Knitting Sandwich

yarn pilgrimage

I have to admit that I haven't been very inspired by the yarn store options I've found so far in Munich.  Most of them carry all the same big-name brands of mostly spongy merino yarn with not a whole lot of variety to choose from in terms of color, fiber or texture.  I am really missing the handdyes and independent yarns that took up the majority of shelves in my little Brooklyn yarn stores. 

However, If you become desperate and begin to investigate the ravelry projects of other local Müncheners, you'll find over and over again the name Wollmeise  and their charming shop in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm.  Pfaffenhofen (don't you love that name?!) is a little town about 50 kilometers outside of Munich where apparently people flood to from all directions in search of their infamous handdyed sock yarn.

And so I got myself to the train station

 

and about half an hour later arrived in the (now infamous) Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm.

 

After a brief wander into the center of town, I found the most wonderful color oasis imaginable. 

This store is just overflowing with the most delicious colorways and unique dyes imaginable.  (sorry that my iphone pictures don't do them justice at all)

 

The impossible part is picking which colorways to take home or stopping yourself from taking home more than you can carry on the train.  I settled on these three lovelies

and then whipped up a horseshoe lace cowl for my mother-in-law's birthday.

Three cheers for Wollmeise and yarn pilgrimages!  (now if I can only figure out a way to take a yarn pilrimage back to my Brooklyn yarn stores....)

-cmvs

my marvelous skein of never-ending yarn

i bought this gorgeous skein of springtree road navarre sock yarn back in june for a fingerless glove kal.

upon finishing the fingerless gloves i found that i had quite a bit of yarn left over so i decided to make myself a pair of turkish bed socks.

upon finishing the bed socks i found that i still had quite a bit of yarn left over so i decided to make a wee baby hat.

(by the way, this is the baby lotus hat (rav pattern link) by john horigan.)

upon finishing the hat i found, yet again, that i still had yarn leftover.  so i knit a blankie square.

and i bet you can guess what happened next...

yep, more yarn.  so now what do make with it?

-melissa

family tree wreath

here's my present for my grandparents:  a family tree wreath.

there's a flower for each member of the family: 2 dark blue for my grandparents, 4 medium blue for their children, 13 light blue for each of their grandkids and 13 tiny dark blue ones the great-grandchildren.

all in blue, my grandmother's favorite color!

-melissa

oh vanna...

so it appears that lately when i need a washable, user-friendly non-wool yarn i am leaning towards a certain blonde letter-turning lady more often than not...

oh vanna!

really, vanna?!?  who knew?  turns out i've been rocking the acrylic more often than not and you know what?  i'm totally okay with that.  i think the melissa-knitter of 4 or 5 years past would have been rather embarassed by her love of all things vanna.

but today's melissa-knitter stands tall and proud so all can hear, "i love vanna!!"  

so what am i currently knitting during my acrylic, shiny blonde hair fuled knitting frenzy?  a scarf for the red scarf project.

which reminds me, if you've got time the fcs is accepting scarves for this year's drive until december 15th.  

-melissa

ps - "oh vanna...."

the trifecta sister craftaganza!

when i was in omaha last weekend my two sisters and i sat down for some good old fashioned sister crafting.

meghan had been obsessed with all the gorgeous yarn-wrapped wreaths she'd been seeing around etsy and pinterest.  first she got me hooked, then all that was left was to reel in the baby sister.  (which is harder than it sounds.  she professes to have no crafty talents.... she's wrong, but anyway... we cajoled her into playing with us, that's the point.)

it was a craft-o-rama of fun, we had all the little cousins running around trying to help (except for baby isaac, because, well, he's a baby) and everyone got just a little covered in hot glue.  (but no one actually got burnt.... don't worry we are very safe sisters.)

it was pretty amazing how differently the three wreaths came out, especially when you consider we were working with only 5 different colors of yarn and sharing a single, albeit large, felt pool.

