SnB Gathering - June 13, 2007

Another Wednesday evening, and a few surprises!

Ann Marie brought in a few items. First, her Wonderful Wallaby sweaters that she knitted up (the link will take you to one of a myriad of online shops that sell the pattern - I'm not endorsing any one shop for this pattern):






She also brought in a lovely baby hat (from one of grandsons) to show people about two-color knitting:






And it doesn't stop there! She brought in an almost completed Surprise Baby Sweater:






Finally, she brought in two helmet liners. You can find the specifics for knitting one right here. Laurel at The Yarn Shoppe has copies as well.






And Julie finished her candle flame wrap. It's her first lace project and she did a stunning job!






OTHER NEWS


Workshop: We have completely sold out our seats in both the Norwegian Mitten class and the top-down Aran Cardigan class with Beth Brown-Reinsel on August 3 & 4! If you're a registered participant, look for a detailed email later in June.

Author's Night: The Yarn Shoppe is happy to host "Authors Night" on June 25 with the Quad Cities SnB! The following persons are local authors who also knit. They'll be attending our "last Monday" gathering that evening.

Gunda Davis: Pumpkin Soup and Shrapnel: Growing up under the Third Reich


Susan Carroll & Kimberly Cates have each written over 30 books. Their newest ones coming out shortly.

The Silver Roseby Susan. Susan also wrote The Courtesan, The Dark Queen, The Night Drifter, The Bride Finder and Midnight Bride.

The Wedding Dress by Kimberly. Kimberly also wrote Picket Fence, The Gazebo, Lighthouse Cove and The Mother's Day Garden.

We're also hoping that Leslie Langtry will be able to attend. Her new book is due out by August, 'Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy.

If you would like to attend, please send us or Laurel at the shop an email (for a reservation) by June 20.

SnB Gathering - June 6, 2007

It was a de-stashing party this time around, Katie and Linda brought stash yarns this time around:




These are the goodies:




And Barb brought in her finished baby sweater in Fixation yarn:

SnB Gathering - May 30, 2007

A days late and a few pastries short, but here are the photos from last week's gathering!

Lynn finished her lovely shawl:




Julie's cranking away on her candle flame lace wrap:




Karen's working on some shadow knitting:




Katie finished her feather and fan scarf:






More true color in this photo:




June's a busy month - be sure to check your emails for upcoming events and needed RSVP if you're attending anything =)

The Usual Suspects - SnB May 23, 2007

It was a really warm and windy day, but we took refuge in the cafe last night to knit...














Thanks to Katie, there were 29 knitted squares for the VA Tech effort for Hokie Healing. Here's Katie's square:




And the other other 28 squares:







Finally, some new projects! Here's Barb's new wrap out of Wool in the Woods:




Suzanne's first pair of socks!




And Heidi's new stitch counter bag!

SnB Workshop Update

Just to let everyone know we've had an enormous response to Beth Brown-Reinsel teaching our workshop in August! We're down to 4 seats available for the mitten day (Friday) and the sweater day (Saturday) is sold out!

Things are coming together nicely and thanks to everyone for their help to date!

Information will be sent out to the registered participants on June 3.

If you're interested in taking the mitten class, drop us a line via email (it's listed in our profile to the right).

SnB Gathering, May 9 - Doing It Alfresco

We let the yarn and chatter run free in the lovely spring evening last night:




Of course, these photos were taken before the ribald discussion which include but not limited to: The Rock, GZfest 2007 tour (and subsequent t-shirt ideas), the Where's Waldo pattern, more pole dancing ideas, hash browns and following the Viagara trail.




And finally, hello to a new SnB participant - Sara (Sarah?) - it was great having you with us!

Thanks to Katie for the photographic back up!

SnB Gathering - May 2, 2007

It was a mondo-sized group last evening!




Claire finished her log cabin blanket:






And Katie was just finishing up her baby blanket:

Knitting For Good

Katie brought to our group's attention this blog: Mosaic Yarn Shop: Hokie Healing.

If you're interested in knitting the squares, the group will be gathering them up. Barb will collect all squares by May 23, then she'll ship them to the Mosaic Yarn Shop.

The Yarn Shoppe has the colors of maroon (2401) and burnt orange (7824) in Cascade 220 (it's $7.95 per skein).

Another blog, Got Gauge has more information regarding this project. Also, she has a "button" for your personal blogs if you're participating.

Remember, the squares are being collected no later than May 23, 2007 - if you'd like to include them in our shipment. Drop them by on any Wednesday from now until that date, between 7 pm to 9 pm. Our meeting details are above and in our profile page.

Road Trip - Coralville & Iowa City

Before we get to the road trip photos, here's that cool tshirt which Barb has - which I finally managed to photograph:






It was an amazing day to do a road trip - sunshine, warm breezes, not a rain drop in sight!




We arrived in Coralville in record time.




And found Crazy Girl Yarn Shop without much difficulty and we headed right in:








Brenda chats with the owner, Leslie:




Browsing, fiber fondling and discussions ensued:
















The shop also has spinning wheels and drop spindles, along with roving & Brenda tried out a wheel - however, I couldn't get a decent (non-blurry) photo so I cropped it, but you can tell Brenda's enjoying trying out the wheel:






The lovely Lynn & Karen among the yarns!






Meanwhile, I headed over to the bead shop next door, the Chameleon Cache:




Erin Mullins is the owner and was exceptionally helpful in giving me advice and pointing me in the right direction for the knitted bead amulet bags I want to try out [the shop is way bigger, but you need to see it in person to believe it!]:





I made some purchases and joined the others in the yarn shop. After everyone completed their purchases, we sat and knitted or crocheted a bit while we chatted about things. We decided we couldn't put off going to lunch any longer and headed out:



It wasn't all that far where we were going - about a 5 minute drive if you don't have me navigating.

At the Hamburg Inn it was crazy, with a 35 minute wait. However, since it was Saturday and lots of events going on and around Iowa City, so it wasn't too bad a wait (the weather was just gorgeous, so it was a nice day to wait a bit). The food was good, priced right and if you go - try the pie milkshake!

From lunch we trooped over to:

The Knitting Shoppe
2141 Muscatine Avenue
Iowa City, IA 52241
+1 (319) 337 4920
Edyie Stika, owner

Edyie doesn't have a website, so the shopping bag I had will have to suffice.




Barb had some lengthy decisions to make about a pattern and which yarns:




Lynn and Nancy checking out patterns:




I can't believe these boots are still around - but they do help you sock knitters show off your work!




We did really well in finding which yarns we wanted, patterns that we couldn't do without and enjoyed ourselves with Edyie.

Then it was home again:






Thanks to Leslie, Erin and Edyie for their help and advice when we visited their shops!