Today, we got married.

I love Hawaii. Seriously, I’m supposed to leave for home in a week, and I don’t want to. I think I’ll knit a tent and pitch it in the woods.
Do you think anyone will notice?
When I last kept you updated, I was in sunny California, enjoying Disneyland in wonderful company. We went back to Disneyland the next day, and seeing as this time I wasn’t so busy talking my head off, I did some knitting in some of the lines. This brought some interesting reactions. While waiting for the “Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage”, there were two Korean teenage girls in the line ahead of us. They got so intent on watching me knit at one point, that I I had to remind them that the line was moving along. Then there was another lady and her daughter, aged about 10. All the lines snake around each other, so that you end up passing the same people over and over. Every time I passed this lady, her daughter whispered something. The last time, her mum blurted out “I’ve never seen anything like it, it’s so beautiful!” I was pretty pleased with that reaction. And the teenage girl and her boyfriend, who discussed it with each other (not with me) and dubbed it “cool”.
At home, no-one would say a word.
The sock visited in Minnie Mouse’s knitting basket at her house in ToonTown while we were there, too.

The yarn collection is growing at a nice rate. Laura gave me some yummy yarn while I was with her.

Yummy yarn, yummy colours! Dizzy Blonde Sock Yarn, in JenLa. Love it!
After we’d enjoyed Disneyland, we moved home base down to Beverly Hills, and I spent a little time exploring the local yarn stores. First up was Knit Cafe.

Nice store, nice stock, nice staff. I came away with some Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight in a nice pale pink. Heavenly soft! And a set of Lantern Moon Sox Stix. I’d seen these in a few places, and I tried to resist, because I really don’t need any more sock needles, but the lure finally got to me, and I had to have them.

The same day we tried to visit The Knitter’s Studio, but we just couldn’t get a parking spot, and we also tried to visit Blacksheep Knittery, but it’s closed down. Last visit for that day was A Mano Yarn Center. Another really nice store with nice stock. There was a knitting group happening while we were there, and it was just a really nice vibe. She had some really, really nice stock, but I stuck to laceweight this time.

2 hanks of Lacey Lamb in a dusty pink shade (I really should branch out some, huh?), and some Malabrigo in a natural. I’ve got three hanks of the Malabrigo, and I would have liked to have got a colour other than natural, but everywhere I went, there weren’t enough skeins of a colour for a shawl. But I figure I can dye it.
I laughed when I got my purchases for the day back to the hotel.

I felt like I’d bought my lunch.
On Monday, we packed up again and moved in on my friend Jill and her husband for a few days. Jill and I have been online friends for four years or more, so it was fantastic to finally get to meet her.

But on the way to her house, Google maps and Ravelry told me there was a yarn store. So we popped in and had a look. This one was Stitch Cafe.

Smaller selection this time, although they have a great collection of hand dyed yarns in the centre of the store. Em fell in love with some Kraemer Yarns Sterling Silver and Silk that had been dyed by the Stitch Cafe.
So, of course, it followed us home.

She looks pretty happy with it, doesn’t she? Of course, I’ll be the one to actually knit the socks for her. Eventually.
In the afternoon, we headed down to Santa Monica to check out some more stores. This turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, because nearly all the ones I wanted to visit are closed on a Monday. First up we tried a store I found on Ravelry, called Knit Knacks Designs, but it appeared to be a house, so we didn’t go in. Then we went to Stitches From the Heart.

Lots of stuff I hadn’t seen anywhere else, including this gorgeous Mirasol Yarns Miski. 100% Llama, and it’s soft and squishy and delicious.


I wanted tog et enough for a sweater, but I didn’t know what sweater, and space is becoming a bit of a problem. Last of all for the day, we visited Yarns Unlimited, and the selection was alright, but it was a lot of stuff I’d seen before, and there was a lot of really old stock and novelty yarn. This was the only Californian yarn store that I left empty handed.
And now we’re in Hawaii. Yesterday I tried to visit Isle Knit, and Yarn and Friends, but I think my family staged an intervention or something, because they were both closed.
Did that stop me? Not a chance. Another blog friend, Debbie, had invited me to join her local knitting group, Aloha Knitters. It was a great meet! Lots of friendly faces, and lots of great projects on the go.
And one of the visiting members was destashing. Destashing Wollmeise sock yarn.

Thank you, Kris!
Mission accomplished.

Really, I intended to post while I was over here on holiday, but the days get away from me.
After I posted last Saturday, I realised I was missing Stitch n Bitch. But I had another knitting meetup in the works instead.
Emily and I met Wendy and Lucy!

We had a lovely time, knitting with Wendy and playing with Lucy. And yes, Lucy is just as soft and affectionate as she looks! Then we went out for a lovely Italian dinner.
And while I was in Alexandria, I also met up with Stacy. Unfortunately, David had the camera while he was out sightseeing, so I didn’t get any pictures. She took me to a coffee shop where I had the best coffee I’d had since I arrived in the USA. (And I haven’t had one as good since, either!)
We had to depart abruptly, to make it to the airport on time, but we did squeeze in a little stop ont he way to the airport.


Just a super quick stop at Knit Happens. This may have been my favourite store yet, I just wish I’d had more time to browse, but we were in a hurry for the flight, and David was stopped in a No Parking zone.
I did manage a small purchase.

