RAINY SATURDAY

Yesterday I traveled north to Manhattan Beach to have lunch with a friend who I had not seen in several years.  It had poured all night and was still at it when I got up.  A little nervous about driving an hour+ up the freeway, the radio reporting flooded carpool lanes,water spouts and thunderstorms approaching off Long Beach, etc. I almost canceled but then decided I'd venture out and if I had to turn back, I would.  The rain goddess must have been watching over me because as I approached Long Beach, the freeway was somewhat dry; further on, the sun came out, and I had a wonderful trip. One of the highlights of my day was visiting Twist, a yarn store located at Sepulveda and 8th Street in Manhattan Beach.  Such a delightful little shop and my very favorite in the L.A. area.   From the outside, the shop seems like a little hole in the wall, but it is actually a diamond in the rough. Once inside, it's quite magical, full of colorful, unique yarns -- many of which you won't find in other shops. Tons of artisan yarns -- all the things I love: Chasing Rainbows, Habu, Malabrigo and many other indy dyers. (www.twistyarns.com)

I had a nice chat with Cathy, Twist's owner, who also creates and carries her own line of Twist artisan yarns and spinning fibers. If you're in the area (or even if you're not), this is a destination little yarn shop.  

I couldn't get away without coming home with some silk/wool Malabrigo in beautiful colors of blue,violet,gold and green, perfect for another Buttonhole scarf. This will be the take-along project for my trip to Seattle on Weds.

Here's my latest handspun project:

For the past week, I've been working on a capelet, knitting with my handspun yarns. Until I started knitting with my handspun again, I had forgotten what a special thing it was.  Now I'm addicted to using all these colorful yarns sitting in baskets around my studio.  This capelet is my own design and uses three different skeins of fingering weight handspun.  

The lace body of the capelet was knit with a merino/cashmere handspun in my colorway "Goldenrod".  I used a traveling vine lace -- lovely with handspun.  The bottom lace edge is a yarn, plied using a merino/cashmere in "Cabo" and a merino/kid mohair handpainted in gold, rust and gray.

The gold lacey ruffle was spun using a Foxfire Fibres cormo wool/tussah silk roving, which I later dyed with coreopsis from my garden.

The shawl pin is a "Perl Grey" creation and I purchased the handcrafted ceramic buttons from an artist at Rhinebeck a couple of years ago.  

The end of the day Saturday produced a stunning picture. Not quite a full moon, but it was pretty spectacular to see it floating above the huge thunderhead clouds. 

So excited to be heading up to Seattle on Wednesday and to take in the Madrona Winter Fiber Retreat in Tacoma.