Up the Road to Cedar City, Utah

While I wouldn’t exactly consider Sew Swanky in Cedar City my local yarn shop, it might be in a couple of years. My husband and I are planning on building a home on a lot we purchased last summer in Cedar City. When he finally retires, for real, we hope to sell our home in Las Vegas and move to Cedar City.

Last week I made the two and a half hour drive to Cedar City on a beautiful fall day to help decide where the house would be placed on the lot. We wanted to give the only tree on the block plenty of room so it wouldn’t be disturbed during construction. You can see the tree in the background of the photos. It’s not really tall, and who knows how old it is, and it’s not exactly pretty. But it seemed a shame to cut it down. We heard that the neighborhood kids were using it as a tree house. It doesn’t look strong enough. Hopefully once the construction starts the club house will be shut down.

The tree is a juniper, and the area is full of them. They don’t grow very tall, and look more like large overgrown scrubs. Of course Cedar City is at 5800 ft of altitude, so that might have something to do with the height of the trees. The early settlers thought the trees were cedars so that’s why the city is called Cedar City.

As soon as the legal paper work is completed the construction company will start digging the basement. A house with a basement will be a treat for us as we haven’t had a house with one since we lived in the midwest in the 70s. Guess what I'm planning on having in the new basement? You’ve got it! A large workroom. Well, large might be overstating it, but at least it will be bigger than the 10 X 12 bedroom I have now.

After the business with the house was completed, I drove downtown to visit Sew Swanky, a cute combination knit and quilting “boutique”, as their advertisement says. My poor photo has Andrea, the owner, hiding behind a book spinner. Sorry about that. I had a nice chat with Andrea while I looked over the Amy Butler, Westminster and batik fabrics. I ended up getting some fat quarters and half yards selections for a making some portfolios. It was an idea that I saw in The Quilting Arts Gifts Holidays magazine 2008-2009 issue on pages 84-87.

Sew Swanky also had some nice yarns that caught my eye. While the selection isn’t large the quality is good with such yarns as Classic Elite. There was some Classic Alpaca in beautiful natural colors that was raised just up the road in Beaver, UT, and marketed through a coop. But I couldn’t linger longer over the yarns as I had a two and a half hour drive back to Vegas. I’m sure there’ll be more trips to Cedar City in the coming months as the home construction gets underway.

Visiting LYS and Gathering Ads - Part 3

The last ad that I collected was from Gail Knit’s on 9012 W. Sahara Ave. This has been the shop’s new location for about a year, and is located right on Sahara between the major streets of Durango and Buffalo, about 8 miles west of the Las Vegas Strip.

I don’t get to Gail Knit’s too often as it is close to 20 miles from my home, and it is usually an expensive trip when I go. This trip was no exception. I did have a nice visit with Gail, the owner. And she did renew her ad with the guild newsletter, which is always good news.

This visit to Gail Knit’s I took my completed woven vest, which I finished earlier this summer. I wanted to show it to Gail as I had bought some of the yarn for the fabric at her store. I combined Colinette Jitterbug, a variegated fingering weight yarn in greens and blue with a fleck of red and yellow with a dark aqua Silky Wool by Elsebeth Lavold. Below is a close up of the fabric.

In return Gail showed me a jacket she was knitting in black with a double seed stitch, edged in a red, rolled stockinet binding. The style of the jacket reminded me of Coco Chanel’s square cut designs. It was very striking.

Looking around the store you’ll see that Gail Knit’s has a large button collection, besides Trendsetter, Prism, Cascade, and Classic Elite yarns, among others. As you can see in this photo of my purchases, besides a knitting book I hadn’t seen before, "Skein for Skein" by Cheryl Potter published by Martingale and Co., I took home some Silky Alpaca Lace yarn by Classic Elite and more Colinette Jitterbug in two different color ways since the other yarn worked out so well in my vest. Visiting yarn shops to collect guild ads is really a nice past time, but it’s a good thing that it only come around once a year. Of course, having more self discipline wouldn’t hurt either.