Yarn Shop Review - Yarn Unlimited, Santa Monica, CA

I had been living in LA for 4 years now, and unfortunately haven't been visiting too many local yarn stores yet. One of my goal this year is to visit as many as possible. 

The past Saturaday, Hansi was going to the West side for work and we were meeting friends over that side afterwards, so I took the opportunity to explore the yarn stores in that area. The cool part is that I do that all by walking -- very unusal in LA. 

When I first walked into the Yarn Unlimited, I was a bit intimiadated by its 'silence'  -- there were no customers nor staffs in sight. But the radio was playing, so I imagine someone should be there. Earlier that day I went to Skein in Pasadena and got the pattern for Norah Gaughan's Ellis, so I was trying to see if there are any good  substitute yarn for my new project (I don't really like the color of the Berroco Suede that called by the pattern). 

After I browsed for about 5-10 minutes, there was a lady showed up behind the counter and finally asked if she could help me with anything. I asked her few quesitons baout Berroco Suede, which they only have singles left.  She was not really helpful in general, especially when I asked her for alternative suggestions. Finally I decided to keep explore by myself (I don't want to just leave the shop after walking 15 minutes there~~). 

In general, I like the store 'down-to-earth' setting. They have a  lot of selection on the 'basic' yarns (i.e. wool, cottons etc) -- and carry many colors too. There were some fancy/playful yarn, and I almost got trapped by the $35/hank 'Oriental' (safely escaped later...). I was more impressed in the 'back' of the store, where they stock almost every color of Sugar'n Cream cotton -- very impressive. The 'Candian $3.99' rack at the back is also interesting. I think I might go back there to shop when it's time for winter knitting. 

Although they do not have fancy/hip/stylish decoration in the store (which is always fun to look at, but also means the cost is factored into the yarn), I do like the shopkeeper. During the later part of the shopping experience, another shop keeper (a male) came back, and I had a better experience with him. He's more helpful, and told me that they can order more Classic Cotton for me. I like when he joked when he showed me the color color sample booklet -- 'there are 120-something color, hope there's enough to choose from'. 

At the end, I chose some Takhi Classic Cotton for the Ellis project, and 2 balls of German yarn on the 50% off section -- which I somehow fall in love the way how those 2 colors look when they are right next to each other. The pricing are quite reasonable in this shop. It's a good one to visit if you have a particular project in mind, to find what you need. 

My First Spinning Project

I took a class in at the A Mano Yarn Center past Sunday. The instructor John was a super nice and articulated teacher, who was able to explain the process so clear enough that I can suceesfully spinned my first yarn! 

I am very happy with the resut, even though they are all uneven (over-spinning?). I'm glad that I develop a 'closer' relationship with fiber through working with roving. They always looks like a mystery to me, and now I know how to 'draw' them off gracefully and easily without struggling. 

Here's how the yarn looks like on the spindle. 

And now, I'm making it into something. This is what John had suggested, and I agree with that too -- the first time is always memorable (no matter how the quality is like!!) 

I'm turing it into something. 

Oh, my owls!

The rumors are true. This is one of the fastest sweater knitting pattern I had ever encountered. Since I learn the 'tube-method' of making the body with circular needles instead of the traditioanl 'front-and-back', I only make sweater with this method (even the pattern doesn't). The most interesting part of this pattern is that it ask for kintting the sleeves and the body together in one big circle -- which I found a bit challenging to do with on circulr needles and

 cound't figured out how the arm-hole is supposed to be close. I used double-point needles to help, especially at the sleeves section.  And I 'beautifed' the armhole after the sweater is finished. 

The sweater turnout very pretty ,  beyond my expectation. The only thing I can do better with this project is to choose a better yarn. I use elann.com peurvian highland chulky for it -- the color is super, but the texture is rough -- and it was not spun that well. At one point of knitting, the yarn broke.  I guess we all have to go through a period of learning that cheap yarn has its limit. 

Having said that, the sweater fits so well, and it looks so cool. However, I probably would not touch this sweater if it is above 60F outside....good that the forecast say that there are still few more cool days before the heat wave arrive. 

The pattern can be downloaded for free here

Knitting arrived Paris.

The hat made for Miyuki, and my 'recycled' vest based on a pattern from Vouge Knitting...I think it's 2007.

Looking good =)

Curtains that make me proud


I espeically like this one as it shows the texture of this yarn very well...a bit shinny.

Although I'm supposed to be working really hard on my desk to prepare for the exam tomorrow, I can't wait to see how it looks like when the curtains were hung. So after I finished a first draft of a paper outline, I ran out to IKEA and got some curtain rod and rings.

I was amazed by how nice they look...the way how the sun shines through the laces...definitely one of my proudiest knitting product ever.

Sheer Café-curtain Panels by Annie Modesitt.

Hans' kitchen looks so boring. I always want to have more decorations for the poor windows. Although I never underestimate the work that required in knitting a set of curtain, I still overwhelmed by the amount of stitches I need to put into these curtain. But hey, it's going to make the windows pretty for long time. Here's just the part I for the mega project of III (or even IV) set of curtains for the kitchen and living room. I'm going to make (hope it's not false promises) another identical set in red for the other side of the window.

They are still in the process of blocking, picture of final 'on the show' status will be posted later.

One more note, the cotton yarn I used for these curtains were purchased from a garage sales on our street. The lady sold us a bunch of cotton yarn (around 40-45 skeines/hank) for all the cash we had in our pocket (just $17) -- I love gargage sales.

The pattern for this curtain is from the Interwave Knit, Holiday 2008.