Let me start this off by saying it was really sad to see some of my favorite local yarn stores not on the tour this year. With Renaissance Yarns, Cultured Purls and Unraveled Yarn out of business and for some reason Weaving Works and Tricoter choosing not to participate I was a bit sad. I also found myself considering the rest of the shops for my regular business and carefully eyeing their standard stock.
I managed to hit six stores today! We would have hit more, except that they all closed at 6 and we got started a bit late. Today's shops included The Fiber Gallery, Acorn Street Shop, The Knittery, So Much Yarn, Bad Woman Yarn and Tea Cozy Yarn.
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Hand and Heart FO |
First stop was The Knittery in Renton. The gal running the shop was super nice, helpful and friendly. It is always great to run into those kind of people amid the chaos that is an event like the LYS tour. Their pattern is the Hand and Heart Christmas Socking by Win Fisher. It's made using the very economical Lamb's Pride worsted. It does require 2 skeins, 1 for the main color and 1 for the contrast, but looking at it you could probably get at least 2 stockings from the pair of skeins. This is a really cute pattern for anyone wanting to get a head start on the holidays.
From Renton we ventured up to Seattle and So Much Yarn. My companion for the trip had never been there and laughed at my description of getting into the shop being an adventure of itself. I don't think I'd been to the shop since they changed ownership. I was happy to find the selection to be as varied as ever. Their Fishtail Shawl offering by Julie Novak and Betty Clune was quite lovely. Though anyone who reads my blog knows my love of shawls is no great secret. This pattern uses two skeins of Manos del Uruguay Maxima. It even includes both charted and written instructions!!
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Fishtail Shawl |
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Chevron cowl |
Next stop was Bad Woman Yarn. I always like this shop as it is well stocked and has a fantastic mark down section. They also had some yummy snacks for the yarn browsing. They had a Crocheted Ruched Cowl and Reversible Chevron Cowl, both by Lee Burrow. The crocheted cowl (which sadly I didn't get a picture of) used Skacel Kid Seta and Mosco to create a very lovely effect. It gives the shine from the Mosco and the soft halo from the Seta, definitely something you'd like to have around your face and neck. The chevron cowl used Tosh sport which I was sure to pick up a couple skeins of to enjoy the discount. The other nice thing (IMO) about Bad Woman is that it is next to Trophy cupcake (can you say YUM!) and Trophy was offering 10% off for people with LYS passports!! So I may have indulged in some cupcakey goodness.
From Wallingford we ventured down to Ballard and Tea Cozy Yarn. Their pattern is a really unique double knit amigurumi, The Tea Cozy's Bella and Bernie Bunny by Patricia McHugh. They are designed to use Cascade 128 Superwash and the clothing is knit separate from the bunny, so you can even change out their clothes if you like. This is the first time in the three years I've been doing the LYS tour that I have seen an amigurumi or doll offering. I think it was a great idea!.
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Slouchy Hat: Spciy |
The Fiber Gallery was our next stop. Thankfully my friend doing the driving knew the area well as I would have made a total mess of things if left on my own. I really like the new shop location, it seems far less crowded and easier to navigate. I talked with Hannah a bit about it and she explained there is actually less space, but that the layout was much better thus giving the illusion of more space. Still no sighting of the Doubleknit Twins, one of these years!! They have both a knit hat and crochet scarf offering. The Slouchy Hats: Simple, Striped or Spicy uses 2 skeins of Amber, a main color and contrasting color. The CCCCC patterns calls for 2 skeins of Rowan Colourspun. Both are very lovely offerings
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CCCCC |
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Traveling Rib Cowl |
Our last stop was Acorn Street Shop. Their pattern offering was a very practical Traveling Rib Cowl by Janet Charbonnier, using 2 skeins of Noro Silk Garden. They still had a lovely selection of colors given that is was the end of Saturday.
A few observations from today. I think it's interesting that the tour changed from it's one skein format to a two skeins. I really liked all of the one skein patterns as that is often what I look for when I want to try something new. Also, I saw a lot of Knitters Pride Dreamz needles in shops, but I was hoping to see the Cubix in person. It was nice to see most of the shops choosing fairly economical yarns especially since you needed to by two skeins for the patterns. I am going to try and hit a few more tomorrow, so stay tuned!