Paras News

Here is a tip for locals. I have lived in San Diego for the past 10 years, but only discovered the best magazine store in the city, yesterday. In the North Park area, corner of 30th and University is Paras News. What a store! The racks of magazines go on forever. The section pictured below confirms that they might just have every, sewing, knitting, crochet, beading, and fiber related magazine published. As you can see the selection is huge.

I picked up the latest FiberArts mag, a favorite publication of mine.

Ever the foodie....I recommend you enjoy the great Mexican food at Ranchos,

directly across the street from Paras News, before you browse the magazines.

Eating and Knitting

I had the yummiest lunch today at Ranchos in North Park I love authentic Mexican food, and this place is good! It also has a very charming ambiance. Usually when I eat alone I bring a book, but since its close to the holidays I'm grabbing all the gift knitting time I can. So, as I waited for my chicken sope and blue corn avocado enchilada, I knitted away.

I carry my knitting in a little bag I made from an up-cycled felted wool argyle sweater. I always get comments on this little bag, and today was no exception. A well felted wool sweater can be cut and sewn in so many ways. When I go to Anchorage, Alaska to visit my kids I love to prowl through the thrift stores in search of old wool sweaters. Southern California is not the place to find such things, but the wool ground is fertile in Anchorage.

Santa Fe

I would have to say that one of my favorite towns that we visited on our road trip was Santa Fe. From paintings to sculpture, we found wonderful art in Santa Fe.

The weather obliged us with a beautiful fall day for our stroll along Canyon Road, home to one great gallery after the next. The soft lines and colors of the adobe architecture are pleasing to the eye and are the essence of the Southwest.

I also paid a visit to one of my favorite knit shops,Miriam's Well , where I bought yarn for a side to side knitted vest. Miriam's knit patterns consist of simple stitches using luscious yarn.

That's my kind of knitting!

The style I am knitting is as shown below, but the yarn I chose is a soft alpaca in my favorite earth tones with a touch of heathered purple. The pattern is free with the yarn purchase.

Marcia's Scarf

My friend Marcia is one talented girl. In addition to being a fabulous beader, published in fact, she is a knitter extraordinaire. I love to knit, but sweat and fret when it comes to sewing the thing together. So Marcia and I struck a deal. She agreed, bless her, to assemble the sweater I made for my daughter in exchange for a nuno felt scarf. You might notice by the date of the sweater post, the exchange was long overdue, so today Marcia came over to choose her scarf. As she perused my rack of scarves, she was, by her own admission, love struck by one of my "Chunky Monkeys" . Our 83 degree weather was no issue for Marcia who left with the scarf artistically arranged around her neck, pausing just long enough for me to snap this photo. And wouldn't you know the Gail Crossman Moore earrings she had on matched perfectly!