River Knits in Lafayette, Indiana

Last week I was away for work and one day I had free time when I was near Purdue University and decided to see if there were any local yarn stores. I discovered River Knits in downtown Lafayette, Indiana.

They had a really great selection of yarns perfectly organized by weight.  The girl working in the store was really friendly.  They didn’t have anything locally spun or dyed when I was there but I did find one thing I’d been looking for and one splurge.

I’ve been wanting to make another Dolores Park Cowl for a friend but wanted to knit it in the Malabrigo Chunky that the pattern recommends. However, I haven’t found it in any stores and it has mostly been sold out on my go to online yarn store, WEBS (of course now there seems to be more available but buying yarn in person is so much more fun!). But they had such a nice selection of Malabrigo and I found this skein for the cowl.

They tried to wind it at the store but it wasn’t behaving so I’ll untangle and wind it when I start my project. I might knit this up this weekend just to get in a quick fun project, but at this point it isn’t even cowl weather anymore.

I also got this Kraemer Yarns Fountain Hill Brushed Mohair.

I’ve never bought anything fuzzy before so I was excited to get something different. Fortunately, this guy behaved as it was being wound. At 560 skinny yards, it would have been a pain to do with my method. I have no idea what this will become but it’s a nice addition to my stash.

I’m glad I had some time to check out this yarn store.  It had a great selection and friendly staff.

 

The Noro Striped Scarf

From my time on Ravelry I’ve learned that Noro brings out strong emotions in people.  It seems very few people are pretty neutral about it. Most either love it or hate it.

I love the colors and the way they change.  Yes, sometimes they abruptly stop and they are joined with a color that does not transition so nicely, but if you wind the skeins before knitting, you can catch those knots and fix the problem. Yes there are sticks and sometimes wee little dead bugs in there, but it’s fine by me.  Others respectfully disagree.

It was on Ravelry that I first noticed the Noro Striped Scarf. It seemed that everyone had one on their projects page so I got curious. I was still new to knitting (I learned to knit and purl as a kid, but I maybe knit two or three things to completion from a pattern in the previous twenty years) and carrying the yarn didn’t entirely make sense.  So I poured through forum postings on how to do it and then bravely started knitting with two balls of yarn to make the color changes. Yes, the dark color really does change from browns to blacks and grays.

This pattern really appealed to my new found desire to knit because it is so colorful and especially to someone who was a novice, it was an easy way to do something that is so eye-catching and special looking. I made my first with Noro Kureyon which is 100% wool and an aran weight.

Then Mike decided that he liked the scarf so much that when I discovered some Noro Silk Garden on sale, I decided to make him one. Silk Garden is aran weight but 45% mohair, 45% silk and 10% wool.  It is softer to knit with than Kureyon but the colors are just as vibrant.

Both of these scarfs got matching hats.

I can totally understand why people feel so strongly both ways when it comes to Noro.  I think there are a lot of things to love and hate about so many different yarns. But I really do like Noro and have a some in my stash just waiting to be knitted up.