Wine and Yarn

This has been a summer and fall of wine tourism, which also means yarn tourism. Fortunately, the two are compatible.

One trip took us to the Stags Leap District of Napa Valley, source of some terrific wine. At Robert Sinskey Vineyards, where we found some lovely organically grown wines — and skeins of wool! The Sinskey people use sheep to help mow and fertilize the vineyard. The tasting room/gift shop sells hat kits plus single skeins.

According to Debbie, the vineyard manager, the sheep are mostly Romney crosses, CVM and Lincoln/Corriedale crosses. In 2009, they used a Leicester cross ram. All of this crossing produces nice wool.

I used my 132-gram skein to make a scarf.

• Pattern: Double Cable Scarf, part of the Rib and Cable Quarter in One Skein by Leigh Radford.
• Needles: US6/4mm
• Finished size: 4" wide x 43" long

Earlier this month, we went on a wine-tasting tour the the Okanagan Valley in southern British Columbia. Again, very good wines. I visited two very different but lovely yarn shops in Kelowna. I can recommend both Art of Yarn and Kelowna Yarn and Needlecrafts. I bought a skein of lace-weight alpaca at the first stop and thread at the second.

Lace Knitting in Boise

One of the great pleasures of the year is a week of lace knitting and lace knitting education at Myrna Stahman's annual lace knitting retreat in Boise, Idaho.

This year, among the things we learned were how to incorporate beautiful edgings on towels and hankies.

We admired participants' beautiful knitting.

And we shopped.

Great fun all around. It was a joy to spend a week with such talented knitters and teachers.