Thank you for serving

Being as it is Memorial Day, I thought this would be a good time to say thank you to all the men and women who have chosen to serve our country.

Thank you serving.

Project Updates

I have finished the Arctic Landscape Bag. It was really challenging, but I think it turned out well.


It turns out I am not the only one who ran out of yarn on this project, but I did what the other person did and used the contrast color (navy) for the bottom of the bag.

I also have finished the Felted Entrelac Tote by Melanie Smith. This project was both fun and easy, and I think it turned out very well.


I also did another pair of socks.



I used the Symphony colorway of Wildfoote by Brown Sheep Company. It felt a bit rough before washing, but washing them softened them up quite nicely.

Yarn Shop Crawl

A few of us from the Topeka knitting group went on a yarn shop crawl of the Kansas City area last Saturday. Our first stop was The Studio. I really liked this store, and I had to restrain myself when it came to buying things. After all, we were going to hit more stores :) I ended up with two pairs worth of Forever Jacquard by Lane Cervinia (two skeins of each colorway) and one skein of Berrocco Sox. The Studio had a great selection of yarn and books, and they carry Malabrigo! They have a hard time keeping it in stock, so I might not actually ever be able to buy it there, but I might luck out once in a while.

After we left the Studio, we ventured on to MisKnits. It was a smaller store, but they still had a good selection of yarns and books. More importantly, they had 40 inch size 7 Addi Turbo circular needles. Better yet, they were reasonably priced at $14.95. I consider that a reasonable price considering some places charge more, and even if I found a better price online, shipping and handling might make them more expensive. I got the aforementioned Addi Turbo needles and a shirt that says Knitter on the front and MisKnits on the back.

Next it was on to the Crayola Cafe at Crown Center for lunch. I was a bit disappointed about the service. It was quite a while after we ordered our drinks before we actually got them. They were not extremely busy, but the did not seem to have enough waitstaff on hand for the amount of people there. They did have a birthday party going on, so maybe they were stretched a little thin. The food was pretty good though. We hit the Crayola store next where I got an activity book in case my niece ever visits me and a 120 count box of crayons.

The original plan was to go to Ryukyu next, but we made a detour to Urban Arts and Crafts. They did not have nearly as much yarn as the other two stores we had visited, but then again, they were not exclusively a yarn store. They also carried a good selection of beads, some fabrics, and a lot of scrapbooking supplies.

While some of our group stopped in at Ryukyu, the rest of us headed on to Yarn Shop and More, with a slight detour to the Krispy Kreme store. They were making glazed chocolate cake doughnuts (my favorite), so I got a couple fresh off the line before they went through the proofer.

While visually appealing to some, I did not like how Yarn Shop and More was organized. They have yarns organized by color, so it made it a little difficult to tell what brands they carried. Their selection of tools had also been pretty well picked over, but for all I know, a bunch of people bought stuff for Mother's Day. I did find one skein of Regia Galaxy in a colorway I liked, but she did not have any more in stock, and it takes ones skein per sock.

Unfortunately we did not make it to KnitWit in Olathe. Oh well, maybe next time.