Watch Out Knoxville!

Watch out Knoxville! The Knitty Girls have hit the street and no yarn shop is safe! Seriously, I had the best time yesterday. My online knitty friend Regenia drove down from the NE corner of the state and we met up to hit the yarn shops in town. The motivation for the journey was a trunk show of garments and accessories from Norah Gaughn's newest book Knitting Nature at Loopville so we met there first. The patterns in this book are some of the most distinctive designs I've ever seen, yet they are very wearable designs. Most of the time I find garments that are "distinctive" are also unwearable by most of the human race, but not these. I haven't knit a sweater in 2 years and my last couple of attempts were less than satisfactory, but after looking through this book and seeing some of the sweaters up close and personal, I am highly motivated to pick up some "fat" yarn and "big" needles (ie worsted wt. and size 8s) and give it a go. Regenia modeled the child's size Sunflower hat in the picture. Yup, it would be pretty big on most kids and just perfect for a small-sized adult head.

When we weren't fondling the yarn and drooling over the Claudia Handpaints and sock yarns, we sat and chatted with Jinka (the owner) and Piper (her first mate and literary genius) and did a little knitting. I brought some of my latest lace projects plus the Shh! It's a Secret Shawl that I knit with some yarn I bought at Loopville. Regenia really likes Loopville :-) We each bought some sock yarn before heading on to our next destination.

Up next was the Yarn Haven. It was Regenia's first visit and she was amazed by all the space Sandy has in her shop. Sandy also had a lot of yarns Regenia hadn't seen before in the 3 or 4 shops up in her neck of the woods. I brought my completed Lilac Socks to show Sandy and wasted no time in directing Regenia to the Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Potluck Basket. She found many things to tempt her and I petted a huge hank of lace yarn for a long time. Sandy took the picture of Regenia and I playing with the CTH sock yarn. In the end she bought a skein of CTH Supersock (a color I had been looking at for a couple of weeks but couldn't afford) and I put the lace yarn back. I may go back and get the lace yarn if the yarn I ordered from ColourMart doesn't work out for the Bugs Pi, or if I succumb in a moment of weakness :-)

After a some sitting and chatting at Yarn Haven, we moved on to one of my favorite restaurants, the Lakeside Tavern, which sits on top of a hill in Concord Park and overlooks the Concord Marina. I had hoped to take her to Jenna's at Choto Marina, but they are closed for remodeling, so Lakeside was my second choice. We sat on the terrace and enjoyed a great meal while watching the water, the boats, and even a train go by as the sun dropped in the sky. The view at Lakeside is the best! Even better was the fact that my parents picked up the tab in honor of our graduations coming up this next week (Regenia from King College and moi from the University of Tennessee).

The final two pictures are my yarn purchase of the day. Yes, it's pink sock yarn--*very* pink sock yarn! Ewe-nice approves through, as it's Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the Flamingo Stripe. I've always wanted to knit some Lorna's Laces yarn as I know it's a superb fiber, and pink was a no-brainer choice for this pink-loving girl. The fact that 20% of the proceeds from the sale of this color go to breast cancer research is the frosting on the cake for me. I cast-on for a new pair of socks while Regenia knit away on a purple hat as we sat on the Terrace at teh Lakeside Tavern last night. It was a very fun afternoon!