Souvenier Fiber

One might think that Arizona is a poor place to find warm, soft yarns for knitting. My mom was very surprised that there are, in fact, 4 LYS's (Local Yarn Stores) in the greater Phoenix area.

On my last day in AZ, we did a little fiber shopping (because, as every knitter knows, that's what you buy to remember your travels). We only had time to go to two shops (this one and this one), but they were both really nice. Here's a photo my mom took of me in the second one:
Look at all the yummy handspun yarns!

I ended up with three skeins of bright wool. I'm planning to make a sort of kitschy felted bag. The colors are similar to an Arizona sunset.

And, since I'm still trying to get the hang of this spinning thing, I bought some lovely wool yarn, some assembly required. The fiber I'm working with right now is very, very dark purple, so I wanted something light & airy.

And, despite the busy weekend, I did find some time for knitting. I did one more pattern repeat on Branching Out; I finished two more hexagons for Riley's blanket; and I started and completed one little baby sock:
It seems like everyone I know is having a baby. This particular sock is for a baby who is due in June. She is the daughter of the soldier we "adopted." He is stationed in Iraq, but will be coming home for a bit when the baby is born. I don't know if he'll have an opportunity to buy a gift for her before he gets there, so I'm making these and sending them to him so that he can bring them back when he comes home. They will be very small and easy for him to pack.

Happy Knitting!