Elyo |
| Huckleberry Knits Sock Yarn at Apple Yarns |
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I woke up early so I am getting in yesterday's
Yarn Crawl recap before we head out for the last day of the madness.
We met at my house yesterday morning and got on the road at 7:30 am. Our group included Ellyol, Allifer, GwenS, and me, f1bercat. We planned to visit the 8 northern shops on the tour starting with Beach Basket Yarns & Gifts which is almost on the US/Canadian Border.
The shops open at 10 and close at 6 pm on Saturday and Sunday, so we wanted to be AT Beach Basket Yarns ready to run inside as it opened. I can't say enough about what a glorious morning it was. Again, I was a bit sad I was driving, as I might have been taking photos out the window of the car the whole day.
Stop 1 Beach Basket Yarns & Gifts Birch Bay, WA
This shop has a very nice space and a view of the ocean.
The shop was a nice size, with lots of gifts and yarn. The featured pattern was a coffee mug cozy which is very fitting for Washington State.
Because we had a full day planned, we did not stay at any one shop very long. Once again, because I was driving, I was not able to take notes after each shop, so I don't have many particulars about each shop, but I can say that at almost every shop today, we said it would be worth coming back again planning to hit 3 shops or so with a picnic lunch, etc. Most of these shops are pretty small, but they are packed with yarn and use their space well. Quite a few had special yarns that are hard to find, and worth seeing in real life to get the full effect of the colors. I took some photos, but really, you just can't capture the colors of these yarns. This was true of the next shop, Apple Yarns.
Stop 2 Apple Yarns Bellingham, WA
We all loved this shop. Open and airy. Cute decor. Super friendly staff.Gwen reminded me that they had some unique yarns including Huckleberry knits and Sweet Georgia. She was impressed as well by their selections of Cascade and Noro.
When I got home on Friday night, I decided that I had better really organize my sock yarn stash. See, for the crawl, I wanted to mostly buy solid color sock yarns to be prepared for the
Solid Socks Group next year. I made a list of the ROY G BV (skipping indigo) plus white/cream, and gray or black, then planned to buy solid color sock yarns. OMG. Because I like to buy 2 skeins and knit my socks 2-at-a-Time, I actually have a ton of sock yarn left from this year in just about every color.
On Friday, I bought purple (amethyst)
blue (lapis)
a pale pale pink
and the brown alpaca.
However, When I gathered all of my partial balls, and the whole skeins I already had together, I discovered that I DID NOT NEED ANY YARN AT ALL. Ok, I could possibly use some yellow, and cream /white/ or off white if I every want to knit socks in that color. Why am I talking about this? When we got in the car Saturday morning, I specifically told my group that I was not to buy sock yarn. They were to stop me. What actually happened? At Apple Yarns, the 2nd stop on the trip, I bought 2 skeins of sock yarn. Huckleberry Knits had dyed some in "apple" colors especially for Apple yarns, and well, I just had to buy some. I bought the Granny Smith, my go to apple for pies, and then was torn between the MacIntosh and the Honeycrisp. Actually, the Red Delicious was, well delicious. But, I have enough Red Yarn for next year. And I don't knit that many multicolor socks. But I bought some of the honeycrisp anyway! And I might say that my group actually encouraged me to buy these yarns. They are all enablers. But, ooooo, the yarn is gorgeous.
Stop 3 NW Handspun Bellingham, WA
Another shop we visited in Bellingham, was NW Handspun. I bought a table swift there. They also had a very nice selection of the Huckleberry Knits, but as I had just bought 2 skeins of sock yarn that I did not need, I refused to buy yarn there. They had quite a nice selection of Hazel Knits Yarn as well. Their prices were particularly good. In fact, the Spud and Chloe was more than $1 cheaper per skein than we had seen anywhere else. They had a good variety of local and mainstream stuff, as well. I will definitely go back (when I need sock yarn.)
You can probably guess by the name that they have a very nice selection of roving, too. This is a shop I would definitely like to visit again.
