We recently found ourselves in Burlington for Labor Day weekend and I knew that if I was in Burlington I was absolutely-most-definitely-no-doubt-about-it going to the shop Nido right on college street, downtown. I learned of this shop through a giveaway I won many moons ago, and just knew I had to make it there. Ashley from the blog Film in the Fridge raves about Phiona's fabric selection on her blog all the time, and posts some pretty great projects she has done with a lot of the fabrics she buys from Nido, including several projects with handstamped fabrics, which is awesome!
The shop was in a great location right in the heart of downtown Burlington, next to all the shopping and restaurants. I walked into the shop and was very warmly greeted by the worker there, who I later asked "Are you the owner, Phiona, by chance?" and in fact she was, so we quickly struck up conversation about all the different fabrics in her shop and Ashley from Film in the Fridge and lots of other crafty things, and some personal things too like how it was her first day back from work after a 2 weeks off because she got married (veryyy exciting).
I have got to be the most annoying shopper ever. I touch everything. Literally. I have to touch and fondle everything in every store I am ever in. I got yelled at a lot in Paris! I spent about an hour groping all of the beautiful fabrics, yarns, and other goodies and Phiona didn't say boo about it, which was awesome.
She had some spectacular fabrics that I haven't yet seen in person, like the new Heather Ross line, Nani Iro double gauze, Anna Maria Horner's Rayon Challis, Robert Kaufman's Essex Linens, etc. I totally fell for the Nani Iro prints. I honestly didn't even know what they were or that they existed at all. They are so beautiful and luxurious and subtle at the same time. I grabbed 1 yard of each of these prints and I plan on making some type of cowl or wrap that I can wear at work. I also got a yard of this Scandinavian inspired linen print. I don't know why but that print just screams Christmas to me, so I had to grab some, as I've been eying it for a while now.
Isn't this Nani Iro print unbelievably beautiful? It almost looks alive. I am obsessed with it. It reminds me of a Monet painting, don't you think?
My main purpose for the trip was actually for some yarn, not fabric. I mean of course I got both. She carried wonderful yarns in the store, all from the Northeast. She had some Swan Island Yarn and lots of other brands that I hadn't even heard of. I ended up finding some BEAUTIFUL yarn in gorgeous fall colors and was instantly inspired. Finally all of my husband's nagging got to me. I don't know why really, but I think that I was mostly inspired by the yarn color, a beautiful golden wheaty mustard color with a little bit of green in it and a lot of depth to it. Husband has a dark charcoal winter coat so I think the mustard hue will go nicely. I bought two skeins that are about 300yds per skein and the yarn is probably a 3 weight yarn, not quite worsted 4 but not a fingering weight yarn. What is that, DK weight? I also bought some of the same yarn in a beautiful berry color to make myself a cowl.
I searched the internet and blogosphere for a herringbone scarf pattern that was wide enough and had all of the things I like in a scarf, like a nice border to finish the scarf off on the sides and prevent curling. I didn't find everything I was looking for, but I found the general pattern for the herringbone section and then just did a quick gauge to see how many stitches I needed to cast on in order to get my desired width. Like I said, the yarn is DK weight, so I used a set of size 7 circular needles (my fav) and cast on 71 stitches, with a 3 stitch border on each side, so 6 of those stitches are for the borders only.
I haven't worked so diligently on a knitting project in a while! This scarf is taking me FOREVER. I think I probably should have upped my needle size by one or two so the yarn went a little farther and the scarf didn't take as long, but I know that I will be happy with the final product, and hubby better be too! His birthday is on Halloween (I know!!) and hopefully I will have the scarf done by then! UPDATE: Currently I am through 1 of the 2 skeins of this fantastic yarn and the scarf is about 48 inches long and I've been knitting it for about a month now! I will probably just knit through both skeins, or ask hubbs how long he wants it (as if he even knows what he wants).
As for my cowl, I am not sure what I want the cowl to look like. I will definitely be increasing my needle size to either an 8, 9, or 10. I will have to whip up some test pieces in the pattern I choose, I want it a little looser than my hubbs scarf. Maybe I will make a Purl Soho Herringbone inspired cowl to match hubbs? I was also eying this Hamanasu cowl from Quince & Co.. Or I could make the ever popular honey cowl that everyone is raving about. Who knows? It is probably going to take me another month to finish this one so my cowl might be a tax season project.
What has inspired your projects lately? A specific fabric or yarn? A picture? Pinterest, lol?
HOLLER
