2014 North Puget Sound LYS Crawl, Day 3

Hello: 
Crazy crazy day on the tour, today.  JulieMustKnit and I headed out to the northern most shops in the 2014 North Puget Sound LYS Crawl at 8 am as we wanted to be at the first shop, almost on the Canadian border at 10 am when the shop opened.

I am just going to dive right into the shops and the day. 

Beach Basket Yarns & Gifts
7620 Birch Bay Dr.
Birch Bay, WA 98230
360.371.0332
beachbasketyarns@comcast.net

We made it to Beach Basket Yarns about 5 minutes before 10:00 and saw quite a few cars.  It seems that other crawlers had the same idea that we had! 

This shop carries a lot of nice yarns, many of them the standard yarns that you want to use on your regular projects.  They particularly have a nice selection of Berroco.  And, Berroco is the featured yarn in their free patterns, Berroco Boboli Lace.

I really liked both the Knit pattern and the Crochet Pattern.  They are both lace wraps.  They are light and airy, and very summery.  I might make one, or both of them.

There is plenty of parking off the street in front of the shop, and there is a nice coffee shop right next door.

Wear On Earth
504 Front St.
Lynden, WA 98264
360.318.8657
wearonearth.net

Wear on Earth is in Lynden, WA, where you will find more than one Windmill.  I am not kidding.

There is parking on the side of the clothing part of this shop, and the Yarn Shop part is in back.

You know you have found the entrance to the yarn shop by the Yarn Bombing.

This shop carries a nice selection of yarns, and is bigger than it looks at first.  The yarn I noticed the most is the large selection of Spud and Chloe.

I have to admit that the thing I most love about this shop is the wall full of Hiya Hiya needles.  They have the best assortment of these needles I have seen in any shop.  They carry circulars in regular and sharps, as well as the cables and tips of the interchangeables.  They also have a good selection of double pointed needles.  If you like Hiya Hiya needles, and who doesn't? This is a must see shop.

Apple Yarns
1780 Iowa St.
Bellingham, WA 98226
360.756.9992
appleyarns.com

Outside the Apple Yarns shop, in Bellingham, we ran into CathieC, her loving husband, and her puppy!

It is so much fun to see friends on the crawl.


This is a lovely, light filled shop.  They carry a lot of Sweet Georgia Yarns, which is local for them.

This visit, they had a lot of a yarn I have never seen before, Watershed Yarns.  This is quite a lovely yarn. 

This is the featured yarn in their both of their free patterns for the crawl.  Their patterns are these amazingly cute color work hats.  The knit and crochet versions are very similar, and I will definitely make one if not both!

There is ample off street parking in their parking lot.

NW Handspun Yarns
1401 Commercial St.
Bellingham, WA 98225
360.738.0167
nwhandspunyarns.com

We shall recognize our LYS by their Yarn Bombs!  Not only does this shop have a cute tree bombing,

but they have the above knit Dalek guarding their doorway.  I had JulieMustKnit pose with the terrifying alien for me so you could see the scale.

We saw CathieC again in this store, and it was like a bit of an Eastside Stitchers' Party.
This store has such lovely yarns for sale.  They have a great relationship with Huckleberry knits, one of my favorite local hand dyers, and always seem to have her yarn available.

They have a great upstairs space that holds their spinning wheels, tools, and fiber.

They have more spinning fiber than any other shop in the crawl.
They had a group of bobbin lace makers... making lace.

They carry a line of yarn that is spun by one of their own workers.

Spincycle Yarns.  It is just wonderful.

Their free patterns are a cabeled cowl by Cat Bordhi.  yes, you read that right.  Cat Bordhi designed the free pattern for NW Handspun's Free Crawl Pattern.  It uses Frog Tree Pediboo Tonal Worsted.

Their crochet pattern is for fingerless mitts and uses Spincycle Yarns, Dyed in the Wool.  I hope to make both patterns.

(Puzan!  another cowl, pattern 7)

There is no parking lot for the shop, there is street parking or, we parked in a bank parking lot that was across the street and down one block.

Mrs. Hudson's Yarns and Teas
1106 Harris Ave #103
Bellingham, WA  98225
360.543.5883
mrshudsons.com
in Finnegan's Alley

This is a warm and welcoming shop.

They have a nice selection of the types of yarns we want to knit with, but also some sweet special yarns.  I especially liked their  Suri Elegance by the Alpaca Yarn Co. It just felt divine, and I loved the muted colors. 

They had a nice supply of Swan's Island Lace yarn, which I had not seen in a store before.