Stop 4 Knot Just Yarn Burlington, WA
Another shop with a wonderful selection of yarns. I especially liked their featured pattern, a crocheted scarf and knit hat (with 4 different brim choices) which both could be made from 2 skeins. Allifer and I chose the same color yarn, and will make a set... who will get to wear them both? Not sure. I think all four of our group bought their featured yarn, it was really nice and had a very reasonable price.
I was impressed at not only the yarns, but all of the extras (not just yarn!) they carried including the dyes.
Stop 5 Wild Fibers Mount Vernon, WA
This shop has some super cute children's knits and darling toys. They were open and inviting. And the staff was friendly and warm. The neighborhood was really cute, also. I could have parked and wandered the block, window shopping, if we had had more time.
Stop 6 Ana-Cross Stitch Anacortes, WA
This shop had a wonderful featured pattern. It was so popular that they had run out of the yarn that went with it. I am not sure if the economy has improved, the pattern was popular, or the tour adding the super cute stitch marker rewards for hitting 7, 14 and 21 shops that made the difference for this shop, but although it was sad for us (I plan to make the pattern in some yarn from my ever expanding stash), I was very happy for this delightful shop. As the name might suggest, they also had a fabulous selection of embroidery/cross stitch thread.
I loved their yarn bombed sign out front.
Stop 8 Coupeville Yarns Coupeville, WA
After leaving Anacortes, we drove across the Deception Pass Bridge to Whidbey Island which is the largest island in the mainland USA. The last 2 shops of our day are both on Whidbey. This is a wonderful vacation destination spot. The island is just beautiful, with evergreen forests, beaches, and lots of rolling farms. Again, I wished I was able to take photos as I was driving, but in the interest of staying alive, I did not.
Coupeville Yarns is a tiny shop in a picturesque little house.
They had a very nice selection of Cascade and Noro. They had a HUGE variety of Noro colors, more than I have seen anywhere else.
I liked their featured pattern, a very cute purse, and got the materials. I hope to knit it up as a gift for my niece. It was a reasonable price, and looks like it will be fast.
Stop 9 Knitty Purls Langley, WA
I just loved the location of this little shop. There is something about being on an island, and Knitty Purls managed to capture the feeling. The shop is small, but they used the space very well. I loved their sock yarn . Their featured pattern was a sock and they had absolutely delicious colors of yarn choices. I did not buy it. It was a horribly tough call, though. The pattern was named Rhododendron, which is the state flower of Washington, and both the yarn and the pattern captured the flower beautifully. I hope to knit up their pattern with YARN FROM MY STASH. Though, the featured yarn was super tempting. Super tempting. Did I mention that my sock yarn stash has gotten embarrassingly large and I have vowed to not buy any more (except for yellow....) for the rest of the year?
Knitty Purls also carried some very interesting high end yarns like buffalo and quiviut, as well as sets of Hiya-Hiya interchangeable needles, which are hard to find except online.
When we finished with Knitty Purls, we caught the ferry back to Mukilteo, and made the drive home. I bought less yarn, and most was designated for specific projects (except the yummy apple socks yarns). I immediately put the yarn and patterns in bags, ready to cast on.
Another thing I am trying to do, to justify my yarn purchases on this crawl, is Tag all of the yarn with 2012PugetSoundLYSTour on my stash page. I vow to revisit the purchases before next year's crawl to see just how much I actually knit up. If I have a good record of usage, I will feel better about going crazy again next year.
I need to eat some breakfast. Tara, Allifer, GwenS, and Ellyol will be here in about 1 hour. Today we will visit the last 2 shops on the tour, one in the U district (near the University of Washington) and the other on Bainbridge Island, as well as our local shop, Serial Knitters, again since Tara and Ellyol have not been there during the tour yet. We might also swing back up to The Tea Cozy Yarns because GwenS won one of the daily drawings!
The day looks gray, but with luck, it won't rain.
Stay safe and well.
Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with way too much sock yarn.
