March 2008: Spring

Arran is about snow and snowdrops at the moment. The mountains are glistening in the sunshine, looking seductively like ski slopes. As we know, appearances can be deceiving and I wouldn’t like to venture down rugged Goatfell with that kind of optimism.

I took some time off from knitting & Scotland over the Christmas holidays to visit family and friends on the west coast of America in Seattle and California.

OK, so I’m a self-confessed yarnaholic, so I couldn’t resist visiting yarn shops where I touched down.
Knitting-by-the-Sea in Carmel was my favourite where I succumbed to a ball of the softest imaginable Baby Alpaca Grande from Peru.

I knitted a scarf in garter stitch for my friend who took care of my plants when I was gone. The simple pattern is on the Learning to Knit page. Last I heard her husband was wearing it, so maybe I’ll have to knit another one!

I returned another day to Knitting-by-the-Sea.

This time I came away with a hank of luxurious hand-painted Lambswool/Alpaca from Schaefer Yarn’s Esperanza range. They are named after women who’ve made a difference and my green to pale green hank is called “Dian Fossey”.  I found the owner Maurya very helpful and cheerful in the face of the gigantic storms and power cuts which hit the area just as I arrived
back in California for the first time in 18 years.

Was it something I said?

I also liked Tricoter in Seattle where I chose an inspiring hank of Great Big Sea which is silk, wool and seacell, which apparently has kelp fibres incorporated.

I haven’t decided what to do with it yet, just enjoying the look and feel of it for the moment.

Considering that the baggage weight limit was 23 kg and my bag weighed 22.6 kg on the airport scale, it was just as well that I didn’t buy any more yarn, but it was tempting!!