2014 North Puget Sound LYS Crawl, Day 2

Hello:

Today was the second day of the 2014 North Puget Sound LYS Crawl.   25 Shops in 4 days.

JulieMustKnit and I are trying to make it to all 25 shops, and we have made a great start.  Yesterday, we separately hit our first 2 shops, and today, we made it to 8 more shops.  We were going to Crawl with Fiber Friday members of Eastside Stitchers, but Zillalatte was not feeling well (Get Better Soon!), and Pam2 had a conflict.  Luckily, Winterpromise31 was able to come along, so we three made a Crawl group.

Tolt Yarn and Wool
4509 Tolt Ave.
Carnation, WA 98014
425.333.4066
toltyarnandwool.com

I have written about this wonderful shop a few times already so I will keep this short.  If you are on the Eastside, GO. 

Their free patterns were a super cute reversible hat in Y.O.T.H. Big Sister (DK Weight).  That I will definitely make.  By the way, since the YOTH Big Sister is the pattern yarn, it is 10% off this weekend.  It seems that the dyer, Veronika, has her next color grouping for sale as there were the beautiful neutrals and also some lovely blues and greens.

Their crochet pattern is an interesting cowl in bulky with applique rosettes.  Bulky is not my favorite yarn weight, but I did like the cowl.  (Puzan! cowl pattern 1)

This shop has street parking.

Great Yarns!
4023 Rucker Ave
Everett, WA 98201
425.252.8155
greatyarns.com

This shop has some of the most beautiful knitted samples.  There is one main room of yarn, and you see some lovely yarns there. Then you realize that there are 3 more small rooms off the main one, all stocked with lovely yarns.  The yarn here is mostly high end.  Face it, any shop whose free pattern uses Mink Yarn, has high end yarns.

Their free patterns were a Crochet Scarf that had ruffles and for the Knit pattern, a Slip Stitch Infinity Scarf that is really a cowl.  (Puzan!  cowl pattern 2) I want to make the Knit pattern.

Country Yarns
119 Avenue B
Snohomish, WA 98290
360.568.7611
facebook.com/CountryYarns

This lovely little shop is even better than last year.  They have a wider selection of yarns, all of them really cool.  They also carry a really nice selection of spinning fiber (the owner is a spinner).  One of the fun things this year is that they have their own yarn for sale.  It is locally dyed, and is called Artistry. 

The colors are inspired by artists, mainly from the Impressionists.  It is a Made in the USA yarn, from American sheep, locally dyed, and USA spun.  It comes in fingering weight, and is light yet springy.  This is the featured yarn for the free pattern so is 10% off this weekend.  The knitting pattern for the Crawl is a bias knit cowl with beautiful drape.
(Puzan! cowl pattern 3)

There is a parking lot next to the shop, but there will be the motorcycle rally in town on Sunday, and the street will be blocked off so you can't park near the shop.  Last year we walked about 3 blocks from our car; it wasn't bad at all.  Normally, though, there is plenty of parking.

Quintessential Knits
22615 Cherry Valley Rd.
Monroe, WA 98272
425.890.6756
quintessentialknits.com

This is a new shop.  It has been open about 1 1/2 years, but was not on the Crawl last year.

It appears to be in the owner's remodeled garage.  You drive down a tree lined road to make a sharp turn up a narrow gravel driveway to the house and ... find the shop.  The owner was a professional photographer-turned-knitwear-designer.

I didn't expect much, but was really blown away when I got inside.  This shop is full of beautiful high quality yarns.  They don't carry much in the way of art yarns.  Their yarn is meant for knitting and crochet.  They have a large selection of small local dyers like Fiber Fetish.

They also carry lovely "regular" yarns like Spud and Chloe, Noro, Malabrigo, Bergere, Madelinetosh.

I would DEFINITELY come back to this shop.  In fact, I think this shop and Tolt would make a really fun 2 shop day.

Their free pattern is for some boot toppers.  They are cute, but not something I would knit.  The yarn is Swans Island Eco Wash DK and will be 10% off this weekend for the tour.

There is parking on the driveway in front of the shop.

Mad Cow Yarn
18107 Bothell Way NE
Bothell, WA 98011
425.415.6981
madcowyarn.com

This is another new shop, I think it's less than 1 year old.  The shelves are full of Cascade yarns.  I didn't count, but it seemed that they carry every base, in a large variety of colors.  I was especially happy to see all of the Heritage sock yarns, as that is my go-to socks yarn.

While they have a huge selection of Cascade, this is not all they carry.  They had some very different yarns.  They had a beautiful Yak yarn called Tibetan Cloud Worsted.

Their featured free pattern was a Cowl called the Mad Cowl.  There is a knit and a crochet version.  The yarn for the project is by La Jolla superwash fingering weight, and the colors were dyed for the shop for the crawl.  Both versions are cool, and I would make them both.

