The shop is located in what looks like a residential street. I found out about this jewel from an online search and from Classy Crochet’s blog. The proprietress opened the shop for me and let me ogle and touch to my heart’s content. When I entered La Casa Rosada (The Pink House) I thought I was in the yarn candy store of my dreams. You didn’t think I would pass up an opportunity to visit a yarn store, did you? Besides the beauty of gold, emeralds, textiles, art and salt mines, there was yarn. In total, I knit 10 items in 2014. They were all small projects for a couple of reasons: (1) I was trying to use up my stash especially where I had only one or two skeins of the same yarn/dye lot and (2) With my work schedule, it takes me too long to complete larger projects and I wanted to show progress every month. I accomplished this with one exception, the hat for my niece because she was very specific about wanting a neutral color. Speaking of yarn, 2014 was also a good knitting year. My goal was to create from my stash, which has continued to grow. There are still some scars but they are healing. There are so many other reasons, large and small, for which to be thankful – hot summer days, shared meals with friends, a good book, down time, birthday celebrations, a rewarding job, a good hair day, and soft yarn. We had our share of troubles, some minor, others not, but found our way through them and learned in the process. One of my brothers was elected to the school board of my hometown. I received a surprise promotion earlier this year. My mom, who is usually full of vigor at 72, is starting to feel her age a bit and is fighting it the whole way. Our sons started their senior years in high school and are anxiously awaiting to hear from their chosen colleges. My husband realized a personal goal of making a pilgrimage walked by thousands before him. Our family is healthy and happy, a little older, maybe a little worse for wear, but still going strong. Now at the cusp of a new year, I started reflecting on this past one and am glad to say that it was a good one. It seems fitting somehow – 100% undyed, hand-spun wool from Bogotá, Colombia, hand-knit in Texas, for a friend in León, Spain. I doubled the yarn as I knitted to make it especially cushiony. I was concerned it would be a bit scratchy but it is soft and warm. The photo of the finished hat was taken under different outdoor lighting conditions so the richness of the brown does not come through as in this photograph. It is 100% hand-spun wool in natural, undyed hues. I went through my stash and selected the yarn I brought back from my trip to Colombia. It contained a beautiful lithograph of a modernist starry night.Īs a token of appreciation, my husband wanted to send his friend a gift – so he asked me if I would hand knit a hat. The hat needed to be special, even in its simplicity. Over the holidays, an envelope stamped with Correos España arrived. My husband came home with these beautiful limited edition lithographs of the Catedral de León and a pilgrim’s staff imprinted by Holguera on his lithographic press. He spent a few hours talking with the owner and artisan, José Holguera, in his engraving and stamping studio. There, he befriended the owner of the Taller de Grabado y Estampa. James, he stopped for the night in León in northern Spain. This hat is intended for a gentleman my husband met on his trip to Spain last year.
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