Prior to leaving for California, I took a little time to look up some yarn stores in Los Angeles. I looked on some blogs, got a couple of recommendations, looked up their hours, and plotted them on my map. After all that the store that I was able to visit (to spend my birthday money from my mom) was A Mano Yarn Center. We were able to find some time on Friday after spending the day at Santa Monica Pier to find out way over to the Mar Vista section where the store is located. As we were driving down the street, IHA said, “this doesn’t really look like an area for a yarn shop” and then I spotted it: “There it is!!!!” He pulled over on a side street and Agent K and I went in. Agent K was drawn to the knitted dolls in the front window and I asked if I could take her photo to which the owners graciously agreed. I think there are 2 or 3 owners and they were all busy getting ready for a sale on Tuesday. What luck for me and the other customers that day as they were have a pre- sale!
There were so many yarns that I’ve read about but never seen in person it was hard to decide what to get. I had intended to pick up some Malabrigo, but the spring yarns were calling! There were a couple of things like Rowan Summer Tweed that I wish I had just picked up a ball or two to swatch. I’m kicking myself now for not doing that!
So, what did I get, you wonder… First I bought the book No Sheep for You by Amy Singer. I really liked some of the patterns, but it is also full of information on non-wool fibers and how to choose them and knit with the appropriately. The two patterns that caught my attention are Tomato by Wendy Bernard and Peerie Fleur by Zoe Valette. I really wanted to get the yarn for Peerie Fleur but that was way over my birthday money budget so I bought the Blue Sky Alpaca for Tomato. I think mine might turn out to be more on an Eggplant:
A Mano Yarn Center also had Koigu! So I bought some for Eunny Jang’s Entrelac Socks from the Spring 2007 Interweave Knits. I started these yesterday and they are very addictive!
This is my very first entrelac project. I did the little sampler that starts on page 22 of that issue and then yesterday I just could not wait a second longer to knit with my new Koigu. I only bought 2 skeins of each color as I’m not intending on making mine into knee-highs with tassels. I was a little confused when it was time to join the contrasting color. I forgot that when I read about knitting entrelac in the round you actually still knit back and forth so that when you start that round you actually knit back the way you came from. I also discovered that the selvage edge where you carry up your yarn is the one where you pick up stitches, not the decrease edge. My one remaining problem is that in the ssk and p2tog sections, I have a bit of the other color peeking though and it is not looking as neat as I would like. I’m not sure if experience will help with that or if I’m just doing something wrong.
It is starting to warm up a tiny bit here. Not really warm by any means, but the sun is out and the winds have died down. Tomorrow I am going scrapbooking with Crops-a-lot and her SIL. I can’t wait as they are so much fun! I better start packing up my stuff! Have a great day!
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Looks like fun! Though entrelac doesn’t seem like something I would like to knit for the sake of owning anything in it, just to learn for the sake of learning a new technique. So, for now at least, I think I’ll pass. I’d rather learn color stranding than entrelac. Let us know how it goes, though.
Looks like you got the hang of it alright – you are amazing!
Oh and I meant to mention how cute Agent K is with the dolls!