They had super yummy treats for the crawl patrons to eat.  I had a lemon petit four.

(Puzan! cowl patterns 3 - 4)

Makers' Merchantile
18437 East Valley Hwy #102
Kent, WA 98032
425.251.1239
makersmerchantile.com

This wonderful shop (and gluten free bakery!) has a huge selection of Skacel yarns.  They now carry a small selection of local yarns, as well.

I broke down and bought a skein of Crazy Zouberball  for their crochet pattern, a very cute baby dress.  Their featured knit pattern was a striped hat, but is made with striped yarn, so much easier.

I also bought 2 skeins of yarn by a local dyer, Schmutzerella Yarns.  She has some beautiful yarns in "Harry Potter" colorways.

JulieMustKnit and I got our stitch markers for 8 shops here!

The Knittery
601 S. Grady Way
Renton, WA 98057
425.228.4694
the-knittery.com

This shop has been in business a long time and has a very loyal clientele. Their yarn selection increases every time I visit. I enjoyed looking at the wall of Ella Rae yarns in so many wonderful colors.

Their crochet pattern is for baby booties, and the knit pattern  is for a vest.  I liked both.  The vest uses Eco or Ecological Wool and the booties use Plymouth Encore.

There are plenty of free places to park.

We dropped off Winterpromise31 after this shop, and picked up our new Crawl partners: GwenS and Addie.

The Fiber Gallery
8212 Greenwood Ave N
Seattle, WA 98103
206.706.4197
fibergallery.com

This store has a wonderful selection of yarns.  They have lots of great samples of their patterns knit up showing off the yarns all over the shop.  For some reason, I noticed quite a few baby knits, which I don't remember seeing last year.  But, it might just be that I am noticing baby patterns more because of all the new babies in the Eastside Stitchers.  Anyway, they were very cute.  This shop has yarns that you want to knit with.  Their featured free patterns were in Madelintosh ASAP and Debbie Bliss Cashmerino which are both on sale for the weekend, 10% off.

The Knit pattern is for a cowl that uses 2 colors.  If you are careful, you can make 2 cowls with reversed colors.  The crochet pattern is for a toy, and I just loved it!  I really want to make it.  I caved and bought a skein of the Cashmerino, but not for the toy.  I will probably make that in acrylic from my afghan stash.  I plan to make an Aviatrix with this skein.

There is a parking lot on a side street for this shop.

(Puzan! cowl pattern 5)

The Tea Cozy Yarn Shop
5816 24th Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107
206.783.3322
teacozyyarn.com

This is another shop that gets better every time I visit.  I was very impressed at the knit sweater samples and all of the hats.  JulieMustKnit kept saying, "Look at those hats!"  They have a wonderful selection of yarns.  These yarns are perfect for so many different types of projects.  They have a great selection of yarns for making baby clothes, but also cowls, shawls and ... Hats!  The shop is warm and welcoming. 

The two free patterns are for baby sweaters.  I want to make them both. They use Frog Tree Pediboo Sock Yarn and MadelineTosh Sock which will both be on sale through Sunday.

There is only street parking for this shop.

Bad Woman Yarn
1815 N 45th St.
Suite 215
Seattle, WA 98103
206.547.5384
badwomanyarn.com

This shop has the best selection of MadelineTosh yarns in the Greater Seattle Area.  And that is saying something since many of our local shops carry MadelineTosh and most of them have a nice selection.  But you just can't beat Bad Woman for the number of bases, and the color choices in that base.  Also, they have quite a bit of each color, so you could find a sweater's worth of yarn IN the shop, and not have to order it.

They always have wonderful patterns for the Crawl, and this was true this year, too.  The knit pattern is a cowl! that uses Malabrigo Sock (On sale! this weekend 10% off), and the crochet pattern a lovely lace triangular shawl that uses MadelineTosh  Prairie (also on sale through Sunday).

There is a nice parking lot for the Wallingford Center, which is where this shop is located.

(Puzan! cowl pattern 6)

Whew!  Finished posting for today.  Tomorrow we are hitting the North shops on the Crawl, starting out at the Northmost shop and working our way down and onto Whidbey Island.  I don't know if I will have enough energy when I get home to post the whole day, but I will try.

I just wanted to say that Addie was a wonderful Crawl Partner.  She cooed, and babbled, and was just full of smiles and fun.  To get to Seattle from the Eastside where we all live, we have to drive over one of our famous floating  bridges.  As my friends here know, I always use the I 90 bridge (the other one has a toll), and that route goes through a long tunnel when you get to the Seattle side of the lake.  Both times we went through the long dark tunnel, Addie made a "Tunnel Face" which her mom, GwenS, managed to capture on film.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with Tunnel Face.