I am an old soul, there are times when I think I have been born in the wrong time period! I am a nerd amongst my friends and quite happy to be one! I taught myself to knit two years ago and little by little I have been expanding my knitting pattern knowledge. This past year I taught myself to crochet (my Nana had taught me when I was younger, but I definitely needed a refresher!) and when I was at home this Christmas I went yarn hunting with my mom and picked out the colors for the Granny Square blanket I intend to make, with her discerning interior decorator’s eyes at my side!

I have a few stores I buy yarn from here in England, one of my favorite being a little gem on Carnaby Street, or in Kingly Court, I should say.  My yarn tends to come from all over, I go for the feel and the color of it, I am sure I should think about ply and weight first, but right or wrong I go right for the textural and visual side of it.

I have used Lion Brand online as a resource tool when I am stuck on a particular stitch, they also have a wonderful supply of free patterns online too.  I have knitted with their yarn for some projects before and this was the yarn I chose when I was at home. I wanted something colorful, yet rich, warm, yet happy and a reasonable price for a project I was going to be experimenting with; so I selected a variety of colors to work from(an ebony black, a warming charcoal, a rich red, a deep purple, a soft cream and a velvety green-sounds odd, but trust me they all work together).

Sitting in the airport, the Saturday after New Years Day, sad to be leaving my family and watching the snow fall from the window, my adorable husband appeared with a cheering up gift in his hands from the magazine store.  A copy of the January 2010 issue of Martha Stewart. As I flipped through the pages I discovered inside an entire article on Lion Brand yarn (which he had already flipped through and seen and that was his entire reason for buying it, isn’t that thoughtful? What a cutie!), and now I dream of walking in through those doors of the flagship store in New York, sad I know! I love the fact that there is a sampling wall to try out yarn and you can take yarn home with you to try out, there is a place where you can just sit and stitch and play, like a toy store for grown-ups!!

I want to take that lion in the window home with me, I love his twisted yarn mane, he is like a giant yarn made Aslan, guarding the store and all who step over the threshold.  I wanted to share some of the pictures from this article here.  Knitting is like yoga or gardening for me, it is therapeutic and on cold nights here it is something to keep my hands warm. I am looking forward to starting my blanket, this will be my first project that will be able to keep me warm as I go, I can’t wait to get to the stage of it being so big it covers my lap as I work, but now, I am getting ahead of myself….

(All images copyright Martha Stewart Magazine)