LYS Tour day 3

So, today was mostly a day off for me. I had knitting classes this afternoon, so I wasn't able to do much of the tour. I did get to enter the drawing while I was at Renaissance Yarns for my classes. Today I did the second class of 3 of the toe up socks class. We started working on the heel and got instructions for starting the ankle and cuff of the sock. After that I had the first class of our swallowtail shawl class. We are making Evelyn Clark's swallowtail shawl. Michelle made it a lot of fun, going into a history of lace and different styles. She also discussed different yarns that can be used for lace knitting and showed us lots of samples a lace knitted with different yarns and in different styles. We also got an intro into reading lace charts. This was my first experience with any knitting charts, so I was really interested in learning it.

I have been taking knitting classes at Renaissance Yarns in the interest of acquiring a good foundation of skills. I started off with the knitting 101 and 102 classes and from there I took their Rambling Cabled scarf class, their amigurumi crobot class and Brian's knitter's pouch class. It's been a fun evolution and is giving me the courage to start bigger and better projects and to use nicer yarn.

After my classes I did make it over to Cultured Purls in Issaquah. I picked up their really neat pattern for a knitted wine bottle cozy. Yay for Christmas present ideas!! It is Lattice Lace Bottle Bag by Teri Alent and Donna Byron. This uses Cascade 220 superwash. They also had some knitted up in another yarn (sadly I don't remember the name) that had real silver braided in. I picked up some new point protectors and a pattern booklet. The booklet is Curvy Knits Cambridge by Jillian Moreno and Classic Elite Yarns. It's got some really cute sweaters in it!

Anyway, it was a very knitty day. I am wrapping it up, by trying to catch up on my sock and watching Bones. Tomorrow will be the rest of the LYS Tour and me finishing my passport!