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Lion Brand Studio Trip and Other Fun Times!

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It’s odd, I’ve lived here, in northern New Jersey just outside of the Lincoln Tunnel, for about eight years; yet until Sunday I have never taken public transit into the City. That’s not to say I haven’t gone into Manhattan, I’ve just always driven in. Before I lived here I lived in Queens, and I took the train of the subway into the City all the time. Yet for some reason, even though it’s quicker to take public transit into the City from here and then it was where I lived in Queens, I just never really went.

“So,” you ask, “what changed on Sunday?” Well, my fabulous, wonderful, amazing, lovely mentor Andee, came in from Colorado. She spent a long weekend with a friend of hers who lives a little farther south in Jersey. She decided the best way to connect with her various friends who live in this area was for us all to meet at Lion Brand Studio in NYC. So a date was made for Sunday from 1 to 3 for a bunch of crazy designer/yarnie types.

I felt like having a little more time in The City, so I hoped on the 10:16 bus, set to arrive at Port Authority at 10:38. Really, I’m that close to Manhattan. I should be scolded for not going more often!

Of course, I had to bring some crochet to pass the time on the bus. I tend to crochet in public more then knit, it just travels better.

When I walked out of Port Authority, I felt a wave of “Ahhh, I’m home” sweep over me. I really missed the City.

Of course, I was so used to arriving at Penn Station, that I forgot Port Authority is basically in Times Square, smack in the middle of tourist central. So no sooner had the “Ahhh, I’m home” feeling swept over me, then so did a swarm of Elmos. You gotta love NY.

After escaping Sesame Street Times Square, I turned down Broadway and headed to 15th st, between 5th and 6th Ave. Lion Brand Studio. Yes, that is a yarn Taj Mahal.

I was the first one there. After getting a giggle out of the sign saying that Lily Chin was teaching classes there that day (wasn’t she going to be surprised when she saw a bunch of her fellow designers hanging out in the studio), I took a seat at the project table and crocheted and waited for others to start arriving.

And eventually arrive they did! Here we have Deb, Mary Beth, Maven, Andrea, and Andee. There was lots of love and lots of hugs!

It was so wonderful to see Andee! She is about as awesome as they come. I am so lucky to have her as my mentor!

Speaking of lucky, this awesome lady, Mary Beth Temple, also gives me wonderful advice! Here she is holding a very blurry (OK, it may be the picture that is blurry not the magazine) issue of Knitsimple with one of her patterns in it. We were all having fun showing off our work in the various magazines in the store. It was a blast for me to be able to participate in this act, as the summer issue of Crochet! Magazine has a preview of what will be in the autumn issue on the last page, and my Octie Throw is in the preview!

Do you see the fuzzy wrap that Mary Beth is wearing? It is from her Arm Knitting book. She had some copies of her book with her and Oh. My. Goodness! it is so cool! I never thought about increases and decreases in arm knitting, but leave it to Mary Beth to take it up a notch (or 10). There are some really nifty patterns in the book, you can see pictures of them all and learn some great techniques over at the website for the book.

When Mary Beth was looking for her pattern in the Knitsimple magazine, I happened to notice the back cover, (sorry, another blurry one!) and there was a Red Heart ad with Lorene’s hat and cowl! ~ The blue and pink set the woman is wearing.

Here is the whole gang. As you can see, more arrived. I met most of these awesome ladies at the Knit and Crochet show in October, and most of us will all be together again at the next Knit and Crochet Show in July.

Oh, and we did surprise Lily when she come down for her break between classes, it was quite amusing! She was especially shocked to see Andee, seeing as Colorado isn’t exactly close by. Another funny thing: her morning class was Join~As~You go knitting, and the skirt of my coat is Join~As~You go. I do it a bit different than her, but it is still Join~As~You~Go. At one point, a lady came up to me and said “Lily Chin just told me I need to look at your coat.” It was one of those “I have arrived” moments.

Stealth photo of some of the ladies chatting.

I saw these and thought they were neat! I may have to design some slipper socks with these. They come in a bunch of sizes.

Eventually it was time to leave. I was going to have to wait a while for the 5:10 bus back home, but Shari drove in and had to drive by my exit on her way home, so she offered me a ride. It was nice to have some time to chat with her. She is the one sitting behind me in the picture of the whole gang.

