Knitter's Review and my LYS

This great review was given in the most recent edition of Knitter’s Review and it’s my LYS.

On the Road: Yarn Shops in the Baltimore Region
by Amie Gavin Glasgow

Ewenique Yarns130 N. Bond St., Suite 103Bel Air, MD 21014
tel. 410-399-9929
eweniqueyarns.com

Heading North of Baltimore to Bel-Air, Maryland, we have Ewenique Yarns. The pretty, sunny shop is tucked into a small strip mall, so if you're not careful you might miss it. You won't want to do that, though.
In addition to being well stocked in Rowan and Brown Sheep yarns, as well as many other favorites, the shop is decorated with dozens of toy sheep that were given by loyal customers to express their appreciation. The staff earns this appreciation, giving all first-time customers a gift of a retractable tape measure decorated with their logo, as well as an emery board to smooth any yarn-snagging nails.
On one visit, I witnessed a man coming in with a shopping list from his wife. The sales associate helped find several yarns that fit the list requirements, and patiently explained their return policy should anything be not quite right. Later, in my own purchase, I discovered that one of the buttons I'd chosen was scratched. Without hesitation it was given to me at a marked discount. It seems Ewenique Yarns features unique service as well.

lace-pain and pleasure

I love working with this and it is a fun pattern. But your are looking at hours of work that no longer exist. I had to rip it all out due to a mistake with my yarn over and damn stitch markers that of course I am still using. However I have now recieved instructions from Laura at the LYS, thank you by the way, and I am on my way again. You can see a completed version of this project at Fig and Plum's blog (http://www.figandplum.com) under her projects link for further inspiration.

H is for halfway done

Now on my third pair of sock I truly understand second sock syndrome. I love knitting socks, they travel everywhere, knit fairly quickly and I love seeing what color comes next but when I finshed this sock I really wanted to be able wear both socks.

Dog-Gone Sundays

Isn't this the picture perfect sunday? You would think they were the ones that slaved away cleaning all day. Dazzle is feeling a little better, eating yummy boiled chiken and brown rice. She goes on Imuran this week hopefull all goes well. Much news on the knitting front this weekend and I will be posting progress pictures later today.

lace take 2

Okay, lets try this again. This is what I am going to try. The other pattern had some kind of cluster knit 7 tog and it was not a fun stitch pattern. So instead I shall attempt this as my first lace project. It's from Rowan #34 and I am using kid silk haze in gold. It's got a lace cast on that I am struggling with but shall master soon enough.

lovely lace

I know I go on about the new projects on the horizon but I am getting the yarn for this tonight at the needle exchange (that's my LYS version of a stitch-n-bitch). This pattern is from the spring issue of interweave and I'm going to do it in Rowan kidsilk haze. Hopefully I am not committing knitting suicude by dodin this lace pattern but I keep wanting challenging projects. The husband's boss sweater is moving pretty good and so is every thing else. Boating season has started so i don't expect to see much of my husband for the next couple of months. I guess that's good, plenty of uninterrupted knitting time.

I took a fixing mistakes class at the LYS last night and it was great. The instructor was great, she is also an editor for interweave :) aren't I lucky,. The class was such a confidence booster. If you all have one around you I highy recommend the class.

Dazzle has been diagnosied with colitis, aka irritable bowel disease. Recommendations are steroids or immune suppressant drugs but we are going to try the diet treatment first.

Lucky me I get to spend all day Tuesday at nursery school. Now I have no children so this will be a real challenge. I'm only good for about a couple of hours around kids, these are 3 and 4 year olds, and this will be all day of observations for a paper for grad school. I think I'll need a stiff drink when it's all over. Wish me luck.

Easter Basket

I worked up this Easter basket to take as a hostess gift for Easter dinner to my cousin. It was done with cascade 220 and fling then felted, the pattern was so easy and done in I think less than 2 hours. Of course the cats thought it was the greatest thing with all the fling sticking out I think they'd like a larger one for them to sleep in.

