Friday 18 October 2013

Portland and Angelika's Yarn Store!

Christine here. Been a while since I blogged, but it's been an amazing trip traveling around the western U.S., visiting film festivals and showing our film, 'Antarctica: A Year On Ice.'
It's also been a time of inspiration, with all of the amazing colors of fall here. The colors of the turning leaves have been intoxicating to me and I firmly believe that these colors cannot truly be replicated in yarn or in any other media...because the colors GLOW.
As we were heading north, I realized we would be stopping in Portland, Oregon. This happens to be the location of one of my favorite yarn stores, if not THEE favorite. I have been ordering yarn from Angelika's Yarn Store for years as she has the best selection of all of my favorites, including Cascade 220. Click HERE to visit her Cascade 220 page. She always has all the colors in stock and her service is second to none. I have her ship the yarn to me in New Zealand.
So I ended up there on a sunny Tuesday morning and was so pleased to be able to meet Angelika in person and poke around the store for a good long time. I found some wonderful yarns including some 'flavors' of Cascade 220 that I'm certain pretty sure I don't have.
Look at this color. I just love it.
I use the off-white Cascade 220 called 'Natural' a lot in my designs. I'm not a big fan of pure white or real black, so I use the colors 'Natural' (#8010) and 'Jet' (#4002) respectively: an off-white and a heathered dark charcoal grey. THIS yarn above is a slight variation of Natural called 'Antiqued Heather' (#9600) and I'm in love with it. I can see this may be a new favorite neutral. It's like Natural, but just slightly warmer and a bit more rustico, and not as yellow as this photo might suggest.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I LOVE Cascade 220. It's a yarn I use almost solely for the hat designs I make.  It's my work horse. Why do I love it so? Let me count the ways:

1. Over 300 colors. For a color fiend like me, it's heaven.
2. Economical. For the price, you get a good 220 feet of consistent, quality 100% wool yarn that knits up beautifully.
3. It felts. Yes, it felts like a pro.
4. It's soft.
5. Did I mention OVER 300 COLORS!

Okay, so I spent too much money at Angelika's, but I have never said I could control myself in yarn stores. The best I can do is not even walk through the door, and that's near impossible in itself.

I have heard so much about these needles, Knitter's Pride 'Karbonz', I splurged on the two sizes I use the most, US6/4mm and US7/4.5mm. These 6-inch DPN needles are made from Carbon Fiber...the stuff they use in jet planes and super secret government gadgets. They are light, warm to the touch, tough as metal and and have great tips on the ends. Absolute JOY to knit with and worth every penny. If you want to give a knitter the most excellent gift EVER, consider these needles.
I also bought some yarn with sequins, this beautiful 'Classic Shades, Sequins Lite' from Universal Yarn. I like their logo, "Knit, Relax, Smile, Repeat!" It's a mostly acrylic yarn, with a bit of wool mixed in...and sequins! Not a huge amount, not overly sequined...just the right amount for a bit of sparkle. Would make a lovely scarf or cowl. The colorway is called 'Volcano' and is subtly variegated in shades of red, dark red, brick and fiery red-orange. 
Okay, last minute impulse buy...more fluorescent yarn, Uptown Worsted, for my current color whim of adding fluorescent acrylic colors to my fair isle designs.
 Sneaky peak of a hat I have almost finished: