Excursion to Ogunquit Maine

Last weekend I found out that my mom and my aunt (visiting from Vancouver) were going to be heading down to Ogunquit for a couple days. Since we live at a very reasonable distance from Ogunquit I decided to drive up there last Monday.

I had made sure to google possible yarn stores in the area and found the Yarn Sellar in York, right on route 1. I didn’t want to buy any yarn but they had bottles of Eucalan which I needed. Further up the road I saw a big sign for a quilt shop. Having some time to spare before I was due to meet up with my mom I decided to make a quick detour by Knight’s. I found this store really nice with a lot of variety and some really nice fabrics. Of course, I had to spend some money there as they were having their Anniversary Sale.

After meeting up with my mom and aunt at their inn, we walked to Perkins Cove for some lunch.

The weather wasn’t the nicest and it rained a few drops while we were having lunch but we were able to walk from Perkins Cove to Ogunquit via the Marginal Way after having a bite to eat.

We found quite funny that a section of the Marginal Way was closed due to some construction but that a lifeguard was still guarding a section of the coast.

I had my mom hold one of my socks in progress when we stopped at one of the multiple benches on the path.

We then headed into town for some shopping but were interrupted by some very heavy rain. We made our way back to the Inn using the local bus (a very convenient way to get from the beach to the multiple Inns in and around Ogunquit). Sadly for me, it was time for me to go back home by then. I had a great time there and must be sure to go back there sometimes this summer with DH.

I got to knit a bit over the weekend so I’ll have something to show you in a couple days!

Crafting update

I have been knitting a bit, I finished over the weekend a Sleepy Eyes’ Tipsy Sock in Sleeping Dragon Sport Weight in Mossy Frog.

This pattern is a simple slipped stitch sock. It was written for a sport weight yarn but you could easily use it with a fingering weight yarn. The colorway I picked wasn’t the best for the pattern as the slipped stitches don’t show very well. They would have shown more in a more variegated colorway. But I just might knit this pattern again soon and will choose a better-suited colorway.

I picked this sport weight yarn hoping that I would be able to finish a pair of socks this month, but I’m afraid that it just wont happen. It will feel kind of strange though because this will be the first month since I started knitting socks over two years ago that I haven’t finished a pair!

I haven’t sewn or stitched anything since the bag I showed you last week but I’ve just joined two friends in a quilt-along so I’m hoping to be able to do a bit of sewing sometimes soon! I’ll be using these for my blocks along with an off-white fabric. I won’t do as complicated blocks as my friends are though and will probably just do simple cartwheel blocks.

1930′s prints

Stop reading here if you’re part of the Vesper sock club and haven’t received your package yet!

I received another yarny package in the mail this weekend.. A few weeks ago I just happened to be catching up on my blogs when Julia from Knitterly Things posted that she was doing a 3-month sock club with her Vesper yarn. I don’t know what happened, it must have been the wool fumes… A few minutes later I had signed up for the club! I received the first shipment this weekend and received this really cute self-striping yarn with a pin and a tape measure.

Lovely Lollipop Sky

My first thought was: “wow! it’s bright!” then I thought that it was a really fun colorway and would make really fun socks. The base yarn is different than the one I’ve used in the past so I’m looking forward to knitting it up.

Still around!

I can’t believe it’s been 10 days since my last post! I’ve been very busy lately with both my new job and yarn4socks so haven’t had much time for any kind of crafting or posting. I have been staying on top of all my blog reading at least… I apologize to those who’ve commented lately and that haven’t gotten an answer yet, I’ll do my best to reply at some point. This week is going to be crazy as we got tons of new stuff going into the store and I’ve got to put it all up by Sunday’s update. So you might not see me around much this week either! I’m hoping that next week things will settle down a bit and I’ll be able to resume an semi-normal crafting/posting schedule.

In the mean time, I guess I should really be showing you what has arrived in my mailbox in the last few days…

This spring I was part of the May Day Sock Swap, organized by Lynne and Emily

The point of the swap was to knit a pair of socks for your pal and ship them out by May 1st. The person knitting for me was Becky of Leggy Creations. Due to a series of event, Becky contacted me and told me that she wouldn’t be able to make the May 1st deadline but that she would send me a package as soon as she could. Thus, this Friday, I was surprised to receive a big box from my mail man. And this is what was in it.

Becky sent me a pair of her sock blockers (aren’t they beautiful?)

and a pair of adorable sheepy coasters that she made for me

She also sent me a pair of socks and a pattern

And some pretty sock yarn and lace yarn

It was a great package to receive and I really appreciate everything Becky sent me. Thank you Becky!

Time for an update

Been back from TNNA for a couple days now. The trip went really well and was a lot of fun. Driving there went well. We took our time and tried to stop at a few yarn shops on the way. The first one, Colorful Stitches, was closed on vacation, the second and third were non-existent and the fourth one, Indigo Yarn (somewhere in New York State), finally, was open.