One another note thanks for support with Angel. Dazzle is doing better, keep your fingers crossed. She does not have pancreatitis we are still waiting for the colonoscopy biopsy results. We need to sell our house in order to buy the one I blogged about so we are going to begin the fun part of getting that ready. Although we now are think maybe we'll go back to original plan and wait another year. Decisions..it's never easy.

Scruffy Angel

This is Angel and she shared 11 years with Zach and I. I had have her put to sleep this morning and it's been a very rough day. She had been chronically ill for close to 7 years now with sinus issues and she had a severe heart mumur. She never groomed herself and would be close to having a stroke when I groomed her. So many of my cats are getting old and leaving one by one that it's hard to let go so I held off longer than I should have. She looks so cute and scruffy in this picture. Although she looks like she is winking she is actually getting ready to sneeze, which she did all the time and I really don't think she was happy. Sorry to have only sad news today but it's to difficult to be cheerful.

Dazzle up-date

For those of you that are waiting, Dazzle was doing better. She was under control from Thursday last week until yesterday moring. However, yesterday afternoon she had another flare up so back to the vet she goes. This time for a colonoscopy and to have bloodwork done for pancreatitis. Poor thing, I'm sure it doesn't feel good to have such an upset stomach and I think even her sister has sympathy pains. I know I have sympathy pains when I have to clean out the kennel and wash her off so many times. I let you all know how it turns out, hopefully I'll make it home from work in time to prevent any problems today.

bag in progress

This is my entralac bag which is about halfway done. It will be felted when finished and hopefully should turn out better than my french market bag which I was too mortified to even show a picture. This bag is alot of fun since there are different colors and the work is constantly turning. It moves a little slowly because just one rectangle is quite alot of knitting so I try to do several rectangles every couple of nights. This summer the LYS is doing this bag as a KAL so I'll be trying it again with fall colors in Cascade 220, this one is done with pastaza.

Next in line

So this is the sweater I will be making for Zach's boss. It's from Sally Melville's Purl Stitch. The boss said sky's the limit (he is picking up the yran tab, as far as yarn is concerned so I went with the Rowan Harris Tweed (at 16 a ball quite pricey) and it will be a XXL sweater. It's gonna take forever but what a treat to work with such great yarn and I think the sweater looks great in this ribbed pattern. I will be keeping you all posted on the progress and complaining. My goal this weekend is to get gauge (yuk!). On another note the other sock on circular is almost done so I can start my Trekking yarn sock. All other projects will likely be on hold until the sweater is done.

I finished Snow Falling on Cedars and what a well written book. Can't believe it took me so long to get around to reading it. I've got Pigs in Heaven loaded on the mp3 and ready to go, after that will likely be the first of the Outlander series. In case you all haven't noticed I have decided to blend my other passion, reading, into this blog. I think I am fancing myself a book reviewer of sorts. So let me know if you have any reading suggestions.

Next KAL

This simply must be my next project, can't you just see Libby in this stylish attire!

house hunting

Well this is the house that has me drooling. Just look at that view. We meet with a lender next week to see if we can make it work. Everyone keep their fingers crossed!!!

Dying to make next

This is from the new Rowan Classic Beach and I am dying to make it. Of course not in the required yarn (a $200 sweater I cannot afford) but I can use cascade sierra as an alternate and i do like the yarn. I think I'm going to work it in a liliac. Of course there are so many other projetcs I've got going and I found out the yarn that I using to make a sweater for my husband's boss is here. So many projects so little time. Here is the current list:

Husband's socks, Manos Blanket, Entralac Felted Bag, Silky Wool Tank, Poncho, Easter Poncho (to big so needs adjustment), Hmmmm guess the list could be worse.

I am finishing up Snow Falling on Cedars and it is quite a good book. On another note we found a house that I love, very cute with wetlands on the side and in the back yard with a BABBLING creek., I could hear the birds, plenty of porch so it appears private. Hopefully we will look at it very soon.

socks on circulars

This is my first sock completed from the circular needles. My husband asked for a pair of socks so these are for him. Of course now I still have do the second sock, hopefully it will go quickly because I have trekking yarn waiting for socks for me.