Yarn Travels: The Yarn Store at Nob Hill, Albuquerque, NM

Yarn travelling continues, and I had the pleasure to visit The Yarn Store at Nob Hill in Albuquerque by the University of New Mexico.  What a pleasant surprise!

This place is really neatly organized and features a wide range of yarns from yarn standards like Berroco and Rowan to indie dyers, handspun, and roving.

They had some lovely handspun and some amazing indie hand-dyed yarn.

interlacements yarn... absolutely beautiful silk yarn

The Yarn Store had a huge range of Lantern Moon needles, and a really wide selection of  yarn.  It's well worth a visit if you're in Albuquerque!

Austin Yarn #2: Hill Country Weavers

I finally uploaded the photos of the interior of Hill Country Weavers.  I'm sad that I couldn't spend more time in Austin and really explore more of the fiber arts community there, but I was really happy to visit HCW again in order to take photos of the interior.

Their rooms are organized by fiber...

buttons and softness

Austin Yarn: Hill Country Weavers

Hello from the U.S.!

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to visit Austin's Hill Country Weavers, a yarn and fiber store on South Congress.  I was so overwhelmed by the beautiful yarns that I forgot to take photos of the interior!!

Hill Country Weavers, Austin, TX

I need to go back again today to photograph the inside, but my experience there was great.  The associates at the shop were extremely knowledgeable and helpful since I was looking for yarn to swatch with for upcoming design calls.

I came away with some real beauts!

 

luscious Blue Sky Alpaca Close-up

Prototype 2: Hopi Mittens

Using a different color scheme and different yarn can really change the effect of a fairisle pattern.  As you can see from Protoype 1, color makes a huge difference!

Prototype 1: DROPS Alpaca

Prototype 2: Wollmeise Twin

Prototype 1 was knit with DROPS Alpaca and Lang Yarns Baby Alpaca.  Alpaca hides some of the stitch definition giving the mittens an aura of softness.  They're also really really warm which is nice.  The colors are closer together in hue, so it also makes the design blend together and harder to see the details.







Prototype 2 was knit with some scraps of Wollmeise Twin from when I knit Little Birds.  Wollmeise is a sock yarn and is slick and very defined giving the mittens a really graphic, sharp look.  The colors are a pairing of 2 very contrasting colors and man, does that motif pop!  The colors almost vibrate.












The Hopi Mittens are still currently in testing. Look out soon for a link to the upcoming pattern!

My font was May 8th!

Typodarium put out a 2011 Calendar, and I forgot to mention when it was May 8th that my font Trellis was featured as the font of the day!

Yay!