Their free patterns were a sweet baby jacket in Baah Yarns La Jolla.  And, a wonderful stranded colorwork sock pattern that uses Cascade Heritage Sock yarn (my go to solid sock yarn).  I plan to make both patterns.

We somehow missed CathieC, but we saw her DH as we were walking back to our car.  There is only street parking here, and it was crowded so we ended up parking about 3 blocks away.  Actually, by this time, we were happy to have a chance to stretch our legs. 

As we walked from the car to the shop, we passed another LYS shop that was not on the tour, The Wool Station.  It was closed, and the employees were busy packing up the stock to move the store upstairs from its present location.

PinchKnitter Yarns

8712 271st St.
Stanwood, WA 98292
360.939.0769
pinchknitter.com

I just love this shop.  The owner is Scandinavian, and the shop has the most wonderful stranded colorwork samples on display.  If you want to knit with Dale of Norway yarns, this is your store.

I am making the Carlos and Arne Christmas Balls for my OWL in the HPKCHC, and so am working on learning stranded colorwork.  I bought 3 skeins in Christmas colors to use in my Christmas Balls.

I can't wait to see how it feels to knit it, and what it looks like.  I've been using Cascade 220 for the balls.  I knew I would be coming here on the Crawl, and planned to pick up some of this yarn.  By the way, Arne & Carlos are teaching at the Nordic Knitting Conference '14 this coming Fall, October 3-5 at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Ballard.

The free patterns both feature Dale of Norway yarns.  The knitting pattern is a very cute baby blanket in Dale of Norway Baby Ull.  The crochet pattern is a cowl in Dale of Norway Condor.

There is only street parking for this shop, but we were able to park right in front.

Wild Fibers
706 S First St
Mt. Vernon, WA 98273
360.336.5202
wildfibers.net

 This shop has a wonderful selection of really nice yarns.  They have a terrific room at the back for classes.

The yarn that most caught my eye here was their large supply of Juniper Moon Yarns

in many bases.

They were selling raffle tickets for a sampler afghan.

The proceeds will benefit people hurt in the Oso landslide.  They also have a number of sampler afghans knit by regular customers and shop employees that they are donating to the people hurt in the slide.

We parked on the street around the corner from the shop.

The free pattern is hard to describe.  Depending on how you button it up, it could be a cowl, wrap, shrug... Very versitile and inspirational.

(Puzan!  Cowl Pattern 9)

Ana-Cross Stitch
719 Commercial Ave
Anacortes, WA 98221
360.299.9010
anacrossstitch.com

The first thing I noticed in this shop is that they have moved things around.  Their large selection of cross stitch patterns and embroidery floss is now in the back.

This area is beautifully set up and full of beautiful colors of threads.

The yarn that caught my eye this year was Jojoland. 

Their free Crawl patterns are a really pretty reversible Knit cowl in Hikoo Rylie and a crochet mobius cowl in Malabrigo Silky Wool.  I want to make the knit cowl for sure, and possibly the mobius, too.

 (Puzan! cowl patterns 10 and 11)

Whidbey Isle Yarns Gifts & Teas
910 Pioneer Way #2
Oak Harbor, WA 98277
360.632.4200
whidbeyyarns.net

This shop debuted in last year's crawl.  It was an interesting shop that featured the handspun yarn of the owner.  They have moved and gotten even better! 

They have a bigger space.

and have filled it with yummy yarns.

If any shop shows off the personality of the owner, this shop does.  There are wonderful handspun yarns for sale.

The shop sells its own brand of yarn that looks handspun. Through Think and Thin.

The owner, YouthFiberArts, has some lovely and fun patterns that show off how beautiful this yarn is.

In spite of these delicious yarns, or perhaps in addition to, this shop could be known for it's buttoms.

They are just wonderful.  JulieMustKnit and I, both went home with vintage buttons that have been turned into stitch markers.

The featured patterns are the Katniss inspired Cowl (Hunger Games), which uses a super bulky yarn like Brown Sheep Lanaloft.

The other featured pattern is a really cute little purse in Kraemer Perfection Lights and Perfection Worsted.  I hope to make both.

Knitty Purls
210 First Street
Langley, WA 98260
360.331.2212
knittypurls.com

This was our last stop for the day.  It has moved down the street a bit from where it used to be last year.  The shop seems to be a bit bigger.  They have a large selection of Mountain Colors.  They have the same cheerful helpful staff.

Their free patterns were for 2 cowls.  They are definitely something I would like to make.
(Puzan! cowl pattern 11)

That's all for today.  I need some sleep before I finish up the crawl.

Peace
f1bercat
shaping the planet one shop at a time.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with skeins and skeins of