Last summer I was visiting the Blazing Needles shop in Salt Lake City, Utah. The owner, Cynthia, is so sweet and the shop is a quaint little cozy place in Sugar House. I LOVE it. Tons of fabulous yarns, books, and projects. I actually hit the curb when parking there and busted my front tire so we spent quite a bit of time there waiting for the guys to come change my tire. (I tried to do it on my own but it was like a bizzillion degrees outside and I realized that road side assistance is part of my car insurance plan so I had to take advantage of it!) Anyway, Cynthia was so kind as to give my little ones some felted toys to play with as we waited and I looked around. She and her staff were amazingly friendly and helpful. They even keep track of what you purchase so you can have them look it up should you need to know. My sister purchased some malabrigo and cascade 220 yarn for me for Christmas last year there and I wanted to get another skein but I was not sure on the color. They looked it right up for me. Great service!
I purchased the yarn I came for and this wonderfully simple
shawl pin I had been eyeing online and had to call it quits due to a budget and all. But I saw
this shawl and nearly lost all control. The picture doesn't even due justice to how gorgeous it was on the dress form in the shop knit up in shibui watermelon. I made it out of the store without purchasing the pattern or the yarn, barely. I went back a few weeks later with my mom and sister. I showed it off to them. Even with them prompting me to at least buy the pattern I refused because I was really trying to live within my yarn budget. (Besides I was there shopping for my sister who my mom and I were teaching to knit-- it is fun to spend other people's $$!!).
So I went home to Kansas but kept thinking about that shawl. I knew that after a month of thinking about it, it no longer qualified as an impulse buy. So I tried in vain to buy the pattern online. I couldn't find a place online to purchase it. I went to my LYS. No luck. Now I started to really panic. Luckily my husband works in SLC frequently. Next time he was there I sent him to the shop to buy the pattern and "if he really wanted to he could buy the yarn for it too" (picture me giving a sweet smile to him). "Watermelon or raspberry, you decide" (sweet smile with a tilt of the head).
When I went to Utah to run my marathon in October he picked me up at the airport, yarn and pattern in hand. Raspberry Shibui in cloud and staccato. What a wonderful man I married! Blazing Needles even puts the lace weight yarn in little baggies with the corner cut off for easy knitting. What service. They were so kind and helpful to Joel.I LOVE the yarn, the pattern, everything about it. I worked on it a bit on the airplane ride home, where the horrible cellphone picture was taken, but had to pack it up when I got home to work on Christmas knits and then January brought baby knits, then February brought Valentine's Day knits, then March brought a broken collar bone. :( So there she sits, patiently waiting for me to get back to her. Do you have a WIP that you just love but can't seem to make the time to knit? Or is it just me?
Oh and the best part. My LYS had Shibui staccato yarn in raspberry on sale after Christmas so I purchased a few more skeins to make a matching hat. I am thinking maybe this
pattern or
this or
this one.
I picked this book up at the library yesterday. Very interesting read. I am having all kinds of ideas run through my head...
Joining with:
Tami
Ginny
Nicole
Check them out to see more works in progress!Labels: shawl, shawls, Work-in-Progress
