Yarn! Books! Mountains! Yay!

This weekend was the first book party for Karida and Libby‘s lovely Pints and Purls (buy at Amazon, Powells, or your favorite indie bookstore!), at A Tangled Skein in Hyattsville, Md. I’d never been to the store before – it’s lovely, in an old bank building, with all of my favorite yarns and lots of little nooks in which to sit, knit, and (of course) drool over yarn. There was a huge crowd when I was there, and I got there early. Folks were buying books and Karida’s lovely Neighborhood Fiber Co Yarn…and, of course, drinking beer from the keg (a keg in a yarn shop? who ever thought…?).

My student Laura showed up (and let me know she has finished her Flair Cardigan (rav lnk), all but the buttons…which, honestly, is where I’m at my with my Flair as well). She grabbed some gorgeous Penthouse Silk Lace (and a little Debbie Bliss yarn too).

By the way…new classes are up at Knit-A-Gogo, in case you guys are interested. Spiral blanket, top-down sweater, much fun.

Meanwhile, Mr. Trask joined with me on this outing, because I had the two patterns in the book (and probably also because Sunday was my birthday). This man is a keeper. He patiently stood in the shop, looking interested in knitting and all the accoutrements thereof. His advice for surviving a yarn shop? “Bring an iPhone and pretend to be looking up things while you’re actually checking out Google Reader.”

Finally, it was indeed my birthday on Sunday, and Andy and I had brunch at the Evening Star and then drove into the Blue Ridge Mountains for some peace and quiet (and, ok, some homemade preserves at roadside stands).

Even did some knitting on the way – photos of my spiral baby blanket for a family friend coming later this week.