Previously on GlutenFree Knitting...

Kirsten was mentioning that she wanted, nay, needed to start a sweater.

In this episode we hear about her LYS adventure and learn the shocking truth about Lisa.

She decided upon the Green Gable Sweater from Zephyr Style and set out with her trusty friends Julie (knitter) and Lisa (non-knitting-enabler). They made their way to 3 of the 12 LYSs in the Portland area in search of the perfect cotton-wool blend for Kirsten's New Sweater Project. LYS #1 had only one choice in the cotton-wool blend arena: Green Mountain Spinnery's Cotton Comfort. Alas, none of the colors they had in stock appealed to Kirsten as she was looking for something bright and cheery for Springtime. Plus $11...not the right price either. Meanwhile, Julie found yarn with which to create more of her Hats and Scarves for the Homeless she has been pumping out lately: a minty green and a chocolately brown. She will be creating Mint Chocolate Chip scarves and hats all this week! Helpful LYS Lady suggested Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool--a yarn Kirsten does indeed enjoy knitting with (she thinks...it's been so long it's hard to remember...). However, she figured she had 2 more stores to look into...the last of which she knew carried Cotton Fleece, which, deep in her heart, was truly the yarn she was looking for. That is, until she came across the lovely and drapey Cascade Sierra Quattro in Cranberry at LYS #2 (also known as The Yarn Store We Don't Like So Much): they had only one skein. Not helpful, but Kirsten then remembered that helloknitty.com carries that yarn and probably for a much more reasonable price...$9.80 was still higher than our dear poor Kirsten was willing (read: able) to pay. It was here, at LYS #2 that the truth about Lisa was uncovered: although she is NOT a knitter, she has somehow become A YARN SNOB! It was completely shocking for Kirsten and Julie to hear her say, as Kirsten was leading Julie to the Encore Worsted as a good learn-to-knit-socks-again yarn: "You can't get that yarn for socks ...you have to get Socks That Rock!" as though poor Julie had no knowledge whatsoever of yarn and she, Lisa, was the true expert. Utterly flabbergasted, Kirsten burst out laughing and Julie looked mortified--had she made a fatal knitter's error?? And if she had...how did LISA know?? It was truly an eye-opening moment for this group of friends. And quite amusing as well! Julie went on to find herself some yummy Nashua Wooly Stripes with Lisa's blessing (which you may recall seeing on this blog as The Red Socks recently completed...not surprisingly, these socks belong to Lisa!) to re-learn to make socks with, as well as some lovely pink and beige yarn for another BBBB ("Big Bad Baby Blanket" for the uninitiated...). [Isn't it cool how much knitting Julie does for others? She's nice. :o)] Anyway...with Julie at 7 skeins and Kirsten at 0 skeins, the small entourage headed for LYS #3 where the three friends learned from an 8-yr-old that the knitted cupcakes (from the newly released One Skein by Portland native Leigh Radford) were "just tiny hats upside down!" She was adorable, and already a knitter at 8 years! In there with her dad buying a gift certificate for her mom. So sweet! But I digress...the Cotton Fleece was indeed in residence, but not it any colors that jumped into Kirsten's brain and wouldn't let go. So alas, the LYS adventure of three friends ended without any yarn purchased for the Green Gable Sweater and they went off to Taco Bell (which isn't gluten-free...).

In other news, Jen and Kirsten--of Kirsten and Jen's Knitalong fame--have formed a sock-knitting alliance to encourage and equip each other for any and all upcoming sock patterns they should need to complete. It remains to be seen if they will post their adventures on the afore mentioned Knitalong Blog.

EDIT: I just found the Sierra at WEBS for $6.30 a skein!!! Holy flipping crap! I think I am buying it...right...now...!