It did not take too terribly long to decide what the Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy wanted to be.  There is a longing in the air for stable warm temperatures that do not fluctuate at the drop of a fine cat hair in our neck of the woods.  If you live in Kentucky, you so get what I am trying to say and for those who do not,  in a few short days we have gone from 60 to 19 temperature wise.

So to not beat around the bush, why not shoot for thoughts of Farmer's Markets & long walks on sandy beaches with the sun shining on your back.  And that is why I chose the Ilene bag for my first Hempathy knitting project.

While the pattern is fairly straight forward, I did a wee bit of tweaking.  When knitting the base rectangle, I added several rows so that the edge would be tidier when picking up the side stitches.  What I will do next time is knit a few more rounds after picking up the stitches in blue as I think it might look a little better.  Not saying it isn't cute as it is, I just like to tweak things a little here and there:)

The color was then switched to the two pretty little green chartreuse balls of Hempathy.  As I had never knit an expanding market bag before, I opted to knit a couple of extra rounds in the mesh pattern.    Once happy with the length, the color was changed back to the original blue and a quick switch of the needles for a 1x1 rib which was knit to my desired length after which I followed the pattern to a tee;)

From the photos, it should be quite visible that extra rounds were not necessary, but I opted to err on the side of caution.  To give you a good idea of what I can cram in this bag.... Stuffed with in are: 2 lbs of wool roving, 6 skeins of Noro Kureyon, 1 skein of Noro Silk Garden, 2 huge skeins of handspun yarn (1 pounds worth) and a couple of felted flowers.  Yes, this bag is that huge!!  And the kicker.... I could have crammed in so much more!!!

When switching colors, I knit with the end of the old ball and the beginning of the new ball for a short length of time.  The mesh lace hid this very well.

Next time, I will pay more attention to where the 1x1 rib is placed for the handles.  Would have liked this much better if the join could have been kitchnered.

One ball of blue

Two balls of chartreuse.

And Fred did a great job of over seeing my knitting!

The shop

As it is Valentines day this week, a treat was in order.  We had a great evening filled with laughter and red velvet hightop cupcakes with cream cheese icing centers....... YUM!

There is an awesome array of knitters, crocheters, spinners, and all around fabulous fiber folks who come to the knit night on Monday nights and knit day on Thursday days.  It makes every meeting that much more special!  

One of the more interesting facts about the Sit and Stitch groups currently running is that the majority of knitters who attend are not local.  It really warms the heart to know that something as simple as creating something with a bit of string can bring together so many.

With that said....... I LOVE what I do!  I love how it brings people together.  I love how we sometimes come to find how small our world really is.  I love when we have conversations at knit night about two people living in the same town in another state around the same time, but not meeting one another until they come to the little shop in Nicholasville.  I love how each of us are so different, but still the same!  I love my fiber peeps!  

If you are ever in my neck of the woods, aka Central Kentucky, please stop by the shop, A Tangled Yarn.  We would love to have you on Knit Night or Knit Day!

Fred is of great help assembling afghan squares.

He is also the Mack Daddy of fiber weights and is happy to help keep your fiber from floating away!

The beginning of the second 'Fish Hat

Don't forget to check out our fresh off the carder batts too!

A Tangled Yarn

Knit Night at the yarn shop is totally AWESOME!  This week, we had 15 people in the little shop all at one time!  10 regulars and 5 new faces.  As luck would have it, there were enough sitting places for everyone. 

Often, I am asked if it brings in sales.  To be honest, not a whole bunch.  But, Knit Night is not about making money.  It is about camaraderie, the joy of textiles and supporting one another in our fiber pursuits.  And I  LOVE IT!

Fred cuddles on the couch between knitters.  He would have preferred to sit on the pattern of the knitter on the right!

Regular feet mixed with new feet:)

 

We also had the new Juniper Moon Yarn arrive on Monday.  Gorgeous stuff!!!

 

 

A few of the rovings I made in the carding class over the week end.

The little bag that kept on giving.

During the Ravellenic games, I knit and felted this little bag.  It was one of those quick and easy little projects that made up for some lovely mindless knitting as I watched the Olympics.  (Looks over should as she really is not sure that it is OK to reference knitting and the Olympics in the same paragraph or post for that matter!)      

A bit later this summer, I thought it would be nice to line the little bag and put a zipper in it.  Well, to be honest those thoughts came after I thought......  Hmmmm wouldn't it be nice to embroider a couple of little flowers on the bag.  

The stitching was done with embroidery thread, handspun yarns and several all wool fingering weight yarns.  Have to say it was a very fun and enjoyable little project that kept on giving even when I thought it was finished:)

A few months ago, several skeins of yarn were returned to the shop.  The lady was a smoker and the skeins reeked to high heaven of smoke.  I definitely could not resell them smelling like that, so instead, I took them home and let them air out for a month or more.  Even though they no longer were stinky-smokey, I still couldn't sell them to an unsuspecting customers.  Instead, I am knitting up a little entrelac scarf to use as a shop sample.  While initially I was not very thrilled with the return of smokey yarn, I have to say knitting this little scarf more than makes up for it!

Remember these from a few posts back?  As you can see below, they have spun up into some lovely lace weight yarn.  I have a few chunks of the turquoise bits left to do and then the little pile will be complete and I can find a project for them.

All of the little bits of lace weight in a pile.  Each one was spun on my Bosworth Spindle from the Shipwreck batch of handcrafted spindles.

Spring Flings Open New Doors

Yes, the blog has been neglected.  That is not necesarily a bad thing either.  I needed a wee bit of time to think, reboot and let my little master plan fall into place.  You see, my town needed a little something.  Something fun.  Something new.  Something it didn't even know it needed.....   A yarn shop!

Life has been good, fantastic actually, in that it has blessed me with a wonderful family and support system.  I really do not know what I would do with out them:)  With out them, none of this would be possible and I really can not thank or love them enough!

I would like to welcome you to my new little shop.....  A Tangled Yarn.

View from behind the counter.

Our little gathering area.  Take a peek what is on the couch......

That would be Mr. Fred Cake Yarn-ball our resident shop kitty who inspects all incoming boxes.

Fred also keeps us in stitches as he checks out local knitter's stash....

And doubled checks that stitches are correct when we assemble afghans for  The Love Squares Project.........