With all these knitting stops, and the flight from Washington to Las Vegas, I’ve made some pretty good progress on the Shibui sock.

It actually has grown quite a bit since then, too. I took a picture yesterday at Disneyland, but there was a mishap with the XD card in the camera, and I think we’ve lost all the pictures we took at Disneyland. (Over 100 photos. I’m trying not to think about it, and hoping they can somehow be salvaged!)
Yesterday was our second day at Disneyland. We went for the first time on Wednesday, and had our own expert tour guide, Laura from JenLa! We had a great day, Disneyland is beyond awesome. There are not words to describe how much we all enjoyed it.
But I spent too much time talking to get much knitting done.
We fixed that in the evening, when we went to dinner, and Carolyn joined us.

Another great meal, with lovely people. Thanks, Laura and Carolyn!
Now we’re in Beverly Hills. I haven’t checked out any yarn stores yet, though. There’s still time!

I am typing this blog post as we drive down the I-95 towards Virginia. How cool is that? (It’ll be posted when we reach Alexandria.) We’re now entering Maryland, I’d been knitting up to Delaware, see?

Thank you onboard laptop webcam! I worked on the sock for a bit, then I dropped a dpn down the side of the seat, so that puts paid to that until we stop.
Apart from that, not a lot of knitting has been going on. We’ve been busy all day, and I’ve been generally exhausted when we get back to the hotel at night. I did work on the sock while Em did her dance class with the Rockettes on Thursday.
I have been visiting yarn stores though! On Boxing Day (Dec 26), we had an aborted trip to the Statue of Liberty. Afterwards, Em and I went yarn store hunting. We tracked down Purl, but we ended up sadly disappointed again.


Closed. We peered in the window, and pouted a little, then we moved on to The Point. This was a really nice store with great friendly staff. It was also really, really nice to escape the cold and sit down with the first decent cup of coffee I’d found! It’s not a very large store, and it doesn’t have a huge selection, but I managed to find something to buy.

Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted in Child’s Play to make “My So Called Scarf” for Em. And I’d managed to arrive just as they were unpacking a new shipment of books, and the lovely guy there showed me the Vogue sock book. That’s all it took to sell me on that one! David and his sister joined us after a little while, and as you can see, David was very happy to find a good coffee.

So The Point was well worth the visit, even though it’s small with a not overly large selection. And I’ve already started the scarf.

On Thursday after Em’s dance class, we went to Habu. Very nice, but very small. Unfortunately, I totally forgot to take any pictures. I didn’t buy anything though. I looked at the Stainless Steel, and at some of the gorgeous laceweights, but I just didn’t know what I wanted. So I left empty handed. We moved on to School Products. I think this is probably the largest yrn store we visited. Lots of nice stuff again, but when you’re space restricted, and you’re not buying for a specific project, it’s hard to decide what to buy. Some Koigu did manage to come home with me though.

Mmmm, Koigu.
Yesterday was out last day in New York, and we ended up around Central Park and Fifth Avenue again. Somehow I happened across Stitches East. (It may have had something to do with the slip of paper in my pocket with the yarn store addresses on it.) Nice selection, including the coveted Noro Sock yarn! Guess what I brought home?

I’m hoping it softens up with washing, as it feels really scratchy in the ball. They only had two colours left, and after I bought this one, there was only one colour left!
I didn’t make it to Gotta Knit!, Knit NY, Downtown Yarns or String. Does that mean I have to come back to New York?!?

I can’t jam the last four days into a single blog post. Suffice to say, it’s been jam packed and exciting, and full on. If you want more details than that, the travel blog is at http://worldtour.avocadia.net/.
Not a great deal of knitting has been happening. In fact, all I’ve managed is the toe on one sock, and that was done on flights. Here is how the sock looked somewhere between San Francisco and New York.

I haven’t managed much more than that since then. I have however, managed to visit two yarn stores.
Yesterday we went to the Museum of Natural History. The museum happens to be only about two blocks away from Knitty City, so we popped in there when we finished at the museum. It’s a great store! I was pretty restrained, only picking up some Malabrigo lace weight and some gift yarn.
I didn’t think to take pictures, but David managed to snap one.

Great range at this store! Lots of very tempting sock yarn, but I resisted. Sad, but true. I kept picking things up and putting them down again, thinking that I still had more stores to visit, and not wanting to spend everything at the first store I visited.
Today we went to Seaport Yarns. I was disappointed by this one. First of all, it’s hard to find. It’s on the corner of William and Fulton streets, and there are *no* signs to indicate that you’re at the right building. It’s an office building, not a retail space, and you have to go into the foyer and sign in to the building before you go up to the fifth floor where the “store” is. It’s obviously an office space, with yarn shelves in the hallways and the offices. A bit awkward, really, and haphazard, I felt. The owner seemed helpful, but the few yarns I asked about she didn’t carry, and gave me several reasons why I wouldn’t want to buy them anyway, then tried to push yarns she did carry on to me instead. I bought a ball of Fortissima Socka, mainly because I felt that I really should buy something while I was there.
I still have plans to visit Habu, School Products and Gotta Knit! before I leave, will let you all know what I think of them after I visit.
It’s about 9pm Christmas Eve here, and it feels a bit odd to know that you’re all sitting down to Christmas lunch at home! I’m going to call the family soon, but to everyone else, Merry Christmas!!