to La Conner around 2pm, we stopped for a late lunch of fish & chips at the Waterfront Cafe.

This is lunch before,

 and this is after.

The fish & chips: fine, not outstanding.  Certainly not the 'best'.  But the company was excellent, which mattered more.

We cruised a couple of La Conner shops, (very touristy, La Conner) and came away with shaking heads at the sad, sad, sad Jennings Yarn Shop.  It's just sad.  They are offering yarn we haven't seen for years at any other yarn shop; the staffer was uninterested in eye contact, let alone speaking.  We think there is huge potential to make this a destination yarn shop, ala Churchmouse or Ana-Cross Stitch ~ it would be so easy and keep sales up in the lean, non-tourist months, but (again, sadly) they aren't any different than they were the last time I was there, in the last decade of the last century, which is just SAD!  Don't be misled by the two 5-star reviews on yelp for Jennings, but if you're interested in buying an established yarn store in a quaint, tourist-trap town, you might want to find out if Jennings is for sale.

We never did make it to the two stores in Mt. Vernon that we started out thinking were a 'must see' this trip.  We got back home at 6pm, tired and happy, and considering dates for the next road trip.

By the way, the Van rocks.  Smooth ride and quiet.  We were all four able to hold a conversation between front and back seats, bonus.  Gas was $54. round trip.  A bit spendy but if you consider it a full day of fun split four ways, not bad at $13.50/ea (not counting individual food and shopping.)

Lana D'oro Redo

The Original Sweater:
Mid-1990's Tunic with open work, boat neck,
crochet picot cuff and collar trim.

Taking it apart.

All the pieces.

What the undone yarn looked like.

Yarn after the first soak and dry.

Yarn after the second soak and dry.

Project: Take apart a sweater that I never wear, rehank the yarn, wash it and waa-la! I recovered about 1200 yards of a 50/50 wool alpaca from Cascade Yarns called Lana D'Oro. This is straight enough to knit with as is or maybe I'll dye it and then knit it. We do have a dye day coming up in March...

Arrow Lace Socks

The Book:
Socks
from Interweave Press

On the cover: Arrow Lace Socks
The book is still available even though it
was published in 1997. For the spinners amongst us,
each pattern is based on and knit up in handspun but
commercial yarn can be used with good success,
as follows:

Yarn from The Artful Ewe, one of our favorite LYS's. Heidi does a masterful job at her dyeing and the resulting fiber and yarn is fabulous and very economical. This sock yarn is 75% Superwash and 25% nylon. We added a picot top with #8 24k gold plate seed beads. Knit by Rebecca for her buddy Pat B. for the "Friday Knitters 2007 Sock Exchange." (Photos of the results of this event will be posted at the end of the year.)

Sock yarn is 3-ply 100% Blue Faced Leicester from Wool2Dye4. Knit by Rebecca, this yarn was given to me by my buddy Pat B. the day the Friday Knitters got together for dye-day earlier this summer. This creamy yarn turned into a successful purple. Same 24k beads because they were just wonderful on this color.

Sock yarn from The Artful Ewe (in a different red colorway) and these were knit by Peggy with the same24k beads because we love them!

All socks knit between September 7th and October 18th.

Reflection Farm Rovings

Last April four of us (Linda, Natasha, Rebecca and Peggy)went to Puyallup (pronounced Pew-Al-Up, emphasis on the Al, for those not from around here) to Shepherds Extravaganza in order to over-indulge ourselves with Corriedale Cross roving from Reflection Farm. We posted on this before but we now have photos of colorways from all 4 stashes so we're playing catch-up. There isn't a website for this event but there is a pdf for the 2007 entry form so hopefully they'll have something new for 2008 sometime soon. In any case, we will post the dates for the April 2008 event as soon as we know. There are classes, sheep and other fiber critters to view and a lovely market. It's a small fiber event which is under-advertised but well worth the trip.

Some of these batches have been spun since we acquired them and so we've included photos of the resulting yarn.

But enough talk! Show me the FIBER!

Color #62 with a 2-ply sample

Lovely, but no color number can be found...

Color #1 lot 7

Color #58

A different lot of #58
#58 2-ply hanks from the second lot
Color #83

Color #61 lot 2

Color #78 lot 1

Color #11 lot 7

Color #5 lot 3
Singles of #5 lot 3
2 ply hanks of #5 lot 3
Color #44 lot 6
#44 lot 6
Singles on upper spool
2-ply on lower spool
2-ply hanks of #44 lot 6

Alice, the creative dyer/owner of Reflection Farm, is quite accommodating with individual dying requests, so if you like one of these she may have it on hand or she can recreate it, but keep in mind that dye lots can differ quite a bit. If you want something specific, she'll be happy to try it for you.

Boy Socks

I told David I'd knit him socks only if he promised to not tell anyone who did it. You know the problem: knit one person some socks and then everybody wants some. He's a very sweet graduate student in the department at the UW where I work, saw me knitting one day and pined for some hand knit socks with "red cuffs, heels and toes and crazy yarn in between." It took quite some time to knit them. Boy Socks go on forever!
Knitter: Peggy
Yarn: Opal in the leg/foot and the red is Fortissima Socka mit Bamboo, both purchased locally at Village Yarn.
Pattern: Basic stockinette with more stitches for The Boy, size 2 needles.
Note to Self: "No more Boy Socks."
Big Doily: It is called 'Willow Basket Lid' and the pattern can be found on page 99 in Traditional Lace Knitting by Furze Hewitt, published in 1997 by Kangaroo Press. This was a gift to me, knit years ago by Rebecca in #5 cotton. I keep it under glass on my end table.