The Mecca

Jacie, Emilee, Kris, Tracy, and Lillian headed up to the Mecca yesterday.  Jenni met us there after work.

 

After teaching Tracy to knit a few months ago – we took her to webs.  During which time she tried to buy all the alpaca in the store.  Not only is she a quick learner, she actual finishes projects – so she quickly knit through ALL her stash.  I know – it’s hard to believe.  How can one knit through all the yarn they own.  It’s just plain crazy talk.

 

We went on the sole purpose of getting Tracy a stash.  The rest of us joined for moral support and who doesn’t want to venture to Webs during their anniversary sale?  Come on… it’s just wrong to live that close to it and NOT go.

 

Tracy did have a game plan.  The only item we wouldn’t let her buy yarn for was Gail…Jacie was still having a traumatic experience over knitting her own.  We wouldn’t send a newbie down that road yet. 

We found lots of pretty yarns – malabrigo sock, malabrigo lace, lorna laces sock yarn, zauberball lace.  And then I handed Tracy over to Jacie and they ventured into the warehouse.  Where crazy amounts of yarn are on sale for a crazy price. 

Who can resist BAGS of casscade 220 for 5 dollars a ball.  You can make any sweater you want with that, or in Jacie’s case a blanket.  It’s going to be like a sunbeam.

It’s dangerous in the back.  The hand cart did need to be upgraded to a shopping cart before we left.  It was awesome.

After doing some damage to the non-stash we headed to Fitzwilly’s which has some delicious French Onion soup… which was perfect for the crappy cold rainy weather we had yesterday.  A great lunch with great friends.

Think Tracy can knit all that before Rhinebeck….?

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I created a monster

My friend Tracy is a beader.  She makes lovely necklaces and bracelets.  She’s inspired by beads as I am to yarn.  We took a trip to Salem, Massachusetts last spring and it was so convenient that they had a LYS right down the street from a bead store and TWO chocolate stores.

A few weeks ago.. ok maybe it was more like a month ago, Tracy wanted to learn how to knit. So I rounded up some of the girls from SnB and we headed over to creative fibers to pick out yarn and needles.  Tracy picked a squishy 50/50 wool/acrylic blend in a lovely shade of red for her Grandpa.  After lunch and gossiping, because really when do girls get together and not gossip, I taught Tracy how to knit.  Tracy knows that I knit, that yarn and needles are involved and I am pretty sure that was her knowledge base before we started.  I taught her how to do the knitted cast on, because if you can do that – you can knit.  I had faith that Tracy was going to be an over achiever, she’s also a doctor and we have similiar personalities… so I taught her to make a 1×1 ribbed scarf.  You achieve the look of a stockinette fabric with no curling and it is reversible.  I have a thing about non reversible scarves.  What I didn’t tell Tracy that most people start off with a plain knit scarf and for some reason people fear purling.  Purling is not to be feared – it’s just backwards knitting.  With in a few minutes she was chugging away on her scarf.

Jacie and I took her to the mecca that is Webs.  She had finished Grandpa’s scarf and was looking to buy yarn to make a scarf for her dad,and maybe a hat for her sister.  (These were not things we recommended).  Left to wander around webs for a few minutes and she comes to us and says I can I make a scarf out of this?  The girl picked out alpaca.  We then headed to the warehouse where discontinued Misty Alpaca jumped off the shelves and into our basket.  “Hey Tracy, what are you going to make out of that.”  “I have no idea, but I want to cuddle with it.”

Jacie and I smiled… we had corrupted her in the best way possible.

Last week I made Tracy sign up for Ravelry.  I showed her how to put her projects in, and her new found stash.  I showed her how to search for projects using the weight of yarn, needles, yarn brand, etc.  A few minutes later she announced that she wanted to do a cabled scarf with the Eco Alpaca.  Sure….why not.  Cables aren’t hard.  They just look hard.  I then guided her over to knittinghelp.com.  I said you can learn how to cast on, bind off, and over here in the advanced area is how to cable.  I told her she needed an extra needle or a cable needle.

Tracy and I also play in the Seven Hills Symphony together. This involves an hour drive to Worcester, Ma and an hour drive home every Sunday afternoon.  We usually stop for dinner on the way home.  Tracy was excited to show me the progress on her scarf at dinner yesterday.  I was thinking she figured out how to cast on by herself and was getting ready to starting cabling.  HAHAHA… No.  She went and bought DPNs sat down with the videos on knittinghelp.com and taught her self how to cable.  We turned her into an addict.  I am still working on teaching her that one should always have yarn on their person in case of an emergency, but I think with all the alpaca she now owns that won’t be a problem.

She's one of us.

Cables

She makes me proud.

Next up for Tracy… hats and maybe LACE.

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