Travel Projects
It's time again... I'm prepping for a work trip! This time I'm heading to Amsterdam for a week-long business meeting and conference. Last time I traveled I reminded everyone about using Ravelry to find LYS's (or to remind myself of that niffty function!).
And sure enough - I will have a couple of yarn shops around me in Amsterdam!
There are so many to choose from! I am pretty booked up with meetings so I'm not sure if I'll actually be able to visit one this time. It'll depend on time availability and location but I do hope I get to visit one in particular. This past week I came across this tweet:
That would be THE Stephen West (oooh I'm SUCH a fangirl!), partnering with Penelope Craft which is now Penelope + Stephen, Yarn and Craft Boutique! Fingers crossed I can visit any of the wonderful shops, and double crossed it's this one!
Aside from locating shops to visit while on a trip. What about patterns? Last trip to Copenhagen I found a knitwear designer based out of Denmark, purchased a pattern and bought yarn at one of the Copenhagen shops specifically for that pattern. It's my Copenhagen knit! (Have I CO the project yet... no, but that's a separate issue!).
So what I wanted to focus on this time was reminding everyone (but mostly myself) of some of the advanced features available for Ravelry pattern searching. As a librarian I LOVE using these filters to hone in on specific aspects of patterns. And when I'm going to travel to another country I like to find patterns from designers from that country. So for example:
And sure enough - I will have a couple of yarn shops around me in Amsterdam!
There are so many to choose from! I am pretty booked up with meetings so I'm not sure if I'll actually be able to visit one this time. It'll depend on time availability and location but I do hope I get to visit one in particular. This past week I came across this tweet:
That would be THE Stephen West (oooh I'm SUCH a fangirl!), partnering with Penelope Craft which is now Penelope + Stephen, Yarn and Craft Boutique! Fingers crossed I can visit any of the wonderful shops, and double crossed it's this one!
Aside from locating shops to visit while on a trip. What about patterns? Last trip to Copenhagen I found a knitwear designer based out of Denmark, purchased a pattern and bought yarn at one of the Copenhagen shops specifically for that pattern. It's my Copenhagen knit! (Have I CO the project yet... no, but that's a separate issue!).
So what I wanted to focus on this time was reminding everyone (but mostly myself) of some of the advanced features available for Ravelry pattern searching. As a librarian I LOVE using these filters to hone in on specific aspects of patterns. And when I'm going to travel to another country I like to find patterns from designers from that country. So for example:
Step 1: Go to the Patterns Tab and Click on the Advanced Search
Step 2: Start Applying Filters! Here I've picked Knitting and Has Photo
Step 3: Scroll all the way to the bottom. In the 'More Search Options' widget find the Designer Country option....
Step 4: Find the Country (or more) that you want. You can use the Or, And, Not for Boolean searching. Here I want to hone in on Dutch knitwear designers.
And Wa-La! I have 38 pages of projects to drool over! Of course if I wanted to apply more filters I could (for example if I wanted to find a shawl pattern, or a project that calls for a certain yarn weight). But that give a basic idea of how I find patterns for designers from countries I visit. It gives a little extra something special when I go to knit the project. And it gives me something specific to shop for at these yarn shops (although... I can't say that is ALL I purchase - I think I purchase the yarn for the project ON TOP OF "souvenir yarn"!!).
What project will I pick? Not sure yet. What projects am I bringing on the trip? Not sure yet. I'm a little busy with getting ready for the work aspect of the trip. But I still have some time to figure that stuff out... I don't leave until Friday. So until then... happy travels and happy knitting!
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