Of course I couldn’t leave without buying yarn!! I had to buy something from the LB line, as that is not in the craft stores. The LB line is only available in the Lion Brand stores and online. It is full of lovelies like this super soft superwash merino!

Ok, other news…

About medical enigma me: It looks like what was causing all my pain last month was a generic infection. The only way to really diagnose it is to rule out everything else, so that is still where we are. I had a fancy~pants blood test a couple weeks ago that got sent out to San Diego, and it will still be another week before the results are back. That is to check for markers for Crohn’s Disease. Even though they saw no signs of Crohn’s Disease after the last procedure, I guess I could still have markers? I don’t know, if I asked for details about every maybe I would be living in a bubble, so I just go with it and when they have an answer I will ask more questions. I had a CT with and without contrast a few days after I finished all the drugs they gave me so they could be sure everything was looking normal. I have an appointment in a couple weeks to talk about all the results. As I said, at this point it is looking like it was just an infection. But a bad enough one to mimic a few other things. If that is the case, then it isn’t something I need to do anything more about, as it is gone now. So, lets hope that is the case!

That was the good news. I have been avoiding sharing some rather sad news with you…

InsaniTea has closed. No more Fiber Arts Club. No more tea with Ingrid, at least not at InsaniTea. I am going to have to have her come over here and have tea now and then. I don’t think I could go too long without my Ingrid fix. It’s been so sad to go in there. After the shop closed, I have gone back to pick up my stuff, to hang out with Ingrid, and to buy some of the fixtures and left over stock. I have tons of to~go coffee cups with lids! I figure they will come in handy when we have birthday parties and such.

I may have gone a bit overboard with the fixtures. We have a few more shelving units for the garage, a dresser for Kyla’s room, and various bookshelves and organizational aids for Doug and I. Next week the girls are on Spring Break, and I am going to have them help me really clean upstairs and get it ready to finish Kyla’s room. The week after Doug is on Spring Break and we are going to finish Kyla’s room. I don’t think she will actually be moving in anytime soon, though. As soon as she realized it was really happening she started bawling because she didn’t want to sleep without Vada. So we told her we would finish her room and not move her bed in until she is ready to sleep there. I actually am hoping to buy a new bed anyway, as they are still sleeping in the toddler Ikea beds.

We (and by “we” I mean Doug) brought a few of the bookshelves downstairs to my little studio. I added some extra holes to put in more shelves. Then I spent the better part of Monday cleaning them like mad. Eventually they were ready for yarn.

Here we have my Red Heart yarnshelf.

My Lion Brand yarnshelf. Clearly I need more Lion Brand yarn.

My Berroco yarnshelf, with room below for my Takhi/Prism/other LYS yarns. I would love to just spend a few days and get my studio all finished, but I have other things I need to work on as well, and I don’t want to neglect you, my lovely readers! So it may take a while, but it will get there.

The girls LOVE my Shine On Sun Hat so much that they both want one. So I am now working on a child size (20″) sun hat pattern. here is a peak at the first go for Vada. I will tweak the pattern when I make Kyla’s.

The other day I found these gems waiting for trash pick up when I was on the way home from taking the girls to school. I think a lion trainer may be moving. The hula hoop has already seen a lot of love in the backyard, and the stool is going to be a yarnbomb project for me at some point.

Normally when I have to wait for something, I knit or crochet, but I had a meeting at the school on Thursday, and while I was waiting I worked on a knit design that has been rattling around in my head for a while.

Remember this project? I shared it in a knitting group I am in on Facebook so people would encourage me to finish it, and boy did they! The front skirt inset for the jean skirt is done, and I am working on the back inset. This time I am writing the pattern as I make it, because not only did they encourage me to finish it, but they wanted a pattern as well. So, when it is all done there will be a tutorial which will include the patterns for the knit and crochet bits.

I really need to get back to my yarn. Have a nice night, my friends!

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2 thoughts on “Lion Brand Studio Trip and Other Fun Times!”

  1. Finally had a minute to read your post… looks like you had a blast! Thanks for the shout out and for letting me know about my RH pattern, and how awesome that it is on the back of an issue that has Mary Beth in it!!!

    Reply

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