Friday, May 21, 2010

LYS Tour Day 2

getting the text up now, pictures are here for now.

Let me preface this with, what's up with the knitted pouches? The first one was cool, but by the end of today I had patterns for 4 of them and yarn for 3 of them. More on that later.

So day 2 started for me and my husband with dropping our dog off at day care. We figured if we were going to be out and running around all day, so should she. After that we hit Bauhaus coffee in Seattle for some breakfast and then hit the road. Our first stop of the tour was Great Yarns in Everett. Their pattern was Cha Cha Neckwear. It makes up a really cute ruffled scarf, that I thought might make a nice Christmas present. The shop was a converted house and was filled end to end with yarn and knitting supplies. I picked up 2 skeins of Di.Ve in their bargain basement for $3 each. There was some other awesome yarn down there, but I was trying to behave myself.

From there we moved on up to Wild Fibers, which is a really cute and well stocked shop. Also one of the least crowded (shelving wise) of the shops I have been to yet. They had a knit and crocheted pattern for a Primrose Pouch by Sarah Parker and Joanne Witzkowski (respectively). Both use Spud and Chloe sweater. The knitted version has a cute ruffled fabric edge. They had coordinating fabric for sale along with the yarn. I also snagged some nice and cheap stitch holders. Now, one of the highlights of this stop for me was something my husband had the wisdom to pursue. Easton's used bookstore across the street was probably one of the places I lost some time on my trip. I picked up some Andre Norton and Stephen King paperbacks, and a copy of Stitch n' Bitch by Debbie Stoller. I tell you it is a sign of a well trained husband when he doesn't even like books, but he volunteers to go look for some for you while you shop for yarn. I married the right man I tell you.

Next we headed over to Knot Just Yarn and The Scowl, how could you not love that name for a pattern? Especially when accompanied by a man who has decided to try and pronounce all things pertaining to yarn in a pirates voice. This uses Mountain Colors Twizzle as does their crochet pattern, 'Twizzle" Cloche hat. I had to grab one in a nice blue. I figure it'll be fantastic to wear to baseball games this fall. The shop has a super cute Italian greyhound helping out the ladies there. There was a really great selection of yarn and supplies. I almost took home a nice needle roll, but managed to put it down.

After quite a while on the road, we made it into Bellingham and NW Handspun. This was yet another fantastic shop with some unique locally sourced wool yarn. It was very pretty and it was hard for me to resist buying some of it. It even had a picture of the sheep it came from on the label and the name of the sheep! The tree in front of their shop is very thoroughly yarnfitti'd. Their patter was JJ's Montage Domino Hat and they also had matching fingerless gloves available. It uses JJ's montage collection 10 ply yarn.

Across town we made into Apple Yarns. This was probably my favorite stop of the day. Andrea was so sweet and helpful. I am sad I missed the alpaca lady spinning yarn though, I was looking forward to watching her. This shop was an exercise in self restraint. They had some yarn from Spin Cycle Yarn (http://www.spincycleyarns.com/) which is actually made in Bellingham. It was so gorgeous and soft and sadly expensive. If it wasn't for the price, there would have been quite a bit of that coming home with me. However, I did pick up yarn for their 2 patterns as well as some of the local alpaca sock yarn. Thanks Monte! Their patterns are a crocheted Victorian Treasure Pouch using Aracania Ulmo Multi (yum!) and a knitted Barton Bag by Claudia and Francine using Cascade Eco Wool. We grabbed some of the coupons they had available and hit Pastazza next door for lunch. The food was fantastic and they use a lot of locally sourced and organic ingredients. I totally recommend it!
Another long bit of driving brought us to Birch Bay and Beach Basket Yarn. Their pattern was a super cute Bobbles and Twists knitted or crocheted hat using Plymouth Encore. I sadly didn't have a lot of time to explore their shop, but it was quite large and well stocked. They had these really cool pattern booklets and kits for knit beaded scarves and shawls where the beads are the star and are on a similarly colored thin thread.

Anacortes brought us to Ana-Cross Stitch. This was another large well appointed shop that I didn't have nearly enough time to look through. Their knitted pouch pattern used the most unique yarn of the whole tour (so far). The yarn is made from paper!! What's even better is that it is machine washable paper, WTF!! Sadly, I can't find what I did with that pattern. I was really looking forward to make that one too! Maybe if I call and ask really nicely they'll email me one.

Ok, so next stop Whidbey Island!! I spent many vacations on Whidbey as a kid and have fond memories of it. My husband had never been, so I was excited to show it to him. By now we were both getting pretty tired though. So, other than a jaunt out at the overlook to Deception Pass we didn't get to see much.

Barbara Szenasi at Oak Harbor knits made a lovely pattern for a knitted Bucket Bag (yes, another pouch) using Classic Worsted Tapestry yarn by Universal Yarn. I really didn't spend much time in this shop as we were getting really tired and my husband had found a fantastic beer shop across the street. We picked up some John John Juniper Ale, Rougue Double Mocha Porter and Bea's mead. No yarn this stop though.

A nice and scenic drive eventually led us to the other end of the island and Knitty Purls. Their Raven Frog Cable Sock pattern was gorgeous! Especially in their specially dyed Whidbey Gems colorway. Sadly, they were all sold out the yarn when I got there!! However, they are ordering more and will have it in 2 weeks. It might be worth a jaunt out to Whidbey to pick up that yarn. It is a gorgeous blue and green based off of the sea glass that washes up on the shores of the island. They actually had shawl pins and buttons made out of said glass. The owners had just gotten dinner when we arrived and the smell was intoxicating. We ran over to Maureen's (I hope thats right) and had to get some onion rings. The chef was wearing an awesome bright pink chef coat which led Joe (my husband, the chef) to strike up a conversation with her. Apparently their onion rings were the result of much testing. Boy let me say, it paid off!! These are quite likely the best onion rings I have ever consumed. I would like more of them now please!!

The ferry ride over to Mulkiteo was pleasent. I finished the part of my sock I was working on, so I am ready for knitting class tomorrow! We managed one last shop before 8pm and hit Main Street Yarn. This was a large and gorgeous yarn shop which probably had my favorite pattern for the day. It's called Who's Your Daddy and it a basket weave messanger bag with a tree of life pattern incorporated into it. It also uses Cascade Eco-Wool.

The weather was gorgeous most of the day, actually until we started heading home. Around 8 the heavens opened and poured forth rain. Thank you mother nature for supporting my habit!

So, for tomorrow I have knitting classes from 1-4 (socks part 2 and swallow tail shawl), so I am not going to be doing any LYS stops. Sunday however, I plan on finishing off my passport. Ok, maybe 1 tomorrow (other than Renaissance Yarns)... we shall see.

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