TNNA in itself was really impressive. It was huge and there were tons of celebrities around! I got to see Cat Bordhi, Norah Gaughan, Kristin Nicholas and Stephanie Japel, talk to Cookie, Stephanie McPhee and Anne (Knitspot). I wasn’t part of the “in” crowd so didn’t get to do the fun things that you might have seen around the blogs. But it was fun nonetheless and now I know what to look forward to next year! We got lots of new yarns and accessories for the store and got to see lots of interesting things. So it definitely was a great trip overall. An hour into the drive back to Massachusetts, our AC broke down… We drove for over 10 hours in 90+°F with the windows down, lets just say it’s not an experience I would like to do again.

I was able to do a bit of knitting while traveling and was able to finish the 2 socks I had been working on. The first one was my Noro Kureyon Sock.

I’m really pleased at how it came out and plan to knit the second sock exactly the same. Hopefully the yarn will cooperate with me!

The second sock I finished was the Rococo sock in O-Wool Classic 2-ply.

This one was fun to knit and looks really awesome. Anne is really a great designer!

Before leaving for the show I really wanted to do some sewing, especially after seeing Alyson‘s new bag (scroll down a bit)!. A while back I had bought this fabric to make Amy Butler’s Frenchy Bag.

I finally got around to cutting up the pieces and sewing it up just before leaving for the show. I was even sewing the night before instead of packing! The result of all this hard work was this:

It’s a fairly small bag (I made the handbag rather than the shoulder bag) but it’s really cute. I will be making the shoulder bag next time though! The fabric I used is by Timeless Treasures fabric, the Wasabi collection. I really loved those prints together, although it doesn’t really match anything I own.

Here’s a shot of the inside:

I’m quite pleased with the final product. It was a bit fiddly at times but it came out pretty good.

That’s all for now. More in a few days!

Random Wednesday with an S

Stash Enhancing

This is some Kauni Effektgarn 8/2 that I bought at Tricolaine, Carouge when I was in Geneva 2 weeks ago. Annelis, the owner is a wonderful person. I met her 2 years ago when I was on vacation there and had the chance to be a be able to spend a couple afternoons knitting with her. You can see a picture of her holding my Kureyon sock if you click here (make sure to look at her gorgeous sweater – I’ll have to ask her what the pattern is). I don’t know yet what I’ll be doing with the Kauni yarn, probably some lace when I have time for that sort of thing. In the mean time it will just grace my stash with their beauty. (The skein on the right has stripes of brown, blues and burgundies like this.)

Spinning accessories

I’ve finally purchased a tensioned lazy-kate and a larger niddy-noddy for myself. The lazy-kate was ordered for me by Debbie from Iron Horse Farm and I bought the niddy-noddy from Mind’s Eye Yarns at their booth at the Gore Place sheepshearing festival in Waltham, MA back in April.

Sewing project underway

I finally cut up my pattern pieces for the Frenchy Bag. This was back on Sunday and I haven’t had a chance to do more. I really wanted to have finished this week but I don’t know that it’s going to happen.

Special Swap Sweet Treats

I received yesterday my Special Swap Sweet Treats swap package from Yarn Yenta. She sent me an assortment of fun goodies including a muffin mix, cute patterns for felted toy animals, a chibi and a tape measure. I’d been wanting a chibi for a while now and now I have my own!

Socks in progress

On the left you will notice my Noro Kureyon Sock. It’s knitting up fairly well. The yarn is rough and has uneven spots here and there but I’m not disliking the process at all. There was a break in the stripe continuation mid-heel and at first I just knit it like that. Then, after having started the leg I just ripped it all out and decided to keep the striping sequence and split-splice the yarn together. This is the sock that I will be bringing on my trip to TNNA tomorrow. Donna and I are driving out to Columbus, OH for the show. We’ll both be driving so there will be time for some knitting. I’m really excited about going to the show, I think that it will be crazy but super interesting. We’ll be stopping here and there at some yarn shops so if you know of any in the area, make sure to let me know! I’ll be back Tuesday with details about the trip! The sock on the right is a Rococo sock by Knitspot knit in O-Wool Classic 2-ply. I only have 8 rows left to knit and then I can bind off. The pattern is very fun and interesting without being difficult. I love how the sock looks and I’m looking forward to having a pair.

So this is what’s going on at Knitting In Pink’s. I hope that once all these trips are over that I’ll have a bit more time for crafting and blogging and will be able to post more often.

Talk to you next week!

 

I’ve been tagged!

A few days ago, Becky from So Many Hobbies tagged me with the following meme so I decided to comply!

1. What was I doing ten years ago? Ten years ago I still lived in Québec with my parents. I was studying Interior Design at a Cégep. I worked for a couple months that summer in Geneva, Switzerland and decided that I wanted to move there as soon as I could. In January of 99 I had moved to Geneva.

2. What are five things on my to-do list for today? Finish unpacking from my latest vacation. Clean out the house, do laundry, put up new yarn on the store for tonight’s update, craft (sew and/or knit).

3. Snacks I enjoy? Swiss chocolate, Tostitos, mild salsa and guacamole, BBQ chips, popcorn

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire? Provide DH and I’s respective families with paid-for houses and cars, buying houses in Europe and the Caribbean, and a private plane to carry us back and forth.

5. Places I have lived? Montréal Québec, Trois-Rivières Québec, Geneva Switzerland, Framingham and Worcester Massachusetts

All of the photos above are of my trip to Switzerland. Feel free to click on them to see them bigger and find out more information about them.