(top left: meghan, top right: ashley, bottom left: me)

of course lily wanted in on the felt/glue gun action.  (what sane girl wouldn't?!?)  here she is proudly displaying her creation:

there were also a couple of stray flowers loitering around, we couldn't have that so meghan turned them into hair clips for the girls:

this was a really fun project - and not just because i have fun and fabulous sisters.  if you want to give this project a whirl, i recommend this tutorial (it's what i used to figure out how to make the flowers).  but you'll have to get your own sisters, i want to keep mine!

-melissa

Lily's second yarn (part 2)

You probably remember Lily's hand-spun yarn, and how she auctioned off her beautiful second yarn to support team Breast Intentions. 

Well, I am the proud winner of the auction and can I just say that the yarn is even more lovely in person.

It knitted up perfectly

Seam it up, sew on a ribbon and Sabrina loves her new bag.

She wants to take it everywhere!

Thank you again Lily!  And good luck to team Breast Intentions! 

-Love Lindsey

springtreelove and happy accidents

i am sure you can remember the very exciting announcement that melissa made about the brilliant maya of springtree road extending her hand-dying talent into the sock world!  wee!  well naturally after hearing this news and seeing melissa's gorgeous socks, i couldn't help but immediately get some of my own!

once you've entered her shop you will instantly understand how very VERY hard it was to choose amongst such glorious colors.  though completely tempted by the sumptuous color of that delectable olivine, i was ultimately swayed by the richness of color and blatant ikea reference of the irresistible lingonberry jam. 

and what better way to kick off the start of the sandwich meetup weekend than to unite the lovely lingonberry jam with melissa's wonderful shiraz thousands of miles in the air on a plane bound from altanta to houston!  would you believe that we totally accidentally booked the exact same flight to houston even though we were coming from opposite ends of the country?  what a brilliant accident!

i knit away all weekend on this cute little fiona's top and somehow managed to finish it (sans buttons) before getting on the plane home!

but no worries, i was not left without knitting for the flight back because the very wonderful melissa had brought me a christmas gift of the gorgeous olivine that i had been so lusting over!  actually there's more of a story to it (and even more evidence of how clever she is).  before i even knew about the new springtree road sock wonderland, melissa had already bought me the very same lingonberry jam that i ended up bying for myself. upon discovering i had bought the same thing, she quick asked maya to switch it for the olivine without even knowing that was the other color i was torn between.  how wonderful to have such amazing friends who know you so well!

well olivine came home and quickly knit itself up into some wonderful ribbed handwarmers (rav link) that are just perfect to use as photographer's gloves. 

 

there's no way better to start the new year than with some bundles of springtreelove!

thanks maya!

and thanks melissa!

-cmv

p.s. and what is a girl to do next after being so happily immersed in the springtree yarns?  well no worries, i've already ordered the foxtail pine!

new year, new yarn, new project

those of you who already share my love of springtree road maya's handspun yarns will also share in my excitement at the announcement that she is now dying sock yarn.  i was honored when she asked me to test knit a skein and the moment it arrived i was amazed that it was, in fact, even more lovely in person than in her gorgeous photographs.

isn't it lovely?  the colorway is called shiraz.  maya is a color-genius, you should go check out the other colorways she's created.  (but be warned, she's also an amazing photographer, the combination could have you snatching up some sock yarn for your very own before you even know what hit you!!)

the almost-solid colorway is perfect for showing off the textures in this pattern (which, by the way, is hedgerow socks by jane cochran - pattern or rav link) and the yarn is knitting up into squishy socky wonderfulness!

in the spirit of full disclosure i should publicly state that i am a huge fan of maya as a person, a blogger, a photographer, a knitter, a spinner, and a dyer.  i am amazed by and proud of her for taking the big step of starting her own business and i whole heartedly hope she finds all the success she so clearly deserves.

that said, i'll give you that link to her yarns one more time so you can go and drool and oooh and ahhh over her amazing work.  

-melissa