Borders Books Knit and crochet night

For about a month now, I have helped form a crochet and knitting group through Ravelry to meet at our local Borders book shop. It is so much fun. It is nice to finally have some fiber friends in real life. It started out with two of us, then four and in the last two weeks there was a total 10 of us. Our little group has certainly grew in such a little time. We meet once a week on Thursday nights...and it is a great way to almost kick of the weekend. I find myself really looking forward to Thursday nights...a time for some good crochet time, coffee time and surrounded by books and fiber friends. How fun!

I am also excited because I found a new yarn store. Well, the yarn store is not knew...but the location is. It is called The Creative Stitch. There new location is GREAT. It seems much more roomier, the lighting is 100% better, and I like the set up. Of course when visited, I had to buy something. Sometimes I feel I need to purchase something when I enter a yarn store. I dunno know why I feel this way, but I do. So...I bought three skeins of Plymouth Encore DK weight in a grey color. I also bought some Noro sock yarn in a rainbow colorway for a shawl.

I also signed up for a crochet class to make a baby kimono sweater at my LYS. It is two 3 hour sessions. One class was last weekend, and the other class is at the end of the month. There was four of us in this class, and I was the only "crocheter", the other ladies were knitters learning how to crochet. And boy, I learned a lot about gauge...how it is really important to make a gauge swatch and how to correctly measure a swatch. Things I knew...but was actually shown how to do it. I didn't realize, but even if you are off just 1 or 2 stitches, it can really effect the entire size of the finished project. The suggested yarn for this project is Ella Rae baby cotton. I picked a dusty pink color...I think it is so pretty.

The teacher Kim was super. She was patient and explained the directions clearly. We have three weeks to complete the back of the sweater and the two front pieces. In the next class we will learn how to shape the arms, sew a button on and seam it up. I am looking forward to learning these finishing techniques. Eagerly awaiting the next class!

Update...Boteh scarf is coming along...only 5 more motifs and edging and I am done. It needs to be finished and blocked by Friday.