A Glimpse of Barcelona and Yarn

Hello my friends.  I hope you had a lovely Labor Day holiday.  Can you believe that summer is almost over and that fall is on it's way?  Back in July, I was in Barcelona, Spain for a few days.  My sister-in-law, who is an avid knitter, wanted to visit a yarn shop.  We found via Google a shop named All you Knit is Love.  

If you ever happen to visit Barcelona, this shop is so easy to find. It is located at Carrer de la Barra de Ferro which is a street that branches off from the street where the Picasso Museum is located.  If you put your back against the entrance to the museum and look straight ahead, you will find this quaint, little, gothic street.  As you can see, it is a well stocked yarn shop with many delightful wooly things to choose from . . .

I loved this knitted shawl that was in the window.  The use of the different yarns and their textures really add to it's loveliness.  The yarn shop is owned by an American lady and her Catalan husband. . .

Here's a photo of my sister-in-law, Linda, chatting with designer who is Greta and the Fibers. If you look towards the back of this photo, you will see the natural, undyed yarn that she is preparing to dye.  I bought two different skeins of her hand dyed yarn. The shop had such a special feel with the exposed brick walls and antique lighting. . .

I knew exactly how I was going to use my new yarn.  Awhile back I joined the Shawl Society which is a subscription to six shawl patterns; one released each month for six months.  I was thrilled to receive pattern #2 while I was in Turkey and use my new Spanish yarn.  The pattern is called Amulet.

 

The Spanish yarn knit up beautifully.  I so enjoyed knitting the lace section and there was also an addition of Czech glass beads that I added throughout the shawl.  Helen Stewart is the very talented designer behind the Shawl Society.  I had gradually gotten into lace knitting but I don't do charts.  Lucky for me, Helen's patterns are both written and charted so no problems there!

It was my third time to visit Barcelona and that beautiful city never disappoints. I love the architecture and the little streets that weave in and out.  We found a cute little place, Brunells, on the same street corner to pop in for an Iberian ham sandwich, Catalan pastries and some coffee.  

I'm so excited as I am going to be attending a knitting retreat with my sister-in-law.  I'm a self taught knitter, way before there was any internet.  I bought myself a Coats and Clark's Learn to Knit booklet back in the early 1970's;  I still have this book!  Since I moved to California six years ago, I've really tried to step out of my comfort zone and learn some new knitting techniques.  I think you could say that I'm addicted to Ravelry!

The retreat is going to be held on Bois Blanc Island in the upper peninsula of Michigan.  I've been to the UP before, but never to Bois Blanc Island.  The weather there looks heavenly with cool temps and rain.  What better way than to spend my day in glorious rain clouds with my knitting needles in hand!  I remember years ago when I was young and working at the bank in our small town.  We had a piece of returned mail from the post office.  It was addressed to Sault Ste. Marie and had been returned and stamped with something like ". . .weather. . .ferry service cancelled . . ."  Looking back, I think it may have been sent to Sugar Island in the UP where they receive tons of snow being on the St. Marys River.  This place sounded so exotic compared to the flat, farmland area of where I was living at the time!

I hope you dear readers are all doing well.  I always enjoy reading your comments and I will do my best to visit your blogs, too. Thank you for visiting Lilly My Cat today!

With my best to you,

Pat 

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