TRAVELING WOMAN

Hi Friends - I have been away on two different business trips. Have missed reading all your blog posts so I have a lot of catching up to do.

 Last Friday I went to Savannah on business.  Since Savannah is one of my favorite places - I parlayed an overnight stay so I could visit my two of my favorite yarn shops.  Unwind is less than a year old - it is a GREAT shop.  I think it is a shared ownership but most of my contact is with co-owner Leigh who is just the nicest most accommodating person.  Here is a photo of their lovely facade

Here is two shots of the inside of their shop.  LOVELY!  and full of awesome yarn.  They also have a great class area and a full kitchen which is a seperate room in the back of the shop. 

Believe it or not - this is NOT all the yarn - there is another whole wall that I did not photograph - I never even made it out of this one area.  I only had limited time to spend at Unwind - I left Jody at the hotel and had to get back there to check out before noon.  Plus when we got up it was raining and messy so I decided that I would have to forego visiting Wild Fibre's new location down in the historic area.  Parking is such a pain down in that area and plus I did sufficient damage in Unwind and did not really need to be tempted to spend more money at WF. 

I scanned the yarn section quickly - I am looking for unusual things that I can not get at our LYS.  I zero'd in on some lovely Louisa Harding yarn I had not seen before called Willow Tweed.  Fortunately there was a lovely book from last fall called Little Cake that includes designs featuring that yarn.  It is a lovely blend of merino and alpaca with natural silk slubs - yummy! This color is called denim but it looks quite lavendar in this snap. 

 

The book is lovely - beautiful photography - unfortunately in my haste - I picked the wrong yarn for the design I had in mind and now I'm in a quandry about what I will do with this yarn.  Could be something not in this book at all.  Oh well - that's what happens when I have to make rush decisions. 

Another yarn that surprised me a lot was the new Debbie Bliss Amalfi - I typically don't care for summer yarns especially with lots of cotton or linen.  This yarn has gotten a lot of press and is in all the spring/summer mags - It has a very light twist which is going to make it difficult for some people to knit with as it will easily split however it was quite lovely and the color selection at Unwind was great.  I could not leave this yarn behind - it was reasonably priced and has a pattern book to support the yarn line.  I have already cast on a neat summery moss stitch jacket.  The color is a typical "mel" color - a very rich, bright gold with  lots of green - they call it maize.  I love it so far.

I can't believe I did not get a single photo of our lovely Saturday afternoon stop on St Simons Island.  Another of my favorite places - great spot for a day trip or weekend getaway.  I was miffed I had to leave Savannah without visiting Wild Fibre but a visit to the Stitchery of St Simons and lunch at a favorite spot called Gnat's Landing would ease my pain.  It was drizzly and gray and quite cool on the island but Gnat's was packed - I guess everyone had the same idea as we did.  This is a great locally owned place that we have frequented a lot over the years.  They have great seafood but the crabcake sandwich is a favorite of ours.  Can't pass on their fried green tomatoes either!  We moved on in search of the Stitchery after lunch - they had also moved to a new location last year.  I am so mad I did not get any photos of the new location but I didn't - just suffice to say it was packed with great yarn and needlepoint and should not be missed if you are in the area.  I knew I only had limited time here as Jody was waiting in the car and was getting Florida fever - SSI is about 1.5 hrs from our home and he has always been patient about my needlework shopping excursions but I know when to push and when not to. 

 I knew Bo would have the Manos Silk Blend that had been on my mental "must have" list for quite a while.  Just as I suspected she had several colorways to choose from and I only had to make a selection.

Isn't this gorgeous !!!!!!!  Wildflowers is the colorway and I am planning to use this for the Traveling Woman shawl.  DF Kris is just finishing up this lovely shawlette so I am anxious to get mine going.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This past Monday morning I left for Auburn Al on another business trip.  Home of Auburn University - Auburn is a beautiful little city.  The only issue with Auburn is that there is no needlework or yarn shops any where close at all.  There used to be a nice little shop in Opelika but it closed last year so no shopping opportunities of that sort while in town.  They do however have a nice Ravelry group that meets at the Books a Million weekly - I met up with them on Tues night and chatted and knitted a little so that was nice.
 

Here are a couple of photos I shot from my hotel window of the historic AU campus.  Auburn was still all abloom with azaleas.  They were on their way out but still pretty - too bad my photo did not show the beautiful azaleas on the campus grounds.

I was home again for a couple of nights and am leaving again this afternoon for a weekend stay on St Augustine Beach.  I am taking lots of stitching and knitting projects and plan to mostly just sit and relax and stitch.

Next weekend will be busy as it is our annual rug guild hook in here in Jax and DF Karen is coming up to spend the weekend.  Look for lots of adventures in the next post!